How to link a checking account to an investment account

Lotus Mark

I have a Raymond James investment account which i use as a checking account. I set it up in Quicken as a checking account (RJA checking) and have been entering all the transactions manually for a couple years. I just read that there is a way to link a checking account with an investment account so all the cash transactions can be automatically downloaded. Can I set up a new Raymond James account as an investment account and link it to my existing Quicken RJA checking account?

Jim_Harman

There is no way to link an existing checking account to an investing account.

However you can set up a Raymond James investing account, either online or offline, set it up with a linked checking account, transfer the balance from your current account to the linked checking account, and start using the new account.

Start by backing up your data file in case something goes wrong.

If offline, enter your current security holdings when it asks for them and when it asks for the opening balance, enter the balance from your existing checking account. When the setup is complete, click on the gear at the top right of the account and select Edit account details. Set the Show cash in a checking account option to Yes. This will create a special linked checking account with a name like <your new account name> - Checking. You will see an Opening Balance transaction in this account. Delete this and transfer the balance from your existing checking account to the new one.

If you are setting the account up for online access, it will be a little more complicated. Follow the prompts for setting up the new account and when done, select the Show Cash in a Checking account option as above. This will put a bunch of downloaded transactions in the new linked account that duplicate ones that are already in your other account. You will have to delete these. When you are done, transfer the balance from your existing account to the new one. You may have to edit the Opening Balance in the new account so that the current balance is correct.

Lotus Mark

Thanks Jim, that worked. So now i just need to sort out the downloaded transactions and delete the duplicates.

Is there a way to either transfer transactions from one account to another, or to merge two checking accounts? If so, that would let me combine the old RJA checking account transactions with this new linked account.

Ps56k2

just to clarify - unless I am wrong - the "Linked Account" is not an actual physical account at RJ,
but rather a Quicken implemented concept
such that Quicken migrates the "downloaded cash transactions" into this Quicken virtual account - called the Linked Account -

q_lurker

Is there a way to either transfer transactions from one account to another, or to merge two checking accounts? If so, that would let me combine the old RJA checking account transactions with this new linked account.

I have not investigated this in depth, but it would seem you should be able to move 'simple' transactions (non-splits?). Highlight the transactions in the original account, right click and choose move. Transfers may also be at risk so monitor the progress. Have a good backup at hand at all times.

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20390779#Comment_20390779

This is a correct statement, but one has to understand how it was implemented.

The "linked checking/cash" account is a real account in Quicken. There isn't anything stopping you from transferring in and out of it from another checking account moving transactions or deleting …

The "virtual" part kicks in only when you are dealing with the downloaded transactions where they are really downloading into investment account and then moved over to the linked account (for the part that affects the cash balance). And that goes for transactions that will move cash between the linked and investment account.

But I will warn you that were you can easily toggle between having a linked account and not linked, it is not 100% guaranteed that you can do it without it messing up some of the transactions.

Lotus Mark

After reading all the comments, I went simple and transferred the balance in the old account into the new linked account. That let’s me do the online transaction downloads which is what I was after in the first place.