change account type from brokerage to checking (QMAC)

rl4265

I've set up a separate account at Morgan Stanley to be used as checking and it has a debit card and I transfer funds into this account from my other brokerage accounts. This account will also be used to autopay utilities and credit cards.

Currently this account shows up as a brokerage account. I want to change it to checking and have it show up under the banking header. The settings drop down doesn't give me the option to change to checking. The closest I can get is other.

(This may not be viable since funds will be in cash and money market but if necessary, I can remove my money market from this account)

Any suggestions?

Jon

If you set up an account for online access and Quicken sees the account can be used to purchase securities of any kind it's classified as a brokerage-type account, even if you intend to only use it as a cash account. The only way to make it appear as a checking account is to disconnect the account and manage it manually, but even then you'll have to create a new Checking account in Quicken and recreate it; as you've already discovered there's no way to change it to a non-brokerage account.

There's no way to move the brokerage account under the Checking header, either. Users have asked for the ability to customize groupings like that in the past and the developers have pretty much rejected the idea as too complicated for various reasons.

jacobs

@Jon wrote: The only way to make it appear as a checking account is to disconnect the account and manage it manually, but even then you'll have to create a new Checking account in Quicken and recreate it

I'll just add to @Jon's correct response above that if you decide to create a new checking account to enter your transactions manually, you can drag-and-drop the existing Payment/Deposit transactions from the brokerage account into this new checking account — so you don't have to completely start over. But then you'll need to enter your ongoing transactions manually. (That may not be as bad as it may sound! 😉 It depends on the volume of transactions you have in this account. I enter my transactions manually — some I'm able to set up as scheduled transactions which just require a click to post each month — and it doesn't take me a lot of time.)

majorgear

If you go with the offline checking account method, will it mess up your net worth calculations ?

I think it will because if your “checking” brokerage is $100k in value and your offline checking account is also $100k , then Quicken will probably include both of them when calculating your net worth, even though they are the same account!