Three problems with Vanguard downloads

NebularNovice

I'm not sure whether to combine these problems or do three separate discussions. I'll include all three in case they are related. They were all discovered in the last few hours as I try to verify my tax situation. As background, I am working with two Vanguard brokerage accounts, each of which has full authority over the other.

1. I looked at account A and discovered it had no transactions recorded after 12/19, but I knew there had been some transactions. Before I corrected this, I did a reconcile shares on the account. Clean report, despite the fact that the missing transactions affect share balances in several funds. I then forced a download for that account from 12/20 forward. That brought in the missing transactions. Reconcile is happy — as it should be because the share balances in that account are correct. Note that account B's transactions had all been downloaded properly for that account during the period after 12/19. One account downloaded, the other skipped — during OSU.
2. The password vault and OSU list show Vanguard only once despite the fact that there are two logins. I am guessing this is happening because either account can download the other' account's info. Update: something I did just removed Vanguard totally from OSU. It doesn't even show in the list to be selected.
3. Reconciliation for Account B always reports agreement, but I know that Account B's transaction account is incorrect. I have found three pairs of missing transactions which were not downloaded in 2023 when they should have been. Each pair is a dividend payment followed by sweep into the transaction account. Thus, the fund account shares are correct, but transaction account shares are too low.

Three errors: missing downloads, accounts not appearing properly in OSU, reconciliation showing clean when Quicken does not match Vanguard.

I ran a validation. No errors.

Any detectives out there?

(Someone will probably figure out something simple I did wrong.)

Quicken Kristina

Hello @NebularNovice,

With the first and second issues, you mentioned that you use two separate User IDs for the accounts, but they both show under one. Is it possible that when connecting one, you accidentally linked up both under one User ID? Usually, when an account can be accessed by more than one User ID, one is the primary User ID, which has permissions to download into Quicken, and the other is an authorized user User ID, which often doesn't have those permissions. If that is what is happening, that may be the reason for the download issues and the fact only one ID was showing in Quicken.

With the reconcile issues, its a bit harder to tell what is happening. I'd assume they show as correct because cash balances match up. Are you able to post screenshots of what you're seeing (with any personal information redacted)?

I look forward to your response!

NebularNovice

Thanks for your reply.

Each account is set up in Quicken with its own account # and username (customer id). They have different passwords. At this point Quicken's password vault only has an entry for Account A, the one which had no downloads from 12/20 until last night when I pushed a download from Vanguard.

The accounts do show separately except for the password vault. Separate registers and holdings.

I don't know how I would link (or not link) two accounts when they have separate user ids. I have reasons why I want each account to have full access to the other. I could probably get by without it, but believe that Q should be able to handle it as long as the id info is correct for each account.

Also at this point, I cannot even put either account into OSU. Vanguard does not appear in OSU settings, no box to check. When I try to update transactions from either account, Q puts up a window asking me to "Fill Password." When I click that, I am shown the password vault which already has the password for Account A, but no place to enter anything for Account B. Clicking on the password line for Account A does say "Access to " Account A and Account B. Deleting that password and restoring it still leaves me at the box which doesn't let me download transactions.

I went ahead and pushed updates from Vanguard for each account separately. File import (Direct connect) worked fine and put the new transactions in the proper accounts. Q reports "Your Quicken account and your Brokerage Holdings are in agreement" for each account. Account A is really correct. Account B's transaction account (the closest thing to cash) is off by $157.00. Everything else is correct. (I have found the final (4th transaction) error. It only affects the transaction account. I'm leaving it for now to try to track down why reconcile shows no error when there is a mismatch between Q and brokerage account.)

I don't know what you want from the screenshots. I assume you know what the reconcile box shows. It's quite small so a lot of info is showing around it.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

If the accounts show separately, but there's only one entry in the password vault, that implies that either you have both connected in your Quicken under the same Customer ID/password or one of the accounts is not connected in Quicken. You can check this by going to Tools>Account List. If Quicken thinks the account is connected, you should see the word "yes" in the Transaction Download column.

To check additional connection details, click the Edit button next to the account name. The General tab will list more information, including the Customer ID Quicken sees the account connected under.

If the account is not connected, then backup your Quicken file, go to Tools>Add Account, and follow the prompts to get the account connected, making sure to carefully link the account to the correct name in Quicken. Note: if the other account is visible in the Add/Link screen, since you said it uses a different Customer ID, make sure Quicken shows Don't Add to Quicken for that account.

If the account is connected, but is connected under the wrong Customer ID, then backup your Quicken file and deactivate the account. Once it is deactivated, go to Tools>Add Account and follow the prompts to link it up under the correct Customer ID. Note: if the other account is visible in the Add/Link screen, since you said it uses a different Customer ID, make sure Quicken shows Don't Add to Quicken for that account.

If both accounts show as connected and are under the correct Customer ID, let me know so we can continue troubleshooting.

Please let me know how it goes.

NebularNovice

Thanks for the complete instructions.

Both accounts showed as connected, but Account B showed Account A's ID. I deactivated B and added it as you instructed, telling Q not to connect Account A. That had two effects. The good effect is that B now shows the correct ID and Account B shows in the password vault and selection list for OSU.

The bad effect is that B was defaulted to Simple tracking which essentially gives no information. As Q was processing the connection, I could see three transactions flash by, but I could not accept them nor see the register when Q finished the connection. I corrected the account details to Complete tracking which now shows me the register, but does not show any transactions to be accepted (even if I click on the Downloaded Transactions tab, which showed 0). The share balances are as they were before those transactions so the share balances of three funds are now incorrect. Reconcile still claims agreement. Further the action selections shown by clicking the gearwheel do not include update transactions, just Update Quotes Only. What's with that?

Net result: three transactions flashed by, but I cannot find any way to process them. I can presumably push them from Vanguard, but for now I would rather see how they can accessed within Q since Q obviously has them somewhere.

Both accounts show in the Password vault, but only Account B shows in the OSU selection list. I checked that box and did an OSU. Only Account B was processed.

If I try to update Account A from its page, I am asked to manage passwords even though the vault has a valid password for Account A.

The password vault now shows that Account A's password "Access to" Account B (instead of to both accounts before). Account B's password shows "Access to and" Account B. That is, there is an extra "and" in there. That's a least a slight hiccup.

Update: I exited Q and re-entered. I hope that might get me to the downloaded transactions. It did not, but it seemed to cause the Update Transactions option to appear with the gearwheel. Running that did not retrieve any transactions — presumably because Q thinks it already has the transactions. It also made reconcile throw up, asking me for beginning cash balance. That is extremely problematic since this account was transferred from fund account to brokerage account. So we solved the reconciliation problem by making reconciliation useless — due to the default to Simple tracking with the account Add, which erased information. (In case you haven't guessed, I hate the default to Simple tracking. It seems particularly dumb when connecting to an existing Q account.)

I might try deactivating and Adding Account B to fix it's password and OSU problems, but I don't want to run into that Simple tracking default.

Awaiting instruction on how to add the Account B transactions downloaded under Simple tracking. Then we can take up the problems with Account A. (File validation with no errors.)

Or we can have me call support around Wednesday of next week. I know what the correct numbers are, so I can wait until then.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

To stop Quicken from defaulting to Simple tracking, please go to Edit>Preferences>Investments and uncheck the "Default to Simple Investing for new accounts" box, then click the OK button.

Once you have that turned off, backup your Quicken file, deactivate those accounts, and reconnect the accounts, one at a time, by going to Tools>Add Account and following the prompts, being careful to link it to the correct name in Quicken and making sure the other account show's Don't add to Quicken (so that it doesn't get connected under the wrong Customer ID). Since they're under different Customer IDs, you'll need to go through the add account process for each of those accounts.

If the issues persist after going through that process, then I recommend that you contact Quicken Support directly for further assistance as they can walk you through troubleshooting steps in real-time and escalate the situation as needed.  The Quicken Support phone number can be found through this link here. Phone support is available from 5:00 am PT to 5:00 pm PT, Monday through Friday, except for holidays.

I hope this helps!

NebularNovice

I set the default to Simple tracking to off (unchecked the box). BTW, when Simple tracking was introduced, I believe I read that the default for new accounts for new Quicken users would be to Simple, but that the default for existing Q users would be to Complete tracking. I guess something got changed because I certainly never voluntarily set the default to Simple.

I deactivated/reactivated both accounts. During the reconnection Account B downloaded the transactions which got hidden during the Simple tracking operation. It is now almost up to date (still missing a transaction from last year).

Both accounts show in password vault and OSU settings. Checking both boxes gives me a visit to each account.

Reconcile for Account B, which had been messed up by the trip through Simple, now does not request old info and works the same as before all this. The bad news is that Reconcile before this was wrong and still is. It says no errors, but the transaction account (Federal Money Market) is off by $157.

I am leaving that account with the Reconciliation error because I would like to be able to find out what is going on to cause Q to tell me everything matches when it does not. It would be nice to have confidence in Q telling me everything match.

Everything but the Reconcile error seems good. I will call support in a few days to see if they can tell me what the problem is.

Thanks again for the help.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for the follow up,

I'm glad to hear that did clear up some of the issues. Support should be able to assist you with the reconcile issue.

Feel free to reach back out if you need further assistance!