Name discrepancies in securities

DT1

I am entering old security transactions into Quicken. I have two separate Quicken files that have some securities that overlap and other that do not. Some of the securities are no longer active via online transactions, because the security no longer exists or because there are no shares in the account any longer.

I am having trouble transferring data, because some securities have different names in the two files. (I prefer using QIF to transfer data.)

For example, for security PTLDX, one file has “PIMCO LOW DURATION INSTITUTIONAL,” whereas the other has “PIMCO Low Duration Fund Institutional Class.” Why are the names different? The one in all caps came from Fidelity along with the CUSIP. The other came from Quicken’s “add security.” I do not understand why the names are different or why Quicken did not supply the CUSIP.

In another example, for the security FSTVX, one file has “FIDELITY TOTAL MKT INDEX PREMIUM CL” and the other has “SPRTN TOTAL MKT INDX FID ADVANTAGE CLASS.” The name changed in June 2016 and the fund no longer exists. I do not know which name is better.

I would rather just refer to the security by symbol and/or by CUSIP so that it is uniquely identified, but when I import, the tools seem to prefer I use the name rather than the symbol.

How should I go about correcting these discrepancies and using the *best* name for both accounts and making sure both have the CUSIPs?

Chris_QPW

Importing with QIF securities are by name, you can't change that. When importing by QFX they are by CUSIP, again there isn't any way to change that.

DT1

Thanks, Chris. Incidentally, the issue came up when I was using ImportQIF. I was wondering if you were still active. I will contact you separately about ImportQIF. I am considering offering to help you support it—an important tool IMHO.

I would still like to hear what others in the Quicken community have to say about the problem with the name discrepancies and the difficulty adding a CUSIP without using the brokerage account to assign it.

Chris_QPW

From what I know, you can't tell Quicken the CUSIP of a security. The only way that gets set is from the information coming from the download. That can be in a QFX file. So, that is a way of manually creating a security with a given CUSIP. Since ImportQIF has no way of knowing the CUSIP for a security for a CSV to QFX conversion, it asks the user for it.

And more to the point, the data out is only as good as the data in, plus the answers people provide.

If your financial institution chooses to use different names for the same security, that is on them. On the other hand, since you can tell ImportQIF to map any security name to any other security name, not doing that when you know they are the same security is on you.

DT1

Thanks again, Chris_QPW. Yes, I was aware of mapping and use it as necessary. (I have also renamed or mapping names before I give data to ImportQIF—sometimes I use an Access database for organizing data before giving to ImportQIF to translate into a QIF code.) The differences in names between the two Quicken files only surfaced as a significant problem more recently. I still am not sure if it is better to use the name that Quicken uses or the name that Fidelity uses. Do you know? I'm inclined to use the Fidelity name so that Fidelity imports are not affected, even though all caps name from Fidelity are harder to read that Quicken's name.

One way to get the a CUSIP into a Quicken security that lacks it: If I have another Quicken file that has the CUSIP, I can export an investment that uses that security to QXF and then import that into the file that needs the CUSIP. That seems my only recourse. I have not found a way to single out investments (or securities) to export to QXF other than to make a copy of the Quicken file and delete everything else. Is there an easier way? I am not impressed with Quicken's import/export tools. I wish I could simply export the security list into QXF and import that. Maybe there is a way to do that?

There is another software product, Proper Convert (www.propersoft.net/landing/properconvert/), that might be able to do it, but I am hesitant, because I believe the org that creates it (Proper Soft) has been terrible about putting trojan viruses on my computer in the past. It is not free. Has anyone tried it? I see it is mentioned 3x in Quicken discussions.

BTW, I did send you a message at on 1/18/24 at 10:23pm at the main page of www.quicknperlwiz.com. Did you get that?

Chris_QPW

Quicken matches security names for QIF imports, I doesn't care what you call it, and I don't have any opinion on it.

When Quicken is importing a QFX file if it encounters a security with a new CUSIP Id it will ask the user if they want to create it. That is how to get it into Quicken. In reality it can be anything unique it doesn't have to be an actual CUSIP Id.

I just noticed that for some reason I missed documenting the QFX Securities Info file that ImportQIF uses for storing the security name, security type and CUSIP Id that is needed when in QXF output mode. I have updated the documents for this. See the File Option documentation for details.

As for generating a QFX file to create all of your securities at once, most likely Quicken will do that if they are all in the "summary section" of a QFX file. You can do a CSV to QFX export in ImportQIF to get a feel for what that would look like and create one of your own with all of your securities. As for ImportQIF I think creating them as they are used is sufficient.

Yes, I got your message, and I was thinking about it. Thanks for the offer, but at this time I see no need for anyone else to support ImportQIF development.

DT1

Thanks. I had forgotten ImportQIF had the QFX option. I will try that! Thanks.

Is there a way to edit a QFX (or QXF) file directly to make changes?

Before hearing back from you, I tried importing the QXF file with multiple investment accounts (and overlapping securities) to see what it would do. It was not what I expected: If the security symbol already existed, I had hoped it would add the CUSIP and possibly overwrite the name (or keep it the same) and, at minimum, combine all the transactions under that one symbol. Instead, it just made a separate security entry with the same symbol and the alternate name from the QXF file with the CUSIP. I should have known it would do that because that's how it behaved with a QIF file I had imported. That means I will have to reassign all the transactions with the old name (or try again from backup). If you had explained that above already, sorry that I missed that. I would have changed the names first if I had known it would do that.

I wish all of these things were explained in detail in the Quicken documentation! I know we are not the only ones dealing with these challenges.

I'm still on the fence about trying Proper Convert. If it can really read PDF bank and credit card statements reliably, that would be impressive and might save a lot of time, although I am skeptical—having tried converting Fidelity PDFs to Word and then to Excel did not work, because the rows and columns did not line up correctly. In the other three discussions that mentioned Proper Convert, Quickens user didn't use it for anything like this complicated.

Thanks again for all your help and feedback.

Chris_QPW

Yes, you can edit a QFX file, it just a text file. A QFX file is nothing more than a OFX file with a couple more account information fields.

The OFX documentation can be found here:

https://financialdataexchange.org/FDX/About/About-FDX.aspx?WebsiteKey=deae9d6d-1a7a-457b-a678-8a5517f8a474&hkey=dffb9a93-fc7d-4f65-840c-f2cfbe7fe8a6&a315d1c24e44=5#a315d1c24e44

(FDX is Express Web Connect +'s API from Intuit to the financial institution, the same group maintains both of these standards now).

Once you look at the OFX file and search down a CUSIP I think it isn't too hard to understand how to add security information.

I have no knowledge of other converters.

As for how Quicken behaves and what can be changed in the security information and merging and such, I'm not the expert on that. I suggest that you post another question asking exactly what you need and see if any of the security experts on here can help.

DT1

Right. I have looked at the OFX files and they are easy enough to read. The OXF is binary, so seems another matter. I will think about what questions to ask in new post about securities. I might also ask Fidelity about the history of their security names and changes. Thanks again.

Chris_QPW

The OXF is binary.

QXF files are used for converting be between Quicken Mac data files and Quicken Windows data files. They don't have anything to do with downloading transactions.

DT1

FYI. I asked Fidelity about name changes and they provided this:

https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/mutual-funds/Fidelity-lower-expense-ratios-index-mf_FAQs.pdf?ccsource=VA

DT1

I have spent hours correcting the discrepancies in the names. The major problem is that Quicken's "add security" gives a different name than Fidelity provides via the automatic download. Also Quicken's "add security" does not add a CUSIP, so Quicken does not notice they are the same security. These are a list of the security names I have had to identify, reconcile the discrepancy, and change to get things to match:

Caused by discrepancy between Quicken's "add security" (and lack of CUSIP) and Fidelity's name:
* change PHIYX from "PIMCO High Yield Fund Institutional Class" to "PIMCO HIGH YIELD INSTL"
* change PTLDX from "PIMCO Low Duration Fund Institutional Class" to "PIMCO LOW DURATION INSTITUTIONAL"
* change LLPFX from "Longleaf Partners Fund" to "LONGLEAF PARTNERS"
* change TMGFX from "Turner Midcap Growth Investor" to "TURNER MIDCAP GROWTH INV CL"
* change TAREX from "Third Avenue Real Estate Value Fund Institutional Class" to "THIRD AVENUE REAL ESTATE VALUE INSTL"
* change JIEIX from "abrdn International Sustainable Leaders Fund Class I" to "ABERDEEN INTERN SUSTAIN LEADRS INST"
* change MIMFX from "AMG Veritas China Fund Class I" to "AMG VERITAS CHINA FUND I"
* change HAINX from "Harbor International Fund Institutional Class" to "HARBOR INTL INST"
* change DFLVX from "DFA U.S. Large Cap Value Portfolio Institutional Class" to "DFA US LARGE CAP VALUE PRTF INSTL"

Caused by change of name by the fund:
* change FSTVX from "SPRTN TOTAL MKT INDX FID ADVANTAGE CLASS" to "FIDELITY TOTAL MKT PREMIUM CLASS"
* change IJH from "ISHARES S&P MIDCAP 400 INDEX FUND" to "ISHARES CORE S&P MID-CAP ETF"
* change IVV from "ISHARES S&P 500" to "ISHARES CORE S&P 500 ETF"

One more discrepancy:
* VTI: "VANGUARD INDEX FDS VANGUARD TOTAL STK MKT ETF" and "VANGUARD IDX FUND"

I would really like it if Quicken could address the problem by adding the CUSIP numbers and making sure that identical securities with slightly different names are consolidated into a single security rather than into two separate securities.

Chris_QPW

If you have a suggestion you should go to the home page and select: New Post → New Idea, so that people can vote on it. That is how Quicken Inc takes suggestions on this forum.

There is also a "Share your feedback" button at the top right of Quicken, but I don't think that would have as much impact as if multiple people voting on your idea in this forum.

DT1

Thanks, Chris_QPW: I will try that—will have to do that later today. How would you word it? If you have any example(s) of post(s) that were successful vs. those you thought were badly phrased, that might help me make the best case for it. My sense is that something short and positive will be more effective. I am well aware of TL;DR and that readers don't like "whiny." :) Maybe something like, "Can Quicken's add security include the CUSIP? When Quicken encounters two securities with the same symbol, can Quicken ask the user whether they are the same and merge them?"

Chris_QPW

I would state it as a request not a question:

Can Quicken's add security include the CUSIP?

Is this request to add the CUSIP to the message for a new security? (if so I would change it to "Please add" instead of "Can".

When Quicken encounters two securities with the same symbol, can Quicken ask the user whether they are the same and merge them?

This sounds like different request/idea.

If it is then I would submit them as two different ideas. If not, you need to put in how they are connected.

DT1

Okay. I will state these as two separate requests rather than as questions.

»Is this request to add the CUSIP to the message for a new security?«

I see my request is ambiguous. The case I was thinking of was for CTRL-Y (Security list) ALT-A (Add Security). My primary concern is that if you search for the ticker symbol -AND- Quicken does have it in its database, when you select it, Quicken would also include the CUSIP in the security. Right now, it does not. I got the CUSIPs only from Fidelity downloads. (I know by crafty use of QXF or QFX, I could force a CUSIP on an existing security that lacks it—as long as I have the correct security name.)

In my first nine examples from yesterday, the ticker symbols were indeed in Quicken's database. For example, PHIYX was listed as "PIMCO High Yield Fund Institutional Class." When I added the security from Quicken's database, it did not include the CUSIP. That's why when I merged one Quicken file using QIF and another file that used the different Fidelity name, even though they had the same ticker symbols, Quicken did not recognize them as the same security and mistakenly created two separate securities and made a mess of things.

(1) So my request primarily was to add the CUSIP to their database.

But there is other functionality for CUSIPs that would be helpful with CTRL-Y ALT-A:

(2) To add a security NOT in the Quicken database, where the user selects the ticker symbol -and- the name. In that case, it would also be helpful add the CUSIP directly at that point—if one has it.

(3) And last, the search feature of CTRL-Y ALT-A should work for the CUSIP.

And last,
(4) One should be able to edit a security and correct a CUSIP.

I wasn't planning to ask for all four options. The only one that concerns me is (1).

DT1

I just added the New Post → New Idea:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7946409/add-cusip-to-securities