How to auto-download older transactions in checking linked to brokerage??

mushrmary

I have two Fidelity brokerage accounts with optional check writing privileges on each. One we use as a daily checking account, actively writing checks, the other is used as a brokerage and taxable savings. The first account is set up, linked with its checking, and is working fine. The second account I'd set up simply as a brokerage account, without a linked check writing account, and downloads the investment transactions fine.

I just discovered (at tax time) that during all of last year (2023) hubby and I have both been writing checks, respectively, off of both accounts. Oops. Explains a number of bookkeeping anomalies.

So I added a linked checking account to the brokerage account, did an one step update. All of the brokerage transactions for 2023 are there, but only the most recent check transactions for about the past 2-3 months downloaded, not all of them.

How do I get the older 2023 checks written to download? I also tried redoing from scratch: did a backup, deleted the linked accounts, reentered the linked pair and updated, but the same thing happens: all of the brokerage transactions but only most recent checking transactions.

I saw an earlier question on the forum requesting a transaction time range for One Step Update but the feature isn't available. For now, I'm going to manually enter the couple of dozen older checks, but would like to know how to do this in the future, or if this feature could be added. Adding the date range feature does make sense since I'm sure I'm not alone: I have held these accounts for many years, but periodically change accounting software, and only want 1-2 year's worth of most recent data for bookkeeping.

Quicken Kristina

Hello @mushrmary,

What automatically downloads to your Quicken file depends on what the financial institution makes available. That said, has this second account been connected the whole year? If so, are those check transactions reflecting in the brokerage side of the account, possibly in a format that Quicken wasn't able to automatically recognize and move over to the linked checking account? If Fidelity's website lets you download .QFX files, then you may be able to fill in those transactions by importing a .QFX file. [Edit - Corrected Typo]

I look forward to your reply!

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20421343#Comment_20421343

Typo, you meant .QFX file not .QDF.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7947825/how-to-auto-download-older-transactions-in-checking-linked-to-brokerage

One has to understand that the linked checking account is a "virtual account". It matters not, if there actually a checking account at the financial institution. All downloaded transactions go to the investment account. If you have a linked checking account in Quicken and the downloaded transaction is a cash transaction it will push it to the linked checking account. And it works like that in reverse, when a transaction like a buy is put into the register it will automatically transfer the needed cash from the investment account.

If you change from a brokerage account without a linked checking account to one with a linked checking account Quicken goes through the transactions and converts them into what they should have been with a linked checking account.

Now for the missing transactions in the linked checking account. I can think of two reasons for this. The first being that we are talking about a transaction that was never in Quicken. You can enter transactions into the linked checking account that have no effect on the investment account. Clearly these kinds of transactions will not magically appear in the linked checking account. The second would be there is a bug in the conversion from non-linked to linked. I know for a fact, that for some situations going from a linked checking account to a non-linked brokerage account can result in problems. So, isn't really far fetched that there can be problems going in the other direction. It really is a complicated process to get it right for a lot situations.

Will importing a QFX file get the missing transactions, I have no idea.

As for the future, now that it is done, future transactions should work as expected.

mshiggins

I'm not sure what specifically you mean by, "Explains a number of bookkeeping anomalies", but Quicken has no problem processing checks written from real-world investment accounts.  Naturally, the financial institution must supply (download) correctly formatted check transactions if you expect to rely on downloads - otherwise you can manually add the check transactions, if the financial institution cannot, or will not, provide them.

In fact, I know of only one situation that a Quicken investment account cannot handle, that a (linked) checking account can; and that is Reminders. If you want to employ Reminders for non-investment type transactions in Quicken investment accounts, you must use a linked checking account.

-JP