Serious bug: transaction exchange rates do not stick automatically for any register entry (Canada)

questionsforever

This is happening non stop and for the last year or more.

Every time you enter foreign stock transactions, the transaction exchange rate does not stick to the transaction. I go to the report of the transactions and it shows 1.0000 for the transaction exchange rate every time a new transaction is entered. Even if you update the exchange rate and even if it shows the new exchange rate for that day in the currency list it does not stick to the transactions added that day! The only way to fix it is to manually go and set the exchange rate for every transaction after updating the exchange rate, closing quicken, re-opening it again. It is a laborious process. Clearly a bug. Why can't this be fixed? Been going on for ages.

Quicken Kristina

Hello @questionsforever,

To help troubleshoot this issue, please provide additional information. Is it showing an exchange rate of 1.0 for accounts in a currency other than your home currency? If so, which currencies are reflecting incorrect exchange rates?

I look forward to your response!

questionsforever

I am only using USD accounts and the reports are in CAD currency. Home currency is Cad. The USD registers show 1.0 for the exchange rate when entering the data. If I do online quote update and go back to the register still shows 1.0. If I exit Quicken and open it again, it sometimes shows 1.0 , sometimes the actual exchange rate. However if I go to the capital gains report , or any report like cost basis and fmv report, and the report is already set to 'transaction exchange rate' check box and 'cad' as the reporting currency, it still uses the 1.0 exchange rate. I have to click and unclick that checkbox and change the currency back to usd, then back to cad, and then 'sometimes' it captures the new exchange rate in the register (e.g 1.3643). It takes multiple times of fiddling around with it before the actual exchange rate holds. I'm not sure why it doesn't update the register exchange rate and the report exchange rate instantly when a new transaction is entered. I have to waste many minutes to get it to update for every data entry.

For example:

This is canadian report of USD register with transaction exchange rate set. Shows 1.000. DOES NOT UPDATE even if you get online quotes, even if you CLOSE AND REOPEN QUICKEN ENTIRE PROGRAM. If you click through the 1.000 you see -

As you can see, it does not even 'get the current exchange rate'. Note this does not update even if you reboot the program and do online quote update either!

This is a real hassle. Every time a new entry is entered, the exchange rate is 1.00 and no new data is received.

Is it because it is 'same day'? If I wait one day, will it update properly?

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

So far, I'm still not able to replicate the issue you're encountering with any account type other than retirement accounts (and with those accounts, the most likely cause is the bug you reported yesterday, where they're defaulting to CAD instead of USD, even when added as USD).

Is this issue happening with a specific account type? Is there a specific holding that seems to be associated with this issue?

Thank you!

questionsforever

This issue occurs with all investment registers of any type.

The bug described in this post has NOTHING to do with the previous bug reported.

This is not an issue of account creation, but rather the assigned exchange rate to each transaction in an existing register relative to the home currency. E.g. a USD register when the base currency is CAD. It also applies when investment reports are produced in Canadian dollars on US dollar registers when the 'transaction exchange rate' tick box is checked in the settings panel of the reports.

It applies to all investment account types - brokerage, rrsp, retirement, tfsa, etc..

It applies to all holdings every time since it occurs immediately when entering any transaction into the register.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Since I'm unable to replicate the issue, I recommend troubleshooting for file-specific issues. To start, please try validating and/or super validating your data file.  Please save a backup file prior to performing these steps. 

Validate: 

1. File
2. Validate and Repair File...
3. Validate File
4. Click OK
5. Close the Data Log
6. Close Quicken (leave it closed for at least 5 secs)
7. Reopen Quicken and see if the issue persists.

If the issue persists, proceed to Super Validate. If the issue is resolved after performing validation, then please disregard the instructions to Super Validate. 

Super Validate:

1. File
2. Hold CTRL + Shift and click Validate and Repair File...
3. Super Validate File
4. Click OK
5. Close the Data Log
6. Close Quicken (leave it closed for at least 5 secs)
7. Reopen Quicken and see if the issue persists.   

Please let me know how it goes!

questionsforever

I have done those 2 things. No, it does not resolve this issue.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Since you said this has been going on for a year or more, restoring a backup from before the issue started would likely be sub-optimal (most financial institutions make around 90 days available for download). Because of that, I suggest that you try creating a copy of your data file, which will rebuild all of the internal lists and database tables. If successful, you would then move forward with the copied file. To create a copy, please navigate to File > Copy or Backup File... > Create a copy or template (see examples below) which will also allow you to select a date range to move forward with.

If you wish to move forward with your entire data file, please check the full date range of your entire data file before copying so you can enter the correct date range if you do not wish to "shrink" your file by eliminating certain dates. Note: The only time you would need to "shrink" your file is if you suspect the problem is being caused by older data, and you want to see if adjusting the date range to exclude that older data corrects the issue.

It's important to know that all online services will be disconnected in the copied file, and you will need to sign back in with your Quicken ID and reconnect all of your online accounts, online billers, Quicken Bill Manager services, etc if you plan to use that copied file going forward. The reason for this is that the new copy also creates a new and separate dataset ID. Note: I recommend testing to verify if the issue is resolved in the copied file before going through the work of reconnecting everything. If the issue is not resolved in the copied file either, then feel free to switch back to your original file.

Thank you!

questionsforever

Do you know if a validate with the option 'rebuild investing lots' would help with this issue, or that is for something different?

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Based on the description of how rebuilding investment lots works (from this article), I don't think it would have any impact on the exchange rate. All it does is validate your lot assignments by checking for a link between the Bought, Shares Added, and Reinvest transactions and the Sold and Shares Removed transactions.

Thank you!

questionsforever

Anyway this is a SERIOUS BUG and still not fixed. I thought waiting 1 day to update the exchange rates would work but not at all. Even after 1 day and opening and restarting Quicken, clicking one step update to update exchange rates as you can see, US account transactions still show 1.000 as the exchange rate to the base currency CAD. Therefore all reports are wrong all the time. Sometimes it does update, but randomly and without rhyme or reason. I can't really tell when or why it updates it sometimes and other times not.

Arctic Hare

Does the problem you are experiencing apply to all dates? I do hold USD denominated securities, but I do not trade them very infrequently. My most recent USD denominated transactions were cash dividends (paid in USD) and the transaction entry for a cash dividend does not include a f/x rate, so those entries cannot be used to check for the issue you are reporting. The most recent buy/sell transaction I have for a USD denominated security is from Oct 31, 2023; that registry entry DOES include a F/X rate. The F/X rate found in the registry entry for that transaction is NOT 1.000, and it IS the correct F/X rate for that day. Evidently, I don't have a lot of data to verify whether I am or am not subject to the issue you've raised, but the one data point I've checked does NOT show the same issue.

Have you tried creating a new file as a test to see whether you can replicate the issue in the test file? You can run both files in parallel for a while and only put the minimum data required to test the issue in your test file. That is my suggestion as a next step.

questionsforever

The thing is that I also have many transactions in my US investment register and they do have the correct FX rate in them - in the past - and in time even new transactions do eventually populate this field. But it seems random. I just opened it today and it seems to have populated for august 15 and 16th. But try as I might , open and close the program, run online update, fiddle around with it yesterday and day before and it would not populate. But the issue is primarily the reports too. When I run the report, it still uses 1.000 until I change the currency back and forth on the report (cad, non-cad) and also click and unclick the 'use transaction exchange rate'. It seems the reports are "frozen" in the old position using 1.000 as the exchange rate until it "pulls" the new data from that fx field (when that field itself is updated somewhat randomly). After that the report is fine. Every time I enter a new transaction, the same game occurs with taking forever and not exactly sure what I do or don't do to get the update to occur. Then after a few days I open it up and it either catches or I can manually update it because that popup box I posted above does show the correct exchange rate and you just have to click OK. It seems there are two issues

1. the actual fx rate is not immediately populated when a new foreign transaction is entered. It eventually populates with the correct rate after a few days but I can't tell if I did something or it was random.
2. the report using that fx rate is still stuck in the old view with the fx at 1.000 until it updates in 1.) above AND/OR you manually fiddle with the report to get it to pull the new fx rate that was updated in 1.) above.

I can try to play around with a new file but I got to get my current file to work. I have about 7 investment registers and they all seem to do the same thing and I opened them at different times in my core file.