How can I get Schwab holdings to download?

Question

I just added my account (one that was moved over after the TD Ameritrade merger/buyout a while back) to quicken looking to pull down holdings and transactions.  It had me verify the  cash amount - along with all the security hoops - and it pulled down the last 75 days or so of transactions.  However, it did not actually add my holdings.  It did ask if any were the same as ones I have in other brokerage accounts, which none were.  Did I miss a step here?  I have done two resets and a couple of updates, but none of holdings show!  When I select "holdings" on the display (Windows version, up-to-date, etc) the only holding that shows is the cash.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!  I am  about to delete and start over…

TIA -MIke

GhostC · Answer

Thanks for the replies!

A couple of clarifications:  First, I have done this successfully with 3 other brokerages so far, and had no issues like this (one did have issues with munibonds getting the numbers right, but that was a bug on the brokerage side that was fixed eventually)

So:

1)I was adding a new account.  I never had the old TDA account in Quicken.  That was a red herring on my part.  I was not linking to any existing accounts.  This was a clean, new account add.

2) I imported using the full "complete" mode, not simple.  I have one broker that only supports the latter, and I am not wild about it.

3) My first attempt retrieved only transactions.  It asked me about each security it did not recognize and I asked it to add each.  When it was finished, there were no placeholders, no holdings, nothing but the transactions for the last 75 or so days.  All the transactions showed "unknown" for the source security.

4)  I tried 2 more times, each time selecting the "reset account", and nothing changed.   I only showed transactions it did not recognize, and it never asked me about the main holdings.  I did check the other "views", just in case, and made sure show hidden transactions

(After my original post- new information)

4) I deleted the account and tried again to add it.  This time I don't recall it asking about the individual holdings, but it DID finally show them as placeholders in the transaction list, and it also now recognized the sources of the other transactions (dividends, etc.).

5) at this point, I attempted to go ahead and complete the placeholder "fixup" and convert to holdings per the Quicken procedures.  (note, some were purchased in 2002).  The placeholders did not accept (just cleared when I hit return)  the original purchase dates.  It did let me enter the basis prices, but other things disappeared after that, including at least one Quicken crash.  After fighting this for a while, I called Quicken support.

6)  I eventually did the screen share, and they did work with some different screens (placeholder entries) and tried to fix this from there.  We had one Quicken crash, and in the end  she said I would have to manually enter them all and then delete the placeholders.. Something was clearly wrong.   This would take me a LONG time, and I have never had to do that before with the other 3 brokerages (and about 10 accounts).  When I attempted the procedure for handling placeholders, either they simply would not work (including crashing quicken) or converted it to a simple cash deposit, with no hint that it was a holding.  One disappeared entirely, though the amount remained the account summary total.

7) At their suggestion, I went to Schwab to see if I could do a manual download.  So far, all they can offer seems to be a .csv file…

So, if anyone has any magic dust that could fix this, I'd appreciate it, but it looks like an issue between Quicken and Schwab (probably Schwab).

Thank you!! -Mike

Boatnmaniac · Answer

Go to Tools > Account List > click on the Edit button for the new Schwab account > General tab:  Does it show that Simple Investing is selected?  Simple Investing accounts will have a dashboard with 4 cards showing and no transactions register so you cannot see individual transactions.

Or do you have an actual transaction register but there are no securities transactions in the register?  If this is the case, go to:  Edit > Preferences > Investments > make sure the box for Show hidden transactions is checked.  Do you now have Placeholder transactions showing in the account register and on the Placeholders tab below the register?

Tom Young · Answer

Quicken doesn't really download "holdings", it downloads "transactions."  It's the cumulative effect of all transactions from the time you opened the account until "today" that creates your holdings in Quicken.  If the "compare" function is on and working Quicken should compare the number of shares of each security per the broker to the number of shares of each security in Quicken and if there's a difference it should create (or propose creating) a Placeholder in the Account to get the share numbers to match.  If Quicken encounters a security that's not already set up in Quicken then it will ask the question if this is a new security (to Quicken) or if it really matches a security that already exists.

I'm not following along with you description of what has occurred here.

"I just added my account (one that was moved over after the TD Ameritrade merger/buyout a while back) to quicken looking to pull down holdings and transactions.."

The move of accounts from TD Ameritrade to Schwab happened some time ago, though I do seem to remember a statement from Schwab that there were difficulties moving some accounts and until these difficulties were figured out downloads would continue to come from TD Ameritrade.  So my question is if your TD Ameritrade account was one of the problem accounts?  IF that's the case AND your TD Ameritrade Account in Quicken has been properly updated from the time of the merger until the time you "just added" the Schwab Account in Quicken, THEN you might try simply disconnecting the TD Ameritrade Account from downloading, changing the Financial Institution to Schwab, and then reconnecting the Account to Schwab.  (https://www.quicken.com/support/moving-your-td-ameritrade-accounts-schwab-quicken/)

IF your TD Ameritrade Account in Quicken actually stopped downloads some ago but you've delayed making the changeover until just recently THEN you almost certainly are not going to get all the transactions between the time of the merger and the date of the changeover.

"However, it did not actually add my holdings."

Please explain that statement a bit more.

IF you download a transaction that should increase the number of shares of a particular security, a Buy for instance, THEN the share count for that security should go up.  That might be an increase in the number of shares of an existing security in the Quicken Account or it might be the creation of a new security along with the initial number of shares.

Are you saying here that you downloaded transactions that should have increased the number of shares, but that didn't happen, or something else?

"It did ask if any were the same as ones I have in other brokerage accounts, which none were."

I assume that word "any" is referring here to securities that Quicken didn't recognize as existing in the old TD Ameritrade account, though you did have those securities in other Accounts in Quicken, but I'm not sure I understand the relevance here to your attempt to effect the changeover from TD Ameritrade to Schwab.

I think we need a bit more history here, some fairly granular detail, of the situation you faced, exactly what you attempted to do, and how Quicken was responding and prompting along the way.  It's impossible to answer the "Did I miss a step here?" question without knowing precisely what steps you took.

If this is simply a problem that you've delayed too long in making the switchover from TD Ameritrade to Schwab, then what I'd expect with the creation of a new Schwab Account in Quicken is a truncated download of transactions, and holdings in the Account of either the sum of those transactions (Placeholders not accepted) or holdings that agree to Schwab's numbers with Placeholders filling in the gaps, but I'm not exactly sure what you're seeing here.