Account update hangs and shows error messages that don't make sense

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This discussion was created from comments split from:

Credit card downloads corrupted or deleted past reconciled transactions

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JErickson

I have simlar issues in that balances change from one session to another. Today after adding current transactions and when going to update from websites, the update hangs up with messge "You cannot transfer into your mutual fund acount prior to a Placeholder transaction." I am not trying to do anything with mutual fund account and haven't used individual mutual fund acccounts for probably at least ten years. I must close Quicken Classic Deluxe to end the hung update and when reopening and retrying to update my primary credit card account the same thing happens. AND, the balance in my checking account (which I wasn't updating via the web) now has at least $8,000 more balance than when I closed it. Had very similar things one week ago and hoped that time and perhaps an update would correct these very unsettling occurrences. Quicken Jerry57369

Quicken Kristina

Hello @JErickson,

To help troubleshoot this issue, please provide more information. When did these issues first start? Which financial institution(s) are the affected accounts with? When you encounter these issues, are you updating using One Step Update, or are you importing a .QFX file (Web Connect) that you downloaded directly from the financial institution website? Are there any transactions showing up in the checking account that would explain the change in balance? Are any of the transactions being downloaded/imported transfers between the credit card and the checking account?

If possible, could you please provide screenshots of the error messages you're seeing when you try to download/import transactions? If needed, please refer to this Community FAQ for instructions on how to attach a screenshot. Alternatively, you can also drag and drop screenshots to your response if you are not given the option to add attachments.

I look forward to your reply!

mshiggins

I'm having trouble understanding exactly what steps are occurring just before you get the error message.

" ... balances change from one session to another".

What does "session" mean in this context? Is it the time from when you start Quicken until you exit Quicken? Or the time from immediately before you download until immediately after you download?

In either event; it's normal for "balances [to] change" in Quicken. What causes you to think that there's a problem when your balances change?

"Today after adding current transactions ...".

So you first manually enter transactions?

" ... and when going to update from websites ...".

Are you doing a One Step Update at that point, or are you manually logging on to each financial institution's web site and manually initiating a download from there?

" ... the update hangs up with message 'You cannot transfer into your mutual fund account [sic] prior to a Placeholder transaction'."

At that point are you able to determine which account(s) have successfully completed the download? And hopefully which account is being processed when the error message is displayed?

"I am not trying to do anything with mutual fund account ...".

The implication of the error messages is that one of the downloaded transactions is a "transfer" into one of your mutual fund accounts.

" ... and haven't used individual mutual fund accounts for probably at least ten years."

Are those "individual mutual fund accounts" by any chance Quicken "Single Mutual Fund" (SMF) accounts?

As long as those mutual fund accounts are still in your Quicken data file, they are available to have transactions added to them - whether the transactions themselves are correct or not.

Have you checked your mutual fund accounts to see whether any have "Placeholder" transactions (*) in them? That might narrow down the destination account the error message is referring to.

The message you are receiving is a longstanding legitimate error message and it means pretty much what it says. Quicken will not allow the transfer of cash into a Quicken [Single] Mutual Fund account if the date of the transfer is on, or before, the date of a Placeholder in the SMF account.

[A SMF account can never hold any cash. So normally, transferring cash into a Quicken SMF account automatically creates a BoughtX transaction (instead of an XIn transaction) in the SMF account - a BoughtX for the one mutual fund held in the account.]

You may not have intentionally created a transaction to transfer cash to one of your mutual fund accounts, but Quicken believes it is seeing such a transaction. You need to try to determine which Quicken account is trying to transfer cash into one of your Quicken SMF accounts that has a Placeholder - to ultimately be able to determine which transaction is "incorrect". 

If you can't determine the account causing the problem, and you've been using One Step Update to download, try using "Update Now" to download the accounts for one financial institution at a time.

If that doesn't help, you can try this: File > Backup or Copy File > Create a copy or template (in the newly created Copy, no accounts will be activated for downloading)

Open the newly created Copy.

For each of the accounts involved in your download attempt(s) that triggered this discussion

1.) Use the Add Account process to activate/download one account

2.) If you get the error message, stop; otherwise

3.) Deactivate the account in #1

4.) Repeat the above (using a different account each time) until you get the error message about being unable to " ... transfer into your mutual fund account ...."

That should tell you the account that is receiving the downloaded transaction that's trying to do the transfer; hopefully that will help locate which real-world transaction is involved.

And if there have been no such real-world transactions, you'll need to figure out how such an apparently incorrect transaction has been introduced.

Consider possibilities such as a downloaded transaction matching a Memorized Payee that is intended to transfer cash into the Single Mutual Fund account.

Or possibly the Quicken Preferences "Automatically categorize transactions" or "Automatically apply Quicken's suggested name to payee" (setting those Preferences off and retrying the download can help determine if they are involved). Perhaps other possible causes I haven't thought of.

" ... the balance in my checking account (which I wasn't updating via the web) now has at least $8,000 more balance than when I closed it."

Assuming you're referring to the running balance in the account register (rather than the "Online balance" reported only at the foot of the register), the cause of that overage should be relatively easy to find (it must be one or more extra, missing, or incorrect transactions - possibly including a transfer of funds into the checking account). The cause of the $8000 discrepancy might also provide some insight into the cause of the mutual fund error message.

[ (*)  A "Placeholder" transaction has an "Action" value of "Entry" in the account "Transaction List" (the investment account equivalent of a non-investment account "register". In newer versions of Quicken, Placeholders can be seen in the separate "Placeholder Entries" tab below the account Transaction List. Individual Placeholder transactions IN the Transaction List itself are only visible if the Quicken Investments > Show hidden transactions option is selected. Placeholders can also be seen in an Investing > Investment Transactions report, where a Placeholder transaction will have "*Placeholder" in the "Action" column.]

-JP