Vanguard Direct Connection resulting in placeholders

Al_D

I've been using Web Connect with my 401k and Roth IRA Vanguard accounts for years, without any issues. Just this past week, when I tried to download transaction with Web Connect, Quicken forced me into Direct Connect and messed up the balance (doubling the 401k account, but not the Roth IRA, which resulted in several placeholders in the 401k account, only one of which was listed in the tab). I've reinstalled twice from an earlier backup and it still results in the same affect. Seems like there's no way to download with Web Connect; it forces you into a Direct Connect connection. I'm going to try a third time.

Quicken Jasmine

Hello @Al_D,

Please let me know how the next attempt goes so that we may proceed with troubleshooting if need be.

Thanks!

Al_D

I tried it again, but same result. I started anew with storing an earlier backup. I confirmed that I was able to One Step Update for everything else as before. The two Vanguard accounts were set as "Web Connect" (as it always has been). I went to Vanguard to download the activity for the Roth IRA and the 401k separately, as I have always done for the past 10 plus years. I first double-clicked on the Roth IRA file and it brought in the transactions without a hitch (as before). I then tried the 401k, and it did the same thing as before: it came up with a window asking to create the account, with another option to find the account. I chose to find the account, found it, and clocked ok. It brought in the new activity but it resulted in doubling the value of the account and inserting placeholders. Very frustrating. I went back to restore the backup file and I have since (after doing the One Step and re-entering several transactions again) proceeded to keep both Vanguard Roth IRA and 401k as Web Connect, but only using the WebConnect for the Roth IRA and manually entering the activity for the 401k.

Al_D

Correction: I tried it again, but same result. I started anew with restoring an earlier backup. …

Al_D

Hello @Quicken Jasmine,

Please see above.

QuickUser

I have experienced the EXACT same thing as AI_D when downloading my 403b accounts from Vanguard. The problem started when Vanguard changed the appearance of the download page. I think its more than a coincidence that the download page changed at the same time as the downloads from 401k/403b accounts became problematic. I did switch over from web-connect to direct-connect for my brokerage and IRA accounts without issues.

David15

I have the same experience, I even deleted all the placeholder entries (which corrected the balance of my accounts) and the next time I connected they showed back up again, with the date 8/12/24. It seems that Vanguard has recharacterized the cash source for transactions, so in order to resolve it you have to go into Enter History, document which cash sources are being added to and which subtracted from, and then change the ones that are being subtracted one transaction at a time. Would be great if Quicken would let you do a Find/Replace on cash source, or select to ignore cash source since I can't see how it makes any difference to me.

David15

Follow up - I think there is a problem with the Vanguard placeholders - checking my recent transactions, they have all been split among three different cash sources, including those since 8/12. However, the placeholders if executed would place almost all of my holdings into one cash source (leaving 3.5 shares in some other category, since none of the 4 placeholders included them). This is obviously not right, the actual cash sources based on the recent transactions seem much closer to the current balance in my accounts so I am going to delete the placeholders again and hope Vanguard and Quicken can sort it out eventually.

Al_D

It would be nice if Quicken MOD would reply.

Quicken Kristina

Hello @Al_D,

Placeholders are automatically created to account for missing history. If it's happening every time you're connecting by Direct Connect, that indicates that Quicken is seeing something different in the balances that isn't accounted for by the transactions that downloaded, and it's creating placeholders to account for the differences it sees. This may be caused by duplicate or missing transactions, or it could be due to the way Vanguard is sending data to Quicken.

For the forced connection change, I'd recommend reaching out to Quicken Support directly and screensharing with them while you try to import the .QFX file. That way, they'll be able to see what is happening and either help you bypass it or escalate the issue if needed. The Quicken Support phone number can be found through this link here. Phone support is available from 5:00 am PT to 5:00 pm PT, Monday through Friday.

@David15,

Have you spoken to Vanguard about this issue? If the placeholders are trying to consolidate the 3 different cash sources into one, then it's possible the issue is being caused by the way the data is being sent from Vanguard.

Thank you!

David15

UPDATE - Finally got some transactions from Vanguard (only happens monthly) and the problem seems to have been rectified on their end.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for the follow-up,

I'm glad to hear the issue seems to have been corrected on their end!

If you need further assistance, please feel free to reach out!