Guideline Temporary Workaround

Question

I understand the Guideline issue has persisted for months now, with no clear end in sight. Does anyone know of a good way to track this as an offline account? I am perfectly happy to manually add transactions until a fix is in place, I just don't know of a way to import/export transactions from Guideline for historic data (or if there's a way to just add positions and their values, I can do that too).

I'm new to Quicken, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Some context: I'm using the Mac subscription version. I tried to write a quick script to convert the CSV that Guideline generates into a QFX file, but I'm not sure how to identify the correct FITID, etc. Is there a good third party solution for this, maybe?

Thanks.

jacobs · Answer

@jaken  While we can't talk about them or make any recommendations for them, there are third-party utilities out there which purport to convert CSV files into QFX files which will import into Quicken Mac. Google it any you'll likely find one or more of those products. I've never used one, and since they aren't actively discussed here, I haven't read whether they do or don't work well for fellow users. I'm just letting you know there are possible solutions on the market.

jaken · Answer

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20459616#Comment_20459616

Understood. I was unaware of the FITID discussion restrictions. Thanks for the tips on what I can do in the meantime. Hopefully Guideline issues will be resolved soon.

John_in_NC · Answer

Forum rules dictate that we aren't allowed to share tips on how to circumvent the FITID check.

That said, I have found people spend hours creating scripts to solve a problem that could be solved faster by doing things manually. :-)

For now, you can easily enter "Add Shares" investment transactions for each security with an older date to get the positions correct. You can also add the cost basis to these transactions if desired. These won't affect the cash balances and should get you going.

You can later manually enter historical transactions afterwards, but you would have to update those add shares transaction so that the final total is correct.

If Guideline issues get eventually resolved, then connecting will add any historical data they provide, and balance adjustments to make the final total correct will be added. Those are smart transactions in that they will auto adjust as you enter/delete transactions, so you could late remove your add shares transaction if needed.