401(k) transferred from Vanguard to Ascensus - problem

mtbdog

I was able to set up the account and automatic downloads, and transactions were downloaded. But there is no register or any way to manually enter a transaction! Just an overview screen showing positions and such. That's pretty whacked.

What I've been able to find online is that I can't have a register and downloads. I should delete the account and start over with a manual account.

Anyone else experiencing this? Before I go through deleting and setting up a new account, would appreciate any advice.

Quicken Premier Version R59.35

Boatnmaniac

@mtbdog said -

Who would want Simple? 🤔. Can't imagine why that option would exist. Oh well.

Actually, there are quite a few people who want Simple Tracking. They simply aren't interested in seeing all the details in an account register. All they want to see is positions, value and overall performance. For them, the details are simply "clutter". This is especially true for many people when it comes to tax deferred and tax exempt accounts (i.e., 401k, IRA, Roth IRA, etc.) because there is no tax benefit to tracking securities, dividends and cap gains/losses transactions. For people who want Simple Tracking, even if they have taxable accounts, they will simply rely on the tax forms provided by their broker instead of troubling themselves with tracking all of that in Quicken. To each their own.

Also, Simple Tracking was implemented several years ago at the request of many Quicken users. It wasn't that Quicken just popped it into the software on their own initiative.

It should also be noted that some investment companies no longer support Complete Tracking and only support Simple Tracking. If Ascensus was one of these investment companies, you never would have been able to convert your account to Complete Tracking without first deactivating downloads and then manually managing the account.

To prevent this from happening again when you set up a new investment account: Your new Ascensus account was likely set up with Simple Tracking because for newer Quicken users there is a Preference setting that now defaults to that when new investment accounts are set up. I dislike that default because it is much easier and less problematic to switch from Complete Tracking to Simple Tracking than it is to do the opposite.

Anyway, you might want to go to Edit > Preferences > Investments > if the box for Default to Simple Investing for New Accounts is checked, uncheck it > OK. Then when you set up new investment accounts in Quicken in the future they will default to Complete Tracking (provided the investment company supports Complete).

Boatnmaniac

@mtbdog -

Didn't expect this nonsensical inability to download if I want to see details. (Nor the fees!) But seems like you're saying I should be grateful that they allow me to manage my account manually. 😂 My account is going elsewhere after the first of the year.

Well, I think we should be grateful that Quicken provides us with various options for managing our accounts because, quite frankly, not all financial institutions that support Quicken support it in the specific way that we want it to be supported. And, while there are over 14K financial institutions that support Quicken in one way or another, there are other financial institutions do not support Quicken at all. The manual account option does ensure that we can use Quicken for just about any type of account, regardless of whether or not the financial institution supports Quicken downloads. And, while manually managing an account is not ideal for most people there are actually a fair number of Quicken users who only want to use Quicken manually and do not want to use any of the downloading options. The reasons they give for that vary from one person to the next but that is what they want so I'm not going to criticize them.

As for me, I'm with you….I want to see all the transactions details, in part as a means for get a heads-up should there be some fraud event (which I've only seen with a couple of credit cards) but mostly because without the details one cannot do a competent job with planning budgets, taxes, investing, etc..

If/when you decide to move your 401k account, you might want to make inquiry in this Community about the the one(s) you are considering moving it to. Maybe others will be able to provide you with insights as to whether or not they support Complete Tracking and/or other helpful tips on how well they work with Quicken.

BTW, both Fidelity and Schwab support Complete Tracking. I've had accounts at Fidelity for about 20 yrs and consolidated all my investment accounts to Fidelity about 7 years ago.

Overall it's been a pretty good experience with Fidelity for a variety of reasons. The only gripe I have with Fidelity is that they do not download the shares of the money market fund that is used as the settlement fund (they call it the Core Account or Core Fund). Instead, they download the value of that Core MMF as the Cash Balance because that is how that MMF is used. As long as I remind myself that Core=Cash and Cash=Core then it's OK because Fidelity does not hold any real cash at all. The closest thing to actual cash is if the investor opts to have cash held in an external bank sweep account instead of in a Core MMF. Not many people do use the sweep account option because the return is so insignificant (some fraction of 1%) while MMFs are now returning 4%-5%.

mtbdog

Found an answer, but doesn't completely solve the problem:

In Account Details there is a section called Tracking Method. Choices are Simple - Positions Only and Complete - Positions and Transactions. Mine was set for Simple. Complete was grayed out.

I disabled online services and Complete was available. Selected it and then a register became available. Didn't have to delete the account and start over. Great!

Not so fast … After enabling online services the register was gone, Simple was selected and Complete was grayed out.

Looks like you can't have a register if you want the online services/downloads. 😫

Quicken Anja

Hello @mtbdog,

We're glad to hear you found a solution and appreciate you updating your post to share it as it may help others experiencing the same or a similar issue.

Thank you!

Boatnmaniac

@mtbdog said -

Who would want Simple? 🤔. Can't imagine why that option would exist. Oh well.

Actually, there are quite a few people who want Simple Tracking. They simply aren't interested in seeing all the details in an account register. All they want to see is positions, value and overall performance. For them, the details are simply "clutter". This is especially true for many people when it comes to tax deferred and tax exempt accounts (i.e., 401k, IRA, Roth IRA, etc.) because there is no tax benefit to tracking securities, dividends and cap gains/losses transactions. For people who want Simple Tracking, even if they have taxable accounts, they will simply rely on the tax forms provided by their broker instead of troubling themselves with tracking all of that in Quicken. To each their own.

Also, Simple Tracking was implemented several years ago at the request of many Quicken users. It wasn't that Quicken just popped it into the software on their own initiative.

It should also be noted that some investment companies no longer support Complete Tracking and only support Simple Tracking. If Ascensus was one of these investment companies, you never would have been able to convert your account to Complete Tracking without first deactivating downloads and then manually managing the account.

To prevent this from happening again when you set up a new investment account: Your new Ascensus account was likely set up with Simple Tracking because for newer Quicken users there is a Preference setting that now defaults to that when new investment accounts are set up. I dislike that default because it is much easier and less problematic to switch from Complete Tracking to Simple Tracking than it is to do the opposite.

Anyway, you might want to go to Edit > Preferences > Investments > if the box for Default to Simple Investing for New Accounts is checked, uncheck it > OK. Then when you set up new investment accounts in Quicken in the future they will default to Complete Tracking (provided the investment company supports Complete).

mtbdog

Hi Boatnmaniac.

Probably my CPA brain, but I wouldn't keep my $$$ in a financial institution that didn't allow tracking details. I couldn't sleep at night. Took me too long to accumulate what I have, to not understand what's going on. There's such a thing as fraud, for instance, and people who aren't paying attention are setups. Quicken cracks every now and then, too. It's just better to pay close attention to your money. My opinion, but yes, to each their own. Hope they are at least troubling themselves to review their statements, comparing to the Quicken balances.

In my case, my individual 401(k) was involuntarily moved to Ascensus by Vanguard. Almost moved it to Schwab or Fidelity when I was notified by Vanguard. Should have. Didn't expect this nonsensical inability to download if I want to see details. (Nor the fees!) But seems like you're saying I should be grateful that they allow me to manage my account manually. 😂 My account is going elsewhere after the first of the year.

Anyway, thanks for all that info. Appreciate the suggestion to change the default for new accounts.

Boatnmaniac

@mtbdog -

Didn't expect this nonsensical inability to download if I want to see details. (Nor the fees!) But seems like you're saying I should be grateful that they allow me to manage my account manually. 😂 My account is going elsewhere after the first of the year.

Well, I think we should be grateful that Quicken provides us with various options for managing our accounts because, quite frankly, not all financial institutions that support Quicken support it in the specific way that we want it to be supported. And, while there are over 14K financial institutions that support Quicken in one way or another, there are other financial institutions do not support Quicken at all. The manual account option does ensure that we can use Quicken for just about any type of account, regardless of whether or not the financial institution supports Quicken downloads. And, while manually managing an account is not ideal for most people there are actually a fair number of Quicken users who only want to use Quicken manually and do not want to use any of the downloading options. The reasons they give for that vary from one person to the next but that is what they want so I'm not going to criticize them.

As for me, I'm with you….I want to see all the transactions details, in part as a means for get a heads-up should there be some fraud event (which I've only seen with a couple of credit cards) but mostly because without the details one cannot do a competent job with planning budgets, taxes, investing, etc..

If/when you decide to move your 401k account, you might want to make inquiry in this Community about the the one(s) you are considering moving it to. Maybe others will be able to provide you with insights as to whether or not they support Complete Tracking and/or other helpful tips on how well they work with Quicken.

BTW, both Fidelity and Schwab support Complete Tracking. I've had accounts at Fidelity for about 20 yrs and consolidated all my investment accounts to Fidelity about 7 years ago.

Overall it's been a pretty good experience with Fidelity for a variety of reasons. The only gripe I have with Fidelity is that they do not download the shares of the money market fund that is used as the settlement fund (they call it the Core Account or Core Fund). Instead, they download the value of that Core MMF as the Cash Balance because that is how that MMF is used. As long as I remind myself that Core=Cash and Cash=Core then it's OK because Fidelity does not hold any real cash at all. The closest thing to actual cash is if the investor opts to have cash held in an external bank sweep account instead of in a Core MMF. Not many people do use the sweep account option because the return is so insignificant (some fraction of 1%) while MMFs are now returning 4%-5%.