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How to record transfers between checking and brokerage that uses simple tracking

Marybeth1234

I have a checking account with Chase and a brokerage account with Wells Fargo. The brokerage account is set up for simple tracking only (complete tracking not available for this account). When I transfer funds between the checking and brokerage accounts, the transaction appears as uncategorized on the checking side. Since the brokerage account balance (not activity) is automatically updated, how should I properly categorize the transaction on the checking side? If I select the brokerage account, the brokerage balance will be incorrect due to double-booking. Thanks in advance!

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Quicken Kristina

Hello @Marybeth1234,

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community to report this issue, though we apologize that you are experiencing this.

I was able to replicate this issue and reported it to the proper channels to be further investigated. If you'd like to contribute to the investigation, please navigate to Help > Report a problem and submit a problem report with log files attached.

While you will not receive a response through this submission, these reports will help our teams in further investigating the issue. The more problem reports we receive, the better.

In the meantime, the best work around varies, depending on your use-case. Probably the simplest way to do it is create a custom non-transfer category, so that you know that it's a transfer to that investment account, but not have the issue of it messing up that account's balance. The downside to this is the transaction would not show up as a transfer on reports and it may also throw off your spending numbers, since it would see the transaction as spending rather than a transfer. If there are any tax impacts associated with the transfer, don't forget to assign the proper tax line to the custom category you create. You can do that by filling out the Details tab, then clicking on the Tax Reporting tab, checking the Tax related category box, then clicking the dropdown to select the tax line item.

If you need it to reflect as a transfer, then another option is to document it as a transfer into that same source account.

That will force Quicken to see it as a transfer, but since it's a transfer into the same account, it won't impact your investment account at all. If you do this, I recommend making sure the Payee and/or Memo column documents where you actually transferred the money to.

We apologize for any inconvenience!

Thank you.

(CTP-11633)

Marybeth1234

Kristina,

Thank you! This is helpful. Just to confirm - if I transfer into that same source account, would the balance for the source account be updated given that the transfer is from and to the same account?

Boatnmaniac

What if in the investment account you go to Account Details > General tab > select Show Cash in a Checking Account > OK and then set up the transfer to/from the new investment account linked checking account and the Chase checking account?

In a test file I did this and the transfer categories in both the investment account linked checking account and in the regular checking account were correct.

A big benefit of doing it this way is that the separate checking account register will show all of the cash transactions in the investment account. And the transfers will be linked and visible which is often beneficial.

IMO, the issue with doing it this way is that the linked checking account will increase the value of the Banking Accounts in the side bar. The value of that cash in the linked checking account is also accounted for in the Investing Accounts account value. That creates a double counting of the cash value in the net worth picture.

To eliminate that issue, in the investment account linked checking account I went to Account Details > Display tab > checked the box for Keep this account separate… > OK. That moved the linked checking account out of the Banking Accounts to the Separate Banking Accounts at the bottom of the side bar. That eliminated the double counting of the cash value with the Banking Accounts cumulative value. Now in the side bar the Banking Accounts cumulative value, the Investing Accounts cumulative value and the Net Worth are all correct.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Recording it as a transfer into the same account will not cause the transaction to zero out. Quicken will show that amount coming into our going out of the account.

That said, @Boatnmaniac's recommendation may be more practical. I tested it in my own Quicken by setting my investment account to Simple, setting up the cash balance as a linked checking account account, then waiting to see how it would download my recent transfer from checking to the investment account. It worked and it correctly matched the cash transaction.

Screenshot 2024-12-06 at 11.43.51 AM.png

Thank you!

Boatnmaniac

One thing I forgot to mention: Separate accounts by default are not captured in reports. So when using my method, any categorized transactions in that Separate linked checking account will not be present in reports.

To fix that: In the the report Customization check the box for Show Separate accounts then check the box for the linked checking account. This will then capture applicable transactions in the report. The report can then be saved to My Reports so it can be retrieved later without needing to go through the customization process, again.

I did not test this out with all of the various reports but I did with the Tax Summary, Tax Schedule and Itemized Categories reports and did not see any issues after doing this customization.