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Issues with transactions

redfox85

Latest Mac OS, latest version of Quicken Classic Deluxe Mac v8.2.1. After using Quicken for years on the Mac, I'm having a real issue. I hold security "T" in two accounts. Both accounts are off fractionally in their total "T" holding comparing to an end of month statement for the same security. Entering an adjustment transaction in each account for "T" has no impact on total position. I called Quicken support. After troubleshooting, corrupt file they say. Start all over. Lose years of transaction detail. Rebuild over 30 accounts. One month later, same issue happens again. Entering security adjustments does not impact total holding. This started happening within the last 4 months. I do not store this data file on the cloud. Any ideas?

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redfox85

The prior month, I had the same issues with different securities.

jacobs

@redfox85 Just to see if I'm understanding correctly, let me use a few made up numbers…

You have 100 shares of security "T" according to your brokerage.
Quicken Mac reports you have 100.0001 shares of "T".
You enter a Remove Shares transaction to remove 0.0001 shares of "T".
Quicken Mac now shows you have 100 shares of "T".
You do Update Accounts, after which Quicken goes back to reporting you have 100.0001 shares of "T", and automatically adds an Add shares transaction to add the 0.0001 share.

Is that essentially correct? If Quicken is adding back a fractional share after you manually adjust it away, it is only because your brokerage is reporting your holding is the fractional value (e.g. 100.0001). You could likely download a .QFX file from your financial institution and open it in a text editor to verify that the brokerage is telling Quicken you have this fractional amount of the security.

But maybe my synopsis doesn't match what you were describing, so please post back to clarify or confirm.

redfox85

Thanks for the comments Jacobs…… Scenario is this:

Quicken shows 100 shares of "T" for prior month close
Statement shows 100.01 share of "T" for prior month close
To adjust, try to "Add shares": ".01 of "T" for day before end of prior month….no impact to total holding
A different approach: "Buy shares:": .01 of "T" for a $0/share for the day before end of prior month…no impact to total holding

Quicken Support can not figure it out. Their solution: delete the account and download latest transactions at balances from bank (Chase).

This is happening with the same security across two accounts.

This is the 3rd time this has happened in the past 4 months.

Jim_Harman

[deleted - instructions for Windows regarding Placeholders]

jacobs

Quicken Support can not figure it out. Their solution: delete the account and download latest transactions at balances from bank (Chase).

@redfox85 This does NOT make sense to me! Keep working on the problem, as there is certainly a solution less drastic than "discard your old data and start over"!

So… Quicken shows 100 shares and the brokerage statement shows 100.01 shares, right? I would look in the transaction register for this account to see if there is any adjustment transaction, like Remove Shares or Placeholder, for the .01 share discrepancy. It might be in the recent month, or back at the beginning of time for this account.

I'll go back again to the fact that if you're entering an Add Shares transaction and it is not changing the number of shares in the Portfolio, then Quicken is adjusting based on its information about the actual share balance — which can only come from the financial institution. Does your brokerage offer downloads in QFX (or "Quicken") format? If so, I would try downloading transactions — it could just be from the last week, or a narrow time period — and opening the downloaded QFX file to hunt for the line which reports the share balance of security "T" to see if the brokerage is sending Quicken the incorrect value. But your brokerage might not offer a QFX download, so this may not be a viable troubleshooting step…

Here's something else you could try. First, make backup of your data file, in case things go south. Then disconnect your current brokerage account with this security holding from downloads. Then create a NEW account for the same brokerage, and proceed to set it up to download. Do NOT link it to your existing account; we want it to download as a completely new and different account. After its initial download, does it show the 100 shares or the 100.01 shares? If it shows the 100.01 shares which agrees with the brokerage statement, that proves there's something in your old Quicken account which is causing the discrepancy; if it shows the 100 shares which is not what's on the brokerage statement, then it proves that this is the data that the brokerage is sending to Quicken. Depending what you find, there might be a course to stick with this new account and move all you old transactions into it, or it might be better to delete the new account and continue the hunt for the culprit in the old account.

Although it's unlikely that there is "corruption" in your Quicken database, I'll just note that there are still better options than just starting over. For instance, you can export your Quicken data file to a QXF file, create a new Quicken dat file, and import your data from the QXF file. This is often a lot-step measure, because you lose all your register settings, preferences/settings, saved reports, etc. — so I'm not suggesting you do this at this time; I'm just giving you some assurance that there are additional steps which can be taken short of abandoning your years of data!

RickO

Did you search the register for placeholder transaction(s). (Do a register search for the work "placeholder".) If you find for that security, delete the placeholder transaction. That should fix it.

redfox85

(RickO) - Thanks for the suggestion. The Mac version does not have "placeholders". I did indeed search the transaction list.

(JacobS) - I appreciate the encouragement! I agree losing years of history is not an acceptable solution. Being that I recently started from scratch, the depth of transactions from Chase is not too deep when searching for the one security. No "placeholder" or offset transaction for the same amount I am looking to add. What's very odd is that I have the same issue with the same security in two different accounts. I do indeed want to retain my years of history, although the QXF approach seems daunting as I have 30+ accounts set up.

When working with Quicken support, we tried adding 100 shares and buying 100 shares. Not just a small adjustment value, but a substantial quantity. +100 shares had no impact on security total position.

As mentioned above, this is not the first time this has happened. It all started around 4 months ago. 1st time, I was coached to delete the one account and start from fresh. Last time when I was able to evidence the same issue across two different brokerage accounts for the same security, I was coached to start over completely….Which gives me such grief…..

redfox85

Riddle solved. I spoke to a knowledgeable Suppport person, Shawn. He had me go into Transactions, search for the security in question, Clear Filters, and scroll to the bottom. There indeed was the "placeholder" transaction, which automatically adjusts to the last known position as per download prior to the indicated date. Therefore any transaction I was adding via Add Shares or Buy was automatically being offset by the Placeholder. To resolve, need to double click on the Placeholder and enter missing data it requests. I can now return to my original Quicken file and retain all of my brokerage transaction history. Thanks to those who commented above.

redfox85

FYI….. The "Placeholder" transaction showed as an Add Shares. When mouse hovering over the item, a pop up shows and states: "This is a special transaction that will automatically adjust its shares to maintain a share balance of 133.406 on 6/12/25 if any transaction are added, deleted or modified." This explains why an adjustment transaction of 0.687 or 100 did not impact share balance.

jacobs

Thanks for posting back that you found the issue and are now up and running again. As I wrote in my previous comments, if adding or removing shares didn’t change the share balance, it had to be either wrong data coming from the financial institution or a placeholder (Add/Remove Shares) transaction in Quicken, which was causing the share balance not to change.

I’m sorry the first Quicken Support rep you spoke with was clueless and gave you incorrect advice; I’m glad you tried again and got a more knowledgeable Support rep who understood the issue and helped you resolve it.