How to troubleshoot this Placeholder

Adience

I sold 60 shares on Oct 29. Somehow Quicken added a duplicate. then it corrected the share count by adding a Placeholder, so all in all the share count is right, but I had double sale proceed: 2x 2,505.23

I tried removing the last 2 transaction, then my end cash balance as of today is missing 2,505.23.

Quicken Kristina

Hello @Adience,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community with this issue. To clarify, when you say you tried removing the last 2 transactions, are you referring to the second (duplicate) sale transaction and the placeholder, or are you referring to different transactions? Was the cash balance correct before the 2 transactions were deleted? Are there any other transactions or adjustments that would explain the discrepancy in the cash balance?

I look forward to your response!

Adience

Hi @Quicken Kristina,

• yes my cash ending balance is correct before I did anything to the highlighted transactions.
• yes, you were right, I removed the bottom 2 highlighted transactions (the duplicate and the placeholder) then my ending balance is 2,505.23 lower (since the duplicate transaction added that amount).

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

What is your goal for correcting this issue?

Are you trying to determine why the placeholder appeared? Based on your screenshot and description of the issue, the placeholder was there to correct the share amount, probably as a result of the duplicate sell transaction. Are you having a recurring issue with duplicate transactions downloading into this account, or was this a one-time event?

If you're wanting to hunt down the cause of the cash balance being incorrect, I'd recommend starting by checking for any adjustments in the account and for any transactions that look out of place (duplicate or for an unusual/incorrect amount). It's a good idea to backup your Quicken file prior to deleting any transactions.

If you just want the cash balance to be correct, and you don't really need to track down what exact transaction(s) caused the issue, then you can put in an adjustment to bring the cash balance back where it belongs.

I hope this helps!

Adience

haha that's a good question. Actually after using Quicken classic for 2+ years, this is the first time I am looking into the placeholder entries that've been there for a long time. no I don't think I NEED to fix the duplicate entry. it's also the first time I see it happening, so it's not a rampant issue that I need to resolve. and the placeholder solves the cash balance issue. I guess it is the "perfectionist" in me that kind of wonders if there is an easy way (that I am not aware of) to reconcile these kind of things.

thanks for your help as always @Quicken Kristina

Adience

also you know from my other posts i have issue with my investment accounts when converting to quicken Mac, and placeholders seem to be one of the things causing problems so I was seeing if I could fix them all.

Jim_Harman

Is there a cash balance adjustment next to one of the Sold transactions? They can be created automatically if you enter a transaction with an earlier date than a Placeholder. If so, you should delete the Placeholder then the second sale and balance adjustment.