Share balance in register is impossible and doesn't match portfolio view

MauryJ

I have a managed account with Merrill that contains 131 securities. Lately (since conversion to Quicken Connect), the register will show the correct number of shares or not. It feels random, because it's not every equity.

I started noticing this when I started seeing a buy for "x" # of shares and the share balance is zero. And then another purchase the next day, and it's still zero. In some cases, as shares are sold, the number goes up, and in other cases, as the shares are bought, the quantity goes down. It makes no sense. I have some negative share balances in the register. Some have properly added or subtracted shares - seems like the minority of transactions are doing the proper math for share total.

In my portfolio view, the number of shares listed does not match the register at all. I may show 50 shares in the portfolio view and -6 in the register. Yesterday I painstakingly compared the # of shares in this account online to my Quicken Portfolio and 30 of the 131 equities are wrong. Some are just barely off (like 7 vs 6), others more radically off (like 131 vs 154).

I'm guessing tomorrow some settlements might reduce the errors, but I can't tell why the register doesn't agree with the portfolio view, and why the portfolio view doesn't agree with the broker's web view. Dollars wise I'm still well below .01% difference, but as this discrepancy keeps growing I'm concerned this account with be FUBAR in Quicken.

My next painstaking comparison is going to be between the register Share Balances and the Portfolio View. Right now I know I have several discrepancies, but of the 131 equities, I don't know how many are affected.

MauryJ

Problem Solved! Unfortunately, I can't edit the original post any longer, but here's what Quicken Helpdesk came up with and it worked great!

For all transactions after July 15th (the date I converted to Quicken Connect for Merrill Lynch)
Problem 1: Register showed incorrect share totals for all transactions after that date. Sometimes shares bought would show a zero or negative share balance for a given equity.
Problem 2: Share balances in Portfolio view did not agree with register balances for same equity

Why it was happening: The equity symbol stayed the same in both the register and the portfolio view, but the register depends on the Equity Name being consistent down to the letter. In the downloading, somehow the comments on the transaction got appended to the name of the equity in the "Security/Payee" column. For instance, "The Campbell's Company" (ticker CBP) name would change to "The Campbell's Company Execution blah blah blah" (ticker CPB) and therefore, because the name didn't match all the previous transactions, it was treated as 2 equites. Sales of shares could show up as negative numbers, or conversely, purchases would be off as well.

Solution: (On Mac) Go to Window» Securities» Company Name would reveal both the original name and the newly appended name. Highlight both and right click "merge securities." Click on the security name you want to keep (the shorter one) and all the new transactions will blend into one, and the totals in the newer transactions in the Register will be correct, and they'll agree with the Portfolio view as well

Tip: When merging, each Equity name will show up in a box. If the equity name is really long it truncates, and sometimes the original name and newly appended name will look the same. Just go back one level to the list of equities and change the name of the appended name to make it stand out, then highlight them both, merge, and you're done!

Quicken Anja

We appreciate you updating your post, @MauryJ, and for sharing such a detailed explanation of the cause and solution. This is really helpful and will no doubt assist other users who run into the same share balance discrepancies. We appreciate you taking the time to document the fix!

MauryJ

I am having one consistent issue. It seems like every transaction is renaming the equity involved, which includes Fidelity and Merrill, but fortunately not E*Trade.

Here's a few typical examples:
From: STAG INDUSTRIALS, INC.
To: STAG INDUSTRIALS, INC. COM HOLDING 23.0000 PAY DATE 07/15/2025; or
In both cases, STAG is the ticker. "COM HOLDING" appears to mean Commercial Holding. Coincidentally the "23.0000" is the Share balance before the transaction, and the transaction date is the "PAY DATE" - so basically the Equity Name is now 37 characters longer and does not match the Equity name in every previous transaction. This creates a new Equity name in the Equities database, and in this case it now maintains 2 separate running totals: the old share balance under STAG INDUSTRIALS, INC. and one under the longer name

Here's another:
From: APPLE INC
To: APPLE INC HOLDING 1846.9907 PAY DATE 08/14/2025
Similar set of variables.

So, bottom line is that it's appending the equity name with a predictable set of variables that are (at least to me) akin to meta data about the transaction, and the data is extraneous. Obviously I know the date because that's the date in the register (and if it's a new lot, it's also in the portfolio view), and I should already know the share balance, because that's what is NORMALLY reported in the register (and the portfolio view)

At least in my case, this is the biggest issue, it's predictable, it's happening in both of the institution's that had to do the connect conversion, and across all of the accounts within those institutions

My little true up trick worked on all of these, but yesterday I made one merge and 30% of my portfolio disappeared because it puts in another transaction that I found hidden in the register:
A "Remove Shares" transaction equal to the total number of shares I have for the affected equities under the old name.

I have a boat ton of backups, so I'm safe for now, but I'm afraid to proceed after 1/3 of my holdings disappeared after the last "equity merge." I restored and faithfully corrected the hose ups on 31 equities from the other day. I just don't have it in me to fix this without someone watching over my shoulder, so for now, I'm not updating my equity accounts until this is squared up.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for the follow-up,

If this is happening exclusively with Fidelity Investments and Merrill Lynch, and you migrated those accounts to the updated connection method, then the issue you mention is a known issue which our teams are already working with the proper channels to correct.

If you are still connected via Direct Connect or this is happening with other financial institutions as well, please let me know.

Thank you!

MauryJ

Thanks! E*Trade is direct connect and no problems. Wells Fargo is direct connect also and no issues. Fidelity and Merrill are Quicken Connect.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for confirming!

The issue you describe is currently a known issue with both Fidelity (CTP-13955) and Merrill Lynch (CTP-13847). Our teams are working with the proper channels to resolve these issues.

I apologize for any inconvenience, and appreciate your patience while our teams work to resolve these issues!

MauryJ

Thanks. How is resolution communicated? Just watch the community pages? Is there a bulletin board type forum where announcements could be made?

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your reply,

Typically, there is no announcement for issues that do not have a Community Alert associated with them. If they are fixed as part of a new release, you may see mention in the Release Notes. You can also ask for status updates on the Community and a moderator can check the ticket for you. CTP-13955 for the Fidelity issue and CTP-13847 for the Merrill Lynch issue.

I hope this helps!

mrzookie

@Quicken Kristina

"CTP-13955 for the Fidelity issue and CTP-13847 for the Merrill Lynch issue……"

…..should be treated as Community Alerts, pinned to the top of the message board and updated as new information becomes available. That way, we don't have to ask the Mods and/or each other for status updates.

MauryJ

I'd love to see them pinned as community alerts, but I have another question. Although I've been using Quicken for 30 years, I don't ever remember having a persistent bug that affects my particular workflow in Quicken. Typically, when they happen (to me) it's usually a connection issue which gets quickly resolved, but not a flaw across multiple financial institutions. Apologies for my ignorance, but here's my question:

What do I do in the meantime? I usually do a one step update every day following a business day. If I keep downloading, will my downloaded transactions just be fixed in my transaction register after the fact? I've been afraid to update since I spent all those hours fixing the misnamed share / share balance issue. Or should I just wait for the announcement it's been fixed and then start downloading again? And, when the issue is fixed, will it just be for new transactions going forward (from the day of the fix), or will it repair the ones in the queue that I haven't downloaded yet?

MauryJ

So - I did see the community alert in Merrill and it appears to be working normally! It is a small sample size so far, but I'm no longer worried about this for Merrill, which is a huge sigh of relief. It's only 2 - 3 transactions so far, but equity names are properly noted.

Thanks to all who posted in response to this. If bigger samples come back and anything changes I'll be back.

Quicken Kristina

Thank you for your replies,

I'm glad to hear it's no longer a concern for Merrill Lynch. Typically, when an issue is corrected, anything that hasn't downloaded yet should download correctly.

Depending on how long it takes to resolve the issue, sometimes downloading is prudent, to avoid having a gap in your register (many financial institutions provide only 90 days of history).

Thank you!