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Enable "Register Columns" configuration in settings for Investment registers

Ted P

The settings for the Investment registers don't have a Register Columns action.

Among other things, this means that you can't for example select to display the Memo field as a column in the register.

I use the Memo field pretty extensively and it's annoying to not be able to see it.

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Status: Reviewed

Comments

UKR

Are you using the investment registers' One-Line-per-transaction mode?

If so, try to switch to Two-Lines-per-transaction mode (Edit / Preferences / Investments)
The Memo field will automatically display in the 2nd line, below the Security Name.

If you are regularly entering banking-type register transactions, e.g., checks, deposits, cash withdrawals, and you are working with a taxable brokerage account (not a retirement account, IRA, etc.), activating and using a linked cash / checking account register might be advisable.

Ted P

thanks for both.

I don't love two-line view - i find it very cluttered.

and I use linked accounts for the money market accounts - but i like to keep memos on other things (e.g. '2025 solo 401k contribution').

jdparker225

Using Windows Classic Premier Version R67.7 Build 27.1.67.7

Why can't you control what columns are displayed for investment account transactions?

It seems odd that you can control what columns are displayed for banking transactions via Gear box→Register columns. But there is no such option for investment accounts. Why is that?

In particular I want to display the Downloaded Id (aka FITID). I may also want to display Memo.

Thanks

Jim

[Edited-Included Original Question]

NotACPA

Good questions. I've asked the Mods to convert this to an Idea post so that other users can vote on it.

If it gets sufficient votes, about 50, the developers will take it into consideration.

And, as we're other users … no one here can answer your "why" question.

Quicken Alyssa

@jdparker225 & @NotACPA,

Thank you for posing this question and requesting it be converted.

I have converted this to an idea post that others, including yourselves, can now vote on. Click the arrow in the box to add your vote!

Thanks again!

Quicken Alyssa

Hello All,

After further review, we had an existing idea for this topic. I have merged the two ideas.

Please add your votes if you have not done so already.

Thanks again!

Ted P

What is the link to the new / merged topic?

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20552288#Comment_20552288

The core reason is because the investment registers aren't even close to the same kinds of controls. If you look you will find to this day, they still call them "investment lists", not "registers". They literally started as lists of the transactions, not as a register like the non-investment accounts.

That isn't to say that they can't change some things like add the ability to display the FITID, but the investment and non-investment registers will never have the same functionality.

Here is just some of the differences, there are many more.

The underline controls are different.
They display completely different information.
The non-investment accounts have individual settings for the columns for each account. The investment registers have one setting for all.

One thing you might answer because it would affect the implementation is if you turned on the FITID would it be OK that is gets turned on for all investment registers? Having individual settings for each register and therefore a menu selection like in non-investment accounts would require building out a completely new way of setting/storing/implementing such a system.

jdparker225

@Quicken Alyssa echoing @Ted P question. Where’s the link to new idea? I do want to vote for it.

Thanks

Jim

Quicken Alyssa

@Ted P,

Thank you for asking.

It is merged into your idea. So there is no link to the new one, as I have merged it with yours. @jdparker225's comment was the idea I merged in.

Hope that helps!

Ted P

Ok - it appears that I have successfully upvoted!

NotACPA

@Ted P @jdparker225

This IS the combined thread.

Quicken Alyssa

@Ted P,

Yes, I can confirm your vote is there!

Thank you!

jdparker225

@Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20552295#Comment_20552295

Some people may still call it "investment list" but when you click on the gear box in an investment whatever you call it, there are options for "Register row height spacing" and "Register preferences".

Regardless, I see no reason other than a difficult implementation, why users should not be able to control what colums are displayed in the investment thingy like they can with banking transaction registers. I would prefer that choices made would only apply to the account where the action was performed but I could live with it applying to all accounts.

My expertise is not in finance but I do have over 50 years experience in software engineering. There is a process called refactoring which is described by Google's AI as:

Code refactoring is the disciplined process of restructuring existing computer code—changing the internal structure—without altering its external behavior. It improves non-functional attributes like readability, maintainability, and complexity while removing "code smells" (e.g., long methods, duplicate code) to make software easier to understand and cheaper to maintain.

Maintaining code means more than fixing errors, it includes making enhancements. If making enhancements becomes prohitibively expensive because of the code's existing structure, it may be time to refactor the code. In my experience, it saves money in the long run and makes the product more reliable, and probably faster and smaller as well.

Thanks

Jim

jdparker225

@Quicken Alyssa Can you confirm that my vote is there. I'm a rookie at voting so I am not 100% sure that I did it right. I think I did.

Thanks

Jim

NotACPA

@jdparker225 simply click on the vote again. IF you've already voted, the number will decrease and you can click again to re-vote.

Otherwise, the number will increase indicated you hadn't previously registered a vote.

QED

jdparker225

@NotACPA When I did vote, the number shortly thereafter increased by 1. So I am gueswsing that it was my vote that was added. But other than that, there was no popup or other response explicitly saying that I had voted.

It seems like you can either vote or not vote. You can't vote against. I think a better design would be

Click on the vote
Get a dialog to vote for or against
Make your selection and submit.

Or, if you don't want to allow voting against:

Click on the vote
Get a dialog
Click submit to vote.

Either way, it is clearer that you did vote.

Thanks

Jim

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20552319#Comment_20552319

Sounds like you and I have about the same amount time in software engineering.

This isn't really about what is "possible", it is about what is the likelihood that they will implement the change based on the existing code and given the resources they have.

I base my statements both on what I have seen using Spy and on what I have seen the Quicken developers do in the past. Spy shows a jumbled mess of controls in the investment accounts, not something that people really want to mess with. This tracks with the history of the code development, and why I mentioned its origins. One might like to ignore the 40+ years of development piled on, but that isn't the way it really works.

And the development in the investment accounts have shown this. For instance, when they finally got around to implementing "edit/move transactions" they didn't do what most people would think and use multiple select in the register. Instead, they popup a completely new window and do the multiple select there. Clearly the developers were avoiding the fact that even though the investment register looks like a nice list, it is far from that.

And then there is the gain vs reward. This idea has a total of 4 votes. For Quicken Windows US they don't even send the request to the developers for ideas with less than 50 votes. And even after that they are going to consider how much work it is. Clearly right now they are only savings the setting for the columns in global settings. Refactoring to have it as individual accounts, is just one more complications that might put it farther down the todo list.

Given that the same development group hasn't gotten around to changing the RMD date for the Lifetime Planner, …

jdparker225

@Chris_QPW Reality bytes😀

There are now 7 votes.

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20552358#Comment_20552358

😀One of them is mine. These days I only download one 401K and run it in simple mode, but there have definitely been times in the past where being able to see the FITID would have been helpful.

jdparker225

@Chris_QPW Thank you for your vote.

jdparker225

I would like to add what I think is a compelling reason for adopting this idea: Lately there has been a spate of duplicate transactions in investment accounts, particulary dividends. I think that being able to see the download ID for investment transactions would help in diagnosing this kind of problem.

I had a case of that in one of my Merrill Lynch accounts recently but didn't notice it for a couple of weeks. By that time the SyncLog no longer had those transactions so you couldn't dig through it to find the download ID for those transactions in the json data in that log.

I also think there are other types of transaction errors that could be diagnosed more easily if download ID were available in the investmanet transaction register. If you notice it in time, using the the download ID, you can search the SyncLog for problematic transactions more easily. You could also provide that information in a problem report and that might make it easier for Quicken analyzers to debug the problem.

Thanks

Jim