When I link my MMA, Quicken only offers brokerage type accounts and not checking or savings types. Is there a way I can get Quicken to treat this only as a checking account?
Hello @sitkinj,
At this time, there is not a way to manually change the account type classification in Quicken once the account is connected.
The account type that Quicken assigns (such as brokerage, checking, savings, etc.) is based on the information being sent by the financial institution through the connection servers. If the financial institution is transmitting the money market account as a brokerage-type account, Quicken will reflect it that way.
We understand this may not be the behavior you were hoping for, especially if you primarily use the account like a checking account. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Thank you!
And if it is being presented as an investment account (which it technically is-likely x shares with a $1.00/share value), you can still use it like a checking account.
Choose which columns you wish to display (such as check #), Category, etc. to make the register more useful for checking activities. You can print checks from it as well (If you print checks). You can reconcile.
The only difference is that each transaction will have to be of the type: Payment/Deposit.
How your financial institution presents data will also dictate how verbose the transx getting downloaded are. You may or may not see the behind the scenes Buys/Sells of the MMF as you use it. Likely not-but some do.
Anja,
Thanks for the quick reply. Can I then manually add it as a checking account and then periodically import the transactions into the account? And, if that's possible, in what formats does the imported data need to be?
Regards,
BTW, Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, etc are INVESTMENT firms, not banks. Thus, LEGALLY, they can't offer true checking accounts.
They can have subsidiaries that are banks offering checking account, OR they can offer money market funds that ACT like checking accounts, but there are technical legal differences between an MMF and a checking account.
There may be other options that I'm not thinking of at the moment, but no investment firm can, itself, offer a checking account.
You can manually create the account for 100% manual entry only.
You would not be able to "import" the transactions (even if your financial institution provides downloads) because there would be an account type mismatch (Checking≠Investment) so you couldn't link the download.
So, your two options are 100% manual entry which, while workable, is more work for you.
The other option (as I noted) is to simply configure the columns needed to make this investment account have checking account features you are familiar with. That works well for most people as there is no loss in functionality. The only drawback is that this account will show up under investments (which, again, it is.) Quicken likes to mirror how things are in the real world, and this is not a checking account.
Interestingly, I have found out from Ameriprise that the "cash/deposit" aspect of the money market account is handled by Wells Fargo on their behalf and performs as a checking account though it is obscured by Ameriprise (you cannot access the checking directly via Wells Fargo). Now I have received this email explanation from Ameriprise which I'll paste here for everyone's benefit. I also opened a ticket with the Quicken Office of the President and received a phone call from Pablo who was very helpful and also informed me that they are away of this vagary between the Windows and Mac versions and have a fix planned for "sometime" in the future. Here is part of the email from Ameriprise:
RE: Ameriprise ONE acct and Quicken Classic for Mac
My partners in technology and the secure site provided a deep dive on this and have come up with the following analysis. I understand how important it is for your client to have cash and investment activity separated into distinct ledgers, similar to a checking account. Unfortunately, this specific setup isn’t fully supported in Quicken for Mac due to how the platform is designed.
Quicken for Mac combines cash and investment activity within a single brokerage account and does not offer a linked “checking-style” cash account like the Windows version does. Because of this design limitation, there isn’t a way to fully separate those transactions into distinct ledgers on the Mac platform.
It’s also important to note that this behavior isn’t driven by how Ameriprise classifies the account. Even if the account type were changed on our end, Quicken for Mac would still handle the data the same way.
There are a few possible workarounds—such as using Payment/Deposit transactions or maintaining a manual cash account—but these approaches require additional effort and may not fully replicate the desired experience.
Why Quicken may be pointing to Ameriprise In situations like this, Quicken support often looks to the financial institution when the issue appears related to:
From their perspective, if the account is received as a brokerage account, it can seem like the classification is something we control.
Why that can be misleading here Even if the account classification were adjusted, Quicken for Mac still wouldn’t separate cash into a checking-style ledger. This is simply a limitation of the Mac product. The Windows version includes a feature that allows for this type of separation, but that functionality isn’t available on Mac.
Bottom line While Quicken may be framing this as a data or source issue, this is ultimately a product limitation within Quicken for Mac. It’s not something that can be resolved through changes on the Ameriprise side.
John,
Very helpful. Thank you so much.
