Can I move a security's history from one Quicken brokerage account to another?

Unknown
Unknown Member
edited January 2019 in Investing (Windows)
I am using 2012 Quicken for Windows.  I have one brokerage account in Quicken that goes back almost 20 years.  I would like to create a new account in the same Quicken file and put into it only those securities I still own and their history.  I can find no way to do this except manually re-entering all the necessary transactions.  Is there an easier way to do this?
Any guidance would be appreciated.

Comments

  • volvogirl
    volvogirl SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2019
    Can you do a remove shares and then add shares into the new account?

    I'm staying on Quicken 2013 Premier for Windows.

  • splasher
    splasher SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2019
    There is also the "Shares transferred between accounts" transaction which will do what you want.  You will need to enter one transaction for each active security.  You do not lose any of the cost basis or purchase date information for each lot this way.

    WARNING: Make a backup before starting in case you don't like the results, you will have a backup to return to.

    -splasher using Q continuously since 1996
    - Subscription Quicken - Win11 and QW2013 - Win11
    -Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list

  • Tom Young
    Tom Young SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2019
    To expand on splasher's comment...

    With Quicken's "shares transferred between accounts" action, in the new Account you end up with all the same lots, with the same holding periods and same bases, as you had in the old Account.  But the history of "how you got there", i.e., the buys, the sells, the partial sales of lots, stock splits and everything else about the history of the transferred lots, remains in the old Account. 

    Unless you are actually transferring shares in the real world between Broker A and Broker B about the only advantage to using the "shares transferred between accounts" action is that the transaction list in the new Account will be a lot shorter, but anytime you want the details you'll have to go back over to the old Account. 

    I have Accounts in Quicken that go back over 20 years and I don't have any particular issue dealing with the Accounts because I have a pretty clean record of transactions.  And, in fact, in a couple of situations where I have actually moved securities from one broker to another my preferred method of dealing with this is to just rename the Account, make a note in the "Comments" box of the Account concerning the change, and hood up the renamed Account to the new broker.
  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2019
    New with Quicken 2018/19: Archive Transactions

    You can create a separate Archive account within your current data file to move all security transactions where you no longer hold any shares away from your active investment account.


  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    edited January 2019
    I want to thank all the responders.  The information about the "Shares transferred between accounts" is just what I needed and it solved my problem.  Thanks again.
  • UKR
    UKR SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2019

    I want to thank all the responders.  The information about the "Shares transferred between accounts" is just what I needed and it solved my problem.  Thanks again.

    I'm glad to hear that the Shares transferred process worked for you. Thanks for reporting back.

    When I last did that several years ago, the process did a lot of screen flickering and making "cha-ching" noises for each new transaction it created. For a moment I thought Quicken had gone berserk on me, but then it settled down and completed the task successfully. Whew!

    By the way, have you created a new backup of your Quicken data file yet?
    One can never have enough file backups ...
  • mjk
    mjk Member ✭✭
    Just saw this and wanted to comment on how I handle this using Quicken Premiere 2019 R21.16 for Windows:

    -TRANSFERRING SECURITIES AND THEIR HISTORY FROM ONE ACCOUNT TO ANOTHER:
    --If you moved a security from one brokerage account to another and did a Quicken account update, typically the transaction will appear as shares
    "Removed" from the original account and "Added" to the new account. The problem is that Quicken won't be able to properly display performance and gains because it can't relate the history between the two accounts. If you sell the security in the new account, Quicken will assume the basis is zero and
    vastly overstate the gain. Returns of capital will not be taken into consideration for the adjusted basis, and dividends won't be reflected in ROI and
    Return calculations in the "Investing" window or in reports.
    --Best way is to use "Move Transactions" function:
    --Of course, first make sure you have a backup copy of your data file!
    ---Go to original investing account register (not related cash account)
    ---Left click on "Security" column so transactions will be grouped by security for clarity
    ---Right click on any transaction, select "Move Transaction(s)"
    ---Make sure "Select all transactions for the same security as a group" is checked on lower left of "Move Transactions" window.
    ---Select correct "Move to account" on lower right.
    ---Find any transaction for desired security and check it in the "Select" column. All transactions for that security will be selected automatically.
    ---Click "Move" button, then "Done". Wait for "Validating File" progress bar to complete.
    ---Inspect register to make sure all desired security transactions are gone.
    ---Go to target investment account register.
    ---Left click on "Security" column to group transactions together for each security.
    ---Scroll to moved security transactions to confirm they were moved properly.
    ---Void any "Added" or "Removed" transactions if shares were originally moved there and then downloaded from brokerage account into Quicken.
  • q_lurker
    q_lurker SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    @mjk:  "--Best way is to use "Move Transactions" function: ... "

    I disagree.  IMO, the best way is to use the Shares transferred between Accounts macro-transaction as previously documented in this discussion.  Simpler and more historically accurate.
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