Downloading 401k transactions as BoughtX/Sold X

I'm not sure this is a Quicken issue vs. the FI. But I could be wrong. I have a 457b that's Fidelity that I need to manually import a .QFX for and it also does it "wrong" (not the regular purchases, but rather it's a dividend reinvestment that the FI lists as two separate transactions). Same with my Charles Schwab accounts. However, it doesn't seem to do with my Alight account. Thus, my reasoning that this isn't a Quicken issue, but rather the FI reporting things as such?

@Jim_Harman The "transfer" account is the same 401k account. When I change the transaction from Bought to BoughtX, I also have to tell Quicken that the transfer account is the same 401-k account. In reality, the cash is a transfer from my paycheck into the 401-k account. I do have paychecks fully setup in Quicken, except that I did not have my 401-k contribution transferred from my paycheck to the 401-k Fidelity account.

I suppose that I could change my paycheck setup so that it DOES transfer the cash into the Fidelity 401-k account, and then the Bought transaction should actually work properly. I guess I could do that, but I'm still frustrated that this has changed.

My understanding of the issue the OP is describing is different from my issue. In my case, the 401k WithdrawlX was treated as a Taxable event by Quicken but the SoldX was not.

At Fidelity when you setup a withdrawal, sold or deposit, bought from/to a 401k you can specify the account where the proceeds go to (Taxes are withheld by Fidelity) or come from. But I don't think the transaction received by Quicken from Fidelity can include the account information where the funds go to or come from. So I can't see how the Downloaded transaction Action can be ever be classified as a SoldX/BoughtX. You should always need to add the Category [Account] to the transaction.

This must be changed in the accepted transaction. Or this can be specified in a Bill and Income Reminder in Quicken to automate it. Then the Reminder will create a SoldX/BoughtX transaction that will Match to downloaded transaction.

What Fidelity seems to have changed is the way it reports the shares of the MMF FDRXX funds to Quicken. Now if I don't create a Bought/Sold of the FDRXX funds, Quicken will report a Share discrepancy.

I hear you.

I can't see any explanation of how Quicken would have enough data it needs in the downloaded transaction to create any "..X" transactions in an investment account. I believe that those "…X" transactions can only be created if the From: or To: field is filled in with the name of a Quicken account so the transaction in Quicken has a source AND target account specified. If this is not the case, I would be glad to know that.

I don't have an answer as to why the OP's "…X" used to work but don't now. Maybe they were being created but did they have the data in the 'From:' field? Maybe Fidelity was transmitting a reference to an external account, but it wouldn't know what Quicken account to post it to. Quicken would have to supply that info somehow.

Here is what a BoughtX and SoldX look like in my file when I create them manually. Note the From: field in the Bought and To: field in the Sold transaction. And the transaction as they appear in the Investment account in Quicken:

If the "From/To this account's cash balance" is set, then the transaction is a Sold or Bought transaction.

So the OPs transactions must have those From:/To: fields filled in to create the "..X" transactions. I suggest comparing, and posting, the past transactions when it was 'working' with recent transactions when it wasn't.

I have had cases where Quicken would 'Find' the matching transaction in the other account and ask if I that was the transaction I was pointing to. But, still the From:/To: field must be filled in.

Hello @carlyn.irwin, Back to your issue….

Please explain more details about this statement:

This works because we don't track contributions/matching from our paychecks.

In my experience, the "…X" transactions designate that funds were transferred into or out of the Quicken Investment account. That would correspond with the funds going to another account at a FI.

Fidelity seems to have changed the way it handles the Cash portion of the Investment account. As far as I can tell, Fidelity has always kept the Cash funds in a MMF called FDRXX: FIDELITY CASH RESERVES, in the transactions downloaded to Quicken, the funds were coming from or going to the Cash Balance of the account. But strangely, the Reinvested Dividends download to Quicken were credited to FDRXX. Now, for me, whenever I buy or sell securities, (or execute Withdrawals) the downloaded data from Fidelity causes a Share Balance discrepancy error to pop-up for the FDRXX fund. I must manually enter a Sold or Bought transaction to the FDRXX security to balance the shares.

This tells me that Fidelity is now reporting to Quicken the Share Balance of the FDRXX security. Fidelity does not download a Buy/Sell transaction for the FDRXX security. And you don't see them in the Investment Report from Fidelity.

This might be what you are seeing. Let me know if this makes sense. There may be nothing you can do except manually enter the appropriate transaction for the FDRXX security. I've fought with Quicken and Fidelity about this but they are pointing fingers at each other.

This article may be informative:

Also, goto the Community Homepage and select the Alerts, Online Banking & Known Product Issues then search for Fidelity.

I mentioned above that I changed my paycheck in Quicken so that my 401-k contribution actually gets transferred into the Fidelity 401-k account, meaning that "Bought" will be the correct transaction, not "BoughtX."

I just had a paycheck, followed by the Fidelity "bought" transactions coming through. It semi-worked. What I failed to think about was the company match funds that also need to be deposited into the 401-k account. I'm not really sure how to do a company match from my paycheck. Given that I plan to be retired in <2 years, I can't really be bothered to figure it out (I'm sure there's a method), so the path of least resistance for me is to just go back to how I had it before. That means I just need to change all the transactions manually from Bought to BoughtX.