Adjust holding amounts creates duplicate placeholders

This is for Quicken 2006 Deluxe.

I had a rollover from my previous employers 401k (with Vanguard) into my currently employers 401k (also Vanguard). I went to download my latest information online and after accepting the downloaded transactions I was told that my holding amounts do not match the ones downloaded and do I want to enter placeholders.

In looking at the placeholder transactions that it wants to add there is something very odd.

Each security that needs the placeholder is listed twice and the shares are inverses of each other.

example:

Fund1: Total Shares Owned: 0 Shares in Quicken: 3513.337 Placeholder entry (missing shares): -3513.337

Fund1: Total Shares Owned: 3513.337 Shares in Quicken: 0 Placeholder entry (missing shares): 3513.337

Fund2: Total Shares Owned: 0 Shares in Quicken: 213.721 Placeholder entry (missing shares): -213.721

Fund2: Total Shares Owned: 240.035 Shares in Quicken: 26.31342 Placeholder entry (missing shares): 213.72157 (this one might be different since it does show shares owned and in Quicken)

I accepted the placeholders and then tried to enter missing transactions or delete ones that seem to be applied incorrectly but I cannot get it settled.

I know that in the past that I have manually entered transaction and have also used web connect to accept or match other transactions.

It seems that some transactions are allocated with one instance of the security and some with another instance of the same type (I could be off here).

Any idea on how to fix this?

I have a guess; I made the same guess several times in the past.

The OFX specs allow for seven "sources" of contributions in a

401k account: "Pretax", "After tax", "Employer match", "Rollover", "Profit sharing", "Other vested", "Other non-vested". Same seven sources for "Earnings" and "Withdrawals".

My guess is that the placeholders whose share amounts offset each other are intended to switch "sources"; where Quicken may show your holdings as coming from "Other non-vested", and your fi may download holdings coming from "Rollover".

My theory has been difficult for me to prove because I have not been able to get Quicken to consistently show the value it has for "Source" (I think that is the name Quicken uses); because most of the time I can't find the button - that I know I have seen before - on the investment account transactions that allows one to see the source for a transaction.

When the subject first came up - probably well over a year ago - I was able to see some 401k transactions that had the "source" button and I even printed out a copy of Quicken's names for the seven sources. But I have rarely ever been able to see that button again, and since I do not have a problem in this area, I have not spent much more time researching it. [In addition to seeing the source "button", I am almost certain that one of Quicken's displays (probably on the "Summary" tab of the account) would show the amounts for each source ... but I have not been able to reproduce that either.]

You may be able to verify some, or all, of my suspicion if you are up to looking at your OFXlog. If it doesn't seem intuitive, you can get the OFX speces for free from the organization's web site.

If my theory is correct, I don't think *you* can "fix" it. If Quicken is carrying your 401k contributions as one source, and your fi is reporting them as another; I can think of only two possible fixes: Quicken allows you to easily control the correct source for 401k activity, or eliminates any trace of the source and does not look at source for downloaded holdings ... or the fi reports the holdings the same as Quicken.

In the meantime, I do not think you must accept the placeholders. If they were to permanently synchronize things, it might be worth keeping them. But if, for example, Quicken automatically dumps all its 401k activity (say, employee paycheck contributions, for example) into the "Other vested" source, while your fi "correctly" classifies the sources (as pretax contributions, for example), you will always be out of sync with the fi and will always be offered placeholders.