Match with Online Security?

I would have assumed the same thing. I think the offer to match only occurs after you click "Accept".

Are you saying you can not uncheck the box for the security you downloaded? That is, do you have a security designated as "matched ..." and you can not uncheck the "matched ..." box?

Not sure I can provide any help, but will try a couple of observations ... deductions really, I can not find much info on Intuit's intentions regarding the handling of downloaded investment transactions.

First, I think only Quicken can designate a security as "matched with online security", and only you can undo that designation: hence the greyed out box for unmatched securities.

Second, I think the key to matching Quicken securities with downloaded securities is CUSIP; I have yet to find any downloaded investment data from any fi that does not specify the CUSIP as the id for the security.

Third, downloaded security transactions do not contain the ticker or the security name (ignore memo field); those may be found in the downloaded "holdings" which I think are supposed to be part of every download, but which are sometimes incomplete ... and maybe even missing. The only useful identifier in a downloaded investment transaction is the CUSIP (Other identifiers are allowed by the OFX spec, but do not seem to be used. Presumably a good thing as I think CUSIP is most likely to be unique).

I notice that CUSIP used to be a visible, user-enterable, Quicken field; now it is neither: personally, I would like to be able to see CUSIP visible again. Now you can not tell whether an existing security has a value for CUSIP, and if it does, what that value is. If you could see the Quicken CUSIP, you could check it against the downloaded transaction's CUSIP; that might give a clue to the problem.

I may just be lucky, but I have never had the problem you describe and I have downloaded transactions for securities that were in my Quicken data long before I started downloading.

You probably already do this, but I would make a backup of your Quicken data before you do the next download, so you can return to it if the downloaded security can not be correctly matched and some other "solution" can be identified.

And if you have a backup from before you manually added that security that did not get matched, you might try making a copy of that backup fileset (for a test), then doing another download without manually adding the security to see if Quicken will offer the option to "add" a new security or "match" an existing security. (I have never failed to get that dialog for a "new" security-a security never downloaded from that fi before).

That's what I expected to happen, but I received no offer to match securities. Quicken just created a new security (without prompting), causing the duplicate.

No, for securities that are already matched, I can uncheck the "matched..." box. At least I assume so, as it's not greyed out. (I haven't tried to uncheck the box, because I don't want to unmatch securities, and Quicken Help says that once unchecked, I have to wait for the next download to match them again.) Anyway, this check box is greyed out for the unmatched security, that is, the one that failed to get matched when I downloaded transactions. I'd hoped I could check the box and have Quicken prompt me to match my security to the new downloaded one. It was a long shot, and it didn't happen. Sigh....

Yes, this appears to be how it works.

A few months ago, I opened a Vanguard Roth IRA with one mutual fund. I created that security using my naming scheme, and that security was matched transparently when I downloaded my first transaction. That is, I don't recall doing anything, and Quicken was able to match the securities just fine.

Hopefully this incident with my Fidelity security was a fluke. But here's how I avoided the problem with today's download:

Yesterday, I went to the NetBenefits site to see how Fidelity named the mutual fund that I exchanged into (and that had not been matched). After backing up my data file, I then renamed my existing security so it corresponded with Fidelity's naming scheme. This morning I performed my download and accepted the new transactions. The security was transparently matched, as the names were the same. Then I edited the security in Quicken and renamed it according to my naming scheme. The security remains matched, and all seems fine. I don't expect to purchase shares in any other pre-existing, unmatched securities, so I may not encounter this again. That is, unless I change my mind sometime down the road. :-)

The really strange thing is that my naming scheme is not all that different from Fidelity's. The security names were close enough, that I would have expected Quicken to at least *ask* if the securities were the same. For example, my name for the security is "F-Contrafund," and Fidelity's is "FID CONTRAFUND."

BTW, Quicken Help (or user manual), can't remember which, mentions the ability to edit downloaded transactions before accepting them. There is no such option. All one can do is accept or delete individual transactions, or accept them all. Now it does talk about editing "closely matched" transactions, so perhaps Quicken allows editing if one has a manually entered transaction that closely but not exactly matches a downloaded transaction.

Another BTW, I gave up manually entering transactions, because it's just too cumbersome now: The day I make an exchange/purchase/etc in my 403b, I don't have the share price or number of shares, only a total dollar figure. When I fill out Quicken's transaction form, it won't grab the latest share price from the price history and calculate number of shares from total amount. (Quicken used to do this when entering investment transactions directly into the register.) So if I want to manually enter a transaction, I have to first gather the above info. It's a pain, but even if I do this, the transaction is based on the previous day's closing price, and won't be an exact match. It's not worth the effort to end up with an incorrect transaction, so I just wait till the next day and download the transactions. This way, I end up with correct info. But ... I apparently lose the ability to match securities, assuming an existing transaction is needed for matching to occur.

As a test to see if Quicken would calculate shares from the latest price and total amount when entering a transaction directly in the register, I just entered a "sold" transaction using just the share name and total amount. Nope. Quicken enters the total dollar figure and leaves shares and share price empty. (If I use the form, Quicken will not allow me to leave shares and share price blank.)

I do have these backups, so I may try your tests. I'm curious, just don't know if I'll get around to it or not. If I do, I will post my results.

Thanks for your thoughts, John.

Regards,

Margaret

It just occurred to me that when I opened that Vanguard Roth IRA, I was still using QP2005. So the last time I downloaded transactions that required security matching, it was using QP2005. This incident with the Fidelity security not being matched is the first time I've done any security matching while using QP2006. Still don't know if it's a fluke or something with v2006. Guess I should find the time to perform those tests you mentioned, John. :-)

Incidentally, I took the plunge and installed R3 last night. So far, so good.

Regards,

Margaret