My 401K download always seems to do placeholders and now I've found that the website seems screwed up so I've decided to go back to updating the 401K balance. I deleted all the transactions since I started the online updates but one of the security details still shows some placeholders that aren't in the transaction list and so it won't let me go back to start updating as of the last update I'd done before starting online downloads. I can't find any way to get those transactions out of the security detail transaction history. Anyone know how? Thanks!
How do you know you have placeholders if you can't see them?
What version of Quicken? In Q2006, you can have Quicken "Show hidden transactions" in investment accounts (Quicken Preferences). That will expose any placeholders and you can delete them.
Otherwise, create an Investment Transaction report for the account, "all dates"; look for transactions with an Action value of "Entry", those are your placeholders. Delete (or modify - say, change the security name to a dummy security: the idea is to make Quicken think your transaction history does not include the same number of shares as the placeholder is holding) one transaction for each security with a placeholder - choose a transaction with a date on or before the placeholder date. That will expose the placeholder transaction and you can delete it. The replace (or re-modify) the transaction you deleted (or changed).
Something's really screwed up with my Quicken 2006 files but the error is back in 2004 and I don't have any backups to go back to and probably wouldn't if I could because of all the data I'd lose . I can see the placeholders in the 'security detail' view but NOT in the 'transaction register'. These transactions lock in the previous 401K 'update' date such that I can't go back to earlier statements and do the 'updates'. I tried changing them to dummy securities but then I can't delete the dummy securities because there's a transaction in them. It suggests I create a report and change the report options to not quick zoom and I did that and see the transactions but when I double-click I end up in the register and they're not there to be deleted. I have turned on the show hidden but that doesn't help. And this new '401K' update (I'm using Quicken 2006 but I think it changed even in 2005) adds placeholders for every security each 3 month update period (in the older versions it just generated transactions with the price based on the value from the statement) so even not doing the online download I still get the placeholders. The way my files are now each time I enter the 'update' information I have to remove the placeholder for this particular security or I end up with a doubled amount. I guess I'm just stuck with a screwed up file. Validate and super-validate didn't help any.
I suggested looking in the Investment Transaction *report*.
Perhaps you misunderstood my suggestion.
I suggested picking a real transaction (not a placeholder) and temporarily modifying it so as to cause Quicken to make the normally hidden placeholder transaction appear in the Transaction List. Placeholders are normally invisible if your historical transactions correctly account for the number of shares in the placeholder; altering your history so the actual transactions do not add up to the shares in the placeholder, will cause the placeholder to be visible in the Transaction List (what used to be the "register). Once the placeholder transaction appears (which will still contain the name of the original security ... not the dummy security), you can delete it. Then you can undo what you did to make the placeholder re-appear.
I do not understand this. If you have "show hidden transactions" turned on, you do not need to make any modifications to your investment account "register" to "see" placeholders. The purpose of "Show hidden transactions" is to make transactions like placeholders visible in your investment Transaction List. And if you can "see" placeholders, you can delete them.
I think Q2005 and Q2006 are pretty much the same when it comes to creating and handling placeholders.
The 401k update wizard uses placeholders, that is the way it is designed to work. My personal opinion is that if you have enough information available, you should avoid placeholders. Even if you do not have the detailed transactions from your 401k administrator, but only get the ending share balance, you can avoid placeholders. Just create one or more invented transactions to increase your share balance to the correct number of shares ... a Shares Added transaction would do the trick. (DO NOT use an "Adjust Share Balance" transaction - that IS a placeholder).
Yes, I can see these placeholders in the 'report' but not in the transaction list. So I can't delete them.
I tried this but even deleting a normal transaction doesn't make the placeholders show in the transaction list. In the report there's a 'show me' for the missing data used in the calculation but clicking on that just gets to an empty 'Resolve Placeholders Entries' screen.
The last transaction for this security was in 2001 but on 9/24/2005 I turned on downloading the transactions online. At that point for some reason it put in a set of placeholders for that security that netted out to a zero change
Seems like the 401K update wizard has gotten to be essentially worthless .
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