Q2009 QFX 401(k) Import Issues

You should not have needed to do that.

When Quicken sees a security name in a download that it does not recognize, it should ask you if it is a new security, or one you already have in your Security List. If you choose a name already in your Security List, Quicken should link the two names (keeping your original name) from that point on.

For future reference: if you decide to make such a decision in the future, it would be a good idea to backup before you do the delete.

Quicken remembers which transactions have been downloaded before (even if you never Accepted them into Quicken). If if didn't, and you really never wanted to see a downloaded transaction again, it would still keep appearing in your downloads.

This is not normal, in my opinion. The deactivation of an account should (and usually does) wipe out Quicken's record of previously downloaded transactions for that account. Usually this results in every transaction available from the fi for that account being presented in the next download.

The simplest way would be to restore a backup from before you deleted your manually entered transactions.

If that's not possible, there is a somewhat clumsy possible workaround; how clumsy depends on how many transactions are involved.

The basic idea is to prevent Quicken from recognizing the downloaded transactions as having been downloaded before.

If the transactions are in the download (in your QFX file), but Quicken says there are no transactions available, that usually means that Quicken thinks all the downloaded transactions have been downloaded before.

The key that Quicken uses to identify downloaded transactions is the Financial Insitution Transaction Identifier ("FITID"). The financial institution is supposed to create a unique FITID for each transaction they provide to be downloaded. That FITID should never be the same as the FITID for any other transaction, for that same account, from that fi.

The trick is to modify the downloaded transactions for the specific account, so each has an FITID that Quicken has never seen for that account before. This can usually be done just by adding a character (any character) to the end of the existing FITID in the downloaded QFX file. [You can edit a QFX file in Notepad. You can use "Find" to locate the FITID's and modify them (they have an OFX tag of "" - no quotes). It might be a good idea to make a copy (backup) of the QFX file before you begin to modify it.]

"John Pollard" wrote in news:hi7jft$2o2$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

I do have a backup - I was waiting to load it, as I had a few transactions I posted to other accounts that I didn't want to re-enter if I didn't have to.

On the issue of linking names, how do I know if it accurate links them? The fund names are very similar - my manual transactions are "Index Fund" while the downloaded are "Index Fund-111111". Because Quicken inserted the placeholder transactions to zero out my manual funds and bring up the downloaded fund names, I'm guessing they didn't link. I was never given a prompt with the options you describe.

I understand - it's my desire to edit the list of remembered FITIDs by Quicken.

I did not delete the entire 401(k) account - only the accepted downloaded transactions, and the manual transactions for that time period.

Also, I deleted the connection between the account and the FI, and removed the FI from the Online Center (as it was not linked with any other account). But I didn't delete the entire account - I have more manual transactions than just the time period of the QFX file.

Thanks for your help.

As I understand your response, you are saying there is no manual way to edit Quicken's database of remembered downloaded transactions (FITIDs), even if that FI is removed from the Online Center(!?) - you can only edit the QFX file if you have it?

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No, that's not what I said. While there is no way to modify Quicken on a transaction-by-transaction basis; as I said (in this thread):

"The *deactivation* of an account should (and usually does) wipe out Quicken's record of previously downloaded transactions for that account. Usually this results in every transaction available from the fi for that account being presented in the next download."

You can see the same statement in the quoted text above ... well above my current response.

That statement doesn't refer to removing the account from the Online Center; it refers to deactivating it from downloading. Which you do by going to the Overview tab of the account, clicking the "Change Online Services" button, and clicking "Remove from One Step Update", or "Remove Connection". Something which I believed you had already done, when I posted my response.

Assuming you have truly deactivated your account for downloading; I have no idea why you are not seeing Quicken's "normal" behavior when you deactivate your account for downloading.

Sometimes strange anomolies indicate data corruption: the only answer I know for that is to Validate a Quicken Copy of your data - and if the Validated Copy doesn't exhibit the unwanted behavior; make the Validated Copy your regular Quicken data file(set).