start new with Quicken but wan to keep old transactions

Make your backup.

Then do a Quicken Copy (File > File Operations Copy). Tell Quicken you want data from 7/21/2009 thru 7/21/2009 (any future date would do), and uncheck the boxes to "Include all prior Uncleared Transactions" and "Include all Prior Investment Transactions".

Following the Copy, you should have only "opening balance" records in your account registers. You could delete all those using the Banking Transaction report, if you didn't want them. Or change their dates and amounts as desired.

John, I think that will do it. Thank you. By the way, what do you think about keeping the uncleared transactions tic so when I get my statements I'll still be able to reconcile my brokerage and bank accounts. Your opinion? Thanks again. It's much appreciated. Floyd

Sure, keep the unreconciled transactions. If it was me, I wouldn't delete anything; I just tried to suggest how to get what I thought you wanted.

You may also want to consider what it will mean to delete all the investment account transactions. Quicken won't create any "balance" records for your holdings, so you'll have to figure out how to approach that. You could use "Adjust Share Balance" ("placeholder") transactions for your holdings as of the start date of the new file ... one per security. But if you do nothing else but that, you still won't be able to select specific lots of securities to sell; and you'll need to tell Quicken at least what you think the average cost per share is if you want ongoing info like gains/losses (which will be an estimate if you plug the average cost per share).

You can try various scenerios until you come up with what you want. Just make backups before you try something new.

To the OP - as Johm P notes, the Copy operation will raise havoc with investment accounts. All history of current holdings is lost, as well as any cash balance info for each account.

There is a work-around for this. I had posted it in the now-defunct Quicken Users Forum and will try and reconstruct from memory.

Pick your cut-off date - say 01/01/09 for this example. Make a note of your ending cash balance for each investment account as of the day before cut-off; e.g., 12/31/08. For each security held as of the cut-off date, enter a Corporate Acqusition transaction where each security acquires itself; e.g., MSFT acquires MSFT @ 1:1 sh/sh, INTU acquires INTU @ 1:1 sh/sh, etc. Date the transaction your cut-off date; e.g., 01/01/09. Repeat for each security held as of the cut-off date. This step inserts a Shares Removed for each security and Shares Added for each lot of each security. The Shares Added transactions carry the original acquisition dates and cost basis.

Now do the Copy operation as John P describes earlier.

Open the new file copy. Insert Opening Balance transactions for each investment account - from your notes above and dated 01/01/09 for this example. Delete each of the Shares Removed transactions dated at cut-off - again, 01/01/09 for this example.

You should now have investment accounts showing the correct holdings and cash balance(s). You also have preserved the original acquistion dates and cost basis.

fldb22 wrote in news:f0ffeefc-8e6f-4683-b65c- snipped-for-privacy@h31g2000yqd.googlegroups.com:

I have seen the 4 responses so far, and just want to suggest something. Depending on your machines speed and condition, the data might not be the main problem. Defragging the machine and cleaning off things that you don't need or want might help. Especially cleaning your registry. But be careful with that.

Secondly, you might want to simply copy all your data to a new file, when all those data will freshly be written to disk, and the editing that you have done removed (compacted). What wold you lose by trying? You can always go and do what you initially proposed (with the help provided).

You guys are all great. Thanks for the advice, now I just have to get to work, and yes John as you suggested I do, and will continue to backup with this much important data accumulated. I just wish Quicken was more intuitive and the help screens would be of some value. Before I used Quicken I used ( for people old enough to remember) Andrew Tobias's "Managing your money" which I always loved using. When that was discontinued I had no choice but to switch. With every new version I keep hoping it will be a little less arcane, but so far have been disappointed. It's terrible in the way it handles investments in bonds within brokerage accounts, and I won't even get started on "placeholders". Still haven't completly sure how to handle them. Oh well, thanks again. Floyd

Fascinating approach. Thanks

Floyd, what's the problem you experience with bonds in brokerage accounts? I may have the problem but am not aware of it! What am I missing?

BTW - I also am an old MYM user. Still have an old MYM file of investment records that I have to refer to once in a great while because it has older, and sometimes more accurate, records than Quicken. But basically I like Quicken, with all its rough edges. Placeholders? Oh lord, protect me from them. I try to avoid them at all costs.

jo