stock name change

The simplest way when you have just a few transactions is to just Edit the transactions for one security to use the name of the other security.

John -- I tried that now and before I first posted. I get a message saying security exists and to use another name. Can't get past that.. However it also says "if you are trying to enter a transaction for this security, try record transaction from a investment account." Sorry but I do not understand what it wants me to do. Mel

I can't imagine how you could get that message if you Edit a transaction and change the "Security name" to another security name. We're talking about the name found in transactions in the "Transactions" tab of the investment account.

The message you mention is what you get if you try to enter a Corporate Name Change transaction to a security name that already exists, or a Corporate Spinoff transaction to a security name that already exists.

But there should be no such message if you Edit a Buy transaction (for example) and select (or key) Fund B (in the "Security name" field) where the transaction originally was for Fund A.

I see now what you meant and what I was doing differently. In my transactions list I have data going back to 1995, over 200 entries. I can also see that trying to separate these would be a major job and I cannot imagine a automated process. I will live with the way it is currently set up. Thank you for your help. Mel

If you sort the account register by security name, all transactions for that security will be grouped. I'd think it would take 15 minutes to change them all. It would be tedious, but not difficult. I've done worse.

Backup before you start.

-- Jim

From your first post, I inferred that you only had a few transactions; my suggestion was significantly predicated on that. While I think it is still the cleanest approach, there is another way.

Try entering a "Corporate Acquisition" transaction: have Fund A "acquire" Fund B ... 1 new share issued per each held share.

Backup first.

John - - Jim Thank you both for help. The approach of corporate Acquisition worked 100% as best as I can tell. Had that not worked I would have tried Jim's idea which required a bit more effort on my part. Sorry to have mislead you at first on number of transactions but I was looking at "lots" not "transactions". Mel

John,

I too had the problem where the name of the security changed this year. I tried the Corporate Acquisition transaction and was surprised to see that it worked by removing the original shares in one lot and added each individual lot back with a separate Add transaction. While this gave me the correct number of shares in the end, it ended up resetting my cost basis. I think I see why going back and changing each transaction's security name individually is the more elegant (and accurate) solution. I do have three questions:

1) Is there a way to bulk change the security names in Quicken or is this one of those things that must be done one at a time 2) Will the fact that the new security name & ticker symbol didn't exist until recently (and no historic prices) cause an issue if I change the name on historic transactions?

tried the Corporate Acquisition transaction and was surprised to see that it worked by removing the original shares in one lot and added each individual lot back with a separate Add transaction. While this gave me the correct number of shares in the end, it ended up resetting my cost basis. I think I see why going back and changing each transaction's security name individually is the more elegant (and accurate) solution. I do have three questions:

of those things that must be done one at a time

recently (and no historic prices) cause an issue if I change the name on historic transactions?

You did not look closely enough at the new transaction. While the transaction date may be the same as the shares out date, each new lot has a 'Date acquired' of the original purchase. At least with my version (2011), the cost basis was not reset. Why did you nit use Corporate Name Change.

John B

John, You are correct - I didn't notice that the Corporate Name Change function does indeed set the correct "Date Acquired" to match the original lot's purchase date. So it does result in the correct cost basis. Thanks for pointing that out.

Regards, Mike