retrieve/reconcile after FM update/upgrade

[JeanneMarie]

I have to report that upgrading to FM 2024 has been a very trying experience.

First I retrieved transactions and FM seems to have grabbed everything from some time in 1970. Perhaps I should have been more patient, but I panicked in the import-preview window and cancelled the update. After trying to retrieve again and reconcile, I gave up and restored the file from backup and started over. But seriously, if after an update/upgrade, FM can't remember when I last retrieved transactions, a heads-up would be welcome. Yes, I now see where the dates are indicated in the RETRIEVE dialog. But after you've done this dozens and dozens of times over more than year... well, I doubt I'm the only person who failed to stop and notice those dates. And one is promised that FM will remember one's data and settings and so on after an update.

When I started up again and retrieved just one day's transactions, I still had trouble reconciling. Specifically, I had about a half dozen instances like the one illustrated in the attachment. I could click on the first line and see all the history in the position. But clicking on the second, I learned I had no such investment and would I like to create one? Well, no thanks.

Happily, I remembered that Quicken really relies on cusips rather than trading symbols and that cusips can change when one isn't paying attention. Cusips are not always easy to find, but with some effort, I updated them and the duplicate securities disappeared, or more precisely perhaps, they merged into the existing positions. But how can it be that FM could correctly identify a security on Monday and could not do so 24 hours later? All those cusips (about a half-dozen) cannot have changed overnight, I think. I would welcome a heads-up the first time a cusip doesn't match, rather than FM's "carrying" accumulated errors until I update/upgrade and they all hit me at once. A giant nuisance.

My 2¢

[Mark]

Hi JeanneMarie,

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. I understand that is frustrating. This should not be the case. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but in general the guidance is that when upgrading you do not want to uninstall the old version first. This way, all your preferences are retained. Upgrading also should have no impact on any of your recorded data (like CUSIP), so I'm not sure what happened. If you still have issues, please let me know.

[JeanneMarie]

Just FYI, I did read the instructions and did not uninstall. Just closed the program and installed the new version.

All's seems to be in order now. Each account reconciles and nothing looks off.

[Mark]

Hi JeanneMarie,

I think I found the reason for needing to update the CUSIPs in order to reconcile in FM 2024. It sounds like you've already resolved this for yourself, but if you're interested to know the reason, please read this.

[JeanneMarie]

Thanks for the update, Mark. And yes, I always want to understand more.

I won't be surprised to learn that the users of your professional and advisor versions have better data than I do. But nobody at the broker goes out of his way to update me on a changed cusip once a position is established. I mean cusip isn't even a datum available on their web sites as far as I can tell. I had to go to the issuers and, of course, every one of those sites is different.

I wish I'd thought of proceeding with creating a new investment, but at that moment I wouldn't have known what I was looking for. I only began to surmise cusip later. So even tho I found the problem and solved it, I now have another arrow in my quiver for the future. And for that I thank you.

I suspect that some of these changed a very long time ago. So I'd still say that when FM discovers any discrepancy, an error message specific to the discrepancy would be better than either just carrying the error forever (past behavior) or an unexplained failed reconciliation (new behavior). But of course, upgrading the documentation can only help.