A Basic Question From Newcomer

[Dave Crawford]

Hi Mark,

As of today, on a introductory basis, I'm getting started on importing data from my Schwab, J P Morgan/Chase and Vanguard accounts. I've succeeded, to a limited extent, using the New Profile Wizard, with one Vanguard account, but have no luck yet with either Schwab, JPM Chase or a second Vanguard account.

I've been reviewing the manual but remain stumped: (1) Are there aspects to accessing either Chase or Schwab that I should be aware of; (2) when I right click an investment >Properties>Password> then hit the 'enable' button and I then try to input my 10 digit alphanumeric Vanguard user name the FundManger input box seems to limit me to 8 characters?

Excited about getting up and running.



Dave Crawford

[Mark]

Hi Dave,

Are you running the "New Portfolio Wizard" multiple times, for each account? You would want to do this.

The "Password" under "Investment Properties..." is not related to retrieving transactions. That is a password you apply in order to open the investment in Fund Manager when you start up the program.

If you're having trouble getting your Schwab account set up, you might want to try these tips:

http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/tint ... les_Schwab

which say:

Charles Schwab:
If you are receiving an invalid logon message when retrieving transactions or positions from Charles Schwab, please check that your password is not longer than 8 characters. If your password is longer than 8 characters, try entering only the first 8 characters.

What are the specific problems you're running into with the other accounts? Are you getting a signon error, or some other error?

[aviator]

Mark and Dave,
Sorry to jump in on this, but I believe Vanguard has been having problems with Quicken downloads for the last week or so.

Last weekend I couldn't connect to Vanguard using FM or Quicken. One of the Quicken forums I follow had several posts about this problem. Quicken's website, too, mentioned that this was a Vanguard issue and allowed users to enter an email address if they wish to be notified when the problem was fixed.

[Mark]

Hi aviator,

Good point. It does look like Vanguard is now working again, as of yesterday.

[aviator]

It does look like Vanguard is now working again, as of yesterday.

Interesting that it works with FM, but not with Quicken. After reading your post, I attempted a download from FM and it worked. I tried the same thing in Quicken and got the same error message I got last weekend.

[Mark]

Interesting... Not sure why that would be the case...

[aviator]

Idle curiosity on my part, but I'm intrigued why it works with FM but not with Quicken. A couple of random observations:

1) When this problem first surfaced, Intuit (parent of Quicken) solicited email addresses for those who want to be notified when the problem is fixed. Although I submitted mine, I have not yet heard from Intuit. Perhaps this means that Vanguard hasn't *fully* resolved the problem.

2) However, one poster on a Quicken forum claimed his solution was to fully deactivate online services, then re-enter his credentials for each account. I tried this but without success... still no luck with Quicken downloads.

3) Whatever the reason, I'm thrilled that FM works. It's my primary method of portfolio tracking, and given that the quarter ended a few days ago I'm glad I'm able to download Vanguard transactions. While on the subject, here's (another shameless) request to add online banking to FM. Would love to ditch Quicken altogether, but the only thing holding me back is online banking.

[Mark]

Hi aviator,

It is strange, and I don't have an answer as to why FM works but Quicken does not. Both FM and Quicken essentially do the same thing when retrieving transactions from a broker's OFX server. Maybe Quicken has temporarily changed something, or maybe there is some small nuance in how Quicken makes its requests that is not working with the Vanguard OFX server yet. There have been no changes to FM related to retrieving from Vanguard, since before the Vanguard OFX server stopped working.

Sorry, but we don't have any near term plans to start supporting online banking... We're staying focused on the investment side of things.

[aviator]

Sorry, but we don't have any near term plans to start supporting online banking... We're staying focused on the investment side of things.

I knew it was a long shot, but thought it was worth a try. And I'll keep hoping that someday, when you've exhausted all there is on the investment side of things, you'll help us dump Quicken once and for all.