How To Add an Investment Account

In most cases, if you hold an account at a financial institution, the simplest way to add an account to Quicken is to use Express Online Setup. This option can automate your account setup by downloading account and transactions information for you, but your financial institution must be a Quicken partner for you to use it.

If you want to add the account manually, you can use the following procedure. When you do, Quicken adds the new account to the Account List (choose Tools menu > Account List). In most cases, you'll want to set up all your accounts in the same Quicken data file, so that you can track all your finances in one place.

As you move through the account setup process, you may not see all the pages described below-these depend on the type of account you are adding and how much information Quicken can download from your financial institution. Click a link below for more information.

• What is the financial institution for this account?

  If this account is held at a financial institution Select This account is held at a financial institution, enter the name of the financial institution, and then click Next. Click Help if you need more information.

  If this account is not held at a financial institution  If you are adding a single mutual fund account, select This account is not held at a financial institution, and then click Next.

• If Quicken doesn't recognize your financial institution

  Quicken tries to match the name of your financial institution to a recognized list of financial partners. If Quicken doesn't recognize the name of your financial institution, it displays a list of near matches for the name you entered. Select the appropriate option, and click Next.

  Look for your financial institution's name in the list of near matches at the top of the page. If you don't see your institution's name, click See a full list of financial institutions so Quicken displays the full list of all known institutions. (Scroll down the list to find your institution, and then click to select it.) If your financial institution is not in the list of near matches or in the full list, then you can manually type the name of your institution. Be sure to spell the name correctly. Quicken will use this name to notify you later if this institution joins the list of Quicken partners.

• Select a currency for the account (Optional)

  If you have set up Quicken to track multiple currencies, select one from the list. If you decide you need to change the currency for the account, you can do so only if you have not entered any transactions except the opening balance.

• Select the type of account to add

  Choose a Quicken account type that matches your real-world account.

• About this account-Account Name

  Enter a name for the account. The name you type will appear throughout Quicken to distinguish this account from others. Use any combination of letters, numbers, spaces, and other characters except these: [ (left bracket), ] (right bracket), / (slash), : (colon), | (bar), ^ (caret).

• About this account-IRA accounts
  1. Next to Who owns this account? select either yourself or your spouse.
  2. Next to What type of account is this? select an IRA type:
     • Traditional
     • Roth
     • SEP-IRA
     • SIMPLE IRA
     • Education IRA
     • Keogh plan
• About this account-401(k) and employer information
  1. Enter a name for this account.
     Account names usually appear in alphabetical order in Quicken. If you and your spouse both have a 401(k) account, or you have 401(k) accounts from previous employers, begin each account name with something similar, such as "401(k) for Terry" and "401(k) for Chris." This way, all your 401(k) accounts will appear next to each other in lists throughout Quicken.
  2. Enter the ending date from your statement.

     Caution

      

     If you are entering information from your financial institution's Web site instead of from a paper statement, and if this date is today's date, then do not download transactions for this account until tomorrow. This is necessary to reconcile your Quicken account data with account data posted by your financial institution.

  3. Enter the name of your employer and whether this is your current employer or a previous one.
     If you use the 401(k) planning service in Quicken, you can customize your 401(k) investments for an optimal blend based on the funds offered by your employer's plan.
  4. Identify the owner of this account: you or your spouse.
     Quicken uses this to assign the correct tax-related category to transactions.
• What is the ending cash balance for this account
  1. In the Statement Date field, enter one of the following:
     • If you are entering this information from a statement, enter the statement ending date.
     • If you are entering this information from your financial institution's Web site, use the date the information was posted (usually today or yesterday).
  2. In the Cash field, enter the cash balance in this account.
     If your broker sweeps your cash balance into a money market fund, then the amount that is actually held in cash may be a very small amount-usually only equal to the amount of a recent dividend, security sale, or other transaction that resulted in a positive cash amount.
  3. In the Money Market Fund field, enter the share balance for your money market fund security, if any.
     Your broker may call this a sweep fund. The cash balance and the sweep fund together make up your total cash balance. For example, if you have $200 in cash and $1,200 in shares of a money market fund, your total cash balance would be $1,400.
• What securities are in this account?

  Do the following for each security you hold in this account:

  1. In the Ticker field, enter the ticker symbol for the security. If you know the security ticker, Quicken will download the name for you.
     • If you do not know the ticker symbol, click Ticker Symbol Lookup.
     • If the security does not have a ticker symbol (for example, a proprietary security sold by your financial institution), enter a security name in the Security Name field.
     • Do not enter bonds on this page. When you are finished setting up securities, open the transaction list, click Enter Transactions, and then choose Bond Purchase.
  2. When you have finished for each security, click Next.
• Enter your current holdings information
  Do the following for each security you hold in this account:

  1. Enter the number of shares for each security you own. If this is a 401(k) account only, enter the number of shares and total market value. (If your financial institution does not report the number of shares, you can enter the market value.)
  2. Select the appropriate security type: Stock, Mutual Fund, or Other.
  3. Click Next.
• Summary
  Review the information you entered on the previous pages. If you need to change anything, click Back.
• Note for IRA accounts
  If this is an IRA account, Quicken identifies the entire opening balance as a contribution in the year that the account is set up. If you want to edit the opening balance to assign contribution amounts to specific prior tax years, you can do so now:

  1. Scroll down to the blank transaction line at the bottom of the transaction list.
  2. Click Enter Transactions.
  3. In the Enter transactions field, select Cash Transferred into Account. Follow the on-screen instructions to create a cash transfer into the account for a prior tax year. Be sure to use the correct date for both the transaction and for the tax year assignment.
  4. Click Enter New if you need to repeat step 3 for prior tax years. When you are finished, click Enter Done.
  5. Go back to the top of the transaction list and change the Opening Balance to equal just the amount you actually contributed this year.
• Next steps
  1. Tell me about making historical account information complete.
  2. Resolve placeholder entries.

There are some differences in the setup process for special investment account types.