Vanguard Moneydance+ unable to match security
When downloading new transactions I always get a modal dialog prompting to match to an existing security and defaulting to "None of the above". The problem is that the dropdown with the list of existing securities to match to lists a bunch of securities but does not list the existing security with the same ticker.
So I am forced to select none of the above, and then I use the supremely useful Toolbox extension to merge the downloaded security to the existing one.
This happens each and every time I have new transactions with Vanguard.
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1 Posted by andyschmid on 02 Oct, 2025 03:37 PM
I have this same problem. Switching to Moneydance+ the existing security is not matched with new transactions and I'm forced to create a duplicate security.
2 Posted by jhvanhorn on 02 Oct, 2025 06:21 PM
Ditto here too. The only difference was that I was not smart enough to use the Toolbox merge feature.
Moneydance, Any idea when this will be fixed?
3 Posted by dwg on 02 Oct, 2025 08:34 PM
It looks like it is a problem with the sources changing what they are sending, not a problem with Moneydance.
The best way it can be dealt with is the question, it cannot be automatic as an association needs to be performed that the software cannot do itself.
4 Posted by pete on 09 Oct, 2025 03:01 PM
I have this problem too, though I haven't bothered to use Toolbox yet...I was hoping to see if there is a way to fix the root problem first. If Toolbox-duplicate-merging only works until the next sync as mentioned in/by the OP....that isn' an acceptable work-around.
re the dwg comment - there is a problem with Monedance here, or perhaps our files - that user missed the part where "The problem is that the dropdown with the list of existing securities to match to lists a bunch of securities but does not list the existing security with the same ticker" ('missed the whole OP point really).
I'll restate...let's say there are 20 securities in Monedance when going to "Tools - Securities", including 1 Vanguard security in 1 Vanguard account. Vanguard must have recently changed how they sent securities (fine), so Moneydance invites you to rematch (fine). But when you get the matching dialog with Mondeydance+, there are only 19 in that DDLB. The one you want to match isn't there. That is the problem...if it was there then you'd just match it, and presumably be forever fine.
I've played around with the settings of the particular security to see if I can get it to show-up...no luck so far.
5 Posted by dwg on 09 Oct, 2025 03:14 PM
The design of Moneydance is to not allow you to reassign the security and thus update it with the new information.
A suggestion has been made that there needs to be a way to easily update what is already present, when a change has been made by the source.
6 Posted by vbtrader62 on 09 Oct, 2025 03:18 PM
I think the issue is that Moneydance marks existing security as already
matched to a (previously) downloaded security and filters it out from the
match dropdown.
I also think I was able to get around this issue, but will need more time
to fully validate.
The trick for me was in *how* the merging of the securities is executed in
Toolbox.
Instead of merging the newly downloaded security *into *existing security,
I merged the existing security into the new one. and that reset the
association, and further transaction downloads from Vanguard were
automagically matched -- as they are supposed to do.
On Thu, Oct 9, 2025 at 11:02 AM pete <[email blocked]>
wrote:
7 Posted by jhvanhorn on 09 Oct, 2025 04:22 PM
Thank you for your comments. I am intrigued by the solution of using Toolbox to merge old security into Vanguard's new security. Unfortunately, I am a neophyte of ToolBox.
Exactly what FIX function are you using to perform this merger? Is it the "FIX Detect and fix investment security records not properly linked to security master records" or is it another function?
I would appreciate any guidance you can give me.
8 Posted by pete on 09 Oct, 2025 04:30 PM
Re the second dwg comment; I think by "not allow to reassign" you must mean something like what vbtrader62 says - MD is hiding what is already matched. I haven't viewed such a possibility as "reassigning" but rather as creating an additional alias or an additional external-reference for the new-security-that-isn't-really-new.
In any case, whilst questionable by MD, that theory makes sense....now to figure-out how to either unmatch (?) or do something along the lines of what vbtrader62 says to bring in the 'new' security (select "NONE"), and then use the toolbox to merge the 'old' security into the 'new' security.
9 Posted by dwg on 09 Oct, 2025 11:17 PM
There does not need to be an alias, it is the matching data that is used to do the link to the downloads that needs to be updated, it has no effect once the data is in Moneydance.
Using Toolbox is the only real way to correct it these days i.e. Only having one security.
I think someone that has dealt with it with Vanguard is probably best placed to detail the steps they took.
10 Posted by pete on 10 Oct, 2025 02:20 PM
if these linkages were alias's then MD wouldn't have do what we think it is doing and enforce only one external link to the security; it then wouldn't have to hide the 'old' security, and this wouldn't be a problem
11 Posted by dwg on 10 Oct, 2025 09:56 PM
I think having alias's so you can have multiple linkages for the downloads is overkill. The old linkage is no longer being used, it has been changed by the source so is effectively obsolete, hence why I say a method of updating the linkage that exists would be the way to go in my view.
This could be achieved by when the software does not find a match it presents you with the list of all securities, and if you select one that is already associated it updates that with the new information.
System closed this discussion on 09 Jan, 2026 10:00 PM.
pete re-opened this discussion on 24 Jan, 2026 03:50 AM
12 Posted by pete on 24 Jan, 2026 03:50 AM
dwg I suggested alias’s because you said “design of Moneydance is to not allow you to reassign the security”…anyway it doesn’t matter such discussion is a distraction
I finally did my security-merging with the Toolbox. For other’s reference:
I downloaded and selected “None of the Above” for each of the 9 securities changed by the source. This loaded the ‘new’ securities into MD, creating duplicates.
I just did one account to get the new securities loaded even though I have 3 others with this source - then I did the merging as described below, then I download-updated the other four one at a time.
To get securities to merge I had to set the ticker for the new securities, making sure it matched the old. Toolbox doesn’t let you just tell it which securities to merge, it finds them when two have the same ticker.
After getting the tickers to match, run quote updater (or in some cases manual when quote updater is acting-up) to get the current price to match exactly.
Then - my decimal place settings didn’t match (4 on original securities, 5 on new), so I used Toolbox to update the old securities to 5. I didn't restart MD after each one as it requests, I restarted at the end. Obviously I didn't do anything else between these changes.
*FIX: Edit a Security’s (hidden Decimal Place setting)
I had one case where the suffix didn’t match so I had to fix that.
Then I used the merge feature in Toolbox, taking care to keep the newer security as vbtrader62 said. I merged the price history. I ended-up choosing the wrong CUSIP I think but that didn’t matter too much because that will get fixed when you do your first download.
*FIX: Merge ‘duplicate’ securities (and related Investment tens) into one master security record
It was a tedious process but it worked well in the end.
After going through all this, I kind of doubt MD is going to ‘fix’ this. They don’t want to deal with the data integrity risks of “these two securities are the same”, or even “these two ‘sources’ of security data (old/new) should point to the same MD security. E.g. decimal-place settings not matching, suffix/prefixes, etc. So they ~let you do it with the Toolbox and make-the-decisions-and-take-the-risk-yourself. We users would probably be better off asking MD to make the Toolbox-merge process easier for this case / they may be more likely to do that.
13 Posted by dwg on 24 Jan, 2026 05:36 AM
What I am talking about is the hidden security identifiers.
Because it has already been assigned for the security it is not offered as a selection. The idea being floated is that Moneydance offers all securities and if you select a security that already has the ID assigned. Moneydance updates it with the new identifier.
14 Posted by vbtrader62 on 24 Jan, 2026 02:53 PM
That would be a good solution. Even better IMO would be to have an UI
element in the window where the matching options are presented to show/hide
securities already linked to downloads.
On Sat, Jan 24, 2026 at 12:36 AM dwg <[email blocked]>
wrote:
15 Posted by pete on 01 Feb, 2026 07:44 PM
dwg - yeah, that is what this whole discussion is about; IK can implement it under the covers however they want, we don't care / it makes no difference in the UI