Q2018 reconcile investment account - I have problems
I went month by month, but soon (lazy) kept asking for an adjusting entry to be made. What I discovered was that at the end of Jan, 2018, everything was reconciled, but the account total balance was way off. Reason: My cash is held in reg MM (FDRXX at Fido), but I bought a "premium" MM account for most of the cash (double the measly 0.5% interest in the regular MM account). What I did not do as I went thru the months was balance the two MM accounts according to purchases and sales. (Cash is taken from regular MM for purchases until balance in regular MM is zero, then Fido automatically subtracts difference from the premium MM.) Thus the adjusting entries the program made were against holdings that were not correct.
I am ready to go back and repeat, but before I do, please answer these two simple questions:
1. If the entire holdings are accurate but there is a positive or negative cash balance, how do you adjust it? Selling or buying a holding will bring the cash balance to zero but the holding will be incorrect, yes?
2. To reconcile, was it acceptable for me to check all unchecked transactions prior to 2017 and let the program make one gigantic adjusting entry on 12/31/2016 before starting a rigorous reconcillation for 2017?
OK, simple third question: 3. I do not believe there is a batch way to convert scores of R)econclied transactions into C)leared transactions, is there? Just one by one it seems.
Thanks for any help on this.
Ken
Comments
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Ken, I'm going to go backward in your questions, as I have a better handle on answers going that way if that's okay.
3. No, there is no way to bulk change the status of transactions from (R) to (C). If there was, you wouldn't be the only one who has looked for it!
2. I'd say it's acceptable, but only if on that day it made your account 'whole'. By that I mean it matched what the account was supposed to be on that day. If it didn't, then you have a bigger issue to address with the prior transactions missing something. Those 'catch up' transactions are supposed to 'balance' your account on that day to whatever your statement says.
1. for this one, I'm sure there are a number of ways to do it. The one that comes fastest to mind for me is to open the transaction dialogue in your investment account and select deposit or withdrawal at the bottom of the transaction type. From there you can make an 'adjustment' and charge it off to whatever category you want or leave it blank.
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Thanks Michael: I will look at things per your suggestions. I appreciate your reply.Michael Jones said:Ken, I'm going to go backward in your questions, as I have a better handle on answers going that way if that's okay.
3. No, there is no way to bulk change the status of transactions from (R) to (C). If there was, you wouldn't be the only one who has looked for it!
2. I'd say it's acceptable, but only if on that day it made your account 'whole'. By that I mean it matched what the account was supposed to be on that day. If it didn't, then you have a bigger issue to address with the prior transactions missing something. Those 'catch up' transactions are supposed to 'balance' your account on that day to whatever your statement says.
1. for this one, I'm sure there are a number of ways to do it. The one that comes fastest to mind for me is to open the transaction dialogue in your investment account and select deposit or withdrawal at the bottom of the transaction type. From there you can make an 'adjustment' and charge it off to whatever category you want or leave it blank.0 -
The other way that you can adjust cash in an Account without having the change ripple through to your spending reports because you used a "Category" to make the adjustment is to use the "Cash Transferred into Account" or "Cash Transferred out of Account" action, and then use the SAME ACCOUNT in which you are making the adjustment as the "offsetting" Account. That way the Account's cash gets adjusted but you'll never see that adjustment explicitly in any report.Michael Jones said:Ken, I'm going to go backward in your questions, as I have a better handle on answers going that way if that's okay.
3. No, there is no way to bulk change the status of transactions from (R) to (C). If there was, you wouldn't be the only one who has looked for it!
2. I'd say it's acceptable, but only if on that day it made your account 'whole'. By that I mean it matched what the account was supposed to be on that day. If it didn't, then you have a bigger issue to address with the prior transactions missing something. Those 'catch up' transactions are supposed to 'balance' your account on that day to whatever your statement says.
1. for this one, I'm sure there are a number of ways to do it. The one that comes fastest to mind for me is to open the transaction dialogue in your investment account and select deposit or withdrawal at the bottom of the transaction type. From there you can make an 'adjustment' and charge it off to whatever category you want or leave it blank.0 -
@Ken45140 I should also say on the reconcile/cleared thing. Honestly, there isn't much reason to futz with it after you've reconciled. You can still edit transactions marked and cleared/reconciled and it won't really change anything. As long as your last cleared/reconciled transaction matches something in your statement on that date, then you can pretty much just keep going.Michael Jones said:Ken, I'm going to go backward in your questions, as I have a better handle on answers going that way if that's okay.
3. No, there is no way to bulk change the status of transactions from (R) to (C). If there was, you wouldn't be the only one who has looked for it!
2. I'd say it's acceptable, but only if on that day it made your account 'whole'. By that I mean it matched what the account was supposed to be on that day. If it didn't, then you have a bigger issue to address with the prior transactions missing something. Those 'catch up' transactions are supposed to 'balance' your account on that day to whatever your statement says.
1. for this one, I'm sure there are a number of ways to do it. The one that comes fastest to mind for me is to open the transaction dialogue in your investment account and select deposit or withdrawal at the bottom of the transaction type. From there you can make an 'adjustment' and charge it off to whatever category you want or leave it blank.
Your opening balance on you next reconcile may be wrong and have to be changed, but you can do all that when you get there.0