FSPXX and FZDXX are listed as holdings and the values are included in the cash balance

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Cash Balances Inaccurate.

kemetivier

FSPXX and FZDXX are listed as holdings and the values are included in the cash balance.

Jim_Harman

Are there Placeholders affecting these holdings? 

When the shares go into the account in Quicken, are there Added transactions, which increase the share balance but do not affect the cash, or Bought's,which should decrease the cash balance? 

NotACPA

Are you carrying those  MMFs, in Q, as securities or as CASH?  That could  be involved with your placeholder issue if you buy or sell  a  security and don't update the MMF holding.

It's  why, in all accounts,  I carry my MMFs  as if  they were  just  cash.  GREATLY simplifies things!

NotACPA

kemetivier said:

FSPXX and FZDXX are listed as holdings and the values are included in the cash balance.

That might be because, in Q,  you have them  listed as  Securities ... instead  of  Cash.  I also hold Fidelity MMF's and  carry them in  Q as simply cash,  with no such "security" listed. 

Fidelity doesn't care ...  and since I don't download for  them  (they're  not "securities), Q doesn't care.

Yes it's an error  (to show  "all  cash"  securities as both),  but it's so easily avoided that I doubt there  will  be much effort to correct this.

Jim_Harman

People are often confused by the cash transactions downloaded from Fidelity (and other brokerages) because the cash transactions are not shown in the printed statements.

What is going on behind the scenes is that whenever there is uninvested cash in an account, from a dividend, deposit, sale of a security, etc, the brokerage "sweeps" the money into a money market "settlement" fund, where it earns interest. Likewise, when you buy a security or withdraw cash from the account, shares in the settlement fund are sold to cover the expense and zero out the cash balance.

Depending on the brokerage, these sweep transactions may or may not show on printed statements and may or may not be downloaded to Quicken, and the corresponding money market fund share balances may or may not be reported to Quicken. Sometimes there may be a few days' delay between a buy or sell and the money moving into or out of the settlement fund.

There are two basic approaches for dealing with the cash in Quicken. One way is to delete or not accept any of the downloaded money market transactions, leaving the cash as "Cash Balance" in Quicken, where it should match the balance the brokerage shows in the settlement fund. People often recommend this approach for Fidelity accounts, and it also works well for TD Ameritrade accounts.

The other way is to always accept the downloaded MMF transactions or create them manually if they are missing from the feed. In this case your cash balance in Quicken should always end up as zero following any settlement time. In my experience this approach works best for Vanguard accounts.

The important thing is to pick an approach and use it consistently.

Jim_Harman

@NotACPA, does Fido include the MMF transactions in its feed so you then have to delete or not accept them, and do you get "Security Balance Mismatch" warnings at the end of a download session? Do you have the account set so that it does not do the security balance comparison? 

NotACPA

@Jim_Harman

I get NO error messages, including Mismatch.

The account does balance comparison, but I have Q set to not download that "security".

I'll have to look at OFX.Log to see if anything is downloaded for Fidelity Cash Reserves of Fidelity Gov't MMF, since the OP is talking about 2 Fidelity funds.

I'll report back later

NotACPA

OK, I'm back after that  research into OFXLog.txt

I hold Fid Cash Reserves (FDRXX) in  2 accounts, and my  wife holds Fid Govt Reserves (SPAXX)  in her taxable account.

I searched  on those  2 symbols, and  found nothing.  I searched  for the words  "Cash"  and "Government"  and found  lots ... but nothing pertinent to  our holdings  in them.

Since Q is set to NOT download  for either, I have  to conclude  that Q  isn't requesting info  for them ... and thus no mismatch.

Which would be ideal for the OP's needs since I am  receiving  ACTIVITY for those 2 securities ... including FDRXX in my taxable account which is my primary checking  account with near-daily activity and SPAXX in her taxable  account which is her  primary checking account, also  with frequent activity.  

For the 2  taxable accounts, we have them setup as "Show Cash in a Checking  Account" ...  but I don't think  such is the  reason, because  we don't get quotes for FDRXX in my IRA  account ... but we  get  Activity there  also, and that's NOT set up as a checking account (too little cash to make that worthwhile).

Jim_Harman

My TD Ameritrade's settlement account pays monthly Divs using the ticker MMDA2, CUSIP 9ZZZFD203. There are no Buy or Sell transactions on this fund. There is a matching security in Quicken which I have called "TDA Money Market" but the share balance is zero so it doesn't appear in the Holdings view. 

This security is not included in the INVPOSLIST section of the OFX data, so there is no comparison mismatch at the end of downloading.