Investment account Cash Balance is displaying different amount than downloaded amount

t520black

For example when you do an Update Cash Balance the following is displayed under Balance Information is:

The current cash balance for Fidelity in Quicken is: 3,438.28

The cash balance downloaded from Fidelity as of : 3,438.28

But the Fidelity Cash Balance in Quicken is showing: 3,504.28

In the Add an adjusting transaction to adjust you cash balance I have entered the correct cash balance for this account 3,438.28 with the current date and the Cash Balance in Quicken remains at 3,504.28

t520black

Well, found the problem after determining that the Security Value in Quicken Fidelity account was 32.24 less than the value showing in the Online Center Balances and the Total Market Value in Quicken Fidelity account was 32.76 more than the value showing in the Online Center Balances. The difference between the -32.24 and the + 32.76 is 66.00 which is exact amount of error in Cash Balance between Control Center Balance and Quicken Fidelity account. So I did a find on 66.00 and found an erroneous entry of 66.00 which I deleted and things are now adding up. Thanks to you guys for responding.

Tom Young

You know, I have never, ever clicked that "Update cash balance..." item in the menu that comes up when you click on the gear icon.  (I assume that action is there in order to "plug" a dollar amount in because somehow you've screwed up your accounting in Quicken and just want to balance to the financial institution's figure without going to the trouble of actually figuring out what's wrong.)

So, I clicked on "Update Transactions" for the Account, and no transactions were downloaded because earlier I'd done a One Step Update and Matched all downloaded transactions.  I clicked on "Update cash balance.." and here's what came up:

Within my Quicken Account that ($25,999.99) number does show up; it's the amount that I'm "short cash" on the evening of 11/18 because I made a $26,000.00 purchase of a security when the Account only had $.01 in it, and I'd entered that purchase manually.  But at the time I clicked on the "Update cash balance..." action the ACTUAL amount of cash in the Schwab brokerage Account was $0.00 since I'd moved cash into the account at Schwab the first thing 11/19.

My conclusion: that ($25,999.99) figure is bogus and can't be relied on as the amount of cash in the account at the time I clicked on "Update cash balance..." really was $0.00.

So maybe Quicken has some sort of problem here, maybe it's showing the balance the evening before (the "as of" date is missing), but I just wouldn't use this particular "feature" in Quicken. 

Jim_Harman

Another way to track down what is going on here would be to go to Tools > Online Center, select the FI, click on the Balances tab, and select the account if you have more than one.

There you can see all the various balances that have been downloaded. It's not clear which of these is used for the "Cash Balance Downloaded" figure in the Update Cash Balance dialog. For some of my accounts it comes up as "Not Provided"

Tom Young

Using the Schwab Brokerage Account above and looking at the Balances tab in the online center it does show "Balances at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc as of 11/18/2019" and that's where the ($25,999.99) is coming from.  Seems odd as of done a couple of OSUs and several "Update Transactions" already today and, as you can see from the above, Schwab is showing $0.00 of cash in the account.

t520black

Thanks for your suggestions. Using the Online Center I can see that he Money Market Balance (Cash Core Balance) downloaded from Fidelity is correct. In the account the Total Market Value is equal to the Securities Value + Cash Balance (which is different from the downloaded balance) I don't know if the Cash Balance is the remainder of the difference between the Securities Value and Total Market Value or Total Market Value is the sum of Securities Value + Cash Balance. Cash Balance is always off + $66.00. Obviously it is not using the downloaded Cash Balance (Money Market Balance) I have looked for a place holder entry that could be affecting the values of any one of the totals. After the markets close and updates are complete I will use the Online Center to see where things are at. I'll get back if I find the problem

t520black

Well, found the problem after determining that the Security Value in Quicken Fidelity account was 32.24 less than the value showing in the Online Center Balances and the Total Market Value in Quicken Fidelity account was 32.76 more than the value showing in the Online Center Balances. The difference between the -32.24 and the + 32.76 is 66.00 which is exact amount of error in Cash Balance between Control Center Balance and Quicken Fidelity account. So I did a find on 66.00 and found an erroneous entry of 66.00 which I deleted and things are now adding up. Thanks to you guys for responding.