Bug in Fidelity Cash & Spartan Money Market in Quicken subscription Mac?

Bernard Jean Louis
Bernard Jean Louis Member
edited May 2022 in Investing (Mac)
Has anybody noticed gross mishandling of transactions by Quicken subscription Mac for the Fidelity Cash & Spartan Money Market? The cash balance is way off. Does the same problem exist for all money market funds?

I have been a customer for over 30 years, last using Quicken Window version 2017.
I just recently updated to Quicken subscription reloading over 30 years of transactions from Quicken Windows 2017 on both the Mac and Windows Quicken version.
I am comparing the results given by Quicken subscription Windows and Quicken subscription Mac. I found that the Fidelity Cash & Spartan Money Market on Quicken Mac shows a cash balance several hundred thousands dollar of (negative) versus the correct one on Quicken subscription Windows. :s

My goal is to transition to Quicken Mac in order to get rid of the VMware Windows virtual machine that I run on my Mac to support Quicken Windows.

Comments

  • If it helps and you provide a way to do so, I will send you images of a subset of the transactions loaded in the Mac and the Windows as the result of the upgrade process from Quicken Windows 2017.
  • John_in_NC
    John_in_NC SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    This isn't an answer, but some comments on where I would start:

    (Screenshots help, but keep in mind this is a user to user forum. )

    The first thing I would look at is the price history for the MMF (which is normally $1.00). If this is being reported as shares held of the fund, make sure that total is correct in the Portfolio and that the price history is correct in the Securities window. That might seem basic, but I have to mention it. It is also a good place to start to see if the fund balance is correct, or if the investment register "cash" balance is what is causing the problem (and nothing related to a fund held.)

    The other issue that can cause problems in Quicken for Mac is that it doesn't support the single BoughtX/SellX (etc) transfer type transactions. If you had those in your QWin file, then examine how they came through.
  • I am using the BoughtX/SellX transactions in the Quicken Windows 2017. This link shows a screen shot of the way these transactions are converted into Quicken Mac subscription.
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=11j4JuQx6VGfOpEi0Wan8CObM7e4YwjrT
    It would be nice to add these transactions to Quicken Mac.
  • ... or break each of these transactions correctly into an equivalent sequence of Quicken Mac transactions. The current attempt at that sequencing is wrong, and Quicken should fix that bug.
  • Bernard Jean Louis
    Bernard Jean Louis Member
    edited December 2019
    Here are the same transactions in Quicken Windows subscription.
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ROS71S7fzZoWQ3a1T1I49Qm-JDYEnteE/view?usp=sharing
  • John_in_NC
    John_in_NC SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Thanks for the screenshots.

    I see the Buys and Transfers in both files. Was the [Fid CMA] account a "linked checking account" in your Windows file? The Mac versions have never supported those, and I honestly cannot tell you how they convert as I have never performed a QWin conversion with one.

    I hope other QWin converts can chime in with advice. All I am going by is that people who have the abcX Investment transactions run into trouble.
  • No, it is not a "linked checking account".
    Here is the way the Quicken Windows subscription CMA account is setup:
    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CBz1gT__lNnHaFsAvnmokcoaRH-CGkNM?usp=sharing
    Here is the way the Quicken Mac CMA subscription account is setup
    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15HoKSpxW5IfL_3pmFY8eyNtuENqQc4fm?usp=sharing
  • John_in_NC
    John_in_NC SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Thanks.

    I confess my QWin experience is quite limited, but, based on your few screenshots, you likely had a linked account. By that, I don't mean online connectivity:

    In QWin, you have the option in an investment account to "Show Cash in a Checking Account". This allows easier use for people who use their investment accounts for cash transactions such as writing checks, scheduled transactions, etc. That option is in the parent investment account, and not in the spawned cash on (which I believe you are showing your settings for.) You deposit some money in your MMF, and it immediately gets related to the corresponding (underlying) buy of the fund. Here is a bit more info:

    https://www.quicken.com/support/how-do-i-add-linked-checking-account-existing-investment-account

    When you set that up, buys and sells convert to the BuyX and SellX to the checking account and keep the cash balance in the parent investment account at $0.

    I wish other people with more QWin experience would advise as I don't want to waste your time any more than I have. I also don't know if unlinking the "show cash" on the windows side would yield a single account that would have better import success. (Does it convert the BuyX back into Buys to keep the cash in the same account? I don't know.) You could always try (after making backups) and reimport into a new file to see the results.

    I wish you luck-I am hopeful others can chime in.
  • In my previous example, I am not showing where exactly things go bad in translating the Quicken Windows BoughtX transactions into supported Quicken Mac transactions. It looks like the screw-up occurs on every cash transfer from a brokerage account (rather than a bank account) and subsequent purchase of money market fund. Through time the deposits from the brokerage account never show up resulting in a negative balance of many thousands of dollars. However all the bank account deposits do show up.
    Here is an example of a screw-up dated 09/08/95 for a brokerage account and one done correctly for a bank account dates 09/07/95
    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TXxc0BUbFUkGU0InIpd6mjLuu3nJpaFP?usp=sharing
    Note that at the time (1995) all the transactions into Fid Cash&Spartn were entered by hand, as no automated load existed.
    I am eager to have this translation problem fixed as I would like to transition to Quicken Mac.
    Sorry if I mislead you with the previous sample. I was in a hurry and did not pay enough attention.
This discussion has been closed.