Downloads from Fidelity do not included activity into the settlement fund

JHLAUER

When I download my account from Fidelity which is a rollover IRA into Quicken, the download fails to recognize the activities that occurred in the settlement account. As an example, when the IRA account receives a dividend from a mutual fund, I choose to direct this dividend into my settlement fund which is a money market fund. For some reason, these settle fund transactions are not posted and have to be entered in Quicken manually. I also have accounts at Vanguard with a similar setup, however these downloads do populate into the settlement account. Can you help?

Boatnmaniac

I, too, have a Fidelity IRA where the Core Fund ("settlement account") sweep is into a money market fund and have seen this same issue.  What made it worse is that I found the Account Register Cash Balance was also 2X what it should have been.  So my holdings were understated, my cash balance was overstated, yet, my overall account value was spot on. 

I think this has to do with Fidelity downloading Core Fund holdings as cash (in addition to downloading a cash balance) instead of the Core Fund security holdings.  Fidelity is not alone in doing it this way but I think most other brokerages do it differently so this issue is not encountered with them.

There is no perfect solution to this issue that I've found.  But what I've done (and as several others have posted) is as follows:

1)  First, log into your online account at Fidelity.  On the Account Features tab, click on "Brokerage & Trading" and then click on "Dividends and Capital Gains".  If your Core Fund proceeds are set to "Deposit to Core Account" then you can log off.  If it is set to "Reinvest in Security" change it to "Deposit to Core Account."  This doesn't change how Fidelity will manage the cash since by default all cash is swept into the Core Fund.  But it does change the data that Fidelity downloads to Quicken.

2)  Back up your Quicken file so it can be recovered in case something goes wrong.

3)  Delete any/all buy/sell transactions for your Core Fund security from your register.  This will then return all funds used for those transactions to your account's Cash balance.

4)  Change all dividend reinvestment transactions for your Core Fund to Income transactions which pay into the account's cash balance.

5)  All Core Fund dividend payouts going forward will be downloaded by Fidelity as deposits to the account's cash balance (because of #1 above).  Accept these transactions.

6)  All other future downloads of Core Fund transactions (which for me are only Sell transactions when Fidelity sells shares to fund another security buy or to fund a cash transfer out of the account) need to be deleted.

7)  Confirm that your holdings in Quicken and as reported by Fidelity are in agreement:

• Account Register > Gear icon > Reconcile Shares
• You will get a popup stating that they are either in agreement or will show where they are not in agreement. 
  
• If they are in agreement, proceed to the next step.
  
• If the holdings are not in agreement, you will need to manually reconcile the holdings that Quicken shows are not in agreement.  If it shows that your Core Fund is the cause of not agreeing, then you will need to delete that Core Fund transaction.
  

8)  Confirm that your cash balance in Quicken and as reported by Fidelity are in agreement:

• Account Register > Cash Balance (blue underlined dollar amount at the bottom right of the register).
• If the cash balances are in agreement, you are done.
  
• If the cash balances are not in agreement, do you have any securities transactions that have not yet been fully settled?  Or is there some other cash transaction entered that shouldn't be or that is missing?

It's not ideal but as others have posted in Community it is the only thing we found that helps to ensure that what is reflected in Quicken pretty much matches what is shown in Fidelity. The hardest part for me when I first did this was getting it out of my head that Quicken must show my Core Fund holdings.  But I was able to get over it by telling myself that Fidelity reps will often refer to "Core Fund" and "Cash" interchangeably when talking to me so why shouldn't I do the same?  My life with Fidelity and Quicken is now much easier.

Boatnmaniac

@JHLAUER SPAXX is not different from other MMFs.  What causes this issue is when it is designated as the Core Fund.  SPAXX is Fidelity's default MMF for such designation.  There are a few other MMFs that can be designated as the Core Fund (investor discretion).  No matter which MMF is designated as the Core Fund, this same issue will occur with it.  This is not a new issue for Fidelity downloads into Quicken.  A Google search came up with many articles and forum discussions identifying/addressing this issue going back at least 13 yrs.  So, I don't hold any illusions that Fidelity will make any changes as to how they download their Core Fund data.

There is a way to make your account changes relatively easy and fast to complete (it's not as complex as the following looks).  As a reminder, back up your Quicken file before proceeding.:

1)  Pull up a Banking Transactions report.  When the Customize popup comes up:

• Select "Earliest to Date" Date range.
• Accounts Tab:  Click on "Clear All" and then check the box for the IRA account.
• Categories Tab:  "Select All"
• Payees Tab:  "Select All"
• Tags Tab:  "Select All"
• Securities Tab:  Click on "Clear All" and then check the box for SPAXX.
• Click "OK".
• On the report that comes up, click on the "Category" header to filter the report and look for the "_DivInc" transactions in that column.  They should be grouped together.
• This might be the most time consuming part of the process:  Look at the "Num" column for that "DivInc" transactions grouping.  Double click on any "ReinvDiv" transaction showing there which will pull up the Edit transaction popup and change "ReinvDiv" to "Inc - Income (Div, Int, etc.)" and then click on "Enter/Done".  Repeat for every "ReinvDiv" transaction that you see in the report.  When done there should be no "ReinvDiv" transactions showing in the report... all of those will now show up in the "Num" column as "Div" transactions.
• Look at all the other non-"Div" transactions in the report.  You will probably see only "Bought" and "Sold" and/or maybe "Added" and "Removed".  They should be all grouped together separately from the "Div" transactions.  If you see a different type of transaction in there than these, let me know before proceeding further.
• Assuming there are no other types of transactions in there, left click on the top transaction in that non-"Div" grouping and then while holding down the Shift key left click on the bottom transaction in that grouping.  This will highlight all of those transactions.
• Right click anywhere on the highlighted transactions and then click on "Delete Transaction(s)".
• Your report should now show only "Div" transactions.
• Close the report.

2)  Proceed to #7 of my previous post. 

3)  Proceed to #8 of my previous post and then you are done.

Don't forget to make sure your SPAXX dividends are directed to "Deposit to Core Account" instead of "Reinvest in Security" in your online Fidelity account.  Accept these transactions when the are downloaded in the future

Going forward, you will need to remember that any non-Div SPAXX transactions that are downloaded (will probably only be some Buy/Sell transactions when you are buying/selling other securities or when you transfer cash out of the account) are deleted instead of accepted.

Let me know how it goes or if you have any questions.

Boatnmaniac

RCinNJ said:

I'm a Mac user, but Quicken for Mac seems to work the same for Fidelity downloads. It has been driving me crazy. Like the original poster I also have an account at Vanguard that works perfectly.

My money fund is FZFXX (Fidelity Treasury Money Market Fund) instead of SPAXX. It sounds like once I make these fixes the money fund will no longer show as a fund and instead will show as cash at the bottom of my holdings?

From the posts this seems a long standing known issue and I wonder why Quicken doesn't make the problem (and solution) more searchable. I tried fixing this with support and after over an hour they said none of them knew much about investment accounts, but did find this discussion and directed me here. Thank you all!

Some brokerages do downloads like Vanguard and some do it like Fidelity.  The brokerage owns what data they download and that is not something Quicken can fix.

The fund itself doesn't make any difference.  It is the Core Fund (Settlement Fund or something else for other Brokerages) designation that triggers the situation with Fidelity.  The Core Fund simply replaces the historical sweep deposit account that Fidelity now uses because they can now pay much higher interest than they can with a sweep account but Fidelity still treats it like cash.  So, yes, if you make the changes I suggested, you should no longer have any FZFXX shares in your holdings in Quicken (they will still show up in your Fidelity online account) and the value of your FZFXX shares will show up in Quicken as Cash.  You will just need to keep reminding yourself that as far as Fidelity is concerned, Core = Cash and Cash = Core.  It won't take long to get used to that.

And, the best part is that when done your Fidelity account Holdings in Quicken will then match the positions downloaded to Quicken by Fidelity, your Cash Balance in Quicken will then match the Cash Balance downloaded by Fidelity and your total Fidelity Market Value will match what was downloaded to Quicken by Fidelity.

NotACPA

Can you take a snapshot of such a dividend transaction and insert it here as an image.  I'd like to see NOT the 1 or 2 lines in the investment register, but rather the dialog that comes up when you click EDIT on that transaction.

Also, What Q product are you running and what BUILD of that product?  Do HELP, About Quicken for this info.  And, if it's present, please include the "Valid Thru" data also.

JHLAUER

Below are lines from my Fidelity paper statement that describe the 2 transactions. A dividend and the dividend being used to purchase money market shares in the settlement fund:
Settlement Date Security Name
Symbol/ CUSIP Description Quantity Price Amount
01/31 DOUBLELINE LOW DURATION CL N 258620855 Dividend Received - - $241.46
02/04 CASH You Bought FIDELITY GOVERNMENT MONEY MARKET @ 1
241.460 1.0000 241.46 (Quicken does not recognize the buying in the settlement fund)

Quicken 2020 Build 27.1.25.21 Version R25.21
I do not understand "Valid Thru" data ?

Thanks

Boatnmaniac

I, too, have a Fidelity IRA where the Core Fund ("settlement account") sweep is into a money market fund and have seen this same issue.  What made it worse is that I found the Account Register Cash Balance was also 2X what it should have been.  So my holdings were understated, my cash balance was overstated, yet, my overall account value was spot on. 

I think this has to do with Fidelity downloading Core Fund holdings as cash (in addition to downloading a cash balance) instead of the Core Fund security holdings.  Fidelity is not alone in doing it this way but I think most other brokerages do it differently so this issue is not encountered with them.

There is no perfect solution to this issue that I've found.  But what I've done (and as several others have posted) is as follows:

1)  First, log into your online account at Fidelity.  On the Account Features tab, click on "Brokerage & Trading" and then click on "Dividends and Capital Gains".  If your Core Fund proceeds are set to "Deposit to Core Account" then you can log off.  If it is set to "Reinvest in Security" change it to "Deposit to Core Account."  This doesn't change how Fidelity will manage the cash since by default all cash is swept into the Core Fund.  But it does change the data that Fidelity downloads to Quicken.

2)  Back up your Quicken file so it can be recovered in case something goes wrong.

3)  Delete any/all buy/sell transactions for your Core Fund security from your register.  This will then return all funds used for those transactions to your account's Cash balance.

4)  Change all dividend reinvestment transactions for your Core Fund to Income transactions which pay into the account's cash balance.

5)  All Core Fund dividend payouts going forward will be downloaded by Fidelity as deposits to the account's cash balance (because of #1 above).  Accept these transactions.

6)  All other future downloads of Core Fund transactions (which for me are only Sell transactions when Fidelity sells shares to fund another security buy or to fund a cash transfer out of the account) need to be deleted.

7)  Confirm that your holdings in Quicken and as reported by Fidelity are in agreement:

• Account Register > Gear icon > Reconcile Shares
• You will get a popup stating that they are either in agreement or will show where they are not in agreement. 
  
• If they are in agreement, proceed to the next step.
  
• If the holdings are not in agreement, you will need to manually reconcile the holdings that Quicken shows are not in agreement.  If it shows that your Core Fund is the cause of not agreeing, then you will need to delete that Core Fund transaction.
  

8)  Confirm that your cash balance in Quicken and as reported by Fidelity are in agreement:

• Account Register > Cash Balance (blue underlined dollar amount at the bottom right of the register).
• If the cash balances are in agreement, you are done.
  
• If the cash balances are not in agreement, do you have any securities transactions that have not yet been fully settled?  Or is there some other cash transaction entered that shouldn't be or that is missing?

It's not ideal but as others have posted in Community it is the only thing we found that helps to ensure that what is reflected in Quicken pretty much matches what is shown in Fidelity. The hardest part for me when I first did this was getting it out of my head that Quicken must show my Core Fund holdings.  But I was able to get over it by telling myself that Fidelity reps will often refer to "Core Fund" and "Cash" interchangeably when talking to me so why shouldn't I do the same?  My life with Fidelity and Quicken is now much easier.

NotACPA

Are you carrying the "settlement account" in Q as a money market fund in the Q account?  OR, as a holding outside of the brokerage account?

Because, when there's "cash" in any of my 4 Fidelity retirement type accounts, I just leave it as cash. And I still receive/downloads, dividends on the cash that Fidelity holds as a MMF.

JHLAUER

I really appreciate the answers so far. When I set up this account in Q back in 2015 after my retirement, I remember thinking that a MMF with a symbol such as SPAXX was similar to other mutual funds. I never thought a MMF was considered cash and to keep it separate from the rest of the funds in the account. Browsing back before I converted this account from my employer 401k plan where you could setup a separate Fidelity account ,I now noticed that Fidelity had a MMF called "Fidelity Cash Reserve" and it indeed appeared as cash on Q's holdings screen. Boatnmaniac detailed fix now makes sense but I am not looking forward in correcting 284 entries but I will. Thanks again for all your fine detective work.

Boatnmaniac

@JHLAUER SPAXX is not different from other MMFs.  What causes this issue is when it is designated as the Core Fund.  SPAXX is Fidelity's default MMF for such designation.  There are a few other MMFs that can be designated as the Core Fund (investor discretion).  No matter which MMF is designated as the Core Fund, this same issue will occur with it.  This is not a new issue for Fidelity downloads into Quicken.  A Google search came up with many articles and forum discussions identifying/addressing this issue going back at least 13 yrs.  So, I don't hold any illusions that Fidelity will make any changes as to how they download their Core Fund data.

There is a way to make your account changes relatively easy and fast to complete (it's not as complex as the following looks).  As a reminder, back up your Quicken file before proceeding.:

1)  Pull up a Banking Transactions report.  When the Customize popup comes up:

• Select "Earliest to Date" Date range.
• Accounts Tab:  Click on "Clear All" and then check the box for the IRA account.
• Categories Tab:  "Select All"
• Payees Tab:  "Select All"
• Tags Tab:  "Select All"
• Securities Tab:  Click on "Clear All" and then check the box for SPAXX.
• Click "OK".
• On the report that comes up, click on the "Category" header to filter the report and look for the "_DivInc" transactions in that column.  They should be grouped together.
• This might be the most time consuming part of the process:  Look at the "Num" column for that "DivInc" transactions grouping.  Double click on any "ReinvDiv" transaction showing there which will pull up the Edit transaction popup and change "ReinvDiv" to "Inc - Income (Div, Int, etc.)" and then click on "Enter/Done".  Repeat for every "ReinvDiv" transaction that you see in the report.  When done there should be no "ReinvDiv" transactions showing in the report... all of those will now show up in the "Num" column as "Div" transactions.
• Look at all the other non-"Div" transactions in the report.  You will probably see only "Bought" and "Sold" and/or maybe "Added" and "Removed".  They should be all grouped together separately from the "Div" transactions.  If you see a different type of transaction in there than these, let me know before proceeding further.
• Assuming there are no other types of transactions in there, left click on the top transaction in that non-"Div" grouping and then while holding down the Shift key left click on the bottom transaction in that grouping.  This will highlight all of those transactions.
• Right click anywhere on the highlighted transactions and then click on "Delete Transaction(s)".
• Your report should now show only "Div" transactions.
• Close the report.

2)  Proceed to #7 of my previous post. 

3)  Proceed to #8 of my previous post and then you are done.

Don't forget to make sure your SPAXX dividends are directed to "Deposit to Core Account" instead of "Reinvest in Security" in your online Fidelity account.  Accept these transactions when the are downloaded in the future

Going forward, you will need to remember that any non-Div SPAXX transactions that are downloaded (will probably only be some Buy/Sell transactions when you are buying/selling other securities or when you transfer cash out of the account) are deleted instead of accepted.

Let me know how it goes or if you have any questions.

JHLAUER

I completed the Boatnmaniac instructions and I now have an account register with a cash balance that matches the online Fidelity SPAXX sum. Great instructions. I hope the "Cash" in Quicken does not feel left out being now that it no longer has the grand title of "Fidelity Government Money Market Fund".
Again, Thanks for the expert advice and time. Smooth sailing

Boatnmaniac

You are very welcome.  I'm glad it fixed your issue (even if it hurt the feelings of "Cash" for being downgraded from "Fidelity Government Money Market Fund." 

RCinNJ

I'm a Mac user, but Quicken for Mac seems to work the same for Fidelity downloads. It has been driving me crazy. Like the original poster I also have an account at Vanguard that works perfectly.

My money fund is FZFXX (Fidelity Treasury Money Market Fund) instead of SPAXX. It sounds like once I make these fixes the money fund will no longer show as a fund and instead will show as cash at the bottom of my holdings?

From the posts this seems a long standing known issue and I wonder why Quicken doesn't make the problem (and solution) more searchable. I tried fixing this with support and after over an hour they said none of them knew much about investment accounts, but did find this discussion and directed me here. Thank you all!

NotACPA

Quicken doesn't fix this because it isn't something that Q CAN fix.  It's a Fidelity issue since they download via Direct Connect ... and therefore Fidelity is SOLELY responsible for the content of the downloads.

Boatnmaniac

RCinNJ said:

I'm a Mac user, but Quicken for Mac seems to work the same for Fidelity downloads. It has been driving me crazy. Like the original poster I also have an account at Vanguard that works perfectly.

My money fund is FZFXX (Fidelity Treasury Money Market Fund) instead of SPAXX. It sounds like once I make these fixes the money fund will no longer show as a fund and instead will show as cash at the bottom of my holdings?

From the posts this seems a long standing known issue and I wonder why Quicken doesn't make the problem (and solution) more searchable. I tried fixing this with support and after over an hour they said none of them knew much about investment accounts, but did find this discussion and directed me here. Thank you all!

Some brokerages do downloads like Vanguard and some do it like Fidelity.  The brokerage owns what data they download and that is not something Quicken can fix.

The fund itself doesn't make any difference.  It is the Core Fund (Settlement Fund or something else for other Brokerages) designation that triggers the situation with Fidelity.  The Core Fund simply replaces the historical sweep deposit account that Fidelity now uses because they can now pay much higher interest than they can with a sweep account but Fidelity still treats it like cash.  So, yes, if you make the changes I suggested, you should no longer have any FZFXX shares in your holdings in Quicken (they will still show up in your Fidelity online account) and the value of your FZFXX shares will show up in Quicken as Cash.  You will just need to keep reminding yourself that as far as Fidelity is concerned, Core = Cash and Cash = Core.  It won't take long to get used to that.

And, the best part is that when done your Fidelity account Holdings in Quicken will then match the positions downloaded to Quicken by Fidelity, your Cash Balance in Quicken will then match the Cash Balance downloaded by Fidelity and your total Fidelity Market Value will match what was downloaded to Quicken by Fidelity.

mykmelez

I use Quicken on macOS and found that the steps in the accepted answer worked for me with these two differences:

1. In step #1, I wasn't able to change Core Fund proceeds to "Deposit to Core Account." My account is a BrokerageLink account (a brokerage account attached to a 401k) whose Core Fund is Fidelity Government Cash Reserves, and according to https://www.fidelity.com/customer-service/how-to-dividend-and-cap-gains-distributions, that fund "can only be coded to reinvest in a security."

2. In step #4, I didn't need to change any dividend reinvestment transactions for my Core Fund to income transactions that pay into the account's balance, as they already are such transactions. (I'm assuming these are the transactions whose type is Dividend Income, payee is "FIDELITY GOVERNMENT CASH RESERVES," and Description/Category is Investments:Dividend Income.)

Upon completing the process, my account is finally reconciled in Quicken for the first time ever. Thanks for the detailed assistance!