How to Reconcile Shares in a mutual fund or brokerage account - use Online Center & Holdings

Ps56k2

I saw this come up in another posting - but then tried a few things out....

It would appear that the Reconcile works for single holding mutual fund account,
where the actual shares are what are being reconciled. 

However - if you have a mutual fund account, like Vanguard, Fidelity, etc - where mutiple holdings exist, the only thing you see being reconciled, is Cash....

So... is there any way to Reconcile the shares in a mutual fund brokerage account ?

Sherlock

What we do when we reconcile an investment account with a statement obtained from a financial institution is open the account, select Holdings, set the As of: date to the closing date of the statement, and compare the number of shares and market value.

If we just want to compare the current holdings with those obtained when we last downloaded, we select Tools > Online Center, the financial institution, the account, the Holdings tab, and Compare to Portfolio...

Ps56k2

Sherlock said:  If we just want to compare the current holdings with those obtained when we last downloaded, we select Tools > Online Center, the financial institution, the account, the Holdings tab, and Compare to Portfolio...

tnx - hopefully its actually comparing the "shares". 
I've done the paper compare every so often for reconcile of mutual fund shares...

Most only pay every so often, or end of year - but bonds do every month... so miss sometimes if I don't OSU those accounts.

BTW - leave it to Quicken to always get lost in the nits....
Units = have 1, 2, or 4 dec places
Unit price = depends...2 dec place or 4 dec place  - AND has "," separator
Market Value = all have 2 dec place, but NO "," separator

Chris_QPW

Note that in the investment register if you select the gear icon -> Reconcile Shares that is the same thing as going to the Online Center and working down to "Compare to Portfolio..."  You can also put this on your action bar.

What it is doing is that every time you download transactions part of the information sent is the current share balances.  This compares your shares in Quicken to those numbers.

So my process normally is:

1. Download transactions.
2. Review to make sure they are correct (especially the action since in some accounts it get "Buys" when they should be reinvest).
3. Then I select the action button I have set for "Reconcile Shares" and make sure that is in agreement (almost always is).
4. The I select the action button I have setup for the cash reconcile and go through that.  (Wrong amount of cash usually points to #2, action wrong problems).

Also you should be aware of these settings:
Edit -> Preferences -> Downloaded transactions -> Compare account portfolio after download.  With that on, basically you can skip #3 above for any accounts that you have selected.  I actually have all my accounts selected, so I could skip #3, but it does give me a "warm fuzzy" to see:

Chris_QPW

P.S.  One thing on the comparing of shares.  Quicken can only compare to what the brokerage sends.  There have been times where I have caught the broker sending Quicken a rounded off number of shares in comparison to what they have on their website.

Sherlock

Chris_QPW said:

P.S.  One thing on the comparing of shares.  Quicken can only compare to what the brokerage sends.  There have been times where I have caught the broker sending Quicken a rounded off number of shares in comparison to what they have on their website.

Which is why we prefer using Compare to Portfolio... on the Holdings tab of the Online Center window.  The Holdings tab shows us what the brokerage sent.

Jim_Harman

I have my accounts set to Compare to Portfolio after download and I am satisfied that the account is reconciled and all is OK if I do not see any message after accepting all the transactions. 

For some FIs (I'm looking at you, T Rowe Price!), usually after a dividend reinvestment,  I will sometimes get the security mismatch dialog indicating that there is a small mismatch of .0007 shares or so. I think this is caused by a a rounding error or a difference in the number of digits in the shares reinvested and the share balance reported. 

The key in this situation is to NOT let Quicken create a Placeholder but to note the difference, close the mismatch dialog, and adjust the shares in the Reinvest dialog up or down to eliminate the difference. After making the adjustment, I go to Reconcile Shares and look for the Holdings are in agreement message.

I think "agreement" means a difference of less than .001 share.  

Chris_QPW

Sherlock said:

Chris_QPW said:

P.S.  One thing on the comparing of shares.  Quicken can only compare to what the brokerage sends.  There have been times where I have caught the broker sending Quicken a rounded off number of shares in comparison to what they have on their website.

Which is why we prefer using Compare to Portfolio... on the Holdings tab of the Online Center window.  The Holdings tab shows us what the brokerage sent.

If there is a difference with what Quicken has and what the brokerage sent, you get the Placeholder dialog like @Jim_Harman mentioned and there they show both numbers. 


And since we are talking "reconciling", like he said it is of course important not to accept the place holder since that is the equivalent of giving up on a reconcile for the cash amount/non investment account and having Quicken enter and "adjustment".  Which of course defeats the purpose of reconciling, that of making sure your Quicken data and the financial institution agree.

Ps56k2

Chris_QPW said:  Also you should be aware of these settings:
Edit -> Preferences -> Downloaded transactions -> Compare account portfolio after download. 

Tnx  -
Just checked - and have selected ALL Accounts

Ps56k2

Thanks all  ....

always a continuing education with Quicken -

Can't believe I never noticed that big green "Reconcile Shares" on the Investing Gear -
... but in my design mind -
I would have placed the two Reconcile menu items next to each other...