Can't turn place markers off for certain accounts.

Question

For the past 6-8 months Quicken has been nagging me about my Merrill Lynch cash balance being out of whack.  The problem is that the account has 2 money funds that ML considers to be cash and reports as so.   However quicken sees them as individual securities.  So it makes for an impossible task to keep quicken happy and my account's Total value correct.   I've got all place markers for all my accounts turned off yet any time there's a new transaction to post Quicken's Cash alert pops up to cram an extra $20k of cash into the account.   What's weird Quicken doesn't care about the account's market value being grossly overstated when its done wrecking my account.
 I've had these funds for several years without issue.   The strangest thing is why the place markers can't be turned off for this problem.

ml qkn cashm.jpg

qkn pm stngm.jpg

Chris_QPW · Answer

Well I did say I was confused about this I have never seen that dialogue before so I really don't know what's going on I was just hoping that it might have been something misunderstanding about placeholders.

JB · Answer

> @Chris_QPW said:
 > Placeholders have nothing to do with the cash balance.
 > 
 So following a download with a transaction  Quicken presents a popup window asking that i verify my Cash Balance.  See screen shot in original post.    No matter what i do,  change value or click exit or click done.  Quicken while create a cash deposit to my account equal to the number share of the "Preferred Deposit" security that ML considers Cash.   Followed by a place holder.    
  If i liquidate the Preferred Deposit security in Quicken and leave everything as cash then the next download Quicken will add a place holder for the Preferred Deposit shares ML is reporting I own.

What bugs me is I've had these 2 cash funds for over 3 years and never had problems until last summer when it started nagging about the cash balance.

For whatever reason Quicken doesnt see my cash balance is made up of  CASH and the Preferred Deposit shares.

It would be so much easier if I could get rid of Quicken second guessing my account status and wrecking my register with BS transactions.  Its not like they are taking responsibility for the accuracy of my books.

Chris_QPW · Answer

Placeholders have nothing to do with the cash balance.

Now I will state right off the bat that I'm having a hard time rapping my head around exactly what is going on, but maybe some more information will help you.

Just as a "balance adjustment" is to a non reconciled cash balance, a placeholder is a "share balance adjustment".

When you download transactions the financial institution includes the number of shares for every security, and the cash balance.  And you are correct you can turn off this check with that setting, but since it has nothing to do with the cash balance it isn't going to help if the problem is with the cash balance.

The "Compare account portfolio after download" is the equivalent of selecting the the Gear icon in the register and "Reconcile shares".  And I don't believe that it compares the cash balance, which in the register would be the "reconcile"/Ctrl+R.  In other words investment accounts don't have an "automatic reconcile" or "compare to online balance" option, even though the financial institution is actually providing that information in the QFX data sent.

Now to the original problem.  There isn't a one size fits all because different financial institutions do this differently (what they send to Quicken).

With Vanguard they send the transactions to transfer cash in and out of the MM security.  So it is best to have that security in Quicken and just allow those transactions to do this.

With Fidelity they never send the transactions to transfer cash in and of their MM security.  So in that case the best approach is to just have a cash balance and not have the MM security in Quicken at all.

I don't know which way Merrill Lynch does this, but the "best practice" is to follow whatever flow they are using. If you actually have two MM securities and they aren't sending the transactions to transfer in and out of them then you will have a cash balance that has both of them and will just have to deal with it that way.