I think I manually entered an Establish Cash Balance

John52

1/18/18 I thought it in order to correct Quicken SEP IRA tracking to agree with my banks IRA statement and I manually entered $80K+. It shows as XOUT, Establish Cash Balance,[My SEP IRA]. Investment column shows +$80K and Cash Amount column shows as -$80K. My Cash Amount column has been negative ever since. So Quicken amount does not agree with my bank amount.

Frankx

Hi again @John52,

I apologize, but I am having difficulty understanding exactly what you are seeing, and as a result, it is really difficult to help you fix your problems. 

That being said I would not suggest that you not create a new account in Quicken just yet. My reasoning is that leaving the old account in your Quicken datafile, and then adding a new account (really just a duplicate one and where you will only be able to download 120 days of data) is more likely to exacerbate the problem than fix it.  But if you do go that route, I suggest that you make sure that you have a good backup file before you try it, and that you change the settings on the old account to keep it separate xxxx


But before you go that route, a better approach (which you can try first to see if it suits your needs and reverse if it does not) would be to change this account to a "simple investing" account.  This is fairly new to Quicken but it eliminates all the transactions and the tracking that goes with it but still keeps your account balances up to date.  I also believe that - since the account you are having problems with is a SEP IRA (where all amounts distributed to you will be ordinary income (i.e. no capital gains) ) - this could be an easy fix.

Here are the steps you'll need to take:

1) Save a backup of your Quicken datafile, just in case something goes wrong or you don't like the result;
2) Open the register for this problem account;
3) Click on the "Gear" icon in the upper right > Select "Edit account details";
4) In the pop-up window - in the lower left hand side - click "Simple - Positions Only";
5) In the new "warning" type pop-up window > Select "Yes";
6) In the pop-up window - click "OK".

You will now see a different view of this account which no longer displays the register. In the upper right click on the "Update Quotes" button.

You will not longer have an account register and your account in Quicken should now agree with the brokerage firm.

Let me know how this goes or if you have any followups.

Frankx

Frankx

@John52

Did you connect with the financial institution (Wells?) after you made the switch to "simple investing"?  If not, do a transaction download/update and then see if that fixes it.

Frankx

Boatnmaniac

Hi @John52 .  What you did was entered a Cash Transferred out of Account transaction (XOUT) which reduced your account cash balance by $80K (now showing a -$80K cash balance).

But the transaction transferred the cash right back into the same account...because of the [My SEP IRA].  So Quicken thinks this is a +$80K investment contribution to the account.

The net effect of this transaction is $0 because $80K was transferred out and $80K was transferred right back in.

If all you want to do is correct the cash balance, I suggest you:

1. Back up your data file in case something goes wrong.
2. Delete that XOUT transaction.
3. In the SEP IRA account register go to:  Upper right Gear icon > Update cash balance.
4. Enter the cash balance of the account per that 1/18/18 bank statement ($80K?), enter that date and click OK.

Did this resolve the issue?

John52

Thanks! I have not yet tried your suggestion. I notice about the same date, there are double entries.
Partial distributions twice on 01/09/18 and allocation advisors fee twice on 01/12/18. There are numerous double entries including stock purchases for the exact same dollar amount a few days apart. I did not enter these manually, they were downloaded. I don't know if I should just delete one of the
doubles after backing up and see what happens.

Frankx

Hi @John52,

Based on the new information you have provided, I would suggest that you:

1) make a backup copy of your datafile;
2) if possible, dig out a copy of the broker statement for January 2018 (either paper or online), and - one by one- compare transactions in Quicken to the statement.
3) delete any duplicate transactions from the Quicken account register;
4) compare the new balance (as of 1/31/18) in the account in Quicken with the paper statement, making sure they agree.
5) if the above does not fix your current account balance problem - consider comparing month-end balances on a quarterly basis from 2/2018 to today to detect any other errors.

Let us know how that goes or if you have any followups.

Frankx

John52

I have made some progress based on your suggestion, but for one when I delete the Xout and try to update the cash balance, then I end up with like twice the total in the account. And maybe it's because I don't get the difference between the "Cash value" of the entire account and the liquid cash in the account that is not invested. I have years of missing downloads from like 2014 to 2017. I can't enter all those statement entries manually, so I think I need to establish a new account which Wells Fargo Advisors
will only allow 120 prior days of transactions. Then I would hide the problem account so it would be available for reference if needed because is linked to my checking account at a different bank where the
minimum distributions are deposited from my SEP IRA each month. I tried setting up a new SEP IRA account with Quicken, but the process always picks up that I already have a Wells Fargo Advisor account. I want to get this squared away, but just cant seem to fix it. I see others are frustrated with Wells Fargo Advisors as well and I've had my account since May 2011!

Frankx

Hi again @John52,

I apologize, but I am having difficulty understanding exactly what you are seeing, and as a result, it is really difficult to help you fix your problems. 

That being said I would not suggest that you not create a new account in Quicken just yet. My reasoning is that leaving the old account in your Quicken datafile, and then adding a new account (really just a duplicate one and where you will only be able to download 120 days of data) is more likely to exacerbate the problem than fix it.  But if you do go that route, I suggest that you make sure that you have a good backup file before you try it, and that you change the settings on the old account to keep it separate xxxx


But before you go that route, a better approach (which you can try first to see if it suits your needs and reverse if it does not) would be to change this account to a "simple investing" account.  This is fairly new to Quicken but it eliminates all the transactions and the tracking that goes with it but still keeps your account balances up to date.  I also believe that - since the account you are having problems with is a SEP IRA (where all amounts distributed to you will be ordinary income (i.e. no capital gains) ) - this could be an easy fix.

Here are the steps you'll need to take:

1) Save a backup of your Quicken datafile, just in case something goes wrong or you don't like the result;
2) Open the register for this problem account;
3) Click on the "Gear" icon in the upper right > Select "Edit account details";
4) In the pop-up window - in the lower left hand side - click "Simple - Positions Only";
5) In the new "warning" type pop-up window > Select "Yes";
6) In the pop-up window - click "OK".

You will now see a different view of this account which no longer displays the register. In the upper right click on the "Update Quotes" button.

You will not longer have an account register and your account in Quicken should now agree with the brokerage firm.

Let me know how this goes or if you have any followups.

Frankx

John52

Will the simple program trach my required minimum distributions to my checking account?
Or will I manually enter the distribution in my checking account? It seems that the simple accounting should track it in a sense because shares must be sold to generate the distribution.

Frankx

Hi again @John52,

The Simple Investing method will reduce the value of the SEP account (based on using the "Update" feature), but it will not make an "entry" into the checking account.  Said differently, the SEP "investment" account balance will be correct but you'll need to download the deposit into your checking account from the bank where you have that account.  If you don't download the checking account activity (i.e. if it isn't setup for download) you'll need to make the manual entry there.

Frankx

John52

Tried it. Wells says about $94K. Quicken now says $131K and the share totals are not correct. I think along the way there was the message about 17 placeholders were..... I'll have to restore the backup and try again I guess.

Frankx

@John52

Did you connect with the financial institution (Wells?) after you made the switch to "simple investing"?  If not, do a transaction download/update and then see if that fixes it.

Frankx

John52

Genius! That did fix it! Grateful!

Frankx

Hi @John52,

Happy to help!  Take care.

Frankx