401k Balance

Prairiegeek

My 401k account does not have a sync option. I enter the transactions manually. The balance in the account bar matches the register balance "total market value". The "total market value" is a combination of "securities value" and "cash balance". All of it should be in the 'securities value". I have looked up and down the register and all transactions have been entered the same and look the same. How do I change the transactions to make them all in the "securities value"?

Frankx

So it seems like something happened to that account in the past which neither of us know or understand.  But you really only want to have the value of the 401k account appear in your Quicken file for reference purposes, not to track the investments and activity - right?

Well then, my suggestion would be to:

1) backup your Quicken datafile, just in case;
2) delete that particular account from Quicken;
3) Set up a new Quicken account and enter the most recent total value of the 401k account from the website as a cash balance in the new account.

Frankx

Frankx

Hi @Prairiegeek

So, bear with me if I am being too basic here, but from what you've said there should be two types of what I'll call "regularly occurring transactions" - the first would be a "contribution" transaction that comes in to the 401k from your regular paycheck withholdings, which increases the "Cash Balance" of the 401k account.  The second type of regular transaction is the "investment transaction" which represents the buying of investment securities  and which decreases the Cash Balance.

You've said that there should be only "securities value (i.e. no Cash Balance) in the account, so logic would say that it is likely that some of the cash contribution transactions are missing from the account.  The best way to find the missing transactions go back in time to when the balance in Quicken matched the balance on one of your periodic 401k statements (or alternatively when it matched the online balance shown on the 401k plan's website).

There are other potential types of transactions (such as income received from investments that is automatically reinvested in securities or the selling and buying of plan investments) that could also not be recorded properly, or at all in Quicken.

I hope this helps you to track down where the problems are.  If you have any followup questions or want me to expand on any part of the above, please let me know.

Frankx

Boatnmaniac

Some ideas that come to mind:

• Do you have a paycheck reminder set up that includes a pre-tax deduction for 401K contributions and/or for employer contributions?  If so, when you enter those reminders into your checking account it will also make cash deposits to your 401K that will show up in the Cash Balance.  If so, then this cash deposited to the account should have been used to buy securities.  Take a look at your Buy Shares transactions to make sure they are set up to use cash from the account's Cash Balance to make those securities purchases.
• Do you have Dividend and/or Interest and/or Sell Shares transactions in which the cash proceeds are paid into the Cash Balance of the account?  If so, take a look at your Buy Shares transactions to make sure that the cash used to do the buys was taken from the account's Cash Balance.
• Are there any Dividend and/or Interest transactions that should have been entered as Reinvest Dividend or Interest transactions?  Reinvest transactions will not deposit the Dividend and/or Interest to the Cash Balance and will increase the shares held.
  
• Take a look to see if you have any Add Shares transactions that perhaps should have been Buy Shares transactions?
• Are any/all management expense transactions missing that should be added in?
  

Does any of this help?

Prairiegeek

I understand the investment side of the account. I manage the account via their website. What I do is simply enter a balance into quicken on the day I check the website. The transaction is simply an addition to the account. I keep this so I have a quick view of it with all my other accounts. I am looking to clean up the transactions in that account. If that is not possible then so be it. I must haven entered them wrong and I can live with that.

Bob_L

Have you tried recalculating the register for the 401k account?  With the register open enter CTL ALT Z.

Prairiegeek

Yes. No change.

Frankx

So, you say that you enter a "balance" in the Quicken account.  Is the balance you enter the total balance in the 401k account, or is it an "adjustment" that will make the balance in the Quicken 401k account agree with the online balance from the website.  Do I have that right?

If it is the former - then it makes sense that the balance is wrong.  If you only want to make sure that the balance in your Quicken account agrees with the balance from the website, you should only be making entries that adjust the Quicken account balance at a given point in time (i.e. only enter the adjustment amount- either up or down).

Frankx

Prairiegeek

It is an adjustment.

Frankx

So at any point in time - take the amount per the 401k website and subtract the Quicken balance from it.  If the result is a positive number - add that to the Quicken account.  If the result is a negative number - deduct that from the Quicken account.  

Prairiegeek

That is what I do. My question is the balance in the ledger is split on the lower right of the screen into the cash and securities. I would like it to be one or the other. So how do i change it? If I can't so be it.

Frankx

So apparently at some time in the past you must have been tracking securities in the Quicken account.  The easiest thing to do would be to delete all securities in the account and going forward just make the periodic adjustments as "cash" entries.

Frankx

Prairiegeek

*There in lies the problem. I never have. All the transactions appear to be the same.

Frankx

So it seems like something happened to that account in the past which neither of us know or understand.  But you really only want to have the value of the 401k account appear in your Quicken file for reference purposes, not to track the investments and activity - right?

Well then, my suggestion would be to:

1) backup your Quicken datafile, just in case;
2) delete that particular account from Quicken;
3) Set up a new Quicken account and enter the most recent total value of the 401k account from the website as a cash balance in the new account.

Frankx

Prairiegeek

Thanks Frankx!

Frankx

Happy to help!