Placeholder Transaction in 401(k) Account

Austin@

I recently noticed that Quicken had created a placeholder transaction in my Fidelity 401(k) account saying I have one extra share entered into Quicken vs what the Financial Institution is reporting.

However, when I compare my transactions on the Fidelity website vs what is in my Quicken register, they match exactly. In fact, on Fidelity's website, it shows the number of shares exactly how it is entered into Quicken:



I download all transactions from the FI (except for the Payment/Deposit transactions that are transferred from my checking account to increase cash balance of 401(k) when I am paid).

Am I missing something here? What might be causing this? Any ideas are appreciated.

Details:
Quicken Version: Quicken for Mac Version 6.4.5
OS: macOS Monterey Version 12.0.1
Financial Institution: Fidelity NetBenefits
Connection Type: Direct Connect

jacobs

My general thought on tiny discrepancies like this, which can be a result of rounding to the number of digits available, is to wait a few days to see if it resolves itself. It sounds like Fidelity is reporting 1,528.236 via their consumer website, but passing 1,528.235 to Quicken. Since 1,528.236 is what you have in Quicken, and what their website says, I'd guess the balance reported to Quicken creating the placeholder is a rounding error in Fidelity's system, and will likely go away on a future date.

You might think rounding errors should never appear, but I'll call your attention to a larger one with the numbers shown. Take the total value of $33,050.09 ÷ 1,528.236 shares and you get a share price of $21.6263. That should be rounded on the website to show a share price of $21.63, but they show it as $21.62 -- a clear rounding error on Fidelity's part. It's not of consequence; I'm just noting they may not be so perfect at rounding values on the consumer-facing website.  

Austin@

@RickO and @jacobs, Thank you both for your help. It does seem to be some kind of weird rounding error. In addition to the placeholder transaction indicating that it was off by -0.001 shares, the market value Quicken was showing was 2 cents off. I ended up just deleting the placeholder transaction and voila, everything now looks perfect (number of shares is correct, market value is correct). I then updated the account to see if Quicken recreated the placeholder (which would indicate that Fidelity was still reporting the discrepancy to Quicken), but no placeholder transactions were created as part of the update. All is well Thanks again!

jacobs

My general thought on tiny discrepancies like this, which can be a result of rounding to the number of digits available, is to wait a few days to see if it resolves itself. It sounds like Fidelity is reporting 1,528.236 via their consumer website, but passing 1,528.235 to Quicken. Since 1,528.236 is what you have in Quicken, and what their website says, I'd guess the balance reported to Quicken creating the placeholder is a rounding error in Fidelity's system, and will likely go away on a future date.

You might think rounding errors should never appear, but I'll call your attention to a larger one with the numbers shown. Take the total value of $33,050.09 ÷ 1,528.236 shares and you get a share price of $21.6263. That should be rounded on the website to show a share price of $21.63, but they show it as $21.62 -- a clear rounding error on Fidelity's part. It's not of consequence; I'm just noting they may not be so perfect at rounding values on the consumer-facing website.  

Austin@

@RickO and @jacobs, Thank you both for your help. It does seem to be some kind of weird rounding error. In addition to the placeholder transaction indicating that it was off by -0.001 shares, the market value Quicken was showing was 2 cents off. I ended up just deleting the placeholder transaction and voila, everything now looks perfect (number of shares is correct, market value is correct). I then updated the account to see if Quicken recreated the placeholder (which would indicate that Fidelity was still reporting the discrepancy to Quicken), but no placeholder transactions were created as part of the update. All is well Thanks again!

Whirly

Why should I just ignore a 2 cent error. Funds that I sold 6 years ago are showing up on my portfolio list and I can't get rid of them. I don't mind a stock I own being out by .02 but a stock I haven't owned in 6 years showing up with a value of 2 cents is absolutely annoying.

jacobs

@Whirly If Quicken thinks you own a security with a value of $.02, look to see how much of a share that is (probably something like .001 shares), and enter a transaction, dated 6 years ago, to Remove Shares for .001 share. That should make the value in your portfolio disappear, in the past and currently.