Fidelity 401k downloaded transaction are defaulting to using cash from account balance

Question

About a month ago, when I download my 401k transaction from Fidelity, each investment that is bought is defaulting to using teh 401k accounts cash balance. This creates a negative cash balance, and I have to go into each transaction and manually tell it to "use cash for this transaction. From: " which fixes the issue. However, I never had to do this before; as it would just default to "use cash for this transaction. From: " Anyone have this? How can I force it back to "use cash for this transaction. From: "?

Frankx · Answer

Hi again @James White

Very true - however the match transaction is easily entered with one deposit-type "memorized transaction" which is posted to the category "_401EmployerContrib".

BTW - which "account" or "Category" are you currently posting the additions to the 401(k) account to?

Frankx

James White · Answer

Yeah, Frank, thanks for this info; it crossed my mind too.  However, my 5% company match, which obviously does not come from my paycheck, is baked into each downloaded transaction.  So, I still think I would have an issue as I wouldn't be able to transfer the correct amount from my paycheck.

Frankx · Answer

Hi @James White,

This is likely a change that Fidelity made to the information that is downloaded, rather than a setting in Quicken.  It sounds like the downloads were previously coded by Fidelity to use a "Bought" transaction, which uses funds from the same account for the Buy, as opposed to a "BoughtX" transaction, which uses funds from another Quicken account for the Buy.

It actually makes sense - for a 401(k) account where the participant is currently employed - that the downloads would be coded "Bought" for new transactions because there are usually funds in a 401(k) account (coming from paycheck entries) which are the withholdings from your paycheck, that would routinely be recorded  the 401(k) account.

You may want to review how your paychecks are being recorded, because that seems like where the problem lies.

Frankx