Fidelity 401(k) is showing a cash balance, effectively doubling my account balance

Question

My Fidelity 401(k) balance is double what it should be due to the addition of a non-existent cash balance for the same amount as my investments.  I tried zeroing out the cash balance, but it will not accept a 0.  I ended up adding a -1, which at least makes my balance closer to reality.  I've seen several posts about this issue, and it seems Quicken is doing nothing to fix it.  This is the kind of frustrating situation that will lead me to look for another product.  Please fix this!

jmorgand · Answer

@Chris_QPW, that seems to have worked.

Chris_QPW · Answer

For what it is worth, this problem is restricted to Simple mode for 401k accounts at Fidelity.

Personally, I doubt there is going to be any fix for this problem.

It is only happening for Fidelity 401k accounts, which implies that it is Fidelity that has to fix the problem, opposed to something actually wrong with Simple investment mode.  I doubt there is enough push back from those customers that fall into this exact category.

This is sort of similar to the problems people have with reconciling to the online balance when the online balance is wrong.  Most of the time, the reason the online balance is wrong is because the financial institution is sending the wrong online balance.

Simple investment mode relies on the "investment summary information" provided during the download being correct.  Whereas Complete mode is using the investment transaction information, which the exception of the "compare" being done with some of the "investment summary information"

Jim_Harman · Answer

I have not experienced the problem myself, but if you leave the account in Complete mode and record all the transactions correctly, the balances should be correct.

Note there is a different issue with some Fidelity accounts where the Securities Comparison Mismatch appears at the end of a download session when it should not. Hopefully you will not encounter that.