Can I force a reconciliation for investment accounts?

cwpomeroy
cwpomeroy Member ✭✭
edited December 2022 in Investing (Windows)
I've got a bunch of investment accounts (Brokerage, IRA, etc..) that I've had for years. I've never really paid attention to how the assets were sold and the tax stuff doesn't matter to me. But I've got them all messed up relative to holdings, cap gains etc.. I want to force a reconciliation with my online balances/holdings and just get everything synced up, using my online balances as the source of truth. Is there a way to force that reconciliation?

Also, Merrill Lynch uses cash sweep accounts and other solutions that are not being recognized by the account download and causing cash discrepancies in these trading accounts. Is there a way to pick them up appropriately? Honestly, this is all making tracking the data in Quicken almost useless for me.

Appreciate the help... I'm a decades long user of Quicken but it seems to be getting harder and harder to get value out of this app as it gets harder to stay in sync.

Best Answers

  • Mark1104
    Mark1104 Member ✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    @cwpomeroy - since you don't care about the cost basis, you can go into Online Center and it'll show the variances betwen Q and the brokerage balances.  Then manually create an ADD or REMOVE transactions for each security. That will be the shares back in balance. 

    tools>online center...then click the 'holdings' tab and then 'compare to portfolio'


  • Tom Young
    Tom Young Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    You just really can't rely on downloads to keep your Investment Accounts accurate, and that's all there is to it.  Too frequently the information provided by the Financial Institutions (FIs) is simply incorret, at least from an "accounting" standpoint, and this is especially the case where "corporate actions" - acquisitions, mergers, spinoffs, etc. - take place.  If you want to have correct and accurate records you have to keep on top of what's being sent into the Account by the FIs and then also understand the correct accounting for any particular corporate action so that you can delete the FIs' downloads and make your own entries.
    If you don't want to do the work that entails then one approach - along the lines of @Mark1104 's suggestion - would be to use the "Update share balance..." and "Update cash balance..." actions available from the drop down list when you click on the gearwheel in the upper right hand corner of the Account to get your numbers to align with whatever the FIs are showing, and then periodically do that again - every month end or quarter end - to keep things aligned. 
    It's certainly not a reconciliation, it's more along the lines of "plug accounting", but it should work to keep the Accounts more or less properly stated as to current value.

Answers

  • Mark1104
    Mark1104 Member ✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    @cwpomeroy - since you don't care about the cost basis, you can go into Online Center and it'll show the variances betwen Q and the brokerage balances.  Then manually create an ADD or REMOVE transactions for each security. That will be the shares back in balance. 

    tools>online center...then click the 'holdings' tab and then 'compare to portfolio'


  • Tom Young
    Tom Young Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓
    You just really can't rely on downloads to keep your Investment Accounts accurate, and that's all there is to it.  Too frequently the information provided by the Financial Institutions (FIs) is simply incorret, at least from an "accounting" standpoint, and this is especially the case where "corporate actions" - acquisitions, mergers, spinoffs, etc. - take place.  If you want to have correct and accurate records you have to keep on top of what's being sent into the Account by the FIs and then also understand the correct accounting for any particular corporate action so that you can delete the FIs' downloads and make your own entries.
    If you don't want to do the work that entails then one approach - along the lines of @Mark1104 's suggestion - would be to use the "Update share balance..." and "Update cash balance..." actions available from the drop down list when you click on the gearwheel in the upper right hand corner of the Account to get your numbers to align with whatever the FIs are showing, and then periodically do that again - every month end or quarter end - to keep things aligned. 
    It's certainly not a reconciliation, it's more along the lines of "plug accounting", but it should work to keep the Accounts more or less properly stated as to current value.

Categories