Retirement account- manual (Q Mac)

pstarfam

I have a 401K account that I have to download transactions rather than sync. When I compared it recently with what I can see online at the account I noticed the number of shares was off. I have more shares than Quicken shows. How do I add more shares? Thanks

jacobs

If you just want to get the Quicken account to match the brokerage, you can create a manual transaction in the account using Type=Add Shares.

The only issue is that while you know how many shares to add, Quicken will want to know the cost of those shares. If you have no idea why and when the discrepancy originated, you'll have to enter your best guess estimate of the cost (or the share price, which might be easier if you're taking a guess). Of course, if you enter a guesstimated cost/share price, then Quicken will never provide you precise data on your gains/losses.

Have you been tracking this account in Quicken for long? Did the Quicken values ever agree with your brokerage statement? For instance, can you go back to your 2022 year-end statement and compare to Quicken on that date, to see it the number of shares and market value were correct or wrong. If wrong, go back another year. If correct, move forward a quarter. If you can figure out where the discrepancy originated — perhaps a missing reinvested dividend transaction — then you can enter the missing transaction and then your amounts and reports going forward will be precisely accurate. (I compare my investment account statement to my Quicken portfolio values each quarter or month to insure that my Quicken data accurately reflects what's happened in the real world.)

pstarfam

Very helpful. I am reviewing statements. Thanks. I also notice in my portfolio view, I have $51K of cash, besides the 5 different funds. What does the cash mean?

Quicken Kristina

Hello @pstarfam,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community. In investment accounts, generally cash balance refers to the actual liquid balance in the investment account.

Thank you.

jacobs

@pstarfam Depending on the brokerage, the cash in the Quicken account may actually be what you have in a money market or sweep fund. Or it may be the proceeds of Sell transactions or Dividends received which you haven't reinvested. As I mentioned above, since your shares are off, perhaps some dividends showed up in your account as cash rather than being reinvested.

volvogirl

Or the cash is being transferred in from your paychecks but hasn't been buying shares in Quicken,