Continuing issue with placeholders being put in when Money Market funds are bought/sold [Edited]

Roger Mac

Have continuing problems with placeholders being put in accounts when money market funds are bought/sold. when erase all the p/h's and manually enter the transaction to match the broker statement it won't let the cash paid be deducted from the account.

Chris_QPW

What is "best" really depends on the financial institution. Some of them send no transactions for the money market fund. For those clearly the best thing to do is just let it use the cash balance. There are others that actually send the proper transactions then treating it as a security works the best.

And then there is Chase. 😉 (and maybe others)

See this comment (so I don't have to explain it again):

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20400898#Comment_20400898

But to your statement:

it won't let the cash paid be deducted from the account

The only time I know that can happen is if the account is set to "Single mutual fund account" mode, where there should only be one fund and no cash for the account. Check the Account Details to see if this mode is selected.

If the account has a linked checking account that might also explain, but I'm not sure because I don't use that mode, but the idea is that the cash would come and go as transfer to that account.

But it seems like something else from what is going on is missing.

Back to what I would suggest in general about placeholders, they should always be blocked. A placeholder basically what a balance adjustment is to a reconcile (admitting that something in your account isn't really reconciled), but with shares instead of cash.

In my case with Chase, I know that they are going to be sending me temporary "fund shares" that will eventually zero out. So, what I do is what I described in the comment I posted above. I will add that I have all the "Compare Portfolio" settings off. It is the "compare" that triggers Quicken looking if its shares don't match what the financial institutions sent in the last download. I do that same compare, but when I find it convenient, and when I can look at the differences and ignore the "temporary money funds".

NotACPA

I don't bother with the buy/sale of MMF's. I just carry the cash in my IRA accounts as cash. MUCH simpler.

Exception is for my taxable brokerage account where I've told Q to "Show cash in a checking account" … which is my primary checking account.

Chris_QPW

What is "best" really depends on the financial institution. Some of them send no transactions for the money market fund. For those clearly the best thing to do is just let it use the cash balance. There are others that actually send the proper transactions then treating it as a security works the best.

And then there is Chase. 😉 (and maybe others)

See this comment (so I don't have to explain it again):

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20400898#Comment_20400898

But to your statement:

it won't let the cash paid be deducted from the account

The only time I know that can happen is if the account is set to "Single mutual fund account" mode, where there should only be one fund and no cash for the account. Check the Account Details to see if this mode is selected.

If the account has a linked checking account that might also explain, but I'm not sure because I don't use that mode, but the idea is that the cash would come and go as transfer to that account.

But it seems like something else from what is going on is missing.

Back to what I would suggest in general about placeholders, they should always be blocked. A placeholder basically what a balance adjustment is to a reconcile (admitting that something in your account isn't really reconciled), but with shares instead of cash.

In my case with Chase, I know that they are going to be sending me temporary "fund shares" that will eventually zero out. So, what I do is what I described in the comment I posted above. I will add that I have all the "Compare Portfolio" settings off. It is the "compare" that triggers Quicken looking if its shares don't match what the financial institutions sent in the last download. I do that same compare, but when I find it convenient, and when I can look at the differences and ignore the "temporary money funds".

Jim_Harman

Despite what the prompt implies, the "Compare account portfolio after download" option does not automatically create Placeholders. If you note any differences then click on Done or close the mismatch window, it will not create Placeholders and you can correct the mismatches manually.

Also if Buys do not affect the cash balance, that often indicates that there are still one or more Placeholders for that security in the account at a later date than the transaction you are trying to enter.

To make Placeholders visible, go to Edit > Preferences > Investing and make sure the Show hidden transactions box is checked. 

To allow the cash balance to change when entering missing transactions that affect the cash balance, you must first delete all the Placeholders for this security that have later dates than the transaction you are entering.

Roger Mac

Thanks Jim - showing the hidden transactions as suggested has surfaced many such over the last months. I'll go through and delete these and do manual entries to match the broker reports. I have also now checked the "never interpret the downloaded Money Market funds as cash" box since these all stem from that.

Roger Mac

Thanks also Chris - very helpful. I have blocked placeholders from being put in the account per your suggestion.