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Security purchase not offsetting cash in account

BDoruf

I have a security that was purchased with cash in an investment account, but the cash still is showing in the account on Quicken. This transaction originally resulted in a placeholder entry, and the placeholder entry was deleted. I am still showing the security and the cash in the account. This is further compounded by the security not updating correctly. I am using Quicken for Windows v. R54.16 Build 27.1.54.16.

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Mark1104

repost - looks like part of your message did not post

[Deleted User]

@BDoruf - First verify that the "Show hidden transactions" option is checked in Preferences→Investments. Then scan the account register for any remaining placeholder entries that should be reviewed and/or deleted.

I am not sure what you mean by "security not updating correctly"? Is there an issue with pricing? Transactions?

What type of security is it? Does it show a CUSIP in the Security List?

BDoruf

This is a Fidelity Investments mutual fund, similar to several other funds that I have accounted for in Quicken over the many years I have been using the product. I liquidated two other funds in the investment account and used that cash in part to acquire this fund. I was in the process of liquidating additional holdings to fund this purchase, however, the "purchase" was transacted by Fidelity prior to the liquidation of the other holdings. When I updated Quicken, it created a placeholder entry for the new fund. I don't know if the issue is that the date of the purchase preceded the rest of the liquidations to obtain the cash. The transactions are all accounted for accurately in my Fidelity account. I have tried to manually enter the transaction into the register, but the cash balance in the account does not offset the cost of the fund, regardless of how I enter it.

The "Show hidden transactions" brought the placeholder entry back up. All other placeholder entries that showed up have already been resolved.

Jim_Harman

If you try to enter a Buy transaction is prior to the Placeholder date for the same security, the Placeholder will prevent the Buy from affecting the cash balance. In order for the Buy to work properly, you must first delete the Placeholder.

If you have entered the Buy before deleting the Placeholder, you may see an automatically generated Cash Balance adjustment just before the Buy. Once you have deleted the Placeholder, you can also delete the Cash Balance adjustment.

Resolving Placeholders, i.e. reducing the adjustment to 0.0 shares, does not allow earlier transactions to affect the cash balance. You must actually delete the Placeholder.

BDoruf

Ok - Since I checked the "Show hidden transactions" I now show every placeholder ever on this account including this one (which I had previously deleted). All other placeholders have been resolved. Should I delete all placeholders at this point including this one, then manually enter the transaction? I don't see a single placeholder delete option.

[Deleted User]

@BDoruf I think you can safely delete the placeholders if they show a zero share balance. If not, they need to be reviewed and and the missing transactions entered into Quicken. When you enter the missing transactions the share balance of the placeholder transaction will go to zero. Sometimes it's not a missing transaction but a transaction that needs to be corrected. Once a placeholder's share balance goes to zero, you can safely delete it. This need to be done for each placeholder.

Jim_Harman

If by "resolved" you mean the Placeholder adjustments are all zero, then yes you should delete the Placeholders. To delete en masse, click on the Placeholder Entries tab at the bottom right of the Transaction List and there should be a Delete all button. Be sure to back up your data before doing this in case the result is not what you expected.

BDoruf

All of the other placeholder entries show 0 share balances, but the current one in question shows a positive share balance equal to what I purchased and has a comment "Enter Cost".

[Deleted User]

@BDoruf is the placeholder's date before the corresponding purchase transaction? If so, I think the place holder then can be safely deleted. But verify this by changing the placeholder's date to after the purchase transaction, and the placeholder should then go to a zero balance.

BDoruf

Placeholder date is currently after the purchase transaction.

[Deleted User]

@BDoruf If you place the placeholder before the purchase date, does it change? Also, in the account register do a "Reconcile shares" and confirm that your shares are in balance. If your shares are currently in balance with that placeholder in place with a balance other than zero, that means that it needs the placeholder, which further means that there might be another missing transaction.

BDoruf

Not sure exactly what I just did, but the Reconcile Shares showed the shares are in balance. But I now have the fund in the account and the cash balance disappeared. Only issue now is that the purchase was on the 7th and the price movement on the 8th is not updating so the market value is off. But that's for another time.

BDoruf

Thanks all for your assistance!

Jim_Harman

Sounds like you deleted the placeholder and the cash balance adjustment so everything is correct now.