Missing Investment CASH balance in Download

PHowland

The new revision of BNY Pershing's account setup, the Cash is divided into two categories: "Available Cash" and "Available to Trade". Most if not all the "cash" reserve is held in Cash Management accounts listed under "Available to Trade". Unfortunately, the Quicken Direct Connect download only included the Market Value and "Available Cash" so what I see and track in Quicken only shows the Market Value balance (+ the few dollars in Available Cash). The $10k, $20k, $30k that used to be held as "Cash" is now mostly in Available to Trade and does not download into my Quicken Investment account.

Any suggestions on how to get both Cash balances to download so I can see the total account balance? What I am seeing may be off by $10k - $20k on any given day as money flows into and out of Available to Trade Cash - which makes my investment account balance to be rising and falling erratically.

Thanks

Boatnmaniac

Have you previously seen in Quicken a differentiation between Available Cash (i.e., Total Cash?) and Available to Trade?

I have not seen that before even though Fidelity does break out the two on their website, as well. I'm not sure Quicken even has the capability of breaking the two cash buckets out from each other.

What I see with Fidelity:

AT FIDELITY.COM:

• TOTAL CASH: This includes liquid Cash Available to Trade plus non-liquid pending cash. Fidelity does not download this.
• CASH AVAILABLE TO TRADE: This includes liquid cash (or cash equivalents) on hand. It does not include any pending cash resulting from Buy/Sell transactions. Once pending cash transactions have posted, it will be included in this number and it will be equal to TOTAL CASH. This is the number that Fidelity downloads into Quicken.

IN QUICKEN:

• TOTAL CASH: This is the calculated CASH BALANCE (in blue font numbers on the right below the Account Register and in the Holdings view of the Account). It is also shown in the Holdings view of the account. This calculation assumes that there is no pending cash and it shows what the Cash Balance will be after all pending cash has posted.
• CASH AVAILABLE TO TRADE: This is only visible in Quicken by clicking on the Cash Balance blue font number on the right beneath the Account Register. Clicking on this number will open a popup comparing the calculated Cash Balance (i.e., Total Cash) in Quicken and the Cash Balance (i.e., Cash Available to Trade) as downloaded by Quicken.

Buy/Sell transactions can take up to 3 business days for the cash from them to post. (It can take longer sometimes but that is usually avoided because taking longer than 3 business days to post will incur a cash penalty for late payment on either the Buyer or the Seller.)

Since Fidelity downloads only Cash Available to Trade and Quicken only reports Total Cash, these will not always be in agreement with each other because of this approx 3 business day pending cash posting lead-time. Once the Buy/Sell transactions pending cash have posted, then TOTAL CASH and the CASH AVAILABLE TO TRADE will equal each other. Then what Fidelity downloads and what Quicken calculates will be in agreement.

Does this perhaps explain what you are seeing with your Pershing account?

If so, then there is nothing you can do to resolve this other than to wait a few days for the Buy/Sell transactions pending cash to post. Then the issue will go away.

NotACPA

Is this, by any chance, a margin account? If so, then "Available to trade" probably includes the marginable value of securities held in the account … and NOT real cash.

PHowland

No, it is not a margin account. Strangely this morning the Pershing portal listed the cash in both the available cash and available to trade categories (identical amounts) , so it should download the correct cash amount. However, display usually has available cash as 0 and the available to trade as the cash balance.

Screenshot_20240803_074654_Chrome.jpg

Boatnmaniac

Have you previously seen in Quicken a differentiation between Available Cash (i.e., Total Cash?) and Available to Trade?

I have not seen that before even though Fidelity does break out the two on their website, as well. I'm not sure Quicken even has the capability of breaking the two cash buckets out from each other.

What I see with Fidelity:

AT FIDELITY.COM:

• TOTAL CASH: This includes liquid Cash Available to Trade plus non-liquid pending cash. Fidelity does not download this.
• CASH AVAILABLE TO TRADE: This includes liquid cash (or cash equivalents) on hand. It does not include any pending cash resulting from Buy/Sell transactions. Once pending cash transactions have posted, it will be included in this number and it will be equal to TOTAL CASH. This is the number that Fidelity downloads into Quicken.

IN QUICKEN:

• TOTAL CASH: This is the calculated CASH BALANCE (in blue font numbers on the right below the Account Register and in the Holdings view of the Account). It is also shown in the Holdings view of the account. This calculation assumes that there is no pending cash and it shows what the Cash Balance will be after all pending cash has posted.
• CASH AVAILABLE TO TRADE: This is only visible in Quicken by clicking on the Cash Balance blue font number on the right beneath the Account Register. Clicking on this number will open a popup comparing the calculated Cash Balance (i.e., Total Cash) in Quicken and the Cash Balance (i.e., Cash Available to Trade) as downloaded by Quicken.

Buy/Sell transactions can take up to 3 business days for the cash from them to post. (It can take longer sometimes but that is usually avoided because taking longer than 3 business days to post will incur a cash penalty for late payment on either the Buyer or the Seller.)

Since Fidelity downloads only Cash Available to Trade and Quicken only reports Total Cash, these will not always be in agreement with each other because of this approx 3 business day pending cash posting lead-time. Once the Buy/Sell transactions pending cash have posted, then TOTAL CASH and the CASH AVAILABLE TO TRADE will equal each other. Then what Fidelity downloads and what Quicken calculates will be in agreement.

Does this perhaps explain what you are seeing with your Pershing account?

If so, then there is nothing you can do to resolve this other than to wait a few days for the Buy/Sell transactions pending cash to post. Then the issue will go away.

PHowland

Thanks That sounds like what I am seeing. I have not opened up the Cash balance to see what it contains. It appears that Pershing now lists either Available Cash or Available to Trade but not a total cash. I will see how this plays out.

PHowland

Unfortunately, it appears I am going to have to live with it. The BNY Pershing lists Available for Trade as $17k but the available Case as $0 and when I opened it up in Quicken, it did not show me a breakdown of Cash.

Boatnmaniac

How is your cash held at Pershing? In a Money Market Fund? Or in a Bank Sweep Account?

And did Pershing download the cash value of those as securities instead of as cash?

That's what E*Trade used to do when I had accounts with them. They downloaded the Bank Sweep Accounts (I think they used 3 different ones) as held securities instead of as cash.

PHowland

Thanks. This didn't start happening until Pershing develop this available for trade category, where they generally include all of your cash balance. The available cash is usually empty. Quicken currently downloads the available cash and ignores available for trade cash balance. Now I know what's happening, it's no longer a significant problem. Thanks for help