Fidelity What is the best way to fix hidden Balancing Cash Adjustment?

Question

When downloading transactions from Fidelity, each buy and sell transaction of Fidelity Cash Reserves seems to create a hidden Balancing Cash Adjustment transaction equal to the buy or sell transaction. As a consequence, the Cash Bal column doesn't reflect the correct balance.

I tried deleting the Balancing Cash Adjustment, but that results in deleting the buy or sell, too! I've restored my backup so I have all the transactions back. Can I fix this such that the Cash Bal is correct? Thanks

Jim_Harman · Accepted Answer

Quicken creates Balancing Cash Adjustments when a transaction like Div, Bought, or Sold that would affect the cash balance is entered and there is a Placeholder in the account for that security on a later date. As you have observed, they are linked to the transaction that follows and when you delete one, both are deleted. To make sure the Placeholders and adjustments are visible, go to Edit > Preferences > Investments and make sure the Show hidden transactions box is checked.

To allow the cash balance to change when entering 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. Then you can delete the adjustment transaction. Because of this, if you are entering a series of missing transactions it will be easiest to work in reverse chronological order.

Always back up your data file before changing historical transactions.