401k balance incorrect

boomer_1970

My 401k has been set up in Quicken for many years and I noticed that it is off about $200k. What is the simplest way to reconcile it so that it is up to date?

Jim_Harman

To make a quick and dirty correction, I would first find a recent account statement, go to the account, and click on Holdings to open the Account Overview. Set the As of date to match the statement date. Compare the securities, share quantities, share prices, and cash balance in Quicken to the statement, note any that are incorrect and what the correct values should be. If the share prices are wrong, you can click on the price in the overview and enter the correct price there.

Then close the Account Overview and click on the gear at the top right of the account. Select Update cash balance and Update share balance as needed to enter the corrections, using the statement date.

This assumes that you don't want to correct the historical record by entering or correcting the transactions that caused the discrepancies. If you do want to make these corrections, please post back for more instructions.

Going forward, you should figure out why the account is incorrect and enter the necessary transactions to keep it up to date. Each pay period there should be a transfer from your paycheck to the 401(k) account for your contribution and any company match. There should also be Bought transaction(s) for the securities that were purchased with your contributions, reducing the cash balance to zero. If your 401(k) administrator supports it, you can connect the account to download the transactions.

If you need help with this, please post back with what the discrepancies are for more instructions.

boomer_1970

Thank you, I will give that a shot