fidelity IRA balance incorrect

Unknown
Unknown Member
edited September 2018 in Investing (Mac)
Updated accounts this morning and everything is correct except Fidelity IRA account. Balance is off by amount of security sale that took place over two weeks ago. Anyone else experiencing problems with this sort of thing?

Comments

  • Lyn Buddenhagen
    Lyn Buddenhagen Member ✭✭
    edited September 2018
    Hi Jane - I expect others will respond to your question, but what version of Quicken are you using?
  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    edited January 2018
    Sorry - I should have noted that. I am using Quicken 2017 for Mac.
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited January 2018
    Jane,

    I have not experienced this with my Fidelity accounts. But the solution is to track down where Quicken diverges from Fidelity. The good news is that it sounds like you have a pretty good handle on where the problem lies.

    To compare Quicken to Fidelity:

    The first step is to compare the share quality for each holding between Quicken and Fidelity. In Fidelity's website, click the Postions tab and click the Symbol header to sort by Symbol. In Quicken, with the account selected in the sidebar, click the Portfolio view and Portfolio Value > Group by Security. Fidelity will be sorted by symbol and Quicken by name and so unfortunately they may not line up exactly. (In QM18, you can sort by symbol.) 

    Now compare the share quantity for each holding between Quicken and Fidelity and identify any that don't match. Also be sure compare the cash balances.

    The second step, once you have identified the problem holding(s), is to see where the transactions diverge. In Fidelity, click on Activity & Orders and enter the symbol of the problem holding in the Security box and click Go. Set the time period to Last 90 Days. In Quicken, switch to the Transactions view and enter the name of the holding in the search box in the upper right corner. Click the Date header to sort by date. Now you can compare the transactions in Fidelity vs those in Quicken side by side to see where the error occurs and make appropriate corrections in Quicken.

    You may find that you have an erroneous placeholder transaction (this occurs occasionally). To deal with placeholders, see this FAQ:

    FAQ: What Are Placeholder Transactions in Quicken for Mac?
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    edited August 2018
    I am having a similar problem with Q 2017 for the Mac. Tonight suddenly for two of my Fidelity IRAs the download is sticking the market value into the cash available position, making the market value at the top of the Portfolio page 2X what it should be. ??? Have no idea how to fix this or why it is doing this. Something has obviously changed at Fidelity's end or Quicken's end. It would be very nice to be able to peek at the raw data that is being downloaded to see if it is a Quicken calculation going wrong, or something on the Fidelity end. Suggestions appreciated.
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited January 2018

    I am having a similar problem with Q 2017 for the Mac. Tonight suddenly for two of my Fidelity IRAs the download is sticking the market value into the cash available position, making the market value at the top of the Portfolio page 2X what it should be. ??? Have no idea how to fix this or why it is doing this. Something has obviously changed at Fidelity's end or Quicken's end. It would be very nice to be able to peek at the raw data that is being downloaded to see if it is a Quicken calculation going wrong, or something on the Fidelity end. Suggestions appreciated.

    The bottom line is that you are going to have to track down where the discrepancy is. If you read my post above, I explain how to do this and how placeholders can come into play.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited January 2018
    Jane and Ernie...

    Let me give you one example of where and how things can go wrong that affect your cash balance. I just found and corrected one of these in one of my Fidelity accounts.

    If you have dividends being reinvested, normally Fidelity will transmit a DIV transaction showing the income and a separate BUY transaction to purchase the additional shares with that income. Fidelity, for whatever reason, does not transmit a single REINVEST DIV transaction.

    Occasionally, the BUY half of the transaction pair fails to get transmitted or is lost in transit. Here's how this manifests... You might think that you would notice that the total share quantity for the fund (or other type of security) is off. But no, it will be correct because Quicken will add a placeholder transaction (see above) to account for the missing shares.

    However, the placeholder does not use the cash that would have been used had the missing BUY transaction been transmitted. Therefore, while the share quantity is correct, you end up with excess cash in the account that you don't really have. You end up with a total market value inflated by the amount of that dividend (if it's only one missing transaction).

    It can be a little hard to track these down. One way is to look at the cash balance before and after a series of DIV/BUY transaction pairs. If it doesn't remain the same, then something's wrong. 

    Another way is to look at any placeholder transactions and then filter the register for only that fund's transactions. Scanning those may quickly reveal where there's a transaction missing.

    Hope that helps. Post back and let others know how you resolved this so that it may help them.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    edited January 2018

    I am having a similar problem with Q 2017 for the Mac. Tonight suddenly for two of my Fidelity IRAs the download is sticking the market value into the cash available position, making the market value at the top of the Portfolio page 2X what it should be. ??? Have no idea how to fix this or why it is doing this. Something has obviously changed at Fidelity's end or Quicken's end. It would be very nice to be able to peek at the raw data that is being downloaded to see if it is a Quicken calculation going wrong, or something on the Fidelity end. Suggestions appreciated.

    Yes, I have done all of above. First, I have been downloading this portfolio for a long time (years) and never had this problem before, nor do I have this problem with the other two portfolios I have at Fidelity. 

    In the Portfolio -> Portfolio Value view in Quicken, the problem is apparent. All of the Value columns match what my Fidelity account shows. What is wildly wrong is the Cash Balance is off by a factor of 27! That is, the cash value that Quicken is showing is MORE than the current market value of the equities (let's say, it should be $1,000 to match Fidelity's cash figure and it is showing $27,000). Further, there are NO placeholders in the Transactions on this account, and all of the transactions look correct in Quicken.

    Since I can't see how Quicken is calculating or where it is getting the Cash Value figure, I am stumped as to where to go next. 
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited January 2018

    I am having a similar problem with Q 2017 for the Mac. Tonight suddenly for two of my Fidelity IRAs the download is sticking the market value into the cash available position, making the market value at the top of the Portfolio page 2X what it should be. ??? Have no idea how to fix this or why it is doing this. Something has obviously changed at Fidelity's end or Quicken's end. It would be very nice to be able to peek at the raw data that is being downloaded to see if it is a Quicken calculation going wrong, or something on the Fidelity end. Suggestions appreciated.

    Ernie, Is there a balance adjustment transaction at the beginning of the register?

    Do you have the Balance column showing? Does scanning that column in date order reveal where the cash balance jumps up to the way-too-high value?

    I suppose worst case, you could just add a manual balance adjustment (Payment) transaction to return the balance to normal.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    edited January 2018

    I am having a similar problem with Q 2017 for the Mac. Tonight suddenly for two of my Fidelity IRAs the download is sticking the market value into the cash available position, making the market value at the top of the Portfolio page 2X what it should be. ??? Have no idea how to fix this or why it is doing this. Something has obviously changed at Fidelity's end or Quicken's end. It would be very nice to be able to peek at the raw data that is being downloaded to see if it is a Quicken calculation going wrong, or something on the Fidelity end. Suggestions appreciated.

    No balance adjustment at the beginning. At the beginning there are shares transferred in from another Fidelity account.

    Here's what is odd. In the running Balance column of Transactions, the current balance that is shown is the Cash Balance number shown in the Portfolio form. That Cash Balance number is shown at the top right on the Transactions page, and the Market Value number on the Transaction page is the sum of the (incorrect) Cash Balance number on the Portfolio page (and also shown at the top righthand side of the Transactions page) PLUS the sum of the Value column on the Portfolio page. This makes my total Market Value number on the Transactions page off by over 100%. ????

    I had assumed that Quicken downloaded the asset prices and shares and either took the market value numbers from the brokerage firm or it calculated them from prices and shares. Then, I assumed it loaded the cash value down from the brokerage. I assumed that the portfolio total market value number was calculated by adding the sum of the Value column (total market value of the traded assets) and the current cash value.

    Apparently, Quicken does not do it that way. Do you know how they do it??
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited January 2018

    I am having a similar problem with Q 2017 for the Mac. Tonight suddenly for two of my Fidelity IRAs the download is sticking the market value into the cash available position, making the market value at the top of the Portfolio page 2X what it should be. ??? Have no idea how to fix this or why it is doing this. Something has obviously changed at Fidelity's end or Quicken's end. It would be very nice to be able to peek at the raw data that is being downloaded to see if it is a Quicken calculation going wrong, or something on the Fidelity end. Suggestions appreciated.

    Well, yes and no.... The cash value of the account is shown in the Balance column in the Transactions view, and at the bottom of the Portfolio view on the "Cash" line. The Market Value of the account is the sum of the market values of each security, plus the cash value. 

    However, the cash value is not downloaded from Fidelity, but rather calculated by adding cash in (Sells, Deposits, Income) to and subtracting cash out (Buys, Payments, Expenses) from the cash in the account at the beginning.

    You can sometimes see an automated Balance Adjustment transaction appear if there are cash change entries before the initiation date of the account (to make sure the cash on hand on that date stays the same). But you said you do not have one of these.

    With your cash balance so out of whack, I would think if you look at the Balance column starting at the first date in the Transactions view and scan along through the dates, you will see where it jumps up to this huge number and that will be your clue as to what's wrong.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • Unknown
    Unknown Member
    edited January 2018

    I am having a similar problem with Q 2017 for the Mac. Tonight suddenly for two of my Fidelity IRAs the download is sticking the market value into the cash available position, making the market value at the top of the Portfolio page 2X what it should be. ??? Have no idea how to fix this or why it is doing this. Something has obviously changed at Fidelity's end or Quicken's end. It would be very nice to be able to peek at the raw data that is being downloaded to see if it is a Quicken calculation going wrong, or something on the Fidelity end. Suggestions appreciated.

    You are correct, Rick! It must have been that I never noticed this over a LONG time, but something was set up incorrectly when the account was created from some other Fidelity account. I just went in and made a balance adjustment and the numbers now look correct. So, my problem lay in having a running incorrect balance column all of the time. I was also looking at the problem backwards. The Portfolio page pulls its info out of the transactions, so if the Balance column (which is really the Cash Balance column) is out of whack, the whole summary is in error. Thanks for your patience. Problem solved.
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