How does Quicken identify "cash"

Posted by MikeH on August 1, 2006, 6:19 pm

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Quicken 2005.

For years I have been updating an investment account manually. I am using
split accounts where the core funds are in a cash flow account and the
various investment positions are in the investment account.

The financial institution recently enabled a Quicken 2005/2006 interface so
data can be downloaded directly to Quicken. Trouble is Quicken treats
transactions involving the core money market as ordinary mutual fund
transactions. How do I get Quicken to recognize these as core account
transactions?

Thanks!

Posted by Fred Smith on August 2, 2006, 8:01 am

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When you use Quicken in a non-standard way, you can't expect your bank download
to accommodate you.

The only solution I see is to change your "core funds" to an investment account,
because that's where Quicken expects them to be. Either that, or don't use the
download feature, and keep updating the prices manually.

--
Regards,
Fred

> Quicken 2005.

> For years I have been updating an investment account manually. I am using

> split accounts where the core funds are in a cash flow account and the various

> investment positions are in the investment account.

> The financial institution recently enabled a Quicken 2005/2006 interface so

> data can be downloaded directly to Quicken. Trouble is Quicken treats

> transactions involving the core money market as ordinary mutual fund

> transactions. How do I get Quicken to recognize these as core account

> transactions?

> Thanks!

Posted by danbrown on August 2, 2006, 11:49 am

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Are you using the MMF (i.e., the "cash flow account") as a "Linked"
account? If so, check out Q Help for linking an external MMF to an
investment account.

Having an investment account with an external (i.e., "cash flow") MMF
was, previously, the preferred means of handling the issue. It became
optional with 2005 (?), but I maintain my Fidelity MMF as a separate
account because it's our primary checking account and I prefer the
visibility that such an arrangement affords.

db

Posted by John Pollard on August 2, 2006, 12:44 pm

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> Quicken 2005.

> For years I have been updating an investment account manually.

> I am using split accounts where the core funds are in a cash

> flow account and the various investment positions are in the

> investment account.

> The financial institution recently enabled a Quicken 2005/2006

> interface so data can be downloaded directly to Quicken.

> Trouble is Quicken treats transactions involving the core

> money market as ordinary mutual fund transactions. How do I

> get Quicken to recognize these as core account transactions?

There may be two possible approaches.

As Dan Brown indicated, Quicken will allow you to keep your
investment cash in a Quicken "cash flow" account linked to your
Quicken investment account. But you can not link an existing
Quicken cash flow account to a Quicken investment account; a new
Quicken cash flow account must be created by going to Edit
Account Details in the Account Attributes pane of the Summary
tab for the investment account ... and clicking "Yes", "Show
cash in a checking account". Quicken will create a new checking
account and link it to your Quicken investment account.

I have not spent any time recently on this subject, but I think
you could then do a select-all/copy/paste to move the existing
checking account transactions to the new linked checking account
and delete the old checking account.

An alternative approach may be possible if your fi allows it;
Quicken can simply treat mm fund transactions as cash
transactions, ignoring any buy/sell transactions (and I suspect,
treating reinvestments as plain Interest transactions). To see
if this is possible, open your investment account to the
Transactions tab; the select Investing Activities in the Quicken
Investing menu and click "Update Cash Balance". If you see a
button labelled "Cash Representation" at the bottom of the
resulting dialog, click that and I believe you will get the
chance to have Quicken treat your mm fund transactions as cash
transactions ... within your investment account. (If the Cash
Representation button is not present, I believe that means your
fi does not offer the option).

Posted by danbrown on August 2, 2006, 5:35 pm

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John Pollard wrote:

> But you can not link an existing

> Quicken cash flow account to a Quicken investment account; a new

> Quicken cash flow account must be created by going to Edit

> Account Details in the Account Attributes pane of the Summary

> tab for the investment account ... and clicking "Yes", "Show

> cash in a checking account". Quicken will create a new checking

> account and link it to your Quicken investment account.

Thanks for clarifying, John. I'd set it up so long ago that I'd
forgotten that.

db