Quicken and money market fund reconciliation

Posted by jo on September 22, 2009, 2:14 pm

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Using QH&B 2008. Consolidated two brokerage accounts this year and for
a long time suspected my MMKT fund in Quicken was incorrect (my
problem.. I was trying to hard to make everything perfect and
accomplished just the reverse). I download my day to day
transactions fine but during the time of consolidation, I entered a
few transfers betweent the two accounts manually.

The feature (online) that compares your Quicken records to your
brokerage balances has never complained, but I finally had time to dig
deeper and manually compared my statement balances (and the brokerage
site's balance) to Quicken. They were definitely off by around $50K or
so. Not finding anything obvious in the Quicken records and trying to
not be so compulsive, I decided to just reconcile the money market
fund in Quicken to the value at the end of August. Quicken put in an
adjusting entry and everything matches my statements. The date is
incorrect because I know the mistake happened early in the year but at
least I have the correct #s.

I then used the holdings comparison feature again. And Quicken STILL
is happy! I'm not asking what caused the discrepancy-- I'm sure
I'm responsible-- but I don't understand how Quicken could be happy
with a) balances that were that far apart from the brokerage AND b)
be just as happy once its own balance has been adjusted to
match. Any ideas?

jo

Posted by John Pollard on September 23, 2009, 11:03 am

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jo wrote:

> Using QH&B 2008. Consolidated two brokerage accounts this year and for

> a long time suspected my MMKT fund in Quicken was incorrect (my

> problem.. I was trying to hard to make everything perfect and

> accomplished just the reverse). I download my day to day

> transactions fine but during the time of consolidation, I entered a

> few transfers betweent the two accounts manually.

> The feature (online) that compares your Quicken records to your

> brokerage balances has never complained, but I finally had time to dig

> deeper and manually compared my statement balances (and the brokerage

> site's balance) to Quicken. They were definitely off by around $50K or

> so. Not finding anything obvious in the Quicken records and trying to

> not be so compulsive, I decided to just reconcile the money market

> fund in Quicken to the value at the end of August. Quicken put in an

> adjusting entry and everything matches my statements. The date is

> incorrect because I know the mistake happened early in the year but at

> least I have the correct #s.

> I then used the holdings comparison feature again. And Quicken STILL

> is happy! I'm not asking what caused the discrepancy-- I'm sure

> I'm responsible-- but I don't understand how Quicken could be happy

> with a) balances that were that far apart from the brokerage AND b)

> be just as happy once its own balance has been adjusted to

> match. Any ideas?

Nothing jumps out at me.

What kind of "adjusting entry" did Quicken enter?

--

John Pollard

Posted by jo on September 23, 2009, 3:15 pm

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> jo wrote:

> > Using QH&B 2008. Consolidated two brokerage accounts this year and for

> > a long time suspected my MMKT fund in Quicken was incorrect (my

> > problem.. I was trying to hard to make everything perfect and

> > accomplished just the reverse). =A0 =A0I download my day to day

> > transactions fine but during the time of consolidation, I entered a

> > few transfers betweent the two accounts manually.

> > The feature (online) that compares your Quicken records to your

> > brokerage balances has never complained, but I finally had time to dig

> > deeper and manually compared my statement balances (and the brokerage

> > site's balance) to Quicken. They were definitely off by around $50K or

> > so. =A0Not finding anything obvious in the Quicken records and trying t=

> > not be so compulsive, I decided to just reconcile the money market

> > fund in Quicken to the value at the end of August. =A0Quicken put in an

> > adjusting entry and everything matches my statements. The date is

> > incorrect because I know the mistake happened early in the year but at

> > least I have the correct #s.

> > I then used the holdings comparison feature again. =A0And Quicken STILL

> > is happy! =A0 =A0 I'm not asking what caused the discrepancy-- I'm sure

> > I'm responsible-- but I don't understand how Quicken could be happy

> > with a) balances that were that far apart from the brokerage =A0AND b)

> > be just as happy once its own balance has been adjusted to

> > match. =A0 =A0 =A0 Any ideas?

> Nothing jumps out at me.

> What kind of "adjusting entry" did Quicken enter?

> --

> John Pollard- Hide quoted text -

> - Show quoted text -

A "Balance Adj: Misc" Deposit transaction. representing the difference
between my records and the brokerage records. The latter are correct.

jo

Posted by John Pollard on September 23, 2009, 8:54 pm

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jo wrote:

>> jo wrote:

>>> Using QH&B 2008. Consolidated two brokerage accounts this year and

>>> for a long time suspected my MMKT fund in Quicken was incorrect (my

>>> problem.. I was trying to hard to make everything perfect and

>>> accomplished just the reverse). I download my day to day

>>> transactions fine but during the time of consolidation, I entered a

>>> few transfers betweent the two accounts manually.

>>> The feature (online) that compares your Quicken records to your

>>> brokerage balances has never complained, but I finally had time to

>>> dig deeper and manually compared my statement balances (and the

>>> brokerage site's balance) to Quicken. They were definitely off by

>>> around $50K or so. Not finding anything obvious in the Quicken

>>> records and trying to not be so compulsive, I decided to just

>>> reconcile the money market fund in Quicken to the value at the end

>>> of August. Quicken put in an adjusting entry and everything matches

>>> my statements. The date is incorrect because I know the mistake

>>> happened early in the year but at least I have the correct #s.

>>> I then used the holdings comparison feature again. And Quicken STILL

>>> is happy! I'm not asking what caused the discrepancy-- I'm sure

>>> I'm responsible-- but I don't understand how Quicken could be happy

>>> with a) balances that were that far apart from the brokerage AND b)

>>> be just as happy once its own balance has been adjusted to

>>> match. Any ideas?

>> Nothing jumps out at me.

>> What kind of "adjusting entry" did Quicken enter?

> A "Balance Adj: Misc" Deposit transaction. representing the difference

> between my records and the brokerage records. The latter are correct.

Ahhh. I was thinking you were holding shares of the Money Market fund.

If you take a look at the Holdings tab for the account in the Online
Center, you probably won't see any indication of the amount of "cash" you
are "holding". I don't believe Quicken makes any attempt to compare your
"cash" holdings between the fi and Quicken (I don't think the fi even
downloads cash "holdings" ... mine don't).

If you were holding shares of a Money Market fund (instead of a linked
checking account), I believe Quicken would have told you when your Quicken
MM fund share balance was different from your downloaded MM fund share
balance.

--

John Pollard

Posted by jo on September 24, 2009, 11:37 am

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> jo wrote:

> >> jo wrote:

> >>> Using QH&B 2008. Consolidated two brokerage accounts this year and

> >>> for a long time suspected my MMKT fund in Quicken was incorrect (my

> >>> problem.. I was trying to hard to make everything perfect and

> >>> accomplished just the reverse). I download my day to day

> >>> transactions fine but during the time of consolidation, I entered a

> >>> few transfers betweent the two accounts manually.

> >>> The feature (online) that compares your Quicken records to your

> >>> brokerage balances has never complained, but I finally had time to

> >>> dig deeper and manually compared my statement balances (and the

> >>> brokerage site's balance) to Quicken. They were definitely off by

> >>> around $50K or so. Not finding anything obvious in the Quicken

> >>> records and trying to not be so compulsive, I decided to just

> >>> reconcile the money market fund in Quicken to the value at the end

> >>> of August. Quicken put in an adjusting entry and everything matches

> >>> my statements. The date is incorrect because I know the mistake

> >>> happened early in the year but at least I have the correct #s.

> >>> I then used the holdings comparison feature again. And Quicken STILL

> >>> is happy! I'm not asking what caused the discrepancy-- I'm sure

> >>> I'm responsible-- but I don't understand how Quicken could be happy

> >>> with a) balances that were that far apart from the brokerage AND b)

> >>> be just as happy once its own balance has been adjusted to

> >>> match. Any ideas?

> >> Nothing jumps out at me.

> >> What kind of "adjusting entry" did Quicken enter?

> > A "Balance Adj: Misc" Deposit transaction. representing the difference

> > between my records and the brokerage records. The latter are correct.

> Ahhh. =A0I was thinking you were holding shares of the Money Market fund.

> If you take a look at the Holdings tab for the account in the Online

> Center, you probably won't see any indication of the amount of "cash" you

> are "holding". =A0I don't believe Quicken makes any attempt to compare yo=

> "cash" holdings between the fi and Quicken (I don't think the fi even

> downloads cash "holdings" ... mine don't).

> If you were holding shares of a Money Market fund (instead of a linked

> checking account), I believe Quicken would have told you when your Quicke=

> MM fund share balance was different from your downloaded MM fund share

> balance.

> --

> John Pollard- Hide quoted text -

> - Show quoted text -

Looks like you're right. The cash amount is shown on the balances
screen but not on the holdings. What are the nuances or downside to
using the cash amount to purchase equivalent shares of the Money
Market Fund? Can I still write checks against it in Quicken if I do
this? I don't do this often but it does happen.

jo