Quicken Brokerage Account Summary

"JCO" wrote

Using Quicken 2013:

I have a brokerage account with Fidelity that is set up to automatically download from the institution all activities. These are automatically updated in Quicken. I started the account with cash, then proceeded to buy different Stocks. Quicken automatically added each Stock as a security which is nice. The first issue I noticed, after 6-8 months is that the monthly statements don't match with what is automatically downloaded as far as Security Totals and Cash Balance Totals.

I corrected the Cash balance by simply adding (Action) XOut. This corrected the cash balance but the total is still off due to the Securities Value. All the individual transactions for each security is accurately entered (they downloaded correctly), but the total at the bottom of Quicken is still off a bit.

How can this be corrected? I'm wondering if, somewhere in Quicken, there is a list that simply has the wrong daily value on the particular date such as 9/30/2013. This option exists when doing separate mutual funds, where you can set the date and enter the daily value so that your report is accurate. I don't know how or if this can be done with the securities that exist in my brokerage account.

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Start with the simplest possibility.

Market value of a security = number of shares * price/share.

Market value of an investment account is the sum of the market value of all the securities - plus the value of the cash.

When "reconciling" an investment account, you need to insure that you hold the correct number of shares of each security, and that the price/share of each security is correct ... (for the date of the holdings you're comparing to).

If you haven't gotten current prices in a while, that could account for your difference.

The Portfolio Value report is a good report to use for reconciling. Or you can use the Holdings pane of the individual investment account (Account Overview), or the Investing > Portfolio, to see the value of your securities "as of" any date you choose.

Is it correct to assume that when Quicken shows Cash Balance (at the bottom) for the totals, that this is the same Cash Balance on my statement that is in the account but not Invested? Because I'm starting to think we have two different definitions. Thanks

"JCO" wrote

Using Quicken 2013:

I have a brokerage account with Fidelity that is set up to automatically download from the institution all activities. These are automatically updated in Quicken. I started the account with cash, then proceeded to buy different Stocks. Quicken automatically added each Stock as a security which is nice. The first issue I noticed, after 6-8 months is that the monthly statements don't match with what is automatically downloaded as far as Security Totals and Cash Balance Totals.

I corrected the Cash balance by simply adding (Action) XOut. This corrected the cash balance but the total is still off due to the Securities Value. All the individual transactions for each security is accurately entered (they downloaded correctly), but the total at the bottom of Quicken is still off a bit.

How can this be corrected? I'm wondering if, somewhere in Quicken, there is a list that simply has the wrong daily value on the particular date such as 9/30/2013. This option exists when doing separate mutual funds, where you can set the date and enter the daily value so that your report is accurate. I don't know how or if this can be done with the securities that exist in my brokerage account.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Start with the simplest possibility.

Market value of a security = number of shares * price/share.

Market value of an investment account is the sum of the market value of all the securities - plus the value of the cash.

When "reconciling" an investment account, you need to insure that you hold the correct number of shares of each security, and that the price/share of each security is correct ... (for the date of the holdings you're comparing to).

If you haven't gotten current prices in a while, that could account for your difference.

The Portfolio Value report is a good report to use for reconciling. Or you can use the Holdings pane of the individual investment account (Account Overview), or the Investing > Portfolio, to see the value of your securities "as of" any date you choose.

I do use the Account Overview to insure everything is accurate. Your correct, it is one of the best ways to view the brokerage account. I checked all securities and they are all entered correctly (Shares and $/Shares). There are some rounding differences but pretty close. I thought I updated the cash value based on my 9/30 statement, but when I reconcile the account, it wants to negate my xOut and put the cash balance back to it?s higher level. That is why I sent the last email about the definition of the Cash Balance may be different.

The security total is different than my statement, and after reconciling, the cash balance goes off again. I never had this issue when working with single mutual fund accounts.

Thanks again for your help and patients.

"JCO" wrote

Using Quicken 2013:

I have a brokerage account with Fidelity that is set up to automatically download from the institution all activities. These are automatically updated in Quicken. I started the account with cash, then proceeded to buy different Stocks. Quicken automatically added each Stock as a security which is nice. The first issue I noticed, after 6-8 months is that the monthly statements don't match with what is automatically downloaded as far as Security Totals and Cash Balance Totals.

I corrected the Cash balance by simply adding (Action) XOut. This corrected the cash balance but the total is still off due to the Securities Value. All the individual transactions for each security is accurately entered (they downloaded correctly), but the total at the bottom of Quicken is still off a bit.

How can this be corrected? I'm wondering if, somewhere in Quicken, there is a list that simply has the wrong daily value on the particular date such as 9/30/2013. This option exists when doing separate mutual funds, where you can set the date and enter the daily value so that your report is accurate. I don't know how or if this can be done with the securities that exist in my brokerage account.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Start with the simplest possibility.

Market value of a security = number of shares * price/share.

Market value of an investment account is the sum of the market value of all the securities - plus the value of the cash.

When "reconciling" an investment account, you need to insure that you hold the correct number of shares of each security, and that the price/share of each security is correct ... (for the date of the holdings you're comparing to).

If you haven't gotten current prices in a while, that could account for your difference.

The Portfolio Value report is a good report to use for reconciling. Or you can use the Holdings pane of the individual investment account (Account Overview), or the Investing > Portfolio, to see the value of your securities "as of" any date you choose.

"JCO" wrote

Is it correct to assume that when Quicken shows Cash Balance (at the bottom) for the totals, that this is the same Cash Balance on my statement that is in the account but not Invested? Because I'm starting to think we have two different definitions.

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In my experience, the Cash Balance at the foot of the investment Transaction List should be the same as the total cash balance in the Quicken account "Cash Bal" column.

It will be your job to do the reconciling to your printed statement (Quicken does not really reconcile investment accounts; it's reconcile dialog completely ignores security values, and only addresses the cash balance). And even for the cash balance reconciling, it will still be your responsibility to insure that your Quicken account accurately reflects your real-world activity.