Question about using Reconciliation Wizard

[jmarcelino]

Hello,

I am evaluating FM and so far, I have figured out what I need to do.

I have a sub-portfolio with one investment included. I attempted to reconcile the sub-portfolio and retrieve results from the fund company.

The result shows the total number of shares reflected by company data vs the number of shares reported by FM. I already knew that, so it doesn't help much.

Watching the reconciliation tutorial, it appears that the specific lines / entries should come up and then allow me to edit, and then reconcile again. Only the net number of shares for the entire investment shows.

I am thinking that maybe this is because I have the sub-portfolio and include the investment. The sub-portfolio is a Roth IRA account and will eventually include a number of funds.

Please advise. Many thanks.

[Mark]

Hi jmarcelino,

Yes, on the 2nd page of the Reconciliation Wizard you will see a list of your investments, and the share balance as of the statement date. If one is wrong, select that investment, and then click the "Edit..." button to open that investment up in the Data Register, where you can work with the transactions.

The share balance on any given date is the sum of all prior transactions up through that date, so by editing the transactions you are editing the share balance.

[jmarcelino]

Thank you for your reply.

I may not be understanding the process as well as I should. I follow the process that you mention, but I don't think I am seeing what is expected.

I have a Roth IRA. I created a 'Tax Free' sub-portfolio and under that, a 'Vanguard ROTH IRA' sub-portfolio. The IRA includes 5 funds, but has an umbrella account #, which I use to retrieve prices, transactions, and to reconcile.

When I reconcile, the first screen of the Reconciliation Wizard shows the specific sub-portfolio to reconcile. The second screen just shows a list of the 5 funds and the # of shares that FM reports.

I assumed that, when there is a difference in what FM and the broker reports, the wizard would list the actual entries that were causing the difference and I could EDIT them and then reconcile. However, it only presents the Data Register to me to poke through and find discrepancies by comparing to the records I have with Vanguard.

You say "The share balance on any given date is the sum of all prior transactions up through that date, so by editing the transactions you are editing the share balance."

I may be misinterpreting that, as I don't see share balances that appear to be a sum of all prior transactions. It just looks like the # of shares for that specific transaction on a specific date.

Many thanks for your help.

[Mark]

Hi jmarcelino,

On the 2nd page of the Reconciliation Wizard the big box is "Share Balances", and you'll see a listing of each investment that is out of balance (you can see all investments by un-checking "Hide Balanced Investments"). On each line is the investment name, the number of shares in "Fund Manager", the number of shares on the "Statement", and the "Difference". If the Fund Manager share balance differs from the Statement share balance, then you have to find the source of the error yourself. FM has no way of knowing which transaction is missing/wrong, it just knows the total number of shares you have in FM based on the recorded transactions, and the number of shares the statement says you should have as of the statement date. You do this correcting in the Data Register by looking at all the transactions, and editing whatever is necessary. If you keep your account balanced, this is easy, as you only have to look back to the date you last reconciled. It can be more of a challenge if you have a long transaction history and haven't ever reconciled before.