Problem: Download transactions from Schwab

[Good_Vibe]

Mark:
Didn't know where to post this so decided to reach out to you directly.

Over the past year I have experienced several instances of dividend transactions being downloaded to FM: (1) dividend as cash and (2) dividend as reinvestments.

All investments at Schwab are marked as NO (don't reinvest); in other words just send me the cash.

Yesterday a Vanguard ETF (VIG) paid a dividend of $1,235.85. The download transaction shows that amount as both a distributed dividend and a retrieved dividend. Since FM processed both transaction, the FM total exceeds Schwab's total by $1,235.85.

Hope you can help. We are heavily invested in dividend achievers, so almost every week when I reconcile FM with Schwab, I have a major headache to get the mess cleaned up.
You have been so effective in resolving this kind of transaction download problem, hope you can work your magic again.
Sincerely, Good_Vibe

[Mark]

Hello Good_Vibe,

I just see 1 distributed dividend in a a fund, and 1 purchase into a cash investment. That seems correct. Did you already fix it before making those screenshots?

Based on the memo for the distribution that says "Retrieved Dividend: 0.749 per share VIG" that appears to have been retrieved through Yahoo (Historical) instead of from Schwab. In the Pro/Adv versions when you use "Yahoo (Historical)" to retrieve prices, there is also an option to retrieve splits and distributions. If you're retrieving transactions from your broker, you don't want to also retrieve splits/distributions from Yahoo, as you will double count them. To prevent this, just un-check those options when retrieving using Yahoo (Historical).

[Good_Vibe]

Hi Mark:
No: Have not attempted to correct this problem yet. I retrieve all fund prices from the Yahoo Historical site but, to the best of my knowledge, nothing to do with dividends. All cash transactions (LTG, STG, Dividends, share purchase/sales) are supposed to
come only through the FM transaction download function via Schwab.
Schwab's web site when I log in does not show the VIG dividend of $1,235.85. The VIG share count and price in FM matches Schwab. So hopefully Schwab will perform per my instructions to send VIG dividends in cash only.

Should I just delete the "Yahoo" transaction to the cash bucket from FM? Deleting said transaction from the cash bucket will result in the account total for FM and Schwab in agreement (way I have been handling this problem).
Should I also delete the "Retrieved Dividend 0.749 per share VIG" from the VIG record in FM? How in the world can I prevent Yahoo dividends (or LTG, STG) from being downloaded in the future?

And also, how in the world did I trigger the dividend download from Yahoo in the first place? The only way I INTEND to retrieve ANY Schwab account transaction is via FM transaction download.
And how could you tell that the dividend action came from Yahoo? And can you discern why this just started happening in the last three or four months?

Thanks so much for you expertise and helpfulness! Sincerely, Good_Vibe

[Mark]

Hi Good_Vibe,

If you do a price retrieve from Yahoo (Historical) in the Pro/Adv versions, you'll see this dialog:

Yahoo (Historical) retrieve options

Yahoo_Historical_Options.jpg (23.25 KiB) Viewed 6358 times

Just make sure to uncheck the options:

Retrieve Splits
Retrieve Distributions

Yes, it sounds like you should delete both the distribution in the fund, and the cash deposit, and wait for it to come down through Schwab.

The "memo" field is different for distributions retrieved through Yahoo versus your broker, so that is how I can tell it was from Yahoo (Historical).

[Good_Vibe]

Hi, Mark
Really appreciate your careful explanation. Will clean up the Yahoo Historical mess and try not to shoot myself in the foot again.
Thanks, Good_Vibe

[Houstonwb]

I am having trouble retrieving and reconciling my Schwab cash account. The other investments work. This is a problem in two at Schwab registrations. Account numbers are correct. First started when Schwab converted to an "FDX" server. Updated my Access Codes.

[Mark]

Hi Houstonwb,

What problem exactly are you have reconciling? Do you get some error message? Are you able to retrieve transactions for this account?

[Houstonwb]

Had trouble with Schwab accounts downloading trx from Schwab and Yahoo because I have funded investments (with
Schwab trx) and unfunded investments (based on Yahoo trx) in the same subaccount. I do this for benchmarking. Do I need to put those in separate
subaccounts so I can specify one with transactions from Schwab and the other from Yahoo?
Using the electronically downloaded Reconcile Wizard, in one Schwab account, the cash account is not matched at all.
FMgr shows the correct (modest) balance, forced to agree with the Reconcile Wizard & Schwab web site amount. The Reconcile Statement amount
shows an incorrect zero balance.
No error messages.

[Mark]

Hi Houstonwb,

You can't mix shares from other accounts in with your Schwab account if you want to reconcile it. When you reconcile an account you're comparing everything in that account with your statement balances. You might like to watch our tutorial on reconciling.

[Houstonwb]

Why is my FMgr Cash-Schwab not matching up with the cash that is in Schwab? Only Schwab accounts in that sub-account.

[Mark]

If the "Statement" column is showing 0 for your cash, double check that you've assigned your cash investment as your default cash account to the sub-portfolio you're reconciling.

[Houstonwb]

Any idea why my $86.65 transaction is missing in the investment register and Investment Transactions report but shows
in Find? True of several transactions I deleted recently. Sent you a screen shot by email because I could not get Img to work.

[Mark]

The "Find" dialog is showing the transaction in the Schwab Total Stock Mkt Idx investment, and your Investment Transaction report is showing transactions in "Cash - Schwab". I'm guessing you deleted the cash side of the transaction, but not the transaction in the mutual fund.

When you're using a default cash account, and record a transaction in a stock/fund, a corresponding entry is also recorded in your cash. If you want to delete both the cash and stock/fund transaction, delete it from the stock/fund, and not from cash. You can fix this by going to the fund, and deleting it in there now too.