Cash Balance - Fidelity

[sbfree]

Good morning
An account at Fidelity will not reconcile. The cash amount in FM agrees with the figure for cash available at the Fidelity website but the Reconcile function is pulling a higher amount from Fidelity. Where does the amount described as the 'Statement' amount come from?

The difference is not the amount of dividends that are to be paid the following day.
Thanks,
Scott

[Mark]

Hi Scott,

It can come from a combination of your AVAILCASH and your MARGINBALANCE. After you reconcile this account, look at your log file by choosing "Help / Logs / Transaction Retrieve (Parsed)..." and look for a section like this:

Code: Select all

- INVBAL
     - AVAILCASH (123.00)
     - MARGINBALANCE (-50)
     - SHORTBALANCE (0)

Are the AVAILCASH / MARGINBALANCE non-zero? Are they the same?

[sbfree]

The amount listed for - AVAILCASH is higher than the amount shown by FM for the cash account. FM displays an amount for the cash account that agrees with the balance of the MM at Fidelity's website. Running 'Reconcile' lists the 'Statement' amount that appears in - AVAILCASH .
- MARGINBALANCE
- SHORTBALANCE
- BUYPOWER
are all zero values.


Scott

[Mark]

Hi Scott,

If MARGINBALANCE is zero, then the AVAILCASH value is the only thing that is used for the statement's cash balance. I'm not sure why Fidelity is reporting AVAILCASH different than your cash balance. Is the difference some amount you can recognize, like maybe from an unsettled trade? If not, and the problem persists, you might need to ask Fidelity for an explanation. The way this works has not changed in FM, so if you've been balancing before, something is different in how AVAILCASH is being reported for your account.

[sbfree]

Before my last post, I had called Fidelity and asked why they were reporting out an amount different than my MM balance. The just turned me around and said it was a FM problem. I will need some more 'vocabulary' to speak with them again. How do I refer to how FM is getting this information? What is software or interface is being accessed at Fidelity's end? How do I refer to where FM gets information from Fidelity. I appreciate your responses & thanks again.
scott

[Mark]

Hi Scott,

Is this a recent problem, and it was working okay up until recently? One option might be to give it a few days, and see if it resolves.

If not, and you call back you can tell them Fund Manager is accessing their "Open Financial Exchange" (OFX) server, which is the same as how Quicken works. That log file with AVAILCASH is coming from their OFX server. The "Raw" one is the un-modified data returned, and the "Parsed" one is just a more human readable version of the same.

[sbfree]

Thanks for the insights/vocabulary. I was turned around at Fidelity to get FM support after speaking with the most tech person that would speak with me. I could not convince them that the Fidelity's OFX server was reporting out the problem amount. The cash balance in their web view agrees with FM's cash balance. This amount does not appear in the log file. Incorrect balance does appear in the log file as AVAILCASH. The tech person tried to suggest that FM was misinterpreting the information sent. It was such a frustrating experience that I feel like closing my accounts.

If you have any further insights, I would be glad to hear them. In a younger day I wrote some code, my understanding at this point is that Fidelity's OFX server has some bad data. Near the end of my career I ran a user extensible DB for my company.
Scott

[Mark]

Hi Scott,

Sorry to hear about that experience... I'm not sure what else to suggest other than maybe waiting a few days and see if the AVAILCASH being reported gets updated. Is the AVAILCASH even close, or maybe a combination of some amounts in your account?

[sbfree]

While I wait a few days to see if it resolves, maybe you would point me to the the information I need to download from the Fidelity OFX server. I found a Python library, ofxtools, that I would like to work with. I understand this is well outside of FM support and can only offer apologies for distracting you from your work.
Thanks,
scott

[sbfree]

I was able to find Fidelity OFX server info
https://www.ofxhome.com/index.php/institution/view/449
Sorry to have posted too quickly.
scott

[Mark]

Hi Scott,

Another possibility is that you don't use a default cash account. If you don't have a default cash account, the AVAILCASH isn't used. This only works if you don't need to make use of this feature, so if Fidelity is reporting all your cash side transactions.