Retreive Transactions Issue

[jimkorein]

Last month I set up a portfolio which contains a number of accounts. Initially, I used "Retreive positions and Transactions" to set up the accounts in Data manger. So far so good. Then, a couple of weeks later, I did "Retreive Transactions for my complate portfolio. Most of the accounts updated properly, but the largest and most complex, a Schwab account, has some problems. For some reason, it is showing a large amount of cash, which is not there, there are positions with negative numbers of shares, and there are positions with no name or symbol. I am not sure how to make things right from here. Can you help?

[Mark]

Hi jimkorein,

Sure, I can help. I'm not certain what happened either, but I would suggest looking at your recorded transactions, to see why you have negative shares. It may provide insight into what went wrong. Open up the Data Register using "Edit / All Data..." and set the "Data Type" to "Investments (all)". Look at one of your investments with a negative share balance, and see what is recorded. This list will show you all transactions that are affecting your share balance, so you can see if something is duplicated, missing, or just incorrect. One possibility is if you retrieve transactions, you should pretty much always leave on the option to "Skip Transactions Already in Fund Manager". If somehow that got turned off, you may end up with duplicate transactions, which would cause your share balances to be off.

On the empty name/symbol investments, I would also look at the transactions to see if there are any hints as to what caused these. If they shouldn't be there, you can close a whole investment by right mouse clicking on it, and choosing "Close".

If this all seems too much, you can give us a call, and we can do a quick web conference and take a look at it with you.

[jimkorein]

Mark, thanks for the quick response. Ok, I looked at some of the transactions in the data register, and the culprits seems to be old transactions, predating my original "Retreive Positions and Transactions" operations.

So now I have two questions.

First, where do I find the "Skip Transactions Already in Fund Manager" option, to see if it is turned off? Seems like it must be turned off.

Second, assuming this is the problem, how do I get back to reasonable state? Is there any way to back out the last Transaction Retreival operation for a portfolio?
Thanks, Jim

[Mark]

Hi Jim,

When you retrieve transactions, the option to "Skip Transactions Already In Fund Manager" is shown towards the bottom of the dialog. There is an "Import Options" section, and it is the first option listed in there.

Once you preview, and click "Finish", there is no easy "un-do", unless you haven't yet saved. If you haven't saved, you can exit without saving by turning off "Options / Save Investments on Exit" first. If you have already saved, you could restore an automatic backup, or manually delete the retrieved transactions.

So, do you see duplicate transactions for the same date? I wasn't clear from what you described. What sort of transactions do you see listed in the Data Register?

[jimkorein]

OK, I have revised my view of what is going on.

When I look a the transactions in the data, there are no duplicates.
The transactions which are responsible for the negative numbers of shares seem to be redemption of positions I no longer hold.

You may recall that I spent some time trying to get my asset allocation straight in August. You were very helpful in explaining how to export to CSV files and re-import. So I that time, to get my asset allocations right, I exported the Asset Types, editied the CSV file and re-imported.
In editing the files, I sorted them, eliminated redundant entries, assigned asset types, and re-imported. I set up the asset types so that the first (default) type is Unassigned, so I could spit those.

After I did this this, as I recall, I had some "Unassigned" positions, which were all old positions that I no longer owned. I think that I just deleted those investments, since theyu are no longer in my portfolio.

Now, it seems like those invstments that I deleted are resurfacing as negative shares from redemption transactions.

The other anomoly is "Cash", which I have set as the "Default Cash Account". There are numerous Cash transactions in the Data Register, mostly purchases (positve) and some redemptions (negative). I wind up with a very large (and erroneous) cash position.

So, it seems to me that at this point I just need to start from scratch on this particular Schwab account, unless you have a better suggestion.
What is the best way to do this? Also, I take it that deleting investments is not agood idea, even if I no longer own them?
Thanks, Jim

[jimkorein]

One more question. To avoid going through this again, I would like to save backup copies of my database, so that I can revert to a previous state. What is the best way to do a backup and restore for this purpose?

[Mark]

Hi Jim,

Are those redemption transactions real? Is that when you sold them? Are you maybe missing the original purchase transactions? A negative share balance would only happen if you have the redemption, but not the original purchase. You could either add the original purchase, or delete the redemption transactions. You could also start over if you think that is easier. Just close your sub-portfolio by right mouse clicking on it in the Portfolio Editor, and choosing "Close".

When you sell all shares of some security it is usually best to "hide" it, and not close it. This way it stays as part of your historical records. We have an FAQ on this issue here:

http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/faq_hide_sold.php

You can set up Fund Manager to create automatic backups at a frequency of your choosing. See "Options / General Preferences... / Data". You choose the frequency, location, and number of backups to keep. You can also manually create a backup anytime you want using "File / Backup...". If you ever choose to restore one, just use "File / Restore...".

[jimkorein]

Mark, I just closed and reopened the Schwab sub-portfolio, and then re-imported my asset types, and backed everything up. I think I am back on track. Thanks for all your help. - Jim