Schwab Not Downloading Fees

[Tnblade]

When I download transactions from Schwab (the 401 Company), everything downloads ok except the fees are not downloading. Will the fees require a manual entry?

[Mark]

Hi Tnblade,

Are you talking about your commission fees? Those would be recorded if they are reported by the broker. Does it make a difference if you use the "Charles Scwab" broker instead?

[Tnblade]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'm a new user. I used the Schwab (401 company) as the stated company because I thought I read somewhere that that I should that one instead of Charles Schwab. This is for my wife's 401(k). When I look at her online statement, there is a small fee each month for each fund that is not getting recorded in the downloaded transactions and causing the total shares to be off a small fraction.

So, should I change the company to Charles Schwab and try it? I'm just cautious because I've spent so much time getting things set up and don't want to mess up my downloads so far.

Thanks

[Tnblade]

I just found this on her 401(k) web site which is why I used Schwab the 401(k) Company:

"When downloading transaction history and balance information to Quicken® for Windows or Quicken® for Mac, be sure to select "Schwab - The 401(k) Company" as the institution."

I guess I assumed that I should use it as well for use in Fund Manager.

Thanks

[Mark]

Hi Tnblade,

You could temporarily try the other "Charles Schwab", to see if it makes any difference. You can also take a look in the log file, and see if you see any mention of these fees. If they are in the data feed from the broker, Fund Manager should import them. For help on turning on logging, and finding the log file, see the very bottom of this page:

http://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/tintrtv.html

I would suggest looking at the "xmldump.txt" log file.

[Mark]

Hi Tnblade,

If you're worried about making some changes that you don't want to save, you can just exit without saving. Make sure to save before you start, and then if you want to exit without saving, turn off the "Save Investments/Portfolio on Exit" options under the top level "Options" menu.

You could also do a "File / Backup..." before you start, and if you don't like the way things go, you can always restore that backup.

[Tnblade]

I checked the log file and it looks like the fee is there, but it is not showing up in the data register that I can see. Here is an example from the log:

- INVBANKTRAN
- STMTTRN
- TRNTYPE (FEE)
- DTPOSTED (20130114110000.000[-6:CST])
- TRNAMT (-1.95)
- FITID (20130114157A-21004)
- MEMO (FEE - Equity Index Non-Lendable M)

I'm sure I am just missing something simple.

I guess I will try to download using Charles Schwab to see if that works.

Thanks

[Mark]

Hi Tnblade,

This is being recorded as an "Investment Banking" transaction. When you do the retrieve, click on "Advanced Options..." and make sure you have the option:

Import "Investment Banking Transactions" into Default Cash Account(s)

turned on. You would also need to have a default cash account assigned for this sub-portfolio. These transactions are added/removed from your default cash account. You'll notice there is no mention of a specific investment this comes out of, or shares. It is just a value, which is applied to your default cash account when this option is checked.

[Tnblade]

Thanks for all the help Mark.

A couple things I don't understand about your suggestion:

There is a fee associated with each fund in the 401(k). I only showed you one example. I was assuming the reason my total shares did not match was because the fees (and associated shares) were not being removed from the individual funds. So I guess I'm confused why to capture this in a default cash account. In order for it to match, it would seem that each fund needs to individually account for fees. The actual statement shows a fee for each fund which is made up of a fraction of a share and a price as shown below:

Investment Date Description Dollars Price Shares
01-14-2013 Fee (0.90) 2.1720758 (0.414)


Also, when I went to set up a default cash account in the sub-portfolio, I can only pick one fund. Do I just pick one of the funds. Again, it would seem like these transactions need to be traced with each individual fund.

I'm obviously not a professional at this, so please forgive me for all my questions.

Thanks so much.

[Mark]

Hi Tnblade,

Since the fees are being reported as just investment banking transactions, and not showing the shares redeemed from the fund, you will need to manually record these. Schwab is not reporting them in a way that they can be retrieved properly. I didn't understand that the fees were being taken by redeeming shares when I sent my prior reply.

The only other suggestion would be to try the "Charles Schwab" server, and see if that server reports these fees with any more accuracy.

[Tnblade]

Thanks again Mark,

I tried Charles Schwab and it did not recognize the account, so I guess I will just enter them manually.

Maybe another option would be to do some kind of adjustment once a quarter to account for all of the fees to avoid having to make manual entries each month for each fund. I know it would not be an exact reconciliation of the account, but for what I use it for, that will probably be ok.

Thanks