Cash a/c is double, window contains closed trades

[rickbu]

I have created a portfolio and downloaded the transactions. The list of securities shown in the right hand window contsin my correct current positions and values for each security held. However, the Cash account value is double the value in the account at the brokerage firm. Can I fix that?

Also the list in the right hand window includes all closed trades as well as open positions. Can I elect to exclude the closed trades?

[Mark]

Hi rickbu,

Yes, you can correct your cash. Open up the cash investment in the Data Register and view your transactions to see why you have double the value. You can edit/delete any transaction from here.

Yes, you can hide sold investments. You can either do it manually with "Investment Properties... / Other / Hidden", or you can do it in bulk using "File / File Operations / Hide Sold Investments...". Use "View / Hidden Investments/Portfolios" to control whether or not hidden investments are displayed. For more on this, see this FAQ:

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

[rickbu]

It's a little hard to tell what it is about the data register that I see for Cash that is contributing to the double value as there are many transactions over several years. My concern is that the double value might be present on historical dates as well so, if I were to calculate the portfolio value on a historical date, I would get an incorrect value then as I do now. Also if I were to redownload these transactions again at some future date from the brokerage firm I would have the problem all over again ahd have to recorrect it.

Can I export the cash data register to Excel so I can inspect it more closely?

[Mark]

Hi rickbu,

Things to look at in the Data Register may be:

- Do you have duplicate transactions? For example, if you sold some stock, do you have the corresponding buy of cash shown just once? You should only see it once.

- Was there maybe a starting balance that was incorrect. Scroll to the earliest date, and look at your initial deposit.

Yes, you could just close the sub-portfolio, and go through the New Portfolio Wizard again.

Yes, you can copy/paste all the transactions from the Data Register into Excel. However, the Data Register is probably a better place to view them. Is there something you aren't able to do with the Data Register that you can do in Excel?

[rickbu]

I think I see the problem. The account was opened in Q2 2011. However, FM is showing an initial transaction on 10/20/2011 called "Adjustment to obtain retrieved balance". Cash transactions in the account prior to 10/20/2011 are not shown.

This adjustment has the effect of causing the Cash balance in the register to be exactly, to the penny, two times the correct balance. I am just guessing here, but it seems that either the adjustment is incorrect, or the retrieved balance is incorrect.

I suppose I could manually change the amount of the adjustment, but the absence of cash transactions prior to 10/20/2011 means I cannot get an account value prior to that date.

[Mark]

Hi rickbu,

It sounds like you just need to delete that initial adjustment entry. It may be that when you retrieved, your broker only had transactions back to that 10/2011 date. When you retrieve transactions and positions with the new portfolio wizard, FM gets all available transactions, plus your current positions. It makes any necessary "adjustment" entries at the earliest transaction date, to get your current balances correct. You can edit this initial adjustment entry if you want to manually replace it with all the actual entries prior to this date.

[rickbu]

Oh I see. For now I will manually adjust the initial transaction so that I get a correct cash balance. Thanks.

[rickbu]

Mark, I have inspected the data registers for numerous securities in my Scottrade accounts that I have downloaded to portfolios in FM. The data registers for positions that have activity prior to mid October, 2011 all have "Adjustment to obtain retrieved balance" as the first transaction, on a date in October, 2011. So these adjustments are not limited to the initial one I found in my Cash account data register, but rather are everywhere.

This tells me that manually importing cash transactions prior to October, 2011 will not solve my problem, as it appears that there are NO transactions at all prior to October, 2011.

Is it your opinion that this is a Scottrade issue? Have any other FM users who have Scottrade acccounts reported this issue to you? I would be interested to know if others have communicated with Scottrade about this matter?

[Mark]

Hi rickbu,

This is quite common when setting up a new account and retrieving transactions and positions from your broker. Many brokers only keep transactions on their OFX server for a fixed period. It sounds like roughly 18 months for Scottrade. This is a limitation placed by the broker, not Fund Manager. This is from the online help in Fund Manager in the New Portfolio Wizard:

Retrieve Transactions and Positions: Retrieves all available historical transactions, and also adjusts to current positions. All available transactions are imported, and then if necessary, an adjustment transaction will be recorded to get your share balance correct as of the current date. An adjustment transaction will only be necessary when all historical transactions were not available. Some brokers/fund companies only keep historical transactions available for a limited time. Example: Assume you've purchased 10 shares per month for the last 36 months, so you currently own 360 shares. When historical transactions were retrieved, data for only the last 24 months was available, so the available transactions can only account for 240 of the 360 shares. Fund Manager will record an additional purchase of 120 shares at the beginning of this time period, so your current share balance will be correct. If desired, you can later go back and manually edit/delete this adjustment transaction, and replace it with the actual transaction data.