Downloading Transactions
I tried downloading transactions from Fidelity.
1) It will download dividends associated with Fidelity Cash
reserves, but it will not download the reinvestments (buys).
Previously when I downloaded security prices the 1.00 constant
price varied all over the place when I used Fidelity's FDRXX symbol
so now I don't use it in security updates. Is this the reason for
not doing the buys?
2) It downloaded transactions that I previously manually entered.
Will this stop if I delete the manual duplicates (i.e., MD will not
reload a transaction if it is marked with an "i"?
3) Is there any way the transactions can be ordered? I.e., for a
given date can the transactions be grouped by security?. For
example, in 1 account, on the same date the order is: Buy fund A,
Buy Fund B, Receive Div Fund A, Receive Div Fid Cash Reserves,
Receive Div Fun B. Ideally they would be sorted by fund with the
receives before the buy.
4) The default category for Dividends were "ATM" and price = 10000.
I changed the default to "Investment:Dividend". Will MD then leave
the price blank?
5) I have a category = "Investment Dividend" and a category =
"Investment:Dividend". Is there a way I can change all the
"Investment Dividend"s to "Investment:Dividend"?
Support Staff 2 Posted by Tom Freeman on 02 Jan, 2012 04:45 PM
Elliott
Moneydance does not have a separate cash account for the part of the investment portfolio held in cash. This is the cash balance you see on the investment account. So there is no need for a buy transaction. The div transaction increases your cash balance. My assumption is that all cash held in your Fidelity account is held in the money market account so there is no real need to set it up as a security.
The downloaded transactions should be reconciled with the transactions manually entered. There should be a merge function in the reconcile process. This allows you to confirm that what you entered and what your institution entered is the same. After you have downloaded the transactions they should not download again.
In the investment register you can sort by date, or security, or description. The transactions are time-stamped by the financial institution and that determines order they show in the register.
4.The 10000 is a placeholder downloaded by the financial institution and is usually greyed out as there are no shares associated with this price. Without shares it doesn't affect the program, you can edit this out if you like.
Tom
3 Posted by -Kevin N. on 02 Jan, 2012 05:22 PM
Hi Eliot,
As a fellow Fidelity investor, I can confirm that the Money Market BUYS do not come thru and have to be entered manually.
Tom's correct that technically you don't have to enter the BUYS for the Money Market sweep fund but I prefer to do so, thus keeping the Cash Balance in the register at Zero.
Doing so provides a low-level fail safe wherein if the Cash Balance is not Zero, then I know that something is amok and needs further scrutiny.
HTH -Kevin N.
4 Posted by elliot.abrons on 02 Jan, 2012 07:08 PM
I agree with you Kevin so I'll either add a buy or change the transaction to a DivReinvest.
5 Posted by -Kevin N. on 02 Jan, 2012 07:41 PM
Hi Eliot,
DivReinvest works well for the monthly interest paid to the MM fund. Which by the way DOES seem to download from Fidelity.
Be wary though, that Moneydance might display a 10000 price placeholder that must be changed to 1.00 before confirming the txn.
HTH -Kevin N.
6 Posted by elliot.abrons on 02 Jan, 2012 09:35 PM
Kevin,
I was able to do what you said. Then I set up mall my accounts and tried "Download All accounts. It was a disaster. It only downloaded 1 account but downloaded the transactions to the wrong account. I saw no indication relative to which account was being accessed when I matched up securities. The worst problem is that it will no longer allow me to remove the incorrectly downloaded securities. Instead of giving me the window to type in yes for removing the security it gives me the do you want to delete the account popup. How do I fix it?
Elliot
7 Posted by -Kevin N. on 02 Jan, 2012 10:04 PM
Hi Elliot,
I think at this point you should look to open a saved backup data file. The backup data files are, by default, saved into the same directory as your main data file. They will be named with the same name as your main data file along with their creation date appended to them. For example mymoney.md-2012-01-02. To open the backup, rename the file minus the creation date. For example mymoney.md
Use the backup and start over setting up direct-conect to Fidelity. Most importantly when setting up the connection, "Take your time". Sometimes it takes a second or two for certain input forms to appear and if you bypass one of them your data will download into the wrong account. It's called not having your accounts properly mapped.
Let me know how you make out. OK?
HTH -Kevin N
8 Posted by -Kevin N. on 02 Jan, 2012 10:29 PM
Hi Elliot,
It just dawned on me that if you have Moneydance set up to prompt you to Save the changes when you close the program, you could opt to not Save the changes and then start over.
HTH -Kevin N.
9 Posted by elliot.abrons on 02 Jan, 2012 10:44 PM
Kevin,
I went to a backup and setup 1 account. It said it downloaded zero transactions. However I was logged on to site. Do I need to be logged off?
Elliot
10 Posted by -Kevin N. on 02 Jan, 2012 11:02 PM
Hi Elliot,
No, it shouldn't matter that you were logged onto Fidelity or not.
Don't hold me to this but since you previously downloaded these txns, Fidelity may have flagged those txns as having already been downloaded and therefore is no longer offering them up. Hense the downloaded zero txns.
Try this, while viewing the account in question, from the Menu bar, click on 'Online' then 'Setup Online Banking'. In the resulting form, clck on 'Reset Sync'. This should tell Fidelity to resend any and all available txns.
HTH -Kevin N.
11 Posted by elliot.abrons on 03 Jan, 2012 02:42 AM
Kevin,
I went to a backup and did 1account at a time. The problem was that I did realize that the first login was to get the accounts so that the correct matchup could occur and the second login was the actual download. That is how the mismatch occurred. The key to recovery was your hint on the backup.
The only save selection in the preferences is save on quit. Does that mean that it only saves on quit. If I want to save more often I have to do it manually?
Thanks for your help.
Elliot
12 Posted by -Kevin N. on 03 Jan, 2012 03:31 AM
Hi Elliot,
In 'Preference' on the 'Backup' tab, there is an option to 'Perform autosave every 'X' minutes'.
Also, as you've discovered, there is the 'Save on Every Quit' option.
Personally, I have autosave disabled and Save on Every Quit un-checked. I like to be prompted and given the option to Save the changes when I close the program. I was able to save my skin a few times when things had gone awry by just closing the program without Saving any of the changes. It's something to consider.
HTH -Kevin N.
13 Posted by -Kevin N. on 03 Jan, 2012 03:41 AM
Hi Elliot,
Just as an FYI. Now that you've gotten your Fidelity Accounts set up for direct-connect, you can have Moneydance remember your user names and passwords so that you don't have to enter them each time that you go to update your accounts.
To do so, click on File > Encryption (Moneydance > Encryption for Macs) In the resultng form, choose to encrypt the file, create a password and store your online passwords in th file.
You may or may not need to enter your user names and passwords one more time in order for Moneydance to learn them but that should do it.
You will also now be prompted for a password to open your data file. DO NOT forget your password. From what I've read on these forums, it can not be retrieved.
HTH -Kevin N.