DHClem Member ✭✭✭
Quicken for Mac-Version 6.5.1 (Build 605.42638.100)--is telling me every TIAA account has been emptied--to Zero.


  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    I'm assuming this is not what the balances show on TIAA's website? Are these accounts connected for downloads? Can you find any transactions in the registers that could account for this? Are there any Placeholder transactions (look for "placeholder" in the memo field).
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • DHClem
    DHClem Member ✭✭✭
    Thanks, RickO.  I should have written more.
    1. These are not what the balances show on TIAA's website.
    2.  These accounts are connected for downloads Direct Connect.
    3. I can *not* find any transactions in the registers that could account for this.
    4. There are not Placeholder transactions.

    I will say that (even) Direct Connect syncing seems to work "once in a while" but not consistently. Here I was both asking--anyone know of this?, can it be fixed?, and trying to alert people, users and Quicken staff, of a possible problem.
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Is only the cash balance zero? Are the share balances also zero? In what screens are you seeing the zero balance? Can you post some screenshots? 
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • DHClem
    DHClem Member ✭✭✭
    It's all about the reconcile. Screen shot is easy...
  • DHClem
    DHClem Member ✭✭✭
    Yes,  but should reconcile be off like that???
  • RickO
    RickO SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Normally the cash balance in the account should show zero since the account is all held in the fund. That's why I asked to see what your register looks like to see why the register balance would not be zero.
    Quicken Mac Subscription; Quicken Mac user since the early 90s
  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Reconcile for investment accounts applies only to your cash balance. In both of the screen shots of a reconcile window you've posted, we're not seeing the cash balance of the account, which only shows up in the register. In one of my brokerage accounts, I have a zero cash balance because "cash" is actually invested in a money market fund; in another, the cash balance in Quicken matches the cash balance in the brokerage account. In your case, there could be several reasons why your Quicken balance is the large negative number. I would focus on your account register and what transactions are creating negative cash amounts. Typically that's Buy transactions. Where is the money coming from to fund those Buy transactions? You need Dividend Income or Sell or transfer transactions to create the cash.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • DHClem
    DHClem Member ✭✭✭
    THAT really helps. Thanks for your time! I'll check it out.
  • DHClem
    DHClem Member ✭✭✭
    I took the time as I promised, RickO and Jacobs.  Thanks for your time again!  Listen, it's worse with auto-reconciles. All my JPM accounts balance / auto-reconcile perfectly.  *All* the TIAA accounts report an online balance of 0 and a Quicken balance of negative $4.5 thousand  to negative $446 thousand!  It's ridiculously off.  IDK why.

    I do know that I called TIAA --went through 3 levels to get to web support and he agrees..shouldn't happen.

    1. Balances should agree-of course.

    2. Balances *should* be zero--there is no cash in these accounts. They only trade.

    3.  Direct connect should guarantee I get the right data.

    4. ...does not compute!

    Oh, let me mention--only with TIAA accounts do I get hundreds of transactions that are "0" across. No shares, no amounts. But there in Quicken.

    I really don't know what to do to fix it.

  • lhossus
    lhossus SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    @DHClem Have you figured out your problem(s) yet?

    I believe there are two problems that have been identified here. They are related.

    1) Quicken is reporting a -$0- balance in the online account. Here, Quicken is talking about the Cash Balance, not the Market Value, of the account.

    This is as it should be. All of your investment at TIAA is in mutual funds or other securities. There is no free cash laying around, so the cash balance for the account should be -$0-.

    2) Quicken is reporting a negative Cash Balance in your Quicken account records.

    Reviewing the screenshots you posted earlier, I notice the reconcile window shows 

    - Cash Outs of $ -94,399.73

    So, there appear to be Buy or Withdrawal transactions in the amount of $-94,339.73. You should be able to find these transactions in the reconcile window. Can you? You might try sorting by the Cash Out column to help.

    - Cash Ins of    $       726.77

    Can you find the transactions - Deposits and Sells - that contribute to the Cash In amount? Try sorting by the Cash In column.


    Difference:       $ -93,672.96

    This difference is the same negative Quicken Balance reported in the header of the reconciliation window. 

    So, now, why is the Cash Balance so hugely negative? Because more cash was taken out of the account than was put into the account over the period of the reconcile. That is true at least if the account Cash Balance was $0 at the beginning of the reconciliation period.

    The likely cause of this problem is that a large chunk of cash was used to buy securities, but there were no deposits or other sources of cash to supply that cash. So the balance went negative.

    For a 401k, the usual source of cash for purchases is payroll deductions and employer matching funds. Are there Deposit transactions in the account to account for this cash?

    PS: you might want to try reconciling the account for a shorter period. Most retirement accounts issue statements at least quarterly, so try reconciling for a 3-month period corresponding to the first statement for the account. This should make it easier to see what is going on.

    Quicken Mac Subscription
    macOS Monterey 12.2.1 on MacBook Pro 13" M1
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