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new transactions not visible to FM

Questions about updating prices or transactions in Fund Manager

Postby Mary Kennedy » Sat Aug 11, 2018 11:01 am

I often have problems downloading new transactions from Fidelity Investments. FM just doesn't see them when it logs on. Often this occurs with recent transactions, so one hypothesis I have is that the problem is related to Fidelity's method of processing trades. I notice that they always make the trade immediately, but they also publish a little caveat by it saying it is not "settled" for another two days. So I wondered if I send FM there during this 2-day settling period, maybe it tags the transactions as "seen" or something, so that later on it still doesn't "see" them.


So far my only solution is to reconcile all the time, but that is pretty tedious. Is there a setting I need to alter so that FM will see new transactions?


PS, I do not have this problem with Quicken. Seems to be FM specific
Mary Kennedy
 
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Postby Mark » Sat Aug 11, 2018 11:44 am

Hi Mary Kennedy,

The only settings are related to a date range filter, and skipping transactions already in Fund Manager. It sounds like those are not the issue here. Fund Manager and Quicken both use the exact same OFX interface, so if the new transactions are available on the OFX server, both Fund Manager and Quicken should see them at the same time. If you think Fund Manager is not getting transactions that Quicken is able to retrieve you can look in the OFX log files for each program, and look at the raw data. In Fund Manager this is under "Help / Logs / Transaction Retrieve (Parsed)...". If you can reproduce an example where Quicken is able to retrieve a transaction that Fund Manager cannot, please call our office, and we can do a quick web session to investigate.

The time new transactions are posted to the OFX server varies by broker. Some post them right away, others take a few days. There is no one answer as to when new transactions are available on the OFX server. It is up to the broker.
Thanks,
Mark
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Postby Mary Kennedy » Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:44 pm

OK, I am attaching some images of my experience this week. One shows my Quicken download of a new purchase. Next is my FM update, which did not find that purchase. So I manually entered it.

Then I did another request to download new transactions, pushing the date back to 7/30. My third image shows that FM found numerous bond fund reinvestments which it had apparently missed before.

So this is my problem. I have updated several times in the past week, but it never saw those reinvestments. Would it normally take 12 days for those to be visible? THey show up on the Fidelity site the same day they are distributed.

My hypothesis is that there is some reason it skips them when they first appear, but then later on, it overlooks them because it thinks it has already "seen" them or something.
Attachments
Reconcile misses monthly distributions.jpg
Reconcile misses monthly distributions.jpg (53.78 KiB) Viewed 3824 times
FM Transaction Download same day as Quicken.jpg
FM Transaction Download same day as Quicken.jpg (51.37 KiB) Viewed 3824 times
QuickenDownloadsISharesFund 08-09.jpg
QuickenDownloadsISharesFund 08-09.jpg (60.16 KiB) Viewed 3824 times
Mary Kennedy
 
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Postby Mark » Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:52 pm

Hi Mary Kennedy,

I don't see the "third image" showing your retrieval back to 7/30?

No, I wouldn't expect it to take 12 days for them to be visible.

Are you sure you have the correct account number assigned to your FM portfolio?

When you retrieve, are you requesting a date range less than 90 days in length? Are you specifying a date range, or choosing "All Dates"?

If you can focus on a single case where you are missing a transaction in FM, but seeing it in Quicken for transaction retrieval. Retrieve both for the same date range and make sure you have the same account number. If you can reproduce this case, send us the log file from Quicken and Fund Manager for this problematic case, and we can take a look.
Thanks,
Mark
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Postby aviator » Sun Aug 12, 2018 3:09 pm

Hi Mark and Mary,

I'm on the sidelines here, but I think Mary's issue is this:

- She's performing a download between the time a transaction is initiated and the time it settles. For example, If a sell transaction was initiated on Friday, 8/10, it usually takes a few business days for the transaction to settle and for funds to be available to the seller. In this case, the settlement date will be sometime in the future, usually two or three business days.

- If a download is performed after the sell transaction is initiated, but before the settlement occurs, I believe she's saying the settlement portion does not appear in FM.

- I also use Quicken. While I use it mostly for retail banking, I track my investments there, too. I vaguely remember an issue with Fidelity that caused this to happen. The only way I solved it was to wait until after settlement occurred before downloading.
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Postby Mary Kennedy » Mon Aug 13, 2018 8:11 am

Thanks to both of you.

-Mark, my images were posted in the opposite order that I submitted them, so the first image shows the FM Reconcile page with a handful of dividend re-investments that it had not picked up earlier.

-Aviator, you have characterized my hypothesis much better than I was able to do. I am not certain that this is the problem but it is my current hypothesis.

The account settings have to be correct because many of my updates are correct. The problem just happens SOME times, but it happens often enough to be really annoying and time consuming.

With respect to the dates retrieved, I thought my FM automatically checked for any new activity since the last time I logged in. So if I haven't been there for a week, FM would look back through the entire week, but if I had been there just yesterday, FM would just look at one day.

Mark, here is a software suggestion that would be really helpful for situations like this: Add a feature to the Reconcile routine that helps re-create the trade it missed. My experience is that I add each missing transaction manually, which is why I began this conversation in the first place. But I could envision a way in which, if the Reconcile notices that I own 100 shares of ABC company, it would automatically look at the history of that specific lot, find the purchase details, and give me an option of automatically entering the transaction it had missed by itself, so I don't have to do it manually. That would make me a happy camper again
.
Mary Kennedy
 
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Postby Mark » Mon Aug 13, 2018 8:39 am

Hi Mary Kennedy,

Then I did another request to download new transactions, pushing the date back to 7/30. My third image shows that FM found numerous bond fund reinvestments which it had apparently missed before.


That image is showing the Reconciliation wizard. That shows your share balances in FM and on the statement. It is not showing any transactions. Reconciling is a separate command from retrieving transactions. Maybe you meant that you can see from the share balances it is missing some transactions? That Reconciliation wizard does not show any transactions though, just share balances.

With respect to the dates retrieved, I thought my FM automatically checked for any new activity since the last time I logged in. So if I haven't been there for a week, FM would look back through the entire week, but if I had been there just yesterday, FM would just look at one day.


Yes, that is correct, it does do this. When you retrieve transactions, note there is a date range option. FM does default the "From" date to the last date you retrieved this sub-portfolio. What might be happening is that if you retrieve on/after the transaction trade date, but before the settlement date you're missing that transaction due to a date range filter the next time you retrieve. You can just back that "From" date up a few days when retrieving the next time. There is an option to skip transactions already in Fund Manager, so it is okay to overlap your date ranges from subsequent retrievals, without concern of getting duplicates.

Mark, here is a software suggestion that would be really helpful for situations like this: Add a feature to the Reconcile routine that helps re-create the trade it missed.


Okay, thanks for the feedback. To do this with certainty FM would have to retrieve your transactions back to the date you last reconciled, and try and determine any missing transactions. You can also do this yourself now, by adjusting the dates when you retrieve transactions, and leave on the option to skip transactions already recorded. This will find any missing transactions.
Thanks,
Mark
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Postby Mary Kennedy » Mon Aug 13, 2018 10:15 am

Sorry I was not clear. Yes, the first image is from the reconciliation wizard, and you are right that in my message explanation of the image, I jumped immediately to the conclusion that FM had missed all those dividend re-investment when I had last updated it.

I now understand my issue better, but all this discussion still leaves me with my original problem of how to retrieve transactions once I have attempted a retrieve them during the settlement period. Apparently, they become invisible after that. I am a fairly active investor and probably have some activity every few days, either a dividend or a purchase or a sale or stock split or something, so it is very common for me to retrieve transactions when something is in that weird limbo stage and then, because of that, FM fails to see it ever again.

Are you saying that if I manually move the retrieve dates further back, I might be able to get those transactions after all? Somehow I thought they were marked by FM as "already did that one." I will try to systematically test this idea and do some experimenting with the retrieve date ranges.
Mary Kennedy
 
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Postby Mark » Mon Aug 13, 2018 10:32 am

Hi Mary Kennedy,

Are you saying that if I manually move the retrieve dates further back, I might be able to get those transactions after all?


Yes. When you retrieve transactions, just the initialized settings for date range to retrieve are set based on your last retrieve date. You can just adjust the "From" date in the "Date Range to Retrieve" section back a few days and this will go back and look for transactions in that period. Any that you missed originally that are now there will show up.
Thanks,
Mark
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Postby Mary Kennedy » Mon Aug 13, 2018 10:36 am

Thanks, as always, for your detailed and personalized help
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Postby El Gordo » Wed Jan 30, 2019 5:42 am

Thank you Mary, Aviator and Mark for this thread!

This was a very imformative discussion.

El Gordo
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