Problems RETRIEVE-ing Vanguard Mutual Fund data

[modelerMike]

Good day,

Mike here. I downloaded your Professional version last week and am trying to test it out for use.

I have read your Quick Start pdf, parts of your online documentation and various Message Board posts to resolve a few problems to no avail.

I spoke to Vanguard and they said they only support Quicken and as such provided no guidance on these concerns that I communicated to them.


So ....... two challenges to get me up and running FM :

1. For Vanguard Group when I tried the “Retrieve Transactions & Positions”
for Vanguard Brokerage Services account I get all the historic data downloaded into FM.

When I try the same for the Vanguard Mutual Funds, I only get historic transactions for current positions, which go back to 2006 for one fund.
Yet if I log onto the Vanguard website I can view ( and download into an Excel Spreadsheet )
NINE YEARS worth of Vanguard Mutual Funds transactions. The point here is that the “Retrieve Transactions & Positions” excludes a huge chunk of historic transactions in a way that is
baffling to me ! It looks as if it is only RETRIEVE-ing current mutual fund positions but I cannot see any options for the “Retrieve Transactions & Positions” command that invokes such a constraint.

So I can use the historic data I downloaded into Excel from their website to create a Generic Import File and get all the historic transactions loaded
BUT
I wanted to ask if you know what I may be doing wrong because it would be easier to use the automated
RETRIEVE functionality in FM




2. Once I resolve the above challenge there is another issue.

Over time, there have been three different money market mutual funds that have served as a cash sweep account. At any point in time, one money market fund serves as the sweep account for both the Mutual Fund Account transactions AND for the Brokerage account transactions at Vanguard Group.

If I end up using the Generic Transactions Import file-based load approach, my inclination would be
to ‘merge’ all three money market mutual funds into one consistent-over-time cash-sweep account
and then use that as the Default Cash Account for both the Mutual Fund Account AND for the Brokerage Account. The challenge I face with this approach is ....
How Do I Reconcile Future Transaction Updates using the RETRIVE functionality with the ‘merged’ default cash account I create for the Generic Transaction Import initial data import ?


Guidance appreciated.

Regards,

Mike

[Mark]

Hi Mike,

1) When you do a "Transaction & Position" retrieve using the New Portfolio Wizard, Fund Manager retrieves all available transactions, and then makes whatever adjustments are necessary to get your current positions correct. Different brokers/fund companies keep your transactions for varying amounts of time on their OFX server. This is the server used for retrieving transactions and positions, and is different than their web site server. There are no options here, FM retrieves all available transactions. If you aren't getting all 9 years, then you may want to go through the Excel route. You're right, that is a lot more work, but it will be more accurate. If you want to debug the transaction retrieve some more, you can take a look at the log files, which will show all your retrieved transactions. I've not heard of them only making available transactions for currently held positions. That isn't normal. It is normal however to only keep transactions for some fixed time period. For details on these log files, read the bottom of this page:

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

2) I would suggest having 1 cash account for each account that you would be retrieving. This way, they will reconcile, and you'll know how much cash you have in each account. If you have a mutual fund account, that is one sub-portfolio, account # and cash account. Your brokerage account would be another sub-portfolio, account #, and cash account. If for some reason your brokerage and mutual fund account is the same, then you would just have one sub-portfolio for all of this.

[modelerMike]

Thanks Mark,

I'll go with one cash investment per account as you recommended.

I was simply trying to match the way Vanguard does things ... that is use one cash account for both mutual fund and brokerage accounts. Using the Generic Transaction Import approach will be a slog but at least I will have control.

Regards, Mike

[Mark]

Hi Mike,

If Vanguard only has 1 cash account for both accounts you might want to do some experimenting before setting things up. If you reconcile a given account, does it show the total cash from both accounts? However they report things when you reconcile, is probably how you'd want to configure this in FM as well. Do each of your mutual fund and brokerage accounts have separate account numbers? If so, set up a sub-portfolio for each one, and set the transaction retrieve settings for each. Do a test reconcile (it is okay the account is empty in FM), and see what Vanguard says you should have in each account.

Normally, most times multiple accounts are set up like:

Code: Select all

- Broker
  - Acct 1
    - Investments and Cash for Acct 1
  - Acct 2
    - Investments and Cash for Acct 2

but you can set things up however you need to match what Vanguard reports.

[modelerMike]

Previously posted what i thought was error made by Vanguard; it turned out that Vanguard was not in error.

I was. My bad.

[modelerMike]

It would be nice to have the option of specifying the Default Cash 'security' at EACH Generic Transaction load.

The CASH account changed over time at Vanguard from
the Trsy MM Fund to the Prime MM Fund.

I tried to address this by separating the Generic Transaction load files into two loads; one for the date range the Trsy MM Fund = CASH and another for the date range that Prime MM Fund = CASH; but once FM 'knows' the Default CASH 'security' it stops presenting the GUI that lets the loader select the CASH 'security' .

Is there a way to to this i am missing ? Quidance appreciated.

[Mark]

Hi modelerMike,

I assume you are retrieving transactions, and not using the generic import? Since Vanguard has an OFX server, this is usually much easier.

When a new account is first created from any retrieve or import, Fund Manager prompts you for what to use for the default cash account. Once an account is established it keeps using this same default cash account. You can however go in and change it anytime you want. Right mouse click on that sub-portfolio and choose "Properties..." and you can select the default cash account there. Whatever investments is assigned at the time of the retrieve or import will be used for recording corresponding entries into the default cash account.

[modelerMike]

Thanks for the guidance Mark,

I am using the Generic Transaction loads.
I have not spent enough time with the Automated Retrieve loads to get comfortable using them. I tried them, saw stuff i did not understand and concluded that i would sleep better at night doing the Generic Transaction loads myself. I run into my own errors with the Generic Transaction loads but I own them and understand them.

Regards,

Mike