Fidelity 401k Contributions reduce Spending
Here's what I noticed today. Fidelity 401k investment transactions are categorized as
Type: Payment/Deposit
Category: Uncategorized
But… those transactions go to “Uncategorized” category or my Spending Report as “+” reducing monthly expenses. How's that possible to treat 401k contributions as something that deducts expenses???
It happens since I opened that account two months in a row.
Comments
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Hello @AlexB,
Thank you for posting your inquiry regarding Investment Transactions being included in Reports to the Community.
Since the only types of Investment Transactions that can currently be included in Reports are “cash flow” types, it sounds like this is the reason you're seeing the transactions in question in your Spending Report; ‘Payment/Deposit’ is considered a “cash flow” Investment Transaction. This is outlined further in our Support Article on Investment Transactions here.
To resolve this matter, I'd suggest either editing the transactions to correct the type to an investing action instead of a “cash flow” type, or you can also edit the transactions to be ignored from Reports. To perform the latter, you'll want to select the three dots at the end of the Investment Transaction, select “Edit transaction”, and then check the ‘Ignore from Reports’ checkbox and click “Update”.
Please let us know how it goes!
-Coach Natalie
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Hi Natalie, thanks! Well there is one huge obstacle there. Please see one of those transactions. I have 2 transactions each month as each one is a result of having a paycheck.
As I understand to correct transaction I need to choose “Type” and select something else that is not “Payment/Deposit”. It looks “Buy" is the right option here. But, that solution is not really good solution for the same reason as “Ignoring” is not really good solution.
It helps with one transaction only but I have two each month. With credit card transactions you have autocorrect option if the system improperly categorizes something so next transactions with same payee etc. will be categorized properly. This checkbox is an option when correcting a transaction.
I do not see such checkbox with Investing transactions though. Is that right that I need to manually correct each single transaction including future ones? If such option existed I'd just correct on my own and set up a new rule.
Is there any way to set up a rule? If no than you might consider it as a bug report as it's the system (not me) categorizing those transactions as cash flow. I guess it might affect other Fidelity customers (or may be more).
The only option I found is to ignore the entire account from reports, not sure how it affects other reports but may be that's an option. Haven't checked it yet.
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Hello @AlexB,
Since most Investment Transactions won't contain a Category, and since the Payee is typically going to be the Security, I don't think Transaction Rules would be able to be applied. Additionally, the issue you're facing is the “Type” set for the transaction, and there are currently only Transaction Rules that cover Payees and Categories. You may consider creating an Idea post requesting Transaction Rules for Investment Transactions, specifically for the “Type”, if you'd like.
Ignoring the account from Reports is a great way to go, and I think I've actually seen other users mention doing so here in the Community to keep their Investment Transactions out of their Reports. Otherwise, editing them as they download would be the best route to take, as Simplifi is designed to learn over time. Additionally, Investment Transactions are still being worked on, so it's possible that you may see some improvement down the road regardless.
Until some time has passed to allow Simplifi to learn and Investment Transactions to become fully stable and functional, we won't be reporting this behavior as a bug. However, you are more than welcome to leave your feedback regarding this behavior on our Investment Transactions feedback post so it can be reviewed by our Product Team in the meantime.
I hope this helps!
-Coach Natalie
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Thanks, well I was not aware Investments are not fully supported. I will not add this Idea for now as it will be a workaround while we need real solution.
I've checked other investment account IRA, same issue. It's also reducing Uncategorizes expenses. The thing is it should not be this way. It's a bug report it or not. And the real issue is probably “Category” section. It's related to “Uncategorized” and I do not see here but I guess it's “Uncategorized expenses” that's why every such transaction is actually reducing my expenses and that's wrong.
It's Ok to say “Investment income is not categorized” but it should be Uncategorized Income, not Uncategorized Expense. You just need to properly treat investment payments as income, not as expense. Either use Uncategorized Income for this or whatever.
Hard to stress it but that's it. The system is using “Uncategorized” category for each transaction that it can not categorize ignoring the fact that it's and Expense type category. That creates all the mess. You need to separate Uncategorized Income from Uncategorized Expense. And that's not an idea, that's a bug :)
Let me give you a proof now why. This transaction you see below is you know what? it's Dividends. You categorize Dividends as Uncategorized Expense. That's a non-sense.
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