Transaction Problems with Wells Fargo Command Account

ericksonjb

This is one of those accounts that combines checking and investments in 2 separate but related accounts. Simplifi has constant challenges here. The checking side is my primary bank account and I track everything going in and out. The investment side is set up to exclude transactions from the Spending Plan and Reports (since I just want to track the total value).

Often, transactions on the investment side ARE included in the Spending Plan and Reports causing me to manually exclude them. Today, 5 transactions from the checking side were un-categorized and allocated to the investment account instead of the spending categories I had previously allocated.

Is this type of account (which lots of banks offer) simply too challenging for Simplifi? Is it better to use a straight-up checking account?

(Other than this, I'm very pleased with Simplifi.)

Coach Jon

Hello @ericksonjb,

Thanks for reaching out! To get a better handle on your situation, can you confirm that the accounts are indeed separate, and not a 2-in-1 type of account? How do the accounts appear on your bank's website? Are they separated there, or together? Were the 5 transactions that were allocated to the investment side considered transfers? If you could answer these questions this would help us better clarify your situation.

Thanks,

Coach Jon

ericksonjb

Thanks for responding Jon.

• On the WF site, the checking account is listed as a subaccount of the investment account. That said, I access investments from their brokerage tab and checking from the banking tab. Not sure if that means they're 2-in-1 or not. This is a pretty common type of account setup. Merrill Lynch and Schwab also do it.
• The 5 transactions were all deposits and originally appeared in the checking account in late May. I noticed that all 5 had been reallocated today (I have since allocated them correctly). None of the 5 were considered transfers.

Coach Jon

Hello @ericksonjb,

Thanks for the reply. To help us understand, is there any differences between these 5 transactions that got allocated to the investment account and the transactions that normally fall into the checking account? Is the checking account in Quicken Simplifi itself, and do most transactions download to it correctly with only these 5 transactions duplicating into the investment account?

Additionally, can you provide screenshots to show exactly how this account is setup at both the bank website and Quicken Simplifi?

Thanks,

Coach Jon

ericksonjb

All the transactions were typical checking transactions in my account. The checking and brokerage accounts are both in Simplifi. Nearly all transactions download correctly - of the 5 that got recategorized, one was a recurring transaction. See the screenshots showing where they are setup. Command Checking is the checking account and Command is the corresponding brokerage account.

ericksonjb

Here's the latest issue. A bunch of transactions in the Command brokerage account have been "un-excluded" from my May Spending Plan and Reports. This caused my Other Spending to go from zero (where it should be) to $6308.34 (where it shouldn't be). See the screen grab below. Note that all the "un-excluded" transactions had the payee Standard Bank Deposit and that there are lots of other Standard Bank Deposits that were properly excluded. Again, as a reminder, the entire Command brokerage account is marked as excluded from the Spending Plan and Reports.

Coach Jon

Hello @ericksonjb,

Thank you for the reply, and the information. If we could have you provide a screenshot of how these accounts are set up at the bank website, that would be helpful. As for the most recent issue you mentioned, have you tried re-excluding the account in your Account Settings to see if the transactions that are un-excluded go back to the way they are supposed to be?

Thanks,

Coach Jon

ericksonjb

I re-excluded the account and that fixed the transactions. Hopefully that will stick for the future.

Here is a screenshot of how the accounts are set up at Wells Fargo.

Coach Jon

Hello @ericksonjb,

Thanks for the reply and continued patience while we work to understand this issue. Some additional questions we have that you can please answer:

• What do you mean by "allocated"? Can you provide an example of how the transaction was categorized and how it changed?
• Are the transactions duplicated in both accounts or just a single account?
• If you are downloading into both accounts does the transaction in the checking account become uncategorized when the transactions download into the investment account?
• How much later do the transactions download in the investment account?
• Do you see the transaction in the investment account on the bank's website?

Thanks,

Coach Jon

ericksonjb

Answers to your questions:

• Allocated really should read recategorized. See the transaction screen grab below. It was originally categorized as Interest Earned (as shown). Simplifi changed the category to the Command account (brokerage account), essentially making it a transfer.
• Transactions are not duplicated.
• The transactions always show in both accounts in some form or another. In this type of account setup, the brokerage account essentially acts as a vehicle for Wells Fargo to move them to checking.
• Since I have Simplifi exclude transactions from the Spending Plan and Reports, I don't worry about the transactions on the brokerage side. By essentially making them a transfer, Simplifi takes them out of the Spending Plan and Reports.
• I noticed that the transactions were re-categorized on 6/7. They ranged in dates from 5/15 to 5/31.

Again, this is a pretty common type of account in the Brokerage/Banking world and my concern is that Simplifi can't deal with it very well.

Coach Jon

Hello @ericksonjb,

Thanks for the reply. Quicken Simplifi is designed to automatically detect and link transfers. https://help.simplifimoney.com/en/articles/3352152-how-do-transfers-work#managing-transfers

We do have an idea post here if you are looking for the ability to disable the automatic linking of transfers:

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/7361/ability-to-disable-the-automatic-linking-of-transfers-edited

As for the issue at hand, are the amounts the same? Is one positive and the other is negative for these transfer transactions?

Thanks,

Coach Jon