Track cash in an investment account

How your financial institution tracks cash

Some brokerage accounts track the cash balance in a special cash management account. Your financial institution may allow you to earn interest and write checks from this cash balance. Anytime you execute a sale, receive a dividend, or simply add cash to the account, the cash proceeds are added to your available cash balance.

This cash may, in turn, be invested in a money market fund or sweep account.

A money market fund is a mutual fund that invests only in money market investments. Most money funds allow limited check writing and keep your principal constant but vary the interest rate. An investment in a money market fund is not insured or guaranteed by the U.S. government. There is no assurance that the fund will maintain a $1 share price.

How Quicken tracks your cash balance

By default, Quicken tracks your cash balance in the investment account itself. When you execute a cash transaction (for example, write a check, make a withdrawal or deposit, or create an online payment), you record a cash transaction in the investment transaction list, just as you would for any other investment transaction. When you do this, Quicken calculates the ending cash balance for you.

Notes

If your brokerage offers online bill payment, and you want to create a reminder or a repeating online payment for any of your regular cash transactions, you must add a linked checking account to your brokerage account. 

When you add a linked checking account, Quicken will automatically transfer the cash proceeds from any transfers or investment transactions into the checking portion of your investment account. Use the linked checking account the same way you'd any other Quicken banking account. To learn more, see Use a linked checking account.

Track the performance of your cash balance as a money market security

If you set up your investment account for transaction download, Quicken may be able to identify your money market fund and track its performance for you. If you haven't set up your account for transaction download, you can track the performance of your cash manually.