Problem manually recording stock Sell Transactions on MAC 2017.

Unknown

 Sell Transaction records correctly  with cash showing in Balance column.  However, stock not removed from Portfolio after Sell date.  Talked to Tech Support and tried a test file process but problem remained.  I believe there is a software problem that does not connect the Transaction Register with the Portfolio Register for stock Sell action.  I haven't even tried to do a manual Buy transaction.  Has anyone experienced this problem?  If Quicken can't fix this quickly I will be returning the disk

lhossus

Please answer these questions:

1. How many shares of this security did you own?
2. How many shares of this security did you sell?
3. How many shares of this security is the Portfolio showing after the sale?

Selling all the shares of a security works for me: the security no longer appears in my portfolio.

If Quicken is going to fix this, we need to identify what this is?

Unknown

1.  100
2. 100
3. 100

John_in_NC

Do you have a placeholder transaction that is offsetting your sell? Look at the beginning of the register for a light gray transaction. You can add the sale, remove the sale transaction (via undo) and see if this placeholder is overriding your sale.

(The placeholders act as share/cash balance adjustments against what is reported by a brokerage house.)

Unknown

No there is no light grey area.  It seems the problem is associated with entering the Sell Transaction for early in the previous month.  I just tried the Sell transaction as of today and it was removed from the Portfolio.  However, if I record the correct date of the transaction and then look at the end of month Portfolio status, the stock is there.  I also tried looking at the Portfolio for the same date of the transaction and the stock remained. 

lhossus

Please do this:

1. In the Transactions register of the Brokerage account where the security was held, turn on display of the Share Balance column. 
2. You might also want to turn on the display of Shares In and Shares Out.
3. Sort the register by Date
4. Enter into the Search box the name of the security you have sold.
5. Now carefully examine the value in the Shares Balance column from before the time you first acquired the security until after the security was sold. Does the Shares Balance value change consistent with the Buys and Sells of the security? 

Assuming it is not obvious as to what the problem is and you cannot fix the problem yourself, please attach a screenshot of the transactions register showing the Buys and Sells of this security. As a minimum, the following columns should be included: Date, Type, Security, Shares (or Shares In and Shares Out), Share Balance, Memo/Notes. In the screenshot, be sure to include the scrollbar portion of the register window.

Unknown

Sorry for delay in answering, I was not home this weekend.

Thank you for the instructions on how to sort back  to original transaction, which was in 2013.  There was a place holder for 100 shares with no price and then an entry for Buy of 100 shares with price.  That resulted in an apparent 200 share asset.  I removed the place holder and that cleared the problem.  

This place holder did not show up in the 2007 version I was using and was transported to the 2017 when I just updated.

Thank you again.

lhossus

Glad to help. Thanks for the detailed report on what you found.

Please understand that the place holder is not a bug in Quicken. Its function, as John in NC said earlier, is to compensate for a difference between what your broker says is your current holding and what your Quicken transaction history says you are holding.

The problem with placeholders is really a problem of explaining why there is a discrepancy. In your case, I suspect it is a matter of timing - that is, that the brokerage did not adjust the account balance to 0 shares until after the sale date. But because I have not experienced a problem quite like yours, I cannot say this with any certainty.

Unknown

I may be the only one who does all the transactions manually and I do not link my Quick file with my Broker.  I understand what you say about the timing but that really doesn't apply in this case.
 
I updated from2007 to 2017 and had the accounts reconciled as of the end of September.  When I enter the transactions for October, that when I discovered the issue.  The stocks in question had been in the account for two or more years.  It just may be an aberration when when making this update.  

Now I know what to look for I can correct it as I proceed.

cneal

Eric Taylor said:

I may be the only one who does all the transactions manually and I do not link my Quick file with my Broker.  I understand what you say about the timing but that really doesn't apply in this case.
 
I updated from2007 to 2017 and had the accounts reconciled as of the end of September.  When I enter the transactions for October, that when I discovered the issue.  The stocks in question had been in the account for two or more years.  It just may be an aberration when when making this update.  

Now I know what to look for I can correct it as I proceed.

I have an account that can not be linked. Twice a month I purchase a stock and enter it manually. The total shares update correctly. I create a Buy and enter the number of shares and the cost. The cost per share is calculated for me. The correct share number appears in reports. Share transfers out to another brokerage account have worked well, but I have not done a sell.


 

Unknown

I have not had a problem with the Buy Transaction, nor the Dividend Reinvest.  When I record Sell Transactions is when the problem appears.  What seems to occur is that a placeholder is automatically inserted with the number of shares at no price and an arbitrary date.  Now that I display the Share Balance Column I can see when this occurs and then sort by stock and delete the placeholder.  Keep an eye out for this since it correctly shows the cash being entered in the account but retains the number of shares.

cneal

Eric Taylor said:

I have not had a problem with the Buy Transaction, nor the Dividend Reinvest.  When I record Sell Transactions is when the problem appears.  What seems to occur is that a placeholder is automatically inserted with the number of shares at no price and an arbitrary date.  Now that I display the Share Balance Column I can see when this occurs and then sort by stock and delete the placeholder.  Keep an eye out for this since it correctly shows the cash being entered in the account but retains the number of shares.

I just tried several Sell transactions in my manual account. Learned a couple things. The total sale needs to be money received, sale total minus commission. The shares sold is straight forward as is the commision field.

With today's date the sell shows the increase in the cash on hand equal to the total sale field. The number of shares entered was subtracted from the running total.

I would suggest reconciling the account like a bank account to find any hidden problems. When I migrated to QM2015 from QW2014 Premier I reconciled from the opening date to current and spent a lot of time correctling descriptions for reports.  

Unknown

That was yesterday's task.  I have now fully reconciled my accounts and know to keep an eye out for those place holders that show up.  By showing the Share Balance Column this quickly flags any issue which occurs when the Sell is an earlier date.  

Unknown

lhossus said:

Please do this:

1. In the Transactions register of the Brokerage account where the security was held, turn on display of the Share Balance column. 
2. You might also want to turn on the display of Shares In and Shares Out.
3. Sort the register by Date
4. Enter into the Search box the name of the security you have sold.
5. Now carefully examine the value in the Shares Balance column from before the time you first acquired the security until after the security was sold. Does the Shares Balance value change consistent with the Buys and Sells of the security? 

Assuming it is not obvious as to what the problem is and you cannot fix the problem yourself, please attach a screenshot of the transactions register showing the Buys and Sells of this security. As a minimum, the following columns should be included: Date, Type, Security, Shares (or Shares In and Shares Out), Share Balance, Memo/Notes. In the screenshot, be sure to include the scrollbar portion of the register window.

A special thanks from me too. I had a problem with reinvesting mutual fund dividends. They didn't show up in the total shares. Following your advice I added the columns, and searched for the offsetting entry. Upon it's deletion, the share total was correct.
Do you have any advice about downloading income reinvestment information directly from Vanguard or other mutual fund companies so that the activity links with your account?

John_in_NC

Eric Taylor said:

That was yesterday's task.  I have now fully reconciled my accounts and know to keep an eye out for those place holders that show up.  By showing the Share Balance Column this quickly flags any issue which occurs when the Sell is an earlier date.  

A note about the placeholders and how they work for share and cash balances: as noted, they act as adjustments against what the FI or brokerage house is reporting that you should have on the date of the update.

Example: If I last did an account update on 11/1/17, (and everything was fine then), no placeholders are generated. If I enter/modify/delete a transaction with a date on or before 11/1/17, then a placeholder gets entered.

Any transactions entered after 11/1/17 will not generate a placeholder. 

DLPF

Just found this thread by searching on this same issue. Using the 2019 Mac version. Found the grayed out entry. Still don't understand what it's doing there, but that fixed the problem.

Concordman

I just added the shares in/out column in my transaction register..I have not been using it but I think I will keep it active to determine if there are any potential benefits