When I do One-Step Update, it reflects many securities sold. For each I have to go through and "acc

David Kosterlitz

Allow "average cost" to be elected on a blanket basis for a section 529 account.  We have 529 account with frequent transactions to withdraw for college expenses.  When I do One-Step Update, it reflects many securities sold.  For each I have to go through and "accept" and then I choose "average cost."  This happens over and over.  I suggest that there should be a way to opt once, effective indefinitely, to use "average cost" for all securities in the account.  I don't see that option at present.

UKR

What kind of securities are you holding in this "529 account"? Mutual Funds?

Mutual Funds have an optional check box "Use average cost". Go into your Security List (under Tools menu). Edit each of these funds and put a checkmark at "Use average cost". That ought to take care of this issue.

David Kosterlitz

I only just now saw this answer, which is helpful, but when I go to a money market fund held in that 529 plan and see the "use avg cost" box unchecked, and notice that average cost is lower than current cost (so I guess theoretically there is a built-in gain, I don't know exactly why), And then I check that box, a warning comes up saying the IRS restricts when you can make this change and that if you do so there is a way to preserve the lot identification basis records.  They say click Help for more info, but when I do, I can find none on either of these.  So I've not checked the box yet.  Any comments would be welcome.

Jim_Harman

Note that the "Use Average Cost" is a security level, not account level decision. If you hold the same security in a taxable account where you want to track the cost basis of individual lots, you may want to leave this un-checked.

For a money market fund, the cost *should* always be $1.00 per share. If Quicken is showing something different, I would go to the Security Detail view, select Update/Edit price history and look through the price history to check and correct your transactions on any date where it is different. 

For a money market fund where the share price is constant, it *should* be safe to ignore the warning about changing your cost basis method.

NotACPA

In my various retirement accounts at Fidelity, some of which have holdings in a MMF, I just carry that position in Q as Cash.

There's really no need to go thru all of the Sales and Buys when there's no tax impact of the sale action (no CapGains or CapLosses).

David Kosterlitz

Thanks very much Jim Harman and NotACPA, for your answers and suggestions.  I guess I just like the fact that Quicken will download transactions from my banks and brokers and use it for all accounts for which it is available.  So for our two accounts at the state section 529 plan, they offered electronic update and I took it.  But since then, every time I do a one-step update, I try to click on "accept all" but it won't let me do it; instead it lists the 5 or 6 securities or mutual funds that were sold, as separate line items and makes me accept each individually and then I have to select "average cost" (don't want lot identification method) before it lets me move on and "accept" the next item that was sold.  But even after I do all that, at the end as I check "done" a message pops up telling me that my Quicken balance does not match the institution's balance and I hit "ignore" or "OK" or something.  The only solution I can think of now would be to simply delete these two 529 accounts from Quicken and handle them separately, though I'd rather keep them in Quicken if this process could be simplified.  Any further comments would be welcome...

q_lurker

Jim Harman said:

Note that the "Use Average Cost" is a security level, not account level decision. If you hold the same security in a taxable account where you want to track the cost basis of individual lots, you may want to leave this un-checked.

For a money market fund, the cost *should* always be $1.00 per share. If Quicken is showing something different, I would go to the Security Detail view, select Update/Edit price history and look through the price history to check and correct your transactions on any date where it is different. 

For a money market fund where the share price is constant, it *should* be safe to ignore the warning about changing your cost basis method.

For a money market fund where the share price is constant, it *should* be safe to ignore the warning about changing your cost basis method.

Likewise it would be safe to not do the Average cost selection.  Take the other path to let Quicken default to the FIFO selection.  One click.  

q_lurker

David Kosterlitz said:

Thanks very much Jim Harman and NotACPA, for your answers and suggestions.  I guess I just like the fact that Quicken will download transactions from my banks and brokers and use it for all accounts for which it is available.  So for our two accounts at the state section 529 plan, they offered electronic update and I took it.  But since then, every time I do a one-step update, I try to click on "accept all" but it won't let me do it; instead it lists the 5 or 6 securities or mutual funds that were sold, as separate line items and makes me accept each individually and then I have to select "average cost" (don't want lot identification method) before it lets me move on and "accept" the next item that was sold.  But even after I do all that, at the end as I check "done" a message pops up telling me that my Quicken balance does not match the institution's balance and I hit "ignore" or "OK" or something.  The only solution I can think of now would be to simply delete these two 529 accounts from Quicken and handle them separately, though I'd rather keep them in Quicken if this process could be simplified.  Any further comments would be welcome...

... then I have to select "average cost" (don't want lot identification method)

What is wrong with lot identification?  Especially for a 529 plan?  You do not have to actually specify the lots.  Just leave the setting as it pops up and let Quicken default to its FIFO (first in, first out) default.  One click on the "Done" (or whatever the right-hand button is) and move forward.  

Now the balance not matching is likely a separate issue and more likely related to past transactions than current transactions.  You'll need to expand on that info to get meaningful guidance.  Fundamentally, you'll need to go back and see where the discrepancy first arose.  Or you may need to confirm that the brokerage is sending the right information at the right precision (number of decimals).  

mtn_living

I have this same problem. I have three securities which are money market mutual funds. I have gone to each one individually and marked them as average cost basis. However when I download transactions Quicken refuses to Accept All for transactions involving these securities. I can individually accept and it pops the window asking me to confirm average cost basis.

The problem is that for this particular situation I'm managing tracking of someone's trust account and the account generates hundreds of little transactions for these money market funds. I have to sit and accept every single one indivually. It's making this a very tedious exercise.

As with the original poster I don't understand why Quicken won't just Accept All with these transactions.

Michael Farley

mtn_living said:

I have this same problem. I have three securities which are money market mutual funds. I have gone to each one individually and marked them as average cost basis. However when I download transactions Quicken refuses to Accept All for transactions involving these securities. I can individually accept and it pops the window asking me to confirm average cost basis.

The problem is that for this particular situation I'm managing tracking of someone's trust account and the account generates hundreds of little transactions for these money market funds. I have to sit and accept every single one indivually. It's making this a very tedious exercise.

As with the original poster I don't understand why Quicken won't just Accept All with these transactions.

I have the same problem as mtn_living with the Fidelity Government Money Market fund.  Even though I have Average Cost set for the security, it makes me accept the sale of this fund separately and verify to use average cost.