QWin 2017 Premier (R15): Adjust Share Balance transaction incorrect result

Unknown

Quicken 2017 Premier R15. I have an investment. Investment Portfolio view shows 1,603.1364 shares, and the transaction register agrees. I need to adjust the balance by +40.8392 shares to agree with my brokerage statement of 1,643.9756. 

I enter a transaction with Adjust Share Balance. When I enter the desired share total ("total number of shares you own on this date") of 
1,643.9756, it creates a placeholder that ADDS 1382.4672 shares, making the new total 2931.7186 shares although the transaction states "Placeholder Entry for holdings amount of 1643.9756 shares as of 9/30/2017".

I have Show Hidden Transactions enabled in Investment Transaction preferences and there are no other placeholders for this security. Validated file first.

Playing around with the Adjust Share Balance transaction: If I say the total number of shares I own is 1, it creates a placeholder that removes 260.5084 shares, showing the new number of shares owned 1342.628. 

By trial and error, I found that if I told the Adjust Share Balance transaction my "total number of shares you own on this date" is 356.2326, it made a placeholder that added the desired total of 40.8392 shares, making the number of shares owned correct!?

Summary in round numbers: Quicken said I owned 1603 shares. I needed to adjust it by +40. To make that happen correctly, I used Adjust Share Balance to say I owned 356, Makes no sense to me.

Can anyone help me understand how to properly use this Adjust Share Balance transaction?  I do not understand what it is doing.

Jim_Harman

This certainly does sound odd. 

It would probably be best to figure out the source of the balance mismatch, thus avoiding creating a Placeholder in the first place.

Barring that, could you use an Add Shares transaction instead? That will put the shares in your account without affecting the cash balance. It will however affect performance tracking and if this is a taxable account, you will want to determine the correct cost basis for the added shares.

Unknown

Thanks for the reply. This is in a 401k account so fortunately the cost basis isn't going to be an issue.  I tried to go back through transactions to see if anything jumped out but there are so many (years of bi-weekly purchases, dividends, cap gains distributions) that I eventually gave up.

I will keep an eye on the Quicken "shares owned" vs. what is on the quarterly statements going forward. 

NotACPA

JP said:

Thanks for the reply. This is in a 401k account so fortunately the cost basis isn't going to be an issue.  I tried to go back through transactions to see if anything jumped out but there are so many (years of bi-weekly purchases, dividends, cap gains distributions) that I eventually gave up.

I will keep an eye on the Quicken "shares owned" vs. what is on the quarterly statements going forward. 

When was the last time  that Q and the statement agreed?  You only need to research since that point.  MIGHT not be as bad as "so many years ...".