Share balance adjustment does not work

Marcus Libkind

I used the mutual fund conversion option and the end result was an error in the share balance of .000016 shares. I assume that is a round-off error. I try to use Share Balance Adjustment to fix but the share balance does not change. I believe that it is creating a placeholder, but it doesn't show up at the bottom ... it shows zero place holders. What's happening?

Jim_Harman

mshiggins

From C. D. Bales:



@Marcus Libkind



You did not provide your Quicken Edition, Version, and Release.



I tested this in Q2017 (R16.2), Q2018 (R9.34) (and briefly in Q2012). The results in all versions were somewhat different, but none were 100 correct.



Quicken seems to be flakey when it comes to some investment transactions with share quantities as small as yours - Adjust Share Balance being one of those problematic transactions, as does Shares Added.



I tested with an adjustment of .000016 and got the same results as you report (in my test, I attempted to adjust a share balance of 100 to 100.000016).



I had no problem seeing the resulting placeholder transaction in the Transaction List, but it did not do what it should: although the the placeholder showed a "holdings amount of 100.000016, the placeholder adjustment quantity was +0 shares. And the Portfolio and the Portfolio Value report still showed 100 shares (*1).



When I increased the adjustment to .00016 shares, the placeholder appeared correctly in the Transaction List (showing an adjustment of +.00016 shares and a share balance of 100.00016) and the share balance was also correct in the Portfolio and the Portfolio Value report.



As a workaround, I tried entering a Shares Removed transaction for all shares (100 shares in my test), followed by a Shares Added transaction for the desired number of shares (100.000016). The results were better: correct in the investment Transaction List, and almost correct in the Portfolio (*). But the Portfolio Value report still showed only 100 shares (*2).



Given that an Adjust Share Balance transaction works by creating hidden Shares Added or Shares Removed transactions, perhaps it makes some crazy sense that the .000016 adjustment was handled incorrectly by the Adjust Share Balance transaction, and the 100.000016 Shares Added transaction was also handled incorrectly. When I tried a Shares Added transaction of .000016 shares for a brand new security, neither the transaction or the security ever showed up ... anywhere; except in the Transaction List, where the number of shares was changed from .000016 to zero.



[ (*1) The Quicken "Reports only" Preference for "Decimal places for prices and shares" is set to 6.]



[ (*2) Even the Portfolio does not appear quite right. The security total correctly shows 100.000016 shares, but the single lot (created by the Shares Added transaction) only shows 100 shares.]

Marcus Libkind

q_lurker