Update Share Balance Error

Unknown

So I attempted to update share balance in an investment account. Rather than simply updating to the correct share number for that particular date, Quicken "added" the shares to the prior balance. Has anyone else experienced this?

Jim_Harman

Quicken adjusts your share balance by inserting a "Placeholder" transaction to force the number of shares in your account to match the number you set. This gives you the opportunity to "resolve" the placeholder by adding or correcting earlier transactions so that the balance is correct on that date without the placeholder and the placeholder adjustment is down to zero. It is important to enter these earlier transactions as accurately as possible, or else Quicken's performance and tax calculations will not be correct.

If you only care about the share balance and not about the performance or tax implications, you can just leave the placeholder as they are. You can even hide all the placeholders if you want (this is the default)

When the placeholder is down to zero, you can safely delete it.

If you would rather not deal with the placeholders, you can Add or Remove shares to make the balance correct, but that will complicate matters if you go back later on and try to correct the transactions that led to the incorrect balance in the first place.

Jim_Harman

Quicken adjusts your share balance by inserting a "Placeholder" transaction to force the number of shares in your account to match the number you set. This gives you the opportunity to "resolve" the placeholder by adding or correcting earlier transactions so that the balance is correct on that date without the placeholder and the placeholder adjustment is down to zero. It is important to enter these earlier transactions as accurately as possible, or else Quicken's performance and tax calculations will not be correct.

If you only care about the share balance and not about the performance or tax implications, you can just leave the placeholder as they are. You can even hide all the placeholders if you want (this is the default)

When the placeholder is down to zero, you can safely delete it.

If you would rather not deal with the placeholders, you can Add or Remove shares to make the balance correct, but that will complicate matters if you go back later on and try to correct the transactions that led to the incorrect balance in the first place.

Unknown

Hello Jim and thank you for the reply.  My situation is the following:  since I don't actually have data (transactions) from the last year or so, I am unable to enter those transactions.  I do realize that this will result in incorrect tax and performance data but at this point I'm more concerned about having the correct number of shares for a specific date (Sept 30, 2018).  That being the case, what would be the best way of going about this (simply correcting share balances as of Sept 30)?

Sherlock

Hello Jim and thank you for the reply.  My situation is the following:  since I don't actually have data (transactions) from the last year or so, I am unable to enter those transactions.  I do realize that this will result in incorrect tax and performance data but at this point I'm more concerned about having the correct number of shares for a specific date (Sept 30, 2018).  That being the case, what would be the best way of going about this (simply correcting share balances as of Sept 30)?

To add the placeholder, open the investment account, select Enter Transactions and Adjust Share Balance from the Enter transaction: pull-down menu.   Enter Sept 20, 2018 as the date and the number of shares of the selected security held on that date.