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Cash Flow Report Question about _Rlzdgain

Geobrick

I'm trying to look at all the income and expenses of several accounts in Quicken (H&B2017) in a set timeframe. Using a "Cash Flow" report seemed to cover what I needed except the income section of the report shows only the realized gains (_RLZDGAIN) of a stock sale instead of the total cash generated from the sale. I see what they're trying to accomplish but it's not what I'd expect from something called a cash flow report.

When a stock is sold for $10, that $10 is added to the cash balance of the account. $10 cash 'flowed' into the account. (Yes, the share of stock equal to that value has "flowed out" of the account but it's not an asset flow report). If I paid $2 for the stock prior to the time frame of the report, I don't think it should be reflected in the cash flow since it "flowed out" prior to the time frame I set for the report. In my opinion, the report should show the cash generated by the sale not just the realized gain.

If this behavior is by design, what other type of report can I use to get a full representation of cash added and cash removed from a set of accounts in a specific timeframe?

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unknown

The cash flow report is showing for cash flow in an out of categories. It has nothing to do with securities, and the money flowing in an out of them. _RlzGain just happens to be a category.

But Quicken also has "pseudo categories" that are the transfers. These are what you want to look at for the cash flow in and out of accounts.

By default you won't see them because the transfers are excluded.
You need to go into the report settings -> Advanced tab and select to include all transfers.

Then go to the Categories tab and clear all the categories. Next near the bottom you will find the names of your accounts, select the accounts you want from this list.

Jim_Harman

QPW's approach will track the money that moves between accounts, but that doesn't seem like what you are looking for. If you sell a security in a brokerage account and move the proceeds to your checking account, you will see it in the report.

But if you leave the proceeds in the investing account, there is no transfer and thus no entry in the report. There is also no income, because you are simply converting $10 worth of securities into $10 worth of cash.

If the investing account is set to use a "Linked Checking account," all the flows between investments and cash will appear as transfers.

Geobrick

QPW, Thanks for the quick reply. I tried the different transfer settings but it never brought in the cash transactions I was looking for. I'm not really looking for what transfers between accounts within the accounts selected for the report. I'm just trying to see every transaction that either adds or removes cash. It the case of the stock sale, the cash and securities are contained in the same account (there's no separate checking account) so the cash is never leaving the account. In my example above, I'd expect to see the $10 added to the account in the report not the realized gain of $8. I can remove the _RLZDGAIN category from the report but I don't know what category would pull the gross amount of the sale into the report.

Geobrick

QPW's approach will track the money that moves between accounts, but that doesn't seem like what you are looking for. If you sell a security in a brokerage account and move the proceeds to your checking account, you will see it in the report.

But if you leave the proceeds in the investing account, there is no transfer and thus no entry in the report. There is also no income, because you are simply converting $10 worth of securities into $10 worth of cash.

If the investing account is set to use a "Linked Checking account," all the flows between investments and cash will appear as transfers.

Thanks. Maybe I'll set up the account with a split checking account to see if that gets me what I'm looking for (assuming I can do that to an account that's already in use).

unknown

QPW, Thanks for the quick reply. I tried the different transfer settings but it never brought in the cash transactions I was looking for. I'm not really looking for what transfers between accounts within the accounts selected for the report. I'm just trying to see every transaction that either adds or removes cash. It the case of the stock sale, the cash and securities are contained in the same account (there's no separate checking account) so the cash is never leaving the account. In my example above, I'd expect to see the $10 added to the account in the report not the realized gain of $8. I can remove the _RLZDGAIN category from the report but I don't know what category would pull the gross amount of the sale into the report.

Yes that is sort of what I figured, but I really didn't see a way to do that, like I said the cash flow report is for in and out of categories, and there really isn't a category that tracks what you wanted. That is given that I didn't think of Jim Harman's way.

Note that linked cash accounts can be setup even after transactions have been put in, but they are restricted to brokerage accounts, no retirement accounts.

And in the past I has problems if I tried to reverse that decision and let Quicken recombine the two accounts.

I might also add that even though it has been requested a few times, I don't think there is an investment report that would give you what you want if Jim Harman's suggestion doesn't work for you.

Jim_Harman

QPW's approach will track the money that moves between accounts, but that doesn't seem like what you are looking for. If you sell a security in a brokerage account and move the proceeds to your checking account, you will see it in the report.

But if you leave the proceeds in the investing account, there is no transfer and thus no entry in the report. There is also no income, because you are simply converting $10 worth of securities into $10 worth of cash.

If the investing account is set to use a "Linked Checking account," all the flows between investments and cash will appear as transfers.

Be sure to back up your data file before trying this, in case you do not like the result.

Geobrick

QPW, Thanks for the quick reply. I tried the different transfer settings but it never brought in the cash transactions I was looking for. I'm not really looking for what transfers between accounts within the accounts selected for the report. I'm just trying to see every transaction that either adds or removes cash. It the case of the stock sale, the cash and securities are contained in the same account (there's no separate checking account) so the cash is never leaving the account. In my example above, I'd expect to see the $10 added to the account in the report not the realized gain of $8. I can remove the _RLZDGAIN category from the report but I don't know what category would pull the gross amount of the sale into the report.

Maybe this is one of the reasons quicken seems to encourage the split checking account. To allow it to include these types of transactions in various reports.

Jim_Harman

QPW, Thanks for the quick reply. I tried the different transfer settings but it never brought in the cash transactions I was looking for. I'm not really looking for what transfers between accounts within the accounts selected for the report. I'm just trying to see every transaction that either adds or removes cash. It the case of the stock sale, the cash and securities are contained in the same account (there's no separate checking account) so the cash is never leaving the account. In my example above, I'd expect to see the $10 added to the account in the report not the realized gain of $8. I can remove the _RLZDGAIN category from the report but I don't know what category would pull the gross amount of the sale into the report.

Yes, and to support the situation where you pay living expenses directly from an investing account. This is often called a "cash management account"

The down side is that all the cash from Buys and Sells runs through this account, even if you are exchanging one security for another in the investing account.

Jim_Harman

QPW, Thanks for the quick reply. I tried the different transfer settings but it never brought in the cash transactions I was looking for. I'm not really looking for what transfers between accounts within the accounts selected for the report. I'm just trying to see every transaction that either adds or removes cash. It the case of the stock sale, the cash and securities are contained in the same account (there's no separate checking account) so the cash is never leaving the account. In my example above, I'd expect to see the $10 added to the account in the report not the realized gain of $8. I can remove the _RLZDGAIN category from the report but I don't know what category would pull the gross amount of the sale into the report.

Personally, I find it better for budgeting and expense tracking purposes to maintain a sharper line between my investing and spending accounts.

I don't want investment income, whether reinvested or received in cash, or rebalancing and similar activity in my investing accounts to be recorded as "income" or "expenses" in my spending accounts. Likewise, I avoid paying for living expenses directly from an investing account.

Because of this I don't use linked checking accounts. If I want to move money between the investing and the spending world, I use an explicit transfer.