Download missing cost basis

R2D2

I have a Charles Schwab account with more than 20 holdings.  The account was opened just over a year ago.  The holdings were transferred from another financial institution.  I just noticed that cost basis is missing and also there are only "Add Shares" transactions (no "buy" transactions).  Although this information appears in my schwab account, its missing in Quicken Mac

Any was to download missing cost basis?

If 'download all transactions again' will i get a bunch of duplicate entries?

J_Mike

You will not be able to download the missing cost basis info.

You will have to enter the cost basis info manually by editing the Add Shares transactions for each of your holdings.
Open one of the Add Shares transactions in Edit mode and you will see spaces for Date Acquired, Total Cost (Cost Basis) and Number of Shares. There will be an entry for Number of Shares.
You will need to enter the missing info manually - Date Acquired and Total Cost. 
Note that if you have multiple lots of any given security, you will need to create an Add Shares entry for each lot.
You may have to go back to a statement from the prior FI to get this info.

J_Mike

You will not be able to download the missing cost basis info.

You will have to enter the cost basis info manually by editing the Add Shares transactions for each of your holdings.
Open one of the Add Shares transactions in Edit mode and you will see spaces for Date Acquired, Total Cost (Cost Basis) and Number of Shares. There will be an entry for Number of Shares.
You will need to enter the missing info manually - Date Acquired and Total Cost. 
Note that if you have multiple lots of any given security, you will need to create an Add Shares entry for each lot.
You may have to go back to a statement from the prior FI to get this info.

R2D2

J_Mike,
Thanks for your reply.  That's exactly the answer I was hoping not to hear; but I am not surprised.  I was sort of hoping there would be a way to import this account data from CSV or excel file available from FIs but I guess there's no good option.

J_Mike

This does not help your situation but, for the future, the latest release for QMac has a new Transfer Shares feature. The Transfer Shares transaction automatically carries the cost basis info over to the new account. The Transfer Shares transaction must be entered in the register before downloading.

R2D2

Thanks J_Mike,
Thanks for further the insight.  I've recently upgraded to QMac 2019 (5.11.0).  I wonder if I can delete the quicken brokerage account then re-download ALL transactions (now with cost basis data).  The new account is less than a year old and I think all transactions are still available for download at this time.

J_Mike

@R2D2

You can certainly give it a try. For a test run, you could create a new test file and see what you get in a download.

Another option you could try;
Make a copy of your current file (for testing purposes).
We willl "undo" the original transfer(s).
Delete the Remove Shares transactions from the original account.
Delete the Add Shares from the current account.
In the original account, enter the Transfer Shares transaction - select All Securities and set the date back to the actual transfer date.
See what you get.

Note that you may get some transient place holder entries in the current account during this process. They should disappear when done - if everything goes correctly.

J_Mike

@R2D2

FWIW, using a copy of my current file, I tested the option outlined above with apparent successful results.

I have a current brokerage account that originated as a transfer from another FI back in 2006. The original transfer was done under QWin which had the provision to transfer all cost basis info. This file was later converted to QMac.

In the original source account, deleted the Remove Shares transactions.
In the current active account (the destination account) I deleted the Add Shares transactions.
Then went back to the source account and entered a Transfer Shares transaction - selecting the option All Securities.

It appears to have worked satisfactorily. The Add Shares transactions carried the cost basis info, The holdings included multiple lots on many of the securities and an Add Shares entry was created for each lot.

Can't say I examined the results with a microscope - but, on the surface, everything seemed to balance. No Placeholder transactions appeared during this exercise.