Building new file - need historical currency rates: Quicken 2019 Canadian

Microfiche

As part of this tortuous path to try and rebuild a 24 year old Quicken file, I am now wondering if it will even be possible to get proper investment cost basis numbers in CAD when I have investments purchased in USD.

Is there any way to import old USDCAD exchange rates so that historical USD transactions will calculate correctly? When I look at the QIF data, it appears that the exchange rate that was recorded when the transaction was entered is not included?

If I "import" currency rates in Quicken - it pulls historical rates only from Jan 15, 1990 to Sept 16, 2008? How can I fill in those blanks - and if I do, will it reflect on reports?
FOr example, if I bought a security on Jan 1, 2012 in USD, my adjusted cost basis for tax purposes must be in CAD, and is based on the USDCAD rate in place on that day.

If that is not possible, then it would appear that it is impossible to rebuild this file without manually editing thousands of USD transactions.

Using latest Canada edition (R16.22 subscription) of Quicken H&B

Quicken Sarah

Hello @Microfiche

Thank you for sharing your question with the Community, although I apologize that you have not yet received a response.

Historical currency exchange rates unfortunately are not able to be imported into Quicken in bulk, but they can be edited or deleted and re-entered manually in the Historical Prices dialogue window.

To edit or delete a historical exchange rate, open the Currency List from the Tools menu, select the currency and click the Historical Prices button in the lower right corner.  Select the rate to Edit or Delete it as appropriate.



I hope this information is helpful and please let us know if there are further questions/concerns.

Thank you,

Sarah

smayer97

Do realize that even if you have imported currency rates only the current one is used in reports. Unfortunately, currency exchange are apparently not used based on the date of the applicable exchange. So their application is limited.

Microfiche

Thanks @smayer97 - not primarily worried about reports, though that would be nice as well. When you import foreign currency transactions, it asks you the exchange rate for every single transaction - there is no way to import that. If the exact date is in the currency database, it will use that, so you can simply hit Enter (or use a button clicking program) instead of typing a rate in. I usually use an average monthly rate entered on the first of every month for all except for buy/sell transactions, which needs to be exact to maintain proper costs. I think that Quicken uses some weird rounding to determine which rate to use if you enter a date between two dates that have rates added. In any case, without rates in the system, you need to type in an exchange rate for every single buy/sell transaction as they are loaded.

I keep hoping that there must be some facility to help rebuild a Canadian Quicken file with multi-currency, but it appears as though there just is not. Everything is super difficult and time consuming, or simply impossible. It really does baffle me that a financial program would not have more robust import and export processes. Manually entering 8 years of USDCAD rates simply isn't an option. Losing easy access to my 24 years of data, and having to start from scratch really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.