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Trouble with entering a "Buy - Shares Bought" transaction in the Investment accounts.

KetanG

When entering a "Buy - Shares Bought" transaction in the Investment accounts, the "Use Cash for this transaction" box disappears once I enter in the Security Name. This causes the cash balance and securities value to be off. I am trying to do this for the initial securities purchase. This issue does not happen with subsequent securities purchases. I have tried to correct this several ways, but it is impossible to figure out. I have made sure there is sufficient cash reflected in the account prior to the date of the initial securities purchase. I have updated the opening balance on the account, to no avail. Please help!

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Accepted answers

Jim_Harman

I would guess that there is a hidden Placeholder transaction in the account for the security in question, dated after the date you are trying to enter. This blocks earlier transactions for the security from affecting your cash balance.

Go to Edit > Preferences > Investing transactions and make sure Show hidden transactions is checked, then resolve the placeholder. If the Placeholder is for the same number of shares as you are trying to enter, you should be able to simply delete it and enter the correct transaction.

As always, back up your data file first, just in case!

All comments

Jim_Harman

KetanG

Thank you! I am assuming this would have worked and this is where the problem was. I went a different route. I was able to create a transaction for the initial securities purchase with cash balance in the account, dating it as of the present date. Then, after recording/posting the transaction, I changed the date on the transaction back to the original date of the initial securities purchase.

Afterwards, I followed the directions Jim provided, find the placeholder entry, and delete it.

Again, thank you very much!

Radler

> @Jim_Harman said:
> I would guess that there is a hidden Placeholder transaction in the account for the security in question, dated after the date you are trying to enter. This blocks earlier transactions for the security from affecting your cash balance.

That second line is key. I was going back and trying to manually re-enter transactions, but the re-entered transactions would not affect the cash balance either. Thanks to Jim's suggestion to "show hidden transactions" I was finally able to locate the source of the problem and fix it, saving my sanity after hours of frustration. Thanks, Jim.