How do I record the sale of stock shares?

Clay McLaughlin

I sold PG stock. How do I account for the difference in what I received from the sale and what it was worth the day prior to the sale?

Tom Young

You use the "Sell - Shares Sold" action in your investment transaction list on the date of the sale.  You enter the number of shares sold and the price per share, as well as any selling fees (commissions).  If you sold only some of your shares and you have multiple lots of PG, Quicken will ask you what shares you sold.  (The default is First in, First out, and that's what most brokers will use if you haven't specified a different method.)

Quicken calculates the net proceeds you received, removes the shares from the Investment Account at their basis, and the resulting gain or loss is the difference between the two dollar amounts.  Quicken records the gain or loss as part of that entry.

The accounting for a sale of stock is:

Debit (increase) cash  $XXX                (This is the net proceeds after selling expense)

Credit (decrease) PG stock $YYY       (Basis of shares sold)

Debit (if a loss) or credit (if a gain) $ZZZ

Mathematically $XXX - $YYY = $ZZZ

Jim_Harman

Go to the brokerage account, click on Enter Transactions, pick "Sell - Shares Sold" and enter the info requested.

When you enter or accept a Sold transaction, Quicken records the amount you received for the sale. It also records the difference between the amount your received and what you originally paid as the capital gain or loss.

Are you seeing something different?

Rocket J Squirrel

Clay McLaughlin said:

How do I account for the difference in what I received from the sale and what it was worth the day prior to the sale?

The stock price on the day prior to the sale is irrelevant. What is relevant is the amount you received for the shares you sold.

Clay McLaughlin

Thank you! It brought the balance to zero for the PG stock, but it didn't calculate a gain or a loss. Would that be because I have a placeholder? With a placeholder, as I put in entries to account for the placeholder, does the amounts/shares associated with the placeholder go down?

Beijing Mac

you need to clear the Placeholder.  If you have the information on when you purchased the stock, enter that data and it should clear the placeholder.

Tom Young

"Thank you! It brought the balance to zero for the PG stock, but it didn't calculate a gain or a loss."

If you entered your sale correctly then Quicken certainly did calculate a gain or loss.  It has to in order to have a balanced accounting entry.

Maybe you're thinking that, somehow, the gain or loss is indicated right there in the investment Account when you sell?  It's not.  The gain or loss shows up on reports of "income", it's not something that's carried around inside the investment Account itself.  The investment Account only shows "balance sheet" items, i.e., the amount of cash in the Account and the cost and value of securities in the Account.

Where are you looking to see your gain or loss on the sale?

Jim_Harman

Gain or loss from sales is also shown in the Tax reports (for taxable accounts) and in the Investing > Capital Gains report.

You can also see the gain or loss from sales in the account's Holdings view if you click the gear at the top right and select Show closed lots. This was broken until recently but is working in current versions of QWin Subscription.  

Clay McLaughlin

Thank you all for your help with both of my questions.