Why is one of my Investment Account balances on the Account Balances Rpt double the actual amount?

THarwood

On the Account Balances Report I have 12 Investment Accounts. The totals for 11 of the accounts match exactly what the Holdings indicate. The other account is double what the Holdings indicate. Any suggestions?

Jim_Harman

Tim, 

It sounds like what you are seeing is perfectly normal. When you buy a security, the cash balance in your account should decrease by the amount of the purchase, and when you sell, it should increase by the proceeds of the sale. The Total Market Value of your account will not change, because you have moved money between securities and cash.

When you add, remove, or transfer securities, the cash balance should not be affected but the Total Market Value of the account should change by the value of the securities involved.

So when you transferred in Security B the Total Market Value of your account should have gone up but the cash balance was not affected. If the total market value did not go up by the value of Security B, check the share price of Security B on the transfer date. If it was zero, then Quicken thinks the stock was worthless on that date.

One thing that can be confusing when comparing Quicken's transaction list to your broker's statement or website is that in Quicken the cash balance changes on the same day as the purchase or sale while the broker will generally show the cash on the "Settlement" date, which will be 2 or 3 days later.

[Edit - more info]
Re-reading your original post, I see your issue is with the Account Balances report. To see in more detail where the numbers come from in this report, I suggest you click on the gear at the top right to customize it, then select Account Detail. This will show all the individual holdings, including cash. You can then adjust the ending date to see the cash and security balances day by day. These numbers should be the same as what you see by clicking on Holdings in the account and adjusting the As of date.

Please post back if you still see discrepancies.

ChicagoGuy

You troubleshoot it. You may have duplicate transactions. Suggest you create an Account Balance report showing the account balance for each of the the last several years. Find when the balance starts being off and go examine the transactions involved

volvogirl

Could that account also have a cash balance for the same amount?

THarwood

Thank you for your response. As it turns out, the actual difference is not quite double, but the difference is exactly the amount of cash I received from the sale of a security earlier in the year. The security was 'added' 'Xfr' from an existing account to a new investment account, then sold to purchase multiply securities. The current cash balance is minimal at this time. Any suggestions on what to do?

Quicken Sarah

Hello @THarwood

Thank you for that additional information.  May I ask, is it possible that there may be a placeholder causing the difference that needs to be resolved?

If you aren't sure, please review the information here and here and let us know if it helps to resolve the difference.

Thank you,

Sarah

THarwood

No placeholder present.
Thanks again for you response

Tim

THarwood

Sarah,
I appear to have resolved the issue. I had accepted the transactions in the order in which they were downloaded from my broker. (Remember that this was a newly created investment account). So the account looked like this
1. Aug 15 - Opening Cash Balance ---$0.00
2. Aug 19 - Security 'A' Bought --- negative cash balance
3. Aug 19 - Security 'B" Added/Xfer -- still negative cash balance
4. Aug 19 - Security 'B' Sold -- positive cash balance

To resolve the issue I:
A. Changed the date on #3 to Aug 16--- cash balance still $0.00
B. Changed the date of #4 to Aug 18 -- positive cash balance
C. Made no change to #2 --- still a positive cash balance.

There is probably a better way to correct this, but this worked and I am satisfied with the outcome.

I appreciate the time you have taken to investigate this issue. If you come up with what you think might be a better solution, I would be happy to be you guinea pig to see if it works

Sincerely,

Tim

Jim_Harman

Tim, 

It sounds like what you are seeing is perfectly normal. When you buy a security, the cash balance in your account should decrease by the amount of the purchase, and when you sell, it should increase by the proceeds of the sale. The Total Market Value of your account will not change, because you have moved money between securities and cash.

When you add, remove, or transfer securities, the cash balance should not be affected but the Total Market Value of the account should change by the value of the securities involved.

So when you transferred in Security B the Total Market Value of your account should have gone up but the cash balance was not affected. If the total market value did not go up by the value of Security B, check the share price of Security B on the transfer date. If it was zero, then Quicken thinks the stock was worthless on that date.

One thing that can be confusing when comparing Quicken's transaction list to your broker's statement or website is that in Quicken the cash balance changes on the same day as the purchase or sale while the broker will generally show the cash on the "Settlement" date, which will be 2 or 3 days later.

[Edit - more info]
Re-reading your original post, I see your issue is with the Account Balances report. To see in more detail where the numbers come from in this report, I suggest you click on the gear at the top right to customize it, then select Account Detail. This will show all the individual holdings, including cash. You can then adjust the ending date to see the cash and security balances day by day. These numbers should be the same as what you see by clicking on Holdings in the account and adjusting the As of date.

Please post back if you still see discrepancies.