How can I get a Bought transaction to reflect that the cost should come out of cash balance?

texcarey

I have tried editing, deleting and re-entering the transaction, but it still reflects "N/A" in the Cash Amt column and I can't override it.

Frankx

@texcarey,

Thanks for the additional info; very helpful.  It is very odd that you don't see and can't use the "use cash for this transaction" option when the transaction type is Buy - Shares Bought.

I think there are a few ways to handle this:

1) you may be able to delete the transaction and then replace it with a "new" Buy - Shares Bought transaction dated when the original transaction happened, with all the original data.  You might want to test this by actually seeing if you can make the "new" transaction first and if that works.  If this does work you would then go back and delete the original one.

2) Since all the other information/data in this account reconciles to your recent statement with the exception of the cash, you could simply record a new transaction - a Miscellaneous expense" transaction in the amount of the cash balance. You could post this expense to a non-tax related expense category, an call it a day.  This would affect your cost basis in the investment, however since this is an IRA (i.e. fully taxable) it does not matter for tax purposes.

3) Similar to 2) - you could also enter a "Withdraw" transaction to remove the inaccurate cash balance and post that to an asset or liability account (e.g. - I have a petty cash account that I use for cash transactions that I don't reconcile to the penny, which I might use under these circumstances).

Hope this helps. 

Bob_L

If the transaction is a reinvest then there would not be a commensurate buy transaction and there would not be cash being reduced.  On the other hand if the transaction was a dividend income then it will create cash and another buy would be required to reinvest it.

My IRA  has years and years of dividend reinvestments and the cash column is blank on all of them.

Have you tried changing the so called buy to a reinvest by deleting and re-entering it? Backup first.

Frankx

A couple questions:

1) What type of account are you using for this transaction (open the account > click on the gear at the top right of the screen > On the "General Tab" left-hand side > "Account type: " )?

2) In the transaction (highlight the transaction in the ledger and select "Edit") - What is in the box at the top of the transaction screen? e.g. is it "Buy - Shares Bought" or "Add - Shares Added" or something else?

texcarey

1) I did not get a "General Tab" when clicking on the gear icon (got a list of actions such as Reconcile) but this is an Investment account. Specifically, a Fidelity account. Transaction is a reinvestment of dividends in a mutual fund.

2) The transaction is currently a Reinvest - Income Reinvested.

This is a 2017 transaction. I had the same problem with a 2015 transaction, and I was able to switch it to a Buy - Shares Bought transaction, which then took the amount out of the cash balance. But I have not been able to edit this one the same way with the same result. Instead, I get this blue N/A link in the Cash Amount column which takes me to a Help topic and says that this transaction can't come out of the cash balance.

These are identical transactions, except for the date and amount, so I can't figure out why one debits the cash balance, and one doesn't.

Thanks.

texcarey

When I try to edit the transaction to make it a Buy - Shares Bought transaction, I do not get the box with the radio buttons to select if I want to use the cash balance or some other fund source. This box is available on other Bought transactions in this same account.

Frankx

Ok @texcarey - Let's try this - go back to the gear where you  "(got a list of actions such as Reconcile)" and click on "Edit account details" then on the next screen look for "Account type:" - what is that showing?

Sherlock

I suspect there are placeholder transactions in the account.  If you haven't already, you may want to review: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7267839/quicken-faq-managing-placeholder-entries-in-quicken-for-windows

texcarey

Frankx: Account type is Traditional IRA

texcarey

Sherlock: Thanks for the article link. I have run into issues with placeholders before, but I don't think any are showing as transactions in this account. I will doublecheck. My share balances in all of the funds match with the latest statement from the institution so all is well there. I noticed today that the account is showing a cash balance when there is none (had not been paying attention to that column as I just use the one step update to link with institutions and download transactions), and it was because of two reinvestments of income, one in 2015 and one in 2017, in one particular fund. I fixed the 2015 one by recategorizing it to a Buy -Shares Bought transaction, but the 2017 one refuses to be fixed in that manner. My guess is a software transition issue when Quicken went to subscription around that time, but that is just a guess. There is no option (radio button) to use cash balance for the funds for the 2017 transaction, even though the Buy-Shares Bought header clearly says that is what is supposed to happen.

Frankx

@texcarey,

Thanks for the additional info; very helpful.  It is very odd that you don't see and can't use the "use cash for this transaction" option when the transaction type is Buy - Shares Bought.

I think there are a few ways to handle this:

1) you may be able to delete the transaction and then replace it with a "new" Buy - Shares Bought transaction dated when the original transaction happened, with all the original data.  You might want to test this by actually seeing if you can make the "new" transaction first and if that works.  If this does work you would then go back and delete the original one.

2) Since all the other information/data in this account reconciles to your recent statement with the exception of the cash, you could simply record a new transaction - a Miscellaneous expense" transaction in the amount of the cash balance. You could post this expense to a non-tax related expense category, an call it a day.  This would affect your cost basis in the investment, however since this is an IRA (i.e. fully taxable) it does not matter for tax purposes.

3) Similar to 2) - you could also enter a "Withdraw" transaction to remove the inaccurate cash balance and post that to an asset or liability account (e.g. - I have a petty cash account that I use for cash transactions that I don't reconcile to the penny, which I might use under these circumstances).

Hope this helps. 

Bob_L

If the transaction is a reinvest then there would not be a commensurate buy transaction and there would not be cash being reduced.  On the other hand if the transaction was a dividend income then it will create cash and another buy would be required to reinvest it.

My IRA  has years and years of dividend reinvestments and the cash column is blank on all of them.

Have you tried changing the so called buy to a reinvest by deleting and re-entering it? Backup first.

texcarey

Frank. Thanks for the options. I agree it is odd. I have tried the first option to no avail, but I may try it again in a different order, i.e. add the Bought transaction and then delete the original. I was just trying to edit the original or deleting the original and then adding the Bought. Who know. And in the meantime, I did do the miscellaneous transaction to bring the cash balance down to zero. Since I am still a person who balances their checkbook (my son says, what's a checkbook?), I was just trying to make everything perfect! Thanks for thinking about this.

texcarey

Bob. Yes, the matching transactions are dividend income and capital gains at year-end that add to the cash balance and are supposed to be reinvested to reduce the cash balance in the commensurate amount. For some reason, the transaction is not doing that, whether it is a reinvestment or a Bought. Have tried editing it several times. There are plenty of other transactions that accomplish the correct thing in this account in the other funds, but these two instances were glitched, and I can only get one of them to correctly use the cash balance by switching it to a Buy transaction. If the other one remains pesky, I will just use a workaround to reduce the cash balance to zero. Thanks.