Realized Gain in Budget

nm1400

new member ... trying to find my way around ... found an old discussion from mid 2019 related to my issue, but it said the discussion was closed; any suggestions to the issue below or how can I find the replies that were posted to this? thanks in advance

n

the original 2019 post:

"I do see the investment tranactions categories that can be added to the budget--thanks for adding them. However, my issue is concerning the realizedgain category; when i add it, it shows the entire amount of the sale (without removing the cost basis). Is there a way to add the realizedgain category to the budget and only have it report the gain minus the cost basis?"

Tom Young

I don't really use the Quicken budget any more but I just ran a "Current Budget" report and I saw that there was a line item for realized gain and that only the gain was reported, not the total proceeds.  (This was in the "Actual" column and I assume that's where you're focusing your attention here.)

Offhand I can't think of any way of somehow forcing Quicken to show only the gross proceeds, but you say that's what you're experiencing?

I guess the first thing that comes to mind is some sort of underlying data problem.  If you haven't done so you might try to validate a copy of your file.

nm1400

thanks Tom .. yes, I'm focusing on the actual column in the budget view ... and yes, I see only the gross proceeds in the actuals in the budget view ... but when I run a standard income expense report, I see the net realized gains for the same transactions... so that leads me to believe the data is correct .. but to your point, I'll validate a copy of the file and see if any impact

q_lurker

I recall the discussion, not a resolution.  And I can't find truly relevant recent discussions.  As best I recall --- 

It was confirmed by the user community that Quicken was presenting the entire net sales proceeds (net of commissions) on a line identified as Realized Gain -- the labeling and the data were inconsistent with each other.  The dispute that arose among the community was "What is correct?". 

Budget is generally a cash-flow process, and the entire sale proceeds represent cash flow, so the label should be corrected.  Or realized gain is the 'profit' that is spendable against budgeted expenses.  Including the basis in the total represents a taking from the 'savings' and is not what users are spending.

If I took a side (which I don't recall doing), it likely was to correct the label to begin with, then hash out the right or wrong as to which value is meaningful. 

@nm1400 My first question to you would have been What Quicken you are using, because I thought the issue had been addressed.  Apparently it has not.  I did actually find discussion going back to 2013.   

nm1400

interesting perspective @q_lurker "what is correct", the data or the label ... as I mentioned in an earlier reply ... Realized Gain in the income / expense report is net gain (sale proceeds less the buy expense) ...

so if in the budget section, it's intended to be cash proceeds .. I'm thinking there should be a corresponding budget for cash outlay ... when you purchase the security ..

Tom Young

@nm1400

Your reasoning is correct and if the line item states it's a realized gain (or loss) then that should be what's presented. 

I did assume that you're using the subscription product - rightly or wrongly that "new member" statement registered as "subscription" product - but just to try and nail down what's going on, what versions are you using?

nm1400

@Tom Young

correct, subscription product, with latest update installed ... still haven't validated the file per your suggestion ... but will post an update when I do

q_lurker

Other discussion I found (FWIW) but still not the one I was thinking of:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7496874/qwin-budgets-still-reflects-gross-sales-price-of-stocks-sold-in-the-realized-gains-category-rather

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7154757/improper-reporting-of-realized-gains

I suspect this is the prior discussion I recalled:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/18109313#Comment_18109313

nm1400

@q_lurker thanks for digging up these old discussions .. helpful .. my workaround for now (not ideal), as follows

+ budget net realized gains in the budget view ... budget true realized gains (proceeds less expense)
+ the budget view will show the budget as I loaded it, but will not show the actuals as I expect .. per above thread, it'll show the gross transaction proceeds
+ but the budget report will show the budget as I loaded, and the true actual gains (proceeds less cost)

so I have a way to track it, but like I said, not idea ... thanks again for all the feedback ...