How does one adjust the basis of an investment without affecting the cash balance in the account?

tom.dewees

:D

Jim_Harman

First I would make sure that there are no Placeholders for this security. See this FAQ
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7267839/quicken-faq-managing-placeholder-entries-in-quicken-for-windows

The best way, which preserves the purchase dates and cost basis of all of your tax lots, would be to go back through your Bought and Sold transactions for the security and compare the details to your statements, resolving any differences including the lot assignments for past partial sales. You can also research any discrepancies by going to the Holdings view in your account and clicking on the plus sign next to the security. Then you can compare the lots Quicken thinks you currently hold to those reported by your broker.

A shortcut, if you do not care about tracking the detailed history in Quicken, would be to Remove all the shares you currently hold and then Add them back with an appropriate long or short term acquisition date and the correct cost basis. With this approach your basis will probably will probably be wrong again after any future partial sales, because your sales in Quicken will be from your big lot rather than the actual lots you hold. 

In either case, make sure to back up your Quicken file first in case you do not like the result.

Jim_Harman

First I would make sure that there are no Placeholders for this security. See this FAQ
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7267839/quicken-faq-managing-placeholder-entries-in-quicken-for-windows

The best way, which preserves the purchase dates and cost basis of all of your tax lots, would be to go back through your Bought and Sold transactions for the security and compare the details to your statements, resolving any differences including the lot assignments for past partial sales. You can also research any discrepancies by going to the Holdings view in your account and clicking on the plus sign next to the security. Then you can compare the lots Quicken thinks you currently hold to those reported by your broker.

A shortcut, if you do not care about tracking the detailed history in Quicken, would be to Remove all the shares you currently hold and then Add them back with an appropriate long or short term acquisition date and the correct cost basis. With this approach your basis will probably will probably be wrong again after any future partial sales, because your sales in Quicken will be from your big lot rather than the actual lots you hold. 

In either case, make sure to back up your Quicken file first in case you do not like the result.

NotACPA

The Basis for any lot of a security is created at the time you purchase that lot.

IF you've sold some shares of the security (but not all) your basis will be reduced by those sales.  IF you picked one lot to sale, and your broker chose another (probably FIFO) then your cost basis in Q will differ from what the brokerage reports.

The most accurate way to remedy this is to go back and review ALL sales of the security and adjust them to using the same lots as what the brokerage used.