Can I update the value of an investment without adding shares, etc.?

jkoskela

I have a mutual fund IRA for which my bank does not allow downloads. I am not currently contributing to this account and all I want to do is update the value in Quicken when I check my quarterly statement - no share units or values or whatever. Is there an easy way to do this? Should I delete it and set it up as a different account type to avoid having to enter these details?

Tom Young

The "lowest information" way of doing this is to create a "dummy" security - one that has no ticker symbol.  When you next look at your quarterly statement you might see that, overall, it has a value of $25,578.82 while your Quicken balance Is $18,936.55, a difference of $6,642.27.  So you simply do an "Add" transaction for 6,642.27 shares of the dummy security, each share valued at $1.  Each quarter thereafter you do an "Add" of additional dummy security shares at $1 to balance to that quarter's statement, assuming the value of the account has increased. 

If the value of the account decreased you'd do a "Remove" of the appropriate amount of dummy shares.

Frankx

Sure, you could just set it up as a bank account, or even a cash account.  You can enter the balance from the most recent statement and then adjust that amount to the going-forward statement balance on whatever time frame you want (monthly, quarterly, annually). It will probably be easier if you just delete the investment account you've set up and start a new cash account.

Tom Young

The "lowest information" way of doing this is to create a "dummy" security - one that has no ticker symbol.  When you next look at your quarterly statement you might see that, overall, it has a value of $25,578.82 while your Quicken balance Is $18,936.55, a difference of $6,642.27.  So you simply do an "Add" transaction for 6,642.27 shares of the dummy security, each share valued at $1.  Each quarter thereafter you do an "Add" of additional dummy security shares at $1 to balance to that quarter's statement, assuming the value of the account has increased. 

If the value of the account decreased you'd do a "Remove" of the appropriate amount of dummy shares.

Frankx

Sure, you could just set it up as a bank account, or even a cash account.  You can enter the balance from the most recent statement and then adjust that amount to the going-forward statement balance on whatever time frame you want (monthly, quarterly, annually). It will probably be easier if you just delete the investment account you've set up and start a new cash account.

jkoskela

Thanks Tom Young and Frankx. Both suggestions sound like something I could handle.

I'm going to try to follow Tom's suggestion first. If I have trouble, I'll go ahead and delete the account and set up a different account per Frankx's suggestion.