My cost basis on lots is nonsensical

tjb201

Noticed the cost basis on various lots did not make any sense all of a sudden with a specific security. I removed the shares and then tried to put in the lots again and it still does not work. Did the File Validate and Repair including Validate, Rebuild Investment Lots and Correct Investing Price History/Repair and that still did not do it. For example, I entered a purchase of 150 shares @ 7.92 and it shows on the Portfolio Screen the cost basis as being -546.80

Frankx

Hi @tjb201

It sounds like you may have hidden placeholders in that account register.  To display them in your register (if any exist), go to: "Edit" > "Preferences" > "Investment transactions" and then you should check “Show hidden transactions” then hit "OK".

Here's a LINK to some additional information about managing placeholders.

Let us know how that goes.

Frankx

tjb201

Frank, thanks for the suggestion. I do keep placeholders in view and, unfortunately, there were none. It is interesting that the actual lot is correct in terms of the Cost Basis, Market Value and Gain/Loss, but the Cost Basis on the summary line for the security is wrong. When I add a new lot, same thing, the new lot's Cost Basis and everything else is fine, but the Cost Basis on the summary line for the security is messed up.

q_lurker

tjb201 said:

Frank, thanks for the suggestion. I do keep placeholders in view and, unfortunately, there were none. It is interesting that the actual lot is correct in terms of the Cost Basis, Market Value and Gain/Loss, but the Cost Basis on the summary line for the security is wrong. When I add a new lot, same thing, the new lot's Cost Basis and everything else is fine, but the Cost Basis on the summary line for the security is messed up.

That is a different story.  In that case, it means your historical transactions are off with respect to which lots were involved in which sales. 

I would cycle the portfolio view As Of date through the time frame focusing on sells.  You can start with the first purchase and move forward, or move backwards.  You should find at some time the Cost basis is correct and that it went off-base with some sale.  You will likely need to delete and re-enter some sales, and maybe some buys.  You may get by with editing the lots sold for a sale.       

tjb201

Great thought. I went back a year and it is still off. This would be a major track and clean up for me as this a very actively traded security. I was hoping by removing all shares and starting over with the few lots it would start me with a clean slate, it did not (at the summary level). Any final thoughts? I would almost prefer to create dummy security and just do daily updates to pricing.

Bottom line, I am going to have to eye the Portfolio Report each time I have new sells to make sure it did the calculations correctly.

NotACPA

Unless you specifically instruct your broker differently, at the time of each sale, they almost certainly use FIFO for lot selection.

If you HAVE instructed the broker differently, you need to select those specific lots in Q for such trades.

If you have NOT so instructed the broker, you need to use FIFO for such trades.

Failure to do this will most certainly cause your cost basis to differ from what the brokerage shows.

q_lurker

tjb201 said:

Great thought. I went back a year and it is still off. This would be a major track and clean up for me as this a very actively traded security. I was hoping by removing all shares and starting over with the few lots it would start me with a clean slate, it did not (at the summary level). Any final thoughts? I would almost prefer to create dummy security and just do daily updates to pricing.

Bottom line, I am going to have to eye the Portfolio Report each time I have new sells to make sure it did the calculations correctly.

Here's the thing with this type of error.  Even though you removed or sold all the lots, Quicken is holding onto some level of cost basis.  Shouldn't, but it is.  Then when you add in a new lot, that residual cost basis gets brought back in.  The only way I know of to rectify the issue is to locate the faulty transaction(s).  I believe they have all been sales for me the few times I have seen this,

  

tjb201

I would completely agree, which just means more validation needed by me. I trade quite a bit (20+ transactions a week), so going back too far after the fact is tough. Sadly there are no utilities to deal with this scenario. I had this happen before with really highly traded securities. I am always choosing my lots when I sell, so God only knows under what sets of circumstances the database gets out of whack. Thanks for all your thoughts, spot on.

tjb201

Final post. The amount the Cost Basis was off was constant as I added new lots, so I made a dummy purchase of 1 share @.01with the commission being the amount I was off plus the .01. Now all the numbers are correct (except total shares off by 1). I can now just move on and learn to ignore that lot.