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How can I correct an erronius Basis on the investments page?

RalphieBoy

I made a purchase of 200 sh of XYZ at 19.35/sh for a total of $3870.00. On my "Investing" screen, the cost basis for xyz is showing $4155.86, which is clearly wrong! Is there any way to correct this entry?

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Accepted answers

J_Mike

@RalphieBoy

Your cost basis issue could stem from your earlier holdings of the security. That is to say that an earlier error in tracking cost basis will carry forward - independent of the holding account.

You can check for this possibility by running the report;
Reports > Investing > Portfolio Value & Cost Basis.
Include All Accounts and All Securities.
For the Date Range - set the End Date to the day before your recent buy.

This report will include your current holdings plus any security with zero holdings that have a residual (non-zero) cost basis.
Check to see if your security is included in the report.
If so, this points you to a problem with the earlier holding period.
If it does not appear in this report, then your problem lies with the recent repurchase.

For background. this report on my file shows a number of securities no longer held but with small residual cost basis (pos or neg) - usually just a few pennies. I haven't bothered to track down and correct the errors. Your case of a few hundred dollars definitely needs to be resolved.

All comments

Jim_Harman

Is the Bought the only transaction for that security?

No dividend or capital gain reinvestments for example?

RalphieBoy

Essentially , yes. I owned the stock earlier but sold out several weeks ago. Decided to get back in this week. This new purchase is the only "xyz" in all my portfolio.

Tom Young

You might try opening the Account in which XYZ resides and doing a {Ctrl}-Z key press to force a recalculation of the Account's holdings. If you've had XYZ in other Accounts at some time you might also use that key press combo in those Accounts too.

RalphieBoy

I did have "xyz" in that brokerage account but sold it all last December 2019. The sale I mentioned earlier was at a different brokerage. I have only had the new purchase of xyz for a few days, so there are no dividends or anything else.

Jim_Harman

You could try deleting and re-entering the Bought transaction.

RalphieBoy

I tried the CTRL Z recalculation and the error got worst. The "Basis" is now $4309.75 which is in error by $439.75.
If I delete the transaction, won't the cash in the account jump up by the erroneous Basis?

RalphieBoy

Also tried CTRL Z in one other brokerage account that held xyz at one time. No help. Erroneous basis still at $4309.75.

Tom Young

Try deleting the transaction and then re-entering the buy and see what happens. I expect you're going to need to validate the file ultimately but try this first.

J_Mike

RalphieBoy

Hello J_Mike,

I want to thank you for you help,... especially the step-by-step instructions. Your suggestion proved to be spot on. I found a residual cost basis of $439.75.

I was able to locate the residual basis to entries made in 2013. "XYZ" spun off another company and I did not know how to handle that properly. I devised a work-around which became the root of the current problem. I was able to delete the improper entries and properly re-enter the spin-off stock. Now everything appears to be correct.

Quicken is an amazing program. I am always amazed at how much is there and how little I know about it.

Thanks again,

Ralph Knight
P.S. I have one more "Basis" problem which has to do with merging of two account at TDA. Will explain later.

J_Mike

@RalphieBoy

Thanks for the feedback - glad it worked for you.