How to close an IRA with a tiny error?

cruciverbalist

I am trying to close an IRA account after 25 years and, compulsive as I may be, in the end, I have a cash value of $0.00 but a securities value of -$0.10. I can live with this error, but it seems that Quicken cannot. The source of this insignificant error is not obvious despite hours pouring over too many years of entries.
Any suggestions as to how to create a permanent entry that will allow me to reconcile and close the account?
Thanks.

Chris_QPW

Can you determine what security has the -0.10 value?
If so using an Add Shares transaction might do it.

If not it might be data problem/calculation problem.
Try:
File -> File Operations -> Validate and Repair -> select both Validate File and Rebuild investing lots -> OK

NotACPA

Does it help to edit the SELL transactions in the account, specifically the ones that are supposed to zero out a position, and changing each to SELL ALL, instead of a regular SELL ... but don't change any dollar amounts in such transactions.

You might have an itty-bitty fractional share balance that's causing this.

Chris_QPW

Note the one thing I found strange about this is the fact that the value is negative, which means selling more than you have.  That is why think it might be harder than normal to clear this up.

NotACPA

If the OP actually held 99.9999 shares, displayed as 100 shares, and sold 100 shares, there would be a negative share balance.

Which is why I suggested the "Sell All" option.

cruciverbalist

I thank both of your for your helpful suggestions.
There are no items which neatly explain the -$0.10 discrepancy over 25 years of records. I had done the "validate and repair" procedure earlier to no avail.
I went over the account looking for stock splits which might yield fractional shares, and there are none of those.
I liked the idea of "sell all" as opposed to a specific number of shares, and went over the account with that in mind, to address any residual fractional shares.
Unfortunately, many of the "sell" orders were of mortgage securities, where both a principal and interest were returned monthly. While the principal was addressed as a sale, and the interest as income, there are multiple entries of this nature over the years for different mortgage bonds, and none are precisely for $0.10.
There is one such bond for which a "cash+invest" is $0.10 on multiple occasions, but I am not sure how to deal with that or if that is even important. Looking for the final "sell" of that bond, I found that there was still a $500 value to it when I transferred it to another account, and it would not be possible to use "sell all" for that and the other such bonds in this account that I also transferred to a different account from which they went on to maturity.
I am perfectly happy to "fudge" or "adjust" any of the mortgage repayment items to see if this bond is the problem, but I am not sure of how that might be done. If I could transfer the security value to a cash amount, it would be easy to remove it and resolve the issue. Perhaps I could "adjust" the value of any such bond when it was transferred to another account. Again, I am not sure where or how to do that.
In the end, while I suspect it is likely to be a mortgage bond that has caused the problem, I remain uncertain of that as a fact.
Your thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks.

NotACPA

But do you still hold those MBS, or did you sell them?  What action did you use for the SALE that closed out the position.

cruciverbalist

They were transferred to another account before maturity, and so I let the Quicken download address it as a "remove" function from the problem account, and let Quicken upload it as an "added" function in the new account. I did not "sell" the MBS to remove them from the problem account. I used "sell" for the monthly principal/interest payments only.

NotACPA

So, what Q action did you use to move those securities?  "Shares Transferred between Accounts" would have been correct ... and it has an "ALL" option.

Frankx

Hi @cruciverbalist,

Would it be possible for you to go back and delete the "remove" and "added" transactions and record them in one transaction - a "shares transferred between accounts" using the original date that the "transfer" occurred?  I am not sure that will fix it, but it would be worth the try.  But before you do anything, make a current backup of the file.

Frankx

cruciverbalist

It has taken a bit of time, along with trial and error (and backing up my program), to follow your suggestions about changing from remove/add those MBS to a direct transfer function. I should say that these MBSs did mature over 5 years ago, and that I was concerned that I might just move from problem from the account I wish to close to the current account.
Unfortunately, even with this change, I still have the same -$0.10 security balance in the older account, and the newer account remains as correct as I can determine.
I remain out of balance. :-(