Why can't I add a "memo" to an ESPP sale transaction?

ERYK
ERYK Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭
in Registers & Transactions (Windows)
When I enter an ESPP stock sale, Quicken creates two entries, one for the stock sale and another to track the ordinary income attributable to this sale. The cash recorded for the first is adjusted by the ordinary income so that the total of the two equals the total proceeds for the sale. So far, so good; this seems like how it should work in order to track your ordinary income and keep your cash balance accurate. However, I would like to add a "memo" to the sale with notes to myself (noting, e.g., the lots of ESPP shares I sold). There is no way to do that when I enter the sale through the ESPP wizard. Quicken will allow me to enter in the memo field after this transaction is added (though it will not allow any edits to other fields). When I do change the memo field, though, Quicken also changes the "cash amt" to the total proceeds for the sale, rather than the adjusted amount. This means the ordinary income is now double-counted and I have a running cash balance for the account that is incorrect. This seems like a bug to me, of which Quicken has an increasing and frustrating number. Anyone have any insight? Is there a reason I can't (or shouldn't) leave notes to myself? Why would memo entries ever change the monetary values for any entry? Anyone have a work-around?

Answers

  • Sherlock
    Sherlock Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭✭✭
    I suggest you consider using a Reminder transaction for your memo instead of modifying the memo of the special Sold (or SoldX) transaction generated by the ESPP wizard.  I suspect Quicken intended to block all edits of the transaction.  If we do edit the transaction, the Total sale is recalculated with price and number of shares which means the gain includes the amount that should be tracked as income (as by the MiscInc transaction provided by the ESPP wizard).
  • ERYK
    ERYK Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭
    Thanks. I didn't realize Quicken recalculates when you change anything like description or memo. I had already put in some reminder transactions, so I guess I'll stick with that. I suspect you are right and they intended to not allow memo edits. It would just be easier if I could attach notes in the first place.

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