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Cash Accounts in Investing show negative balance

Andrew P

I'm using the simple investing tool and entering transactions for stock purchases. Transferred cash shows correctly but when I enter a new buy transaction the cash amount returns a negative value instead of a zero balance. The stock prices and positions are all correct but the negative cash balance leaves me with an incorrect total value. Any suggestions on how to correct this?

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Accepted answers

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @ Andrew P

Thank you for the response and the additional details.

It sounds as though you may have a placeholder transaction that is affecting the balance of the account.

If you have not done so already, I would take a moment to review the steps and information available here. To learn more about resolving placeholders, please see the information available here.

Please let us know if these steps work to resolve the issue.

-Quicken Tyka

All comments

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @Andrew P

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community although, I apologize that you haven't received a response.

We will need a bit more information to be able to assist. Please take a moment to review the information here and post back with the year and version of Quicken you are currently running.

What is the cash balance of the account before this purchase? How much is the cost of this transaction?

It may also be helpful to provide a screenshot of the error using the Windows Snipping Tool. To learn more about posting screenshots to the Community, please take a moment to review the information available here.

The more information you can provide regarding this issue will help the Community to better understand and assist.

Thank you,

-Quicken Tyka

Andrew P

The cash balance after the initial transfer was $200. After entering the transaction the balance was -$200. I verified the purchase price and stock quantities and calculated total purchase price outside of Quicken and it was $200 so the cash balance should have been $0.

My System Info:
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
Version 20H2 Build 19042.928

Quicken Deluxe Subscription
Version R32.12 Build 27.1.32.12

Quicken_Tyka

MtGill

A trick that requires manual updating is to add a cash deposit one day before your investment account is opened. The pseudo cash deposit needs to be equal to your Cash balance. This will zero out your negative cash balance and your securities value will show correctly in your Investments. Remember you have to update this pseudo cash deposit regularly to show your books correctly.

q_lurker

I would suggest discarding the Simple investing format. I don’t use it myself, but I don’t believe it is geared toward the transaction entries you are citing.

Further it appears your version R32.12 is rather dated. Current is R43.20 (?). Updating might also be helpful.

Chris_QPW

This thread make no sense to me. When you put an account in "Simple - Positions Only" mode it is exactly how it sounds, you can't enter transactions, there isn't any register shown to put the transactions into.

Here is what an account looks like in Simple investing mode: