Include calculations for Returns & % Returns on Savings Accounts shown with Portfolio Investments

Scrappydoo

Currently savings accounts incorrectly show zero for Returns, % Annual Returns & Income and do not reflect _IntInc (interest income) when accounts are displayed alongside investments in investment--> Portfolio reviews. Add calculations to correctly reflect interest income Return, % Annual Returns for these accounts in the Investment Portfolio Display when one groups these accounts into the Display. One should not have to always run a report to see this basic return & interest income information quickly.

q_lurker

The issue is a touch broader than cash accounts set to display with investment accounts.  It turns out that any 'income' transaction not associated with a specific security is not reported as a 'Return' for the account.  The 'Cash' line in a portfolio view for any account type never shows any return figures (such as 'Return' or 'Amount invested'), so that the 'return' from the cash is not included as 'return' for the account.  

So to be thorough, the changes would need to be applied for both 'cash' accounts and brokerage accounts.  Changes would need to encompass not just 'interest' payments received but the whole variety of 'income' that might likely be construed as coming from investment cash.  As I see it, that would include the following since you never know what the next user might try to do.

Hidden Categories

• _DivInc
• _DivIncTaxFree
• _IntInc
• _IntIncTaxFree
• _QualDivInc
• _Accrued Int
• _Accrued Int TaxFree

Non-Hidden Categories (standard)

• Interest Inc
• Other Inc
• any other user-created income category (?)

Now that you have a 'return' value, the immediate followup is to want ROI% and similar.  That to is beyond the current inclusions - cash has no 'Amount Invested'.  How would the management of that 'Amount Invested' value parallel Amount Invested for regular securities?  It needs thought.

Another consideration would be Linked cash accounts.  Those are sort of the reverse in that they represent cash truly in an investment account but treated as in a cash (spending account.  Does that income get treated as investment income?

So if Quicken does choose to go in this direction, I hope they do so in a top-down manner that is as fully inclusive as possible

As they say -- The devil is in the details.

jaguaroh

Since % returns are a major part of knowing if your investment strategy is good or bad, I'd think Quicken should put some priority here.

PlanningToRetire_1

I just found the same issue. I have an account with account type of Savings that I have been using for "emergency cash". I have been moving money into and out of this account as needed. The account is set to Account intent: Investment. I created an investment performance report and was very surprised when the transfer into and out of the account were not included. I was expecting the report to have Beg Mrk Val, dated transfers in/out, and End Mkt Val used to calculate the Avg Annual Return (IRR).

I did notice that report includes extra blank lines between the Beg Mrk Val and the End Mrk Val rows that corresponds to the transfers in/out.

I admit I did not follow some of the details listed by q_lurker above but quicken should calculate the Avg Annual Return (IRR) correctly for any account.

PlanningToRetire_1

Since accounts of type Brokerage correctly calculate investment performance reports, I attempted to create a brokerage account then "Set up Now..." on the Online Services tab under account details. Quicken did not link the account but wanted to add a new account of type savings. So I still cannot figure how to calculate the interest rate on a Saving account.

q_lurker

@PlanningToRetire_1
When you attempt to set up an online connection to an account and the FI reports the account as a savings account, that is the only way Quicken will process that account -- Quicken also needs it to be a Savings account (or possibly a similar form of cash account). 

To maintain this savings account as a brokerage account and get a return measurement from Quicken, as I see it you would need to:
a)  have a manually managed brokerage account
b)  within that account, buy a fictional money market fund with the cash in the Savings Account
c)  Manually record all the real-world savings account transactions including interest accrued as money market fund transactions.

Now as many savings account are really pretty simple at the transaction level (often not a lot of transactions), that may be doable.

Nevertheless, IMO, that is well in excess of a viable work-around.  Quicken really needs to work the cash in the investment section into the return calculations as is the topic of this idea, and as I further expanded in my earlier comment above.