Quicken needs to robustly recognize Stock Split transaction downloads

MontanaKarl

Charles Schwab and Edward D Jones  - and perhaps other brokerages - do not download Stock Split transactions to Quicken.  Instead they download "Add Shares" transactions with zero cost basis.  Arguably, this is the brokerages not providing the correct data to Quicken...but the data that they do provide is ample to recognize and properly process a split with just a little pattern matching on Quicken's part.

When Quicken automatically enters these Add Shares transactions (which it does on QMac - on QWin it can be set to be reviewed manually) - the result is that the cost basis per share for all shares of the stock holding are now wrong.  Instead of the cost basis being evenly divided, within each basis lot, across all post-split shares... each pre-split lot retains its pre-split basis, and there is a single massive post-split lot with zero basis.  Any subsequent sales will have the wrong cost basis reflected in Quicken and in realized capital gains tax reports...and obviously if there are subsequent splits the data error percolates. 

I think it would be easy for the Quicken software engineers to program a simple rules-based approach to properly convert these errant "Add Shares" from certain brokerages into a proper "Stock Split" transaction.  Thus, Quicken investment data would not get corrupted by allowing the "Add Shares" to be accepted without at least a dialog asking us what to do.

The idea/logic:  If a downloaded "Add Shares" transactions has ZERO as the cost basis / purchase price, and happens on the SAME day as a stock split for XYZ stock, and corresponds EXACTLY to an N for M stock split known by Quicken (via historical quote download) to have happened on that date... it is 99.9% likely that it is really an N for M split.

Quicken can then provide a pop-up saying "Your brokerage has added N shared of XYZ stock to your account on mm/dd/yy.  This seems to correspond to a J:K split that was declared on that day.  Would you like Quicken to enter this as a stock split?  Or, did you deliver new shares to your brokerage on that day?"  [Enter as split] [Leave as New Shares]


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I'm copying this same Idea to the QMac ideas forum since the same issue happens there.

Sherlock

We already have the ability to delete erroneous transactions we import from financial institutions and Quicken already prompts us to enter missing splits when we import historical prices:  https://help.quicken.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=3216589

If a financial institution is exporting erroneous transactions, we need to fix the export from the financial institution - not Quicken. 

I vote against this idea.  

Annandale

I just ran into the same stock split issue that others have noted way back in 2019. I am using Quicken for Windows 2020, and after the transaction was downloaded after the stock split, the number of stocks in the Quicken portfolio is inflated by the stock split. I have followed all the workarounds and fortunately I do not trust Quicken for my cost basis, I just use it to consolidate and manage all my account balances and historical transactions in one place. I will call support for help

Annandale

Update, what I am now doing is voiding the added transactions and keeping the stock split transaction, that seems to do the trick as I now have the correct balance, with the new stock quantity and price.

MarkyBCus

I found this post after noticing the recent NVDA 4:1 split wasn't resolving itself correctly in my Quicken for Mac register. Downloaded from Fidelity (via Direct Connect), the erroneous data was throwing off Performance charts. In the past, 2 other stock splits (Apple & Tesla), initially showed as added shares, but then over time resolved themselves and corrected to splits. It appears the data takes upwards of 3 days to process and reflect in the downloaded register. Almost 2 weeks after the NVDA split, the register still has not corrected itself. I followed the previous post from @Annandale and edited the transaction from the day of the split, which was listed as "Add Shares" type and changed it to the accurate, "Stock Split" and entered the correct ratio. That seems to have resolved it. Not sure why this split didn't resolve itself while the last 2 did…?