I simply want to adjust investment accounts to market value quarterly

jc61

I don't want to see all the transactions in my brokerage/investment accounts. I just want to adjust to market value after each quarter. I have been using "miscinc" and "miscexp" to adjust for gains and losses, which is fine, but is there a better way (which accomplishes my goal of only one transaction per quarter)?

NotACPA

Sell all securities in these accounts and buy a pseudo (of your creation) tracking security.  Set it's value to $1 and buy shares to equal the value when you want to begin this tracking.

Use either Add Shares, or Remove Shares, once per quarter, to adjust your holding of this pseudo security.

Bob_L

Another option to consider is the Quicken feature:  "simple investing".  It just updates investment balances without transaction detail.  If interested I suggest you search the community to see what folks are saying about it.  I have never used it so cannot comment further.

JohnZ101

Hi Jc61

Here is what I do, which is exactly what you are asking about.

Lets say you get the TD Ameritrade broker statement at 3/31 and it shows the following:


12/31/2020 account value 100. Cash 10, value of securities 90
3/31/2021 account value 130 Cash 22, value of securities 108
Total change for quarter up 30.


Cash Activity Summary per broker statement
Beginning Cash 10
Securities purchased -30 (this increases the beginning securities value)
Securities sold 40 (this decreases the beginning securities value)
Contributions to account 0
Distributions from acct 0
Income 6 (interest, dividends etc)
Expense -4 (margin interest, fees for example)
Ending Cash 22

Here is what to do in Quicken:

One time steps.

1. Setup a new account that is a non cash Asset Account. (non cash assets not tied to any bank or brokerage account.) In this example, name the non cash account "TD Ameritrade" Note that you will not download anything from TD Ameritrade and summary activity is entered manually.

2. Go to the account list and click on the TD Ameritrade Account. Enter the account value at the beginning of the year. Here it would have a value of 100 on 12/31/2020.

3. Go to the category list and set up new categories as needed. Quicken already has Dividend income, interest income which you could use. I set up a new category called "Change in value of securities" as an income account.


Here is what to do in quicken for the quarter.

Each quarter enter two transactions in the TD Ameritrade account.

Transaction 1 is the relevant cash transaction activity
Transaction 2 is the change in value of securities

Review the broker statement.

Cash increased by 12 However the amount that already went to the securities is -30+40= +10. You only need to record in Quicken the cash items not impacting the securities value which is the income and expense of +6-4=+2


Transaction 1
a. Record a split transaction to record cash income activity. (this is the change in cash of +2)
Dividend income +5
Interest income +1
Fees -4

Background:
The split adds up to the +2 in cash not related to the securities.

After transaction 1, quicken shows account balance at 102 (100 beg bal plus 2 cash).
Total ending account value is 130 - 102= 28. The 28 is the change in the value of the securities.

Transaction 2.
a. Record a transaction in quicken for the Change in value of securities +28

Background

Here is the proof of the securities.
Beginning securities 90
Securities purchased +30
Securities sold -40
Securities total before change in value 80

Change in value of securities 28
Ending securities value 108




After transaction 2 your quicken asset account looks like this.

12-31-2020 Opening Balance 100
03-31-2021 Cash Activity (split has categories) +2 102
03-31-2021 Change in value of securities +28 130


Alternatively, you could make this very simple and just record 1 transaction.
Change in account value +30.

However, I like to track the income and expenses separately to better understand what is happening.




Transaction 3
Lets say that on 4/10/2021 you took 5 out of checking and added it to TD Ameritrade.

In your quicken checking account enter the payment of 5 and use the category [TD Ameritrade] for the transaction.

Your quicken TD Ameritrade register now looks like this.

12-31-2020 Opening Balance 100
03-31-2021 Cash Activity (split has categories) +2 102
03-31-2021 Change in value of securities +28 130
04-10-2021 Deposit from checking +5 135


Your broker statement will have the 5 Deposit from checking shown as a contribution or equivalent in the cash activity for the period. Since it is already in quicken from when you wrote the check you don't need to record this again at 6/30/2021. The rest works the same.


Hope this helps.

John Z