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Portfolio Value Report is calculating slightly high balances for two securities

actuary314

This comes under the heading: "Give an actuary an inch and (s)he'll measure it." The portfolio value report is perfect for all but two of my securities. This error has happened for only the past two weeks. The shares and prices for these two securities are perfect, but when Quicken does the multiplication of shares times price, it gets a balance which is slightly high, in one case by 0.3% (SWTSX), and in the other case by 0.1% (SWRSX). This creates very minor errors in my net worth report. The balances within Quicken are correct. Only the reporting is off very slightly, and only for these two securities. Can anyone tell me why this might be happening, and is there a fix for it?

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actuary314

Thanks so much, Jim_Harman and q_lurker. With your help, I fixed my reporting problem, at last. It was not related to placeholders, but was similar, but not identical to, the UserinMD problem. (Refer to the 20230337 link above.) In my case, there were two ALMOST BLANK transactions in the Quicken account data for each of the two affected securities. In each case, the only occupied field was the action field. It was populated with a ReinvInt value. When I eliminated these four transactions, the Net Worth report balanced to the internal Quicken account data and the broker data. I'm not sure why these four transactions were downloaded from one-step-update, or why nearly blank transactions would affect the reporting, but if either of you have insights on this, I'd be very interested in them. Thanks again for your help. It was invaluable.

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Jim_Harman

One possibility is that due to rounding, Quicken's share count does not exactly match the broker's.

To see the full accuracy share count, go to Edit > Preferences > Reports only and at the bottom, set the decimal places to 6, then look at the report again.

Or you can click on the gear at the top right of the account and select Reconcile shares. This will show any share count difference between Quicken and the broker. Do not let Quicken create Placeholders to compensate.

If there is a discrepancy, I usually go to the last transaction and change the number of shares to correct for the imbalance, letting Quicken recalculate the share price.

actuary314

When I go to reconcile shares, Quicken tells me that the Quicken and Broker shares are in agreement. Also, I noticed before I posted the question, that the differences are greater than what could be due to rounding. That said, I very much appreciate your thoughtful response.

Jim_Harman

So your share balances and prices are the same but the totals in the Portfolio Value report are different?

Which report is off - Portfolio Value or Net Worth? I recently learned that the totals in these reports are calculated differently. Portfolio Value is cost basis + gain/loss and Net Worth is shares * share price. See this discussion for more info.
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20230337

Please do not reject my answer. I am trying to be helpful.

actuary314

I very much appreciate your help. Before I answer your question, I should have emphasized that the balances within Quicken (i.e., in the Quicken accounts) agree exactly with those on the broker statement. However, the balances on the Portfolio Value and Net Worth reports agree with each other, but disagree with those within Quicken and on the broker statement. I.e., broker statement balance = balance within Quicken = x, and portfolio value balance = net worth balance = y.

Jim_Harman

You do have the ending date for the reports set the same as the end date of the statement, and you have checked to make sure the share prices all agree on that date, right?

actuary314

Correct. FYI, I have a large number of securities. I have this problem with a grand total of 2 of them.

q_lurker

Where does a portfolio view balance fit in?

I would likely be trying to walk back in time with the reports to see when this discrepancy first arose, and then investigate transactions in that time frame (on that date). I'd also be focused in on only those two securities. That process is easier if the portfolio view agrees with the brokerage and account balance, rather than the other two reports.

actuary314

The portfolio view balance does agree with the brokerage statement and account balance. I'm unclear as to how this helps me correct incorrect balances on the portfolio value and net worth reports. Can you provide additional detail? Thanks so much.

q_lurker

actuary314 said:

The portfolio view balance does agree with the brokerage statement and account balance. I'm unclear as to how this helps me correct incorrect balances on the portfolio value and net worth reports. Can you provide additional detail? Thanks so much.

Both the portfolio views and the reports can then be presented for any chosen date. From there you can set the dates to say 12/31/21. Do the reports present the right values for that date? Are the off by a consistent amount or does the error vary? Is it always the same security that is off? Going back further in time, was there a time when the two values did agree? What transaction took place on some date that casued the values to diverge?

actuary314

I've isolated what must be duplicate transactions on the portfolio value and net worth reports. On 12/10/21, there must have been two duplicate SWTSX transactions in the amounts of $14.63 and $84.06. I say this because the portfolio value and net worth reports for that security were high by $98.69 on that date, forward. Similarly, on 12/16/21, there must have been two duplicate SWTRX transactions in the amounts of $68.51 and $13.89 on the same two reports. Can you instruct me as to how to correct the balances on these two reports without changing any of the internal account balances within Quicken? (As I mentioned previously, the internal Quicken balances and the balances in portfolio view are correct, so I don't want to change those balances.) Thanks so much for your help. It is greatly appreciated.

Jim_Harman

The reports are based on the transactions in your account. Perhaps there are duplicated transactions and then Placeholders that attempt to correct for them.

To make placeholders visible, go to Edit > Preferences > Investment Transactions and make sure the Show hidden transactions box is checked.

Placeholders will have a gray background in the account’s transaction list (register) even if they are not selected, and will have “Entry” in the Action column.

Placeholders compensate for missing or incorrect investing transactions by forcing Quicken’s share balance for a security to match a specified value. This is usually the share count downloaded from your financial institution (FI).

You will have to review the transactions that led to what you have now and correct them

actuary314