Breakdown of cost basis of security

gj0608

Is there a way to see the composition/breakdown of the cost basis of a particular security? There appears to me (unless I'm mistaken) that one cannot drill down the cost basis of a particular security. If so, I find that a deficiency and would be surprised about this lack of what should be a common feature.

Tom Young

I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to by "cost basis of security.

You can easily see the cost basis of a security at the lot level by clicking the Holdings button in an Account and then click the plus sign next to a security.

You can see the detail of all transactions with a particular security by Report > Investing > Investment Transactions, modifying the report to focus only on one security.  That will show all the buys, sell, dividend reinvestments and so forth that results in the basis of the security "today."

Did you have something else in mind?

Chris_QPW

You might be referring to the fact that if you are in the Investing tab -> Portfolio view, with the Group by set to Security, you can't see individual lots/cost basis.  You can see the overall cost basis, just not the security lots.  To see the security lots and therefore the cost basis of a given security lot you need to be grouped by Account.

gj0608

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. Let's say you have a security "ABC". On the holdings of that security, it will show the number of shares, its market value and cost basis. I would like to see the details of the cost basis - the transactions that make up its balance. It would be very convenient if the cost basis was a link whereby you can click it on it and drill down and see the transactions that make up the balance. This basic feature should be available.

Tom Young

" I would like to see the details of the cost basis - the transactions that make up its balance."

That would be the Investment Transactions report I mentioned.  You would run that report and customize it for the time period you've owned the stock.  If at times during your ownership your ownership has dropped to 0, your custom time period would start the day after the last time your ownership has dropped to 0 and end "today", such that only transactions that affect "today" holdings of the security are included.  If that same security is owned in various Accounts in Quicken you might further customize the report to only income one of the Accounts if you're only interested in the cost basis in one particular Account.

The total dollars shown under the "Amount Invested" column should agree to the cost basis Quicken presents. 

gj0608

Sorry, my mistake - your approach works.

That being said, I would hope that a feature could be added such that one can automatically drill down the backup to the cost basis of a particular security. For example, when you click on the Investing tab, it shows all your securities by the following: Name, Quote, Shares, Cost Basis, Market Value.

The Name has a link - when you click on that link you get some detail. However, it doesn't provide I believe useful detail such as the backup transactions that make up the cost basis. It merely shows all the transactions related to that particular security - whether it impacts the cost basis or not.

It would be useful to see the transactions that make up the cost basis so that you could review it from time to time and ensure you have captured all the cost basis transactions. Such a listing of the transactions impacting the cost basis would be useful when it comes time to justify the cost basis - for example, do you have the documentation to support such transactions?

As it stands right now, the drill down from the link on the security name would include all transactions related to that particular security including transactions that have no impact on the cost basis of the security itself - such as cash dividends. While one can generate a customized report as suggested (and thank you again), I find that route while helpful to be a workaround and cumbersome and would be more efficient and less time consuming than having the ability to drill down the link of the security that would show the composition of the cost basis. For example, have the cost basis as a link that could be clicked and all the transactions making up the cost balance are shown.