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Cost Basis

Kurt Radamaker

One of the lamest things in quicken is not being able to manually adjust the cost basis. I know all you quicken-istas will defend this, but sometimes I don't care if all the transactions match perfectly. I know what the cost basis is!!

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Comments

splasher

If "all the transactions match perfectly", can you explain what is causing the cost basis to be wrong? My cost basis has always agreed with my financial institution so I can't imagine how your basis is off if all the transactions are correct.

NotACPA

Only 3 actions impact the cost basis of a security lot: purchase, partial sale and "return of capital"

So, where are you seeing this cost basis, and what are you comparing it to?

q_lurker

This "Quicken-ista" suggests you can "manually adjust" the cost basis of a security:

You can edit any of the transactions that created the current cost basis - buys, sells, return of capital, adds, removes, reinvestments, (anything I'm missing)
You can enter a new Remove/Add shares pairing removing shares with Quicken calculated values and adding shares with your chosen values.

Yes, I understand you want to simply enter one number one time in one place. No, it can't be treated that simply.

Be aware that at least one source (Fidelity) reports cost basis differently for retirement accounts than for regular accounts. Quicken on the other hand uses a uniform approach. My opinion is that Fidelity is wrong. Your opinion may differ.

NotACPA

Extending @q_lurker's comment, Fidelity treats all reinvestment transactions, in a retirement type account, as having a cost basis of $0. They say an accurate cost basis isn't needed to tax considerations in a retirement account.

When I point out that it IS needed for investment performance calculations, they get quiet.

I've complained about this for years, and I'm a customer of their "Private Client Group", but nothing's changed.

Chris_QPW

splasher said:

If "all the transactions match perfectly", can you explain what is causing the cost basis to be wrong? My cost basis has always agreed with my financial institution so I can't imagine how your basis is off if all the transactions are correct.

@“Kurt Radamaker” actually said that his transactions don’t match perfectly, and of course that is why his cost basis is off.

One thing that I don’t think was pointed out is the fact that each security lot has a different cost basis. As such Quicken couldn’t even give a single entry for adjusting the cost basis for a “security”.

Tom Young

You can change the cost basis of a security by Removing either the entire security or specified lots, and then Adding them back with the correct cost basis and acquisition date. If you have a large number of lots of a particular security and they all have incorrect cost bases this can be a bit of work, but it can be done.