Reconciling Portfolio Return YTD in the Investing Tab

jo18

Detailed user of Quicken. Reconcile Investing Performance Report with Investing Activity Report with no problems. However, frequently have problem reconciling the Portfolio report (that can be customized) under the Investing Tab. This is a great report to show actual account performance.

The items that I have identified for reconciling the Portfolio Return YTD $ results are as follows:

1. Add back any fees
2. if making charitable contribution from the account, only the basis is removed not the fmv
3. for some reason i have to subtract interest income
4. my portfolio balances all reconcile so no problems with stock splits or coding errors
5. I double check timing of div and other activity at beg or end of period in question

Even after all these adjustments I frequently have problems reconciling the Portfolio Return YTD to the Investing Performance / Investing Activity Reports (both reports always reconcile with above adjustments).

Can anyone suggest possible reconciling items that i am missing? Also, can the the Portfolio report be relied on for accuracy (assuming that no coding or other user errors).

Thanks,

J

Jim_Harman

These are good questions.

Let's start by making sure we are using the same terminology.

When you go to Investing > Portfolio what you see are Portfolio views, not reports. Reports are what you see under the Reports menu.

In the Portfolio views, there are several similarly named columns. To avoid confusion, please make sure you use the exact column names you are referring to.

Are you interested in dollar returns or percentages? 

Note that the Return (%) YTD and other time period columns in the Portfolio views are based on downloaded performance data and not your personal performance.

If you can rephrase your questions using the above terminology, we can be more helpful.

jo18

Jim,

Thanks for quick response. Sorry for my delay. I've been unavailable.

Answers to your questions:

When you go to Investing > Portfolio what you see are Portfolio views, not reports. Reports are what you see under the Reports menu. EXACTLY. I AM FOCUSED ON THE PORTFOLIO VIEW. THE COLUMN THAT I AM FOCUSED ON IS RETURN YTD ($ ALTHOUGH $ IS NOT IN HEADING).

Here is the issue. I reconcile the Investing Performance Report to the Investing Activity Report. These are my control XIRR and Net Change in Value totals. I have assumed that the first line item amount in the Total Return YTD column at the top of each separate account is the same Net Change in Value (after adjustments) in the above referenced Investing Performance Report/Investing Activity Reports. This may be my problem but i dont' think so. I was able to reconcile the Net Change in Value per Investing Performance Report / Investing Activity Report to the Portfolio view on 2 accounts exactly (by including fees less int income (dont' understand why int inc should be excluded but it's a small amount). However on two other accounts with lots of activity i continue to be unable to reconcile the accts exactly (off by small $ and % amount or 1-2%). I don't think i've busted any coding. Portfolio report reconcile to brokerage acct. No unusual acitivty at beg or end of period. No stock splits. Added back fees. Also adjusted for a charitable distribution which Quicken treats as to a distribution of basis and not distribution of FMV.

Just looking for any other unusual items that are included in Portfolio view that might help me with the reconciliation.

Note that i have not tried to reconcile the next column in my Portfolio view of ROI (%) YTD. I would think that would be straight forward but would welcome any information about that calculation.

Thanks,

JO

P.S out of pocket for a few hours so will not be able to respond.

Jim_Harman

The Investment Performance Report (IPR) is useful for discussions like this because Quicken shows all the numbers it uses in its calculations and it matches Excel's XIRR calculations for the same data. The percentages in this report should be the same as the numbers in the Avg Annual Return (%) YTD column of the Portfolio views.

To your question, in my test file, the Net change in Value in the Investing Activity report is the same as the difference between the "Beg Mkt Val" and "End Mkt Val" in the IPR but the Return YTD in the Portfolio views is different. Do you see the same?

I will look into this further when I get a chance but in the meantime you may find this discussion helpful.
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7864889/account-level-amount-invested-and-roi-are-calculated-incorrectly-when-a-security-is-sold