Incorrect Handling of Expired Short Sell and Sale of US Treasuries

tjlee089

Expired short sell are handled by Quicken by adding the number of shares to make the balance zero. This results in carrying the security with a zero balance (forever). This is corrected by changing the transaction from "adding" the shares to "cover short." This deletes the security from holdings.

Sale of US Treasuries are recorded as miscellaneous income. This results in double counting the security and continuing to carry it in holdings. This is corrected by changing the transaction to "sale." For US treasury bill, note that each bond in Quicken is actually ten units. For example, 14 units in Quicken transaction at $100 ea is $14,000.

Tom Young

You seem to be suggesting that "Quicken" doesn't know what it's doing, and you know what, that's exactly correct! Quicken (the program) really is as dumb as a rock and has no innate understanding of short sells expiring or bonds maturing. It is the job of the user who makes manual entries or the job of the Financial Institution (FI) that downloads entries into Quicken to cobble together transactions with the correct "Actions" and the correct numbers, in the proper places. If you are relying on the FI you're trading with to do that, you're likely to be disappointed with the results.

Some FIs are better than others when it comes to creating correct accounting although no FI can create the correct accounting for every single possible event that might occur with securities.

Quicken (the Company, not the Program) can also be at fault if the downloading method is EWC or EWC+ since they have a hand in collecting information from the FIs and massaging it into Quicken-recognizable transactions. (With the Direct Connect downloading method the FIs bear that responsibility and send it directly to your file.)

At least you are receiving downloads and know how to correct the mistakes, whoever is responsible.