Show only bonds for "Sell Bonds" action (idea or bug?)

MontanaKarl

The "Sell Bonds" action should filter the security list to show only bonds. It shouldn't be necessary to scroll through stocks etc to find the bond you're selling. This seems like a simple filter/query fix by the Quicken team.

(This may only be noticeable to those of us using Charles Schwab as we have to manually enter our bond sales or maturity redemptions since Schwab sends those transactions to Quicken as deposits. Regardless, it affects all users.)

Here's the Security drop-down for a Sell Bonds in one of my files… showing only stocks. I'd call this a bug… but fixing it is an "idea" 😀

jacobs

As someone who doesn't own individual bonds, let me ask a potentially stupid question: why is Sell Bonds needed as separate transaction type? Couldn't Sell suffice? Quicken would know what's a bond versus other type of investments based on the security sold.

But assuming there's a good reason for a separate Sell Bonds transaction type, then this enhancement request makes sense; the security list should only show bond securities.

MontanaKarl

Good question, @jacobs The logic is probably related to the need for a separate "Buy Bonds" transaction type vs "Buy" - as the "Buy Bonds" includes a field for accrued interest, which is irrelevant to stocks and funds, and "Buy Bonds" would also flag the investment as a bond should it not be in the database. (Although there is no field to mark if it is tax exempt or not.) So, "Sell Bonds" is there to bookend the "Buy Bonds".

In reality, the "Sell" transaction should be able to handle bond sales… as Quicken would know that the selected security is a bond and could handle it appropriately. In fact, the only difference, field-wise, between "Sell" and "Sell Bonds" in the interface is that "Sell" allows you to select basis lots for the sale. That's actually an oversight for bonds as you should be able to select basis lots for bonds as well. (While many types of bonds self-amortize the basis towards par at maturity, others do not… but of course Quicken lacks a built-in mechanism for lot-basis adjustments corresponding to that amortization anyway, so Quicken is guaranteed to give incorrect Schedule D information…one more reason that folks should not prepare taxes based on Quicken Schedule D reports). All of these other issues are deeper and perhaps will never be delivered over higher priority issues that affect the majority of users… but at least filtering the security list would be an easy fix / benefit. :-)

A larger long-term discussion/wish is whether Buy Bonds/Sell Bonds should just go away in lieu of "Buy" having a drop-down for investment type selection - the list that we see in each security entry in the Securities list: Stock, Bond, Mutual Fund, Option, CD, etc etc … and the visible fields for that screen changing based on the selection, including tax-exempt status, etc.