Fact Sheets / Information papers
I would love to see Quicken's take on some of the processes that people are using. For example…There are a lot of discussions in the community about how to create, enter, track, and reconcile an I Series savings bond. My recommendation is this: When there is a fair amount of discussions on a specific topic, that someone within the Quicken organization synthesize all of the comments and procedures (using screen captures as well) into a standalone document. This will do two things. It will standardize the process for how to conduct the process (and by default remove any incorrect methods) and reduce the amount of research users have to do to understand the topic. Thanks in advance!
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Hello @droopydog53,
Thank you for sharing your idea. Could you provide more detail about what you're looking for? We do have a FAQs section on the Community. There is also a blog section on the Quicken website. Are these what you are looking for, or was your idea for something different?
Thank you.
Quicken Kristina
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Thanks for the quick reply. I'll send you an example using the I series savings bond in a couple of weeks when I have a little more free time, but the short of it is the FAQs section isn't prominently displayed or a separate tab at the top of the page where you can go just to that to see the official Quicken position on a topic. In the discussions you see a lot of "I do it (fill in the blank) this way. There are some disagreements amongst the discussion thread. If I am not someone with a financial background, how do I know which is the correct way to do it? I spend a lot of time reading all of the discussions and I hope I come out with the correct answer, but who knows??? One short example is you guys have a great "one-pager" on all the terms used in an investment account.
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The FAQs are mostly written by users and derived from discussions.
I agree it would be helpful to have some sort of authoritative documents on topics like the one you just posted on I Bonds. One difficulty is that is is often not possible to state any one "best" way to do things in Quicken, because different users have different needs.
Also these documents would have to be reviewed and updated from time to time as the Quicken software and things like tax laws change. Quicken already has trouble keeping the existing Help documentation accurate and up to date.
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and ,
My apologies for the long delay. A few life events that took my attention elsewhere. To summarize, their are a lot of opinions out there and not all of them are correct. A standard document from Quicken would make our lives a lot easier and prevent hours of searching to find the best answer. As I mentioned the FAQs do not jump out at me when I come to the page. If this is where these documents will live, then it should be prominently displayed at the top of the page. I would recommend a stand alone library of "Official Quicken Resources" would be a more appropriate place and that way it would not get lost in all of the comments and debate. I would also say that no discussion threads would be allowed on these docs for the same reasons. Jim is correct in that these docs would need to be reviewed on a regular basis to make sure they don't become outdated and stale. The public will also let you know when they feel it is out of date (LOL!). As requested, I have provided an example below. I have read all of the I Series Savings Bonds threads (approx 17) multiple times and have distilled the salient points into the following synopsis that can then be put in a document as discussed. As you will see it is not 100% complete. I have identified a couple of outstanding questions below (Caps & Bold) that should be answered before going public with it. If this example is complete then it can take the place of the other discussions.
************United States (US) Savings Bonds:****************
When you buy a U.S. savings bond, you lend money to the U.S. government. In turn, the government agrees to pay that much money back later - plus additional money (interest). You can buy two types of US savings bonds, EE and I. You can learn more about the differences between the two types at www.treasurydirect.com.
For the purposes of Quicken there is no difference between the two types of savings bonds. To track an I series bond, you can set up an off-line Brokerage type investing account to hold all your I bonds. You will need Deluxe or above to do this.
Step 1: To begin, go to Tools > Security List and click on Add security to create a Security for each bond. Click on the link at the bottom of the pop-up to enter the name manually. Leave the Ticker Symbol blank and give the bond a descriptive name like IBond 2052-08-31. Set the Security type to Other. QUESTION: Should the security type be US Savings Bond?? The "Bond" security type is for negotiable bonds, which does not apply to I bonds. QUESTION: What should the Asset Class be? Single, Domestic Bonds or Single, unclassified?? Enter the Maturity Date and click done.
Step 2: To add the account, go to Tools > Add account. At the bottom, select "Offline Account" then Brokerage. Select "Complete investing" and click next. Name the account "Treasury Direct" or whatever you like - click Next. Enter a date that is before the issue date of your I Series savings bonds in "Ending Date". Leave Cash, and Money Market blank - click Next. Leave the "Ticker" and "Security Name" blank - click Next. Click Yes when asked if you want to create the account without any securities. You can always go back and update it later if needed.
Step 3: The first transaction should be a "Transfer In - XIn" for the amount that you purchased your bond for. This symbolizes the transfer of funds from your bank to Treasury Direct for the purchase of the bond. If you receive the bond as a gift, you would enter an Added instead.
Step 4: The next transaction should be a "Bought - Shares Bought" on the date the bond was issued. QUESTION: Should it be a "Bought" or "BoughtX"?? Select your Security from the drop down list. Enter in 1 share and the initial price you bought the bond for. Add a memo (like the maturity date) if you want.
Reconciliation of your savings bonds: I Series savings bonds accrue interest twice a year depending on when the savings bond was issued. See https://treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/i-bonds/i-bonds-interest-rates/ for interest accrual schedules. Usually people defer I bond interest until they redeem the bond. The bond's value is increasing year by year and thus should be reflected in your net worth, but the increase should not show as taxable income and there should be no cash balance in the brokerage account. There are two methods used to do this. For both methods, set up a reminder twice a year based off of the Treasury Direct interest accrual schedules to visit Treasury Direct to determine the current value of your savings bonds.
Method #1: As interest accrues and the I bond’s value increases over the years, you can increase the bond's price to match its current value. You can do this by going to the bond's Security Detail page. Click the "security detail" button (just to the right of the security name), then click on "More", choose "Edit Price History", click "New" and add the date and the new price. Note that you are not recording the interest as a separate interest transaction. This will show it as an increase in the value of the bond without increasing/decreasing the cash value of the account.
In the end, the only transactions needed are the initial transfer (XIn) from your savings account and the "Bought" (purchase). The semi-annual accrued interest updates are added to the share price on the "Bought" transaction. A total of two transactions per bond.
Method #2: The second method to reflect increased value of I bonds is through reinvestment. This method might be more appropriate if you pay taxes on your bond interest on a recurring basis. Once you determine the current value, use the Treasury Direct value minus the Quicken register value to determine the amount to be the reinvested interest. Make a separate entry for the reinvested interest (ReinvInt). The problem with recording the interest as a reinvestment is that if you use Quicken's tax reports, they will show the interest as paid in the current year. You are allowed to report it that way, but the more common way is to defer the taxes until the savings bond is redeemed.
Once you have updated the price history, you can see the total value at the bottom of the page. That number should match the total value in your Treasury Direct account.
Selling/Redeeming a Bond: Then when you redeem the I series savings bond, you sell the Bond ("SellBond") at redemption for the original purchase price (no capital gain). You then record a second transaction as Interest Income. Those two transactions total the full redemption value of the bond, with the correct total cash into account.
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P.S., If I could put a plug in for the budgeting report problems ID'd in my other threads. It has existed for over a year and still is not fixed. PLEASE!!!!!
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I agree that information like this should be easily available in FAQs or some similar place, not buried among a lot of discussion. What I have found from helping other users is that it needs to be laid out step by step very clearly as you have done.
In step 4 it should be Bought, not BoughtX. The Bought will use the money you transferred into the account in step 3 to purchase the bond.
Your Selling/Redeeming section at the end applies to Method 1, when you are accruing the interest and declaring it when you redeem the bond.
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Thanks for that Jim! The only reason I thought about BoughtX is because the description says it is shares bought from transferred funds but I wasn't certain about it. Thanks again!!
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, Would you use the same general model when dealing with CDs? Specifically with recording number of shares, share price and recording interest?
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I am not an expert on CDs, but it appears that interest is credited periodically and taxed in the year you receive it, just like a savings account. If you buy the CD directly from a bank, you can either have the interest paid out as it is earned and transferred to another account or accumulate (reinvest) and pay out when the CD matures.
A CD bought from a brokerage is more like a bond in that you may pay a premium or discount when you purchase it.
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@Jim_Harman thanks for your insight. As always, very helpful!
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A CD bought from a brokerage is more like a bond
Indeed. I have my CDs set to the "Domestic Bonds" Asset Class (the Security Type is still "CD"). I formerly classified them as "Cash" which made my portfolio look too cash-heavy. This way, the allocation info looks better to my eyes.
Quicken user since version 2 for DOS, now using QWin Premier (US) on Win10 Pro.
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