Default to Price Per Share

Question

Quicken Classic Deluxe

Version 7.5.0 (Build 705.51936.100)

macOS 14.2.1

When entering an investment transaction, by default, Quicken prompts to enter the Total Cost and Number Shares and the Price Per Share is automatically calculated.  I prefer to enter the Number of Shares and Price Per Share and have Quicken automatically calculate Total Cost.  I can do this by clicking the pencil icon below Price Per Share.  Is there any way to default investment transactions to Price Per Share so I do not need to click the pencil icon each time?

Chris_QPW · Answer

In reality the organization of the dialog in Quicken Windows is probably wrong, and makes people get into this habit which is really at best pointless.

Since price comes before the total, it is naturally entered by the user and by the time you get to the total it is either already calculated or is wrong, and you change it and then Quicken Windows does this:

So, even Quicken is suggesting that the price is the most likely number you are going to want change.  And that makes sense since that price is only "good" until the security prices changes again.

The important numbers are price, total amount and commission/fees.  These don't change a fraction of a second after you buy the security  like the prices does.

What will Quicken Windows do if I enter the shares and then the total and then hit either enter or tab to leave that field?

Simply reordering the fields would have trained the Quicken Windows users to do it exactly how Quicken Mac is now doing it.

jacobs · Answer

I prefer to enter the Number of Shares and Price Per Share and have Quicken automatically calculate Total Cost.

Being a former Quicken Windows user, I am used to entering the Number of Shares and Price Per Share. In addition, In Quicken Mac I don't care to see the Price Per Share with 12 digits after the decimal point.

The Quicken Mac developers added the choice of entering shares and price per share for those who prefer it. However, I have to question whether that's accurate. When I used to do this (in the legacy Quicken Mac 2007), there would frequently be times where the calculated total cost differed from the amount I actually invested, resulting in a need to allocate a penny or two to a fake commission.

The two things you know for certain are (1) how much you paid (or received), and (2) how many shares you purchased (or sold). The price per share, with fractional values out to 6 decimal places, is actually irrelevant in recording the transaction. I didn't realize until I started entering those tow values that it was more accurate than what I was previously used to.

But to return to your question: no, there is no way to set a preference to use the alternate field entry as the default; you need to click the pencil each time if that's the way you choose to enter your transactions.

Jon · Answer

AFAIK there's no way to change it so entering the price per share is the default. But I agree with @volvogirl that it's more important for the total price and number of shares to be exactly right than price per share.