adding Treasury bill
My brokerage just bought a 6 month Treasury bill. I'm not at all clear on how to add it to the other holdings in the brokerage. I'm using Quicken on a Mac, version 7.10.1.
Best Answers
-
Also… at maturity… enter a "Sell Bonds" for the original purchase price (no capital gain) and a separate "Miscellaneous Income" transaction for the same security with the difference between purchase price and par value which is the treasury interest received (and exempt from state income tax). I put this into a custom "US Treasury" interest category because using Income > Interest is unable to distinguish Treasury interest (exempt from state but not federal tax) from tax exempt interest (exempt from federal and only if it is your home state) or taxable interest. Even if the security is flagged as a Treasury Bill, QMac just puts the interest paid into the generic Interest Income category on a Schedule B report with no easy way to pull it out when doing the state tax return. (Similarly, tax exempt bond income goes to "Interest Income Tax-Free", but with no means of subtotalling by your state of residence for preparing the state return. Oversight or bug for each of these issues, I'm not sure which.
Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.2
0 -
As soon as you start typing the name of the t-bill or whatever security, you should see this:
as whatever you typed will not match anything existing. Then click the "Add new security…" to get this:
Hope that helps. :-)
Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.2
0 -
Every T bill, note, etc has its own name which typically includes the maturity date as part of the name
Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.2
0
Answers
-
My T-bills download automatically from Schwab. It sounds like you do not have your account linked for downloads?
If you are entering this manually, enter it as a "Buy Bonds" transaction in your Brokerage register. Type in the description in the Bond Description field and then click Add New security… from the dropdown. Change the type to Bond and enter the CUSIP as the Symbol. You can also change Bond Type to "Treasury Bill" and Interest paid to "At Maturity" as well as enter the Maturity Date - all pretty much just FYI as Quicken does nothing particularly meaningful with those fields.
But, if your brokerage supports Quicken downloads, I would set that up so that everything is automated. There's no good reason to be entering things manually.Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.2
0 -
It's a small brokerage that doesn't offer downloads. I'll try what you suggest for manual entry.
0 -
Also… at maturity… enter a "Sell Bonds" for the original purchase price (no capital gain) and a separate "Miscellaneous Income" transaction for the same security with the difference between purchase price and par value which is the treasury interest received (and exempt from state income tax). I put this into a custom "US Treasury" interest category because using Income > Interest is unable to distinguish Treasury interest (exempt from state but not federal tax) from tax exempt interest (exempt from federal and only if it is your home state) or taxable interest. Even if the security is flagged as a Treasury Bill, QMac just puts the interest paid into the generic Interest Income category on a Schedule B report with no easy way to pull it out when doing the state tax return. (Similarly, tax exempt bond income goes to "Interest Income Tax-Free", but with no means of subtotalling by your state of residence for preparing the state return. Oversight or bug for each of these issues, I'm not sure which.
Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.2
0 -
I did OK until "then click Add New security… from the dropdown". I don't see either choice. Where do they appear on the screen? Are they on a top menu item?
0 -
As soon as you start typing the name of the t-bill or whatever security, you should see this:
as whatever you typed will not match anything existing. Then click the "Add new security…" to get this:
Hope that helps. :-)
Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.2
0 -
Yes, that helps A LOT. I had a previous US Treasury entry (that was not done correctly) and that name displayed for me so I did not get the options for making a new entry. I very much appreciate the time you took to include screen shots. Very helpful.😀
1 -
I hit post too soon.
If the broker buys a new TBill when this one matures, will I have access to all the fields to record the new one or do I need to make a new entry with a different name?0 -
Every T bill, note, etc has its own name which typically includes the maturity date as part of the name
Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.2
0 -
Thank you.
0 -
One last tip, @1200flasher … QMac lacks the ability to hide securities that are no longer owned. This is particularly frustrating with any type of fixed income security that has matured… as that security name will forever appear in the drop-down list when you go to do a Sell Bonds (e.g.).
A tip/workaround from superuser @jacobs is to go to Window > Securities after a bond has matured and change the name to have a prefix of "z" to at least force that name to be sorted to the bottom of the drop-down list. (It will appear with the "z" in any reports and registers from then on, too, of course, which is the tradeoff.)
I have at least 100 "z" bonds in my Securities list at the moment while I await the QMac team's implementation of security name hiding.
Vote for the wish (which at least shows as "planned" now - hurray) for hiding securities - whether it be a matured fixed income, or an equity that is no longer owned:
Quicken user since 1990, MacBook Pro M2 Max on Sequoia 15.2
0