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Quicken recalculates basis of shares transferred between accounts

schmidtl4

I recently moved several accounts from one brokerage to another. I've encountered an error in Quicken when it comes to the cost basis of the shares transferred.

Theoretically, there should be absolutely no change in the basis of shares transferred between accounts. For example, I bought .50358 shares of a stock at $4.27 per share for a total cost of $2.15. That should NEVER change (unless there was a stock split or a return of capital, neither of which occurred in my case).

Accordingly, when that purchase is transferred to the new account in Quicken (using the "Shares Transferred Between Accounts" transaction type), it should show up in the new account exactly as it was in the old account.

However, the new transaction appears as .50358 shares (correct) @ $4.249573 (incorrect) for a total of $2.14 (incorrect). This happened for EVERY transaction for EVERY security in the account. The 20 securities I transferred each had an average of 10 transactions, so now I have 200 entries in the new account that are all wrong.

I reviewed this post

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/18789942#Comment_18789942

(don't know why the link is focusing on this one comment… start at the top)

but the discussion was closed back in 2018. Unbelievable that here we are 7 years later and nothing has been done to fix this.

Anyone else experiencing this problem?

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Comments

NotACPA

In Q, how did you record the movement of those securities? What Q action was used?

AND, if you moved the entire account (even if not all of the accounts), it's easier to just disconnect the old account from the old brokerage and then connect it to the new brokerage.

Jim_Harman

@schmidtl4

When you entered the original transactions, did you enter them as number of shares and price per share, letting Quicken calculate the total cost, or did you enter them as number of shares and total cost, letting Quicken calculate the cost per share? Usually the latter method results in more accurate data in Quicken, because it is more important to record the correct total amount than the quoted price per share. Using your example, .50358 x 4.27 = 2.1502866. It would have been better to record .50358 and $2.15, leading to a price per share of 4.26943.

You say there were no splits or ROCs, but were there any partial sales, for example to pay account fees? That could affect your cost basis, depending on which lots were used for the sales.

Also did you have the security that was transferred set to "Use average cost" (a requirement I believe for Q Canada)? That can also affect the per-lot cost basis.

schmidtl4

Thanks @NotACPA

The Q transaction used was "Shares Transferred Between Accounts"

On other occasions I have used Shares Transferred Between Accounts and selected "All Securities" with DISASTROUS results. I now only transfer securities one at a time.

@Jim_Harman - I don't recall how the transactions were entered originally. They were part of an M1 Finance brokerage account which does not connect with Quicken so for sure, they were entered manually. I am reasonably confident that I entered the shares and the total (and let Q compute the price) because the total had to be correct to balance the account. In any event there's way too many transactions to go back and re-enter them to be sure the right approach was used.
There were no account fees and in the case of this one security I'm focusing on to highlight the problem, there were no sales… only a series of micropurchases.

—- To further support the point:
I had a position in GOOG (Alphabet Class C). During this time, there were two splits, but fractional shares were sold. Net net there were 125 shares in my account prior to using "Shares Transferred Between Accounts". When I entered the transaction, used the "All" transfer method and the "Number of shares" box was populated correctly with 125. I entered the transaction. Then I go to the ledger and the entry shows that 124.9999986 shares were transferred! AUGH! Indeed now when I go to the Holdings for the account, I see .0000014 shares of GOOG still remaining in my report. If I try to sell .0000014 shares (using the Transactions dialog for "Sell - Shares Sold"), Q complains that there aren't enough shares in the account to sell and if I go look at the lots, it shows zero shares in the account.

Fortunately, after some experimentation, I was able to enter a "Sold" transaction in the register (zero proceeds, .0000014 shares sold) and it deleted the remaining shares. Now I have to go to the new account and add .0000014 shares with the proper basis. What a royal PIA.

NotACPA

BUT AGAIN, did you move everything in the Brokerage A account to Brokerage B? If so, it's easier to simply rename the account in Q than to move everything.

q_lurker

add .0000014 shares with the proper basis. What a royal PIA.

I suggest you more simply edit the Add Shares transaction to be the exact 125 shares with the (known by you to be correct) acquisition date and cost. Don’t toss in another Add that will confuse you and Quicken later.

schmidtl4

@NotACPA - thanks, but too late for that. Furthermore, during the ACAT transition it's not entirely accurate. Some dividends are received after the transfer date (ex div dates before transfer date), there's other cash transactions, etc. So reconciling the accounts becomes real messy if it's all together in one (legacy) account. BTW, I'm a CPA. It drives me nuts when accounts don't reconcile….

@q_lurker - precisely what I ended up doing. Thanks!

I really appreciate all the suggestions, but I also want Q to take note that their system of transferring securities between accounts really sucks…