Investment Account - Complete vs. Simple

MSStateDawg

I've maintained investment accounts in Quicken for decades using the Complete tracking method. What happens if I switch to Simple? Is it just that the transactions are removed and it only tracks current positions? Does it retain my years of balance history which I use in charts? If I decide to revert to Complete are the transactions still there or are they permanently lost?

Quicken Anja

Hello @MSStateDawg,

Thanks for reaching out with your questions.

Right before confirming the switch from Complete to Simple tracking in the Account Details window, you will receive the dialogue displayed below to confirm which explains the difference between Simple and Complete tracking.

Additionally, it may be helpful to review this Community thread which touches on the same topic.

I hope this helps!

Boatnmaniac

In my testing I noticed that when switching from Complete to Simple, all of the historical downloaded transactions will be retained but no new securities transactions will be downloaded going forward. So if you later switch back to Complete that new historical securities data will not be present and it will require somehow back-filling the missing securities transactions data.

The only transactions that will get downloaded with Simple are Cash-related transactions. But those cash related transactions will not always provide the necessary details to know where the cash came from or is going. This is necessary for accounts that hold the cash in a separate linked checking account.

In addition, Simple Tracking account will not have securities related data captured in the Tax Reports and Tax Planner. And Cost Basis tracking for individual lots will no longer be possible. (I think, not sure, that the only Cost Basis option for Simple is Average Cost, not FIFO or LIFO.)

Basically, I found that switching from Complete to Simple is pretty straightforward and easy. But switching back from Simple to Complete because of the missing new securities transactions that did not get downloaded. It's OK to switch to Simple to see what it looks like but unless you are fully committed to staying with Simple I would strongly recommend switching back to Complete before doing OSU or Update Now so you do not miss out on downloading any securities transactions.

IMO, Simple Tracking is only suited for people who really have no interest in tracking any investment account details and have no interest in using the Tax Reports and Tax Planner. There are a fair number of people that use Quicken primarily as a checkbook and credit card register and budget but for all the investments data and tax data all they want to see is a high level dashboard and beyond that they are OK with waiting until the get all the monthly statements tax forms from the financial institutions.

q_lurker

(I think, not sure, that the only Cost Basis option for Simple is Average Cost, not FIFO or LIFO.)

I'm not sure where cost basis would even be a factor under the Simple model, but if anything is tracked that way, average cost would not be a reasonable choice (IMO) since it only legally (US) applies to mutual fund holdings, if I understand correctly. With FIFO being Quicken's basic default, I would hope that would be their required option.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20470668#Comment_20470668

How can it be FIFO (or LIFO) when Simple does not support buy/sell transactions of securities? Come to think of it, how can there be any cost basis tracking in Quicken for securities held in Simple accounts because there is no history of any BUY transactions in Quicken.

q_lurker

@Boatnmaniac Agreed. I don’t believe there is any data to track basis thus no gain/loss calculation. The cited caution warning indicates no cap gains reports for Simple accounts.

I was commenting about your initial conjecture about average cost being applied. I should not have gone off on that tangent.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20470747#Comment_20470747

The cost basis question is pertinent to whole Complete vs Simple discussion so you were right to challenge what I'd posted.

And I did originally did say that I wasn't sure about the Avg Cost Basis. You promptly caught that and helped to close out that loose end. So, it's all good.