A question in the Investments area led me to a problem with the Investment Performance Report. I'll be using the Report a Problem sequence but choose to document the issue here.
This problem centers around using MiscExp transactions and therein specifying a security for the expense. The other consideration is specifying a category that has or does not have the box checked for "Affects investment performance". When that box is checked, expenses associated with that category are NOT considered 'returns' in the investment performance report or related Average Annual Return values in portfolio views and elsewhere. If the box is checked, the expense should be treated as part of the return.
For my test and investigation, I set up an account with 2 securities and a small bit of cash covering the 2024 calendar year such that the securities were in place throughout the year. I did not bother with dividends that might have been paid or reinvested through the year. Mid-year, I sold off a few shares of each security to raise cash to ostensibly pay investment fees charged by the brokerage. I then paid amounts using series of 8 MiscExp transactions to see how those transactions were treated in the report. The entire list of transactions is here:
Summary of transactions:
- Bought $5000 of each security in 2023 leaving a $1 cash balance.
- Sold $500 of each security June 28, 2024
- Paid $1000 in a series of 8 MiscExp transactions
- 4 transactions attributed to one of the two securities
- 4 transactions not assigned a security
- 4 using a category with the Affects performance box checked (Investment Fee)
- 4 using a category not have that box checked (Misc.)
I then generated two versions of the Investment Performance Report, one subtotaled by account and one subtotaled by security. The time frame is last year, 2024. Screenshots of the two reports are below.
Observations:
- Top report by Account yields an overall 5.12% Avg Annual Return; by Security yields 7.87%
- Bottom report by Security does not include the Cash component (in the customization of the report, 'No security' is selected).
- The Beginning Value by Account ($10,001.01) is $1 higher than thhe sum of the beginning values when subtotaled by Security — because the by Security omits the cash component. Likewise for the Ending Values.
- The By Account report includes two of the four Misc. category expenses. The two such expenses assigned a security are missing from this report.
- The By Security report includes two transactions categorized as Investment Fees that should have been omitted as returns. The report misses the two transactions categorized as Misc. but not having an assigned security (essentially because there is no cash component.)
Suggestions:
The By Security subtotal should include cash unless the user has specifically omitted that selection by the security customization. In this case, I'd expect to see the $1 beginning value, two $500 'investments' associated with the security sales to cash, and then the two transactions categorized to Misc but not having assigned securities as returns. The ending value would be back to $1.
The By security subtotal should respect the Affects Investment Performance selection which it does not currently do.
The By Account subtotal should include MiscExp transactions that do have securities assigned to them subject to the Affects Investment Performance selection.
I have not run calculations to see if these corrections would bring the by Account result more in line with the by Security but I would expect that to happen.
