DRIP transactions

Question

i have securities in a brokerage account with monthly DRIP transactions.  i have been using 'Add - Shares Added' as the transaction as the brokerage statements do not provide the cost per share.  Is there a report that tells me these $dividends in a period?

Should i really be using 'Reinvest - Income Reinvested' to include the cost per share requiring that i look up the share cost for each transaction?  I have six securities per month of this type.

bmciance · Accepted Answer

If you are not getting the transactions downloaded (or you are not manually entering them) there is no report in Quicken that can give you the  $ dividends in the period.  What type of securities are these where they don't tell you the amount of the dividends?  Do they only pay dividends in shares?

Yes, if at all possible you should be using Reinvest transaction to record the $ dividends and the reinvestment in shares.  However, if you don't get the amounts from your broker I don't know how you would do that.  With most brokers you would get the two transactions and when downloaded together Quicken combines them into a ReinvDiv (or ReinvInt) transaction (or you would manually enter them as one transaction if you don't download).

Tom Young · Accepted Answer

"Should i really be using 'Reinvest - Income Reinvested' to include the cost per share requiring that i look up the share cost for each transaction?  I have six securities per month of this type."

For accuracy, yes, but you also could simply look up the proper cost basis on the broker(s) site(s) late in the month when you know all the transactions for the month have occurred, then go back to the Adds and fix them.  The Adds, when entered, don't really need a basis  number; you could leave that field blank and then make the basis entries at month end, without have to do any calculations.

q_lurker · Accepted Answer

I’d want to enter them as reinvested dividends, especially as a tax time check but also as a performance check.

Does the brokerage provide updated cost basis information?  Does that value change when the brokerage posts the additional shares?

NotACPA · Accepted Answer

If the brokerage is providing the number of shs that are added, are they not also providing the total $ of the dividend?

Because if you've got Qty and total $, Q itself can calculate the per share amount.

NotACPA · Accepted Answer

@David Moffat What brokerage?  And, I'm sorry to disillusion you, but you have more sway with your brokerage (no matter who they are) than Q does.

Their failure to provide the necessary $ would be reason  enough for me to "vote with my feet" and change firms.