Placeholder Entries Question

Don_Acosta

Hi,

Is it okay to Delete the Placeholder Entries, and "Manually Add all of my Investment Holdings in an Account that I am setting up for the first time".

I will Manually Add the amount of Shares, and the Total Cost Basis for each Stock and Mutual Fund.

Is there any reason that I should Not do it this way because I find this way Easier for me then using the Placeholder Entries?

Thanks,

Don Acosta

Jim_Harman

In general you do not want Placeholders.

If you care about Quicken's tracking of your cost basis and historical performance and you have multiple tax lots of the securities, from reinvested dividends for example, then adding the holdings as single lots won't produce the data you need, especially if you make partial sales in the future.

To have a complete picture in Quicken including the tax implications, you will need to download or enter all the transactions that lead to your current holdings.

Depending on your broker, the downloaded transactions when you connect the account may cover several years or maybe only 90 days or less. Sometimes you can get more data by downloading a QFX file from the broker's website.

Jim_Harman

It depends on what you include in "Okay" and "etc."

As I tried to explain above, if you have multiple tax lots of your securities, lumping each security into one Added transaction with the total cost basis would be better than allowing a Placeholder, but Quicken may not have the information it needs to correctly compute capital gains and performance for periods starting before you started downloading transactions.

You need to decide whether that information is important to you. If so, you will have to enter or if possible download all the transactions for the securities you currently own.

If you allow Quicken to create Placeholders for the missing transactions, you will not have any cost basis information and Quicken will not be able to compute performance information for periods that include the Placeholders.

q_lurker

I find it easier to work from my own manual entries rather than the placeholder prompts to fill in cost basis. So my answer is: Yes, you can delete the placeholder and manually make the entries.

The point @Jim_Harman is making (I believe) is that to get accurate 'performance' information, you need to supply (manually enter) accurate transaction history. You cannot lump 5 years of reinvested dividends into one transaction and expect a good 5 year average annual return value. Similarly, lumping multiple real world transactions together will impact your ability to get accurate capital gain information if you at some time sell off different portions of your holding. I put 'performance' in quotes because it can mean a lot of different measures. If any are particularly important to you, more specificity would help. You need to realize for yourself what is most important to you.

Also, there can be the aspect of whether you are more interested in 'performance' going forward as compared to including historical periods in the measure.

Jim_Harman

In general you do not want Placeholders.

If you care about Quicken's tracking of your cost basis and historical performance and you have multiple tax lots of the securities, from reinvested dividends for example, then adding the holdings as single lots won't produce the data you need, especially if you make partial sales in the future.

To have a complete picture in Quicken including the tax implications, you will need to download or enter all the transactions that lead to your current holdings.

Depending on your broker, the downloaded transactions when you connect the account may cover several years or maybe only 90 days or less. Sometimes you can get more data by downloading a QFX file from the broker's website.

Don_Acosta

Thanks!

Don_Acosta

Jim,

Thanks for the reply.

So, is it okay to "Delete all of the Placeholder Entries, and Manually Enter all of my Cost Basis Information for the different Mutual Funds and Stocks that I hold"?

I find that easier for me then working with the Placeholder Entries.

I just want to do it right; so, I get Accurate Performance Information; etc.

Thanks,

Don

Jim_Harman

It depends on what you include in "Okay" and "etc."

As I tried to explain above, if you have multiple tax lots of your securities, lumping each security into one Added transaction with the total cost basis would be better than allowing a Placeholder, but Quicken may not have the information it needs to correctly compute capital gains and performance for periods starting before you started downloading transactions.

You need to decide whether that information is important to you. If so, you will have to enter or if possible download all the transactions for the securities you currently own.

If you allow Quicken to create Placeholders for the missing transactions, you will not have any cost basis information and Quicken will not be able to compute performance information for periods that include the Placeholders.

q_lurker

I find it easier to work from my own manual entries rather than the placeholder prompts to fill in cost basis. So my answer is: Yes, you can delete the placeholder and manually make the entries.

The point @Jim_Harman is making (I believe) is that to get accurate 'performance' information, you need to supply (manually enter) accurate transaction history. You cannot lump 5 years of reinvested dividends into one transaction and expect a good 5 year average annual return value. Similarly, lumping multiple real world transactions together will impact your ability to get accurate capital gain information if you at some time sell off different portions of your holding. I put 'performance' in quotes because it can mean a lot of different measures. If any are particularly important to you, more specificity would help. You need to realize for yourself what is most important to you.

Also, there can be the aspect of whether you are more interested in 'performance' going forward as compared to including historical periods in the measure.

Don_Acosta

Thanks Jim!

Don_Acosta

Thanks Q_Lurker!

Don_Acosta

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help.