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fixing fractional share entries created by Quicken

Pacoinconn

I have a weird situation occurring with 3 stocks/mutual funds both before and after they were transferred from one Vanguard to another Vanguard account. Below are details for one security. The same patterns occurs for the other two.

Vanguard Account A – open from 2020 and closed April 23, 2025 with all securities transferred to Vanguard Account B.

Microchip Technology had a 2 new shares for 1 old share split on 10/12/2021. At that time I had four lots:

1 lot of 300 shares
1 lot of 300 shares
1 lot of 3.438 shares
1 lot of 1.689 shares

After the split, in the Holdings view, the share count accurately shows as 1,210.254. However, when I click to show lot details Quicken shows the following:

1 lot of 600 shares
1 lot of 600 shares
1 lot of 6.876 shares
1 lot of 3.7799999

The first three lots are shown correctly however the 4th lot is clearly incorrect. It should show 3.378 shares, which is what Vanguard shows online and the monthly statement.

After the split, I received two reinvested dividends that are entered correctly and show correctly in the Holdings view.

The 6/3/2022 reinvested dividend was entered correctly as 4.668 shares based on the monthly statement and online transaction information. However, in the Holdings view Quicken shows 4.66799999 shares for a reinvested dividend. And yet the total share count in Holdings accurately shows 1,297.656 shares, matching Vanguard statements.

On April 23, 2025 this security and all others in Account A were transferred to Account B.

In the Holdings view for Account B, the total share count is now showing 1,297.65599998. All reinvested dividends are show correctly except the three described earlier.

If I prepare a transaction as if to sell Microchip shares, Quicken shows 1,297.65599998 shares available to sell, not 1, 297.656.

I have two questions:

Why is this behavior happening?
What’s the best way to fix the issue?

I tried to delete a stock split adjustment for another security with the same behavior however nothing changed with Quicken. The stock split on 3/7/2024 with 5 new shares for 1 old share. There are 8 lots from 6/30/2017 through 3/29/2023 that show the same pattern: X.XXX99999 shares rather than what should be accurate: X.XXX. I have verified that the original entries are accurate and match Vanguard statements and online transaction reports.

Any assistance to correct this behavior would be appreciated. I’m less interested in having a precise sense of gains/losses than I am in making sure my transactions and counts match Vanguard.

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Comments

q_lurker

Why is this happening? Because computers in broad terms can lack precision for small numbers in some cases. Also, in various places (like a holdings view), there may be a built in rounding to lesser precision. That is, even though Quicken internally has more digits stored, a particular view or report will round that to 3, or 4, or ? digits.
Best way to fix? First thing I would look at is Edit / Preferences / Investments and if applicable turn off (uncheck) the "Extended Share Precision" option, if selected.

For the account transfer, how did you handle that in Quicken? If you have Add Shares transactions for each lot in the receiving account, you should be able to edit any of those to exactly the decimal precision.

There is also a preferences settings for Reports to only show a limited number of decimal digits (0-8), but that does not change the internal number; your sell all circumstance would still apply.

Pacoinconn

@q_lurker, thank you for the reply. I'm surprised about the lack of precision but that's beyond my control clearly.

With respect to the "Extended Share Precision" option, I do have it selected because my 401k plan reports shares to 8 digits. I'll turn that off and see what happens.

The account transfers were performed using Quicken's "Shares Transferred Between Accounts" transactions. I'll explore editing the shares in the receiving account. Before I do so, what are the implications with respect to the shares in the original account (Vanguard Account A in my original post)? Will editing the Add Shares transactions affect how Quicken tracks the lot from the original dividend reinvestment forward?

Will report back next week once I have have some time to devote to the backing up, editing process.

q_lurker

Once generated, the Add Shares from the Shares Transferred action are completely independent of the original lots in the originating account. The consequence for Average Annual Return calculations is neutral. The calculation is based on Value Removed (Shares times end-of-day price) and and Value Added calculated to the penny. Having a share count difference of 0.00000001 is not going to affect the Average Annual Return calculation. I would say you will actually bringing the original dividend reinvestment lot back on track - right number of shares at right price. Other performance metrics can be affected by the Remove/Add pairing but that is not due to the small share-quantity differences we are talking about.

On that Remove / Add pairing, that is also a way to 'correct' the flaw you first identified. After your Stock Split transaction made the one lot 3.37999999 shares instead of 3.378 shares, you could enter a Shares Removed taking that lot away and then a Shares Added recreating that lot with the correct 3.378 share quantity and the correct basis and acquisition date for that lot.

Pacoinconn

@q_lurker,

Sorry for the delay. To close the loop, I did what you suggested and edite the lots that had the wrong fractional shares to correct ones for one equity. Worked my way from the earliest lots to the latest. Now share amounts line up in the Register and Holdings view. Will now do so with the other two equities.

I chose the editing approach rather than Remove/Add to avoid having even more transactions in my account.

Thanks for your assistance.