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QWin: Don't Need to Be Prompted for Cost Basis Method

unknown

I have a few active investment accounts where dozens of stocks get purchased or sold each week, which means when I download my Quicken transactions from my brokerage accounts there can be 5 to 30 security trades to accept. I would like to "Accept All" but when I do that, I inevitably get a prompt telling me I need to select the "Cost Method Basis" (Average or Lot Identification) for a number of the securities.

I fully understand the tax implications for knowing this but I don't use Quicken to prepare my taxes (or track my investments) and so this information is not needed. I'm wasting time each week on something that doesn't add any value.

Is there a way to turn this off? If it requires changing a setting on individual securities, I have well over a thousand in Quicken and so that's not a viable option (unless I can change the setting for all securities in one step). Also, there are new securities being added each week and so the solution would need to address those as well.

Thanks!

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q_lurker

Is there a way to turn this off?

No.

FWIW: as you are prompted for each of these particular transactions, the only thing you need to do in your case is click the OK or Accept (I forget how it is labeled) button. There is no need to go deeper into the specification settings as Quicken will go ahead and default to the FIFO selection, which you don't care about anyway. Yes, it is one extra click for each of the applicable transactions, but it is only one extra click.

I feel compelled to warn that Quicken has a published limit of about 2,000 tradeable securities as a maximum, with no definition of tradeable. Some users have readily exceeded that level and other have identified it as a possible problem.

Also, within any one investment account, there appears to be a practical limit on the number of transactions somewhere in the 5,000 to 10,000 range. as the number of transactions in the account approach those level, program responsiveness degrades. The actual limit seems to depend on user tolerance and specifics of the users overall data, number of securities, lots, transactions, etc. There are methods to get around that issue.

Given those two considerations, I would question whether Quicken is a suitable vehicle for your active trading.

unknown

Thanks q.lurker! All good points. My Quicken QDF file is 243MB, because I've been using it since 1992 (yikes!). I make weekly backups because I figured someday it's going to max out.

I appreciate your feedback about not needing to do more than accept the cost basis method, but I need to do this sometimes 10 times per account and I have a few brokerage accounts, which adds more time each week. Not a big deal, but I've been spending these extra 3-5 minutes every week for the past 20 years and figured I should see if I can streamline for the next 20.

I wish I could avoid entering all of my trades, but if I did my finances would not longer be correct. I wish there was a more powerful program out there but I haven't found one. Thanks.

unknown

Thanks q.lurker! All good points. My Quicken QDF file is 243MB, because I've been using it since 1992 (yikes!). I make weekly backups because I figured someday it's going to max out.

I appreciate your feedback about not needing to do more than accept the cost basis method, but I need to do this sometimes 10 times per account and I have a few brokerage accounts, which adds more time each week. Not a big deal, but I've been spending these extra 3-5 minutes every week for the past 20 years and figured I should see if I can streamline for the next 20.

I wish I could avoid entering all of my trades, but if I did my finances would not longer be correct. I wish there was a more powerful program out there but I haven't found one. Thanks.

For what it is worth, others have requested the same thing, so I would bet it is somewhere on Quicken Inc's long list of requested features. I also did a quick search for such requests so that you could vote them up, but it is one that comes maybe once every few months, and the terms used are pretty generic, so I couldn't find it.

I doubt a request with say 5 votes on it would do much anyways.

q_lurker

Thanks q.lurker! All good points. My Quicken QDF file is 243MB, because I've been using it since 1992 (yikes!). I make weekly backups because I figured someday it's going to max out.

I appreciate your feedback about not needing to do more than accept the cost basis method, but I need to do this sometimes 10 times per account and I have a few brokerage accounts, which adds more time each week. Not a big deal, but I've been spending these extra 3-5 minutes every week for the past 20 years and figured I should see if I can streamline for the next 20.

I wish I could avoid entering all of my trades, but if I did my finances would not longer be correct. I wish there was a more powerful program out there but I haven't found one. Thanks.

An applicable "Idea" post: https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/default-lot-identification
with it so happens -- 5 -- votes.
I didn't go searching any deeper.

unknown

Thanks q.lurker! All good points. My Quicken QDF file is 243MB, because I've been using it since 1992 (yikes!). I make weekly backups because I figured someday it's going to max out.

I appreciate your feedback about not needing to do more than accept the cost basis method, but I need to do this sometimes 10 times per account and I have a few brokerage accounts, which adds more time each week. Not a big deal, but I've been spending these extra 3-5 minutes every week for the past 20 years and figured I should see if I can streamline for the next 20.

I wish I could avoid entering all of my trades, but if I did my finances would not longer be correct. I wish there was a more powerful program out there but I haven't found one. Thanks.

Thanks for finding it. I actually voted for that on. :-)

unknown

Thanks q.lurker! All good points. My Quicken QDF file is 243MB, because I've been using it since 1992 (yikes!). I make weekly backups because I figured someday it's going to max out.

I appreciate your feedback about not needing to do more than accept the cost basis method, but I need to do this sometimes 10 times per account and I have a few brokerage accounts, which adds more time each week. Not a big deal, but I've been spending these extra 3-5 minutes every week for the past 20 years and figured I should see if I can streamline for the next 20.

I wish I could avoid entering all of my trades, but if I did my finances would not longer be correct. I wish there was a more powerful program out there but I haven't found one. Thanks.

Thanks!