in asset allocation report, if I select cash, why does it shows cash transactions, not current amoun

Phil Becker · March 2018

I am running Quicken Premier 2018 R6.12 and in the investment reports am having a number of problems with the way Quicken handles cash. The most recent issue is that when I run an allocation report to for one or more accounts and chose "cash" as the asset type to display, it often shows a list of cash transactions, not a specific value, which is what I would expect. If I do the same report for any other asset type, I get a specific number for each of the securities in that asset type, which is what I would expect.

Furthermore, even when I do get just "cash" shown on the report, it comes up twice for each account and both values are included in the overall total.

Finally, when I use "no type" instead of "cash" as the asset type, I get the identical report. In fact, in general, in many of the investment reports "cash" and "no type" seem to behave interchangeably.

Any suggestions how to get this to work properly?

Jim_Harman · March 2018

Let's just discuss the Asset Allocation report for now. It's not clear to me exactly what options you have chosen for that report and what you are seeing.

I don't see a customization option for "asset type" on that report. There is a "security type" where you can choose "No type." If that is the only type I select, my report just shows Cash, with a large negative balance. I don't see any individual transactions.

Does that match what you are seeing?

Also the list of security types available for the report is the same as those shown when I select Edit security details for a security in the Security Detail view. Note you can create your own types.

It looks like in the reports the built-in type "-Cash-" is lumped together with "no type" but it is not clear how a security gets classified as "no type"

Jim_Harman · March 2018

Studying the Asset Allocation report further, I see that if under Security type I pick "Emp Stock Option" in addition to "No type" the large negative cash balance disappears. The negative number corresponds to the value of options exercised. The negative cash balance also disappears if I select just "No type" as the security type but exclude the employee stock option account.

My guess is that the cash to cover the option exercises, which comes in under the Category _EmpStkOptInc, is not included in the report. Unfortunately there is no option in the report customization to select categories to include.

Bob_L · March 2018

Security types are just are a further filtering of securities, although they also trigger other attributes, e.g. mutual fund type toggles on and off the ability to use average cost.

As Jim states, you can in fact set up your own types as well. So for example, you could have security types for long bonds, short bonds, growth funds, income funds, or how ever else you would like to further categorize your securities. Then you can Customize reports accordingly. But, security type does not equal asset type in the context of asset allocation.

q_lurker · March 2018

One thing to straighten out is the semantics. There is Asset Class and Security Type. There is no Asset Type.

Asset Class is a grouping of 8 specific unalterable settings applicable to a security. A security can also have multiple Asset Classes assigned to it on a percentage basis (mostly applicable to mutual funds). Cash is one of the Asset Classes. The asset classes can be established by the user or through download of data via Quicken, Inc. servers.

Security Type is also assigned to each security - one type to each security. The user has control on the names of the security types. The user can also add security types up to a maximum of about 18. "Cash" is NOT a security type by default, though the user could add that at their discretion. The security type assignments can be made by the user or through download of data via Quicken, Inc. servers when the security is created.

As of QW2017, it appears mandatory that every security have Security Type and Asset Class designations assigned. I don't see a way to create a new security without such assignments. I am not sure that has always been the case, so it may be that a file originally created on a much older version of the program may still have no Security Type assigned. A security without an Asset Class assigned would effectively have it defined as "Unclassified"; one of the eight established classes.

As I understand it, the only item in an investment account that should definitively be covered by the Security Type = "no type" should be the cash balance in the account. But I do think that programming selection for report customization has been around a long time and it is possible that something else is getting pick up by that "no type" selection.

The Asset Allocation Report is presenting data broken down by the 8 Asset Classes. The user may choose to limit that report to select Security Types. There is no mandate that the two correlate to each other though correlation should exist at some level.

Consider what a user may have in an investment account cash-wise:

A cash balance (probably positive, possibly negative at some points in time). Should be covered as Secrity Type = No type; Asset Class = Cash
Shares of a money market fund (Security Type = Money Market, Asset Class = Cash)
Shares of a general mutual fund that has reported its cash holdings at 10% (Security Type = Mutual Fund, Asset Class = Cash for this portion, other asset classes for the other 90%)
CDs (Security Type = CD, Asset Class = Cash)
Bonds (Security Type = Bonds or US Savings Bonds or similar; Asset Class could be Domestic Bonds, Global Bonds, or possibly Cash if it a short term bond at that point)

Hope that all helps clarify what you may be seeing and how things should be working.

in asset allocation report, if I select cash, why does it shows cash transactions, not current amoun

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