Issues with portfolio tab/value view and Capital Gains report

GA Hiker
GA Hiker Member ✭✭
edited April 2023 in Investing (Windows)
My husband and I each hold multiple mutual funds and I have separate Quicken files for each of us. When I display lots for a fund using the portfolio tab/value view, for most of our funds I see complete detail: quote/price, shares, market value, cost basis, gain/loss, etc. But for one of my funds and for 4 of his, only the quote/price and shares columns are populated. What would cause this?

On top of that, the Capital Gains report is showing incorrect cost basis for individual lots. Example: Portfolio view shows a lot of 550 shares @ $51.47. It does not display cost basis for this lot but multiplication gets us $28,308.50. (This value matches my broker's statement.) My husband sold all 8 lots he held in this fund last year. The cost basis shown on the Capital Gains report for this lot is $30,210,56! And, amazingly, although the cost basis of every lot is incorrect, some high, some low, the total cost basis on the report is correct.

These issues (and others) with Quicken have already caused me to spend excessive extra hours trying to get my taxes done.

Appreciate any help or insight.

Comments

  • markus1957
    markus1957 SuperUser, Windows Beta Beta
    With respect to the Portfolio tab, Value view, that is the display behavior when mutual funds are set up to use average cost versus by lots for cost basis.

    With respect to the report, that is caused by the issue you raised in your other thread dealing with Return of Capital transactions not getting applied correctly in one account register.  It causes me to speculate that average cost may not be interacting well with ROC transactions?
  • q_lurker
    q_lurker SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2023
    With respect to the Portfolio tab, Value view, that is the display behavior when mutual funds are set up to use average cost versus by lots for cost basis.
    ...
    I am not seeing behavior that with my R43.32 release. (Data from a test file).  A fund set to use Avg Cost does show Gain/Loss and other information.  Is this a change after R43?

       

    If I have a placeholder (Adjust Share Balance) transaction in play, I get an asterisk (*) in the gain/Loss column.




    @GA Hiker:  Is that what you are seeing?  That could (conceivably) be a factor in your RtrnCap issues.  I haven't tested anything in that direction.  If you are looking for placeholders and not seeing them, make sure your Edit / Preferences / Investments is checked to Show hidden transactions.

    [Edited - Personal Information]

  • markus1957
    markus1957 SuperUser, Windows Beta Beta
    edited February 2023
    @q_lurker you have to expand to the lot level to see the effect.

    Adding- It's always been like that. When you expand to the lot level of an average cost fund, the market value/cost basis/gain columns are blank for each lot. It helps if you have both types of holdings in an account to make the difference more obvious.
  • GA Hiker
    GA Hiker Member ✭✭
    edited February 2023
    @markus1957, @q_lurker Thank you both!

    Regarding portfolio tab/value view, yes, the funds that are not displaying all the data are set up with average cost. Thank you for explaining that!

    However, the fund with the RtrnCap issue on the other thread is NOT using average cost.

    RE the Capital Gains report: Average cost likely explains why the lots look like they have the wrong cost and yet the total for a security is correct. I will have to confirm that. Great insight!

    I have no placeholders. Not sure what they are.
  • q_lurker
    q_lurker SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    @q_lurker you have to expand to the lot level to see the effect.

    Adding- It's always been like that. When you expand to the lot level of an average cost fund, the market value/cost basis/gain columns are blank for each lot. It helps if you have both types of holdings in an account to make the difference more obvious.
    I see that now. Thanks for the clarification. There are some subtleties to the average cost option I have never spent time evaluating. 
  • Mark1104
    Mark1104 Member ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2023
    with respect to the capital gains report and your taxes, why would you use the Quicken report for your taxes? the broker's report is what is reported to the IRS (unless you have some uncovered lots from pre-2012)
  • GA Hiker
    GA Hiker Member ✭✭
    > @Mark1104 said:
    > with respect to the capital gains report and your taxes, why would you use the Quicken report for your taxes? the broker's report is what is reported to the IRS (unless you have some uncovered lots from pre-2012)

    Yes, I have uncovered lots from pre-2012. And I used the Capital Gains report before I got my 1099-B to estimate my taxes to make a decision about my 4th quarter estimated tax payment. I like to reconcile my broker's info with Quicken. Unfortunately, in the past, I've found errors in both. (As well as in TurboTax.) As a retired financial software developer, I trust nothing. :-)
  • GA Hiker
    GA Hiker Member ✭✭
    edited February 2023
    In my personal Quicken file, I have only one fund that is specified as average cost. I have not ever used average cost for any of my funds. I observe that average cost is not currently the default for a new mutual fund security in Quicken but was it the default in the past? In either case, I have not sold any shares of this fund. Will Quicken allow me to change the average cost setting and, if I do, will it get all the lot costs correct? It should be able to since it does have the lot unit cost.
  • q_lurker
    q_lurker SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    You should be fine to toggle that away from average cost.

  • markus1957
    markus1957 SuperUser, Windows Beta Beta

    Short answer is Yes. Just uncheck the box. It takes a while to recalculate.

  • GA Hiker
    GA Hiker Member ✭✭
    @markus1957 Thank you. Just did it. Was quick.
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