Can Quicken Calculate Cost Basis?

[John Schutkeker]

Every year, my biggest financial hassle is calculating the cost basis of
the stocks I've sold during that year, since I've held them for a long
time, and I'm selling them off slowly. Does Quicken have a option to do
these calculations conveniently, and if not, what other software might have
that function built-in?

[R. C. White]

Hi, John.

Normally, Quicken calculates the basis of shares sold automatically. Why is
it not working in your case?

Did you enter the actual purchases of these stocks into Quicken? Or did you
do a SharesIn?

As a part of my original entries into Quicken in 1990, I entered each
purchase, even those that I had bought several years before I started using
Quicken. I used the actual dates and purchase prices from the confirmation
slips. Then I recorded splits and other transactions chronologically up to
the then-current date in 1990, and all transactions since then, of course.
After a 2-for-1 split, for example, I use the Easy Action and Quicken
automatically doubles the number of shares and cuts my per-share basis in
half. Does it not work this way for you?

I haven't had many mergers or other such transactions, but Quicken has
handled them properly - sometimes with a little coaxing or tweaking from me.

Mutual funds are more of a hassle, simply because there are so many
transactions and they typically deal in decimal fractional shares, but the
basic pattern is the same: Enter each dividend and its reinvestment in
additional shares. Short-cutting these entries saves time at first, but
causes a big headache later when the shares are sold off piecemeal.

I still have a few of the shares of MSFT that I bought in 1986. After the
many splits, Quicken says my basis is only $0.166667 per share - and I think
that's right. If I sell 100 shares and enter the sale, Quicken will remove
$16.67 from my total basis and recalculate (because of rounding) my basis in
the remaining shares. I won't have to calculate anything.

It's important to make sure all entries are recorded chronologically. Also,
let any rounding errors fall into the price per share, not in the number of
shares or total dollars and cents. And, on sales, always use Lot
Identification; this helps avoid minor fractional-share rounding errors.
(I'm not sure exactly why; apparently the behind-the-scenes arithmetic uses
a different level of precision than what Quicken shows us onscreen, or than
we can enter.)

What kind of cost calculations are you having to do, John. In what
situations does Quicken not calculate your basis for you?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@corridor.net
Microsoft Windows MVP

"John Schutkeker" <jschutkeker-nospam@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:Xns93FB731DDF502jschutkekercscom@151.164.30.92... Every year, my biggest financial hassle is calculating the cost basis of the stocks I've sold during that year, since I've held them for a long time, and I'm selling them off slowly. Does Quicken have a option to do these calculations conveniently, and if not, what other software might
have that function built-in?

[Steve]

John Schutkeker <jschutkeker-nospam@sbcglobal.net> wrote:Every year, my biggest financial hassle is calculating the cost basis ofthe stocks I've sold during that year, since I've held them for a longtime, and I'm selling them off slowly. Does Quicken have a option to dothese calculations conveniently

Sure, it's one of Q's basic investment functions. Same with just
about any financial or accounting software...