Quicken enters a Placeholder Entry if you're missing part of your transaction history. For any given security, if the total number of shares bought or added in your transaction list doesn't equal the number of shares in your account, then Quicken enters a placeholder entry to make up the difference. Placeholder entries are shown in the Placeholder Entries section under the investment register of the account.
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For additional information about placeholder entries, read How do I decide how to resolve placeholder entries? |
When using Quicken to track your investments, placeholder entries may appear in your account if there are missing transactions for a particular security. Quicken creates these placeholder entries to balance your account so that the total number of shares owned matches the number of shares in your transaction list.
While placeholder entries serve the purpose of balancing your account, they do not provide any cost-basis information for the missing transactions they're replacing. This can be a problem for tax reporting purposes, as you may need this information to accurately calculate your capital gains or losses.
It's important to resolve placeholder entries in a timely manner by entering missing transactions or estimating the average cost of the security. By doing so, you can ensure that your investment records are complete and accurate and that you have all the information you need to make informed investment decisions and file your taxes correctly.
If you're seeing placeholder entries in your investment register, here's how to resolve them:
Open the account that has placeholder entries in Quicken.
Check the Placeholder Entries window below the register to see any placeholders. You can identify this by the number of placeholders in the window header.
If you want to remove all placeholders, select Delete All. Otherwise, continue.
Select Enter Cost to edit the missing transaction. This will open the Enter Missing Transactions screen.
In the Enter Missing Transactions dialog,
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select the appropriate option
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based on your situation:
Enter Missing Transaction
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: This option lets you enter a missing transaction manually. Choose a transaction type in the investment transactions dialog
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and
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fill in the required information.
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Enter a date
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before the placeholder's
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As of
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date (displayed on the Enter Missing Transactions dialog).
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Click
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Enter/Done
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,
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and repeat this step until you've entered all missing transactions.
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Estimate Average Cost: This option lets you estimate historical data for the security if you're willing to do so. Enter the appropriate information, and click
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OK.
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- If your statement reports Average Cost: In the Cost field, enter the total cost for all shares you own of this security.
- If you remember the price you paid or can look it up on your statement or financial institution website, enter the individual cost per share.
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Choosing an option
Enter Missing Transactions to get complete performance reporting and tax planning assistance. You'll need to enter the missing historical transactions for all securities you own.
Use the Estimate Average Cost shortcut if you're willing to estimate historical data for this security. Quicken will report approximate values for some performance and tax calculations.
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Quicken will report approximate values for some performance and tax calculations.
Repeat the above steps for all securities that have placeholder entries.
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By default, Quicken tracks the cost basis for stocks according to the lots you purchased. The IRS allows cost basis for some mutual funds to be tracked on an average cost basis. Use this only to track mutual funds. Contact your tax advisor if you're uncertain whether a given security is eligible to be tracked using the average cost. If you change from lot ID to average cost, Quicken discards the lot information. Back up your Quicken data file before doing this. |
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In the As of field |
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, Quicken displays the date of your placeholder entry for this security:
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In the Holdings area of the dialog |
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Quicken displays the following:
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Tips about what you see in the Enter Missing Transactions dialog
In the Transactions as of list
Quicken displays all the historical transactions you've entered or downloaded for this security:
- Date of the transaction
- Transaction type
- Description of the number of shares and the cost per share for each transaction
In the Holdings as of area
Quicken displays the following:
- Total shares you own: This is the number of shares you own(ed) on the As of date.
- Shares from transactions: These are the shares accounted for by any historical transactions you entered or downloaded prior to the As of date. These are in the transaction list above. As you add historical transactions, the transaction list populates and this number grows.
- Shares in Placeholder Entry: This is the number of shares represented by a placeholder entry. Whenever the shares entered in historical transactions don't equal the total number of shares you own, Quicken either prompts you to enter a Placeholder, or enters it for you. These are the shares that don't have historical cost basis information. As you add historical transactions, the transaction list populates, and this number shrinks. When it reaches zero, you've successfully entered all missing transactions as of the placeholder date.
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By default, Quicken tracks the cost basis for stocks according to the lots you purchased. The IRS allows cost basis for some mutual funds to be tracked on an average cost basis. Use this only to track mutual funds. If you're uncertain as to whether a given security is eligible to be tracked using the average cost, contact your tax advisor.
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If you're having trouble with any step of the process or have other questions related to placeholder entries, check out the resources below for additional information and support: |