John and Mary - Combining Files? Histories?

Posted by CEichhorn on November 14, 2008, 1:22 pm

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Before they got married, Tom Smith and Mary Brown each had a checking
account at BofA and a brokerage account at Fidelity and kept their
records separately in Quicken for almost 15 years. Their accounts were
surprisingly similar, although not identical.

Life was good.

Then they got married and combined their financial lives. Now they
want to combine their Quicken record-keeping into a single File.
They're not sure at all about how to do it and are afraid they will
make a mess of the history that relates to their investments. Now they
are falling behind in their record-keeping and getting desperate. They
want to get back on the Quicken bandwagon!

The day before they married, Tom and Mary each had a copy of Quicken
2004 and each had created a File, named respectively "Tom" and
"Mary".

Each File has a Checking account with the exact same name ("BA Chk")
and a Brokerage account with the same name, "Fidelity".

In each File, the Checking account is linked to the Brokerage account.

In each file, dividends are reinvested and interest is passed to the
Checking account.

In each Brokerage account, there are both some unique investments and
some similar investments, i.e., Tom's account holds shares of IBM, but
Mary's does not. But both accounts DO hold shares of AAPL stock (and
others) , which was purchased at different times and have different
prices and have generated different transactions over time, e.g.,
reinvested dividends, sales, etc., That would make a difference when
they sold their shares at a later date.

Each month they took the printed statement from the mail and manually
entered the data. They had no online connections. They would enter the
stock prices on the last day of the month, creating a stock price
history going back almost 15 years. They used Q2002 and double-
checked balances and by the end of each month, their Quicken
accounting matched their paper statements to the penny. The Reports
they could generate were very helpful.

Life was, indeed, good. (If a bit tedious...)

When they married in 2005, they closed Mary's checking and brokerage
accounts and moved everything into Tom's existing accounts and closed
Mary's old accounts. On the last day of 2004, Mary transferred her
checking account balance over to Tom's checking account, and moved all
the shares in the Fidelity account over to Tom's Fidelity account.

Until they married in December 2004, each had kept their records
entirely separate. They were still using Q2002 and everything was up
to date. They bought updates to Quicken for every year, but never
installed them, so their data is still in the 2002 format.

As soon as they married, they combined the accounts at the bank and
brokerage, but stopped entering data because they were not sure how to
proceed. Each month a single statement came from the bank and from the
brokerage, but they knew that the shares at the brokerage had varying
histories and were unsure how to keep all of them straight.

Their goal is to create a single File named "Smith," with all of the
assets and transactions of the two original separate files, "Tom" and
"Mary," with all of the histories of the brokerage shares retaining
their correct history. They are afraid that if they (somehow?) export/
import Mary's brokerage account into Tom's brokerage account, they
will lose track of the histories of the respective AAPL, etc.,
shares.

Can anyone recommend a strategy?

Thanks for reading the problem...

Posted by John Pollard on November 14, 2008, 3:17 pm

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CEichhorn wrote:

> Before they got married, Tom Smith and Mary Brown each had a

> checking

> account at BofA and a brokerage account at Fidelity and kept

> their

> records separately in Quicken for almost 15 years. Their

> accounts were

> surprisingly similar, although not identical.

> Life was good.

> Then they got married and combined their financial lives. Now

> they

> want to combine their Quicken record-keeping into a single

> File.

> They're not sure at all about how to do it and are afraid they

> will

> make a mess of the history that relates to their investments.

> Now they

> are falling behind in their record-keeping and getting

> desperate. They

> want to get back on the Quicken bandwagon!

> The day before they married, Tom and Mary each had a copy of

> Quicken

> 2004 and each had created a File, named respectively "Tom"

> and

> "Mary".

> Each File has a Checking account with the exact same name ("BA

> Chk")

> and a Brokerage account with the same name, "Fidelity".

> In each File, the Checking account is linked to the Brokerage

> account.

> In each file, dividends are reinvested and interest is passed

> to the

> Checking account.

> In each Brokerage account, there are both some unique

> investments and

> some similar investments, i.e., Tom's account holds shares of

> IBM, but

> Mary's does not. But both accounts DO hold shares of AAPL

> stock (and

> others) , which was purchased at different times and have

> different

> prices and have generated different transactions over time,

> e.g.,

> reinvested dividends, sales, etc., That would make a

> difference when

> they sold their shares at a later date.

> Each month they took the printed statement from the mail and

> manually

> entered the data. They had no online connections. They would

> enter the

> stock prices on the last day of the month, creating a stock

> price

> history going back almost 15 years. They used Q2002 and

> double-

> checked balances and by the end of each month, their Quicken

> accounting matched their paper statements to the penny. The

> Reports

> they could generate were very helpful.

> Life was, indeed, good. (If a bit tedious...)

> When they married in 2005, they closed Mary's checking and

> brokerage

> accounts and moved everything into Tom's existing accounts and

> closed

> Mary's old accounts. On the last day of 2004, Mary transferred

> her

> checking account balance over to Tom's checking account, and

> moved all

> the shares in the Fidelity account over to Tom's Fidelity

> account.

> Until they married in December 2004, each had kept their

> records

> entirely separate. They were still using Q2002 and everything

> was up

> to date. They bought updates to Quicken for every year, but

> never

> installed them, so their data is still in the 2002 format.

> As soon as they married, they combined the accounts at the

> bank and

> brokerage, but stopped entering data because they were not

> sure how to

> proceed. Each month a single statement came from the bank and

> from the

> brokerage, but they knew that the shares at the brokerage had

> varying

> histories and were unsure how to keep all of them straight.

> Their goal is to create a single File named "Smith," with all

> of the

> assets and transactions of the two original separate files,

> "Tom" and

> "Mary," with all of the histories of the brokerage shares

> retaining

> their correct history. They are afraid that if they (somehow?)

> export/

> import Mary's brokerage account into Tom's brokerage account,

> they

> will lose track of the histories of the respective AAPL, etc.,

> shares.

> Can anyone recommend a strategy?

Here's is some info that might help get your project started.

http://tinyurl.com/yshkts

--

John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
Please reply to newsgroup

Posted by CEichhorn on November 16, 2008, 1:20 pm

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Excellent starting point. Thanks!

Posted by Oilcan on November 14, 2008, 4:32 pm

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Whew, I might have missed some of the points in this full series recap!
:)

Basically there are some choices to be made.

1) Choice to have a "go forward" file of Smith - do you create a new
file called "Smith" or do John and Mary designate one of their
pre-married files as the "go forward" file.
2) What is their value of history? The combined life prior to marriage?
Likely not (IMHO) - as they both have separate data sets which has their
historical information.

If I had to do this, I would create a new dataset called smith. On the
date of the marriage (congrats BTW) my opening value would be the
assets/debts they owned - Mary's and John's Checking, same for Credit
Cards, Mary's House, John's Condo and other investments. You should be
able to define an Opening Balance Transaction in your "Smith" dataset
based upon the final values on the day before they got married.

Stock Investments, IRA's, etc. with brokers are really no different.
The question is how to enter. What I have done for my investments (and
it is just me and no combining files) is enter the history using the
dates as they were actually acquired as an Add Shares and Removed Shares
(if needed). This should not affect your cash balance in the account if
done correctly.

If you follow this approach, you should update the John and Mary files
as you upgrade Quicken to the new releases. This way you will always
have your history.

Others will disagree with my approach...so just take this as input to
the decisions needed.

Oilcan

-----Original Message-----
From: CEichhorn [mailto:Charles.Eichhorn@gmail.com]
Posted At: Friday, November 14, 2008 10:22 AM
Posted To: alt.comp.software.financial.quicken
Conversation: John and Mary - Combining Files? Histories?
Subject: John and Mary - Combining Files? Histories?

Before they got married, Tom Smith and Mary Brown each had a checking
account at BofA and a brokerage account at Fidelity and kept their
records separately in Quicken for almost 15 years. Their accounts were
surprisingly similar, although not identical.

Life was good.

Then they got married and combined their financial lives. Now they
want to combine their Quicken record-keeping into a single File.
They're not sure at all about how to do it and are afraid they will
make a mess of the history that relates to their investments. Now they
are falling behind in their record-keeping and getting desperate. They
want to get back on the Quicken bandwagon!

The day before they married, Tom and Mary each had a copy of Quicken
2004 and each had created a File, named respectively "Tom" and
"Mary".

Each File has a Checking account with the exact same name ("BA Chk")
and a Brokerage account with the same name, "Fidelity".

In each File, the Checking account is linked to the Brokerage account.

In each file, dividends are reinvested and interest is passed to the
Checking account.

In each Brokerage account, there are both some unique investments and
some similar investments, i.e., Tom's account holds shares of IBM, but
Mary's does not. But both accounts DO hold shares of AAPL stock (and
others) , which was purchased at different times and have different
prices and have generated different transactions over time, e.g.,
reinvested dividends, sales, etc., That would make a difference when
they sold their shares at a later date.

Each month they took the printed statement from the mail and manually
entered the data. They had no online connections. They would enter the
stock prices on the last day of the month, creating a stock price
history going back almost 15 years. They used Q2002 and double-
checked balances and by the end of each month, their Quicken
accounting matched their paper statements to the penny. The Reports
they could generate were very helpful.

Life was, indeed, good. (If a bit tedious...)

When they married in 2005, they closed Mary's checking and brokerage
accounts and moved everything into Tom's existing accounts and closed
Mary's old accounts. On the last day of 2004, Mary transferred her
checking account balance over to Tom's checking account, and moved all
the shares in the Fidelity account over to Tom's Fidelity account.

Until they married in December 2004, each had kept their records
entirely separate. They were still using Q2002 and everything was up
to date. They bought updates to Quicken for every year, but never
installed them, so their data is still in the 2002 format.

As soon as they married, they combined the accounts at the bank and
brokerage, but stopped entering data because they were not sure how to
proceed. Each month a single statement came from the bank and from the
brokerage, but they knew that the shares at the brokerage had varying
histories and were unsure how to keep all of them straight.

Their goal is to create a single File named "Smith," with all of the
assets and transactions of the two original separate files, "Tom" and
"Mary," with all of the histories of the brokerage shares retaining
their correct history. They are afraid that if they (somehow?) export/
import Mary's brokerage account into Tom's brokerage account, they
will lose track of the histories of the respective AAPL, etc.,
shares.

Can anyone recommend a strategy?

Thanks for reading the problem...

Posted by danbrown on November 14, 2008, 5:49 pm

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But the marriage was almost 5 years ago ... so they've been
procrastinating for that long. Demonstrating that they can't/won't
put in the effort to clean thing up properly.

SO, my recommendation is to bite the bullet. Create a brand new Smith
dataset as of 1/1/09 and go forward from there.

db

ps. Sorry for the "tough love", but letting a problem fester for 5
years engenders little sympathy from me.