Entering Municipal Bonds

I am going to attempt to start a file and enter my parents large portfolio
of municipal bonds into Quicken. They have had some for years. I will not be
able to track the whole history; just from the date I enter them. I imagine
that I will first enter each one in the security list, right? Then when I
enter it into their account, I would have to use the "Add shares" option as
I don't have a cash entry to start from. I have all the confirmation
receipts they received from the brokerage firm. My question is, when accrued
interest shows on the buy confirmation, how do I account for it? Do I just
include it as part of the fee, which then changes the price per share? e.g.
One bond purchased was 5000 sh, price 96.849, Principal amt $4842.45, fee of
2.35, Accrued Interest 87.05, and net amount 4,931.85. When I entered this
bond into their account (using the "add shares" option), there is no place
in the entry information to put this accrued interest amt. so I wasn't sure
how to incorporate it into the purchase. If I try to put it in as a
miscellaneous expense separately, then it would give them a negative cash
balance and I want to avoid this. I would appreciate any help in the proper
way to add these bonds when I am not going back to a beginning history.
Thanks

Good for them that they kept all the original confirms; surprising how many
people do not have them when tax time comes. I don't see why would you want
to account for original accrued tax-exempt interest paid in this situation.
It already was returned as part of their first tax-exempt interest payment.
From your post it appears that this is true for all their munis. I'm
assuming here that they are citizens/residents in the U.S; if not, ignore
the last paragraph.

In your example, I'd enter 50 for the number of bonds, $4,844.80 for the
total cost (principal + SEC fee), and Quicken will show the price as 96.896
(actual cost basis), and forget about accrued tax-exempt interest paid and
returned.

When I buy more municipal bonds, I use two separate transactions for each, a
Buy for the purchase and a Miscellaneous Expense for any accrued tax-exempt
interest paid. I do not put accrued tax-exempt interest in the Buy
transaction, because Quicken treats it as taxable interest. I use one of two
Quicken income (not expense) categories I set up (with appropriate tax
schedule) for the municipal bond interest I received or paid: Federal Tax
Exempt (for out-of-state bonds); or Totally Exempt (for in-state, and U.S.
territories and possessions, e.g. Puerto Rico, Guam, and Virgin Islands).
This matches the way new muni purchases download from my brokerage accounts,
except that I have to change the MiscExp category. When I receive
semi-annual muni interest payments, I assign one of these categories to
them. I also set up my Schedule B reports to include these categories
separately (to be added to Form 1040 line 8b).

...............................
Hell was full, so I came back!

**This message was scanned before sending by McAfee Antivirus.**

"Barbara Lindholm" <> wrote in message
news:Hd-...
>I am going to attempt to start a file and enter my parents large portfolio
>of municipal bonds into Quicken. They have had some for years. I will not
>be able to track the whole history; just from the date I enter them. I
>imagine that I will first enter each one in the security list, right? Then
>when I enter it into their account, I would have to use the "Add shares"
>option as I don't have a cash entry to start from. I have all the
>confirmation receipts they received from the brokerage firm. My question
>is, when accrued interest shows on the buy confirmation, how do I account
>for it? Do I just include it as part of the fee, which then changes the
>price per share? e.g. One bond purchased was 5000 sh, price 96.849,
>Principal amt $4842.45, fee of 2.35, Accrued Interest 87.05, and net amount
>4,931.85. When I entered this bond into their account (using the "add
>shares" option), there is no place in the entry information to put this
>accrued interest amt. so I wasn't sure how to incorporate it into the
>purchase. If I try to put it in as a miscellaneous expense separately, then
>it would give them a negative cash balance and I want to avoid this. I
>would appreciate any help in the proper way to add these bonds when I am
>not going back to a beginning history. Thanks
>
>

Route 101© wrote:

< snip >

> When I buy more municipal bonds, I use two separate
> transactions for
> each, a Buy for the purchase and a Miscellaneous Expense for
> any
> accrued tax-exempt interest paid. I do not put accrued
> tax-exempt
> interest in the Buy transaction, because Quicken treats it as
> taxable
> interest.

I'm not sure what version of Quicken you are using, but in
Q2005, if I enter accrued interest in a Bonds Bought
transaction: I get a separate MiscExp transaction categorized to
"_Accrued Int". But this is not the end of the
"categorization"; if the bond bought was a "tax free" bond, then
the "_Accrued Int" is further categorized to "_IntIncTaxFree"
for Quicken tax reporting.

> I use one of two Quicken income (not expense) categories I
> set up (with appropriate tax schedule) for the municipal bond
> interest I received or paid: Federal Tax Exempt (for
> out-of-state
> bonds); or Totally Exempt (for in-state, and U.S. territories
> and
> possessions, e.g. Puerto Rico, Guam, and Virgin Islands). This
> matches the way new muni purchases download from my brokerage
> accounts, except that I have to change the MiscExp category.
> When I
> receive semi-annual muni interest payments, I assign one of
> these
> categories to them. I also set up my Schedule B reports to
> include
> these categories separately (to be added to Form 1040 line
> 8b).


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

QH&B 2006. Was not aware that somewhere Quicken further split the _Accrued
Int field into taxable and tax-free, likely based on the security
description properties. However, because I buy some out-of-state bonds, that
generate state taxable interest, I still need further categorization for tax
purposes. I suppose I can recategorize that MiscExp transaction afterwards.
I'll try it if/when I find another muni worth buying. Thanks.
...............................
The More Things Change, the More They Stay Insane

**This message was scanned before sending by McAfee Antivirus.**

"John Pollard" <> wrote in message
news:jY6Df.762175$xm3.495178@attbi_s21...
> Route 101© wrote:
>
> < snip >
>
> I'm not sure what version of Quicken you are using, but in Q2005, if I
> enter accrued interest in a Bonds Bought transaction: I get a separate
> MiscExp transaction categorized to "_Accrued Int". But this is not the
> end of the "categorization"; if the bond bought was a "tax free" bond,
> then the "_Accrued Int" is further categorized to "_IntIncTaxFree" for
> Quicken tax reporting.
>

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

Thanks to all of you for your help. I should have mentioned that I am using
2004 vers. I think I may upgrade this year to 2006...sounds like they added
some clarification to municipal bond purchases. To John Pollard, I can't
enter the bonds as "buy bonds" yet because I am just entering everything for
the first time and therefore have no cash to draw from for all the entries,
so with the "Add Shares", there is no place to enter the accrued interest.
I guess I really don't have to worry about the interest being that they are
all muni bonds but just wanted to do things as accurately as possible.
Route 101's suggestion makes sense to me, so I will just ignore the accrued
interest on those bonds already purcased. I am not real familiar with
municipal bonds. Once everything is in, it should be accurate from that
point on.



"Route 101©" <> wrote in message
news:43dd0ba8$0$2928$ g.com...
> QH&B 2006. Was not aware that somewhere Quicken further split the _Accrued
> Int field into taxable and tax-free, likely based on the security
> description properties. However, because I buy some out-of-state bonds,
> that generate state taxable interest, I still need further categorization
> for tax purposes. I suppose I can recategorize that MiscExp transaction
> afterwards. I'll try it if/when I find another muni worth buying. Thanks.
> ..............................
> The More Things Change, the More They Stay Insane
>
> **This message was scanned before sending by McAfee Antivirus.**
>
> "John Pollard" <> wrote in message
> news:jY6Df.762175$xm3.495178@attbi_s21...
>> Route 101© wrote:
>>
>> < snip >
>>
>> I'm not sure what version of Quicken you are using, but in Q2005, if I
>> enter accrued interest in a Bonds Bought transaction: I get a separate
>> MiscExp transaction categorized to "_Accrued Int". But this is not the
>> end of the "categorization"; if the bond bought was a "tax free" bond,
>> then the "_Accrued Int" is further categorized to "_IntIncTaxFree" for
>> Quicken tax reporting.
>>
>
>> --
>> John Pollard
>> First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
>> Please reply to newsgroup
>>
>
>

Barbara Lindholm wrote:
> Thanks to all of you for your help. I should have mentioned
> that I
> am using 2004 vers. I think I may upgrade this year to
> 2006...sounds
> like they added some clarification to municipal bond
> purchases. To
> John Pollard, I can't enter the bonds as "buy bonds" yet
> because I am
> just entering everything for the first time and therefore have
> no
> cash to draw from for all the entries, so with the "Add
> Shares",
> there is no place to enter the accrued interest. I guess I
> really
> don't have to worry about the interest being that they are all
> muni
> bonds but just wanted to do things as accurately as possible.
> Route
> 101's suggestion makes sense to me, so I will just ignore the
> accrued
> interest on those bonds already purcased. I am not real
> familiar with
> municipal bonds. Once everything is in, it should be accurate
> from
> that point on.

I can't test this because I don't have Q2004, but you can test
it easily: identify your muni bond securities as security
"Type", "Bond", and check the "Tax Free" box (you probably have
to do both after you have added the security to Quicken, I don't
think those options are in the new security dialog). Then
record a MiscExp transaction for a muni bond as "_Accrued
Interest" (I assume Q2004 uses that category). Then run a Tax
Summary (or Tax Schedule) report (with investment accounts
included) and see if the accrued interest appears under the
category "_IntIncTaxFree" (heading) while the actual transaction
category remains "_Accrued Interest.

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

Route 101© wrote:
> QH&B 2006. Was not aware that somewhere Quicken further split
> the
> _Accrued Int field into taxable and tax-free,

> likely based on the
> security description properties.

Exactly: Security Type: Bond; and check the Tax Free box.

> However, because I buy some
> out-of-state bonds, that generate state taxable interest, I
> still
> need further categorization for tax purposes. I suppose I can
> recategorize that MiscExp transaction afterwards. I'll try it
> if/when
> I find another muni worth buying.

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

Hi, Barbara.

Most of your questions have already been tackled by the other posters. I'd
like to focus on just the accrued interest purchased.

Except for bonds purchased within the past year, that purchased interest
should have been forgotten by now. In your example, the $87.05 that your
parents paid out for accrued interest would have been returned to them as a
part of their first interest income check. On a typical bond that pays
interest semi-annually, the $87.05 would have reduced their income for the
year of purchase or the following year, depending on the timing of their
purchase.

Accrued interest purchased is not an expense, exactly; it is a reduction of
income. If the first interest income is in the same year as the purchase,
it is obvious that only the net amount is income. If that first interest is
not received until the following year, the proper treatment is the same, but
it is not so obvious.

Suppose you buy a $5,000 bond paying 6%, with $150 checks paid semi-annually
on March 1 and September 1. If you buy the bond on July 1, you will have to
also buy the $100 interest accrued since the last March 1. On September 1,
you will receive $150, representing the $100 you bought plus $50 accrued
from July 1 to September 1. Your income for that year will be only $50,
although you actually received $150.

If you bought that same bond on November 1, 2005, you would have to pay $50
for the interest accrued since September 1. You will not receive any
interest check until March 1, 2006, when you will get $150, representing the
$50 you paid plus $100 accrued since your purchase. For 2005, you will
report no income. You also will not be allowed to deduct the $50 you paid
for the accrued interest you bought. You must remember that Accrued
Interest Purchased and carry it over to 2006, when you receive the first
interest income, which includes what you purchased.

For current bond purchases, you can handle accrued interest purchases in the
theoretically correct way, or in the more practical way, especially if there
are only a few of them. The correct way is to use an Asset Account called
Accrued Interest Receivable. When you buy the bond, put the principal in
Bonds and the purchased interest in this separate account. When you receive
the first interest check, reduce this purchased interest account to zero and
put only the excess in the Interest Income Category. With this method, your
Income Statement will always show only the interest you've earned, not what
you've purchased, and your Balance Sheet will show the interest you've
purchased as a part of your net worth.

The more practical handling, for most people, is to just put the purchased
interest into the Interest Income Category as a debit (a "negative income"
amount). When the first interest check arrives, put it into this category
as usual. The plus and minus amounts will result in your correct net income
for the year. But if your year ends before the first interest check is
received, then you must remember to NOT deduct purchased interest for THIS
bond this year. You'll have to remember to deduct it from next year's
interest receipts. And you can't use interest purchased with Bond A to
offset interest received on Bond B.

In your parents' situation, most of those bonds were purchased more than a
year ago. The first interest check on each of them was received - and
reported - in prior years. For those bonds, the interest purchased is no
longer relevant and need not be recorded at all now. Even for bonds
purchased last year, if the first interest receipt was in the prior year,
the purchased interest is not relevant now. But for bonds on which the
first interest has not been received, you should record the purchased
interest as either Accrued Interest Receivable or as a minus in income, to
offset that first interest check when it is received.

Since these are all municipal bonds and, presumably, the interest has always
been excludable from your parents' taxable income, it might not matter if
the accrued interest was not reported properly in the past. But if the
amounts are significant, you might want to review prior years' returns to
see if any of them need to be amended. Were those returns prepared by a CPA
or other competent tax professional?

Since the bond in your example was purchased at a discount, you have a
further issue of the amortization of the discount, but let's leave that
complex subject for another day. The $2.35 fee should be included in the
tax "basis" of the bond.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
(Retired - no longer licensed to practice)
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"Barbara Lindholm" <> wrote in message
news:Hd-...
>I am going to attempt to start a file and enter my parents large portfolio
>of municipal bonds into Quicken. They have had some for years. I will not
>be able to track the whole history; just from the date I enter them. I
>imagine that I will first enter each one in the security list, right? Then
>when I enter it into their account, I would have to use the "Add shares"
>option as I don't have a cash entry to start from. I have all the
>confirmation receipts they received from the brokerage firm. My question
>is, when accrued interest shows on the buy confirmation, how do I account
>for it? Do I just include it as part of the fee, which then changes the
>price per share? e.g. One bond purchased was 5000 sh, price 96.849,
>Principal amt $4842.45, fee of 2.35, Accrued Interest 87.05, and net amount
>4,931.85. When I entered this bond into their account (using the "add
>shares" option), there is no place in the entry information to put this
>accrued interest amt. so I wasn't sure how to incorporate it into the
>purchase. If I try to put it in as a miscellaneous expense separately, then
>it would give them a negative cash balance and I want to avoid this. I
>would appreciate any help in the proper way to add these bonds when I am
>not going back to a beginning history. Thanks

Thank you so much for that very clear explanation on how to handle accrued
interest. I now understand it so much more completely. I have already
entered the bonds and did enter the accrued interest as a negative income,
realizing that for those bought a few years ago it really didn't matter; and
I realize that I won't have a complete history of all the interest paid in
the past but will from this point forward, as well as bond performance. I
went back and looked at bonds bought in 2005 and there were a couple that
were bought after the interest paid dates (accrued interest only amounted to
$55) but I learned something about how to handle this interest in the
future. My parents do have a tax professional do their taxes. I have not
had much experience buying bonds in my portfolio and I certainly understand
the whole process better now. Thanks again to all of you who helped.
Newsgroups are great!

"R. C. White" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi, Barbara.
>
> Most of your questions have already been tackled by the other posters.
> I'd like to focus on just the accrued interest purchased.
>
> Except for bonds purchased within the past year, that purchased interest
> should have been forgotten by now. In your example, the $87.05 that your
> parents paid out for accrued interest would have been returned to them as
> a part of their first interest income check. On a typical bond that pays
> interest semi-annually, the $87.05 would have reduced their income for the
> year of purchase or the following year, depending on the timing of their
> purchase.
>
> Accrued interest purchased is not an expense, exactly; it is a reduction
> of income. If the first interest income is in the same year as the
> purchase, it is obvious that only the net amount is income. If that first
> interest is not received until the following year, the proper treatment is
> the same, but it is not so obvious.
>
> Suppose you buy a $5,000 bond paying 6%, with $150 checks paid
> semi-annually on March 1 and September 1. If you buy the bond on July 1,
> you will have to also buy the $100 interest accrued since the last March
> 1. On September 1, you will receive $150, representing the $100 you
> bought plus $50 accrued from July 1 to September 1. Your income for that
> year will be only $50, although you actually received $150.
>
> If you bought that same bond on November 1, 2005, you would have to pay
> $50 for the interest accrued since September 1. You will not receive any
> interest check until March 1, 2006, when you will get $150, representing
> the $50 you paid plus $100 accrued since your purchase. For 2005, you
> will report no income. You also will not be allowed to deduct the $50 you
> paid for the accrued interest you bought. You must remember that Accrued
> Interest Purchased and carry it over to 2006, when you receive the first
> interest income, which includes what you purchased.
>
> For current bond purchases, you can handle accrued interest purchases in
> the theoretically correct way, or in the more practical way, especially if
> there are only a few of them. The correct way is to use an Asset Account
> called Accrued Interest Receivable. When you buy the bond, put the
> principal in Bonds and the purchased interest in this separate account.
> When you receive the first interest check, reduce this purchased interest
> account to zero and put only the excess in the Interest Income Category.
> With this method, your Income Statement will always show only the interest
> you've earned, not what you've purchased, and your Balance Sheet will show
> the interest you've purchased as a part of your net worth.
>
> The more practical handling, for most people, is to just put the purchased
> interest into the Interest Income Category as a debit (a "negative
> income" amount). When the first interest check arrives, put it into this
> category as usual. The plus and minus amounts will result in your correct
> net income for the year. But if your year ends before the first interest
> check is received, then you must remember to NOT deduct purchased interest
> for THIS bond this year. You'll have to remember to deduct it from next
> year's interest receipts. And you can't use interest purchased with Bond
> A to offset interest received on Bond B.
>
> In your parents' situation, most of those bonds were purchased more than a
> year ago. The first interest check on each of them was received - and
> reported - in prior years. For those bonds, the interest purchased is no
> longer relevant and need not be recorded at all now. Even for bonds
> purchased last year, if the first interest receipt was in the prior year,
> the purchased interest is not relevant now. But for bonds on which the
> first interest has not been received, you should record the purchased
> interest as either Accrued Interest Receivable or as a minus in income, to
> offset that first interest check when it is received.
>
> Since these are all municipal bonds and, presumably, the interest has
> always been excludable from your parents' taxable income, it might not
> matter if the accrued interest was not reported properly in the past. But
> if the amounts are significant, you might want to review prior years'
> returns to see if any of them need to be amended. Were those returns
> prepared by a CPA or other competent tax professional?
>
> Since the bond in your example was purchased at a discount, you have a
> further issue of the amortization of the discount, but let's leave that
> complex subject for another day. The $2.35 fee should be included in the
> tax "basis" of the bond.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> (Retired - no longer licensed to practice)
> San Marcos, TX
>
> Microsoft Windows MVP
>
> "Barbara Lindholm" <> wrote in message
> news:Hd-...
>>I am going to attempt to start a file and enter my parents large portfolio
>>of municipal bonds into Quicken. They have had some for years. I will not
>>be able to track the whole history; just from the date I enter them. I
>>imagine that I will first enter each one in the security list, right? Then
>>when I enter it into their account, I would have to use the "Add shares"
>>option as I don't have a cash entry to start from. I have all the
>>confirmation receipts they received from the brokerage firm. My question
>>is, when accrued interest shows on the buy confirmation, how do I account
>>for it? Do I just include it as part of the fee, which then changes the
>>price per share? e.g. One bond purchased was 5000 sh, price 96.849,
>>Principal amt $4842.45, fee of 2.35, Accrued Interest 87.05, and net
>>amount 4,931.85. When I entered this bond into their account (using the
>>"add shares" option), there is no place in the entry information to put
>>this accrued interest amt. so I wasn't sure how to incorporate it into the
>>purchase. If I try to put it in as a miscellaneous expense separately,
>>then it would give them a negative cash balance and I want to avoid this.
>>I would appreciate any help in the proper way to add these bonds when I am
>>not going back to a beginning history. Thanks
>

Barbara Lindholm wrote:
> Thank you so much for that very clear explanation on how to handle accrued
> interest. I now understand it so much more completely. I have already
> entered the bonds and did enter the accrued interest as a negative income,
> realizing that for those bought a few years ago it really didn't matter; and
> I realize that I won't have a complete history of all the interest paid in
> the past but will from this point forward, as well as bond performance. I
> went back and looked at bonds bought in 2005 and there were a couple that
> were bought after the interest paid dates (accrued interest only amounted to
> $55) but I learned something about how to handle this interest in the
> future. My parents do have a tax professional do their taxes. I have not
> had much experience buying bonds in my portfolio and I certainly understand
> the whole process better now. Thanks again to all of you who helped.
> Newsgroups are great!
>
> "R. C. White" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>
>>Hi, Barbara.
>>
>>Most of your questions have already been tackled by the other posters.
>>I'd like to focus on just the accrued interest purchased.
>>
>>Except for bonds purchased within the past year, that purchased interest
>>should have been forgotten by now. In your example, the $87.05 that your
>>parents paid out for accrued interest would have been returned to them as
>>a part of their first interest income check. On a typical bond that pays
>>interest semi-annually, the $87.05 would have reduced their income for the
>>year of purchase or the following year, depending on the timing of their
>>purchase.
>>
>>Accrued interest purchased is not an expense, exactly; it is a reduction
>>of income. If the first interest income is in the same year as the
>>purchase, it is obvious that only the net amount is income. If that first
>>interest is not received until the following year, the proper treatment is
>>the same, but it is not so obvious.
>>
>>Suppose you buy a $5,000 bond paying 6%, with $150 checks paid
>>semi-annually on March 1 and September 1. If you buy the bond on July 1,
>>you will have to also buy the $100 interest accrued since the last March
>>1. On September 1, you will receive $150, representing the $100 you
>>bought plus $50 accrued from July 1 to September 1. Your income for that
>>year will be only $50, although you actually received $150.
>>
>>If you bought that same bond on November 1, 2005, you would have to pay
>>$50 for the interest accrued since September 1. You will not receive any
>>interest check until March 1, 2006, when you will get $150, representing
>>the $50 you paid plus $100 accrued since your purchase. For 2005, you
>>will report no income. You also will not be allowed to deduct the $50 you
>>paid for the accrued interest you bought. You must remember that Accrued
>>Interest Purchased and carry it over to 2006, when you receive the first
>>interest income, which includes what you purchased.
>>
>>For current bond purchases, you can handle accrued interest purchases in
>>the theoretically correct way, or in the more practical way, especially if
>>there are only a few of them. The correct way is to use an Asset Account
>>called Accrued Interest Receivable. When you buy the bond, put the
>>principal in Bonds and the purchased interest in this separate account.
>>When you receive the first interest check, reduce this purchased interest
>>account to zero and put only the excess in the Interest Income Category.
>>With this method, your Income Statement will always show only the interest
>>you've earned, not what you've purchased, and your Balance Sheet will show
>>the interest you've purchased as a part of your net worth.
>>
>>The more practical handling, for most people, is to just put the purchased
>>interest into the Interest Income Category as a debit (a "negative
>>income" amount). When the first interest check arrives, put it into this
>>category as usual. The plus and minus amounts will result in your correct
>>net income for the year. But if your year ends before the first interest
>>check is received, then you must remember to NOT deduct purchased interest
>>for THIS bond this year. You'll have to remember to deduct it from next
>>year's interest receipts. And you can't use interest purchased with Bond
>>A to offset interest received on Bond B.
>>
>>In your parents' situation, most of those bonds were purchased more than a
>>year ago. The first interest check on each of them was received - and
>>reported - in prior years. For those bonds, the interest purchased is no
>>longer relevant and need not be recorded at all now. Even for bonds
>>purchased last year, if the first interest receipt was in the prior year,
>>the purchased interest is not relevant now. But for bonds on which the
>>first interest has not been received, you should record the purchased
>>interest as either Accrued Interest Receivable or as a minus in income, to
>>offset that first interest check when it is received.
>>
>>Since these are all municipal bonds and, presumably, the interest has
>>always been excludable from your parents' taxable income, it might not
>>matter if the accrued interest was not reported properly in the past. But
>>if the amounts are significant, you might want to review prior years'
>>returns to see if any of them need to be amended. Were those returns
>>prepared by a CPA or other competent tax professional?
>>
>>Since the bond in your example was purchased at a discount, you have a
>>further issue of the amortization of the discount, but let's leave that
>>complex subject for another day. The $2.35 fee should be included in the
>>tax "basis" of the bond.
>>
>>RC
>>--
>>R. C. White, CPA
>>(Retired - no longer licensed to practice)
>>San Marcos, TX
>>
>>Microsoft Windows MVP
>>
>>"Barbara Lindholm" <> wrote in message
>>news:Hd-...
>>
>>>I am going to attempt to start a file and enter my parents large portfolio
>>>of municipal bonds into Quicken. They have had some for years. I will not
>>>be able to track the whole history; just from the date I enter them. I
>>>imagine that I will first enter each one in the security list, right? Then
>>>when I enter it into their account, I would have to use the "Add shares"
>>>option as I don't have a cash entry to start from. I have all the
>>>confirmation receipts they received from the brokerage firm. My question
>>>is, when accrued interest shows on the buy confirmation, how do I account
>>>for it? Do I just include it as part of the fee, which then changes the
>>>price per share? e.g. One bond purchased was 5000 sh, price 96.849,
>>>Principal amt $4842.45, fee of 2.35, Accrued Interest 87.05, and net
>>>amount 4,931.85. When I entered this bond into their account (using the
>>>"add shares" option), there is no place in the entry information to put
>>>this accrued interest amt. so I wasn't sure how to incorporate it into the
>>>purchase. If I try to put it in as a miscellaneous expense separately,
>>>then it would give them a negative cash balance and I want to avoid this.
>>>I would appreciate any help in the proper way to add these bonds when I am
>>>not going back to a beginning history. Thanks
>>
>
>
Hi Barbara - After reading all these posts! No one has mentioned htat
there is a government uro for just this thing. It may be cumbersome
initially because the bonds have to be entered into the program. You
then can save the file with your data ( the bonds ) and check once or
twice a year. I update in January and July.

Here is the URL address

http://wwws.publicdebt.treas.gov/BC/SBCPrice

go here. To update change the "Value As Of" date and update.

Have fun
John :-)