Reconciling brokerage statements

[Geoff Catlin]

Thanks for the response David.

So, what I was doing wrong, and what wasn't clear to me from reading the 
Concepts Guide, is that I should have been reconciling individual 
accounts, not parent accounts. In other words, I have accounts like this:

Assets
  Investments
    Brokerage
      Cash
      Stocks

I was trying to reconcile the Brokerage account because I thought that 
should represent my statement. But what I should really do is reconcile 
the Cash and Stocks accounts individually for each of my statements.

I hope this helps others.

-Geoff



David T. wrote:
> Certainly you can reconcile brokerage statements. 
>
> However, you have to keep in mind that the asset you own is a number of shares
> of stock. These shares really only have a value when you sell them. The share
> price that your broker provides on your statement is simply a potential value
> that takes on meaning when you actually sell the stocks. Until that point,
> though, it's just wishful thinking ;) .
>
> My brokerage statement includes an account for the stock holdings, which lists
> the shares that I own, and a money market account that receives dividend
> payments. I have separate accounts in Gnucash for these, and have no troubles
> reconciling.
>
> If your dividends are reinvested, the transaction will have a dollar amount, a
> share price, and a number of shares purchased. I put in the dollar amount and
> the shares purchased and let Gnucash calculate the share price. The dollar
> amount comes from an income account (Income:Dividends:Taxable:ABCD)
>
> You can track the ongoing value of your stocks by manually entering prices in
> the Price editor or by using the Online quotes feature to download them. You
> can then view the portfolio's speculative value by running the Portfolio
> report.
>
> Chapter 8 of the concepts guide covers a lot of this.
>
> HTH,
> David
>
> --- Geoff Catlin <gcatlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> Is it possible to reconcile brokerage statements?
>>
>> For example, let's say I have a statement for the period Jan 1 2008 - 
>> Jan 31 2008. On Jan 31 2008, stock ABCD was worth $20 (which I've 
>> recorded in the Price Editor), so my 10 shares are worth $200 which is 
>> reflected on my statement. However, today, ABCD is worth $22 (also 
>> recorded in the Price Editor). Unfortunately, when I attempt to 
>> reconcile my old statement, GnuCash doesn't seem to consider the 
>> historical price that corresponds to the statement date.
>>
>> Am I doing something wrong? Is there a work around? Or is this not 
>> currently possible in GnuCash?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> -Geoff
>> _______________________________________________
>> gnucash-user mailing list
>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>> -----
>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>>
>>     
>
>
>
>       ____________________________________________________________________________________
> You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total Access, No Cost.  
> http://tc.deals.yahoo.com/tc/blockbuster/text5.com
>
>