This seems like a stupid question, but my version of Quicken 2002 Deluxe doesn't have a CD option in account types. Moreover, the help file doesn't even suggest an appropriate account type.
Even a quick google search turned up nothing useful.
Any thoughts on the most elegant way to handle this?
I'm a MS-Money user rather than Quicken, but am pretty certain that most accounts are handled similarly in order to support the conversion capability between the two packages.
That being said, Money suggests using an Investment account to hold such things as CDs and Savings Bonds.
As an example, I've got investment accounts named US Savings Bonds and PenFed CDs. Within those investment accounts I have investments such Series EE Patriot bonds and 5-year CDs. The actual investment types are then handled much like other securities, mutual funds, etc.
I just went through this exact same thing (in Q2002 Deluxe, no less!). Here's my solution... Since, as you have noted, there is no 'CD' option, I created an account of type 'Portfolio' and called it 'Bank-CDs' (this follows my naming scheme of Bank-Checking, Bank-Savings, Retirement-Work, Retirment-IRA, etc., which helps group similar accounts together in the alphabetical list). I then transferred the appropriate amount of moolah into it. For each unique CD, I created a security called, for example, PF5Y01/28/04 (this is for a Pentagon Federal 5 Year CD opened on 01/28/04). I then purchased the appropriate dollar amount at $1.00/share (e.g., a $5000 CD would be recorded as 5000 shares @ $1/each). As the interest rolls in, I just treat it as a dividend reinvestment (transtaction type RD). Works great! The beauty of this approach is that you can use a single Quicken account to track CDs from as many institutions as you want -- in the interest of simplicity, I've been trying to minimize the number of accounts that I create in Quicken.
<< This seems like a stupid question, but my version of Quicken 2002 Deluxe doesn't have a CD option in account types. >>
You can do the "create a security" method described above, but I've heard it plays havoc on determining investment rate of return because of breaking everything into # of shares. Instead, I chose to create each CD as a savings account let quicken post the interest monthly. It means I have a bunch of accounts in my quicken file, but that doesn't bother me. Why Intuit has gone more than a dozen years without creating a more straightforward solution to this, I'll never know.
The most elegant way would be for Quicken to do the thinking for us. Best solution I've found is to create a new security "type" 'CD', then add a new investment with this security type. When you look at performance graphs by types this will give you all the different types of securities; stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CDs, etc. You can edit the list according to the break down you desire. This seems to work OK for CDs. Creating/editing new security types is fairly easy and under investing heading, "security type list".
<< I've heard it plays havoc on determining investment rate of return because of breaking everything into # of shares. Instead, I chose to create each CD as a savings account let quicken post the interest monthly. It means I have a bunch of accounts in my quicken file, but that doesn't bother me. >>
I'm not sure how this can be the case... No matter how you split it up, you are still earning a certain amount of interest on a certain amount of principal over a certain amount of time. Regardless of how many shares you split it up into, the percentages on a per dollar basis should be identical. The main problem with the 1 account per CD option is that, if you have a decent number of CDs to keep track of, your accounts list will be a mess. More aesthetics than anything, but I can't deal with that sort of complexity.
And yes, making your CDs a different 'type' of security helps with tracking them.
Wow, thanks for all the great replies everyone! I really appreicate your time.
As your useful tips and happypants's group links show, this is really an irritating problem in quicken. I'm trying somedumbguy's approach, since I agree that it doesn't make sense to have many sperate accounts for this stuff.
steeringwheel, I actually saw the same concern you mentioned, but I think that somedumbguy's reasoning makes sense for why it shouldn't effect me.
Justalil, FWIW I actually had a CD "type" already in my list, even though I've never added one to quicken before.
One irritating thing about this work around is that you have to have a single "linked" account for an investment account. That means that things like CDs will all be listed as being funded from from one place, even though they might not be. I'm thinking of setting up a dummy account for this purpose.
Follow up: it LOOKS like you can't move a security from one investment account to another, nor can you reassign the "linked cash account" used for a particular investment account. Does that seem right?
Couldn't remember which "types" were std and which ones I added. Having a separate investment account for CDs would probably be best and different names for different CDs with some kind of naming convention.
For funding: use BuyX option to account for where money comes from. "X" is for transfer and takes funds out of the account you choose.
To transfer security between accounts: In investment account: choose "Easy Actions" then "Advanced" -- "Transfer Shares Between Accounts"
Only one of my investment accounts has a linked cash account for writing checks, etc. I prefer not having a linked cash account, if at all possible for simplicity. Rather than reassigning a cash account why not just transfer assets and hide (or delete).
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