Reconciling brokerage statements

[David T.]

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
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