Another Advanced Portfoio update

[Mike Alexander]

--On February 17, 2014 8:00:38 PM +1100 Chris Good 
<chris.good at ozemail.com.au> wrote:

> Ah! Thanks for identifying where the difference in the 'Money In'
> came from. I can't believe I didn't figure that out because the value
> was split between my wife and I.
> The other reason I didn't figure it out was that I was adding up the
> cost of the stock purchases whereas I think, from what you say
> (simplified), the report adds up the credits from asset accounts.

It used to add up the money in from asset accounts, but now it adds up 
the cost of stock purchased, except that it ignores stock purchased by 
reinvested dividends.  In the transaction in question, the dividend is 
not large enough to pay for the stock purchased, so it counts the 
excess as money in.  I'm thinking about changing that so money put 
aside from previous dividends (whatever that means) is not counted 
either.

> The residual values are usually small (unless a share unit is very
> expensive) and I'm not very worried about it, as long as I know how
> it is calculated.
>
> That being said, I agree with you that money coming from a dividend
> is not really money in, so credits from the residual account
> shouldn't be counted in Money In.
>
> I think your first suggestion could work, although it would be
> difficult to prove if the report is correct.
> Your 2nd suggestion could be problematic owing to share price
> variations. At which point of time would you determine the price of 1
> share?

I would use the price in the transaction that purchased the stock.  I 
agree, however, that this isn't a very good solution.

> I  have a suggestion that will work for me. Other people may like to
> weigh in if they disagree...
>
> My DRP Residual accounts are of type Asset, not Bank. How about you
> don't include in Money In, credit transfers from Asset type accounts,
> only Bank type accounts.
> You don't earn any interest on DRP Residuals, so to me, it makes
> sense that they are not Bank type accounts.

This is an idea that might make sense.  It wouldn't work for me since I 
have an asset account that is used as a temporary holding point for 
money moving into or out of stock accounts.  I may be unusual in this 
respect, and I could change the account type, but I suspect this change 
would cause other people trouble too.  It would be better to identify 
the DRP holding account some other way.  It could be a new account 
type, but this seems like a trivial reason to invent a new account 
type.  Or it could be a flag on the account, but I don't think there is 
a precedent for that either.

> BTW, You have fixed the doubled income problem I previously had -
> wonderful!


Good, I thought it was fixed, but I'm glad you verified it.

           Mike