[GNC] GnuCash and stock splits
Clint Chaplin
joatmon at gmail.com
Fri Jun 5 15:45:47 EDT 2026
I'm setting up GnuCash for my use for personal finance, and it was going OK
until I came to entering in some IBM stock I inherited in 1995, and which
has been DRIPping ever since.
IBM split 2 for 1 in 1997 and 1999, and then IBM spun out Kyndryl (KD) in
2021. My current financial programs (MECA's Managing Your Money vintage
late 1980s and Quicken For Windows version 3 vintage early 1990s) managed
to have tools for stock splits that went in and adjusted the basis and
amount of stock for lots that predate the stock split date, and Quicken
even somehow kept track of pre and post split stock pricing.
GnuCash, not so much. It seems as though the stock split tool creates a
transaction that just dumps in zero-priced stock to increase (or decrease!)
the number of shares post-split, but doesn't go in and modify the basis and
number of shares for lots that predate the split, which was my expectation.
Now, I guess I can go in and manually modify the stock purchase and
dividend reinvestment transactions so the post-split basis is "correct",
but I was sorta hoping it was automated. For the 2 for one stock splits I
don't have that many DRIP transactions when they occurred, but by the time
the KD spinout happens in 2021 it's gonna be a lot of transactions (over
100?)
Am I missing something? Should I submit a feature request? Or should I
just consider it as something high-effort low-benefit that won't get done?
--
Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin
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