Allan Actually my reply was written to Jack's email, but I was having email problems last night and it didn't get sent till after you'd replied.
Mitch On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 6:08 AM, aga <agande...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 23/05/16 13:33, Mitch Frazier wrote: > >> Either I wasn't clear or you're misunderstanding what I'm saying, >> > <snip> > >> the >> "cost basis field" is the amount that is used to reduce the remaining >> basis of the asset. If you sell the entire investment, the reduction >> would be the entire cost of the investment (thereby reducing the cost to >> zero). The reason that you might need to adjust the cost basis is for >> exactly the reason that you pointed out: when you sell less than the >> full asset, there's more than one way to determine the cost of the part >> that was sold. You can use "average cost", "FIFO", or "specific lots" >> (and probably some others) to determine the cost of the part that was >> sold. A more sophisticated user interface for entering/determining the >> cost would be a refinement, this is just meant to be a first step along >> the way. The difference between the sales price and the cost basis of >> the part that was sold is the gain/loss on the sale. >> >> Creating a "category" for storing the cost and/or recovering the cost >> doesn't make any sense, the cost is already stored in the investment >> account (the stock/bond account). It contains the original amount >> (amounts if more than one purchase was done). The difference between >> the sales price and the "cost basis" of the sale is the gain/loss on the >> transaction and that would go to one or more "categories". >> >> As far as developers with the time to implement it, when I said "I was >> thinking about implementing" I meant I was going to work on the >> implementation. >> >> > I made no comment about the proposed functionality. > > Neither did I suggest that the developers might have to implement it. > However, they do have a say it what gets implemented, and it was that to > which I was referring. > > Allan > > On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 3:14 AM, aga <agande...@gmail.com >> <mailto:agande...@gmail.com>> wrote: >> >> On 22/05/16 20:04, Mitch Frazier wrote: >> >> While entering a number of investment transactions recently I >> realized >> that KMM doesn't actually have a way to record the gain/loss on >> the sale >> of an investment. I was thinking about implementing something to >> solve >> this but wanted to pass the idea past the list first. >> >> As a first step at a solution, I was going to add a couple more >> rows to >> the transaction detail in the investment register: >> >> - A cost basis field. This would be an amount field that is >> used to determine how much the cost of the investment is >> reduced by the sale. Initially this field could be >> pre-filled >> by the average cost (based on the number of shares being >> sold). >> If the entire investment is sold, this field would be fixed >> and not editable. >> - A gain/loss field. This would be an splitable account field >> for entering the category or categories for the gain/loss. >> Splits are useful for allowing both short-term and long-term >> gain/loss specifications on a transaction. >> >> The current implementation "hides" the gain/loss because the >> balance of >> an investment shows as zero when the share value is zero, >> regardless of >> the amount the investment is sold for. Whereas, since the >> gain/loss is >> not recorded anywhere, the balance ought to be negative if the >> investment was sold for a gain and positive if sold for a loss. >> >> Mitch >> >> >> I think the developers will need to comment on this proposal. From >> my own point of view, it is not a functionality that I need, at >> least at present. What's more important, though, is that it might >> be advisable for display of the extra fields to be optional, >> certainly from the perspective of a new user. >> >> Allan >> >> >> >
