QBO - TD Ameritrade Asset account - cant figure out how to capture

bloodstainedmen · ‎December 28, 2019

Hello all,

Nonprofit QBO user here. We started up a TD Ameritrade account this year since have a loyal donor who has decided to donate stock to us instead of cash. The understanding is that he would transfer stock to us and we would cash it out and put the proceeds into our savings and/or checking accounts. In so doing, he would be spared the capital gains taxes and as such would be able to give us a larger sum. The problem is how to deal with this in QBO.

So, we did exactly as described above; he transferred the stock to us, then we sold it. In the interim unfortunately we had to pay TD a $2.00 paper statement fee. Finally, we moved all the money into our BofA checking account. Now, the current balance in our Ameritrade account is $0. So far so good, all went as intended.

I realize that QBO really is not designed to track securities; that's fine... I think... We really just need to worry about realized gains since we aren't ever holding the securities for longer than it takes to get them and then sell them. (and then the cash sat there long enough to help pay ameritrade that statement fee, but I digress.)

Now, present day, QBO is giving me fits. I tried to connect QBO to TD Ameritrade with username and password. Couldn't do it due to the fact that what I had created in my chart of accounts was <account type, detail type> = <other current assets, investments - other>. Apparently only bank and credit accounts can have an automated connection.

Let's try a workaround, then! By temporarily changing the type, it worked... at least at first! If you intentionally set the Ameritrade account wrongly as a <Bank, Savings> type on your chart of accounts, QBO is fooled into connecting. Next, I changed it back to <other current assets, investments - other>. Went to the banking tab to review the $2.00 statement fee. Hit an error. Needed to disconnect the account.

Ok, let's try to manually import the transactions using a .csv. I got it to work... until it errored out trying to review transactions.

Ok, let's try to record the payment of the fee by manually creating an expense... ooops... can't do it. This is an asset account type in QBO. Not an income/expense account. Error.

So what the hell do I do? What happened at our brokerage was clearly real and valid and true. How to deal with this for our accounting?

Thanks,
Dominic

bloodstainedmen · ‎December 31, 2019

Hi again Rustler - I spent a little more time digging into this and got it nailed down in a perfect way given what I already had set up.

As an aside, Given that we were donated 130 shares and the share price changed by .37 cents between donation time and liquidation time next business day, it was a difference of $35.10... not something I personally would be comfortable hand-waving away as in the noise. Perhaps I hassle too much, but I digress.

Anyway, I realized that what was happening was that this was an in kind donation (after reading the following: https://www.bpmcpa.com/portalresource/Nonprofit-In-Kind-Donations_09062016) and as such not really well-suited to the normal income account I use for donations... I created a new account in the chart of accounts to capture "in kind donations"

Then in "Sales" under "products and services" I created a non-inventory type of item and named it "Donation in kind" and selected that in-kind donations account as the default income account for that product.

Next I created a sales receipt for the initial value of the donation of the shares. Created a new payment method called "Securities".
Set "Deposit To" to the TD Ameritrade asset account

Added a line for the in-kind donation product, qty of 130 shares at the donated rate. Class = unrestricted funds (not time-or use restricted due to a grant or anything)

Next the regulatory fee paid at time of sale, the sales commision at time of sale, and the realized gain were handled by a journal entry.

Next the paper statement fee was another journal entry a day later.
And then I created a transfer out of the asset account. And then went to the checking account and matched it to the transfer.

And Bob's your uncle.

I deviated from what you suggested but your comments were helpful to me in getting it sorted. Thank you.

View solution in original post

Rustler · ‎December 29, 2019

Just think how easier and how little time it takes to make the entries manually.

Use a donation item which posts to a donation income account to receive the value you sold the stock for on a sales receipt.

deposit the funds

use an expense transaction to record the $2 fee

done

bloodstainedmen · ‎December 29, 2019

Hi Rustler,

Thank you very much for the reply. Yes, it's becoming clear that something manual is the only way forward here.

What I'm struggling with is the exact mechanisms to use / workflow to follow to pull off this manual tracking.

> "Use a donation item"

Are you saying I would create a quickbook "sales receipt?"

> "which posts to a donation income account"

Ok, yep, I have one of those. " 4 Contributions, Support - 4010 Individual/small business contributions"

> "to receive the value you sold the stock for on a sales receipt."
First, I am not able to follow your meaning here. Additionally, I think the value of the stock at time of donation is the first thing we would need to capture to truthfully and accurately keep track of our "gross receipts." Then (even if the price fluctuation was small) I think we would need to capture the realized gain or loss at time of sale.

> "deposit the funds"

What exactly does this instruction mean?

> "use an expense transaction to record the $2 fee"

But it appears that asset accounts cannot accept expenses since they are not income/expense accounts.

Thanks Rustler, looking forward to your reply.
Dominic

Rustler · ‎December 29, 2019

in todays brokerage world, you get the stock transferred, and you issue a sales order, TD does that the same day or at most the next, the difference in fluctuation is minimal, I see no reason to hassle with it.. Now if you were keeping the stock and selling it years later that is a different thing

So when you get the sales amount, that is the amount you use for the donation. yes on a sales receipt/donor receipt. When you do that the funds sit in undeposited funds, then use make deposits and put the money in the QB bank account you actually put it

and in fact do it this way, lets say you get

$5,634.24 from the sale, use make deposits, check off that amount from the sales receipt and on the next line in other deposits section at the bottom select the fee expense account and enter a -$2.00

the deposit will net to $5,5632.24

bloodstainedmen · ‎December 31, 2019

Hi again Rustler - I spent a little more time digging into this and got it nailed down in a perfect way given what I already had set up.

As an aside, Given that we were donated 130 shares and the share price changed by .37 cents between donation time and liquidation time next business day, it was a difference of $35.10... not something I personally would be comfortable hand-waving away as in the noise. Perhaps I hassle too much, but I digress.

Anyway, I realized that what was happening was that this was an in kind donation (after reading the following: https://www.bpmcpa.com/portalresource/Nonprofit-In-Kind-Donations_09062016) and as such not really well-suited to the normal income account I use for donations... I created a new account in the chart of accounts to capture "in kind donations"

Then in "Sales" under "products and services" I created a non-inventory type of item and named it "Donation in kind" and selected that in-kind donations account as the default income account for that product.

Next I created a sales receipt for the initial value of the donation of the shares. Created a new payment method called "Securities".
Set "Deposit To" to the TD Ameritrade asset account

Added a line for the in-kind donation product, qty of 130 shares at the donated rate. Class = unrestricted funds (not time-or use restricted due to a grant or anything)

Next the regulatory fee paid at time of sale, the sales commision at time of sale, and the realized gain were handled by a journal entry.

Next the paper statement fee was another journal entry a day later.
And then I created a transfer out of the asset account. And then went to the checking account and matched it to the transfer.

And Bob's your uncle.

I deviated from what you suggested but your comments were helpful to me in getting it sorted. Thank you.

michael631 · ‎October 15, 2020

Who's name is the Boca account in. And what if bofa has denied you a bank account, how would a person to know where his money is at.

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QBO - TD Ameritrade Asset account - cant figure out how to capture