N/A in the Cash Column

It's not enough to delete the placeholders.

Once a transaction has become associated with a placeholder, it will never affect the cash in the account ... even if the placeholder has subsequently been deleted.

You must delete all the transactions that were linked to placeholders (transactions for a security named in a placeholder, with transaction dates on, or before, the date of the placeholder).

[Also: you can have multiple placeholders for the same security; and placeholders can be somewhat difficult to find in Q2005 (much less so in Q2006). If you do not see any placeholder in the account when you enter a new transaction, and that new transaction shows "N/A" for the cash, you probably still have a placeholder in that account for that security, dated on or after the date of transaction you entered.]

I can see no placeholders. Is there another way to identify these placeholders in the transactions list? What I don't get is that I have a transaction that registers the purchase of mutual fund, another transaction later in time to register a dividend and then a third transaction later in time to register another dividend that is marked N/A.

Don't understand your comment:

You must delete all the transactions that were linked to placeholders (transactions for a security named in a placeholder, with transaction dates on, or before, the date of the placeholder).

I thought to clear the placeholder, one has to enter the history of the transactions summarized in the placeholder. I am missing something here.

Appreciate the help and assistance to clear this up.

Doug

Yes, you are.

Entering the transaction history does not delete the placeholder, it *hides* the placeholder. The placeholder is still in the register and all the transactions for that security dated on or before the placeholder (the "history" transactions) are linked to that placeholder.

To see a "hidden" placeholder in Q2005, I believe you must enter a transaction that causes you to hold a different number of shares than specified in the placeholder.

If the placeholder says you own 100 shares of IBM on Jan 1,

2007, and you have entered historical transactions for IBM dated on or before Jan 1, 2007 that add up to you owning 100 shares of IBM as of jan 1, 2007; then the placeholder will disappear from the Transactions List ... but it's still there in the account. To see the placeholder again, temporarily enter some transaction that causes you to own other than 100 shares on Jan 1, 2007.

To get rid of the "N/A" effect caused by placeholders, you must delete the placeholder, then delete every transaction linked to it ... then re-enter the non-placeholder transactions.

Wow! And I thought it was going to be easy. I'll give it a shot and see what happens. Thanks again for the information and way out of this.

Cheers,

Doug

John,

Thanks for the help. All of my N/A transactions have been addressed and cleared up. In all cases except one, adding a bogus transaction brought up the placeholder entry. For some reason, one mutual fund didn't do it, but removing and re-entering all the transactions cleared up the N/A transactions for this on as well. Thanks again

Doug

You're welcome.

Just wanted to mention that starting with Q2006, there is an option to "show hidden transactions" that is available for investment accounts. Makes it much easier to find/fix placeholder problems.