Re: Transaction retrieve usability suggestion

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In Reply to: Transaction retrieve usability suggestion posted by George Timms on January 15, 2005 at 09:40:28:

: When I checked some transactions downloaded from Vanguard, I found that the "Price" was the value they publish (rounded to the penny) for that date.

: For as long as I've used FM, it has computed an extended-precision form (presumably based on internal floating-point implementation) of whichever of the "Shares" and "Price" fields I select last (using mouse or tab key). When entering transactions manually, I always round the "Price" (by selecting it last) to ensure FM accounting matches fund company records. In my experience, fund companys vary as to how many fractional digits they keep for shares, but I want/need my records to match the number of shares (regardless of transaction price) to avoid rounding errors.

: My concern is that because none of the downloaded transactions have extended-precision prices, I might inadvertently recompute/change the number of shares later if I view (with no real intent to edit) a downloaded transaction. (This doesn't happen to me today because I make sure the stored prices are computed/stored with extended-precision)

: Possible improvements: Do the extended-precision calculation for "price" when downloading transactions, or restrict extended-precision computations when editing a transaction to only the "price" field (maybe conditioned by a new investment attribute), or add a warning before storing an edited transaction that has recomputed the "shares" with extended-precision, etc.

Hi George,

I understand and share your concern about rounding errors. It is most
important to get the "shares" field exactly right to eliminate the
accumulation of rounding errors. When Fund Manager retrieves transactions
it records the shares exactly as reported by the OFX server; no rounding.
The price is also recorded exactly as provided by the OFX server.
Since Fund Manager enforces consistency value must equal shares * price.
The "value" field is the one that will get rounded to be consistent
with the reported shares and price. Maybe an option to do the rounding
the other way would be good. Keep shares/value as reported, and round the
price. In any case, the editing of an existing transaction, whether recorded
manually or retrieved, should work the same way. The last edit box where
you've put the input focus will get adjusted to be consistent with the
other 2.

Thanks,
Mark
--
Mark Beiley
Fund Manager, portfolio management software for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/00/XP/2003

Replies:

• Re: Transaction retrieve usability suggestion George Timms 14:56:22 01/16/05 (1)
  • Re: Transaction retrieve usability suggestion Mark 18:58:23 01/16/05 (0)