On Sun, Nov 8, 2020 at 7:11 AM Aaron Lindsay <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> On Saturday, November 7, 2020 at 11:06:44 PM UTC-5 [email protected] wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Nov 7, 2020 at 10:56 PM Aaron Lindsay <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> I'm working on getting various importers setup for my accounts and have
>>> hit a snag. After importing transactions from my brokerage's OFX files, I
>>> see messages like the following:
>>>
>>> mine.beancount:65467:   Transaction does not balance: (-0.02619 USD)
>>>
>>>    2020-09-24 * "DIVIDEND REINVESTMENT"
>>>      Income:Dividend         -53.01 USD
>>>      Assets:Brokerage:TICKR   0.491 TICKR {107.91 USD, 2020-09-24}
>>>
>>> It appears my brokerage does not specify the price with enough
>>> precision. I'm considering doing the math to calculate the price on my own
>>> and replacing my brokerage's value in the importer, but it feels a little
>>> 'icky' to be ignoring data from them... And how would I know I'm not
>>> introducing an error (i.e. getting my cost basis wrong if my importer
>>> miscalculates the price due to not subtracting out commission or something)?
>>>
>>
>> The real question is whether they hold the number of rounded units or a
>> more precise fraction.
>> I would call them and ask, and track the units as closely to what they do.
>> (Is this Vanguard?)
>>
>
> Yes, it is Vanguard. I checked their website and it is no more precise...
> but I suppose you're suggesting they could even be accounting it internally
> with more precision than they're allowing me to view either via browser or
> OFX?
>

I believe that they are.


Let's suppose that they do hold it internally with more precision - what is
> my recourse given that I don't have access to that information?
>

I get around this problem by using the ~ syntax on the balance entries.
After many years, they still only off by 0.00x units, and only some of them.

2020-11-10 balance Assets:Vanguard:ABCD         123.456 ~ 0.003 ABCD

It's not a great solution, but it get the job done.





>
> Has anyone else seen an issue like this, or have any wise words on how
>>> best to work around it?
>>>
>>
>> Make the tolerance larger, or use an extra posting to absord the rounding
>> errors.
>>
>
> I know the tolerance would work around some of them - but some of them
> would require tolerances larger than a cent, and I don't think I'm willing
> to do that. I'm also somewhat aggravated that GnuCash appears to have
> updated the price to 'fix' it under the covers, but that's another story...
>
> So, it sounds like adding an extra posting to absorb the rounding errors
> is my best bet. My initial thought was to make it an 'Equity' account, but
> the documentation seems to discourage this:
>
> > Although it is technically possible to explicitly book postings against
> Equity accounts the usual purpose of items in that category is to account
> for past changes on the balance sheet (net/retained income or opening
> balances).
>
> But it doesn't seem a natural fit for any of the other account types,
> either...
>

I use Equity accounts for rounding, that's fine. Maybe the wording is too
strong and reflects an ideal.



>
> -Aaron
>
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