I have some money invested in a money-market-type health savings plan through my employer. On a regular basis, my employer takes some of my unused sick days, converts them into a dollar amount based on my current pay rate, and contributes that amount to my health savings plan. I have an account set up in KMM for this health savings plan, and did not originally set it up to have an associated brokerage account.

Since I never actually see the money (it goes directly from my employer to the fund), I do not have an appropriate account set up in KMM for the "account" field when I "buy shares" in the fund, but KMM will not allow me to enter the transaction with the "account" field blank. Is there a way to edit the existing account to add an associated brokerage account? Completely deleting the account and re-creating a new one would be a serious hassle due to the number of transactions I would have to re-enter. Is there a better way to go about this that I'm not seeing?

A second, related question: the fund charges fees on occasion, and simply removes a number of shares from my account. If I use the "remove shares" function in KMM, there is no way to categorize the transaction as a fee (for report purposes). Would this also best be handled by having an associated brokerage account and "selling" the shares to the brokerage account (instead of "removing" the shares), then "paying" that money to the management company from the brokerage account?

Thanks for your time.

--chriscrutch

You can select the "Add Shares" operation, instead of "Buy shares". You didn't buy them after all. Buying requires drawing from an account, which by the way does not have to be the brokerage account.

To pay the fund's fee, you need to sell a number of shares equal to the number the fund has subtracted, for a price equal to the fee. You add a selling cost to this operation also equal to the fee. That will result in a net loss of shares with a zero cost.

The "add shares" is just what I needed. Thanks.

On the fees issue, that requires an extra step I was hoping not to have to take. It requires an "account", just like my other problem, so I need to go to that account and create a phantom transaction. It works, but makes me create three transactions for one. Maybe a feature request for a future release would be an option whereby "add shares" and "remove shares" could be assigned to expense or income categories, without also needing an associated "account."

Thanks for the advice, zebulon.

--chriscrutch

chriscrutch wrote:The "add shares" is just what I needed.

Good -- I am glad that works for you. You could also define an investment called "sick day" and add the exact number of "shares" or days your boss gives you; then you sell them and buy your fund shares with the proceeds. The advantage is that you can keep track exactly of the number of sick days traded and their trade-in value. The disadvantage is that you would need the brokerage account, and the extra operations.

chriscrutch wrote:On the fees issue, that requires an extra step I was hoping not to have to take. It requires an "account"

That's correct. Note that it does not have to be an associated brokerage account; you can use a savings or checking account. If you do not want these neutral (i.e. zero-valued) transactions in those accounts, you need a brokerage account. But that should not be an impediment, it's an account you will never need to open.

chriscrutch wrote:so I need to go to that account and create a phantom transaction. It works, but makes me create three transactions for one.

You need to create the account at most once once; then each fee payment is a single operation; complex maybe, but it is just one line in the ledger. I would not call it phantom, as it exactly reflects what happens: you sell shares and pay all the proceeds to the bank as a fee.