How do I buy a bond? (All types except U.S. Savings bonds)

Follow these steps to record the purchase of a U.S. Treasury security, municipal, or corporate bond. Use your most recent statement to obtain the information Quicken requests.

Don't use this procedure for U.S. Savings bonds—record the purchase of U.S. Savings bonds in the Buy a Security dialog.

Open the account you want to use.
Click Enter Transactions.
In the Enter Transaction list, select Bonds Bought.
Use the dialog to record the purchase of any bond type except for U.S. Savings bonds. Click a link below for more information.
- Transaction date
  Enter the date you bought the bond.
- Account
  Select the account that you're purchasing this security for (only available if you accessed this dialog from the Security Detail View).
- Security name
  If you accessed this dialog from the Security Detail View, the security field is prefilled. Otherwise, select the bond that you're purchasing. If it isn't included in the list, you can set it up in Quicken now. Click the drop-down arrow, choose Add New Security, and follow the on-screen instructions.
  When you set up the security, it’s a good idea to include the due date as part of the security name (the due date may be referred to as the maturity or call date in your statement). This date helps you to identify and track the bond.
- Number of bonds and Price paid
  - The number of bonds equals the face amount divided by 1000, or the shares divided by 10. The face amount may be called Quantity on your brokerage statement. For example, if the quantity or face value on your statement shows $12,500, you divide that number by 1000, which equals 12.5. Enter 12.5 in the Number of bonds field.
  - Enter the price per share. The price of a bond's share is expressed as a percentage of the bond's face amount, using a base of 100. So if you pay $90 per share, you're paying 90 percent of the bond's face amount. For additional information, see How bonds are priced.
- Principal Amount
  Based on what you enter in the previous fields, Quicken calculates and displays the principal amount. For additional information, see How bonds are priced.
- Commission and Accrued Int
  - Enter the broker's fee or commission. Quicken uses this figure to compute the total amount you paid on that date (or the value of what you owned on that date). Check this against your records.
  - Enter the accrued interest in dollars. (Quicken enters an expense transaction in the investment transaction list for you.)
Click Enter/New to enter another transaction, or Enter/Done to finish.

Notes

For information about how to record bond sales, return of principal or capital, retirement of Ginnie Mae bonds, and so on, see Tracking bonds and CDs.

Recording a transaction in Quicken does not execute a real-world trade, transfer, or other transaction. Contact your broker to execute trades or transfers, and then manually record the transactions in Quicken—better yet, download them directly from your participating financial institution.