Investment Cost Basis Master (ICBM) Application
Freeware
Copyright 1990 - 2011 Ron Stultz
Summary: If all your investments are in retirement accounts, you do not need this tool. If you own only 2, 3 or 4 individual stocks or mutual funds or only own bonds, you do not need this tool. If however, you own more than 5 stocks or mutual funds and use dollar cost averaging and/or reinvest all dividends and distributed capital gains, you should consider using an automated tool to help you track cost basis and with determination of capital gains and return-on-investment (ROI).
Background:
The key to not paying anymore Federal capital gains tax than is required, is having accurate investment cost basis data. But given that any single stock can go through a wide variety of transactions to include: spin-off, merger, split, movement to an estate, distribution out of a trust, etc. and all this for a single purchase of stock, the situation becomes very complex when there are multiple purchases of the same stock involved or reinvestment of dividends in more shares. Or in the case of a mutual fund, where dollar cost averaging has been used or where fund distributions of dividends and short and long term capital gains has been reinvested in more shares for 5, 10 or more years.
Because of circumstances, in the early 1990's, I found myself handling over 190 unique investments and needed a way to determine Federal income tax capital gains and return-on-investment (ROI). Accurate ROI is critical data when reviewing one's portfolio for potential sell candidates.
I did not want to create Investment Cost Basis Master software (ICBM). Creating a complete software application is not easy but when I looked around for an automated tool to help me in investment management, I found nothing.
Having written complex applications before, I created Microsoft Windows-based ICBM software for my personal use.
ICBM is now almost 20 years old and I continue to use it monthly although the number of investments under management has dropped considerable.
ICBM is a database application. It has been designed to record each and every transaction and via automated processing, adjust cost basis for spin-off, merger, split, etc and yet retain original transaction information. A simple spreadsheet type application just does not have data storage ability.
I have not discovered any sort of user interface for cost basis adjustment processing error in at least 7 years. This is not to say that some sort of bug does not exist in either the user interface or in some cost basis adjustment processing, just that I am not aware of it.
I offer my ICBM software to you to use as you see fit but realize I provide no support of any kind other than responding to any sort of bug found and documented.
Because I can not control how information is entered into the ICBM application, I can not confirm that all cost basis processing is 100% accurate for your situation. You should always perform some sort of sanity check of software results.
Ok, so it is free. How good can it be? Download it and try it. And no, it does not contain a virus. spyware or some, try-and-then-buy, trick.
The software, an overview:
A menu\mouse driven, database application, which runs under Windows XP and Vista. Has not been tried under Windows 7.
Designed to only support one user @ at time.
Has complete, per screen, per field, on-line help (can be printed if needed).
Has extensive data entry error checking.
Has smart data entry fields with only those fields enabled for data entry that are applicable to defined, account, investment or transaction.
Designed to run in 640 X 480 screen resolution. Does not automatically resize for higher resolution but useable up to 1024 * 768.
No interface to any income tax preparation program. Does prepare detailed income tax liability reports but you must re-key data into tax software you are using.
No Internet interface for automatic download of any type of data from investment institutions.
Supports, only limited by host system hard drive space, unlimited number of investors, investments and investment transactions.
Handles all types of accounts to include: personal, trust, estate, retirement, etc.
Using brokerage house provided definition, automatically can adjust all stored acquire transactions for a split, merger, spin-off, etc.
At pending sale, determination of best IRS cost basis method to use if applicable.
At sale, automatic determination of capital gains and via reports, details on long and short sales for same stock or mutual fund.
Can provide pre and post taxes return-on-investment (ROI), which can be most helpful in reviewing holdings for potential sale.
Has a significant number of reports to include 2 Monte-Carlo based simulations of future retirement account vales and time personal investments will support once a fixed withdrawal started.
Creates an electronic database of all investment transactions, easily recalled, edited and printed. Does not do away with keeping trade slips but certainly automates the process of tracking investments.
Is Data Entry Intensive
If there is a "catch" to using the ICBM application it is that it is data entry intensive. Only by having every transaction related to an investment entered into the application can the application accurately make adjustments for complex transactions such as spin-off, merger, etc. If you elect not to use the ICBM, sooner or later, you are going to be forced into the position of gathering. potentially years, of trade confirmation slips and then doing a lot of manual calculations. So in the end, it is similar to many other things. You can "pay" the price now or you can pay it later. I found it is easier to simply record transactions as they occur and then when a nasty transaction comes along like a stock swap or class conversion or change, the data is already in the application and only the mathematical definition of the complex transaction need to be entered for the ICBM to do its magic on stored data.
Menus To review system menus, click here.
Samples of Function Screens To review samples of system function screens, click here.
Sample Reports To review sample reports, click here.
Sample Graphics To review click here.
Example of Function Processing Determine Best IRS Cost Basis Method to Use
User Manual To download, Microsoft Word Format, Adobe PDF Format.
Instruction on installing Click here.
Instructions on upgrading from any old installed version Click here.
Instructions for first use. Click Here
Reporting Bugs, other.
The ICBM application although not appearing so, is fairly complex both in terms of the user interface as well as actual investment transaction processing and reports. If the system does encounter an error in processing, it halts and presents a message to the user, defining an error number and then terminates. Should you encounter this error message, make a note of what screen, report or processing you were doing at the time and the specific error number and email me all details. As time permits, I will address discovered software bugs. At this time, the version available for download has no known bugs. Contact: Rstultz3@cox.net.
To Uninstall ICBM
ICBM does not have an entry in Windows "Add or Remove Programs" list. There are 3 levels of "remove" available to you. (1) Delete shortcut on start menu. (2) Delete shortcut on start menu and then delete C:\ICBM folder or folder on drive you used for ICBM files and (3) Delete shortcut and then click on Setup in the C:\ICBM folder and when asked what you want to do, click on "remove all".
Technical
ICBM was written using Microsoft's Visual FoxPro Version 5. Although offered as freeware, the application may not be decompiled or modified without my permission. To minimize possible corruption of data, no indexes or tables are ever open and left open. This, of course, results in slower processing but has never been a problem on modern personal computers (PC's).
Sale of Source Code and Rights
ICBM could easily be cosmetically packaged and with additional efforts be sold commercially. I have not the time or energy to pursue commercial marketing but would entertain reasonable offers to buy the source code and all rights to the software. Potentially a much larger market is available if the application were made multi-user, such as is often required by estate trustees, law offices and trust departments of banks.