I am trying to get it to work with that minimal beancount example before I
try it in my personal ledger. This is the whole test beancount ledger. The
error occurs in the transfer transaction with the message "Too many missing
numbers for currency group 'USD'"
option "operating_currency" "USD"
2024-01-01 open Assets:BankAccount
2024-01-01 open Equity:Opening-Balances
2024-01-02 pad Assets:BankAccount Equity:Opening-Balances
2024-01-03 balance Assets:BankAccount 100 USD
2024-12-31 open Assets:Broker1:STOCK "NONE"
2024-12-31 open Assets:Broker2:STOCK
2025-01-01 * "invest 1"
Assets:Broker1:STOCK 10.00 STOCK {1.00 USD}
Assets:BankAccount -10.00 USD
2025-01-02 * "invest 2"
Assets:Broker1:STOCK 10.00 STOCK {2.00 USD}
Assets:BankAccount -20.00 USD
2025-01-03 * "transfer"
Assets:Broker1:STOCK -20.00 STOCK {}
Assets:Broker2:STOCK 20.00 STOCK {USD}
This is the bean-doctor output. It looks like in the Unbooked transactions
section it is not resolving the transaction with the total number of units.
On Saturday, June 21, 2025 at 8:57:22 AM UTC-7 Martin Blais wrote:
> What's in your inventory prior to the transaction?
> I bet it has postings that are either not at cost (an input error).
> Use bean-doctor context to resolve those issues.
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 20, 2025 at 7:06 PM Alex Kaufman <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Thank you for the help here. It sounds like the most straightforward
>> option for transferring accounts with average cost booking without
>> realizing nonexistent profit or changing the cost basis then is the final
>> option you mentioned.
>>
>> I attempted the following transaction and receive an error "Too many
>> missing numbers for currency group 'USD'" .
>>
>> 2025-01-03 * "transfer"
>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -20.00 STOCK {}
>> Assets:Broker2:STOCK 20.00 STOCK {USD}
>>
>> On Friday, June 20, 2025 at 7:57:39 AM UTC-7 Martin Blais wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, Jun 20, 2025 at 6:47 AM Alex Kaufman <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hello, I have been reading through docs and trying to make heads or
>>>> tails of how to do this operation. Recently I consolidated retirement
>>>> accounts. As part of this process my holdings were transferred over
>>>> directly from one account to the other. I am sure I am misunderstanding
>>>> something but I have been testing various methods for a while and cannot
>>>> figure out the right way to approach this problem. Any recommendations for
>>>> ways to reframe the problem or think about it differently instead of just
>>>> accomplishing the immediate goal are welcome and encouraged.
>>>>
>>>> It may be as simple as my misunderstanding price/cost or the cost and
>>>> market value views in fava. I could also be drastically over complicating
>>>> things. Thank you all in advance for your help! Below is an initial state
>>>> beancount file to provide a minimal example. I have also included two
>>>> examples of some potential transfer transactions to append to the setup
>>>> file and the reasons why they dont really work.
>>>>
>>>> Broker1 is set up as "NONE" bookkeeping due to the way the broker
>>>> provided statements. This was a major motivator for migrating to Broker2.
>>>>
>>>> option "operating_currency" "USD"
>>>>
>>>> 2024-01-01 open Assets:BankAccount
>>>> 2024-01-01 open Equity:Opening-Balances
>>>>
>>>> 2024-01-02 pad Assets:BankAccount Equity:Opening-Balances
>>>> 2024-01-03 balance Assets:BankAccount 100 USD
>>>>
>>>> 2024-12-31 open Assets:Broker1:STOCK "NONE"
>>>> 2024-12-31 open Assets:Broker2:STOCK
>>>>
>>>> 2025-01-01 * "invest 1"
>>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK 10.00 STOCK {1.00 USD}
>>>> Assets:BankAccount -10.00 USD
>>>>
>>>> 2025-01-02 * "invest 2"
>>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK 10.00 STOCK {2.00 USD}
>>>> Assets:BankAccount -20.00 USD
>>>>
>>>> *Example 1:*
>>>>
>>>> 2025-01-03 * "transfer"
>>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -10.00 STOCK {}
>>>> Assets:Broker2:STOCK 10 STOCK
>>>>
>>>> Here is one attempt I have tried. It sort of works in that there are no
>>>> errors shown in fava but in the cost and market value views it doesnt
>>>> convert to USD.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Here it doesn't know what to do; Do you want to exchange dollars?
>>> You're only saying STOCK units on the second posting.
>>> This gets resolved as
>>>
>>> 2025-01-03 * "transfer"
>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -20.00 STOCK {USD}
>>> Assets:Broker2:STOCK 20 STOCK {{40.00 USD}}
>>>
>>> (Use the "bean-doctor context" command)
>>> Regardless, this input is incorrect.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> [image: Screenshot 2025-06-19 at 9.50.10 PM.png]
>>>>
>>>> Example 2:
>>>>
>>>> 2025-01-03 * "transfer"
>>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -20.00 STOCK {USD}
>>>> Assets:Broker2:STOCK 20 STOCK {{40.00 USD}}
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Another attempt I have made is to change the transfer according to the
>>>> syntax defined in github issue 476
>>>> <https://github.com/beancount/beancount/issues/476>. If I do not
>>>> specify the cost of the stock in broker 2 I get an error stating the
>>>> transaction is not balanced. However if I do specify the current
>>>> price/cost
>>>> of the stock it seems to show that there has been a $10 negative balance
>>>> to
>>>> Broker 1. In the MarketValue view this shows correctly..
>>>>
>>>
>>> But you don't have $40 of cost basis. You have $30 of cost basis. Try
>>> with that (which is correctd).
>>> It will resolve as
>>>
>>> 2025-01-03 * "transfer"
>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -10.00 STOCK {1.00 USD, 2025-01-01} ; -10.0000
>>> USD
>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -10.00 STOCK {2.00 USD, 2025-01-02} ; -20.0000
>>> USD
>>> Assets:Broker2:STOCK 20.00 STOCK {1.50 USD, 2025-01-03} ; 30.00
>>> USD
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> [image: Screenshot 2025-06-19 at 9.59.39 PM.png]
>>>>
>>>> Example 3:
>>>>
>>>> 2025-01-03 * "transfer"
>>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -20.00 STOCK {} @ 2.00 USD
>>>> Assets:Broker2:STOCK 20.00 STOCK {{40.00 USD}}
>>>> Income:Investment -10.00 USD
>>>>
>>>> This option resolves the confusion in both the cost and market value
>>>> views. However now we are including a sort of fake income that we havent
>>>> actually realized.
>>>>
>>>
>>> No. You're realizing the profit here and erroneously stepping up your
>>> cost basis to $40.
>>> This is what it resolves to:
>>>
>>> 2025-01-03 * "transfer"
>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -10.00 STOCK {1.00 USD, 2025-01-01} @ 2.00 USD
>>> ; -10.0000 USD
>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -10.00 STOCK {2.00 USD, 2025-01-02} @ 2.00 USD
>>> ; -20.0000 USD
>>> Assets:Broker2:STOCK 20.00 STOCK {2.00 USD, 2025-01-03}
>>> ; 40.00 USD
>>> Income:Investment -10.00 USD
>>> ; -10.00 USD
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> It also requires that we know the exact amount of that income because
>>>> leaving the specific value blank to try to soak up any income results in
>>>> the error Too many missing numbers for currency group 'USD', In my
>>>> case I dont know the exact income value for each of the stocks coming over
>>>> from broker1 to broker 2 because it is a retirement account and is
>>>> basically using average bookkeeping.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> If you're not selling you want to avoid realizing _any_ income.
>>> You want to close all the postings in the account prior to the
>>> transaction.
>>> You can either list all the postings using "bean-doctor context" and
>>> copy them over, or, use the total number of units, which should
>>> unambiguously resolve to all the postings.
>>>
>>> 2025-01-03 * "transfer"
>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -20.00 STOCK {}
>>> Assets:Broker2:STOCK 20.00 STOCK {USD}
>>>
>>> resolves to
>>>
>>> 2025-01-03 * "transfer"
>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -10.00 STOCK {1.00 USD, 2025-01-01} ; -10.0000
>>> USD
>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -10.00 STOCK {2.00 USD, 2025-01-02} ; -20.0000
>>> USD
>>> Assets:Broker2:STOCK 20.00 STOCK {1.50 USD, 2025-01-03} ; 30.0000
>>> USD
>>>
>>>
>>> On the opening sice, if you want to replicate all the same postings, you
>>> could do this instead:
>>>
>>> 2025-01-03 * "transfer"
>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -10.00 STOCK {1.00 USD, 2025-01-01}
>>> Assets:Broker1:STOCK -10.00 STOCK {2.00 USD, 2025-01-02}
>>> Assets:Broker2:STOCK 10.00 STOCK {1.00 USD, 2025-01-01}
>>> Assets:Broker2:STOCK 10.00 STOCK {2.00 USD, 2025-01-02}
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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