Tax Center: Cost Basis Review

The Tax Center app stores your cost basis data and is your go-to place to interact with it. It includes the Interfaces dashboard to check data download schedules, Tax Lot Audits to correct error lots, and a Cost Basis Overrides audit to identify transactions needing overrides added.

If you need any help with the audits or if you have questions regarding anything within this app please reach out to the Orion Cost Basis team via the Contact Us option at the top right corner of your Orion screen.

Interfaces 

The Interfaces tab is the landing page of the Tax Center app and displays a quick overview of the behind-the-scenes processes of cost basis in your database. Review this daily to verify if Orion is receiving data from custodians at the expected frequency to ensure that your data is accurate.

Reach out to the Cost Basis team if the timestamps on the last received custodial files do not correspond to the expected frequency. Click on the blue question mark for information on the frequency that Orion receives data from that download source. 

The three blue boxes across the top of the page show your default stored data source, the last time Orion Stored was run, and the last time that Gap Fill was run. The Download Sources section below the boxes lists each of your custodial download sources and the last time that realized and unrealized files were received from each custodian. 

 Orion Stored runs approximately every 6 hours in your database. If your last Orion Stored run was a few days ago, reach out to the SME Cost Basis and Corporate Actions team. If you do not have Gap Fill yet and would like to have it enabled, please reach out to the SME Cost Basis and Corporate Actions team.

Stored Data Sources 

Custodian Stored (C) (CS)

Custodian Stored data is sent directly to Orion from a custodian such as Schwab, Fidelity, or others.

This data displays a "CS" symbol on your reports. RB3 reports display "CS" regardless of whether amortization is included or not. 

Orion stores this information on our Custodian Realized and Custodian Unrealized tables as the custodian sends it. The frequency that Orion receives realized and unrealized data differs for each custodian. Review the Cost Basis Data Provided by Custodians article to determine the frequency for specific custodians. Please contact the Cost Basis team if you have any additional questions. 

Orion Stored (OS)

When there is no custodial cost basis data for an asset, our system can calculate it using transaction data. The calculated cost basis is called Orion Stored and is stored to the Orion Unrealized and Orion Realized tables.

This data displays an "OS" symbol on your reports. 

If transaction data is insufficient to calculate cost basis, you can use cost basis overrides to fill in the missing data. Review Cost Basis Overrides Overview to learn more. 

After adding cost basis overrides, you can wait for the system to recalculate Orion Stored automatically, or you can manually initiate the Orion Stored calculation process. Please review How-To and Overview: Manual Calculation of Orion Stored Cost Basis to learn how. 

Tax Lot Audits 

Pay attention to the Filters, Error Messages, and Resolution Messages when reviewing these audits. Click on an individual tax lot to see the Error Message and Resolution Message for that lot. The Resolution Message provides detailed instructions on how to fix the error. You have the option to change the date selection and toggle between All Lots or just Error Lots. 

Custodian Realized and Custodian Unrealized 

These two tabs show all tax lots sent over by custodians that are missing information. Use these tabs to audit existing data and determine what information you need to request from the custodian.

Add filters to these views to clean up the results. Orion does not receive cost basis information for money market assets and historical accounts, so filter these out to see what you need to correct. After you have added the filters, save your view so you do not have to repeat this process later. 

Please review the Use Filters, Columns, and Groupings to Customize Your View article to learn more about adding filters to your view. 

Add the following filters:

To edit a lot, either right-click and select either New Cost Basis or Edit Cost Basis (1) (depending on the error for the lot) or use the Quick Edit (5) section of the right sidebar. 

Use the Filters (2) section to change the date range and toggle between All Lots or just the Error Lots. 

Click on a single tax lot to see the Error Messages (3) and Resolution Message (4) for the lot that populates on the right sidebar. The Resolution Message provides detailed instructions on how to fix the error. 

Please Note: The As of Date column indicates the date the query was run that returned an error lot. Just because you see an error on these audits doesn't necessarily mean that the asset has missing or unknown cost basis as of today. However, if the same asset is returning the same error every day up to the current day, that asset does have missing or unknown cost basis and must be updated. 

TIP: Make updates in the Tax Lot Audits on a monthly basis. Please review the How to Audit Tax Lots in the Tax Center App article to learn more about using these audits.

Cost Basis Overrides 

This tab displays all transactions where the custodial cost basis is missing, and the system does not have enough information to calculate Orion Stored cost basis. Right-click on a line item to edit the cost basis for a transaction.

Click Add New to add a new override. The required fields are Cost Date, Units, Unit Cost OR Total Cost, and Transaction Type. 

Holding Period is optional, but if you want to use it, populate this with the original transaction date when the units were acquired.

If you have any notes, enter those in the Notes field. 

TIP: Review Cost Basis Overrides on a monthly basis. For more information, review the Cost Basis Override Basics article. 

Additional Audits 

These are queries that you can run just by clicking on the tab. Run these to see the cost basis settings you have set up or to see cost basis data at different levels. You can also find these queries in the Query app using each Query ID. 

Custodian Settings: Use this to audit the cost basis download setting you selected for all interfaces. The Downloads Cost Basis Setting column on the query indicates whether or not the Downloads Cost Basis setting is selected. The Custodian Data Stored column indicates whether or not that interface sends cost basis data. It is best practice to select the Downloads Cost Basis setting for all interfaces that do send cost basis. Review these settings in the Firm Profile app. Reference the How to Update Your Custodian Settings For New Cost Basis Feeds article to learn more. (Query ID 9809)

Product Settings: This audits products coded as money markets, but they're receiving custodial cost basis data. (Query ID 8773) 

Unrealized by Lot: Displays lot-level unrealized gain loss information. This query may time out if you set all parameters to 0 due to the volume of data. It is best practice is to specify some parameters. (Query ID 11695) 

Unrealized by Asset: Displays asset-level unrealized gain loss information. (Query ID 12360) 

Unrealized by Account: Displays account-level unrealized gain loss information. (Query ID 14999)

Realized by Lot: Displays lot-level realized gain loss information. This query may time out if you set all parameters to 0 due to the volume of data. It is best practice is to specify some parameters. (Query ID 11521)

Realized by Asset: Displays asset-level realized gain loss information. (Query ID 15016) 

Realized by Account: Displays account-level realized gain loss information. (Query ID 15020)