How do I record investment transactions?

To track your investment activity in Banktivity, you must first set up an investment or 401k account and then add transactions to the account as you buy and sell securities. In Banktivity, investment accounts are set up and maintained just like banking accounts, except that they allow transaction types that pertain to securities. When you select an investment account in the sidebar, the account register will appear to the right so that you can manage the transactions in the account. You will notice that the register for an investment account shows different information than it does for a banking account:

Each time you buy or sell shares, receive a dividend, transfer cash in and out of your brokerage account, receive a capital gains distribution, etc., a transaction should be added to your investment account to record that action. You can use Direct Access or direct download to update your investment accounts automatically, or use Banktivity's built-in browser to download transactions from the brokerage website. To learn about recording your investment activity manually, continue reading.

Add an investment transaction

Select an investment account from the sidebar and click the plus (+) button at the top of the account register:

Choose the appropriate transaction type and enter the trade date into the date field. If the transaction involves shares of a security, enter that security's ticker symbol, then proceed to fill in the other transaction details. Investment transactions have the following properties in addition to some of the standard transaction properties.

Investment transaction properties

Security

The name of the security involved in the transaction. When you start typing a security name, Banktivity will suggest matching names from the document's security list. Click a name to select the appropriate one, or use the arrow keys to select one from the list and press the Tab or Return key to accept it. If you don't want to accept a suggestion, simply continue typing the name of the security you want. If you press the down arrow key before typing anything in the security field, Banktivity will drop down a list of all available securities.

If you enter a name or symbol that Banktivity doesn't recognize, you will be prompted to configure some additional options for that security. A ticker symbol is required even when the security is not listed on a public exchange; in this case, enter anything that will distinguish the security for reporting purposes, such as "PRIVATE_BOND1," "PRIVATE_CD2," etc. A suffix may be added to the symbol to specify which exchange should be used to retrieve quotes (for example, .L will lookup quotes on the London Stock Exchange).

#Shares

The number of units of a security (shares, bonds, option contracts, etc.) added to or deducted from your portfolio as a result of the transaction. Shares moving out (e.g. as the result of a sale) should be recorded as a negative number.

If the security is a stock option, be sure to record the number of contracts here, not the number of underlying stock shares.

$/Share

The price per share paid as the result of a purchase or reinvestment (entered as a negative number), or collected as the result of a sale (entered as a positive number). Editing the expense or income amount of an existing transaction will cause the price per share to be recalculated automatically. When receiving a gift of shares, this field is used to record the cost basis (average cost per share) of the shares gained.

If the security is a bond, selecting this field will open a popup window to let you enter the Bond Price and Par Value. The price should be entered as a percentage of the par value (i.e. a price of 100 on a Buy transaction indicates the bonds were purchased at par). The par value is also known as the face value and represents how much the bond will be worth at maturity. Banktivity calculates and displays the net cost per bond at the bottom of the window for reference.

If the security is a stock option, selecting this field will open a popup window to let you enter the Option Price and Contract Size. The price should be entered as a dollar value per share of the underlying stock. This will be multiplied by the contract size, which is the number of shares covered by the contract (typically 100). Banktivity calculates and displays the net contract cost at the bottom of the window for reference.

Commission

The amount of commission and other fees paid to a broker to conduct the transaction.

Category/Account

Investment transactions that deal with cash and do not involve the movement of securities (Dividend, Interest Income, Capital Gains Short/Long, Return of Capital, and Investment Income) can be assigned categories so that you can track them with reports and budgets. For more detailed information about how to use categories, see About Categories.

Investment transactions that involve the movement of securities (e.g. Buy, Sell, Move Shares In/Out) cannot be assigned categories, but they use this field when the distribution property (see below) is set to "Transfer." Enter the name of the account from which cash should be withdrawn or deposited as a result of the transaction. Banktivity will automatically put the '•' character in front of account names to distinguish them from categories.

If you set the distribution to "Transfer" but do not specify an account name, the cash balance of your accounts will not be affected by the transaction. The preferred method to add shares without withdrawing cash from an account is to use "Move Shares In" with the number of shares you want to add.

Expense

The cash amount of the transaction, indicating a negative value. When buying shares, this figure is calculated automatically from the number of shares, price per share, and commission.

Income

The cash amount of the transaction, indicating a positive value. When selling shares, this figure is calculated automatically from the number of shares, price per share, and commission.

Balance

A running total of the account's cash value, showing each transaction's effect on the total. This field is automatically calculated by Banktivity and cannot be edited. Note that this balance represents cash held in your brokerage account only, and it is common for the balance of these accounts to be 0 if you are using the "Transfer" distribution type (see below). The market value of shares you own is not included – to see this information, view the Portfolio.

Entries in the balance column are always calculated in chronological order, regardless of how the register is currently sorted. If the numbers in this column don't make sense, click the "Date" column header to sort your transactions by date.

Distribution

The source of funding for a purchase or the means of distribution for returns from a sale (or other investment-related income). Choose one of the following options:

• Cash: Deduct cash from the brokerage account and use it to buy shares, or deposit cash from the sale of shares (or other investment-related income) into the brokerage account. Banktivity automatically calculates the expense or income amount using the number of shares, price per share, and commission.

• Transfer: Deduct cash from another account and use it to buy shares, or deposit cash from the sale of shares (or other investment-related income) into another account. Use the category field to indicate which account the cash should be withdrawn from or deposited into. Banktivity automatically calculates the expense or income amount using the number of shares, price per share, and commission.

  For Dividend, Interest Income, Capital Gains Short/Long, Return of Capital, and Investment Income, setting the distribution to "Transfer" will automatically create a split transaction so that you can assign a category to the cash you receive as well as specify the account where it should be deposited. Assign a category to the split item with an income amount and assign an account name to the item with an expense amount.

  If you set the distribution to "Transfer" but do not specify an account name, the cash balance of your accounts will not be affected by the transaction. The preferred method to add shares without withdrawing cash from an account is to record a "Move Shares" transaction with the number of shares you want to add.

• Reinvest: Only available for Dividend, Interest Income, Capital Gains Short/Long, Return of Capital, and Investment Income. Use this option to indicate that the income was used to purchase additional security shares. Enter the number of shares, price per share, and commission, and Banktivity will calculate the income amount automatically. Alternatively, enter the number of shares, commission, and income amount, and Banktivity will calculate the price per share automatically. If you want to assign a category to the cash you received (for reporting purposes), enter it in the split item with the income amount.

Investing with multiple currencies

Transactions in investment accounts do not show currency-related information as transactions in banking accounts do. Each security you trade uses a particular currency (depending on which exchange the security is traded through), and Banktivity only allows you to trade a security in an investment account that uses the same currency. If you intend to trade shares using an account with a different currency, you must set up an account that uses the same currency as the security, record the trade in that account, set the distribution to point to the account with the other currency, and then apply an exchange rate to the transaction in that account.

To illustrate, let's say you maintain a checking account and an investment account in GBP, but you wish to purchase shares of AAPL (which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange). Since the NYSE trades in USD, you cannot purchase shares of AAPL using your GBP account. First, set up a second investment account that uses USD as its currency. Second, transfer cash from the GBP checking account into the GBP investment account to fund the purchase. Third, record a Buy transaction in the USD account to purchase the AAPL shares. Set its distribution to "Transfer" and enter the name of the GBP investment account in the category field - this will cause Banktivity to purchase the shares using cash from the GBP investment account. Finally, switch to the GBP investment account and apply an exchange rate to the Buy transaction so that the correct amount of GBP funds are deducted.

Investment account balances

When dealing with investment accounts, there are two different balances you need to be aware of:

Cash balance:

This figure reflects the amount of unallocated cash in your brokerage account only. In most cases, cash is not actually held in your brokerage account for long - when you purchase shares of a stock, you transfer the money to your broker and then it is immediately spent to purchase securities. When you receive money from the sale of a stock, the money is usually transferred into a savings or other account immediately. In most cases, the cash balance of your investment account will remain at 0. This figure is shown in the "Balance" column in the account register:

Total value:

This figure represents the combined worth of the cash value of the brokerage account and the market value of your investment portfolio. The market value is an estimate based on the latest quotes Banktivity has downloaded for your securities. You can view the market value by selecting Portfolio in the sidebar. The total value of each investment account is displayed next to the account's name in the sidebar:

Need examples?

Even though Banktivity can help to simplify the process, managing investments is often tricky business. To read several examples of how to track various kinds of investment activities in Banktivity, see Investment Examples.