Dividends and Interest in Cash Account

[johnreid]

I have a stock that pays both a dividend and an interest payment. To now, I have been combining them and having them show up in the default cash account.

However, for tax purposes, it would be useful to have them separated. So I went in and changed the dividend payment from both to just the dividend, and then entered the interest in the Interest section of the VIEW/EDIT ALL Investments. While the Dividend continues to appear in the Cash Account, the Interest does not. And I noted that the dividend does not appear in the Dividend section either.

Does this mean that I have to manually enter the interest payments into the default cash account? Or, more likely, am I doing it all wrong? Or should I just go back to doing what I was doing before?

Thanks,

John Reid

[Mark]

Hi John Reid,

This should be fine to do, I'm not sure what exactly went wrong. Are you recording the interest and dividend in the stock (and not the cash account)? Do you have the cash account assigned as the default cash account for your sub-portfolio?

What is the "Dividend section" that you were looking at that doesn't show the dividend anymore?

Try this:

1) Look at the properties of your sub-portfolio, and make sure you have the right default cash account assigned.

2) Use the "Data Register", and select the stock investment. Set the "Data Type" to "Distributions (all)". You should see both your dividend and interest transactions here. You can also add/edit/delete from here.

[johnreid]

I have checked the properties and the sub-portfolio is set to the appropriate Cash Account.

What happens when I input a dividend or interest payment after clicking the "D"ividend icon is that the payment does not end up in the Interest or Dividend section of the the Data Register. Instead, after clicking on the "Put this into the Cash Account" the funds end up only in the Cash Account section marked "Investments" and under "Purchases". They do not end up under the DIVIDENDS or INTEREST sections of the Data Registe.

What I want is for the Dividends and the Interest to end up in their appropriate sections of the Data Register but I also want them to be a part of the Cash Account so that I know what I have in Cash, etc. FM gives me a total of all Investments and also all my Distributions but does not apparently combine to two to give me an up to date Cash total.

I have been going back to bring my records up to date, and writing the Dividend payments into the Dividend Section, but when I do that, manually, of course, the income does not appear in my Cash Account, (under INVESTMENTS ALL). If I enter it using the Dividend Icon, and click on the ADD to the Cash Account, it shows up as a "Purchase".

Last point: when I enter a dividend, and I do not click to put it into the Cash Account, what happens to the entry, and where can it find it?

Thanks,

johnreid

[Mark]

Hi johnreid,

It sounds like you may be posting the dividend into a different investment than you are expecting. After you click the '"D"ividend icon, what investment does the dividend dialog say you are posting it into? Look along the top of the Distribution dialog, it will show you the investment name, and also the sub-portfolio hierarchy of that investment.

Instead of using the "D"ividend icon, try doing it from the Data Register instead. In the Data Register, select the stock investment, and then go to "Distributions (all)", and press the "New..." button to record a new distribution in this stock.

When you post a non-reinvested distribution, you should see a distribution in the investment, and optionally a purchase into the default cash account. To find where you've actually posted the distributions, create yourself an "Investment Transaction" report for the dates in question, and report on all investments in the sub-portfolio.