Best practices to track the funds in the brokers

General Discussion
1

I’ve read How to Track Cash in Capitally | Capitally but I still don’t understand how to track the cash stored in the brokers.

After I sell some equities in the broker, the cash is stored in the broker.
Then I add a “Sell” transaction in Capitally. But how do I track this cash ?

The similar question: when I purchase some equities with the cash in the brokers, how should I log it in Capitally ?

2

If you enable automatic Cash tracking (globally, or only for that account) and add a starting balance at any point in time (as an Account Balance, or Transfer), the cash will be tracked automatically along every transaction.

3

Perhaps I’ve misunderstood the feature.
My settings of Cash Tracking:

  • Cash Tracking: enable
  • Convert cash to a single currency: EUR
  • Use a single account for cash: None

Below is my test.

I create a new account “CashTestAccount”.
This new account has one asset, SPY.

  1. Add an “Account Balance” transaction: Quanty=1000 , Asset Prices=700, and I see the total portfolio value has increased 700000
  2. Add a “Sell” transaction: Quanty=1000 , Asset Prices=700. I expect to see the total portfolio value is the same, and there will be a cash asset of value 700000, but it’s not the case: the portfolio has decreased 700000, and I don’t find a cash asset under “CashTestAccount”
4

Add an Account Balance for the cash asset to that account (eg. USD or EUR, can just start with 0) - cash asset has to be added to the project to track it’s balance.

5

I have an account which has no cash asset. I’d like to know what the best practice is to track the cash.

Some assets pay the dividends in cash, and I think Capitally already considers these dividends as “realized returns” (correct me if I am wrong). If I add a cash asset now and give it a balance, which comes previously from the dividends, wouldn’t it be a duplication when the return is calculated ?

6

@rafal could you help me with the question above, please ? Thanks

7

Cash only is not included in realized returns - but sold assets and dividends are included - you’re correct here.

Therefore, if you set the cash balance it won’t duplicate returns - just from that point in time the cash balance will be updated.