Record investment deposits and transfers without double counting

Customer workflow guide · Updated 11 Oct 2026 · Check the available controls in your installed version

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Before you record a move

Have both account statements ready, with the posting dates, currencies and the actual cash or security amounts. An internal transfer is not investment performance, salary, or a new expense simply because it appears in a bank feed.

1. Trace a cash deposit

Find the outgoing transaction in the sending cash account.
Find the incoming amount in the receiving brokerage account.
Confirm the destination account’s cash balance reflects the deposit only once.
If both sides exist as transactions, link or categorize them as a transfer where that workflow is available; do not categorize the incoming side as earned income.

Example (illustrative): Moving $1,000 from chequing to brokerage should reduce chequing cash by $1,000 and increase brokerage cash by $1,000. Your combined wealth does not increase by $1,000.

2. Separate cash from securities

When a purchase converts $600 of brokerage cash into $600 of securities (excluding fees or price movement), the cash position goes down while invested holdings go up. Do not add the purchased securities and also leave the $600 in idle cash.

An in-kind transfer moves holdings between accounts. Check the source and destination positions and do not interpret the moved market value as a contribution or realized investment return. Cost-basis handling may require manual verification.

3. Check currency on both sides

For a USD transfer, preserve the currency of the source amount and the destination amount. A CAD-equivalent portfolio display can move with exchange rates even when the USD cash quantity does not. Record FX conversion and fees separately when applicable.

4. Investigate unexpected total changes

Brokerage cash and an imported cash transaction were both added as assets.
A transfer was treated as a new income item.
A sale reduced holdings but the resulting account cash was not updated.
Market values are being compared against a statement from a different date.

Availability note: Cash and transfer workflows can differ by account source and release. This article explains what to reconcile; it does not imply automatic brokerage transaction syncing or automatic cost-basis adjustments.

Next: check brokerage cash and interpret performance charts.

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