I’ve been working with the investments functionality. It would be nice when reconciling an investment statement, to have two amount fields on the “create reconciliation” page making up the “new balance” amount: “Account Balance” and “Holdings”:
new Balance = Account Balance - Holding
It would be a simple convenience so both values are essentially documented…just a thought!!
I moved your post to the public forum. There was no reason for it to be a personal message, unless you were trying to ensure it received no attention.
Please describe what you are actually trying to do eg
Also precisely where in Manager do you suggest these changes occur (use actual Manager titles, ideally with screen shots).
I suspect you need to create a bank account in Manager for each of your Investment brokerage companies (who maintain a bank account for you).
The reason I sent a personal message is because I was being blocked from adding to the forums for some reason (ie: forums had the “locked” icon).
Let me start off by saying that my experience with using Manager for this purpose has matured substantially, so I’ll make my request somewhat more seasoned.
My normal workflow is I get statements from from my different brokerages (401K, IRA, and LLC brokerage etc.) and I use those to reconcile the accounts. Not too complicated.
Because of the way Manager works Investments, the reconcile tab only allows me to reconcile “cash position” of my accounts. Reconciling the “holdings” position is a bit more complicated. To do so, I have to create several Investment "Control Account"s with a matching Bank and Cash "Control Account"s (one for each brokerage account). This allows me to create a Balance Sheet for month end to show with the needed granularity to see holding at the end of the month. It’s not a horrible solution.
What would be more graceful is if the “reconcile setup” page was updated to have an entry for both a “cash balance” and a “holdings balance”, and the “reconcile edit” page were updated to display the both (along with the out of balance state).
The “reconciles master” page wouldn’t really need to change except the out of balance value would be the combination of the of the two fields (ie: the link that drills down to the reconcile edit page).
What might also be convenient is a button on the “reconcile edit” page to drill down to the “Investment Market Prices” page (just one button… not one for each transaction).
and below are images of what that might look like.
Outside of that, Investments is quite functional. Kudos on adding it.
Patch,
I’m my own bookkeeper if that’s what you’re asking, but it’s through conventional brokerages like “Fidelity Investments”. If you were to make this change, it would take all the control accounts issue out of the picture, and so customizing balance sheets would not have to be made and removed regularly.
Since I’m not doing this for clients I don’t really care about creating accurate unrealized gain records for an appraiser, but if I were, I really don’t see a way to do it accurately using Manager. In the USA, I use Tradelog for that kind of thing.
The best you could probably do for us is to create a rough unrealized gains estimator based on an the Investments page from most recent purchase price. In the end, realized and unrealized gains create “total gains”. The only thing that changes is the tax treatment. This would require dealing with lot selection, wash sale rules, Mark-To-Market, legal changes on that from year to year, and difference between countries. Personally, the only time I deal with this is at year end when I journal any disparities based on my tradelog outputs.
As for investment costs that would just be additional lines items in the “Receipt” or “Payment” record as seen below:
Good Luck!
Why would you not simply continue using Tradelog? Manager will never be as good in your specific situation in the USA regarding the IRS-ready trader tax reporting.
I will continue to use Tradelog, but Tradelog is not an accounting package, Manager is. Manager is what i rely on to “reconcile” my accounts statements (including transactions where i move money from brokerage to no brokerage accounts…). Each tool for its purpose.
Indeed and as such when IFRS ready figures from Tradelog, you should just bring the totals into Manager and not bother with the details as these can be audited through Tradelog. Is similar to how we use POS systems, we do not need Manager for the details only for tax accounting.
@Patch - Found a potential flaw in the math displaying “Investments” value on a balance sheet.
version “24.7.2.1709” local server edition…
For purchases, these shares should only be added to the balance sheet only after they have been marked as cleared (ie: the settlement date).
For sold share, they should continue to be on the balance sheet until they have been marked as cleared, although starting on the transaction date, their value should no longer be calculated using “Investment Market Value”, they should be calculated using the sales price (the interim period between sale and settlement). Once sold the value is no longer fluid.
Right now the only work around is to make sure all transactions occur on the settlement date.
Thanks!
Not sure what local server edition means because even when not serving up via the internet it is the same edition and one is supposed to pay for the license once trialled which I assume you have done. Also not that your version is of July last year and you are supposed to update it as per FAQ - Manager Forum which states:
Manager advances very quickly, simplifying and adding features and capabilities. Sometimes, bugs occur with new releases. But these are usually fixed rapidly, often within minutes. So if you encounter a problem with the desktop or server editions, update Manager , even if you recently did. (The cloud edition is always up to date.) You can check the latest version at https://www.manager.io/desktop/download/ .
Latest server versions can easily be found at https://github.com/Manager-io/Manager
