Track cash investments in your portfolio
Content also available for tax entities or on our global site.Sharesight’s Custom Investment feature allows you to create and track cash and fixed interest securities.
How to add a fixed interest item to your portfolio
Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85yy2WR9azM
1 - On the portfolio you wish to add the cash or fixed interest item to. Click the ‘Add New Holding’ button from either the Portfolio Overview Page, Individual Holding Page or Holdings tab.
2 - Select the ‘Add a custom investment’ check box within the ‘Add New Holding’ section.
3 - Select ‘Fixed Interest’ from the ‘Investment type’ dropdown menu.
The Custom Investment, Fixed Interest form will open.
The ‘Instrument code’ will be seen as the ‘ticker’ for the holding. It is an abbreviation of the full instrument name.
The ‘Instrument name’ is the full name of the holding.
We recommend setting the ‘Investment type’ field to ‘Fixed Interest’ as this is the best option for CMAs, term deposits, cash, bank accounts, etc.
We recommend setting the ‘Face Value per Unit’ to 1.
The ‘Coupon rate’ defines your interest rate or yield.
Select if the Income type is either; dividends or interest.
The ‘Payment Frequency’ refers to the frequency by which yield or cash distributions will be automatically paid out.
The ‘First Payment Date’ needs to be set after the ‘Traded On’ date and before the ‘Maturity Date’.
The ‘Maturity Date’ needs to be set after the ‘First Payment Date’ and after the ‘Traded On’ date.
Tick the ‘Automatically calculate income’ box if you wish Sharesight to calculate your interest via our standard calculation.
The ‘Country’ field determines the currency your security will be priced in and the currency of any yield payments.
The ‘Trade date’ date needs to be set before or on the same day as your ‘First Payment Date’ and before the ‘Maturity Date’ of your holding.
Choose to create a holding with an initial buy transaction or an opening balance. The opening balance option is most useful for these types of securities. You can record additional transactions later.
By setting the ‘Quantity’ you multiply $1 (the value set for ‘Face Value per Unit’).
The ‘Unit/share price’ can be as $1.
The Brokerage amount can be left empty or can be filled if needed.
The total for the investment.
Click ‘Open comments and attachment, if you wish to add any.
Click ‘Save trade’ or ‘Save & Add Another’ if needed to save the holding.
Once the new fixed interest item is created a new line is added to the Portfolio Overview Page. The totals of the fixed interest item(s) is added to the total of your portfolio.
Note: To make any changes to the Custom Investment, click on the investment on the Portfolio Overveiw Page to load the Individual Holding Page and click on the ‘Instrument Details’ tab.
Common errors when adding cash or fixed interest securities
Face Value per Unit is set too high
The Face Value per Unit being set too high is influences the calculation of interest.
The solution: Ensure the Face Value per Unit is set to $1. As this is the most straightforward way to tracking cash. Then set the quantity to match the balance of the account or security.
The First Payment date is set before the Traded On date
When the ‘first payment’ date is set before the ‘traded on’ date. In this case, the first payment does not occur, which leads to missing interest payments in your account.
The solution: Ensure there is correct sequencing for the dates required in order to create a fixed interest item. The maturity date needs to be set when the fixed interest ends. The first payment date should always be after the traded on date.
For example: the 1st of January is the traded on date, then the first payment date must be either the 1st or the 2nd of January.
How is the fixed interest is calculated?
The interest is calculated as follows:
the face value per unit x coupon rate x quantity
Last modified on September 22, 2023 UTC