Question on "Transaction Entry preference" option

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

In an investment's properties, when we set Transaction Entry preference to "Commission Fees", and then we record an account fee distribution, an additional field appears for the recording, "For Shares Owed on". This field doesn't appear when Transaction Entry preference is set to "No fees".

Could you explain the logic behind this?

Thanks

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

This date is used for determining the distribution/share amount. This distribution/share figure is primarily used in plotting the price + dist graph. It is also used for the TWR calculation of an investment in certain cases.

The case with "for shares owned on" is for stocks, where you may receive a distribution some number of days after it was declared. In this case you may have owned a different number of shares on the date it was declared. The dist/share amount is determined based on the distribution amount, and the number of shares owned on the "for shares owned on" date.

The other case is more for mutual funds, where you receive a distribution based on the shares owned on the distribution date. The "for shares owned on" date is assumed, and just for simplicity, the user isn't prompted for this date.

[Djobydjoba]

Thanks Mark. And what about the "Transaction Entry preference" field. Depending on the value in this field, the "For Shares Owed on" is displayed or hidden. Just out of curiosity, what is the relation here?

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

The idea is that for stocks you typically use a commission fee, which goes with being able to specify a "for shares owned on" date. With no load mutual funds, you would not have a commission fee, and the "for shares owned on" date is assumed. Basically, the "transaction entry preference" is used not only for fees, but also on whether the distribution dialog prompts for this date.

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

There are commission fees with buys & sells of ETFs too, not only stocks. AFAIK, ETFs are identical to no load mutual funds regarding distributions (distributions based on the shares owned on the distribution date).

Perhaps it would be more logical to display or hide the "For Shares Owed on" field based on the investment type instead of the "Transaction Entry Preference" value? Minor suggestion.

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

Understood, thanks for the idea.

[MichelV]

Hi Mark,

I agree with Djobydjoba. I might even go further and skip the "Shares owned on:" hiding all together. Agreed that Mutual funds will use the distribution date as the "Ex-date" but that can easily be resolved by making "Date received:" and "Shares owned on:" the same.

I stumbled on this post as I was entering a Dividend and since I had made some recent changes I was wondering how many shares I owned on the Ex-date. I easily found the answer with a report but since FM has the way to extrapolate that information at any time, I taught it would be great to have the information available asper the attached mock-up. (Date received ended-up being the 12th but you still get the idea)

[Mark]

Hi MichelV,

Understood, thanks for the idea.