Cash book
The cash book is the record of money moving in and out of an account, so you can trace the cash balance line by line and compare it with your broker's.
Cash in an investment account changes for many reasons: a purchase takes money out, a sale puts it back, a dividend arrives, you pay money in or withdraw it, fees are charged. Each is a line in the cash book with its date, amount, and description, and the balance runs down the page. This is how you trace a cash figure that looks wrong: the line where the balance diverged from your broker's is the entry that is missing or mistaken.
The cash book records the cash side of trades from the transactions ledger, dividends you recorded as received, and other cash entries. It is your account's own cash record. A company's dividend payment history, whether or not you held the shares, is on that share's dividends page. Matching this cash book formally against a broker statement is Reconcile.
Related pages
| Portfolio | The portfolio lists your accounts. The cash book is the money in one of them. |
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| Transactions | Transactions are the buys and sells. The cash book shows their cash effect together with deposits, withdrawals, and dividends. |
| Reconcile | Reconcile is where you tick these cash lines off against a broker statement to confirm the balance agrees. |
| Dividends | A share's dividends page is what the company paid. The cash book is what actually arrived in this account. |