Investment Accounts

Use Investment Accounts for any asset that doesn't fit into one of the other asset accounts.

HINT-- Investment accounts will handle cash flow and asset value in the Goldenseal accounting software.

USING INVESTMENT ACCOUNTS
Depositing Funds | Paying Bills | Investment Transactions | Using Investment Accounts

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When to Use Investment Accounts

Investment accounts track the value of CD's, stocks, bonds, IRA's and any other financial investments.
If you have an asset that doesn't fit into some other asset type, list it as an Investment account.

Investment accounts are considered as assets, but they can also generate income and consume expenses, the same as job accounts.

Investment accounts can include any of the following:

Stocks
Bonds
IRA's
Keogh plans or other retirement accounts
Investment accounts set up through stock brokers
Collectibles, precious metals or other hard assets
Copyrights, trademarks, patents, good will and other intangible assets that won't be amortized, depreciated or expensed
Gargoyle futures
Any other asset that doesn't fit into another asset type

NOTES-- If you will be amortizing, expensing or depreciating the value of an asset, enter it as a Real Estate or Equipment account. Money that you invest in the business itself is considered as Owner Equity. If you can write sequential checks from an account, enter it as a Checking account.

Creating Investment Accounts

To create a new Investment account in the Goldenseal accounting software, follow these steps:

Choose Investments from the Accounts menu.
Choose New Record from the Edit menu, or click the New button.
Fill out information about the account.

QUICK SETUP HINT-- You only need to enter an Account Name. For accurate reconciling, enter a Starting Balance.

Data Fields

Enter the following information for each Investment account:
Account Name-- Enter a short name for the account. This is the text that will appear in the Chart of Accounts and in pop-up menus.
Full Name-- Enter the full name of the bank or organization with which the account is located.
Address-- Enter the address where the investment is located.
Phone-- Enter the phone number for the investment, if available.
Account Number-- If there is an account number for the investment, enter it here.
Comments-- Enter any comments you'd like to make about this account. You may want to enter key words to make it easier to locate or group particular accounts.

Creation Date-- Enter the date that the investment account was set up. Today's date is entered automatically, but you can change it if necessary.
Record Number-- An internal record number will automatically be assigned.
Company Division-- Use the clairvoyant field to enter the Company Division to which this account belongs.
Starting Balance-- Enter the starting balance for the account-- the value of the investment when you first started with Goldenseal.
Starting Balance-- Enter the minimum balance for the account.
Investment Type-- Use the pop-up menu to choose the Investment Type.
Job Cost Budget-- If you'd like to use a cost budget for this account, enter the Estimate to use.
Category System-- Enter the Category System to use for job costs.

Calculated Fields

Goldenseal accounting software shows the following calculated values for each investment account:

Current Balance-- The current balance is the most recent running total, after all bank transactions are included.
Last Changed-- Goldenseal shows the date of the most recent change in this account.

Status Field

Enter the current status of this account:

Active-- You currently use this account.
Inactive-- You don't currently use this account, but you may in the future.
Closed-- You don't plan to use this account any more.

Investment Transactions

To move money into or out of an Investment account, use an Investment Transaction.

To create an Investment Transaction, follow these steps:

Choose Investment Transactions from the Bank menu, and choose an account from the submenu.
Click the New Button, or choose New Record from the Edit menu.
Click on the Type popup at top center, and select a Payment, Deposit, Transfer In or Transfer Out.
Enter other details for the bank transaction.

Using Investment Accounts

To enter expenses for investment accounts, enter the account into the Job field of expense transactions. That way you can track management expenses for your investments.

Otherwise you can move money in and out of them with Investment transactions, and let them sit on your balance sheet as assets.