Hi Lillian,

In our bivio program, we have a bank account, a broker account and a suspense account (easy to set up, just "add' a new account). When we have a transaction that we know will be "in and out", we record the expense in the suspense account, and record the deposit from each member as a credit to that expense. That way, we can look at the account detail and see exactly who's purchased their book (or whatever) and how much of that expense is left waiting.

As for the differences with AccountSync, it boils down to how many decimals the broker calculates their transactions compare to bivio. It's a common issue, which is why I recommend to other treasurers to always balance to the penny every month. By the end of the year, it can be a real mess.

Lynn Ostrem

garbagecop@gmail.com

Crow River Investment Club

Hi Lillian,

 

Lynn's suggestion of the suspense account works well when you have an 'in and out' situation. Your practice, though, seems to contemplate buying 5 books at a time, and then getting reimbursed by new members. Your idea of expensing these books when you buy them, and, then, entering a negative expense when reimbursed is probably as good as any.

 

As for your investment transactions not jiving, try this. Never enter an amount in the price per share box. Use only the Shares and Amount boxes. When you enter figures in the price box, bivio makes a calculation for the total amount, and this could introduce rounding errors. If you make your entries to the Amount boxes, you are entering a figure that will agree with your broker. bivio will compute a price, but this computation will not affect the basis of the investment, so your bivio journal and your broker statement should agree.

 

Rip West
Saint Paul, MN