Hi, I maintain several portfolios in a single file, each of which feature the same dividend paying securities.
To minimize the amount of time taken to input the dividends these pay I use the duplicate transaction function. I had hoped that adding a record for one of these dividend payments (with this function) would simply involve changing a date, but for some reason whenever I do this PP automatically updates the number of shares/units associated with this record. More often than not the number of shares/units shouldn’t have been changed and I have to re-enter the correct details.
From what I can tell this issue only occurs if a security is held in multiple accounts. Any pointers or suggestions would be welcomed
You are right; modifying the date changes the number of shares to the total number of shares. I guess the idea is to calculate how many shares were available on a given day, and to update the field accordingly (but it happens even if the numbers have not changed).
As for having to re-enter the correct amount – are you aware that by clicking the little button next to where you enter the number of shares, you can open a menu that allows you to pick the number of shares associated with each account? That should make it easier to enter the correct numbers.
One workaround I can think of is to use the duplicate transaction function but without changing any data, not even the date, then save the transaction with the wrong date. Now that you have two identical transactions with the same date in your list of transactions…
… you can double-click one of them and change the date from within the list itself, which does not change the number of shares:
Alternatively, you can “properly” edit the duplicated transaction (right-click, then Edit…), as changing the date while editing an existing transaction does not seem to change the number of shares either.
Really appreciated the explanation you provided re’ the possibility of being able to select the number of shares/units associated with each account from a menu. Likewise it was good to hear about the workaround et al. IMHO all of what you wrote is worthy of inclusion in PPs manual .
Having said that I remain perplexed as to why the number of shares/units should change if the date is amended.
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