Tracking Cash

You can keep track of your cash accounts just like any other asset. This gives you an overview of your cash allocation and, in the case of foreign currency accounts, allows you to monitor returns from currency fluctuations.

A cash account in Capitally refers to an account without interest. For information on tracking interest-based deposits, please refer to tracking Bonds and Deposits article.

Automatic Cash Tracking

Capitally can automatically update cash balances based on your transactions. Whenever a transaction involves spending or receiving cash, the appropriate amount will be debited from or credited to the corresponding currency account.

Configuring Cash Tracking

By default, cash for a transaction is credited to or deducted from the same account the transaction is on. You can change that in three places: Settings → Cash Tracking for the whole project, the Positions tab when editing an Account, and the Positions tab when editing an Asset.

Those settings are layered, and a later layer overrides an earlier one:

1. Project — Settings → Cash Tracking.
2. Account — the Positions tab of an account.
3. Asset — the Positions tab of an asset. A setting on an Asset beats the same setting on an Account.
4. Asset on one specific account — the position row itself, the narrowest and strongest of the four.

The destination currency's own configuration is then applied on top of all of them. That last step is the one that catches people out: a currency is an asset, so a setting left on the Euro asset wins over anything you set on your broker accounts.

A single transaction can also opt out entirely — tick Don't track cash when editing it, and no cash movement is generated for that row.

Enabling cash tracking

Settings → Cash Tracking offers three options: Enable on accounts from first cash balance (the default), Enable everywhere, and Disabled. On an individual Account or Asset the same three choices read Enable on accounts with existing cash balance, Enable and Disabled, plus Don't override to fall back to the project setting.

Enable on accounts from first cash balance starts tracking an account only from its first transfer, deposit or Account Balance in that currency. Accounts with no cash history of their own are left alone, so nothing you never imported turns up as a negative balance. The cost: if you forget the opening balance, that currency is never tracked on that account at all.

Enable everywhere tracks every account holding a currency the project knows about, back to that account's earliest transaction. Gaps in your cash history become visible immediately, as a negative balance rather than a silent zero. It is the right choice when you intend to have complete cash records everywhere, and the wrong one when only some of your accounts have cash history.

When a currency doesn't show up

A currency needs two things before Capitally tracks a balance in it: cash tracking enabled on the relevant account or project, and the currency itself present in the project. A currency joins the project the first time a transaction or an import references it — as the asset traded, or as the value, fee or strike currency of a transaction.

To add one without waiting for a transaction, click Add, search for the currency (USD, EUR, and so on) and choose Just add to the project.

With Enable on accounts from first cash balance you additionally need at least one Transfer, Buy or Account Balance on that currency before a balance appears. Importing with a built-in broker preset handles this for you — the preset creates the transactions that start the tracking.

Tracking all transactions in a single currency

Some brokers automatically convert foreign currencies on your behalf, maintaining your account in a single currency. By setting the Convert cash to a single currency option, you instruct Capitally to automatically convert all currencies to your chosen base currency.

You can configure this setting for specific accounts (such as brokers that perform automatic conversion) or even for specific currencies by adjusting this option in the Currency position's settings.

Using a separate account for cash

Use a single account for cash pins every cash movement it applies to onto one nominated account. Set it on an Account when you pay for that broker's trades directly from a checking account, or on a Currency position when one currency lives somewhere else. Leave it alone otherwise — the default, cash on the same account as the transaction, is what most portfolios want.

Symptom: cash for Broker B's trades is coming out of Broker A. This is almost always a Use a single account for cash override left on the currency asset rather than on an account. Because the currency's configuration is applied last, a Euro asset pinned to one account routes every euro transaction there, whichever broker account the transaction belongs to. Open the currency asset — Euro, in that example — and clear the single-account override.

The same override also silently blocks imports: rows whose account differs from the pinned one are skipped with the note "Cash tracking is configured to use a different account ... so cash transfers won't be imported".

Understanding Minor Discrepancies in Your Cash Balance

You may occasionally notice a small difference between the cash balance displayed in Capitally and the actual balance in your brokerage account. This is a common occurrence and is easy to correct.

Why It Happens
Brokerage platforms often execute numerous small cash transactions, particularly during currency conversions. Each platform uses slightly different methods for rounding and tracking these balances. Over time, these tiny rounding differences can accumulate, potentially causing a discrepancy of a few cents up to a few dollars. This can also sometimes result in a small negative cash balance appearing in Capitally.

How to Reconcile Your Balance
You can easily correct this by adding an Account Balance transaction in Capitally. Simply enter the accurate cash balance from your brokerage statement, and the discrepancy will be resolved.

Important Note
Making these adjustments is standard practice for accurate record-keeping. Since these are related to your cash balance and not investment gains or losses, they do not have any tax implications.

Why an import into one account changed cash in my other accounts

Cash is only tracked in currencies that are part of the project, and a currency joins the project the moment any transaction or import first references it. From that moment, with Enable everywhere, its balance is tracked in every account holding transactions in that currency, back-filled to that account's earliest one.

Accounts whose cash history you never imported have no deposits to draw down, so the back-filled balance goes negative and the import preview flags "This position will have a negative balance". Two things are worth stating plainly:

• The changes are real. They are applied to those other accounts too, not just shown in the preview.
• The file you are importing is not the cause. The negative balance reflects cash history missing from those accounts.

It looks intermittent because only the first import that pulls a given currency into the project triggers it. Once the currency is in, later imports touch only their own accounts, and whether a particular file triggers it at all depends on whether its rows happen to reference that currency.

To resolve it, pick one: import the cash history for the affected accounts; add an Account Balance transaction on the currency for each of them; or switch to Enable on accounts from first cash balance, which leaves accounts with no cash records of their own untouched.

How cash affects your returns

Deposits and withdrawals do not by themselves move your rate of return, and holding cash earns none — a cash position is fixed at a price of 1 in its own currency, so only the exchange rate can move it. What does distort returns is cash tracking switched on over an incomplete cash history.

Negative balances distort everything downstream. Enable cash tracking without importing the matching transfers — the deposits from your bank into your broker — and Capitally computes negative cash balances. Those feed into cash flows and invested principal, and from there into every return metric. To repair it:

1. Set cash tracking to Enable on accounts from first cash balance.
2. Add the real transfers between your broker and bank accounts. Most broker presets import these for you.
3. For bonds, re-import after enabling cash tracking so the preset creates the missing cash deposits.
4. Seed the balance you held before you started investing with an Account Balance transaction, or a transfer from another account.

A cash position showing a three-digit return — +580% is a real example — is a different fault: cash is always worth 1 in its own currency, so that return comes from a Buy or Sell recorded against the position at some other price. Open the position and check its transactions.

What returns include depends on what you are viewing

Viewing a single asset, IRR uses that asset's Buys, Sells and Dividends and excludes cash balances. Viewing a whole account or the whole portfolio, every cash flow enters the calculation, cash balances included. That is why an Account Balance on your currencies is what makes portfolio-level metrics reflect cash alongside invested assets — see Portfolio metrics for Invested Principal and Principal change.

Dividends you reinvest are not counted twice

With cash tracking on, a dividend credits the cash position on that account and the purchase you make later debits it. Value moves between two positions you already hold, so the money is counted once. With cash tracking off, the dividend has nowhere to land: update the balance yourself with an Account Balance transaction, or the cash never reaches your portfolio value and the later purchase has no matching outflow.

Capitally does not separate purchases funded by dividends from purchases funded by new deposits on its own. If you want that split, tag the Buy transactions — Reinvested against Own money — and filter on the tag. See Tags.

If dividends from an asset held in one account are paid into another, set Use a single account for cash on the first account to the account that receives them, or add a Convert / Move transaction after each payment.

Importing Cash Transactions from a Bank

Currently, Capitally is not optimized to track thousands of cash expenses and transfers, so importing your full account statement might not be the most efficient method. Instead, we recommend tracking the current balance on all your cash accounts. You can do this manually or import the balance in bulk for convenience.

How to Select the Right Asset

To ensure optimal results, simply search for the currency you wish to track and create transactions on all accounts where you have that currency.

For instance, if you have multiple dollar accounts in different institutions, you can add an Account Balance transaction on each of them. Once you've created an initial transaction on an account, it will appear in the Positions view. Here, you can update the balance by double-clicking it.

In the rare case where you have two sub-accounts in the same currency (e.g., if your bank account has multiple sub-accounts), you can create multiple custom assets of type Cash to track each sub-account individually.

Dividing one account into budget buckets

To split one physical bank balance into categories — emergency fund, holiday, guilty pleasures — use one Capitally account plus tags, not one account per bucket. Create a single account representing the physical bank account, set interest-based pricing on it with the real rate, and tag transactions with the bucket they belong to. Nest the tags for tidiness: Bucket/Emergency, Bucket/Holiday.

To look at one bucket, open the Tags tab in Portfolio, or type #bucket in the search box. See Tags.

If the bank really does have separate sub-accounts, do the opposite: one Capitally account per sub-account, grouped under a folder named after the bank (Account folders), each with its own interest settings. The totals add up correctly because each account holds distinct money. When two of those sub-accounts are in the same currency, the custom Cash assets described above are how you keep them apart.

Exploring Your Cash Accounts

The Portfolio section allows you to visualize your cash allocation and assess the impact of foreign currency on your portfolio value by switching the viewing currency or using it as a benchmark.

To see all your cash positions, navigate to Portfolio -> Types -> Cash. From here, you can delve deeper into specific Accounts or Currencies. Or you can use the Cash balances bookmark available under the Portfolio menu.

There's also a dedicated Breakdown chart in Returns section that will visualize the impact of currencies, fees, taxes and investment income on your returns.

Including money-market funds and other cash-like holdings

Cash in Capitally is a special asset type: price fixed at 1, denominated in a FIAT currency. A market-traded instrument such as a money-market fund (CSH2 and its peers) cannot be turned into a cash asset. What you can do is build one view that holds both.

1. Open the asset and set its Category taxonomy to Money Market, or to Cash where that fits better. See Taxonomies.
2. In Portfolio, filter on Asset Category is Cash, Money Market.
3. Save the filtered view as a bookmark, so it sits in the main menu next to the built-in Cash balances bookmark.

The result is one place showing actual cash balances alongside cash-like holdings, which is usually what people mean when they ask what their cash position is.

Tracking currency positions and FX trades

Currencies are assets in Capitally, so you can hold one as a position and measure its return. To track a foreign-currency holding — say JPY — add a Buy on JPY at the price you paid. Its return then moves with the exchange rate, day by day, which is how every foreign-currency position behaves. Close it with a Sell at the closing price.

Pair trades

For a USD/JPY-style trade, use a Buy on cash and specify both the price and the other currency. You then need a Transfer or Account Balance so the other side's balance is right. Starting from 100 USD and 0 EUR:

1. Buy 90 EUR for 100 USD.
2. Set the USD balance to 0, or add a Transfer of -100 USD.
3. From there, Sell the EUR for another currency, or open a second Buy.

Seeing your average purchase price

Open the currency's position, set the date period to Max so every transaction is included, and the Price tab charts your average purchase price against the current market rate. The arithmetic alternative: Principal change divided by Quantity change gives the same weighted average.

If you bought the same currency from several sources — PLN to USD and EUR to USD — all of it converts to the project's base currency, so that average is blended. To split it by source currency, export the transaction table with the export icon above the table and filter in a spreadsheet.