All guides

// Setup & Preferences

How to Record Deposits and Withdrawals

Trades are recorded from your trades, so the only thing left to enter by hand is money moving in and out. Your balance is derived from those entries plus what your trading realized.

4 min readUpdated

Your trades already move the account’s money on their own. The only thing left to record by hand is money crossing the boundary between the account and the outside world — deposits in, withdrawals out.

// 01 · entries

Log a deposit or withdrawal

  1. Open the entry form

    SettingsManage Cash Log cash transaction. The dashboard’s balance opens the same history, and you can start an entry from there too.
  2. Pick the direction

    Deposit for money in, Withdrawal for money out.
  3. Enter the amount and effective date

    The effective date is when the money actually moved — it’s what places the entry on your balance history. A note is optional and useful for anything unusual.

// 02 · the math

How the balance is derived

The balance isn’t a number you maintain. It’s computed from two inputs, which is why it stays consistent with the rest of the app rather than drifting from it:

InputComes from
Money in and outThe deposits and withdrawals you record here.
Dividends and adjustmentsAlmost always from an import — a broker's funding rows can include dividends, and some brokers book transfers as adjustments rather than deposits.
Trading resultsThe realized results of your recorded trades, including commissions.

// 03 · imports

Cash that arrives in an import

Some broker exports include funding alongside the fills. Where they do, those rows are recognized during the import and become cash entries, so you don’t re-enter them by hand — choose to include cash on the import’s Scope step.

If your broker’s export doesn’t carry funding rows, record the deposits and withdrawals here and the two sides meet. See the importing guide.

What about an opening balance?

When a statement proves you held cash before its window opened, the preview says so and offers to record that amount once, as a single deposit dated at the start of the window. It is a notice rather than a row that imports on its own, because a balance is a snapshot, not a movement: nothing in the file says whether the money was deposited or earned, and a later statement would restate the same balance with a different date and amount, so booking it automatically would count it twice. The one-click button appears only when you are importing into the account you currently have open.

If your file carries no such figure, record the starting cash yourself as one deposit dated at the beginning of the history you imported. The balance then runs forward correctly from there.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to log a cash entry for every trade?
No. Trades already move the account's money on their own, so the only entries you make by hand are deposits and withdrawals — money crossing the boundary between the account and the outside world.
Why doesn't my balance match my broker exactly?
The balance is derived from the deposits and withdrawals you recorded, any dividends and adjustments that arrived through imports, and the results your recorded trades realized. If any of those is incomplete — a missing funding entry, or a statement you haven't imported yet — the two will differ by exactly that gap.
Does importing bring in my broker's cash movements?
For brokers whose exports carry them, yes — funding rows are recognized during the import and become cash entries, so you don't re-enter them by hand.

Was this guide helpful?

Start your free journal

Track your trades for free

Ledger-accurate P&L for options and stocks. No credit card required.