Financial Accounting - Investment Account
Financial Accounting - Investment Account
Financial Accounting - Investment Account
Anyone can buy and sell securities from a stock exchange with the purpose to increase his/her
(monetary) assets. Sale and purchase of the securities is done through banks. The stockbrokers
help people in trading by paying the amount of commission, stamp duty, and brokerage on it,
which are the essential parts of security trading.
At the time of selling of these securities, charges should be deducted from the sale, as proceeds
to get the actual sale price. Most of the time, market price is different from the face value of
securities, which depends upon different regulating factors. If market value of the securities is
equal to face value, it is called as at par; if market value is less than face value, it is called as on
discount; and if market value is higher than face value, it is said to be on premium.
Meaning of Investment
Investment means either buying or creating an asset with the future expectation of capital
appreciation, dividends (profit), rents, interest earnings, or some combination of these returns.
However, normally, investment inherent with some form of risk, such as investment in equities,
property, and even fixed interest securities, among other things, are the subject to inflation risk.
Further, among all these, securities are held as long term investment to earn income. It is said
to be fixed assets, but where objective of an organization is to sell and buy securities in short
term fund to utilize its surplus fund, would come under the category of current assets.
Fixed Interest Securities − Holders of fixed interest securities get fixed rate of interest.
Variable Yield Securities − Under this category, return on investment may differ from
year to year.
Investment Account
Investment account is an account opened for the purpose of the investment. Further, if the
number of investment is large, a separate account for each investment should be opened.
Investment A/cDr
On purchase of investment
To Cash/Bank A/c
(Being Investment made)
Cash/Bank A/cDr
To Investment A/c
Cash/Bank/Investment A/cDr
To Dividend/Interest A/c
Investment Transactions
We normally have the following two types of investments transactions −
So, a seller at the time of selling shares normally charge value of the accrued dividends up to the
date of sale, and this is called ‘CUM DIVIDEND” or “CUM INTEREST”. Since, the sale price is
inclusive of the value of a share and interest or dividend, therefore at the time of entry in the
books of accounts, normal price of share should be booked in the investment account and the
value of dividend or interest should be debited to dividend or interest account.
At the time of receiving dividend or interest, dividend or interests account will be credited,
debiting cash or bank account. On the other hand, in the books of seller, normal price of the
share should be credited to Investment account and the price of accrued dividend or interest
should be credited to the dividend or interest account as the case may be.
Investment A/cDr
Cash/Bank A/cDr
Cash/Bank A/cDr
Cum interest or dividend prices are inclusive of the interest or dividend accrued at the
date of purchase, whereas in case of the ex-dividend, prices are excluding value of the
dividend or interest.
The purchase price is higher than normal purchase price in case of Cum-dividend, whereas
purchase price is the real price in case of ex-dividend.
In case where part of the investments are sold and the balance investments stand unsold, it
should be carried forward to the next accounting period and remaining balance of the two sides
(debit and credit) will represent profit or loss on the sale of investment.
In case where investments are the fixed assets, then the profit or loss will be of capital revenue
or capital loss and should be treated accordingly.
Equity Share Accounts
Main features of investment account regarding the equity shares are given as hereunder −
Bonus Shares − Bonus shares are issued by the profitable companies to the existing
shareholders of the company without any additional amount. Purpose of the bonus share
is to capitalize reserves of the company. Only number of the shares will be added in face
value column, and principle or capital column will remain unchanged.
Right Shares − Right shares are first offered to the existing shareholders of the company
as a matter of the right, hence called as right shares. As per Companies Act, right shares
can be issued after two years of the establishment of a company or after one year of first
issue.