Investment Purchase
Record this when you buy stocks or ETFs in your brokerage account.
What you enter
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Yes | Settlement date of the trade |
| Symbol | Yes | Ticker symbol of the security |
| Units | Yes | Number of shares purchased |
| Price per unit or Total amount | Yes | Purchase price per share, or total cost including fee |
| Fee | No | Trading commission (default 0) |
| Borrowed amount | No | How much comes from borrowed cash. Default: all available borrowed cash, up to the purchase amount |
What happens
- Borrowed Cash decreases by the borrowed portion; Personal Cash decreases by the remainder
- Non-deductible principal decreases by the borrowed portion used for the purchase
- Deductible invested principal increases by the same amount — this debt is now funding an investment
- A new holding is created (or existing holding's cost base increases)
- The holding's cost base is split into Borrowed Cost Base and Personal Cost Base
By default the app uses borrowed cash first, maximizing the deductible portion. You can override this — the CRA allows flexible tracing for commingled funds (S3-F6-C1 paragraph 1.42).
Common questions
What if I have both borrowed and personal cash? The app allocates borrowed cash first by default. You can adjust the split if you prefer a different allocation.
What if I don't have enough cash? The app won't let you record a purchase that exceeds your available cash. Check that you've recorded all borrows and deposits first.
How are multiple purchases of the same security handled? They're pooled into one position with a blended cost base and borrowed/personal ratio, consistent with Canada's ACB rules.
Learn more
- Setting up your first tracking — the borrow-buy cycle
- CRA rules applied — flexible tracing for mixed cash