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
- If margin is enabled and the purchase exceeds available brokerage cash, the shortfall becomes investment-purpose margin debt. Because the shortfall was used to buy securities, interest on that portion is deductible.
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? If margin is off, the app won't let you record a purchase that exceeds available brokerage cash. Check that you've recorded all borrows and deposits first.
If margin is enabled, the app can use brokerage margin for the shortfall. The shortfall becomes investment-purpose margin debt because it was used to buy securities.
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
- Brokerage margin — how margin shortfalls are tracked
- CRA rules applied — flexible tracing for mixed cash