Investment Portfolios

When a company puts money into ventures — a stake in another business, a project, a managed fund — it needs to track each investment as an asset in its own right: how much capital went in, what it's worth now, what profit it threw off, and when it was wound down. The investment-portfolios sub-system is built for exactly this: it follows an investment asset from a first opportunity, through deploying the capital, to distributing profits and finally closing it out.

Required license

Investment portfolios are part of the accounting-investment license. Most screens are under Accounting > Investment Portfolios.

Two investment systems, side by side

Nama has two parallel investment sub-systems. This page covers investment portfolios — tracking investment assets (stakes, projects, funds) over their life. The other, investment documents & fund certificates, covers bond-like instruments and unit-based fund certificates. They solve different problems; pick the one that matches what you hold.

The master files

Before recording activity you set up the players and the asset:

• Investment Portfolio (Accounting > Investment Portfolios > Investment Portfolio) — the investment asset itself. It carries the investment company, the bank / bank account funding it, the running total portfolio value (in document and local currency), the profit amount, and any tax. Its status moves Initial → Ongoing → Closed as the lifecycle documents act on it.
• Investor (Accounting > Investment Portfolios > Investor) — a party that invests.
• Investment Project (Accounting > Investment Portfolios > Investment Project) — a project that capital is allocated to.

There are also building-block files — shares, stakes, cash deposits, investment funds and fund types — that describe the make-up of what's held.

The lifecycle

The portfolio's life is driven by a sequence of documents:

1. Investment Opportunity (Banks > Investment Documents > Investment Opportunity) — the planning stage: a candidate investment being studied before any money moves.

2. Investment Start (Accounting > Investment Portfolios > Investment Start) — deploys the capital. This is the document that posts: it moves the portfolio to Ongoing and records the investment. Its effect runs through the Debit / Credit sides (the investment asset against the funding bank/cash), the Investment Expense sides for any acquisition costs, and the Tax sides.

   

3. Investment Update (Accounting > Investment Portfolios > Investment update) and Investment Capital Increase (… > Investment Capital Increase) — revalue the investment or inject more capital while it's running.

4. Investment Profit Distribution (Accounting > Investment Portfolios > Investment Profit Distribution) — books the profit the investment yields and distributes it.

5. Investment End (Accounting > Investment Portfolios > Investment End) — winds the investment down and sets the portfolio to Closed.

Alongside these, Investment Allocation and Refund Investment Allocation (… > Investment Allocation / Refund Investment Allocation) move capital to and back from investment projects, and the Investment Budget (… > Investment Budget) plans figures for those projects.

Reports

The Investment Projects Balance Sheet (SYSR-IVS001) summarizes the standing of the investment projects.

For Support

• "The portfolio is stuck at Initial" — it only moves to Ongoing when an Investment Start is committed against it; check that document.
• "I can't close the investment" — closing is done by an Investment End document, not by editing the portfolio.
• "Profit isn't showing" — profit is booked by Investment Profit Distribution; the portfolio's profit amount reflects those documents.
• "Which investment system do I use?" — portfolios (here) track investment assets over their life; for bonds and fund certificates use investment documents.
• "Where do the investment / expense / tax accounts come from?" — from the Investment Start term; see Document terms.