A typical accounting grid would look like this
The aqua arrows permit you to move around. Press the + button to add a trade.
When you add a trade, you put in the stock name, date, number of shares, price, commission, fees, dividend. Some of these items, such as commission, is put in automatically. The stock name must be a stock in the Contracts table. You choose a stock from a list.
This is shown as two lines, as it does not fit on the screen.
For a trade, we have the fields specifying the Account (name, type, and number), stock, date.
If you leave Stock blank, it refers to an account transaction, such as interest or fees.
If you received shares from a mutual fund that was reinvested, then check Reinvest. The information here will be treated as information only, and not used to calculate the balance or profit.
Another use for the Reinvest box is when you are verifying your statement. When you see "Trades Pending Settlement", if you wish not to include this with the calculated balance, check Reinvest. Be sure to uncheck after you verified your statement!
The number of shares traded, and Price per share. After the trade, you have Remaining shares left. E.g., you bought 200 shares. At a later date you sold 100.
Commission. Fees charged. Usually pennies for SEC and such. Dividend.
Invested: This is the amount invested in this stock in the account. The program calculates this quantity. For example, look at the grid above. You bought 100 shares of GM at 38.50. Invested is -3880.00. You then bought 250 shares at 39.49. Invested is now -13,782.50. As we trade GM, invested changes. When we are out, with the shares remaining 0, 0 invested is 985.00. This is our profit.
For deposits to the account, enter the amount in Amount.
The program calculates the Real and Unreal profit and loss. The Real profit is calculated when the number of shares remaining is zero. To do this correctly, especially for tax purposes, we have to decide which trade in the past we are going to take the profit. The program does not get involved with these complexities. If you wish to modify the profit, so that you get a more accurate estimation of your monthly profits, then check UserProfit, and enter your calculation of the profit. In this case, the program will not override it.
Comments are for brief comments. Notes are for your detailed comments why you made the trade. You will be able to do a text search for such comments.