How do I deal with dividends in accounts?
From Catalyst
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Summary
This article will explain how to deal with dividends in the Accounts.
More Information
Dividends is a payment made by a corporation to its shareholders, usually as a distribution of "after tax" profits and as such will be present in the company's Balance Sheet.
 | There are normally two stages to the paying of dividends, which is the declaration of payment to dividends and the actual payment. In most cases these are done at the same time and this is how it will be dealt with in Platinum. |
In order to deal with dividends in accounts, you will need to set-up a nominal centre for dividends. This will need to be a "Balance Sheet" centre and be a 'Financed by' type. Please click here for more details on creating a nominal centre.
Now that you have a nominal centre for dividends you will need to post a journal which will credit the Bank Account centre and debits the dividends centre. To do this you will need to: Go to " Nominal Ledger Journal Entries Cashbook Entries"".
- On "Centre :" enter the centre for your bank account. (Typically 'Z992'.)
- Set the "Money In/Out :" to 'O', as we want to credit the bank account account.
- Enter the 'Date' that you will be paying the dividends, below "Date".
- Enter the nominal centre you have created for the dividend above, below the "Centre".
- Enter the 'Nett amount' for the dividend, below the "Amount".
- Below "Comment" enter, a description for the dividend payment. (i.e. '<Person's name> div.'.)
- Add as many entries as required for the payment of dividends.
- Once you are ready to post the entries press <Esc> and click [Accept].
 | The reason why this is not being posted to the Profit and loss is because it would affect the nett profit of the business and as previously stated, dividends is a distribution of Profit. |
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