A receipt import attaches evidence to an existing dividend. It should not create a second income record just because another file contains the same payment.
Separate three kinds of records
A dividend model records the eligible shares, dividend per share and entered deductions. A receipt records cash actually posted. A trade records a purchase or sale. They are related evidence, but importing a receipt is not the same operation as importing a trade or creating a new dividend.
Investor.gov’s brokerage-statement explanation is background for distinguishing transactions and account records. The NBRDEMO security name and payment below are entirely fictional. They are not a real broker export, an actual listed-security quotation or a claim that a particular investor pays the example tax percentage.
Background source: Investor.gov: understanding brokerage account records
Prepare exactly one source dividend
Export your own DividenNote JSON before using the practice backup; a full restore replaces the journal. The practice file contains one received dividend dated 1 October 2026: 100 shares × USD1 = USD100 gross, with a hypothetical 15% withholding and USD1 fee, giving USD84 modeled net. It has no saved receipt yet. Base currency is USD to avoid a separate FX question.
The file has no opening holding or trades. Its 100 dividend-eligible shares describe this payment only and must not be interpreted as a complete portfolio. Use it in a separate practice journal where possible. If you are working from your own documents, create only the dividend actually supported by those documents.
Import file A and inspect the match
In Dividends, set the year filter to 2026 and the market filter to All markets for this fixed-date exercise. Restore keeps your existing year selection; a different selected year can show zero receipts even after a successful import. Then open receipt CSV import and select receipt-file-a.csv. Map date, market, ticker, amount, currency, reference, rate and fee to their matching columns. Use the account nickname Practice-Receipts consistently. The row is dated 2 October 2026, market US, ticker NBRDEMO, USD84.00, reference CASE-DIV-01, same-currency rate 1 and known extra fee 0.
The preview offers the nearby existing dividend as a candidate. Check it rather than treating the proposal as proof. Select that one dividend and explicitly save the selected receipt. The receipt-year total should be USD84 with one covered record. The original dividend model remains one record; do not add the USD84 model total and USD84 actual total together as USD168 of income.
| Practice state and file | Expected preview | Actual receipt total after save |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh journal + file A | 1 ready row | USD84.00 |
| After A + overlapping B | 2 duplicate rows | USD84.00 |
| Fresh journal + conflict file | 2 blocked rows | No receipt saved |
Now try the overlapping second file
After saving file A, preview receipt-file-b-overlap.csv with the same mapping and account nickname. It deliberately contains the same payment twice. Both rows should be duplicates and should not add receipts or income. If file B is previewed in the untouched practice journal instead, its first row is ready and its second row is a duplicate; saving the first still covers just one existing dividend.
The nickname is part of receipt identity. Use stable local nicknames for the same account rather than inventing a new one for each file. Equal amounts alone do not prove two records are the same: separate securities, accounts or genuine payments can share a cash amount. Review the reference, date, market, ticker and actual statement together.
A changed amount under the same reference is a conflict
Preview receipt-reference-conflict.csv. It contains USD84 and USD85 under the same account, market and payment reference. Both conflicting rows are blocked; file order must not decide which amount wins. Do not delete a reference or rename the account merely to force the row through. Find the statement version or correction that explains the change.
This first receipt checker is one-to-one. A single dividend split into multiple cash receipts, a reversal or one payment covering several dividends needs manual treatment outside this ordinary import path. A row without a suitable existing dividend cannot become trustworthy merely because its net cash looks plausible.
Keep a result you can audit later
After the exercise, export a fresh full JSON and a receipt-check report. Check one source dividend, one saved receipt, actual USD84 and unchanged transaction count. Keep the original files alongside a note saying which was the overlapping export. A CSV report is evidence for reading, not a complete restorable journal.
These expected statuses are checked with the shipped importer and reconciliation functions. That is automated parser/model verification, not a real broker-file certification or a claim that the workflow was manually tested on mobile. With actual statements, preserve originals privately and inspect the preview before every save.
Download the practice and audit files
Put it into practice
Back up first, restore the one-dividend practice journal and preview file A. Receipt import attaches to the existing dividend; it is not a trade import.
Open DividenNote