How to track dividend income across brokers

Why dividends belong in the transaction log

A portfolio has two returns: what the assets are worth now versus what you paid (price return), and what they paid you along the way (income). Most trackers and most spreadsheets are good at the first and vague about the second. That vagueness is expensive if you hold ETFs, REITs or dividend stocks — for those, income can be most of the return.

Dividend income is only accurate if it is recorded at the same granularity as trades: one event, one asset, one date, one amount. Then any question — “what did VOO pay me this year?”, “what's my income yield across all brokers?” — is a sum over the log rather than a guess.

Step by step

1. Add each holding once, with its custody

Add the asset with its currency and where it's held. If you own the same ETF at two brokers, add it twice with different custody — Nudge consolidates them in the portfolio view but keeps the custody split visible. This matters for dividends because different brokers pay on different dates and sometimes withhold differently.

2. Record a cash dividend

Add a Dividend transaction: date, asset, amount received. Quantity stays zero — you didn't buy anything. It counts toward dividend income and ROI including dividends, and nothing else changes.

3. Record a reinvested dividend (DRIP)

Add a DRIP transaction: date, asset, the shares purchased and the price per share. Nudge counts it as both income (the dividend you were paid) and a buy (the shares you now own at that price). That keeps your share count, cost basis and average price correct. The DRIP cost-basis guide walks through the arithmetic.

4. Read the numbers

• Portfolio → Dividends this year / all-time. Total income across every broker, in your display currency.
• Asset detail → Dividends and ROI incl. dividends. Per holding.
• Transactions → filter Dividend / DRIP. The audit trail, by date, with notes.

5. Stop typing: import

Most brokers export a dividend or activity statement. Import it as CSV — the duplicate-aware preview shows exactly which rows are new — or, with the AI coach, attach the PDF, Excel file or a screenshot and approve the transactions it proposes. A year of dividends across three brokers is a ten-minute job.

What to watch for

• Ex-dividend vs pay date. Record the pay date — the day the money arrived. That's what your statements and your tax return use.
• Foreign dividends. Record in the asset's currency; let the FX table convert. Don't convert by hand at some remembered rate.
• Return of capital. Some REIT and fund distributions are partly return of capital rather than income. If your statement splits them, record the income part as Dividend and note the rest — return of capital technically reduces cost basis, which Nudge does not model; your tax software will.
• Accumulating ETFs. They reinvest internally and pay nothing out. Nothing to record — the return shows up in price.