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Portfolio Investments: Creating Purchases (Holdings)

Portfolio Investments: Creating Purchases (Holdings)

This guide walks you through creating a Purchase transaction, which establishes a holding in a security and enables additional investment activity such as sales, valuations, and other investment transactions.

What You’ll Learn

In this guide, you’ll learn how to:

  • Create a Purchase (Holding) for a security
  • Understand how security types affect purchase fields
  • Configure participating entities and entity allocations
  • Add Portfolio Attributes to a holding
  • Send purchase transactions to the General Ledger (GL)
  • Edit or delete purchase transactions
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Who Can Use This Feature

Ark Client Admin

  • Access to all funds within their client
  • Can create, edit, and manage investment transactions

Basic Admin

  • Access limited to funds on their Fund Team
  • Can create and manage investment transactions where applicable

Fund User Admin

  • Read-only access to investment transactions
  • May edit Portfolio Attribute values if the attribute is configured with “Read Only User Can Edit.”
Before You Begin

Before creating a purchase transaction:

  • The Asset must already exist.
  • The Security must already be created for the Asset.
  • Any required Portfolio Attributes should be configured if applicable.
  • You should understand the security type, as this may determine which transaction fields appear.
What Is a Purchase (Holding)?

A Purchase transaction creates a holding (lot) in a security.

The holding represents the position owned by participating entities and serves as the foundation for all future investment activity.

Within Portfolio Investments, investments follow this structure:

Asset
 → Security
 → Holding / Purchase
 → Investment Activity
  • Transactions
  • Valuations
  • (Optional: Send to GL)
 → Schedule of Investments (SOI)

Other investment transactions cannot be recorded until a holding has been created.

Step-by-Step: Create a Purchase from a Security

Users can create a purchase immediately after creating a new security.

After a security is successfully created, the system provides an option to begin creating a purchase for that security.

When initiating a purchase this way:

  • The Asset and Security fields will already be populated in the purchase form.

Follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Portfolio Investments → Securities.
  2. Click Add Security.
  3. Complete the security creation form and click Create Security.
  4. On the confirmation screen, select Create Purchase.
  5. Complete the purchase transaction form.
  6. Click Save or Save & Send to GL.
Step-by-Step: Create a Purchase from the Investment Transactions Page

Users can also create purchases from the Investment Transactions page.

For detailed information about the Investment Transactions page and transaction workflows, see the Managing Investment Transactions guide.

To create a purchase from this page:

  1. Navigate to Portfolio Investments → Investment Transactions.
  2. Click Add New → New Investment Transaction.
  3. Select Purchase.
  4. Complete the purchase transaction form.
  5. Click Save or Save & Send to GL.
Transaction Details

After selecting Purchase, users complete the Transaction Details section.

Required fields typically include:

  • Asset
  • Security
  • Transaction Date
  • Participating Entities

Additional fields may appear depending on the security type.

Validation and Reconciliation

When creating a purchase transaction, the system validates that:

  • Required fields are completed
  • Entity allocations reconcile with transaction totals
  • Intermediary relationships are valid

If values do not reconcile, users will receive prompts indicating which fields must be corrected before the transaction can be saved.

Entity Allocations

The Entity Allocations section defines how the investment is distributed across participating entities.

Users can:

  • Allocate investment amounts across funds and entities
  • Configure intermediary relationships
  • Establish flow-through structures
  • Build the investment hierarchy for reporting

Entity structures may include multiple layers, depending on the organization’s fund structure.

Allocations must reconcile before the transaction can be saved.

Portfolio Attributes on Holdings

Portfolio Attributes may appear within the purchase transaction form.

Two sections may appear:

Required Portfolio Attributes

These attributes must be completed before the transaction can be saved.

Optional Portfolio Attributes

Optional attributes can be added if relevant to the investment.

Portfolio Attributes are configured on the Portfolio Attributes page and may vary depending on the organization’s setup.

Multi-Currency Transactions

If an investment involves multiple currencies, an additional Currency tab will appear.

This tab allows users to:

  • Record exchange rates
  • Track transaction amounts across currencies

The Currency tab only appears when applicable.

Editing Purchase Transactions
  1. Navigate to the purchase transaction on the Investment Transactions page.
  2. Open the transaction using View Details.
  3. Update fields as needed.
  4. Click Save or Save & Send to GL.

Edits may trigger updates to related journal entries depending on their GL status.

Deleting Purchase Transactions

Users may delete purchase transactions when necessary by selecting the purchase transaction on the Investment Transactions page and selecting Delete (n) from the action drop-down.

Best Practices
  • Confirm the correct security type before creating a purchase.
  • Ensure entity allocations reconcile before saving.
  • Establish the correct entity hierarchy during the initial purchase to simplify future investment transactions.
  • Use Save & Send to GL when financial reporting entries should be created immediately.
Next Steps

After creating a purchase transaction, users can record additional investment activity such as:

  • Sales
  • Valuations
  • Income
  • Expenses
  • Conversions
  • Realizations

These workflows are covered in the Managing Investment Transactions guide.