Dividends
CBSMembers handles the full dividend lifecycle — from calculation through approval to payment export and member statements. All four payment preferences (bank transfer, reinvestment, cheque, and donation) are fully supported.
Overview
A dividend run covers a specific period (usually a financial year) for a specific share class. The process is:
- Create a draft run and set the parameters
- Calculate — CBSMembers works out each member's entitlement
- Review the results
- Commit the calculation (saves all lines to the database)
- Approve the run
- Export payment files and generate statements
Creating a dividend run
Open the Dividends screen from the toolbar. Click New Run and fill in:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | A label for the run, e.g. "2025 Annual Dividend" |
| Share class | The class of shares being paid on |
| Period start | First day of the dividend period |
| Period end | Last day of the dividend period |
| Rate | Dividend rate as a percentage, e.g. 3.5 for 3.5% |
| Reinvestment issue | The share issue new shares will be allocated to for reinvesting members |
| Reinvestment cert date | Date to use for reinvested share certificates |
Click Save to create the draft run.
How dividends are calculated
For each active (or mid-period-withdrawn) certificate, CBSMembers calculates:
cert_start = MAX(period_start, MIN(cert_date, effective_date))
cert_end = MIN(period_end, withdrawal_date) ← if withdrawn mid-period
days_held = cert_end - cert_start
dividend = ROUND(num_shares × rate / days_in_period × days_held, 2)
Certificates that were not active at any point during the period are excluded. Suspended certificates are excluded.
Payment preferences
Each member's dividend is handled according to their payment preference:
| Preference | What happens |
|---|---|
| Bank transfer | Included in BACS export for payment to member's bank account |
| Reinvest | Converted into new shares; a certificate is created automatically on commit |
| Cheque | Included in the payment schedule for manual cheque processing |
| Donate | Recorded as donated back to the society; no payment made |
Calculating and committing
Once the run is set up, click Calculate. CBSMembers shows a preview of all dividend lines — member name, shares held, days held, and dividend amount — grouped by payment preference, with totals.
Review the results carefully. If anything looks wrong, adjust the run parameters and recalculate.
When you're satisfied, click Commit. This saves all the dividend lines to the database and:
- Creates reinvestment share certificates for reinvesting members
- Updates the run totals
After committing, the run status moves from Draft to Saved.
Approving a run
Once a run is Saved, it can be reviewed by an authorised user and set to Approved. This is the final lock — an approved run cannot be recalculated.
Click Approve on the run detail screen.
Voiding a run
If a mistake is discovered after approval, a run can be voided. This does not delete the run — it marks it as Void and preserves it for audit. You would then create a new corrected run.
Click Void on the run detail screen.
Exports
Once a run is Committed or Approved, the following exports are available:
BACS CSV
A UK BACS-format CSV file for bank transfer payments. Contains member name, sort code, account number, and payment amount. Bank details are decrypted automatically for the export.
Payment Schedule PDF
An A4 PDF listing all payments — bank transfers in one section, cheques in another. Useful as a record and for processing cheque payments manually.
Full Report PDF
A landscape A4 PDF with one row per member, showing certificate details, days held, dividend amount, and payment preference. Useful for board review.
Excel / ODS / CSV
Tabular exports of all dividend lines for further analysis or record-keeping.
Dividend statements
A per-member dividend statement PDF can be generated for all members in a run. Click Generate Statements on the run detail screen.
Statements include the member's name, the period, their shares, dividend rate, amount, and payment method. They use your organisation's branding.
Generated statements are stored in MinIO and published to the member portal automatically.
Emailing statements
After generating statements, click Email Statements to open the Mail Sender pre-configured with the dividend run as the source. Each member with an email address will receive their statement as an attachment. See Communications.