Start by going to the Investments screen:
1. Type & Account Name: Select Enterprise Investment Schemes and enter the name of the account.
2. Balance: If the account has an existing balance (as at start-of-plan), then input this here. Purchase Value identifies the cost basis of the existing balance - from a tax perspective, of course, this is immaterial for EISs, as no CGT is levied on gains. With regards to the software's tax treatment of EISs: Read More >>
3. Contribution £ or %: To make a regular contribution, there is a choice as to whether to enter a monetary £ figure or a % figure. The % option relates to employment earnings (including or excluding bonuses).
To make a contribution that is increasing year-on-year, therefore, one may enter a value in the % field, on the basis that employment income is, itself, increasing.
If you are wanting to use existing savings/investment assets for the purpose of making contributions, on the other hand, leave the main Contribution field blank and instead use the Transfers/Additional Contributions option, under Advanced Settings. This way, recurring contributions can be scheduled from a specified source account.
Please also keep in mind that contributions will only be made if funds remain available after expenses have been met.
4. Time: Go to the Time panel located towards the right-hand side of the screen (see screenshot, above). Selections on this panel are used to set the time span over which contributions (to the EIS) are to be made - in this instance, between the Start event and the point at which Andrew decides to acquire a new sports car. If the contribution is a one-off, only a single event needs to be selected, i.e. a green dot, only.
Note: If you don't have events on the timeline already that are positioned appropriately to be used as start or end events, new ones can be easily added by clicking the New Event button, located in the bottom-right corner of the Time panel (Event tab).
5. People: In the People panel (also shown above), Andrew's name is identified as the owner of the account. Ownership will default to the primary client, so one would deselect Andrew and select Caroline if this were not correct.