Your bank balance is not your net profit
Top up your trading bank by $200 and the balance rises by $200 while net profit moves zero. The two numbers run on different formulas, and the moment they drift apart is exactly when you decide whether to buy the next evaluation, with real money riding on which number you read.
In this guide
The short answer
Start here
Run two numbers. Net profit = received payouts − logged firm costs, and only those two inputs; bank cash position = starting fund + payouts + top-ups − costs − withdrawals. Read profit to judge whether the funded attempt is paying for itself and cash position to judge whether you can afford the next purchase. A top-up or withdrawal changes the second without touching the first.
What matters
- Enter a top-up under capital the day it lands; if it ever reaches your profit math, every later read of the attempt is overstated by that amount.
- Log the withdrawal date and amount when you move cash out. The payout behind it stays in profit, so cash position is the only number that drops.
- When a linked bank feed shows a firm charge your ledger lacks, add the cost before your next profit read; when the ledger shows more than the feed, change nothing.
1
Two formulas, and the $2,700 they disagree by
Net profit is received payouts minus logged firm costs (every dollar paid to a firm: evaluation fees, resets, activation, data add-ons) and nothing else. Bank cash position starts from the fund you declared for the path to funded, then adds every payout and top-up and subtracts every cost and withdrawal. Two of those five inputs, top-ups and withdrawals, touch only the cash side, which is why the numbers separate the first time you move your own money.
In the worked example below, the desk, your prop operation across every firm, holds $4,100 in the bank and has earned $1,400. The $2,700 between them is fully accounted for: $3,000 of starting fund, plus a $200 top-up, minus $500 withdrawn. Read $4,100 as earnings and you credit the desk with nearly three times what trading returned.
2
Which number each money movement touches
The expensive misread happens at the purchase decision. You top up $200 after a losing month, the balance recovers, and the recovered balance talks you into the next evaluation. A purchase justified by a number your own deposit just inflated. The fix is mechanical: run every movement through both formulas before you read either one.
Applied to the example: whether this attempt is paying for itself is answered by the $1,400, and whether you can afford the next fee is answered by the $4,100. Both questions are legitimate before a purchase; only the first one measures your trading.
- A firm cost (evaluation, reset, activation, data) lowers both numbers by the same amount.
- A received payout raises both numbers by the same amount.
- A top-up raises cash position only: it is your own money arriving, and it never enters the profit formula.
- A withdrawal lowers cash position only: the payout that funded it already counted toward profit and stays counted.
3
A linked bank feed is a floor on recent spend
A feed from a linked U.S. bank lists recent charges, and matching a charge to a logged cost confirms that entry. The useful direction is one-way: a firm charge in the feed that your ledger lacks is a real, unlogged cost, add it, and your profit read drops by that amount immediately. If the example's $1,100 of logged costs were missing one $150 reset, the feed is the instrument most likely to surface it, adding it lifts logged costs to $1,250 and drops profit from $1,400 to $1,250.
The reverse direction proves nothing. A ledger entry the feed lacks may sit on an unlinked card, predate the history window the institution serves, or hide behind a merchant descriptor that never names the firm; refunds also land as separate lines. That asymmetry is why the linked lens stays separately labeled on the Bank surface while the manual ledger stays the total of record.
Worked example
Assumptions, not a forecastThe same desk, read two ways
- Hypothetical starting fund declared for the funded attempt: $3,000.
- Received payouts to date: $2,500. Logged firm costs to date: $1,100.
- One top-up from personal savings: $200. One withdrawal to a personal account: $500.
Net profit = $2,500 − $1,100 = $1,400. Cash position = $3,000 + $2,500 − $1,100 + $200 − $500 = $4,100. The $2,700 difference is exactly the capital movements: $3,000 + $200 − $500.
All figures are labeled hypotheticals and assume a complete, single-currency ledger. Neither number is the P&L inside a funded account, a tax figure, or a forecast.
Tool tutorial
Run both numbers in the manual Bank
- 1
Declare the starting fund and its currency once. That capital line explains most of the gap between the two headline numbers from day one and never enters profit.
- 2
Log every firm cost with its date and category as you pay it. Costs are one of only two profit inputs, so one missed $150 reset overstates profit by exactly $150.
- 3
Log a payout on its received date. Both numbers move on receipt; a requested payout that has not landed moves neither.
- 4
File top-ups and withdrawals as capital movements, then read the pair before any purchase: profit says whether the attempt earns, cash position says whether the next fee fits.
- 5
If you link a U.S. bank, work the unmatched-charge list one way: add feed charges the ledger lacks, and leave ledger entries the feed lacks alone.
Give the campaign one honest cash ledger
Manual Bank keeps cash position, costs and received payouts in one currency. Capital Control and the U.S. Plaid lens add connected review layers within Pro.
Pro required. Manual Bank and linked evidence remain separately labeled and never merge Plaid transactions into the manual total.
Evidence boundary
What NANO can and cannot know
NANO cannot reconstruct charges outside the linked feed's institutions and history window, resolve every merchant descriptor to a firm, convert mixed currencies into one ledger line, or decide whether a recurring charge you find should be cancelled. Both headline numbers are ledgers of your own entries. They are complete only if you are.
Common questions
- Is my prop firm payout profit?
- Only after costs: profit is received payouts minus every logged firm cost. A $2,500 payout against $1,100 of evaluation and reset fees is $1,400 of profit, the payout alone overstates it by $1,100.
- Why is my bank balance higher than my net profit?
- Because the balance carries your starting fund and top-ups, and profit never does. In the worked example the gap is $2,700: $3,000 starting fund plus a $200 top-up minus $500 withdrawn.
- Does linking my bank replace manual logging?
- No. The feed is a cross-check on recent charges at supported U.S. institutions, and the manual ledger stays the total of record. Work each unmatched feed charge as a prompt to add a cost you never logged; an unmatched ledger entry needs no action at all.