# Cash dividend and distribution

Source: https://docs.settlemint.com/docs/console/asset-management/manage/cash-dividend
Declare a cash dividend or distribution, read the preview of holder entitlements, fund the treasury, get any approval required, and confirm the holder snapshot.

A cash dividend and a distribution paid in cash are declarations: a corporate action that fixes an amount per share, records which holders are entitled on a record date, and lets each holder claim the payment afterward. You enter the terms, read the preview of holder entitlements, fund the treasury and confirm. The "Actions" menu lists **Cash dividend** on an asset with share capital and "Distribution" on any other asset, and the two carry identical terms. [Corporate actions](https://docs.settlemint.com/docs/console/asset-management/manage/corporate-actions) covers the other event types and the "Corporate actions" tab, and the [dividend yield](https://docs.settlemint.com/docs/concepts/modeling-assets/token-features/income#dividend-yield) feature reference covers the on-chain rules behind the claim.

## Before you start [#before-you-start]

- **The dividend-yield feature and the governance role.** The asset needs the dividend-yield feature attached, and your account needs the governance role on the asset. An emergency halt does not block recording either event. An account with the emergency role can pause the dividend feature itself, which stops every holder claim until it resumes.
- **A second person, where your organisation requires one.** When the organisation has turned on approval for "Corporate actions" in [General](https://docs.settlemint.com/docs/console/organisation-settings/general#approvals), an organisation owner or a platform administrator approves the plan. The approval starts off, and a dividend recorded while it was off still runs on one signature after it is turned on. [Approve a corporate action](https://docs.settlemint.com/docs/console/asset-management/manage/corporate-action-approval) covers the decision.
- **A funded treasury.** The treasury must hold the total payable when you record, or the sheet reads "The dividend exceeds the amount this treasury can move." and does not record. Recording adds an estimated liability, based on the total supply, to the dividend feature's outstanding total. No cash is set aside, so a holder's claim fails while the treasury is short.

## Steps [#steps]

### Enter the terms [#enter-the-terms]

A cash dividend asks for an amount per share, a country code, and three dates: the ex-date, the first day the asset trades without the dividend, the record date, the day holders are counted, and the payment date. The Console rejects a set whose order is wrong and does not reorder it: the record date cannot come before the ex-date, and the payment date cannot come before the record date. Dates may fall on the same day. A cash dividend also asks whether it is a regular or a special dividend. A special dividend is a one-off distribution. The kind is a label: both kinds follow the same date rules, and their dates may lie in the past as long as the token's historical balances cover the record date. The sheet shows the claim deadline. After it, an account with the governance role can reclaim the unclaimed amount, which closes the dividend, and holders who have not claimed can no longer claim on chain.

Type an amount in digits, using your language's decimal separator. An amount the field cannot read, such as `1,5` in English or `1e21`, is named as unreadable. Type a date in your language's numeric format, or as the Console prints it, such as `4 Nov 2026` or `4 Nov 2026, 00:00 UTC`. A day that does not exist, such as `2026-02-30`, is reported as not a valid date. Holders are recorded at the start of the record date, so the record date must begin after the token was created. While any date is unreadable or refused, the sheet blocks the draft and asks you to fix the dates.

Enter the amount per share in the denomination asset's display units. The Console converts it to base units, so do not convert it yourself.

Withholding is applied off-platform. The platform computes no per-holder withholding, and the country code selects no withholding rate: it is stored on the declaration for reference only. Enter the amount per share net of any withholding the issuer applies off-platform, because every entitled holder is paid the amount exactly as declared.

### Record the declaration [#record-the-declaration]

Select **Create dividend draft** or "Create distribution draft" to record it. Despite the name, this declares the dividend on chain. Preview and the cancel button become available after recording. The cancel button reads "Cancel cash dividend", or "Cancel distribution" on a distribution.

### Cancel a declaration [#cancel-a-declaration]

Cancelling the action does not remove the on-chain declaration, so the platform rejects the cancellation of such a record while its dividend is still declared. The dialog then offers the dividend's cancel first: select **Cancel cash dividend**, which cancels the dividend on chain. Once the dividend reads as cancelled, the same button cancels the action. The record then reads "Dividend cancelled", and "Preview allocations" and "Pay dividend" or "Pay distribution" are disabled because nothing is left to pay. If the dividend's status cannot be read, the sheet says so next to the disabled "Cancel cash dividend" and offers "Check again". An action cancelled before any transaction was sent reads "Cancelled" in the history. After the dividend's holder snapshot is recorded, the dividend can no longer be cancelled, so confirm the action instead.

### Read the preview [#read-the-preview]

The preview opens once the record date has passed on chain. Select **Preview allocations** and verify with your wallet to compute it. It renders in the declaration sheet. After you close the sheet, the action has its own record page on the "Corporate actions" tab: select "Resume", "Review" or "View" on its run in the "In flight" card to open it. A finished declaration opens from its row in "History". The record page shows the same preview and carries every later step. It leads with the aggregate the approval is usually written against: the entitled holder count, the totals, and the remainder. The per-holder allocation table sits below it, paged, so a large holder book does not bury the summary. The first figure in a row is the holding the entitlement was calculated over, which can differ from the balance the holder carries when you read the preview: the column is titled with the asset's symbol and the record date, such as "EQKBDTS9 held on" followed by the date, and a holder the record-date read cannot place shows a dash there instead of a figure. When you confirmed the declaration without a record date, the title drops the date and reads "EQKBDTS9 held", and the snapshot cell above the table says "Live register". Preview calculates allocations without changing holder balances.

The preview flags these cases. A holder whose entitlement floors to zero needs no acknowledgement: the preview names the count in one line under the holder table. A holder the operator leaves out, for example one whose identity is no longer verified, is a warning you have to acknowledge before you continue. A funding shortfall renders as a funded-against-declared comparison with its own acknowledgement. When approval is off, the shortfall does not block you, and holders who claim while the treasury is short are refused until it is funded. When approval is on, the second person cannot approve a plan that shows a shortfall. Where an earlier run under the same snapshot identity already applied to a holder, that holder is listed as excluded with the reuse as the stated reason, and the entitled count excludes them. The preview also excludes units the treasury held at the record date from the entitled count, the totals, and the amount required, and shows them as **Treasury units excluded** when the treasury held any. Treasury shares earn no dividend, so if the treasury held every unit, no other holder is entitled and preview fails.

### Fund the treasury [#fund-the-treasury]

A second person cannot approve a plan that shows a funding shortfall, so fund the treasury with the required denomination asset and preview again before the plan goes for approval. Each preview reads the treasury balance freshly, so a stale shortfall does not carry forward once you have topped up. On a cash dividend you can fund from the preview with **Fund dividend**. Once that funding lands, the notice reads "Funded since this preview". Until a new preview lands, the old shortfall and its acknowledgement are hidden and "Pay dividend" or "Pay distribution" stays disabled. Reading the figures again needs your wallet authorisation, so the Console does not do it on its own: select "Preview again" to continue. Each new preview restarts the approval.

### Get the plan approved [#get-the-plan-approved]

When the organisation has turned on approval for "Corporate actions", preview sends the plan to a second person. The sheet, and the action's record page after it, read **Waiting for a second person**, and "Pay dividend" or "Pay distribution" stays unavailable until the plan is approved. While the approval is off, or nobody else could give it, the sheet reads "This action runs without a second signature" and you confirm the plan yourself. [Approve a corporate action](https://docs.settlemint.com/docs/console/asset-management/manage/corporate-action-approval) covers the decision, its 72-hour window, and when the approval is skipped.

### Pay the dividend or distribution [#pay-the-dividend-or-distribution]

Open the action's record page once the plan is approved. If the treasury funding falls between the preview and the confirmation, the confirmation is refused and you preview again. Funding added after the preview is recorded with the confirmation.

"Pay dividend" or "Pay distribution" becomes available only after a preview has rendered and the required acknowledgements are complete. Select **Pay dividend** or "Pay distribution" when the result matches the approval. It sends the previewed totals and the Merkle root, a compact fingerprint of every holder's entitlement, and commits the dividend snapshot, and holders claim payment afterward.

## You should see [#you-should-see]

- Open the action's record page from "History" on the "Corporate actions" tab.
- A confirmed declaration reads **Payment scheduled** until its payment date and "Settled" after it.
- Payment happens when each holder claims, so compare claimed amounts with the allocation before you report the payout as made.
- A frozen holder cannot claim a dividend, and a custodian cannot push one to them, until the freeze is lifted.
- A declaration you stopped reads "Cancelled" in History.
- Before you cancel the action itself, its record reads "Dividend cancelled" once the dividend is cancelled on chain.
- The record page of an action whose dividend is cancelled offers no preview. "Close this record" ends the action, and "Keep this record" leaves the page without changing it.

## Troubleshooting [#troubleshooting]

A payout-ineligible refusal and "The holder book moved after the preview" are covered under [Corporate actions](https://docs.settlemint.com/docs/console/asset-management/manage/corporate-actions#troubleshooting).