what is proprietorship business? Proprietorship or sole proprietorship which is also known as sole trader, is a type of business entity owned and operated by one person. It is also like a individual giving business name for himself to perform business activities professionally.
Consider an example. Assume company Alpha has declared a dividend of $1 payable on May 1, 2015 to shareholders of record as of April 10, 2015. The record date is therefore April 10, 2015 and the ex-dividend date is two business days before the record date, or April 8, 2015.
The declaration date is the first of four important dates in the process of a company paying a dividend. How a Company Handles Paying a Dividend. Before a cash dividend is declared and subsequently paid to shareholders, a company's board of directors must decide to pay the dividend and in what amount. When the board of directors makes such a decision and declares a dividend for payment to stockholders, the retained earnings account on the company's balance sheet is reduced by the amount of the declared dividend. The retained earnings is an account of equity that shows the net balance of a company's earnings.