Sharesight allows you to manage your share portfolio online. Currently only the Australian (AX) and New Zealand (NZ) markets are covered. In over 30 years of investing this is the best system I’ve found so far for managing a share portfolio.
I started investing at 16. And I started with a hand written ledger of what I bought/sold and Dividends received. Dividend reinvestment was also popular at the time and you can imagine the amount of data I’m now collecting. Each of these purchases requires logging and tracking. While this gave me a record I found that getting an updated position was difficult.
To resolve this issue I first used a programmable calculator to speed to calculation process. I tried writing a system in Basic. Multiplan (the name prior to Excel) was a great solution but the spreadsheet becomes increasing complex after a while and prone to error. Also complex formula are difficult to edit. Though I had the skill I was more interested in being a user rather than a developer. So I tried a number of applications. Most of these were installed on my computer and then required a separate feed to get the current price. Most of the problem with this required me to do something each day, I’d go on holiday or get busy with work and for what ever reason it would drop off. There was also quite a bit of data entry that was required – Enter ShareSight.
ShareSight makes your life easy right from the start.
Firstly its using the internet. There is no infrastructure (program or data) for me to install or configure. It also means that any device that can launch a browser can be used for the application. So I can use my Mac, or the iPhone or soon to be available iPad or even a Windows PC.
It is a simple application. Even my father at 87 can use it successfully. If you can turn on your computer and connect to the internet you can use ShareSight.
It’s secure. I have a userid and a password and it uses https: (SSL) just like the banks use.
I can authorise other users to either read or write to my portfolio. So now I can share this data with my accountant, broker or financial adviser. Who ever I want to see my portfolio. Say I had an investment club – each member could have their own signon. Importantly only the primary user can authorise others.
I can define multiple portfolios under the one login. I can share each portfolio independently.
A lot of the data entry is done for me. When I enter a share I’ve purchased up to about the last 10 years dividends are automatically added. In fact when a new dividend is issued it generally appears in ShareSight before I get the paperwork from the company.
From the same screen recording or confirming the dividend I can also record a Dividend Re-Investment. As I make additional purchases the dividends that ShareSight adds in are automatically adjusted for the additional purchases. This process is just so quick it makes the data entry a breeze to catch up on a holding even over many years.
It has a fantastic array of reports including:
- Taxable Income (AU): This report displays all of the information relating to your portfolio that you need to include in the tax return. It saves you from hunting out your dividend statements at the end of the tax year.
- Sales & Acquisitions: This report shows the opening and closing balances at cost price over the time period of your choice. It is a time-saver for anyone who is required to prepare annual accounts for a company or family trust that owns shares.
- Sold Shares: This report shows the returns that you have realised on shares which you no longer own. This is in contrast to the other return calculations in Sharesight, which report on current holdings only.
- Performance: Shows the returns you portfolio using your own date range.
- All Trades: This report shows all trades made for all holdings over the time period of your choice.
- Australian Capital Gains Report: The Capital Gains Report calculates your capital gains tax liability for Australian shares.
You can on a single click transfer any report to excel for further processing.
What is really nice is the weekly portfolio position that is emailed to me automatically. Also if there is a sudden movement in the share price of an individual share this is also emailed to me. Very nice.
Oh and it also integrates to Xero. The world’s easiest online accounting package. If you don’t know about Xero check out my earlier post here. What this means is that for a superannuation fund you now have a lovely solution for investments held in shares and a general ledger for your compliance work.
The good thing about being on line is that new features are automatically added. No configuration or involvement from me.
If you’d like to try ShareSight then click here. You can have a 30 day free trial and if you enter the promotion code GBSB you can get upto 20% off the first years costs. If you signup and you’d be supporting the costs of me creating and maintaining this blog as I would earn commission on this purchase. I don’t see any of your data including your name. So if you own shares give it a go there is no cost or obligation for the first 30 days. Its a terrific program and great people.
Till next time – Happy Bookkeeping
Mike
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Accounting Tips, Accounting, Accounting System…
Cost estimating is a science but pricing is an art. After the accountant has calculated the cost of producing a product, the salesman should be brought in to help the management determine the selling price. The salesman, if he is good, has a good idea …
Pricing … there’s a topic for a future blog post. It’s generally what the market will bear. Lots of people are trying to get into Value Pricing but there is not much value selling something below what its costing you. The Accountant and the Salesman have to work together to set pricing or even decide to exit an unprofitable market. That’s where online accounting systems like Xero really allow an ability to get this information into the hands of relevant individuals. Cheers Mike
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Hi Robert … yes the content is all mine… If I get to the stage of having a guest then it will be clearly marked as such .. cheers Mike
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I don’t really want to interchange links but if you want to reference me and point back to this site then that is fine. Several people have arranged pingbacks. Hope you find the content of use… Cheers Mike
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Hi Don’t exchange links but you can pingback me if you prefer – some people have done this … Cheers Mike
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Hi Lory,
I write as time and passion permits. If you like the products then generally there is a promocode like in ShareSight’s case GBS that will give you a discount and me some money… Hey if your interested in Xero as an online Accounting package then by all means get in contact with me as I may be able to assist you. (Xero or course works around the world so it really does not matter where you are) though in my case communication in English (or at least Australian) is preferred as my options from there are limited. I did once order a Sled between two slices of bread as the German Waitress kindly smiled and broke into English! We both had a laugh. Thanks for the offer though … Am always up for a topic suggestion. Mike
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as stated before.. If you grant me credit as the author, point back to my website as the source, do not charge for access and post the content without change or edit I have no objection to you posting my work. Mike
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If you grant me credit as the author, point back to my website as the source, do not charge for access and post the content without change or edit I have no objection to you posting my work.
Thanks! I love people who are helpful like you. Ever try CPALead?
CPALead would basically put a barrier between my readers and my content. they want to read my content they have to take your short survey. It’s not the intention of this site to do that so sorry. Not on my agenda. I suggest you try elsewhere. Mike
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Thanks.. there is a few hours involved in this but creating content is fun. Don’t forget to use the code GBS if you try Sharesight – you get a discount and the funds I get as commission are used to support this blog.