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Looking for a better way to manage your share portfolio? Relying on an excel spreadsheet to do this can become a very time-consuming process with lots of room for error. Instead, a dedicated share tracking platform can save you time, help with tax reporting and give you a more accurate picture of your portfolio.
Investing in shares isn’t a set-and-forget strategy. Share prices can be quite volatile and are constantly going up and down, so it’s important to track your shares closely so you can make changes to your portfolio when needed. This is known as portfolio management.
Portfolio management is the process of continually monitoring the value of your shares and making ongoing decisions based on their price movements. For example, if your shares in one company are falling quite heavily, you might decide to sell them and buy some other shares instead.
Portfolio management also involves keeping on top of all your tax obligations, such as reporting any realised capital gains or losses and dividend payments.
There are a few different strategies for managing a share portfolio. Which one you choose will depend on the value and complexity of your portfolio, how much time you have and your budget. Some of these options include:
Here are the key advantages of using a dedicated portfolio management platform instead of relying on an excel spreadsheet to keep track of your shares:
A portfolio tracking platform will help you import your trading data automatically from your online share trading account, instead of having to manually enter the data yourself. Plus, it will keep up-to-date with share prices in real time in the one place, without you having to keep an eye on your shares individually.
Your online share trading platform will only track the performance of the shares you’ve bought through that broker. If you’ve bought shares with other brokers or investment apps, or if you also own other assets or are trading different financial products, these won’t be included in your online broker’s platform. An external portfolio management tool can help you pool all your investments into one place so you can see how your portfolio is tracking as a whole.
Dividends are great when they land in your bank account, but it’s easy to forget about them when you’re looking at how your shares are performing. Some share tracking platforms allow you to include dividend payments and dividend reinvestment plans into your portfolio performance, to give you a better idea of how your shares have performed overall.
Share tracking platforms help you meet your tax obligations by creating reports on your dividend income and any capital gains you’ve realised throughout the financial year. These reports can help you spot opportunities to offset any capital gains with any capital losses you’ve made, reducing your tax bill.
Portfolio management platforms are particularly useful for SMSF trustees who have strict investment and tax reporting obligations with the ATO. These platforms can help trustees develop detailed, up-to-date reports on all the investments held by the SMSF as well as all the income generated from these.
If you’ve got more than 10 holdings, it’s quite easy to make mistakes if you’re reporting their performance manually in a spreadsheet. An online share portfolio management tool removes the possibility of human error.
Portfolio management platforms offer a suite of market reports, broker recommendations and detailed stock analysis reports that aren’t often available through your online broker. These platforms also give investors access to an online community of investors from around the world to share trading ideas and reports.
To get started, you can compare the platforms featured in the table above and go to their sites to create an account online.
If you're just getting started with share trading and aren't looking for a portfolio management platform just yet, check out our guide on how to buy shares instead.
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