Sharesight stock portfolio tracker review

What is Sharesight and how does it work?

Sharesight is an online portfolio tracking service that gives you a complete picture of your investment performance. Think of it as a smart, automated replacement for that spreadsheet you keep forgetting to update.

It is not a share trading platform, so you can't buy or sell investments through it. Instead, it connects to your existing broker (or brokers) to pull in your trading data automatically. It supports over 200 global brokers, so once you’ve set it up, your buy and sell transactions can appear in your Sharesight portfolio without you lifting a finger. You can also import historical data via a spreadsheet or add holdings manually.

Once your data is in, Sharesight calculates your true performance by factoring in not just price changes, but also dividends, brokerage fees and currency fluctuations. This gives you a much more accurate picture of your returns than most broker dashboards, which often just show the current market value. Good share portfolio management starts with having accurate data, which is the main problem Sharesight solves.

What can you track with Sharesight?

Sharesight is built to handle a diverse portfolio, going well beyond just ASX shares. It helps you consolidate everything in one place. You can track over 700,000 different investments, including:

• Global stocks and ETFs. Get data from over 60 global stock exchanges, including the ASX, NYSE, NASDAQ and London Stock Exchange.
• Managed funds and LICs.
• Cryptocurrencies. Track the performance of your crypto holdings alongside your traditional investments.
• Unlisted investments. You can manually add assets like real estate, private equity or even art to get a full view of your net worth.

Key features of Sharesight

While Sharesight has a lot of tools, four features stand out for most Australian investors.

True performance reporting

This is Sharesight's core function. It calculates your total annualised return for any period, showing you exactly how your money is performing. It automatically includes the impact of:

• Capital gains: Price changes in your holdings.
• Dividends: All dividends are automatically recorded, including details on franking credits. It also handles Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRPs), which can be a massive headache to track manually.
• Currency fluctuations: For international stocks, it shows how exchange rate movements have affected your returns.
• Brokerage costs: Fees are factored in to give you a true post-cost return.

Powerful tax reporting

This feature alone can make Sharesight worth the price. It saves hours of work at tax time by generating several key reports for your tax return or accountant:

• Taxable Income Report: Shows all your dividend and interest income for the financial year.
• Capital Gains Tax (CGT) Report: Calculates your capital gains and losses, applying the CGT discount for assets held over 12 months. It can use either the "First In, First Out" or "Minimise CGT" accounting method.
• Unrealised CGT Report: Shows your potential CGT liability if you were to sell all your holdings today.

You can also purchase a standalone Tax Pack for $59 per year if you only need the tax features.

Benchmarking

How do you know if your portfolio is actually any good? The benchmarking tool lets you compare your performance against any of the 700,000+ securities in its database. You can see how you're tracking against a broad market index like the ASX 200, a specific ETF or even another managed fund.

Xero integration

If you use Xero for your accounting, you can connect your Sharesight account. This allows your trading data and cash accounts to flow seamlessly between the two platforms, which is especially useful for investors using a company or trust structure.

How much does Sharesight cost in Australia?

Sharesight uses a tiered subscription model. You can save approximately 25% on fees by paying annually instead of monthly.

There is a Free plan, which is a great option for new investors. It lets you track up to 10 holdings in a single portfolio and includes automatic dividend tracking and limited reporting.

For more holdings or advanced features, you'll need a paid plan.

Is Sharesight safe?

Yes, Sharesight is considered a safe platform to use. It's a "read-only" service, meaning it can import your trading data but cannot access your brokerage accounts to place trades or move money.

It also employs strong security measures to protect your data, including SOC 2 compliance, which is a key industry standard for managing customer data. You can also secure your account with two-factor authentication (2FA).

Sharesight alternatives

While Sharesight is a market leader, it's not the only option for tracking your portfolio.

• Your broker's platform. Most of the best online brokers in Australia offer some form of portfolio tracking. These are usually free but are often less detailed than Sharesight, especially when it comes to tax reporting and tracking holdings from other brokers.
• Shares. A newer entrant in Australia, Shares offers portfolio tracking with a focus on social and community features. It's a good option if you want to see what your friends are investing in, but it's less powerful for detailed performance and tax analysis.
• Spreadsheets. The classic DIY option. Using Google Sheets or Excel is free and infinitely customisable, but it's entirely manual. You'll need to enter every trade, dividend and corporate action yourself and building formulas for performance and tax calculations can be complex and prone to errors.

Is Sharesight worth it for you?

Whether Sharesight is worth the cost comes down to two things: the complexity of your portfolio and how much you value your time.

You can replicate most of Sharesight's functions yourself with a well-built spreadsheet. But doing so is time-consuming, requires discipline and is easy to get wrong, especially when dealing with DRPs or corporate actions.

Sharesight is likely a good investment if:

• You have more than 10 holdings.
• You invest across multiple brokers or countries.
• You want to save time and hassle on your tax return.
• You are a data-driven investor who wants to accurately benchmark your performance.

You might not need Sharesight if:

• You only have a few simple ETF or share holdings.
• You are a long-term, set-and-forget investor.
• Your broker's free tracking tools are good enough for your needs.

For many, the cost of a subscription is easily justified by the time saved and the potential tax benefits from accurate reporting. With a free plan available, it's easy to try it out and see if it works for you.

How to get started with Sharesight

Getting started is straightforward. You can create an account on the Sharesight website with your email address.

To add your investments, you have a few options:

1. Connect to your broker. Provide your credentials and Sharesight will import your trading history.
2. Forward contract notes. Set up a rule to automatically forward the trade confirmation emails from your broker to a unique Sharesight email address.
3. Upload a spreadsheet. If you have your history in a CSV file, you can upload it.
4. Add holdings manually. Enter your past trades one by one.