I use Sharesight @Seymourbutts and you can update your portfolio tracker on Sharesight via forwarding contract note emails (trade confirmation emails) to them - see here: https://www.sharesight.com/blog/automatically-import-trades-to-your-sharesight-portfolio-using-email/

With Commsec I have to forward each trade confirmation (contract notes) manually (to Sharesight) as I receive them from Commsec - using the email address that they (Sharesight) give you that is specific to your account - but there are some brokers - such as Selfwealth - who allow you to give multiple email addresses for contract notes, so when I trade through Selfwealth they send one copy of my contract notes to my email and another copy to Sharesight for me without me having to do anything, so the trades automatically update in Sharesight. Not sure if Stake and Vanguard have that option available, but if not you can just forward the trade emails (contract notes) to Sharesight yourself as you receive them from the broker. It's a lot easier than manually typing in all of the trade details into Sharesight.

From those emails, Sharesight gets everything they need including the brokerage charges and they update your portfolio as of the trade date in the contract note. I haven't had any problems using that system, and it's a lot easier than the old manual method.

I really messed mine up i had been using sharesight for a year or two then tried to import years of historical trades using a CSV file from several brokers.I didnt really know my way around a exel file which needed editing to import correctly so sharesight could recognise the data it needed .

Many attempts over a few days to get it right.I imported the entire file which caused all my previously entered trades to be duplicated and this couldn't be undone . Completly my fault but in the end I had to start from scratch.

If your trying add historical trades i would highly recommend starting it as a new portfolio until you get it right and linking it directly with your brokers.Sharesight has greatly increased the list of brokers it can recognise. And i have been able to link sharesight directly with my broker accounts.

This has fully automated my trades .I get a confirmation email from sharesight after a trade has been completed through my broker.

The only other problem I have now is DRP .I still i find i have to go through and check the amount of shares recieved it can some times be slightly out .

Link below shows how to link brokers

https://youtu.be/OrvyYejF30QI

@Seymourbutts

I do it all manually. I think I find the process cathartic. Both for international and domestic holdings.

I started using it only a couple of years ago. I had one holding, ALQ, that was a bit tricky to work out the history of, as the CHESS statments in 2001 were printed on dot matrix printers and the statments had long faded. I got there in the end by playing with the initial start amount of ahares, and sharesight found all the drp's, consolidation, and issues over the 20 odd years. Amazing tool.

Hi @Bear77 , have tried setting up a rule in your email to automatically forward the emails when they are received. I have done this in Outlook and Gmail as we need to send to sf360, for our smsf, as well as sharesight.

@Seymourbutts - I'm the same as @Bear77 & @Dafish and use the auto import of contract notes, etc - Selfwealth, etc - e.g. with IBKR there's an FTP mechanism you setup which pulls the data daily or something

I agree the DRP's aren't always correct and you do have to compare your actual Dividend/Distribution notifications with what Sharesight says and update if needed (and auto invest (DRP) only works if you turn on DRP for each relevant holding in Sharesight) - but the fact that a distribution even appears in Sharesight is a good reminder that it's coming up and you should expect to see it

I do it manually as a disincentive to trade too much.

I use Sharesight for my satellite portfolio, with CommSec as the broker. I have set up the automatic notification email like @Bear77 mentioned -- I literally do nothing throughout the year as all my purchases/sales are automatically sent to Sharesight (by CommSec) as a result. I hit a button at the end of the year, print out the tax report and give it to my accountant!

I have US exposure through the NASDAQ etf, which makes things very manageable on my end as no other brokers required.

Wow @Rocket6 - I didn't think Commsec actually had that option, but after reading your post just now, I did some more research and have now set up my Commsec account to send the trade details directly to Sharesight - using this info: https://www.commsec.com.au/support/help-centre/managing-your-account/Trade_preferences.html

To be clear, I had that all set up with Selfwealth already, no problem, but I was forwarding the trade notes on manually with Commsec because I didn't know they allowed multiple emails, so I had done the first part - i.e. steps 1 through to 4 in the "Can trade confirmations be sent to multiple emails?" section of those instructions (not using those instructions, just by having a play around within "Settings" on my Commsec account) but I hadn't done steps 5 to 9, which were:

• Once the email addresses have been added, go to Portfolio
• Select Accounts and use the dropdown to select the relevant account
• Select “View or edit account details”
• Scroll down to the “Trade confirmations” section and click “Edit”
• Select the check box next to the email addresses you would like copies sent to and click “Save”

Obviously you have to have that Sharesight email address (which is specific to your Sharesight account and is obtained from Sharesight) already in there - which you do in the first 4 steps - which I had managed to achieve already, but I didn't know you had to go into "Accounts" and edit those account-specific settings as well.

The first four steps were:

• Log in to your CommSec account and go to Settings
• Click on “View or edit details” and follow the security prompts
• Scroll down to the “Contact details” section and select “Edit”
• Add the additional email addresses to your account

That's as far as I had got up until just now, so I assumed Commsec didn't have the same optionality to send emails directly to Sharesight, because despite adding that email address in there they weren't sending my trade details to Sharesight. I've now followed the rest of the steps, so it should all happen automatically now, just as it has been for my Selfwealth trades.

Thanks for the info.

No problems @Bear77, sorry mate I misunderstood your initial comment and wasn't sure if you meant to say another broker instead of CommSec. Glad you got it sorted, you won't know what to do with your time not having to send those manual emails!

I'm sure I'll think of something...

OK, that's the dream - the following is probably more realistic...

Hi @Rocket6

This is very inspiring. Currently doing my SMSF tax and thinking it’s clunky and there has got to be a better way. I think I will sign up to share sight if it is really that easy.

Thanks for the info.

It sounds like I am the dinosaur in the room! I still enter trades and dividends manually into an old version of Quicken Cashbook which I actually own outright! Yup, you could actually own software way back when! :)

I was wondering what I might use next. It sounds like Sharesight could save me days tapping away on a laptop entering the Commsec combined portfolio statements into the program :)

Does Xero do anything like this. Just keeping in mind other investments like property so I can hand over one set of reports to the accountant. Property is not that hard really. So it’s no big deal.

You are not alone @Rick . I use Microsoft Money 2004 ... probably the most stable software Microsoft ever sold!

I enter all trading transactions and daily price updates manually, daily. Its not elegant but it works for me - 22 or so price updates is no real biggie.

I am probably old school, but I need to physically do something with any information/data to be able to properly digest it eg. type it, write it etc. So the 5 min daily manual exercise is really my process to review my portfolio, to virtually "touch and feel it", really. I lost this "feel" when I tried Sharesight for a while and gave up ...

Huh! If only I was so vigilant @jcmleng! It takes me about 2 weeks once a year when I do my tax, which is about this time of year for last year’s tax! I’m right on to it as you can see! As you can tell I love the job (NOT).

Thanks for the tip on the property @Dafish. I think I’ll have to move out of the dark ages. Sharesight sounds too easy. What do I do about all my old share purchases to get the lot values? Is that a manual job?

Wow, awesome! Thanks very much everyone - yet again the forum and Strawpeople deliver. I'll do some review and see how I can link Vanguard and Stake (rarely trade with Stake so not overly phased by them). Looks like Commsec is a bit easier from some recent replies.

I do automate (DCA) my investing with Vanguard into some ETFs to build more core on a monthly basis, so fingers crossed they have something that can automate this process.

@Strawman - maybe it is time to start hitting Sharesight up for a bit of commission? (Joking of course).

@Seymourbutts

I think @Strawman might. Use the code when you signup. And you get 4 months free!

https://www.sharesight.com/au/strawman/

We do! 10% of the discounted subscription fee. tbh, it's usually only a couple hundred dollars per month.

Sharesight discount for Strawman members

From Strawman (Andrew) - two years ago:

If anyone's looking for a good portfolio tracker I've long been happy to recommend Sharesight, which i've used for years.

It's free for up to 10 holdings, but if you're considering a paid subscription I've been able to get 4 months free access for Strawman members.

Full disclosure, we get a small clip for every user that signs up (it helps keep us going). But I genuinely endorse Sharesight, especially for those that hate tax time.

Click here if interested: https://www.sharesight.com/au/strawman/

It's also a tax deduction! Give the receipt to your accountant!!