Portfolio trackers for share portfolio management

Are you looking for a way to manage your share investments? While you can track your investments using an excel spreadsheet, an online portfolio tracker can make life a lot easier.

Share portfolio management platforms save you time, improve on accuracy and they can provide the right documents for tax time.

Plus, if you have assets across multiple trading platforms, portfolio management tools let you track your overall performance in the one spot.

What is an online portfolio tracker?

An online portfolio tracker is a digital tool that can help you manage your share investments. Depending on the one you choose, it can offer real-time price updates, comprehensive tax reporting documents and a detailed overview of your entire portfolio's performance.

For active investors, portfolio trackers help you to better track and assess the value of your shares, helping you to make informed decisions. They can even track stocks and ETFs you're not currently holding but wishing to keep an eye on.

For instance, in response to significant dips in certain stock values, you might decide to reallocate your investments, selling some shares and purchasing others.

Even if you don't regularly adjust your portfolio, stock portfolio trackers are super handy when you're filing your income tax return because they keep track of capital gains, losses, dividend payments and franking credits.

How to manage a share portfolio

There are a few different ways you can manage 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:

• Excel spreadsheet. If you’re new to share trading and you only have a few holdings (for example fewer than 10) you could opt to track your share portfolio in a simple excel spreadsheet. This option is free, but it can become time-consuming and leave room for error. It also won’t track or update any share prices for you.
• The portfolio tools offered by your broker. Your online share trading platform will likely offer a range of basic portfolio tracking tools. However, these are often limited to tracking the performance of your shares only and often don’t include things like tax reporting tools and dividend payment tracking.
• Professional financial planners. If you’ve got a large, complicated portfolio of shares as well as other assets you could opt for a paid, professional financial planner to manage your portfolio for you. This option can be quite expensive and is more suited to high-net-worth investors.
• Portfolio management platforms. If you’re somewhere in between these options, for example you have more than a few holdings but your portfolio isn’t large enough to justify the cost of a financial planner, a portfolio tracking platform could be a good option. These are online platforms that work alongside your online share trading platform to track your shares for you.

Finder survey: How often do Australians check their investment portfolio?

Portfolio management platforms in Australia

There are several portfolio management platforms in Australia, including:

• Sharesight - Hugely popular among everyday investors
• Praemium - Suitable for more advanced portfolio management
• Class Portfolio - Targeted towards advisors
• EzyManager - Caters to both beginners and experts
• InvestSMART Portfolio Manager - Helps with goal setting and planning
• StockMarket Plus - Over a dozen reports to help with forecasting, brokerage calculation and tax
• Topshare - For both traders and investors, including of crypto

Advantages of using a share portfolio management platform

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:

• Saves you time

A portfolio tracking platform can 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.

• Get a complete picture of your portfolio

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.

• Understand the true value of your dividends

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.

• Helps with tax reporting

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.

• Helps SMSFs meet their tax obligations

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.

• Less room for human error

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.

• Provides market research and trading ideas

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.

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.

Our expert says: Why I use a potfolio tracker

"Because I invest in a mix of Australian stocks, global stocks and cryptocurrency, I find it more cost effective to trade across multiple investment platforms. For investors like me, using an online portfolio tracker is pretty much essential. It means I can manage and assess all of my assets in the one place, and it's particularly time saving when it comes to submitting a tax return."

Kylie Purcell

Investments Analyst

Frequently asked questions

• What are the 4 types of portfolio management?

  The 4 types of portfolio management are passive, active, dicretionary and non-discretionary. Active portfolio management is where you actively buy and sell equities, rebalancing your portfolio depending on what's happening in the market. Passive portfolio management is where you take a long-term view and make few changes to your portfolio over time, focusing on index fund investments or a diversified portfolio of high quality stocks. Discretionary portfolio management involves hiring a fund manager to make buy and sell decisions for you, while non-dicretionary management is where your fund manager offers advice but you make all the buying and selling decisions..

• What is the 5% rule of portfolio management?

  The 5% rule states that you should not have more than 5% of your portfolio invested in any one asset. This ensures you stay diversified.

• Should I pay someone to manage my portfolio?

  Potfolio management can be pretty costly so it might only make sense for you to hire a fund manager if you are a high net worth person. Generally speaking, that means holding assets with a net worth of more than $250,000..

Written by

Alison Banney

Editorial Manager, Money

Alison is an editor at Finder and a personal finance journalist with over 10 years of experience, having contributed to major financial institutions and publications such as Westpac, Money Magazine, and Yahoo Finance. She is frequently quoted in media outlets like SmartCompany and SBS, offering expert insights on superannuation and money management. Alison holds a Bachelor of Communications in Public Relations and Journalism from the University of Newcastle, and has earned three ASIC RG146 certifications in superannuation, securities and managed investments and general financial advice, ensuring her expertise is fully aligned with ASIC standards. See full bio

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Alison has written 638 Finder guides across topics including:

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Co-written by

Kylie Purcell

Investments Analyst

Kylie Purcell is an experienced investments analyst and finance journalist with over a decade of expertise in a wide range of financial products, including online trading platforms, robo-advisors, stocks, ETFs and cryptocurrencies. She is a sought-after commentator and regularly shares her insights on the AFR, Yahoo Finance, The Motley Fool, SBS and News.com.au. Kylie hosts the Investment Finder video series and actively contributes to the investment community as a judge and panellist. She holds a Master of Arts in International Journalism, a Graduate Diploma in Economics, and ASIC-recognised certifications in securities and managed investments. See full bio

Kylie's expertise

Kylie has written 150 Finder guides across topics including:

• Investment strategies
• Financial platforms
• Stockbrokers
• Robo advisors
• Exchange traded funds (ETFs)
• Ethical investing
• ASX stocks
• Stock and forex markets