Portfolio Management Software
Portfolio Management Software
There are a plethora of portfolio management tools available to the retail investor. Are they useful and, if so, which is best?
Maus and Quicken seem to be the most popular. Listed company Praemium also provides a sophisticated web-based software which looks pretty useful, although I'm not sure how suitable it is for retail investors (it seems to be built for planners).
Personally, I don't use any of them. Excel suits me just fine. But I know many people are looking for a software solution so we're throwing Bristlemouth open to recommendations, reviews and criticisms of the different options available.
We've already had a few comments on The Intelligent Investor's Ask the Experts forum so I've included those below to get the debate started.
George uses Quicken Cashflow 2004. 'It was cheap, and allows one to monitor all bank accounts and share portfolios in depth. It provides dividend investment summaries, cash flow statements, BAS etc and keeps track of GST. It uses single ledger entry (as opposed to double entry accounting) and is therefore pretty simple for non-accountants and works on Windows XP and Vista. Quicken realised pretty quickly that it was too good, and have introduced new products which seem to do less for the same price. So an old copy of Quickbooks 2004 should be available pretty cheaply.'
John uses Maus Stockmarket Plus (I've had this one suggested to me before). 'It reports on your CGT or income for the annual tax return, and provides some good performance reporting. It handles rights issues, stock splits etc which I'd find tricky using Excel. It's supported in Australia so has all the current tax rates etc. The live price subscriptions are pricey so I simply update the stock prices manually once a month. It came in a deal as part of AFR Smart investor subscription, so was quite cheap.'
Pravin has been using Microsoft Money for the past 14 years: 'Although its a primarily an accounting programme, it has a rather simple portfolio management tool as well that's suited for private investors. You can keep more than one portfoilo (eg SMSF as well as individuals) and see all of them in one page for the convenience of overall performance. However, you can sort out all the transactions and get individual reports for dividends, capital gains, interest etc. I found its reporting capabilities very useful for tax purposes. The hidden secret is that you can download daily prices (for Australian and US shares) free of charge. The charting capability is very basic - but these days individual charts supplied by, say, Commsec are quite sophisticated for most private investors.'
Add your comments, suggestions and reviews below. If there's a groundswell of opinion, I'll give the preferred provider a call and see if we can organise a bulk deal.
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I use TopShare (http://www.topshare.com.au). An Australian developed and supported product. I have fairly basic requirements but it seems very comprehensive to me. Takes it's price feeds from a data subscription service (which I don't use) and Yahoo (which I do use).
There's one advantage to using Excel (or pen and paper, for that matter) - you have to enter the data yourself. So when your investment goes pear shaped, you can only blame yourself. I'm interested in how these packages deal with abnormal, or non-operating earnings, or how they interpret the value of balance sheet items, such as partially owned subsidiaries, ie, do they do away with the need to make judgements or to apply intelligence? As they say, garbage in = garbage out.
You're right, Mars - analysis software opens a whole can of worms. But it's important to clarify here that we're talking about accounting tools rather than analysis tools.
the best one from that answer, or so it looked to me was the First Dollar one, which is free (always a plus for value investors).
Link
http://www.firstdollarsoftware.com/cms/Downloads/tabid/100/Default.aspx
I'm with you Darryl. Topshare is excellent and compared to many programs on the market it is very affordable and simple to use.
I am also a Topshare user (www.topshare.com.au) its written and maintained here in Queensland. Have tried a few and this is certainly 5 Star. Chris Jackson, whose software it is, seems very hands on .. and any questions or 'how do i do the following ?" emails have been answered within a few hours. Even managed to reload it after a hard disk failure. You can get charts , Tax returns and historic rates ... there are no trend lines or Moving Annuals etc. but they are the things that the so called experts of the past 10 years thought would never fail them.
You can go to the web address and download it and try it...all for free!
I do a lot of trading through multiple accounts so I have a heavy dependence on such a tool. I use Stockmarket Plus. It's OK, is unpolished and has a fair few bugs. The big problem with Stockmarket Plus is that the support from Maus is just slightly south of pathetic. Mine crashes often on my Vista system and Maus weren't prepared to do anything about it. I have often called them with problems or suggestions. They usually don't return calls.
One feature missing in Stockmarket Plus is support for scrip for scrip takeovers, such as when Westpac took over St. George.
I have used Quicken Personal Plus for a few years. A few years ago, an annual licence fee was introduced for which you get an upgraded version and sometimes a few problems arising with it..
It works reasonably well up to a point. It is designed for non-accountants and for example, is impossible to do journal entries from/to expense/revenue accounts. It usually manages to be a few cents out of balance (which sometimes translates to a dollar in rounding) which I personally find annoying
I would like to find something better for an accountant to use provided it has a moderate cost.
I always end up finalising the accounts on excel anyway - it is just the investment records aspect which keep me using it.
I have used the popular ones and have kept coming back to MAUS. Quicken is/was good when I first had to cope with BAS but they started to charge a substantial fee to respond to a query. Lincoln Stock Doctor has a portfolio tool as part of their programme which gives end of day updates but it is very expensive, can only handle one bank account per portfolio and does not permit tracking of unlisted funds such as the Platinum family. Programme updates have been promised for years but have never eventuated.
MAUS is a bit clunky and the predefined reports are not all that flexible but I have found support fine on the very rare occasions I needed it
I use Quicken Personal Plus 2002. I create the investment accounts, which works fine treating them as a linked bank account (but linked cash management accounts are a major pain so I pretend they dont exist and just fold the transactions together).
Later versions of Quicken Personal Plus had a very serious (and unacknowledged by Quicken) fault in how they calculated capital gains - when a stock changed name or had a split / issue, the capital gains calculation was reset rather than taken all the way back to the original purchase. I paid for that upgrade and then found it to not work... so sticking with the old one - which also has 10 years of transaction history in it, for multiple brokerage accounts, bank accounts, investment accounts, etc etc. Old, clunky, and powerful.
I've only ever used Microsoft Money , probably because it was thrown in as a freebie when I bought my first computer more than 10 years ago. Just looked at my first transaction ,bought Woolworths for $5.27 in 1998 :-). I've upgraded to more current versions since. Very easy for non accountants like me. Keep discovering new things it can do . Updates networths ,provides performance figures for whatever time period you wish to check etc. and yes the free daily share price downloads is great. Easy to use software if you are not very technically inclined .
Cheers,
Damend
Another vote for Topshare.
The best double entry program available is the free GnuCash. It is more of an accounting program than a stock/share program. It has a full Chart of Accounts etc. Needs some modification to handle GST. Available in Windows, Linux and Apple ports. Download from www.gnucash.org or www.sourceforge.net and search for GnuCash
I started using my own spreadsheet to calculate performance after finding this Motley Fool article describing how to do it correctly when you have multiple stock transactions over the years:
http://www.fool.com/foolfaq/foolfaq0056.htm
I actually thought that kind of thing might make for a good Investor's College article, but never went and checked the archive to see if TII had already done something like it.
It's very gratifying to see my product Topshare mentioned in this discussion, with such positive comments.
As has been mentioned, Topshare's principle function is record-keeping, primarily for taxation purposes. Topshare tracks the full history of each parcel of shares, from the initial purchase date. The cost base (for CGT purposes) is adjusted as required through splits, capital returns, tax deferred distributions, instalment payments and so on. Mergers, demergers and other corporate activity can be accurately recorded. The "Tax Report" summarises all the information you need to fill in your tax return.
There are also a range of facilities to help you understand your portfolio performance (charts, IRR calculation, etc).
I take great pride in the fact that, since first release in 2002, I've been able to develop a comprehensive product that is now well accepted by the investment community. Development is ongoing, support is free, and there's a user community.
Steve - I'm happy to discuss discount options.
Best regards,
Chris Jackson
For Mac users ShareManager by Andromeda works on OSX as well as PC. I have been using it for a long time and it does most things well. It's Australian and understands franking credits.
http://www.sharemanager.com.au/
I have found MAUS Stockmarket Plus very useful, for the range of Australian CGT & other issues, and it is easy to use, albeit clunky as has been suggested. My version is >5 years old and I now run it on an offline Windows ME platform, where it seems happy.
I have no wish or need to change. If a change becomes necessary or desirable I would want to be able to transfer the database content RELIABLY to the new system.
I use Stockmaster (don't know how this differs from Maus SM+).
Agree it's a little clunky and relatively expensive. It needs a rewrite.
On the pro side it is quite adaptable:
It can be customised download live prices for you portfolio and watchlist from your broker with just a couple of clicks.
Most useful for me (I trade) is the way it keeps track of each parcel of each stock and advises which parcels (assuming you are not selling the lot) are most profitable or most tax effective or both.
Stock master was terrible, expensive to maintain, difficult to use
Top share is the best, I have used this since 2005 and only ever paid one single fee, I think it was around 120. Top share is easy to use but mainly a tax tool. It does not do so well, when it comes to charts or portfolio returns.
Having used Maus for portfolio recording back to 1986, I have been very happy with the available functions and would be loathe to change if unable to transfer the database to a new system (as per Ian's comment). The only factor I find disappointing is the inability to duplicate portfolios - such as for recording identical information for several children.
I have used Excel for 9 years. I download my ComSec portfolio as a csv file and MyStocks from Income Investor as an xls file for dividend information. With the aid of some macros and formulas I can click one button which updates my current position including performance figures. It takes a little bit of work setting up, but minimal maintenance after that.
I use quicken for my personal accounting, and it has the share management that I use as well. I pay for the subscription to get the ability to download share prices (I've got too many to do it manually), but it sometimes gets confused with a few shares and says I've become a multi-millionaire overnight. I'm not that happy with quicken, there are a few things I've lived to learn with. Quicken doesn't deal with mergers/acquisitions with CGT very well, which someone mentioned, but I use a tax accountant anyway. I may have a look at topshare, but I'd prefer a package that does my personal banking as well as investments in one.
A little disclosure upfront: I teach use of Quicken Software, and publish QuickBooksHelp.com.au where I write articles on tracking shareholdings with Quicken, so I have a little bias towards the product.
I have 20 shareholdings that I track in a Self Managed Super Fund, so I suppose that I'm pretty typical.
I use 2 products for tracking: Simple Invest for my Accountant, and Quicken Personal Plus for me. Simple Invest is clunky, unfriendly, and has dreadful reporting - but my accountant can import it directly to his system, so they really like it. The only reason I use it, is that it allegedly saves me accounting fees.
I like Quicken Personal Plus. It handles most straightforward transactions simply, and with a little tweaking, it can handle some of the complex ones too. The $75 annual subscription includes share price downloads, so I can easily update my portfolio to see how much less my shares are worth compared to the last time I was brave enough to look. On top of that, it can manage personal finances, budgeting and, if you have Quicken Home & Business ($105 Annual Subscription), you can manage GST tracking. Best of all, it has great reporting and graphing capabilities.
I admit to bias - after using it to track shares since Telstra T1, it is a bias that springs from satisfaction with the product.
I'm an accountant, but i dont use any of the above mentioned products because you have to pay for them.
i use GNUcash (www.gnucash.org). it is open source and it's free - as in beer. It is an accounting package and It has all the basics you need.
It has its quirks but i've had worse in terms of accounting systems. I do my own BAS, CGT, GST and Tax reporting. Those things take about 2 days every quarter to figure out.
If you know what you are doing with your debits and credits, GL, trial balance - you wouldn't need to pay for a "sophisticated package" such as quicken and myob etc.
The value investor within kicks in because i dont have to pay to purchase the product and pay more for upgrades.
I also use gnucash. Can't argue with the price. It is a somewhat steeping learning curve than say something like M$ Money (which I used ages ages when it came free with a computer), but it is very powerful. I have foreign source income, which it handles very well, it can download share price updates and handle invoices and other business stuff. I find the reporting side of things leaves a little to be desired, plus it gets confused with some share splits when calculating the cost basis, but for me it is a great accounting package.
I am an accountant also. I use "Simple Invest" from BGL software which (in my opinion) beats all the others hands down. Daily price updates, easy CGT calculations and brilliant reports. I also use Quicken, and have used Maus but they simply cannot compete with this.
By far the best available.
I' m also a retired accountant. Tried MS Money and Quicken, but hated them because they are designed for non-accntnts and cannot handle journals and other 'creative accounting' entries to prepare your own accounts/ gen. ledger and p&l information. MAUS stockmarket plus is great as a portfolio mgmt tool and I do the rest of my analysis and accounting work using OpenOffice spreadsheets with info downloaded from CommSec.
Will now have a look at GNUcash as you guys say it also is free and Open Source, which suits me!
I have had a look at topshare, looks pretty good, would love to hear about any discount options
Noel Whitacre says the budget will do away with Dividend Imputation.
Do we need to organise a march on Parliament?
Oh..I used to use a 1997 or 8 Quicken. I learned how to make it report anything I needed it to do and print it out for my accountants.
I have used Quicken since it was first available and I started buying and selling shares in 1993. Quicken has successfully retained and updated the original and all subsequent share price data from 1993 to the present. I now use Personal Plus 2009. The daily share updates take 10 seconds and are very useful even if potentially depressing. My accountant accepts a CD with the end of FY data backup to prepare the Super Fund's annual statements and all my other personal and business tax returns and this reduces my compliance costs significantly. Keeping the data up to date is the key to managing the system well. Unlike Barry Sykes (April 2) if I find an error in Quicken's reports or statements it is invariably my fault. The reporting facility allows the tweaking of reports to generate any commonly required report to be produced. My Fund auditor has offered me a job in retirement because my Quicken records help to make his job easy too!
I used to use Quicken when I used a PC and I found it to be very good for a non accountant. However, because of the issues with Microsoft and various bugs even with VET I changed to a MAC. The only problem is I can't find suitable MAC software. They do have Quicken for MAC in the US but not here. I looked at Share Manager but it appears to be for a share management business rather than a personal share portfolio and financial management. Any thoughts out there on what might be suitable for a MAC??
I use a combination of Excel spreadsheets and Stator-AFM. Excel is nice quick but prone to errors. Stator is more complex but enables me to manage multiple portfolios with multiple strategies or brokers. I can easily compare my online broker to my full service broker (not a pretty picture recently). It also manages long and short positions, CFD, Options etc.
If you want a better share portfolio management system, check out Sharesight at http://Sharesight.com.au
Dividends, share splits, amalgamations, bonus issues, name changes and share prices are entered automatically. The tax reports are comprehensive and you get detailed information on the performance of each share in your portfolio.
This comment needs a disclosure - Tony runs the business Sharesight. If anyone has any independent comments to add, please do so.
I tried to move Stockmarket Plus across to my new computer. Despite backup up as advised, the new program on the new computer wouldn't accept the old data. Maus couldn't help. I had to re-enter the data! I've tried different programs in the past such as EzyPortfolio, StockEasy and Quicken but the StockMarket reports are best, despite it being expensive and unreliable. I'll check out the new ones suggested and hope they're better.
I have share records data from 1994 on my Quicken version for Mac.I find it satisfactory though I should like an Australian version. I am still using it since I can still operate the Classic OS 9 on my old I-Mac. I keep hoping that Australian Quicken will make a version for Mac so that I can transfer all my data to a more modern Mac computer. Surely there must be other people out there who need Quicken for Macs. Can you bring any pressure to bear on Intuit by showing them there is a market for the Mac product?
GST : not really - there a part where you can set all that up.
First setup an account in your Accounts tree called something like "GST Liabilities" in the Liabilities and "GST Recievables" in the Assets
Second, goto Business -> Tax Table Editor and set up your tax tables and map them back in to the respective accounts that you just set up. Some examples include "GST Free", "GST Sales" and "GST Purchases"
I Have Used many Share management programs over the last 20 years & Have found TopShare the best. The provider is most obliging & at Tax Time the infomation is most helpfull.
To those who use Excel for managing investments, I have been told Excel is a volatile data storage tool. You need to keep data for 7yrs (?) for tax.
I run a SMSF for myself and my wife and made a decision to use offsite software for security/loss of data problems. It does everything you need and can download to excel if you want extra graphs etc. If I have a problem (to date for difficult corporate actions resulting from mergers etc.I email and the answer comes back the next day.
It pretty much comprehensively deals with the units my wife and I have invested in the fund and has auto daily sharemarket re pricing including for $300 p.a. you gotta be kidding if you scrimp on SMSF data recording for accounting and tax. You could not do what this sw does on a spreadsheet and keep it updated for changes in a timely manner.
The software is called Supereasy and google for that name if you want to investigate
You might want to look at GnuCash (http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/MacOSXInstallation)
[...] this month, Steve wrote a simple blog post on portfolio management software. But it was the comments provided by the Bristlemouth community that turned that post into [...]
I tried to use Sharesight but it didn't handle hybrids such as the Dexus RENTS so it was of no use. I use Praemium. Since this is a web service, it will also work on a Mac. It manages share splits and CGT correctly. It's always up-to-date with prices and produces reports which are ideal for the accountant to do the end of year return. You set up your broker to send a duplicate email to the Praemium service for any buy/sell contract and it automatically records all buys and sells for you from that email.
I have been using TopShare in the past 5 years. I find it is a good software and It is easy to use and saves me a lot of time at tax time.
I have been using My Portfolio Frontier for a few years now to do my record keeping and perfomance analysis. It is very straight forward and gives me tax reports that I hand to my accountant. I use it for my share trading as well as my super fund investments. I found it on the website solosw.com.
I run a number of portfolios for a Family Trust, a company and a couple in individual names and started using Top$hare about 1 year ago.
It is absolutely brilliant, producing great reports for taxation and keeping track of dividends, returns of capital etc etc. If you ever have a problem in how to treat say an in specie reduction in capital the writer, Chris, usually responds to questions in the forum within 24 hours. After using Quicken and Excel and a database in Superbase that I wrote Top$hare is a Godsend!
Also you can try it for free for a couple of months to see if it suits.
Hi, I've used MAUS STockmarket Plus for many years and it works well.
I use OTrader as it handles portfolios that are a little more complex. You can track options, shares, CFDs and view them as strategies for things like covered calls or option spreads.
Does it for me.
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