How to track your shares in Australia

If you own shares on the ASX, you already know the ATO expects you to report capital gains and dividend income every financial year. Without decent records, you end up overpaying tax or spending a weekend in June reconstructing trades from old broker emails. Neither is fun.

A broker app shows you what your holdings are worth today, but that is only part of the picture. You need accurate cost bases for CGT, dividend records with franking credits, and performance numbers that span brokers and financial years.

What a dedicated tracker gives you

• Cost base records for every holding, ready for CGT calculations at tax time
• Dividend tracking including franking credits, which go straight onto your tax return
• Performance across your entire portfolio, not just individual stock prices
• One view across brokers if you hold shares on CommSec, SelfWealth, Stake, or elsewhere

The ATO requires you to keep records of every share transaction for at least five years after you lodge the return that includes the disposal. Recording this as you go beats digging through old statements later.

Setting up your portfolio

Getting started takes a few minutes. Create a portfolio, set the market to ASX and the currency to AUD, then start adding your holdings by searching for any ASX-listed stock or ETF.

You can choose a simple portfolio (enter shares and average cost) or a transaction-based portfolio (record individual buy and sell trades). If you want detailed tax reporting and lot-level tracking, go with transaction-based. It lets TrackMyShares calculate capital gains automatically from your purchase history.

Prices are updated throughout the day, so your portfolio value stays current without manual refreshes.

Importing your existing trades

You do not need to type in years of trade history. Most Australian brokers let you export trades as CSV, and TrackMyShares supports CSV imports with dedicated guides for CommSec, SelfWealth, Stake, Superhero, and CMC Markets. The import tool maps columns automatically and lets you review everything before confirming. If you have exports from multiple years or brokers, the CSV merge tool combines them into a single file first.

After your initial import, you can set up email transaction forwarding to keep things current. Forward your broker confirmation emails to your portfolio's unique email address, and TrackMyShares parses the details and queues them for review. No more manual entry after each trade.

Dividends and franking credits

Dividends are a big part of returns for Australian investors, especially from the big four banks, Telstra, and Wesfarmers. TrackMyShares helps you track dividends with projected annual income, a dividend calendar showing expected payment dates, and historical payment records.

Franking credits matter because they directly reduce your tax. A fully franked dividend from a company paying the 30% corporate tax rate means you get a credit for tax already paid. If your marginal rate is below 30%, you may even get a refund of the difference. Keeping accurate records of the franking component makes your tax return significantly easier.

Monitoring performance

The dashboard shows your total portfolio value, daily change, gain or loss on each holding, allocation breakdown, a performance chart over time, and benchmark comparison against the ASX 200 or S&P 500.

If you hold shares across multiple brokers, consolidated portfolios let you create separate portfolios for each broker and view them as one combined portfolio for analysis and reporting.

TrackMyShares also supports portfolio rebalancing, where you set target allocations and see trade recommendations to bring things back in line. You can set up push notifications or email notifications for daily portfolio updates without needing to log in.

Staying prepared for tax time

Australia's financial year runs 1 July to 30 June, and CGT is where most share investors trip up. When you sell shares for more than you paid (including brokerage), you have a capital gain. Hold for more than 12 months and you may qualify for the 50% CGT discount, which halves the taxable gain.

TrackMyShares generates tax reports that break down realised gains and losses by financial year, classify short-term vs long-term, and calculate the discount automatically. Rather than scrambling in June, keeping your portfolio current means your 2025-26 FY reporting is already done when you need it.

You can learn more on the capital gains tax page, including worked examples and the CGT calculator.

Beyond shares

You can also track manual assets like investment properties, cash accounts, and collectibles, plus precious metals like gold and silver, giving you a complete net worth view in one place.

TrackMyShares is free to start with support for up to 20 holdings. The PRO plan unlocks unlimited holdings, multiple portfolios, transaction tracking, tax reports, dividend calendars, and more. Sign up for free and start tracking your ASX portfolio.

This is general information, not personal tax or financial advice.