Tracking your investment portfolio properly helps with tax reporting, performance measurement, and rebalancing decisions. Here’s how the main options compare for NZ investors.
Sharesight is the best portfolio tracker for NZ investors with direct shares — it handles NZX dividends, imputation credits, and tax reporting automatically. Free plan covers up to 10 holdings. For managed funds (InvestNow, Kernel, Simplicity): each platform shows your returns directly — no separate tracker needed. Spreadsheets work fine for simple portfolios.
Why Track Your Portfolio?
- Performance: Know your actual return, not just account balance movement
- Tax: Record keeping for IRD — especially important for non-PIE investments
- Rebalancing: See your actual allocation vs target
- Motivation: Seeing progress (even in down markets) helps long-term discipline
Sharesight
Website: sharesight.com
NZ pricing: Free (10 holdings), Starter $12/month (10 holdings with full features), Investor $25/month (unlimited), Expert $50/month
Sharesight is the gold standard for NZ share investors and the most commonly used portfolio tracker in NZ.
What makes Sharesight stand out for NZ investors
NZX data: Auto-imports NZX share prices, dividend history, and imputation credits. Handles NZ-specific dividend tax correctly.
Imputation credit tracking: Calculates the imputation credit value of NZX dividends and includes it in your total return calculations. This matters because imputed dividends are worth more than face value to NZ investors.
IRD-compatible tax reporting: Sharesight generates:
- Taxable income report (dividends received)
- Unrealised/realised gains report
- Annual tax summary (useful for IR3 filing)
Broker integrations: Links directly to Sharesies, Tiger Brokers, and many international brokers to auto-import transactions. Manual entry for platforms without direct integration.
Performance reporting: Time-weighted return (TWR) calculation — the industry standard for measuring portfolio performance regardless of cash flow timing.
Sharesight limitations
- Managed funds (InvestNow, Kernel, Simplicity): Sharesight tracks unit prices but PIE tax reporting is handled by the fund manager, not Sharesight. You may need to manually reconcile PIE fund tax.
- Crypto: Sharesight doesn’t track cryptocurrency. Use Koinly instead.
- Free plan (10 holdings): Sufficient for simple portfolios; if you hold 2–3 NZX stocks and 2 index funds, the free plan covers it.
Alternatives to Sharesight
Stocklight (NZ-focused)
- NZX-focused portfolio tracker
- Free tier available
- Valuation tools and NZX news integrated
- Less comprehensive tax reporting than Sharesight
- Best for: NZ share market research alongside basic portfolio tracking
Yahoo Finance Portfolio
- Free, globally recognised
- Tracks any listed security (NZX, ASX, NYSE, NASDAQ)
- No tax reporting, no NZ-specific imputation credit handling
- Best for: Quick price checking and basic performance tracking
- Not suitable for: IRD tax purposes
Google Sheets / Excel Spreadsheet
- Free, fully customisable
- Best for: Simple portfolios (1–3 funds from single platform)
- Manual price updates required unless you use Google Finance functions
- No automatic dividend tracking
- Adequate for: InvestNow or Kernel-only portfolios where the platform shows returns
InvestNow / Kernel / Simplicity platform tracking
All three platforms show your portfolio value, contributions, investment return (dollar and percentage), and tax paid. For investors whose entire portfolio is on one PIE platform, the platform’s own reporting is sufficient — no separate tracker needed.
Koinly (crypto)
For cryptocurrency portfolios, Koinly is the standard NZ tool — not Sharesight. Auto-imports from Easy Crypto, Binance, Independent Reserve, and produces IRD-compatible tax reports.
Which Tracker for Which Situation
| Portfolio type | Best tracker |
|---|---|
| NZX shares only | Sharesight (free if < 10 holdings) |
| NZX + ASX + US shares | Sharesight (Investor plan) |
| InvestNow/Kernel/Simplicity funds only | Platform’s own dashboard |
| Mixed: funds + direct shares | Sharesight (manually add managed funds as holdings) |
| Crypto only | Koinly |
| Crypto + shares | Sharesight + Koinly (separate) |
| Simple (< 5 holdings, PIE only) | Spreadsheet or platform dashboard |
Setting Up Sharesight for NZ Investors
- Sign up at sharesight.com (free plan to start)
- Add your holdings: Link your broker (Sharesies auto-import available) or manually add NZX ticker, purchase date, and price
- Set your tax rate: Enter your marginal NZ income tax rate for correct dividend/imputation calculations
- Check dividend history: Sharesight automatically backfills historical dividends for NZX shares
- Connect additional portfolios: If you use multiple brokers or platforms, add each separately
Annual tax time workflow:
- Run “Taxable income report” for the 1 April – 31 March tax year
- This shows all dividends received and imputation credits — import into your IR3
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Sharesight worth paying for? For investors with more than 10 holdings or who need tax reporting: yes. The $25/month Investor plan (unlimited holdings, full tax reports) pays for itself if it saves 2–3 hours of manual tax work per year.
Does Sharesight track KiwiSaver? No. KiwiSaver is tracked by your KiwiSaver provider. Add KiwiSaver as a custom investment in Sharesight if you want it included in your total net worth view, but Sharesight can’t auto-import KiwiSaver data.
Can I use Sharesight if I only hold InvestNow funds? InvestNow managed funds aren’t NZX-listed securities, so Sharesight can’t auto-import them. You can manually add them, but for a pure InvestNow portfolio, InvestNow’s own dashboard is simpler and sufficient.