Understanding your returns and figures

Market value

What your investments would be worth if sold at the latest price.

Cost base

What you paid for an investment, including brokerage fees. Your gain or loss is worked out from this.

Gain not yet sold

How much more (or less) your investments are worth now than you paid. It only becomes a capital gain when you sell.

Money in

What you've paid in for your investments, including brokerage, less what you've taken out by selling. The rest of the value is growth.

Market return

How much your investments went up or down over the period, not counting money you put in or took out. Dividends are not included.

Total return

The gain on what you still hold plus the dividends it has paid you. The dividends are estimates: franking credits aren't included, and if dividends were reinvested, the new units only count if they're in your trades.

Yearly return

What your money earned each year on average, counting when each dollar went in and came out. Only shown once your money has been in for a year on average, because a yearly figure from a few weeks, or from mostly recent buying, is misleading.

Yield on cost

The last 12 months of dividends as a percentage of what you paid for the units you still hold.

Gain from sales

The gains and losses on what you have sold, before the CGT discount. The tax view, by financial year and with the discount if you can claim it, is on the Tax pack page.

Tap any underlined term in the app to see the same explanation.

• Dashboard: the total value, cost base, gain not yet sold, gain from sales and the last 12 months of dividends, then a chart of your portfolio's value and your five biggest investments.
• Analytics: how much of what you have is money you put in and how much is growth, a chart of where your money is, and a table of how each investment has done. Select a column to sort by value, gain, dividends, total return or yearly return.
• An investment's page: its own figures, each purchase you still hold, and its transactions and dividends.

The value chart can show what would have happened if the same money had gone into the ASX 200 on the same days, measured by the fund that tracks it. It leaves out dividends, as the portfolio line does, so the two compare fairly. Read more about measuring returns in how to measure your portfolio's return.

• Prices are closing prices, updated once a day after each market closes. Each one shows when it was taken.
• An investment you have just added usually has a price within a minute.
• Overseas shares are shown in Australian dollars, with each trade converted at the rate on its day and today's value at today's rate.
• An investment with no price yet is left out of the total, and the Dashboard says so.

The gain is far too high

A purchase is probably missing, so part of the holding has no cost. Compare the units with your broker statement.

The yearly return is blank

It is only shown once your money has been invested for a year on average, because a yearly figure from a few weeks is misleading.

Dividends are lower than my statements

Dividends are estimates, before franking, and reinvested shares only count once they are recorded as purchases. See dividends and franking.

An investment says something needs attention

Its page explains what and links to the trade behind it, usually a sale with no matching purchase.

• Getting started with Portfoli.au: Create an account, get your first trades in, and find your way around.
• Import trades from your broker's file: Upload a CSV or Excel file, check the preview, and fix rows that can't be read.
• Email import: forward your contract notes: A private address for contract notes, how to forward them, and confirming each trade.
• Add, edit and correct trades: Type a trade in, change or delete one, and fix the usual mistakes.
• All help, or the guides to investing and tax.

Still stuck? Email support@portfoli.au. New to Portfoli.au? Create a free account, with no credit card needed.