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This guide is for Australian self-managed super fund (SMSF) investors.

Sharesight is used by thousands of Australian SMSF trustees to track their portfolio performance, automate compliance documentation, and produce the tax reports needed at year end — replacing spreadsheets and reducing administration to a few hours a month.

Jump to:

• Set up your SMSF portfolio
• Add your investments
• Track your SMSF bank account and cash
• Import your trade history
• Keep your portfolio up to date
• Tax and compliance reports
• Monitor your investment strategy
• EOFY checklist
• Connect to your accountant or advisor

Set up your SMSF portfolio

Start by creating a dedicated portfolio for your SMSF. Keep it separate from any personal portfolios so your SMSF records stay clean.

1. Add a portfolio — create a new portfolio and name it after your fund (e.g. "Smith Family Super Fund").
2. Set the tax residency to Australia — this ensures Sharesight applies the correct tax settings, CGT discount rates, and surfaces the right reports. If you've already set up a portfolio, see Changing the tax setting of your portfolio.

Tip: If you also have a personal investment portfolio, you can use Consolidated Views to see your SMSF and personal holdings together in one view without mixing your records.

Add your investments

Sharesight tracks over 700,000 global shares, ETFs, and managed funds, plus unlisted assets — covering the full range of what SMSFs typically hold:

• Listed shares and ETFs — search by ticker code and add directly. Prices update automatically.
• Managed funds — search by APIR code or fund name.
• Term deposits and fixed interest — tracked as a custom investment. See How to track a term deposit.
• Investment property — tracked as a custom investment with manual valuations.
• Franking credits — tracked automatically on Australian shares. Appear in your Taxable Income Report.

See What can I track in Sharesight? for the full list.

Track your SMSF bank account and cash

Most SMSFs hold a bank account for contributions, expenses, and distributions. You can track it alongside your investments using Sharesight's Cash Account feature.

• How to track a bank or savings account — set up a Cash Account to represent your SMSF bank account and record deposits, withdrawals, and interest.
• Cash account overview — full list of cash account features.
• How to track a term deposit — if your SMSF holds term deposits.

Note: Interest payment transactions recorded in a Cash Account will appear in your Taxable Income Report.

Import your trade history

Bring in your full SMSF trade history so Sharesight has an accurate record from day one.

• Import from a broker — if your broker is supported, import directly.
• Bulk import via spreadsheet — upload a CSV of historical trades.
• Trade Confirmation Emails — forward broker confirmations to Sharesight to capture trades automatically.

Note: For managed funds and private investments not covered by broker imports, you can add trades manually.

Keep your portfolio up to date

Once set up, Sharesight keeps most things updated automatically:

• Prices update daily for listed securities.
• Dividends and franking credits are populated automatically based on your holdings.
• Corporate actions (splits, mergers, dividends) are handled automatically where possible.
• Foreign exchange is tracked automatically for international holdings.

Tax and compliance reports

Sharesight produces the key reports SMSF trustees, accountants, and auditors need. Sharesight applies ATO CGT rules including automatic CGT discount rates for SMSFs.

All reports can be exported to PDF, spreadsheet, or Google Drive. See Exporting a report.

Monitor your investment strategy

The ATO requires SMSFs to document their investment strategy and review it at least annually. Sharesight makes this easier with built-in tools for tracking asset allocation and performance.

• Diversity Report — see your portfolio broken down by asset class, sector, country, or any custom grouping. Use this to check your allocation aligns with your investment strategy.
• Custom Groups — define your own categories (e.g. growth vs defensive, domestic vs international) and track performance against them throughout the year.
• Contribution Analysis Report — understand how different asset classes contribute to your overall return through capital gains, dividends, and currency movements.
• Performance Report — track your SMSF's total return over any period, benchmarked against an index.

EOFY checklist

A systematic approach throughout the year means minimal work at tax time. Before 30 June:

• ✅ Run the Unrealised CGT Report — identify holdings with large unrealised losses that could be harvested to offset gains. Also useful for estimating Division 296 exposure.
• ✅ Check your CGT Report — review realised gains and consider whether your sale allocation method (FIFO, LIFO, etc.) is optimised for your tax position.
• ✅ Reconcile your Taxable Income Report — verify dividends, franking credits, and interest are complete and accurate before sending to your accountant.
• ✅ Export the Historical Cost Report — required for annual accounts and audit preparation.
• ✅ Review your Diversity Report — confirm your asset allocation still aligns with your documented investment strategy.
• ✅ Share your portfolio with your accountant — see Connect to your accountant below.

Connect to your accountant or advisor

• Connect to Xero — sync your portfolio data directly into Xero for accounting reconciliation and bank feeds.
• Class — Sharesight integrates with Class Super (SMSF administration software). Your accountant can pull Sharesight data directly into Class for final compliance reporting, reducing rekeying errors.
• Share your portfolio — give your accountant or auditor read-only access to your Sharesight portfolio directly, so they can run reports themselves.

Next steps

Once your portfolio is set up, see What to do after importing your portfolio for a checklist of recommended next steps.