How can we help?

A negative balance occurs when a holding has more sold shares than bought shares, resulting in an invalid negative quantity. Sharesight will show an error at the top of the Portfolio Investments Page and exclude the holding from performance, total value and all reports until it is corrected.

Before working through a fix, it's worth deciding whether the negative balance needs to be corrected at all. See Why your portfolio doesn't match your broker for guidance on how to triage and prioritise.

Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMU8pwRbwNc&t=10s

Reasons for negative balance:

• Missing historical trades - If all the trades since inception has not been updated on Sharesight portfolio, it might result in 'Negative balance'. You can manually record the missing historical shares or bulk import them using csv file.

• Transfer between brokers - When you did a transfer between brokers, all the trades prior to the transfer don't get recorded to your broker's transaction download history. You can manually record the transferred shares or bulk import them using csv file.

• Off-market transaction - If you have purchased shares via an IPO or Share Purchase Plans, free option/warrants etc, they will not get imported as your broker is unaware of them. You can manually record them as 'BUY' trade on your Sharesight portfolio.

• Corporate Actions - Refer to Corporate Action page to handle different kinds of corporate action on Sharesight. You can reach out to Sharesight support team (support@Sharesight.com) for the best way to handle them.

• Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRP) - If you have investments setup to reinvest the dividend back in the stock, these will not have been imported using either of the bulk importers. You need to set up the dividend to be reinvested.

• Expired or forfeited options or warrants - If you held options or warrants that expired unexercised or were forfeited, they need to be closed out with a Sell at $0. If this wasn't recorded, it can cause a negative balance. See How to record warrants and stock options for instructions.

If you're unsure which of the above is causing your negative balance, see Why your portfolio doesn't match your broker for a step-by-step diagnostic guide.

Example:

Importing trades for holding CBA.ASX has resulted in negative quantity, a SELL trade of 150 shares was imported and no BUY trade record. As a result, the ‘Invalid Holding’ error message is displayed. This can be corrected by entering the corresponding initial BUY trades.

Steps to fix a negative balance

1 - On the Portfolio Investments Page, click on the show more link within the Invalid Holding error message.

The error message will expand providing a detailed description of the error and a list of the holdings which are not valid.

Click on the Invalid Holding, to go to the Individual Holding Page.

2 - On the Individual Holding Page under Trades & Income tab there are more Sold quantity than Bought. The trade that results in a negative number is indicated by a warning icon. Click on the ‘Add Trade or Adjustment’ button.

3 - From the Type dropdown menu, select the transaction type, either aBUY or Opening Balance.

4 - Type in the 'Buy' trade or 'Open Balance' details. Sharesight suggests the share price and exchange rate.

• Quantity — Enter the number of shares either bought or held at the opening balance.

• Share Price — Sharesight will indicate the closing price on the purchase date, click on this figure to use the suggested price or type into the field.

• Exchange Rate (only displayed for overseas shares) — Sharesight will indicate the closing exchange rate on the purchase date, click on this figure to use the suggested rate or type in the exchange rate into the field. Can change the currency from the dropdown menu.

• Brokerage (optional) — Enter any brokerage paid. Can select currency the brokerage was paid in from the dropdown menu.

• Cost base - If you are entering an opening balance trade, enter the total amount the investment is worth at the opening balance date in "Total Cost Base" field.

5 - The holding will now be a valid holding, there will no longer be an error message & warning icon displayed.

The holding will now be included in your portfolio performance, Total Value, the holdings list on the Portfolio Investments Page & all Reports.