How to add a share transaction by hand in SavvyPortfolio

Most of your trades will arrive in a CSV. Some won't. An off-platform buy, an old parcel from a broker you've since left, a share purchase plan, or a correction to something the import got wrong: those you key in yourself.

It takes about thirty seconds. A symbol, three numbers, a calendar click and a save, and SavvyPortfolio works out the total cost as you type.

By the end of this guide you'll have added a single transaction by hand and seen it land in your transactions table. You need an account and a portfolio first. If you haven't imported anything yet, start with importing your CommSec CSV and come back for the odd trade that file didn't cover.

The example here is the one from the demo data: 40 WBC bought on 15/02/2024 at $22.50, with $19.95 brokerage.

Step 1 — Open the record modal

Go to the Transactions tab in the side nav, then click the dark Record pill in the top bar. It sits to the right of the Search holdings… box and the refresh pill, and it's available from any tab, so you never have to hunt for it.

The Add New Transaction modal opens, with the description "Enter the details for your new transaction." Everything you have to key is blank. Two fields arrive filled in: the date, which starts on today, and the type, which starts on Buy.

That's the whole entry point. There's no separate "manual entry" mode and no wizard. The same modal handles a buy and a sell, and anything you add here is treated exactly like an imported row: it feeds your holdings, your cost base and your CGT report.

Step 2 — Symbol and type

Click Stock Symbol and type the ticker. The placeholder shows the format it wants, e.g., CBA, BHP, so use the ASX code rather than the company name. In our example that's WBC.

Beside it, Transaction Type already reads Buy. For a purchase there's nothing to do. If you're recording a sale, open the select and switch it to Sell.

Do check it, though, precisely because Buy is the default: a sale keyed in quickly is the one that goes in wrong. A Buy opens a new parcel with its own purchase date, which is what starts the twelve-month clock for the CGT discount. A Sell gets matched against your oldest parcels first, using the FIFO method the ATO expects. Choosing the wrong one won't just flip a plus sign; it changes which parcels your cost base comes out of.

Step 3 — Date

Click the Transaction Date button. It's never empty: it starts on today's date, which on the demo data reads June 28th, 2024. A calendar opens underneath it. Click the day you bought or sold, and the popover closes with your date on the button, here February 15th, 2024.

You never type a date, so there's no guessing between 02/15/2024 and 15/02/2024, and no import silently reading a day as a month.

Use the trade date from your contract note, not the settlement date. The ATO treats the contract date as the date of the CGT event, and it's the date the holding period is counted from. Two days either way rarely matters, but around 30 June it can decide which financial year a gain lands in.

Step 4 — Numbers

Three fields, in order: Quantity, Price per Share (AUD) and Brokerage Fee (AUD). For our example that's 40, 22.50 and 19.95.

What's already in those boxes is placeholder text, not a default. 100, 25.50 and 9.50 are greyed-out examples showing the expected format; they disappear the moment you type and nothing is saved unless you enter it yourself.

As the last digit lands, a live strip appears below the fields reading Total Cost: $919.95. That's 40 × $22.50 = $900.00, plus the $19.95 brokerage. Watching that number settle is the quickest way to catch a fat-fingered quantity before you save.

Step 5 — Save it

Click Add Transaction. The modal closes and a toast confirms Transaction added, with the line BUY 40 WBC underneath.

From here it's live. The holding appears in your holdings table, the parcel is available to the FIFO engine when you later record a sell, and the purchase date starts counting towards the twelve months that qualify a gain for the 50% CGT discount.

If you got something wrong, add nothing to fix it. Edit or delete the row in the transactions table instead. Two entries for the same trade will double your position and quietly inflate your cost base.

What you should see

The toast reading Transaction added and BUY 40 WBC, then a new row in your transactions table dated 15/02/2024.

On the holdings side, WBC shows 40 shares at an average cost of $23.00 per share. That's the $919.95 total cost spread across 40 shares, brokerage included, not the $22.50 you paid on the market. At a live price of $24.85 the holding is worth $994.00, an unrealised gain of $74.05, tagged +8.05%.

Common gotchas

• Brokerage is part of your cost base. The $19.95 fee is why Total Cost reads $919.95 rather than $900.00, and why the average cost is $23.00 a share. The field is required, so you can't skip it: leave it blank and the form refuses to save with Brokerage must be 0 or greater. Enter 0 only when the trade genuinely cost you nothing, because a 0 on a trade that did carry a fee overstates your capital gain when you eventually sell. On a sell it works the other way: proceeds are recorded net of brokerage.
• Placeholders aren't values. 100, 25.50 and 9.50 are examples of the format. Every field needs your own number.
• Enter the price per share, not the trade total. The field is labelled Price per Share (AUD). Putting $900.00 in there instead of $22.50 gives you a transaction 40 times too big.
• Use the contract date, not settlement. The calendar picker removes format guesswork, but only you know which date is the right one.
• The free plan caps you at 10 holdings. The demo portfolio sits at 4 of 10. Adding a ticker you don't already own uses one of those slots. Unlimited holdings is a Pro feature.
• These numbers feed a tax calculation, so check them. SavvyPortfolio does the arithmetic; it isn't tax advice. Run your figures past a registered tax agent before you lodge.

What's next

Now that data is going in, it's worth learning to read what comes out. How to read your SavvyPortfolio dashboard walks through the balance hero, the chart and its dashed cost-basis line, your unrealised P&L and the holdings table, one region at a time. And if you want the rules behind why brokerage lands in your cost base and how the twelve-month holding period actually gets counted, how to calculate CGT on shares in Australia covers the ATO side in plain English.