Venice allows you to keep track of multiple portfolios. One portfolio might be for your actual portfolio and others could be used for paper trading. You can create a new portfolio by:
A portfolio is made up of several Cash Accounts and several Share Accounts. A Cash Account can be a bank account, a term deposit, a Cash Management Account or any account which stores money. A Share Account is any account where you can trade shares. To create a trading account you will need at least one of each.
A portfolio is made up of several accounts and also transactions. A transaction is any financial transaction that involves one or more of the accounts. See transactions for more details.
You can import and export portfolios to CSV files (comma separated values) these files can then be read by an Excel spreadsheet and other tools. This can be useful for backup purposes. Venice is alpha after all! The format of the output files is:
dd/mm/yyyy,transaction name,value,symbol,share number,trade cost,cash
account1,cash account2,share account
Not all of these fields will be present, an example exported line is:
02/01/2003,Accumulate,4000.00,XYZ,100,20.50,Bank,,Broker
You can graph the value of a portfolio over time. See Graphs for more details.
You can view a list of all the transactions that have occurred in the portfolio. You can reach this by clicking on the Transaction menu item and then clicking on the Show History menu item.
Venice currently supports several common transactions: Accumulate Transaction, Deposit Transaction, Dividend Transaction, Dividend DRP Transaction, Fee Transaction, Interest Transaction, Reduce Transaction, Transfer Transaction and Withdrawal Transaction.
Once a portfolio is open, you can add a transaction by clicking on the Transaction menu item, then clicking on the New menu item. You will see in a drop down box a list of the transactions available. Some of these might not be available yet, e.g. you cannot enter a Reduce Transaction (sell shares) without having bought any.
The accumulate transaction is the "buy shares" transaction. To enter this transaction you will need the date the transaction took place, the cash account where you withdrew the money from, the share account that accumulated the shares, the symbol of the stock you accumulated (e.g. CBA), the number of shares you accumulated, the total value of the shares at the time of purchase and finally the cost of the trade. This information should all be available from your broker.
The deposit transaction is the transaction where you deposit money into a cash account such as a bank account. To enter this transaction you will need the date the transaction took place, the cash account you deposited the money to and the amount you deposited.
The dividend transaction is the transaction when you receive a share dividend. To enter this transaction you will need the date the transaction took place, the cash account that received the money, the share account containing the stock, the symbol of the stock and the dividend amount paid to you.
The dividend DRP (dividend re-investment programme) transaction is the transaction when you receive a share dividend that is automatically re-invested back into the company by buying more shares. To enter this transaction you will need the date the transaction took place, the share account containing the stock, the symbol of the stock and the amount of shares acquired.
The fee transaction is the transaction when you receive any kind of fee such as account keeping fees, Tax etc. To enter this transaction you will need the date the transaction took place, the cash account that received the fee and the amount that you were charged.
The interest transaction is the transaction when you receive any interest in one of your cash accounts. To enter this transaction you will need the date the transaction took place, the cash account that received the interest and the amount that you were credited. If your account is in the negative and this was the interest that was debited from your account, then put a minus sign in front of the value.
The reduce transaction is the "sell shares" transaction. To enter this transaction you will need the date the transaction took place, the cash account where the money from the sale will go, the share account that reduced the shares, the symbol of the stock you reduced (e.g. CBA), the number of shares you reduced, the total value of the shares at the time of sale and finally the cost of the trade. This information should all be available from your broker.
The transfer transaction is the transaction where you transfer money from one cash account to another. To enter this transaction you will need the cash account where you withdrew the money, the destination cash account and the amount you transferred. If there was a fee for the transfer, you need to enter this as a separate transaction.
The withdrawal transaction is the transaction where you withdraw money from a cash account such as a bank account. To enter this transaction you will need the date the transaction took place, the cash account you withdrew the money from and the amount you withdrew.