How to Set Up Spreadsheets for Stock Certificates
Spreadsheet programs like Microsoft Excel provide an excellent resource stock market investors can use to track their purchases, sales, taxes and dividends. Creating a spreadsheet to track stock purchases and stock certificates is an excellent planning tool, and it will certainly come in handy when tax time rolls around.
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Things You'll Need
- Spreadsheet program
- Stock purchase and sale statements
- 1099 forms
- Brokerage statements
Instructions
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Gather all of your stock market information together, including stock purchase confirmation, stock sale statements, brokerage statements and any physical stock certificates you own.
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Separate your information according to each stock you own. Make a separate pile for each stock and include everything relevant to that stock, including purchase and sale dates, the number of shares you own and the amount of any dividends you have received for each year. The 1099 statements you receive from your broker each year should provide you with information about any dividends and capital gains you accrued for the previous year.
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Open up your favorite spreadsheet program and open a new worksheet. Give it a descriptive title like "My Stocks" or something similar, then save the spreadsheet. Create a separate line for each stock you own, and create the relevant columns on each of those lines. For instance, you might want to make one column for the number of shares you own, another column the amount of dividends you received and another column for the date you originally purchased the stock. You can also create columns to calculate any capital gains you incur when you sell that stock.
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Update your stock certificate spreadsheet each time you buy or sell a stock. Every time you receive a new statement from your brokerage firm or investment adviser make sure you update your spreadsheet accordingly. You will then be able to use your updated spreadsheet to prepare your taxes and make investment decisions going forward.
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