paulgul
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Post by paulgul on Mar 11, 2015 13:18:38 GMT
I only have half a dozen at the moment, but those of you with 100+ loans how do you keep track of them all - i.e. how much you invested, your gain and when they're due to finish. Do you just use the facilities that each company provides?
For the few I have I've started using Excel with a separate sheet for each investment company, there seems to be a lack of good basic software packages available for home/investment accounting.
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baldpate
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Post by baldpate on Mar 11, 2015 14:30:07 GMT
I use a separate Excel workbook for each platform, because each platform is different and presents different challenges.
For the 'slow', fixed-rate investment platforms (e.g AblRate, Assetz, Funding Secure, MoneyThing) I just update the workbooks manually as needed.
For other platforms, the workbook may be 'code-assisted'- for example:
- For Funding Circle, where I have a lot of loans & a fair bit of turnover, the workbook contains a VisualBasic program to do an update every weekend using downloads from the website.
- For Saving Stream, because there is no pre-notification of when stuff becomes available on the secondary market, as well as tracking my investments, the workbook has VB code that scrapes the Live Loans page at regular intervals to alert me if stuff has become available on the SM - but actual updating of loan records I do manually, because in other respects SS is a 'slow' platform.
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Post by tybalt on Mar 11, 2015 14:33:27 GMT
One workbook for each tax year, one page per month plus a cash book and screen dumps and some macros for adding up totals for various loans. Takes about half an hour once a month for 60 plus loans on ThinCats.
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ilmoro
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'Wondering which of the bu***rs to blame, and watching for pigs on the wing.' - Pink Floyd
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Post by ilmoro on Mar 11, 2015 14:46:44 GMT
Excel -sheet per platform but also an ancient version of MS Money which Ive figured out work arounds for some of the fiddly stuff. All manual entries but getting less time consuming as I run down positions in several platforms.
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paulgul
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Post by paulgul on Mar 11, 2015 15:01:05 GMT
For other platforms, the workbook may be 'code-assisted'- for example: - For Funding Circle, where I have a lot of loans & a fair bit of turnover, the workbook contains a VisualBasic program to do an update every weekend using downloads from the website. - For Saving Stream, because there is no pre-notification of when stuff becomes available on the secondary market, as well as tracking my investments, the workbook has VB code that scrapes the Live Loans page at regular intervals to alert me if stuff has become available on the SM - but actual updating of loan records I do manually, because in other respects SS is a 'slow' platform. That looks a bit complicated for my simple brain, I wouldn't know where to start making a VB programme. I'm also using an old version of MS Money 2004 for my personal banking but haven't tried using it for investments
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mikeb
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Post by mikeb on Mar 11, 2015 19:59:48 GMT
Pretty much as baldpate said, but swap VB macros for (linux) shell scripts and Open Office. One "sheet" per platform, plus an overall account summary mega-statement sheet per tax-year for all P2P lenders, ISA, accounts, etc. I don't use specific accounting software, so that I can align the content and order of the information with how the platforms provide it. Also I don't know if accounting software would be happy with some of the weird-<stuff> that the platforms create along the way. |
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baz657
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Post by baz657 on Mar 15, 2015 15:57:15 GMT
One spreadsheet for all platforms, ISA's, stocks & shares and deposit accounts does me, although it does now run into 1200 rows and 20 columns. Luckily I'm used to working with big spreadsheets. I just scroll up and down depending on what platform I'm looking at. As this is my first tax year, and will only be nine months' worth, I've not thought about what to do on April 6th. I'll probably save a "snapshot" on the day and just keep it going.
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Post by chielamangus on Mar 17, 2015 19:01:21 GMT
I only have half a dozen at the moment, but those of you with 100+ loans how do you keep track of them all - i.e. how much you invested, your gain and when they're due to finish. Do you just use the facilities that each company provides? For the few I have I've started using Excel with a separate sheet for each investment company, there seems to be a lack of good basic software packages available for home/investment accounting. Actually, I can't be bothered! With almost 1000 investments spread across four platforms and loan lengths from 1 month to 5 years, it's not worth the individual tracking. I just periodically do an XIRR for each platform to see how things are going, and make strategic decisions to increase/decrease investment in each. I rely on the honesty and efficiency of the platforms to get the interest right!
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mikes1531
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Post by mikes1531 on Mar 17, 2015 23:30:12 GMT
I rely on the honesty and efficiency of the platforms to get the interest right! That's what I used to do as well. Then I started reading this forum! Now, I don't think I have any doubts about the honesty/integrity of the platforms I've invested through, but I do have doubts about their ability to do the maths correctly. So periodically I download the data for my account and look for inconsistencies with the last version I have. I'm afraid that now I think we all should be doing that, because it seems like some platforms are oblivious to some of the errors that occur until someone brings it to their attention. And while I appreciate all the work others do to spot these problems, I feel that I ought to be doing my bit to help as well.
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