ACB Tracking Software Features

myCostBase is built around one job: maintain a reviewable adjusted cost base ledger for Canadian taxable accounts. It keeps the full transaction trail, calculates the numbers that change with each event, and surfaces warnings when the available data is not complete enough to trust silently.

One pooled adjusted cost base across all taxable brokerage accounts

Canadian ACB rules apply across the taxpayer’s non-registered accounts, not per brokerage login. The averaging requirement comes from the Income Tax Act’s identical property rules (section 47). myCostBase combines holdings for the same identical property into one weighted-average ACB pool, so a buy at Questrade and a sell at Wealthsimple still roll into the same ledger, consistent with documented CRA rules.

Registered accounts (RRSP, TFSA, FHSA, and RESP) stay outside the pool. That classification happens at account setup because it changes the legal calculation, not just the display.

Why this matters: If you report a capital gain using only the selling broker’s book value, you may be overstating or understating your gain. The correct ACB must reflect every purchase, transfer, and adjustment across all taxable accounts for that security.

Import from your Canadian broker or enter history manually

myCostBase supports the transaction types that investors need to maintain an accurate ledger over time:

• buys and sells with full commission tracking;
• DRIP share purchases;
• return of capital (ROC) adjustments from T3 and T5 slips;
• reinvested capital gain distributions;
• stock splits;
• broker-to-broker transfers with original cost basis carried forward;
• single-leg equity and ETF options — buy-to-open, sell-to-close, write-to-open, buy-to-close, exercise, assignment, and expiry;
• manual corrections with a required explanatory note.

For CSV imports, the system flags duplicate rows, unrecognized securities, missing Bank of Canada FX rates, and transfers where the original cost basis is not yet known. That keeps the ledger accurate instead of quietly absorbing bad source data.

Sync ETF and mutual fund distributions into your ACB ledger

ETF and mutual fund distributions can change your adjusted cost base even when no trade appears in your brokerage history. Choose a taxpayer and tax year, review the available fund tax data, and preview each adjustment based on the units held on its record date.

Once confirmed, myCostBase adds the adjustments to your chronological ledger: return of capital (ROC) reduces ACB, while reinvested capital gains distributions increase it. Each synced entry remains visible in your audit trail, so you can review the calculation without looking up per-unit amounts and entering them by hand.

Options: calls, puts, and covered-call premiums in the same ACB ledger

myCostBase records supported long and written equity and ETF option transactions alongside the underlying shares. That covers buying and selling long calls or puts, writing options, and the resulting exercise, assignment, or expiry event.

The ledger records written-option premium when the option is granted and preserves the later closing, exercise, assignment, or expiry event. For positions reported on capital account, the premium is generally a grant-year capital gain under section 49; a later exercise can move it into the underlying share transaction and may require an amendment to the grant-year return. Contract size defaults to 100 shares per contract and can be edited for non-standard, adjusted contracts.

Individual legs of spreads, straddles, collars, and other multi-leg positions can be recorded and calculated separately when they use supported option transaction types. myCostBase does not currently group or link those legs into a named strategy or provide strategy-level matching, lifecycle management, or premium allocation. For the full mechanics of each transaction type, see Options Transactions and ACB.

Automatic Bank of Canada FX conversion for USD and foreign-currency trades

Foreign-currency transactions must be reported in Canadian dollars. CRA’s Capital Gains guide generally points to the Bank of Canada daily rate, while also accepting qualifying alternative sources and averages in certain circumstances. myCostBase fetches a Bank of Canada daily exchange rate for the selected transaction date, records the source and observation date, and supports documented overrides.

If you need to use a different documented rate, for example from a bank statement, you can override it and the note becomes part of the audit trail rather than an off-platform fix no one can trace later.

Per-security ledger with running ACB, share count, and gain-or-loss history

Every security has a chronological ledger showing the running share count, total ACB, ACB per share, and realized gain or loss after each event. The goal is not just to output the final number — it is to let you inspect where that number came from.

That matters when you need to answer questions like:

• why ACB dropped after an ETF return-of-capital slip;
• which broker transfer carried the original cost basis forward;
• which Bank of Canada FX rate was applied to a USD sale;
• whether a manual adjustment occurred before or after a disposition.

Warnings before you file — not after a CRA letter arrives

myCostBase does not present a clean-looking number when the data behind it is incomplete. If a transfer cost basis is missing, a security needs confirmation, or a superficial loss scenario may require manual review, the product surfaces the warning directly.

This matters most in cross-account histories where the risk is not a calculation bug — the risk is assuming source data was complete when it was not.

T5008 reconciliation and export for accountants and tax software

The year-end workflow is built around the actual handoff Canadian investors need before filing:

• compare broker or T5008 figures against myCostBase ACB;
• inspect the difference at the security level;
• explain likely causes (missing ETF adjustments, pooled cross-brokerage holdings, transfer cost basis errors);
• export capital gains summaries, disposition detail, and full audit trails.

myCostBase does not replace tax filing software like TurboTax or StudioTax. It supplies the upstream ACB and gain/loss work those filing tools still expect you to have already done correctly. See myCostBase for Accountants for what a client handoff looks like from the accountant’s side.

Built for Canadian investors with non-registered accounts across multiple brokerages

The product is the right fit when you hold stocks or ETFs in one or more taxable accounts and need more than a single broker’s book value column. It is especially useful if you have:

• the same ETF or stock held at two or more Canadian brokerages;
• USD-denominated positions requiring daily Bank of Canada FX conversion;
• ETF distributions (ROC, DRIP, reinvested gains) that change your ACB annually;
• broker-to-broker transfers where cost basis continuity matters;
• year-end T5008 mismatches that need a clear explanation before filing.

If you want the step-by-step workflow, read How It Works. For implementation detail, start with Getting Started and Importing Transactions.