Why reconciliation exists in the product at all
The most painful moment for many investors is discovering during tax season that the broker-provided cost figure is incomplete. myCostBase turns that surprise into a review workflow you can run before filing.
What the reconciliation view compares
The workflow compares broker or T5008 values against your calculated ledger, security by security, for a given tax year:
- broker says;
- myCostBase says;
- difference.
The important part is the explanation attached to that difference.
Two ways to reconcile: interactive entry and batch import
Every plan can compare broker and T5008 figures against the ledger — how those broker-side figures get in differs by plan. Standard and Premium both support unlimited manual T5008 entries per security, plus batch T5008 slip import that commits bulk broker CSV data for real, so a full year’s slips can be reconciled at once instead of security by security. Free includes unlimited manual transactions, 100 imported transactions through regular CSV imports, and one manual T5008 entry; batch T5008 slip import stays preview-only, and unlimited manual T5008 entries require Standard or Premium.
Common reasons for a difference
The explanation often comes from one of the core reconciliation issues:
- pooled holdings across multiple taxable accounts;
- ETF adjustments the broker never applied;
- transfer-in cost basis missing from the receiving broker;
- correct CAD conversion on USD trades;
- manual corrections added to preserve the true historical trail.
Available reports
Reporting is tiered by plan — see Pricing for the complete comparison:
- Standard and up: Schedule 3 Report, Realized Gains Detail, Current Holdings with ACB, T1135 Foreign Property Summary, and Household Tax Summary (PDF).
- Premium adds: a downloadable T5008 Reconciliation report, a full per-security ACB Audit Trail report, a Detailed Superficial Loss report, and CSV/spreadsheet export of the above.
If you need to check whether foreign-property cost crossed a reporting threshold before preparing the summary, use the T1135 threshold tracker .
Exports are designed to support filing preparation or an accountant handoff — see myCostBase for Accountants . myCostBase still does not replace the filing software itself.
What to review before exporting
Before you export a final package, confirm that warnings have been resolved for the securities involved in that tax year. A report generated from an unresolved transfer basis gap is still a report with an unresolved assumption.
For the rules driving these numbers, see ACB Calculation Methodology . For why T5008 Box 20 diverges from ACB in the first place, see the T5008 Box 20 and Box 21 reconciliation guide . To compare a single security’s figures side by side before committing a full import, use the T5008 ACB reconciliation checker .
If you are still building the ledger, go back to Importing Transactions or ETF Return of Capital Adjustments first.
Once the differences are explained, follow the Schedule 3 handoff walkthrough to check expenses and avoid duplicate sale entries in filing software.