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How balances are calculated for CoinTracker’s Portfolio product

Introduction

Wallet and asset balances are calculated based on your transaction history, just like your tax calculations. 

This ensures any edits you make to your transactions are applied consistently across the product.

Before this change, the balances on your Dashboard and Wallet screens were based on what exchanges and wallet APIs reported to CoinTracker. This meant the balances ignored any edits you made to your transaction history, and also meant they could be inconsistent with your tax reports.

In other words, this upgrade will align portfolio calculations with tax calculations, creating a consistent experience throughout the CoinTracker product. For more details on the feature, see the rest of the guide below.

In case it helps, here is a visualization of the change:

 

Screen

 

 

FAQ

Why are my balances wrong? They used to be correct.

CoinTracker gathers two types of data from each synced exchange/wallet in your account:

  1. All the transactions on that exchange/wallet.
  2. The current total balances of each token on that exchange/wallet.

Before this update, displayed balances were reported by each exchange/wallet (#2 above). With the update, everything is now based on the transaction history.

In most cases this matches - if you add up the CoinTracker transactions for a given coin in a given wallet/exchange, it will match the total reported by that wallet/exchange.

That said, sometimes the transaction data (#1 above) from exchanges can be incomplete and require manual additions or CSV imports to fill in the gaps. By using the total sum of transactions for each token as the main reference for token balances, the Dashboard and Performance page now highlights any missing transactions. This early detection can help you find and fix issues affecting your tax reports before the stress of tax season.

For how to resolve balance differences, check out this section below.

 

I have a synced wallet or exchange and I see that CoinTracker is missing transactions from that wallet or exchange, what should I do?

The goal is to have the CoinTracker transaction history as close to 100% complete and accurate as possible. If you are missing certain transactions from an exchange/wallet, the general approach is to identify those transactions and add them manually into CoinTracker. We know this can be easier said than done! To help, here are some resources for you:

  • Check out this section below - this is a good starting point to see where balance issues might be.
  • (Optional) Search our feedback board for known issues with certain exchanges/wallets and add your upvote/search for possible workarounds. More info on using our feedback board is here.
  • Make sure the wallet/exchange is synced
  • Filter your transactions for a wallet/coin pair to check for ignored transactions, manually edited transactions, or transactions needing review. Try resolving these or making sure the edits/ignores are still required.
  • Try to download a CSV of the transaction history from the wallet/exchange, and compare that to the transactions in CoinTracker. Are certain types of transactions missing, or do they cutoff at a certain date?
  • If you're stuck, please reach out to our support team via our chatbot “Chatoshi” here: https://support.cointracker.io/hc/en-us and let us know where we can help

  • For more hands-on support - we have a Tax Pro program called CoinTracker Connect: https://www.cointracker.io/connect 

    • At that link you can learn more, fill out a form and schedule a free consultation with one of our crypto tax partners.

    • These partners offer a variety of services including full tax returns, complex data reconciliation, and tax attorney advice.

I see a message "Your transaction history results in a balance that is higher/lower than what your wallet reports" - what does this mean?

You might see a message like the one below on the wallets page or the dashboard page:

Screen

This message is flagging to you that there is a balance discrepancy for that particular wallet and crypto pair.

  • The reported balance is the overall total balance that the exchange or wallet sends to CoinTracker. This is the balance that used to be displayed.
  • The calculated balance (the ~5.24 ETH in the screenshot above) is the balance as calculated by the transactions for that wallet/crypto in CoinTracker. This is the balance that is now shown across the product.

Does this update to my portfolio balances change any tax calculations?

No. This update brings portfolio calculations in line with tax calculations (which were improved earlier in 2023 with our accounting engine upgrade).

What you see in your Portfolio is now consistent with your tax reports, which have always been based on the CoinTracker transaction history.

 

What are the benefits of this upgrade?

When the CoinTracker transaction history is used to calculate numbers consistently across the product, there are many benefits:

  • Portfolio calculations will now be consistent with Tax calculations 
    • Before this change, your tax calculations were based on your transaction history, but your dashboard and wallet screens showed balances reported to us from exchanges and wallet APIs.
    • This made it harder to spot and fix transaction issues that affected your taxes.
    • By making everything consistent, we hope it helps people avoid overpaying on taxes or needing to re-file at a later date.
  • Basing balances on your transaction history means any edits you make are respected.
    • For example, ignoring a spam token/airdrop will now reflect on all graphs and balances. No more unbelievably/erroneously high portfolio balances!
    • Editing that transaction to the correct coin/asset will now reflect on all graphs and balances.

 

Is this upgrade reversible?

We plan to upgrade all users to this consistent calculation upgrade, as it will give users more control over their CoinTracker product experience and aligns the portfolio calculations with the tax calculations. All accounts will be moved to this upgrade by August 15, 2023. However, if you have been upgraded and are having issues with the upgrade, please reach out to our support team via our chatbot “Chatoshi” here: **https://support.cointracker.io/hc/en-us**

 

 

My balances don’t look correct. What should I do?

If your balances don't look correct, your account may be missing some transactions or have transactions with issues that need fixing. Here are some ways to investigate and fix issues:

 

1. Determine which wallets have issues from your Dashboard

The first step is to figure out which wallets might be missing transactions or have transactions needing attention.

On your main dashboard on desktop web, click the toggle arrow on the right of a crypto asset to show a list of wallet balances for that specific asset.

For example, in the screenshot below we can see the ETH balance is spread across Kraken and several ETH wallets.

Screen

 

Amber warnings like the one above will be shown next to any wallet where your transaction history doesn’t match the balance reported to CoinTracker by your exchange or wallet. Hovering over the warning will show you the calculated balance difference. Click Review to view your transactions for that asset and wallet pair.

In this case, the warning is saying “your CoinTracker transactions for ETH add up to a balance of 0.1530 ETH in Kraken. But Kraken’s API is telling us the balance is 0.1099 ETH.”

In other words, CoinTracker thinks you have more ETH than Kraken shows. This means there is likely an issue with the Kraken ETH transactions in CoinTracker (or missing transactions).

The other ETH wallets have a CoinTracker balance that matches the reported balance of the blockchain reader, so these balances should be fine.

 

2. Check transaction history in CoinTracker

From the dashboard, you can click “review” next to the wallet/asset pair to look at those filtered CoinTracker transactions. For example, to view BTC transactions for Kraken, you could click this button:

Screen

 

That will show all BTC transactions from Kraken in CoinTracker.

As a first step, you can quickly filter the transactions to see if any need review or were ignored by mistake.

Screen

If you do see transactions needing review, work to address those first. Please reference this guide to help you!

3. Finding missing transactions

If there are no transactions needing review, or you see "insufficient balance errors," it likely means there is one (or more) missing transactions. In this case, we recommend cross-checking your transaction history in your wallet/exchange, and comparing that with the transaction history in CoinTracker.

  • If you find any missing transactions, you can add transactions manually or via a CSV upload to make sure they are in CoinTracker and bring the calculated balance in line with the auto-synced balance from your wallet/exchange.
  • You can also report the missing transactions as a bug on our feedback tool. This will help our team identify and work to improve our integrations with various wallets/chains.

4. View your coin balances over time/find "when" a missing transaction might be

You can also see a visualization of your various coin balances over time.

From your Dashboard, click on a coin’s name, then click on the Balance tab.

Screen

You can use this chart new coin balance chart to see when your balance for a coin changes in an unexpected way, or goes negative. This helps track down when you might have some missing or incorrect transactions.

 

We understand that reconciling missing transactions can be tricky, so if you do need help please reach out to our support team via our chatbot “Chatoshi” here: https://support.cointracker.io/hc/en-us

 

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