In this article, you’ll learn how to use the free, open-source software ‘Portfolio Performance’ to get the best possible overview of your portfolio. As well as some basic information, you’ll find, above all, tips and tricks for setting up your dashboard – information that’s otherwise hard to find online.
Among other things, we’ll show you how to create multiple dashboards for your different asset classes and how to add icons for your investment products. We’ll also show you how to record your purchases, compare your performance and manage your asset classes.
In brief:
- Portfolio Performance is free, open-source software that can be installed on Windows, macOS and Linux.
- The app helps investors organise their portfolios and gain a better understanding of their investment decisions.
- Portfolio Performance can be particularly useful for larger portfolios comprising several asset classes or positions.
- With a few tips and tricks, you can tailor your portfolio performance even further to suit your individual needs.
- Customised dashboards, additional data series and relevant widgets help to present the key performance indicators clearly and analyse the performance of your own portfolio even more effectively.
Portfolio Performance: 7 little-known tips and tricks
Portfolio Performance is a popular application that runs smoothly on Windows, macOS and Linux. It enables you, as an investor, to organise your investments, carry out valuable analyses, gain a better overview of your portfolio and, as a result, make better decisions.
The programme is freeand a popular alternative to less intuitive applications such as Excel or paid portfolio trackers. That’s why today we’re taking a look at the most useful tips and tricks to help you customise your personal dashboard so that you can get a better overview of your portfolio.
This will enable you to make more informed investment decisions, whilst also making investing even more enjoyable.
Investments always involve the risk of loss. The value of your investments
can go up or down. The forecast or past performance is no guarantee or
prediction of future results.
Do your own research or seek financial advice before making any invest-
ments. The WELCOME promotion is subject to Terms and Conditions. Gift
Shares are allocated randomly from a selection of eligible stocks, with high-
er-value shares awarded less frequently.
Tip 1: Add custom icons
The more intuitive your portfolio performance dashboard is set up, the more enjoyable it is to use. And fortunately, there are several ways to give the app more personality.
One aspect that’s particularly important to me is the icons I add to all my positions, such as my P2P investments.
Here’s how to add icons:
- Right-click on the cog icon. Then select ‘Attributes’ and then ‘Logo’.
- You will now see the “Logo” column.
- Double-click on the column and select your chosen icon.
- Use the “PNG” format for this.
Good to know:
The display area is quite small. It’s therefore best to use the largest logo possible.
Tip 2: Add more dashboards
By default, Portfolio Performance displays a single dashboard under the ‘Performance’ tab. However, you can also customise the number of dashboards here.
Here’s how to add more dashboards:
- Click on the window icon with the small plus sign in the bottom right-hand corner.
- Give the dashboard the name of your choice, such as “ETF” or “P2P”.
- Right-click and select “Widget”. Under the relevant tabs, you can then add further widgets, such as the current date under “Common” → “Current Date” or the total value of your investment under “Statement of Assets” → “Total”.
This makes it really easy to add further dashboards for your asset classes and customise them. In the image below, you can see which widgets I use on my ETF dashboard.
For me, factors such as the cumulative return on all my ETFs are important – as shown under the ‘True Time-Weighted Rate of Return (cumulative)’ widget.
It’s important to ensure you only select the assets you actually want to track in your dashboard. To do this, you need to select the desired data series.
Here’s how to select a data series:
- Add the “True Time-Weighted Rate of Return (cumulative)” widget.
- Right-click on the widget and select “Data series”.
- To display your chosen asset class, click on “Select data series”.
- You can now select your preferred asset class from various options, such as shares or via ‘asset allocation’.
- You will now see only the cumulative return for your chosen asset class. You can easily clear your selection by clicking ‘Delete’.
- Using the ‘Reporting period’ tab, you can also select the reporting period you want to be displayed. Personally, I always use ‘Current Year YTD’. This way, the dashboard updates automatically and the data can be compared consistently.
- You can also view your data in graph form, for example using a heatmap. To do this, select ‘Monthly returns in a heatmap’ or ‘Yearly returns in a heatmap’ under ‘Performance’ in the widget. You can also customise the colours of the fields via ‘Colour scheme’.
Important: As the entire portfolio is automatically displayed again, you’ll need to select your desired investment once more via “Data series”.
Another feature I find very useful is the ability to compare multiple investments using a heatmap. To do this, simply add another investment via “Data series” → “Add data series”.
The figure below shows a performance comparison of my overall portfolio versus my P2P loans versus my regulated P2P loans.
Good to know:
You can easily move the individual widgets using drag and drop and drag them to your desired position in the overview. You can also adjust the size of the widgets individually by right-clicking and selecting ‘Height’.
Tip 3: Add individual categories
When you add a new investment, it usually appears under the four main categories as ‘Without Classification’.
You’ll find the four main categories under ‘Taxonomies’; they are:
- “Sectors”
- “Investment categories”
- “Asset allocation”
- and “Region”
You now need to place your investment in a suitable sub-category for each main category. In the illustration below, for example, the appropriate sub-category for my ‘Modena’ investment would be ‘P2P’.
If you don’t yet have a suitable category, you can add one with just a few clicks:
- Right-click on the relevant main category, e.g. ‘Industries’.
- Select ‘Add new classification’ and name your category.
- Drag your new investment into the category you have created.
You can now automatically find all the key figures for your newly added investment under the ‘Performance’ tab.
Investments always involve the risk of loss. The value of your investments
can go up or down. The forecast or past performance is no guarantee or
prediction of future results.
Do your own research or seek financial advice before making any invest-
ments. The WELCOME promotion is subject to Terms and Conditions. Gift
Shares are allocated randomly from a selection of eligible stocks, with high-
er-value shares awarded less frequently.
Tip 4: View the proportion of individual investments
Another interesting feature of Portfolio Performance is the ‘Ratio’ feature. This allows you to see at a glance what proportion of your total portfolio each investment accounts for.
As an example, let’s look at the proportion of my Bitcoin investment in my total portfolio. To do this
Here’s how to view the proportion of your investment:
- Create a new widget by right-clicking.
- Select ‘Statement of Assets’ and then ‘Ratio’.
- You will now first see the proportion of your total portfolio, i.e. 100 per cent.
- To display the proportion of a single asset, right-click and select ‘Data series’, then choose your desired investment.
- Now we can see the result. In my case, Bitcoin accounts for just under 24 per cent of my total portfolio.
Tip 5: Discover new features as they are added
Portfolio Performance is constantly being updated with new features, which benefits us as investors.
One feature I find particularly interesting is the ‘FIRE Calculator’, which allows us to work out how much we need to achieve financial independence:
- To do this, select the relevant feature in the widget.
- The value of your total portfolio is automatically displayed at the very top.
- Fill in the blank fields, such as your desired FIRE figure, your monthly savings amount and your expected rate of return.
- The result will show your personal FIRE date and the number of years you still need until then.
You can also view your FIRE date separately for each asset class. To do this, simply select ‘Data series’ again and click on the relevant asset.
Tip 6: Set a custom time period
Another very useful feature offered by Portfolio Performance is the ability to set a custom time period for viewing and analysing your performance.
By default, a new dashboard only shows the performance for the last three years. To set a completely custom time period, click on “New” in the “Year” tab.
You can now set your desired reporting period and then select it from the tab.
I find this a very practical feature for gaining a better understanding of how individual assets have performed over a specific period. This leads to more detailed analyses and enables me, as an investor, to make more informed decisions.
You can also add further asset classes or individual shares to the performance view as you wish:
- To do this, click on the cog icon in the top right-hand corner and select “Add data series”.
- Enter your chosen investment in the search bar.
- The investment will now be displayed as an additional line in the performance overview.
- If you no longer wish to view this position, you can simply hide it again by double-clicking on it.
Good to know:
The return scale on the right-hand side of your performance overview adjusts depending on the position, which is why individual high-performing positions, such as cryptocurrencies, can skew this view of the remaining positions. Hide these high-performing positions to get a better view of the scale.
The range including Bitcoin is from -20 per cent to +150 per cent.
The range excluding Bitcoin is from -5 per cent to +35 per cent.
Tip 7: Enter interest manually
If you have investments that pay you fixed interest, you’ll need to enter this manually in Portfolio Performance, as is the case with my interest from P2P loans.
I’ve been meticulously entering my interest from the P2P platform Mintos every month since January 2022.
This is the only way to end up with a clear overview of how each asset has performed.
Although it does require quite a bit of manual work, it does allow you to view different reports, such as the monthly payments for your asset under ‘Payments’.
This is definitely a great help for the monthly payments from my numerous P2P investments. Among other things, I can see at a glance that, so far in 2026, I’ve already earned over €840 in interest from my P2P investments.
Conclusion: Greater structure and better investment decisions with just a few clicks
Portfolio Performance enables investors to bring greater structure to their portfolio and track the performance of their investments in a targeted manner. Features such as icons, which make individual investment products even more tangible, and the ability to create multiple dashboards to compare asset classes, are particularly useful.
If you’re prepared to invest a little more time at the start to get the setup right, you can easily put together a personalised dashboard. It’s particularly worth the effort if you have a large number of investments.
Once you’ve got to grips with Portfolio Performance, using and updating the dashboard is straightforward. Personally, I really enjoy using the tool and it helps me visualise just how far I’ve come on my investment journey so far.
FAQ: Who is Portfolio Performance suitable for?
