TradeLog Review

TradeLog Ratings at a Glance

TradeLog’s features are straightforward but highly powerful. The muscle behind its functionality is that the platform is structured around trader tax considerations, not brokers or not standard tax situations. 

Once-tedious (and easy to mess up) tasks like recording your trades, calculating your gains and losses and reporting it all to the IRS are made incredibly simple using TradeLog. 

Features

Here we'll go over the top features offered by TradeLog.

Manage Your Trade History

• All trade history for all broker accounts in 1 place
• Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, ETFs, futures and forex reports
• Import integration from over 40 brokers
• Cash basis, IRA and mark-to-market tracking

IRS Ready Tax Reporting

• Creates reports following taxpayer, not broker, guidelines
• Creates Form 8949 to reconcile your broker form 1099-B amounts with amounts reported on your return and aggregates to report total capital gains or losses on your individual tax report using Form 1040.
• Exports to common tax software like TurboTax and TaxACT

Wash Sale Reporting

Handling wash sale (when you sell or trade securities at a loss and turn around and buy or acquire an identical or similar security or a contract or option to do either of these things within 30 days) reporting is highly delicate. TradeLog simplifies this reporting by:

• Identifying and adjusting wash sales for stocks, short sales and options
• IRA wash sales are properly flagged and disallowed
• Tracking wash sales each year so you don’t “lose your losses” for tax purposes
• Identifying wash sales between accounts

Wash Sales Explained from Investor.gov

Avoid Wash Sale Disasters

Avoiding wash sales altogether is impossible for active traders, but TradeLog can help steer you clear of the more disastrous. TradeLog provides:

• Ongoing monitoring of wash sales relevant to your trading
• Identifying open positions carry large wash sale risk
• Alerts for newly acquired options that may trigger a wash sale reaction
• Ongoing monitoring so you can make quick trading decisions if an IRA wash sale is set into motion

These are just some of the features that make TradeLog perfect for active traders or anybody with delicate tax situations. As a TradeLog subscriber, you’ll also enjoy comprehensive editing functions, trade journaling and performance analysis to make the most informed trading decisions and extensive technical support.

Mark-to-Market Accounting

An often complicated area that TradeLog excels in is mark-to market accounting. What is mark-to-market? In short, it’s an accounting method, also known as MTM. When applying this method to tax reporting, it means that any security held at the end of a year is marked as if it were sold at whatever the fair market value (FMV) of that security was on the last business day of that tax year.

Why is this useful? Well, typically, you can only realize a taxable loss or gain if you close your holding of a security. Using MTM, your held securities are assessed by the year-end FMV and you can realize a loss or gain and establish the cost basis of your holdings for the upcoming year. This can help you simplify your taxes, negate reporting any wash sales and save money on your taxes.

Pro Version

TradeLog PRO is for professionals such as tax preparers, accountants, wealth managers and so forth to prepare accurate, error-free, IRS-compliant reports for all clients. There are several features that keep TradeLog at the top of this industry (since 1999!) like uncapped tax files with discounts for bulk tax file purchases, report generation for both cash basis and MTM accounting, client access to registered TradeLog reports and more. 

Unlike the customer version, TradeLog PRO provides set-up support and training sessions. You’ll stay up-to-date on the newest technology and best practices with continued support and education throughout your subscription period. And your support requests will be prioritized in the queue via phone and email.

Like the non-pro version of TradeLog, TradeLog PRO offers a 30-day free trial.

TradeLog can be a bit pricier than comparable services, but you have 4 different software plans to choose from and can tailor how much you’re spending to the needs of your active trading business. 

Plus if you renew your subscription within 30 days of the end of your plan, you get a 20% discount. You only pay once a year and have unlimited on-site access to the TradeLog software. 

One-Year Subscriptions

• TradeLog 200: $89 per year
• TradeLog 600: $139 per year
• TradeLog 1500: $199 per year
• TradeLog Unlimited: $329 per year
• Additional tax files: $75 each up to 5 each year; may have 6 total tax files with 6 taxpayer IDs per TradeLogs subscription

Some other things to note: 1-year subscriptions include 1 tax file each for 1 taxpayer ID (SSN or EIN) and 1 tax year. You may purchase up to 5 additional tax files with 1 new tax file required for each new taxpayer ID (SSN or EIN).

Below is a detailed look at what is included at each software tier:

TradeLog Subscription Plan Tiers. From TradeLogSoftware.com

Pro Version

• Starts at $399 per year
• Additional tax files: $75 for unlimited

TradeLog’s front-end website is simple enough and easy-to-use, though you may have to click around some to find what you’re looking for in certain cases. As for the software itself, once you familiarize yourself, keeping your trade logs organized and error-free is a much, much simpler process than doing it on your own.

While TradeLog doesn’t offer software training, it does have extensive information on each of its functions, features and reports in the TradeLog Support Center, and customer service is always willing to help with any issues you may have. At the end of the day, you’ll enjoy your IRS-ready, error-free reports, keeping you and your business compliant and making smart tax strategy decisions clear cut. 

TradeLog does not have a mobile app. Its mobile web browser is just okay and reflective of the quality of its website. TradeLog doesn’t offer much in the way of digital features and extras, but it gets the job done.

TradeLog has decent customer service features. It offers a solid customer self-service area powered by Zendesk. Using the embedded support widget on each page, you can search through topics like creating an account and MTM information. 

You can also visit the TradeLog Support Center, a comprehensive knowledge hub. You’ll find tons of information broken down into topics such as how TradeLog works, broker import support, troubleshooting and more. There’s a ton of video tutorials and a wide-ranging Knowledge Base, where you’ll find thorough, detailed reporting on how to use every report and feature from TradeLog.

If you can’t find what you need here, it's easy to contact TradeLog via the Zendesk widget or start a support ticket via the contact form.

If you’re an active trader, have holdings in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies or all the above, you know that keeping organized records of your trades and filing error-free reports to the IRS is paramount. 

That’s where TradeLog comes in. It can simplify bookkeeping and tax report preparation for a stress-free filing come tax season.

TradeLog offers a 30-day free trial and free demos on its website. Visit TradeLog to get started.

Frequently Asked Questions