How to Track Your XEQT Portfolio: Wealthsimple Dashboard and Spreadsheet Guide

About eight months into my XEQT journey, I caught myself doing something ridiculous. I was refreshing the Wealthsimple app at a red light on Dufferin Street, squinting at my portfolio value, trying to mentally calculate whether I was “up” or “down” that day. The light turned green. Someone honked. I drove through the intersection with absolutely no useful information and a vague sense of anxiety.

That night I sat down and asked myself a better question: what do I actually need to know about my portfolio, and how often do I need to know it? The answer, it turned out, was a lot less than I thought – but the right information, tracked in the right way, has been one of the most empowering parts of my investing life.

This guide is the system I built for myself and now recommend to every Canadian who holds XEQT. It combines Wealthsimple’s built-in tracking tools with a dead-simple Google Sheets spreadsheet that takes five minutes a month to update. No finance degree required. Just a clear picture of where you are, where you’re going, and whether your plan is working.

If you’re brand new to XEQT, start with what is XEQT first. If you already own it and want a system to stay on track without obsessing, you’re in the right place.

Disclosure: I may receive a referral bonus if you sign up through links on this page.

1. Why Tracking Matters (But Not Too Much)

Let me be blunt: the single best thing most XEQT investors can do for their returns is to stop checking their portfolio every day. Investors who check frequently trade more often, react emotionally to short-term drops, and underperform those who mostly leave things alone. I wrote a whole piece on how to stop checking your XEQT portfolio if you need that pep talk.

But there’s a difference between obsessive checking and informed tracking.

Obsessive checking looks like:

• Opening the app multiple times a day
• Watching the daily price of XEQT like a stock ticker
• Comparing today’s portfolio value to yesterday’s
• Feeling anxious or euphoric based on short-term movement
• Googling “is the market going to crash” after a red day

Informed tracking looks like:

• Knowing your total contributions to date
• Understanding your total return in dollars and percentage
• Seeing your progress toward a specific financial goal
• Confirming your automated system is running smoothly
• Having clean records for tax time (especially in non-registered accounts)

The difference isn’t just frequency – it’s intent. Informed tracking is a scheduled, purposeful activity. You sit down, update your numbers, confirm everything is on track, and then close the spreadsheet and live your life. It takes minutes, not hours, and it leaves you feeling confident rather than anxious.

Here’s what I’ve found: the right cadence for most people is monthly snapshots, quarterly reviews, and one annual deep dive. Twelve quick updates, four slightly longer check-ins, and one thorough review per year. Your portfolio will be just fine in between.

2. What Wealthsimple Already Tracks for You

Before you build any spreadsheet, take a tour of what Wealthsimple already provides. Most people never fully explore the dashboard, and it covers more ground than you might think.

Performance overview:

• Your total portfolio value across all accounts
• A performance chart with selectable time ranges (1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 1 year, all time)
• Time-weighted return percentage, which strips out the effect of your deposits and withdrawals to show pure investment performance
• Simple return (money-weighted), which includes the impact of when you added or removed money

Activity history:

• Every buy, sell, dividend, and deposit is logged with dates and amounts
• You can filter by account (TFSA, RRSP, non-registered, FHSA)
• Dividend payments show the per-share amount and total received

Account-level detail:

• Tap into any individual account to see its specific holdings, book value, and market value
• XEQT shows up with its current market price, your average cost, total shares owned, and the gain/loss on that holding
• Wealthsimple tracks your book cost (which is close to your ACB, though not always identical – more on that in our ACB guide)

Tax documents:

• T5 slips for dividend income (non-registered)
• T3 slips if applicable
• Contribution summaries for registered accounts
• Transaction history exports (CSV download)

For investors holding XEQT exclusively inside a TFSA or RRSP, Wealthsimple’s built-in tools might be all you ever need. The app gives you a clear snapshot of your current position, returns over time, and transaction history.

But here’s where it falls short: Wealthsimple shows you where you are, not where you’re going. It can’t tell you that you’re 34% of the way to your $200,000 goal, or give you a single-page historical view of month-by-month growth.

That’s where the spreadsheet comes in.

3. The Ideal Tracking Cadence: Monthly, Quarterly, Annual

Before I walk you through the spreadsheet setup, let’s establish when you’ll actually use it. Having a schedule matters because it removes the temptation to check “just this once” on random Tuesdays.

Monthly snapshot (5 minutes):

• Open Wealthsimple and note your total portfolio value
• Record any contributions you made that month
• Note the number of XEQT units you own and the current price
• Add one row to your spreadsheet
• Close everything and move on with your day

I do mine on the last day of each month, usually right after dinner. Some people prefer the first of the month. Pick a day and stick with it. Set a calendar reminder if you need to.

Quarterly review (20 minutes):

• Everything in the monthly snapshot, plus:
• Review your time-weighted return for the quarter
• Check that your recurring deposits and buys are still active
• Confirm your contribution room for registered accounts
• Look at your progress-to-goal percentage
• Ask yourself: has anything changed in my life that should change my plan?

Annual deep dive (30-60 minutes):

• Everything above, plus:
• Download your annual statements and tax slips from Wealthsimple
• Review your account allocation (how much in TFSA vs. RRSP vs. non-registered)
• Check whether you’ve maximized available contribution room
• Update your ACB records if you hold XEQT in a non-registered account
• Consider whether your risk tolerance has changed
• We have a full XEQT annual checkup guide for this

That last row is only half a joke. If you find yourself checking prices between your scheduled updates, it’s worth reading how to stop checking your XEQT portfolio for practical strategies to break the habit.

4. Setting Up Your Google Sheets Portfolio Tracker (Step by Step)

This is the heart of the guide. I’m going to walk you through building a simple but effective tracking spreadsheet from scratch. You can do this in Google Sheets (free, accessible from any device) or Excel – the formulas are identical.

Step 1: Create a new spreadsheet and name it

Call it something like “XEQT Portfolio Tracker” or “Investment Tracking 2026.” I keep mine in a folder called “Finances” in Google Drive.

Step 2: Set up your column headers

In Row 1, create the following columns:

Step 3: Enter your first row of data

Open Wealthsimple and gather your current numbers. Let’s say it’s the end of May 2026:

• Date: 2026-05-31
• Account Type: TFSA
• Contribution This Month: $500
• XEQT Units Bought: 15.2 (check your activity history)
• Price Per Unit: $32.89 (whatever it is on that date)
• Total Units Held: 152.7 (check your holdings)
• Portfolio Value: $5,022.30 (from your Wealthsimple dashboard)
• Total Contributions: $4,800.00 (total you’ve deposited over time)
• Total Return ($): $222.30
• Total Return (%): 4.63%

Step 4: Set up the formulas

Most cells are manual entries based on what you see in Wealthsimple, but a few should be formulas:

• Column G (Portfolio Value): =F2*E2
• Column H (Total Contributions): For the first row, enter the number manually. For subsequent rows: =H1+C2 (previous total plus this month’s contribution)
• Column I (Total Return $): =G2-H2
• Column J (Total Return %): =I2/H2 (format as percentage)
• Column F (Total Units Held): For the first row, enter manually. For subsequent rows: =F1+D2

Step 5: Add a summary section at the top (optional but recommended)

Above your data table, create a summary dashboard with: Current Portfolio Value, Total Contributed, Total Return ($ and %), Goal Amount, and Progress to Goal (=Current Value / Goal Amount, formatted as percentage). These can simply reference the latest row of your data table.

Step 6: If you have multiple accounts

If you hold XEQT in more than one account type (say TFSA and RRSP), you have two options:

• Option A: Separate tabs. Create one tab per account. This keeps things clean and makes it easy to see each account’s performance independently.
• Option B: Combined view with a filter. Use Column B (Account Type) and add a filter or use SUMIFS formulas to see totals by account.

I use Option A because it takes thirty seconds more per month and gives me a clearer picture. But Option B works fine if you want everything on one page.

5. The Five Metrics That Actually Matter

With your spreadsheet set up, you might be tempted to add twenty more columns tracking every conceivable metric. Resist that urge. Here are the five numbers that actually tell you something useful:

1. Total Return (dollar amount)

This is the simplest and most motivating number. It’s the answer to “how much money has my investment made me?” When you see that your portfolio has generated $3,400 in returns on top of your contributions, it makes the whole process feel real. In the early years this number will be small. That’s normal. It grows exponentially over time as compound returns kick in.

2. Total Return (percentage)

This tells you how efficiently your money is working. A 12% total return after two years is different from 12% after ten years – context matters. For XEQT, long-term annualized returns have historically been in the 7-10% range (before inflation), but in any given year the number could be anywhere from -30% to +30%.

3. Total Contributions vs. Growth

This is my favourite thing to track. Over time, the gap between what you’ve contributed and what your portfolio is worth widens – slowly at first, then dramatically. There’s a crossover point where your investment gains in a single year exceed your annual contributions. When you see that in your spreadsheet, you’ll truly understand compounding.

4. Progress to Goal

Pick a number – maybe $100,000 for your first milestone, or $500,000 for a serious nest egg (we have a full guide on building a $500K portfolio with XEQT). Tracking progress as a percentage keeps you motivated. When the market drops, your progress-to-goal percentage reminds you that you’re still at 47% – not zero.

5. Adjusted Cost Base (for non-registered accounts only)

If you hold XEQT outside a TFSA, RRSP, or FHSA, you need to track your ACB for tax purposes. This is a deeper topic that we cover thoroughly in our XEQT ACB guide. For your spreadsheet, you can add an ACB column to track this alongside your other metrics, or maintain it in a separate tab. Wealthsimple provides a book cost that gets you close, but for tax filing you’ll want your own records.

6. What NOT to Track (Seriously, Stop)

Just as important as knowing what to track is knowing what to ignore. Here are the tracking habits that will actively hurt your investing experience and quite possibly your returns:

Daily price movements. XEQT’s price will go up and down every single trading day. This information is useless to a long-term investor. You don’t need to know that XEQT dropped 0.4% on a random Wednesday. You won’t act on it (and if you do, you’ll probably act badly). Delete it from your brain.

Comparison to friends. Your coworker who bought Nvidia at $12 and your cousin who’s “up 300% on crypto” are not relevant data points. You don’t know their full picture – what they lost on other bets, or whether they’re telling the whole truth. Track against your own goals, not someone else’s highlight reel.

Short-term benchmark comparisons. Checking quarterly whether XEQT “beat the market” is a recipe for strategy hopping. XEQT is a globally diversified portfolio that captures global equity returns over the long run. You chose it so you wouldn’t have to pick winners.

Unrealized gain/loss after every purchase. You bought more XEQT today and want to see if it’s “up” yet. It’s been four hours. Stop. The purchase needs to justify itself over a decade, not by Friday.

Dividend yield in isolation. XEQT pays quarterly distributions, and yes, you should reinvest them. But tracking the dividend yield as if it’s a separate income stream misses the point of a total-return approach. The yield is part of your total return, not a bonus on top of it.

If you catch yourself building a spreadsheet with columns for daily closing price and five-day moving average, you’ve gone too far. Simplicity is the whole advantage of an all-in-one ETF.

7. How Wealthsimple Makes Tracking Easier Than Other Brokerages

One of the reasons I keep recommending Wealthsimple for XEQT investors is that its tracking tools are genuinely better for this style of investing. Here’s how it compares:

A few things stand out. Commission-free trading means every dollar goes into XEQT units (no commission column needed in your spreadsheet). Fractional share support means your recurring buys invest the full amount rather than leaving odd dollars in cash. And the mobile app is genuinely pleasant to use – which matters when your monthly routine is “open app, grab three numbers, close app.”

For a deeper look at the platform, check out our full Wealthsimple review.

8. The Annual Portfolio Checkup: What to Review Once a Year

Your spreadsheet handles the monthly and quarterly routine. But once a year, you need to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. I do mine every January, but any consistent date works. Here’s what to cover:

Account allocation review:

• How much of your portfolio is in your TFSA vs. RRSP vs. FHSA vs. non-registered?
• Are you prioritizing the most tax-efficient accounts? (Generally: TFSA and FHSA first for most younger Canadians, RRSP if you’re in a higher tax bracket)
• Did you use all available contribution room?

Contribution room check:

• Log into CRA My Account and confirm your TFSA and RRSP contribution room
• Cross-reference with what Wealthsimple shows for the year’s contributions
• Make sure you haven’t accidentally over-contributed (this is more common than you’d think)

Goal progress assessment:

• Look at your progress-to-goal percentage from the spreadsheet
• Are you on track? Ahead? Behind?
• If behind, is it because of market returns (out of your control) or lower contributions (within your control)?

Automation check:

• Confirm your recurring deposits are still active and at the right amount
• Confirm your recurring XEQT buys are running (learn how to set these up in our automation guide)
• Check that dividends are being reinvested (if that’s your approach)

Tax preparation (non-registered accounts only):

• Download your T5 and/or T3 slips from Wealthsimple
• Update your ACB records for the year
• Note any sales that triggered capital gains or losses
• Our ACB guide walks through this in detail

Life changes check:

• Did you get married, have a child, change jobs, or buy a house?
• Does your risk tolerance still match an all-equity portfolio like XEQT?
• Should you adjust your contribution amount based on income changes?

We have a complete annual portfolio checkup checklist that pairs perfectly with this spreadsheet system.

9. Putting It All Together: Your Tracking Routine in Practice

Let me show you what this looks like in real life, because I think the simplicity is the best part.

It’s the last day of the month. You get a calendar notification: “Portfolio update.” You open Wealthsimple on your phone. Portfolio value: $47,230. You made a $500 contribution this month. You own 1,412 units of XEQT at $33.45. You open your Google Sheet and add one row:

Three minutes. Your total return is $5,730, up from $4,900 last month. Your progress toward your $100,000 goal is 47.2%. You close the spreadsheet and move on with your evening. You didn’t need to analyze sector breakdowns or worry about interest rate decisions.

Once a quarter, you spend an extra fifteen minutes checking that recurring deposits are active, reviewing your time-weighted return in Wealthsimple, and noting remaining contribution room.

Once a year, you do the full review: download tax slips, cross-check contribution room on CRA My Account, and adjust your contribution amount if your income has changed.

Total time spent tracking for the entire year: maybe three hours. Total stress: minimal. Total knowledge about your financial situation: comprehensive. That’s the system. It’s boring on purpose. Boring is how you build wealth.

Final Thoughts

The best tracking system is the one you’ll actually use. If ten columns feels like too much, start with five: date, contribution, total units, portfolio value, and total return. You can always add more later. If even that feels like a chore, just use Wealthsimple’s built-in dashboard and do quarterly check-ins.

What matters is that you have some intentional, scheduled way of reviewing your progress – because you deserve to know that your plan is working. Investing in XEQT is supposed to be simple. Your tracking system should be too.

Set up the spreadsheet this weekend. Schedule your first monthly update. And then go do something more interesting than staring at stock prices.