I have been using a product called ShareScope from Ionic for many years – first purchased in 2014. This is a PC based product that enables me to record the transactions in the multiple portfolios I manage, which are on multiple different stockbroker platforms. It provides market pricing and performance information plus reports of dividends that should have been received on both individual portfolios and also as a “consolidated” view across all my portfolios. It is therefore invaluable for recording and checking transactions in addition to the spreadsheets I use to record cash and trading transactions.
But a recent announcement from Ionic tells me that after 27 years the software is approaching its “end of life” so all ShareScope users will be forced to move to newer software called SharePad during 2026 which runs as a web platform when “legacy” ShareScope will be decommissioned. SharePad will also be renamed ShareScope just to confuse people.
I have already moved my portfolios over to SharePad so are running the older software and the new in parallel. SharePad seems to provide most of the functionality I need with some minor exceptions (such as recording unlisted shares and a global view of dividends received to avoid the need to step through multiple portfolios). ShareScope allowed for configuration of reports and setting of “Alarms” on news which are not automatically transferred when importing portfolios from the older product so there is some work yet to be done. There is good support and advice from Ionic when needed and more improvements are planned.
It is annoying to have to relearn a new software product at my advanced age but it is not unexpected that such an event would take place so I will accept it was time to revise/replace the software. After 27 years it must be getting difficult to maintain.
Any investors with multiple and large portfolios running on different platforms will find a product like ShareScope/SharePad quite essential and I can recommend them. Good services with reliable and accurate data over many years, although I do use other products also to provide financial analyses.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson )
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Like you, I am a long time user of the original Sharescope. However, unlike you, I am struggling with the transition to Sharepad. I understand Ionic’s wish to move it’s subscribers to Sharepad. Being web based greatly increases Ionic’s potential customer base with Sharepad. The original Sharescope is restricted to only Windows users.
I also acknowledge that Sharepad offers some features that have never been implemented in the original Sharescope. The problem for me is that while Sharepad offers much more in it’s stock picking features, it’s portfolio handling lacks much of the functionality of the original Sharescope. The original Sharescope provided a very comprehensive and versatile portfolio capability with separate cash accounts and multi-currency functionality. Sharepad’s portfolio capability is what I can only describe as very basic. Most crucially there are no separate cash accounts. Additionally, in the original Sharescope there is a “Graph profits” feature which gives a wonderfully clear picture of one’s profits. This feature seems to be missing from Sharepad with only very basic profit numbers being available.
Ionic have said that the original Sharescope will not be decommissioned before 2026. I very much hope Ionic will bring Sharepad’s portfolio and profit monitoring capabilities up to those of the original Sharescope before then. Certainly I feel they need to do this if the transition to Sharepad is to be the “upgrade” they claim it to be.
I think your comments are very useful. I obviously did not use some of the features of the original Sharescope such as cash management. I can see why you could be currently disappointed.