1. Overview

Harvest Ledger Starter is a single HTML file that runs entirely in your browser. All data is stored locally using browser localStorage — no account, server, or internet connection required for core features.

Key Features

• Multi-portfolio support — manage taxable, IRA, Roth, 401k, and HSA accounts separately
• Portfolio tracking with cost basis, market value, gain/loss, yield on cost, and income
• Dividend income logging, reinvestment tracking, and projection
• Ex-dividend event calendar with bulk import for 11 built-in ticker schedules
• Forward Dividend Calendar — month-view grid of upcoming ex-div and pay dates
• Automatic dividend cut and raise detection (⚠️ Cuts tab)
• 12-month income planning calendar with gap analysis and goal tracking
• Scenario Planner — project side-by-side outcomes for up to 3 stocks with DRIP compounding
• Rebalancing Assistant — sector and per-holding drift analysis with buy/sell recommendations
• Watchlist with composite scoring, safety ratings, dividend type classification, and compare tool
• Options / Wheel Tracker for covered calls, puts, and premium income tracking
• Cash management ledger for tracking uninvested capital
• Tax reports & estimates (Tax Year Summary, ROC basis tracking) — available in Plus & Pro
• Historical dividend growth chart per stock from ex-div event history
• Dark mode, print/PDF snapshot, and full JSON export/import backup

How to Open

Double-click HarvestLedger_Starter.html to open it in your browser. No installation required.

2. Tab Reference

The dashboard has 12 tabs accessible from the scrollable tab bar at the top. On mobile, swipe the tab bar horizontally.

3. Portfolio & Multi-Portfolio

Multiple Portfolios

The dashboard supports multiple portfolios — one per brokerage account or account type. Use the portfolio switcher in the header (the dropdown next to the portfolio name) to switch between them.

• Click + New Portfolio to create a new account. Give it a name and select an account type.
• Account types: Taxable, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, 401k, HSA, Other.
• Each portfolio maintains its own holdings, dividends, ex-div events, watchlist, and options.
• The 🌐 All Portfolios tab shows a combined view across all accounts.

Adding Holdings

Click + Add Holding on the Portfolio tab. Required: Symbol, Shares, Cost Basis, and Purchase Date. Recommended: Sector, Company name.

To add additional lots of the same ticker (e.g. a new purchase), add another row with the same symbol. They are combined in the performance view but tracked separately for lot-level cost basis and ex-div eligibility.

Updating Prices

Polygon.io API (Automatic)

• Click Refresh Prices in the header
• Enter your free Polygon.io API key — it is saved locally and remembered
• Click Fetch Live Prices to pull current prices for all holdings automatically

Manual Paste

• Click Refresh Prices → expand the Manual paste fallback section
• Paste prices as JSON: {"SCHD": 28.42, "O": 53.10, "BLOX": 15.22}
• Click Apply

Portfolio Tab Columns

4. Dividend Logging

Logging Received Dividends

Use the Log Dividend form on the Dividends tab. Fields: Symbol, Date, Amount/Share, Shares, Type (Cash or DRIP), and optional Notes.

Reinvestment Log

The + Log Reinvestment shortcut records when dividend cash is used to buy additional shares. It adds a portfolio lot and links it to a dividend event in one step, keeping your cost basis accurate.

Dividend Charts

• Income by Stock — bar chart of total dividends received per holding for the selected year
• Cash vs DRIP by Stock — stacked bar showing cash vs reinvested dividends
• Monthly Income Trend — 12-month bar chart of total dividends received

Dividend Growth Rate

The Dividend Growth Rate card on the Metrics tab shows year-over-year income change per stock from your logged dividends. Switch to Chart view to see a historical annual dividend-per-share chart derived from your Ex-Div event history, with CAGR-based projection lines.

5. Ex-Dividend Events & Forward Calendar

Ex-Div Events tracks upcoming and past ex-dividend dates. This data drives the Upcoming Dividends card, the Forward Calendar, income projections, and the ⚠️ Cuts tracker.

Manual Entry

Use the Add Ex-Div Event form at the bottom of the Dividends tab. Required: Symbol and Ex-Div Date. Recommended: Pay Date, Div/Share amount.

Bulk Import

Click Bulk Import to paste an entire annual schedule at once. If the selected ticker has a built-in schedule, it auto-loads into the paste area. Paste format (tab-separated):

Built-in Schedules

Forward Dividend Calendar

The Forward Calendar card (top of the Dividends tab) shows a month-view grid of upcoming events. Color coding:

Use the ‹ / › arrows to navigate months, or click Today to return to the current month. A scrollable event list below the grid shows all events for the month with type badges.

Table Filters

• Symbol — filter to a specific ticker
• Year — defaults to current year; select All Years for full history
• Month — defaults to current month; select All Months for the full year

6. Overview Tab

KPI Strip

The top KPI strip shows portfolio value, total cost, unrealized gain, yield on cost, projected annual income, and upcoming ex-div income — all calculated live from your holdings and watchlist.

Charts

• Portfolio Allocation — pie chart by market value (falls back to cost basis if prices not set)
• Market Value by Stock — horizontal bar chart ranked by position size
• Sector Breakdown — bar chart grouped by sector (requires Sector field on holdings)
• Portfolio vs Benchmark — compare your portfolio return to a benchmark index

Upcoming Dividends

Shows ex-dividend events for the current calendar month, sorted by ex-div date. Share counts and projected income are calculated live from your portfolio lots — they update automatically whenever you add or modify holdings.

7. Income Planning

The Income Planning tab (📅 Income) houses the 12-month calendar and gap analysis. The Paycheck Simulator, DRIP Projectors, and Scenario Planner live in the 🛠️ Tools tab.

12-Month Income Calendar

Projects dividend income for each calendar month based on your portfolio holdings and the Watchlist annual dividend and frequency settings.

Gap Analysis

Shows how far current projected income falls short of your monthly income goal, and how much additional capital (at your current average yield) would close the gap.

Paycheck Simulator

Projects portfolio growth assuming a fixed monthly contribution and reinvestment. Enter monthly contribution, years, dividend growth rate, and price growth rate — the chart shows portfolio value over time and the projected monthly income at maturity.

DRIP Projector

Models the compounding effect of reinvesting dividends for a single stock. Select a symbol from your Watchlist, set a starting share count, years, and growth assumptions — the chart shows annual income and share accumulation over time.

8. Scenario Planner — "What If?"

The Scenario Planner (bottom of the Income Planning tab) lets you compare up to 3 stocks side-by-side to answer questions like: "If I add $200/month to SCHD, BLOX, and O for 10 years, which grows fastest?"

How It Works

• Select up to 3 stocks from your Portfolio or Watchlist
• Set a starting share count for each
• Enter a monthly contribution, projection years, and annual dividend growth rate
• The planner projects: portfolio value, annual income, and monthly income at maturity

Assumptions

• Monthly contributions purchase new shares at the current price (no price appreciation)
• Dividends grow at the rate you specify, compounded annually
• Starting shares are included in all calculations

Output

Three KPI cards show final portfolio value, annual income, monthly income, and total capital invested for each stock. A dual-axis chart shows portfolio value (solid) and annual income (dashed) over time. A milestone table shows outcomes at Years 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20.

9. Rebalancing Assistant

The Rebalancing Assistant (Metrics tab → bottom card) helps you identify which positions are overweight or underweight relative to your targets, and tells you exactly how many shares to buy or sell.

Modes

Setting Targets

Enter target percentages in the input fields next to each sector or ticker. Click 💾 Save Targets — your targets persist and are restored the next time you open the Rebalancing Assistant.

10. Watchlist & Scoring

The Watchlist (🔍 tab) tracks stocks you are monitoring. All fields feed data to other parts of the dashboard — Income Planning, the Buy Planner, and the Scenario Planner all pull from the Watchlist.

Core Fields

Composite Score

Each watchlist entry receives a 0–100 composite score based on four factors:

Score badges: 80+ = Strong, 60–79 = Good, below 60 = Weak. Click ⭐ Sort by Score to rank your watchlist by composite score.

Compare Tool

Tick the checkbox on up to 4 watchlist rows, then click Compare Selected for a side-by-side panel showing price, yield, payout, safety, score, and projected income.

Alerts

A yellow banner appears at the top of the Watchlist tab if any holding has a Safety Rating of 1 or 2★, prompting review before the next ex-div date.

11. Buy Planner

Three calculation modes for planning new investments (🧮 Buy Planner tab):

When a stock is selected from your Watchlist, the Annual Dividend and current price auto-fill.

12. Dividend Cut Tracker (⚠️ Cuts Tab)

The Cuts tab automatically identifies dividend increases and decreases by comparing consecutive payments per ticker in your Ex-Div Events data. No manual entry is required.

How Detection Works

• All ex-div events with non-zero known amounts are grouped by ticker
• Within each ticker, events are sorted chronologically
• Each consecutive pair is compared — cut if new < prior, raise if new > prior, flat if change < 0.01%
• Future placeholder entries (amount = 0) are excluded

Summary KPIs

The tab shows a live badge (e.g. ⚠️ Cuts (3)) for cuts detected in the current calendar year.

Filters

• Ticker — filter to a specific stock
• Type — All Changes, Cuts Only, Raises Only, or Flat/Unchanged
• Year — defaults to current year

13. Options & Wheel Tracker

The Options tab (🎯) tracks individual options trades and organizes them by the Wheel Strategy cycle: sell a cash-secured put → get assigned → sell covered calls → repeat.

Logging a Trade

Click + Log Trade and fill in the trade details:

Wheel Tracker View

Switch to the Wheel View to see all trades grouped by underlying symbol. Each symbol shows its current cycle status, total premium collected, and remaining days to expiry on open positions.

Income Summary

Option premium income is included in the Tax Year Summary (Section 15) and the Income Planning tab's options income strip, so it is counted alongside dividend income in your total projected income.

14. Cash Management

The Cash tab (💰) maintains a running ledger of uninvested cash across your portfolio. Use it to track money waiting to be deployed, dividends received as cash, and withdrawals.

Adding Transactions

Click + Add Transaction and select a type:

The running balance is displayed at the top of the tab and in the Overview KPI strip.

15. Tax Year Income Summary

The Tax Year Income Summary and dividend tax estimate live in the dedicated 🧾 Taxes tab of the Plus and Pro editions — a 1099-style breakdown of qualified vs ordinary income, return-of-capital basis tracking, and estimated tax owed. Upgrade to unlock them.

Income Classification

Each dividend is classified using the Dividend Type set on the Watchlist entry for that ticker:

Option premiums received during the year are shown as a separate line item.

Tax-Advantaged Accounts

If your active portfolio is a Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, 401k, or HSA, the summary displays a green "Not currently taxable" banner — income in these accounts is not reported on current-year taxes.

Export

Click ⬇ Export CSV to download a three-section CSV: dividend income by stock, option premiums, and summary totals — suitable for sharing with a tax preparer.

16. Data Management

Export

Click Export in the header to download portfolio positions, lot detail, dividend history, or a full JSON backup of all data across all portfolios.

Import

Click Import and select a previously exported JSON file to restore a backup. This replaces your current data.

Local Storage

Each portfolio is stored in its own localStorage key (dp_pf_{id}). Portfolio metadata (names, account types) is stored under dp_pf_meta. Data persists across browser sessions unless you clear browser storage.

Data Structure

17. Tips & Best Practices

Getting Started

• Create a portfolio for each brokerage account via the portfolio switcher in the header
• Add holdings on the Portfolio tab — include lot dates for accurate ex-div share counting
• Add each ticker to the Watchlist with Annual Dividend, Frequency, Safety Rating, and Dividend Type — these fields drive Income Planning, Tax Summary, and Scoring
• Use Bulk Import on the Dividends tab to load ex-div schedules for your tickers (11 built-in; see Section 5)
• Set monthly income goals in the Income tab so calendar cards show progress toward your target

Keeping Data Current

• When you buy more shares before an ex-div cutoff, add them as a new lot with the correct purchase date — share counts in ex-div projections update automatically
• Refresh prices regularly via Polygon.io or manual JSON paste
• Log dividends as you receive them to keep income charts and the Tax Summary accurate
• After a dividend change is announced, update the ex-div event — the ⚠️ Cuts tab will automatically detect the change

Watchlist Best Practices

• Set Dividend Type on every watchlist entry — the Tax Year Summary uses it to classify income
• Assign a Safety Rating (1–5★) to each holding — 1–2★ triggers a warning banner before the next ex-div date
• Use the Payout Ratio field — anything above 80% shows a caution badge; above 100% shows a danger badge
• Use ⭐ Sort by Score to quickly rank holdings and identify which to prioritize for new capital

Backup

• Export a Full JSON Backup regularly (header → Export) and save it outside the browser
• The HTML file does not store your data — only the browser's localStorage does
• After major additions (new lots, bulk ex-div import, options trades), export immediately

Dark Mode

Click 🌙 / ☀️ in the header to toggle dark mode. Your preference is saved automatically and restored on next open.