Investments and registered plans
Record contributions and withdrawals, and keep a personal estimate of TFSA, RRSP, and FHSA contribution room.
Last updated 2026-09-08
Use this page to track money moving into and out of investment accounts — TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, non-registered, or other — and, for the registered plans, to keep a personal estimate of remaining contribution room. This is tracking, not investment advice: TallyFolio never recommends what to buy, hold, or contribute.
Two ideas do the work here. An investment account answers where money is held. A contribution record answers when money was contributed and how it counts toward TFSA, RRSP, or FHSA tracking. Balance snapshots answer what the account was worth on a date you enter manually. Room is estimated only from contribution records, withdrawals, and the settings you enter — never from an account's balance or balance snapshots.
What your investments are worth
Save a balance snapshot when you know what an investment account was worth on a particular date — for example from a broker statement. Enter the date, non-negative balance, currency, source, and optional notes. You can edit or delete a snapshot later, but one account can have only one snapshot on the same date. The latest snapshot for each account is its latest recorded value; it is not a live balance and nothing is captured automatically.
Lifetime estimated growth is the latest recorded value minus lifetime net contributions. For a selected year, growth is closing balance minus opening balance minus contributions plus withdrawals, using the latest snapshot on or before each boundary. The simple return divides that growth by the opening balance plus contributions and is not annualized. If the needed snapshots are missing, the growth and return stay unavailable instead of being guessed. Snapshots never change registered-plan room.
What you've put in
- Add your investment accounts with their plan types.
- Record each contribution with its amount, date, and source cash account. A contribution is stored in two connected parts: the cash leaving your bank account (a transaction) and the contribution credited to the investment account. It's never counted as income or spending — it's your own money changing location.
- Choose the tax year each RRSP deduction is claimed in. It does not have to be the year you contributed: an unclaimed RRSP deduction carries forward indefinitely, so a contribution made now can be deducted in a later year when your income is higher. A contribution in the first 60 days can also reach the previous tax year. The deduction can never be claimed earlier than the year the contribution became eligible for it.
- Use RRSP deduction timing to see which year to claim each unclaimed RRSP contribution in. Enter the income you expect for each year and the rate at which you value a refund now over a bigger one later; the page estimates the tax each choice saves and suggests a plan. Estimates come from rate tables kept by hand in the app, not from CRA, and nothing is claimed until you set a deduction year on the contribution yourself.
- Use the suggested split to see where your next contribution could go. It ranks TFSA, RRSP, and FHSA by tax advantage over the cash the capacity card says is available to redirect, and shows how much each split is worth compared with putting everything in a TFSA. It needs two things from you that it will never assume: the tax rate you expect at withdrawal, and whether you are buying a first home. Without the rate the suggestion stays unavailable rather than treating a withdrawal as untaxed, and without a planned home purchase FHSA is left out and says so. It suggests only — it never contributes and never changes your own capacity priorities.
- Record withdrawals separately, so the page can show lifetime net contributions and apply each registered plan's room rules.
- Review contribution and withdrawal history from their disclosures. The Put in and Worth now line compares lifetime net contributions with the latest recorded balance snapshot; neither figure changes the other.
Contribution room left
The TFSA, RRSP, and FHSA cards use contribution records, withdrawals, and room settings — never account balances or balance snapshots. Room settings and per-year controls are available from the disclosure below the cards. Personal estimates based on your records — not verified with CRA.
| Plan | How the estimate behaves |
|---|---|
| TFSA | Follows the yearly limits from your eligibility start year. Withdrawals give room back on January 1 of the following year, not immediately. You can also enter a manual opening room and adjustments. If a tax year's annual limit isn't in the app yet, its room estimate shows as unavailable rather than being guessed from a neighbouring year. |
| RRSP | Unavailable until you enter the year's opening room from your notice of assessment. It is never guessed from income, balances, or lifetime totals. |
| FHSA | Starts the year you first opened one. Unused room carries forward up to $8,000, and lifetime contributions cap at $40,000. |
Before you start
- Create your investment accounts with the right plan type — the plan type is what drives room tracking.
- Have your CRA figures at hand: your notice of assessment for RRSP opening room, your TFSA eligibility start, and the year you first opened an FHSA.
- Know that every room figure here is a personal estimate. TallyFolio does not connect to the CRA and cannot verify official room.
How to use it
- In the room settings, enter your eligibility details and opening room amounts: TFSA eligibility start year, FHSA opening year, and RRSP opening room per tax year.
- Review the room summary and annual activity view after recording contributions and withdrawals.
- Review investment capacity separately to see the cash left after recorded obligations and configured reserves.
Investment capacity
Capacity answers one question: how much cash could be redirected to investments right now, after everything already spoken for is covered — committed expenses, upcoming card payments, your emergency-fund target, and your cash safety buffer. It's a calculation of what's uncommitted, not a suggestion of what to do:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Available to redirect | Uncommitted cash exists; the amount is shown. |
| Hold | Nothing is safely uncommitted right now — obligations and reserves use it all. |
| Setup incomplete | The inputs aren't configured yet: emergency-fund target, safety buffer, included cash accounts — or a missing exchange rate for an included currency. |
What affects this page
- Contribution and withdrawal records — they are the room math's only transaction inputs.
- Your room settings: eligibility years, manual opening room, and signed adjustments.
- For capacity: cash balances, committed outflows, scheduled card payments, reserve settings, and exchange rates when currencies mix.
- Your investment-rate target and stretch percentages in Settings affect the markers on this page; clearing both restores the 30% target and 40% stretch defaults.
What does not affect this page
- Investment account balances — room is never inferred from what an account holds.
- Live market prices and projected returns — TallyFolio never fetches either one. The growth and simple-return figures on this page are historical estimates calculated only from the balance snapshots, contributions, and withdrawals you recorded.
- The CRA — there is no connection; nothing is fetched or verified.
- Labels — organizational only, here as everywhere.
Common mistakes
- Treating the room estimate as official. Always confirm your real contribution room with the CRA before making decisions — TallyFolio only knows what you've told it.
- Recording a contribution as a plain expense. Use the contribution flow so it's excluded from spending and counted toward room correctly.
- Forgetting to record withdrawals. Without them, next year's TFSA room estimate will be too low.
- Expecting RRSP room to appear automatically. Enter the opening room from your notice of assessment first; until then the estimate is intentionally unavailable.
FAQ
Why is my RRSP room unavailable?
Is my room synced with the CRA?
What does the capacity state "hold" mean?
Do my investment balances change my room?
Why is a tax year missing from deduction timing and the suggested split?
Where this lives in the app
Related articles
- Transactions
Every money movement in TallyFolio is a transaction. Learn the types, the statuses, and how to keep them categorized.
- Forecast
See projected cash over the next 30, 60, or 90 days under three scenarios, plus what your credit-card statements are heading toward.
- Reports
Historical, read-only analysis of spending and merchants over any period you choose.