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Free dividend and premium tracker: the cash and the price, side by side

Download the free tracker, type one row per month, and it puts the dividends and option premium you collected right next to how much your holdings rose or fell. You see both at once, so a nice payout can't hide a falling price.

Beginner guide · 7-minute read · Updated 2026-11-01

Get the file

Download the dividend and premium tracker (.xlsx). It opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers. No sign-up, no macros, and nothing breaks when you add months: the formulas already sit in all 100 month rows.

It has four tabs: How to use, Monthly, Holdings and Summary. Blue cells are yours. Grey cells fill in by themselves. Delete the "Example - delete me" rows first.

It's one of our free trading templates.

Why cash alone fools you

A Dividend or an option premium lands in your account as cash. It feels like a win every time. But if the shares fell more than the cash you got, you're behind.

A cash-only tracker adds up the payouts and stops there. This one makes you type what your holdings were worth too. The number that matters is the two together, which is your Total return.

The Monthly tab: one row per month

You type five things:

The sheet fills in the rest:

• Cash collected $: dividends plus premium.
• Value change $: value at end minus value at start.
• Month total $: cash collected plus value change. How you really did that month.
• Did cash hide a fall?: "Yes - down overall" if the holdings fell by more than the cash. "Price fell, cash covered it" if the cash made up for the fall. "No" if the holdings didn't fall.
• Cash so far $ and Total so far $: running totals from your first month.

The Holdings tab: one row per stock or fund

Type the Ticker, Shares, Cost per share, Price now and Cash collected $ (every dividend and premium from that holding since you bought it, as a running total). The sheet works out Cost $, Value now $, Change $ and Change + cash $, which is how that holding has really done.

The Summary tab adds up both tabs: months logged, dividends, premium, total cash, total value change, cash plus value change, average cash per month, months the holdings fell, and months that were down overall, even after the cash.

Four months where the cash looked great (hypothetical)

A made-up portfolio worth $20,000. Covered calls on some of it, dividends on the rest. Four months in a sliding market:

The cash column says $770 came in over four months. Every month paid something. The month total column says you're $530 behind, with the holdings now worth $18,700.

Both are true. Only the second one is your result. The Summary tab would show 4 months the holdings fell, and 3 months down overall even after the cash. That count is the early warning a cash-only tracker never gives you.

What about yield on cost?

The sheet has no yield-on-cost column, on purpose. Yield on cost is yearly dividends divided by what you paid. It goes up as the payout grows, even while the share price falls. It's easy to feel good about and easy to be fooled by.

If you want it anyway, add a column on the Holdings tab: your last 12 months of dividends, divided by Cost $. Keep it next to Change + cash $, not instead of it.

Tips for clean numbers

• Type what actually landed. If tax was held back on a dividend, type the amount after the tax.
• Count premium when the trade closes. Premium kept means net of buy-backs. A call you bought back for more than you sold it goes in as a minus.
• Same day each month. Take the start and end values from your broker's statement, so the months line up.
• Accounts: in Canada a TFSA or RRSP can hold dividend stocks, and covered calls are widely allowed in both. Options permissions differ by broker. Keep each account on its own copy of the sheet.

For the share-by-share view of your calls, use the covered call tracker. For puts that turn into shares, use the wheel strategy tracker. To see what a payout might look like before you buy, try the dividend calculator. Weighing the two styles? Read the wheel vs dividend investing and covered calls on dividend stocks. New to the wheel strategy? Start there.

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