Documentation

Getting started

Create an account, verify your email, unlock the vault, and record your first gold or silver transaction.

BullionFolio tracks physical gold and silver in one portfolio: what you hold, what you paid, and what it was worth from inception till now. This guide takes you from account creation to your first transaction and on to the dashboard.

Before you start

You need:

  • An email address you can access.
  • The details of at least one purchase: date, metal, gross weight, purity, total paid, and currency.
  • (Optional) The commission or premium, if you know it. The vault and location if you want to track them.

You do not need a Credit Card to start the trial. The 30-day trial begins automatically when you first sign in.

Create your account

  1. Go to bullionfolio.com and choose Start 30-day free trial.
  2. Choose to create a new account using either your email and password, or signup via your Google or Github accounts.
  3. (For OAuth only) If you choose to signup via OAuth, you will still need to create a password to encrypt your transactions. You will be asked to create one after you login.
  4. Submit the form, then check your inbox to verify your email.

Verify your email

Open the verification email and select Confirm Email. The account is not verified until you click the confirmation button; opening the link alone does nothing.

Login is blocked until verification succeeds. Verification links expire after 30 minutes. If the link has expired, request a new one. You may have to wait for 5 mins before requesting new codes, to prevent abuse. Unverified accounts are automatically removed after 7 days.

Sign in and unlock the vault

Sign in with your email and password. A password sign-in normally unlocks your encrypted transactions for that browser session.

If you registered with an OAuth provider, the first sign-in asks you to create an encryption password. That password protects your transaction data; it is separate from the provider login.

The encryption key is held in memory only. Reloading the page or opening a new tab returns you to the unlock screen, where you enter your password again. See Account and security for the full model.

Save your recovery phrase

When the vault is first set up, BullionFolio shows a 24-word recovery phrase.

  • Copy it or download the .txt file.
  • Store it offline, away from your password.
  • The phrase is shown only once.
  • You can generate a new phrase later from Settings within the dashboard, after you login.
  • The phrase is the only way to recover encrypted transactions if you forget your password. BullionFolio cannot recover them for you.

Do not continue until the phrase is saved somewhere you can find it. Regenerating a new phrase obsoletes the previous one. You only need to save the latest copy.

Add your first transaction

  1. Open Transactions and choose New transaction.
  2. Select the metal and purity. Enter the gross weight and choose grams or troy ounces.
  3. Check the calculated net weight.
  4. Set the date and time, choose Buy or Sell, and enter the currency, total paid, and commission.
  5. Add the vault, location, or lot ID if you track them.
  6. Review the net rate preview, then save.

The transaction form shows the net weight after purity and the net rate per gram after commission. You can edit any saved transaction later, or import a batch instead. See Importing transactions.

Choose display preferences

Open Settings and set:

  • Preferred Display Currency — the currency used for portfolio values, charts, and summaries.
  • Weight Unit — troy ounces, grams, or kilograms for displayed weights.

Save the preferences. Currency changes also change the currency used for market history and calculated values. Weight units change how weights are displayed.

Read the dashboard

The dashboard is the first page you see after unlocking.

  • Market strip — gold and silver spot prices in your display units, with the daily move and the gold/silver ratio.
  • Total value — your holdings valued at the latest spot price, plus the change since the previous close.
  • Gold and silver cards — each metal’s value, weight, and share of the portfolio.
  • Liquidation card — an estimate of what you would receive after a sale commission. Move the slider to test a different commission rate.
  • Composition and history — value and weight split by metal, plus charts of your portfolio over time.
  • Empty state — if you have no transactions, the dashboard explains how to add or import your first one.

Market prices refresh about every 10 minutes while the tab is visible. The header shows the time of the latest update.

Next steps

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