Wealthica is Canada's most popular portfolio aggregator — excellent at connecting all your accounts into one net-worth dashboard. Its Capital Gains Report is a paid add-on. Sched3 is a purpose-built tax engine where capital gains compliance is the entire product. If your tax season is the problem, a focused tool beats an add-on feature.
Wealthica connects to 200+ Canadian financial institutions and shows your entire financial picture in one dashboard: investments, banking, crypto, real estate, and more. Over 100,000 Canadians use it for net-worth tracking. Its Premium and Prestige tiers ($150-$250/year) include Power Ups like Capital Gains Reports, Performance Reports, and Income Reports.
Sched3 does not aggregate accounts or track net worth. It does one thing: take your broker transaction data, apply every CRA capital gains rule (superficial losses, pooled ACB, T5008 reconciliation, T3 box 42 adjustments, Bank of Canada FX per trade date, equity compensation), and produce a filing-ready package that survives a CRA review. The difference is between "here's your gains number" and "here's a defensible Schedule 3 with an audit trail."
If your primary need is a consolidated view of everything — 401(k), RRSP, TFSA, chequing, mortgage, crypto — all in one place with automatic balance syncing, Wealthica is excellent. No other Canadian tool connects to as many institutions.
If your taxable account is simple (a few ETFs, no tax-loss selling, no USD positions) and you mainly want to see your net worth grow, Wealthica's Capital Gains Power Up might be enough. Sched3 is the right tool when the complexity increases: multiple brokers, superficial losses, T5008 discrepancies, or an accountant who needs a package they can file from.
| Capability | Sched3 (Active, $129/yr) | Wealthica (Premium, $150+/yr) |
|---|---|---|
| CRA pooled ACB method | ✓ | ✓ (ACB calculator) |
| Superficial-loss detection | ✓ Full CRA formula, affiliated accounts, safe rebuy date, auto-resolved | ✗ |
| T5008 reconciliation (line-by-line) | ✓ Box 20 matched, discrepancies explained | ✗ |
| T3/ETF return of capital & phantom distributions | ✓ Per-fund Canadian data, auto-applied | Partial (transaction rules) |
| Bank of Canada FX per trade date | ✓ Automatic | ✓ Supported |
| Broker CSV import with auto-mapping | ✓ 6 major brokers | Auto-sync via institution connections |
| RSU / ESPP / options cost base | ✓ Vest-date FMV, T4 benefit linking | ✗ |
| Crypto (swaps as dispositions) | ✓ CAD-valued pooled ACB | Holdings tracked via aggregation |
| Corporate actions (splits, spin-offs, mergers) | ✓ Guided workflows, ACB carry-through | Depends on institution feed |
| "What if I sell?" tax simulator | ✓ | ✗ |
| Schedule 3-ready accountant package | ✓ PDF + audit trail + cover letter | Capital Gains Report (Power Up) |
| Multi-client accountant tools | ✓ Pro plan, 20 clients (+$15/client) | Advisor dashboard (separate product) |
| Net worth / account aggregation | — | ✓ 200+ institutions, the core product |
| RRSP/TFSA/FHSA contribution room | — | ✓ Registered Contributions Tracker |
| Budgeting & income tracking | — | ✓ Premium Power Up |
Wealthica's Capital Gains Report is a "Power Up" — one of many features inside a dashboard primarily designed for net-worth aggregation. It shows your capital gains and now calculates ACB. But it doesn't reconcile against T5008 slips, doesn't detect superficial losses across affiliated accounts, and doesn't produce the audit-trail package an accountant needs to file confidently.
Sched3 exists solely for this job. Every feature, every workflow, every output is designed around the question: "what does the CRA expect on my Schedule 3, and can I prove it?" That focus means deeper compliance — not a side feature competing for attention with budgeting tools and net-worth charts.
Many investors run Wealthica for the year-round dashboard (net worth, registered contribution tracking, spending insights) and add Sched3 specifically for tax season. There's no conflict — Sched3 imports from your broker files directly, not from Wealthica.
The price math: Wealthica Premium ($150/yr) + Sched3 Active ($129/yr) = $279/yr for both the best Canadian dashboard AND the best Canadian tax engine. Or if Wealthica's Capital Gains Power Up handles your simple case, you might not need Sched3 at all — we'd rather you have the right tool than the wrong sale.
For basic ACB tracking on a simple portfolio — possibly yes. For T5008 reconciliation, superficial-loss detection, equity compensation, crypto dispositions, and accountant-ready output — no. Those are Sched3's core product and not features Wealthica offers.
Yes — Wealthica for year-round financial aggregation and net-worth tracking, Sched3 for the tax-season filing package. They serve different jobs and don't conflict.
CSV import gives you the complete transaction history (including historical trades from before you joined). It also means Sched3 never has your login credentials and can process every transaction type (including those institution feeds sometimes miss: DRIPs, transfers, corporate actions). The trade-off is a file upload instead of auto-sync.
For the tax job specifically, yes: Sched3 Active is $129/yr with the full tax stack vs. Wealthica Premium/Prestige at $150-250/yr with Capital Gains as an add-on Power Up. But Wealthica includes net-worth tracking, budgeting, and registered-account monitoring that Sched3 doesn't — different tools for different jobs.