If the Annual Report option in the Reports section of the app looks greyed out, dimmed, or otherwise unclickable, that's the plan-gating doing its job.
The Annual Report is a Premium-only feature — it's part of what you get when you move up to Premium, and it isn't accessible on Starter or Pro.
Nothing is wrong with your account; the option is doing exactly what it should for the tier you're currently on. This article explains what the report actually does, what unlocking it looks like, and what Starter and Pro users can still do at tax time without it.
Why it's gated to Premium
The Annual Report is the most involved single feature in Gold Silver Ledger. It pulls together every sale you've recorded in a given tax year, walks back through the underlying BUY transactions to determine cost basis on each disposed item, applies short-term versus long-term gain categorisation based on holding period, and produces a complete, downloadable, tax-ready PDF (or CSV) — all from data you've already entered into the app over time.
It sits on Premium because:
It's the feature most likely to be used by people who treat Gold Silver Ledger as their system of record for tax filing — a serious-use case that anchors the Premium tier.
It runs against a substantial slice of an account's history and benefits from being on the same tier as Bulk Import (the most common way of bringing in that history in the first place).
Putting it on Premium keeps Starter and Pro priced for users who don't have those tax-filing obligations or who handle them separately.
For the side-by-side feature comparison, see The three plans compared.
What the Annual Report includes when it's unlocked
If you've never seen the report unlocked and are deciding whether the upgrade is worth it, here's what's inside:
Year selection. Pick a tax year. The report runs against that year's disposals.
Per-disposal detail. Every item you sold during that year, with sale date, sale price, original purchase date, original purchase price, and the resulting gain or loss.
Cost basis. Calculated per item using specific identification — the cleanest method for physical bullion, and the one that maps naturally to Gold Silver Ledger's item-level inventory model.
Short-term vs long-term categorisation. Each disposal is sorted into short-term (held less than a year) or long-term (held a year or more), which is how US gains are treated.
Totals. The report summarises overall proceeds, cost basis, and net gain or loss for the year.
PDF and CSV export. Hand the PDF to an accountant or your tax software's free-form upload; use the CSV if you'd rather move the data into a spreadsheet first.
The full walkthrough is in Generating your Annual Report.
A note on tax advice: the Annual Report autofills your records, but it doesn't replace professional advice. See Why you should still consult a tax advisor.
How to unlock it
To move to Premium:
From the left nav, click Settings.
Open the Subscription tab.
Choose Premium, monthly or annual.
Complete the Stripe Checkout.
The full walkthrough is in Upgrading your subscription. The Annual Report becomes accessible as soon as the upgrade lands.
What also unlocks at Premium, beyond the Annual Report:
Bulk CSV Upload, for bringing historical purchases in from a spreadsheet.
10 portfolios instead of Pro's 3 (or Starter's 1).
10,000 inventory items instead of Pro's 1,000 (or Starter's 30).
2,000 transactions instead of Pro's 250 (or Starter's 10).
If tax reporting is the reason you're considering the upgrade, Premium is the only tier that gives you the Annual Report directly. Pro doesn't include it — moving from Starter to Pro won't change the greyed-out state.
What if you don't want to upgrade
If staying on Starter or Pro fits your situation, the Annual Report isn't the only path through tax season — it's the most polished one, but the underlying transaction data is yours to export at any time.
A few practical alternatives:
Export your transactions as CSV. Available on every plan. The export includes every BUY and SELL you've recorded, with dates, products, prices, and quantities. From there, an accountant or a spreadsheet can run the same short-term-vs-long-term calculation the Annual Report does internally.
Export your holdings as CSV. Useful for current-position reporting. See [Exporting your holdings as CSV].
Hand records directly to your tax preparer. Many preparers are happy to work from a clean spreadsheet of buys and sells; the Annual Report saves them time but isn't the only way they can do the calculation.
Use the Annual Report for one year, then downgrade. If you're only worried about a single year's filing, upgrading to Premium for a month around tax time, generating the report, exporting both the PDF and the CSV, and then downgrading back to your previous tier is a perfectly valid pattern. Your existing data goes with you in both directions.
The last option is worth flagging specifically because it's the most cost-effective path for users who don't otherwise need Premium's other unlocks. A single month of Premium is cheaper than an annual subscription, and the exported PDF and CSV are yours to keep after you downgrade.
What's not available even on Premium
A small honesty note, since this section is about gating:
Annual Report autofill is US-first. The engine is built with a country parameter so non-US versions can be added later, but the launch covers US filing only. Non-US users can still use the underlying data through CSV export, but the categorization and totals are oriented to US tax conventions.
Cost basis method is specific identification. FIFO and LIFO aren't supported as alternative methods in the UI, by design — specific identification is the cleanest fit for item-level physical bullion and what the SELL flow already produces.
Neither of these is a feature gate — they're scope decisions that apply on every plan, including Premium.
Where to go next
The three plans compared: Full side-by-side of Starter, Pro, and Premium.
Upgrading your subscription: The walk-through for moving to Premium.
Generating your Annual Report: What the report looks like once you're on Premium.
How cost basis is determined: The model the Annual Report uses to calculate gains.
Short-term vs long-term gains explained: The categorisation the report applies.
Why you should still consult a tax advisor: The closing note that goes on every Annual-Report-adjacent article.
Exporting your transactions as CSV: The available-on-every-plan alternative.