Issue for Canadian users

[sponge]

I love FM but...
In Canada most institutions don't seem to support OFX so can't use automatic transaction retrieval. FM personal version does not support automatic dividend retrieval. So how do Canadian investors handle this? Price diff between personal and professional version is not worth it in my opinion - just for div retrievals.

Any suggestions?

[Mark]

Hi sponge,

I don't believe any Canadian broker or fund company offers an OFX server, but they may very well allow you to download an OFX formatted file from their website. Usually you can download your transactions to some sort of file, which you can then import into Fund Manager. This is slightly less convenient than being able to directly retrieve, but is much better than manually entering transactions. Try visiting your broker or fund company's website with your browser, and see what file formats are available for downloading. You can then import this file under "File / Import / Transactions" and choose the appropriate command for the format you downloaded. Many times the broker will call the OFX format a Quicken or MS Money file, but it is really an OFX formatted file.

[sponge]

I am with TDWaterhouse. Unfortunately, it only allows account holdings to be downloaded in Quicken/Money format but NOT the transactions. Transactions / activity only comes in pdf format as a monthly statement.

[Mark]

Have you verified that the Quicken/Money files do not contain your transactions? You might try downloading it, and trying the OFX import, and see if it can find any transactions. If the only format available for your transactions is PDF, then you'll need to manually enter transactions, as you can't import from a PDF file. If you verify that the only way to download transactions is in a PDF format, you might try giving feedback to TD Waterhouse that they should make your transactions available in a better electronic format for importing into portfolio management software.

[sponge]

Hi Mark
Just downloaded from webbroker. It is OFX file but seems to include only holdings.
Looks like i am out of luck

[Mark]

Hi sponge,

That seems rather odd that the only file format they make available for your transaction history is a PDF file. I would suggest providing feedback to your broker they need to make them available in other formats that can help you transfer the data into other programs like Fund Manager, etc. How do they suggest you track your data in Quicken? Do they say they support Quicken?

[Septaj]

I've used TD Waterhouse in Canada and have repeatedly contacted them over years about this issue. They seem to care not-at-all.

They are currently piecing together an online portfolio management feature and offering it ad hoc. We'll see how that goes ...

[ThomasK]

Would a round-about from Quicken out to FM work?

I'm with TD also and might try this idea (right now I do everything manually)

1. Download from TD into Quicken
2. Export from Quicken
3. Import into FM

Would this work??

[Mark]

Hi ThomasK,

Yes, that would work, but how are you downloading from TD into Quicken? However you're doing that, you should also be able to just download from TD into Fund Manager. Are you downloading some sort of file from the TD website, and then importing it? If so, you should be able to import that same file directly into Fund Manager. Do you know what type of file you're downloading?

[ThomasK]

TD allows CSV, Quicken, Money

I am not downloading into Quicken...I just found the thread discussion useful...I update FM manually.

IFF the workaround could be tried by the memeber that would shed some light if it works I suppose.

[Mark]

Hi ThomasK,

I would suggest just downloading using the "Quicken" or "Money" formats. The "Quicken" format is going to be either a QIF or QFX file. You can tell by the downloaded file extension. You can import either of these files directly into Fund Manager, without going through Quicken. See the menu commands:

File / Import / Transactions / Quicken (*.QIF)...

or

File / Import / Transactions / Open Financial Exchange (*.OFX, *.QFX)...

Choose whichever command corresponds to the file format you've downloaded.

[Laika]

Has anyone been able to download the transactions from TD Waterhouse to Fund Manager?

I have tried importing the OFX/QFX files, but they do not seem to contain any transactions.

This is quite annoying -- I can't believe TDW doesn't allow us to download the transactions...

[Mark]

Hi Laika,

You might open up the OFX file you downloaded from TD Waterhouse in a text editor (like Notepad) and see if you have any transactions in there. An OFX file is just a text file you can view in any text editor. Sometimes it is formatted on a single very long line that is hard to read, but if you import it into Fund Manager you can look at the "xmldump.txt" log file, which is a more human readable format of that file. The log files will be located in this hidden folder:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Fund Manager

Also, you can try importing, but make sure you don't have any date or account or existing transaction filters turned on in the import dialog, so you can make sure and see everything in the file you're importing.

[Laika]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Unfortunately, the xmldump.txt lists a number of INVPOSLIST entries, but no INVTRANLIST entries. I assume this indicates the file contains only positions and not transactions?

Thanks,
Laika

[Mark]

Hi Laika,

That is correct. Maybe there are some different download options on TD Waterhouse's website? I'm not sure, but that is what I'd check next. If not, call them and ask how you can download your transactions to some standard format, since they're not showing up in the OFX download.