Importing and exporting

[jkitchens]

Mark, currently I use Advent Axys to account for investment partnerships I manage. I'm evaluating FM in hopes that I can switch over to it. I'd like to describe my objectives here and get your thoughts as to whether FM would be a good fit for me.

At the end of the month I do the following:
(1) Export portfolio appraisals of each of my investors from Axys and then import them into to an Excel spreadsheet
(2) In the spreadsheet, enter each cash flow that occurred during the month and allocate it to investors based on a selected criterion (e.g. based on relative total capital at the start of the month or relative ownership in a specific investment at the start of the month) using imported portfolio appraisals (including imported appraisals from prior months)
(3) Export the allocated cash flows of each investor into a .csv file and import them into Axys.

I don't see any way to export portfolio appraisals from FM. Do you have any suggestions of other ways I could use FM to facilitate allocating cash flows across partners and entering them into FM?

Many thanks. Jim

[Mark]

Hi Jim,

I believe you can do what you're describing. You would create 1 investment for each partnership. Treat it similar to cash, where you keep the price fixed at $1/share. The shares will equal the value. For example, if a partnership is worth $10,000, you would own 10,000 shares at a price of $1/share in this partnership's investment. To add more money from an investor contribution, record a buy transaction. If they added $1,000 out of pocket, record a buy of 1000 shares at a price of $1/share. All closing prices and transactions are kept at $1/share. Now, they own 11,000 shares, still at a price of $1/share. If you want to record a market gain/loss record a reinvested distribution for however much the gain/loss was. For example, if the market value increased by $100 since last period, record a reinvested distribution for 100 shares, at a price of $1/share. They would now own 11,100 shares, still at a price of $1/share.

If you want to export valuations to Excel, run a Portfolio Value report for the date you want the valuations, and then use "File / Export to CSV...".

To import buys/sells/distributions you can either enter them manually, or if you have them in a CSV format use "File / Import / Transactions / Generic...". Press "Help" in this dialog for instructions/examples. This command is powerful, but can be tricky to get set up right the first time.