Scottrade Transaction Imports

[elliots]

Mark,

Having some issues importing "cash" transactions - things like cash account distributions/reinvestments and fees. These seem to be in accounts where I've transferred assets from another broker -- by changing the account number in the sub-portfolio property. I've created a new default cash account, but there are investments that used to be money market funds (0 current balance) from the old broker -- most of the "bad" imports seem to be going there, but in one case to a stock with a current 0 balance. The accounts that were always at Scottrade seem fine - cash stuff goes to the cash account.

I've tried to inspect the TR1 file (dumped it into a spreadsheet and guessed at the parsing). The bad transactions have a blank in the field that looks like the stock ticker symbol (and a 0 in the field before that is probably the CUSIP). I looked at the accounts where there is a problem thinking that maybe the transactions were being applied to the "first" investment listed (as seen in the editor), but that's not the case.

Suggestions? I can send you whatever files you might want.

Elliot

[Mark]

Hi Elliots,

If you can narrow it down to a single transaction to focus on that will help. You can email me the file you're importing, along with the line number in that file that contains the specific transaction that isn't importing properly. Please tell me how it is importing (or if it isn't importing at all), and how you expect it to import.

[elliots]

Mark,

I think I figured it out. It appears that FM uses the CUSIP to identify the investment to match with the imported transaction. Several of the Investments in accounts established before I started using the advisor import files do not have CUSIPs -- that field was blank. It appears that the cash transactions in the import file have blank CUSIP fields and they were being matched to the first Investment in the account with a blank CUSIP.

I have added CUSIPs to all the investments (and put in some "dummies" -- XX -- into old money market funds) and have left the default cash Investment as the only blank CUSIP in the account. That seems to have fixed the problem.

Seems OK to you?

Elliot

[Mark]

Hi Elliot,

Glad you figured it out. Yes, this makes sense to me. The Scottrade TR1 files are imported based on matching CUSIP.

[elliots]

Mark,

A new issue. A Scottrade transaction import failed to recognize existing accounts and creates new accounts/investments using the account number. If I turn off the create new accounts/investments option, the transactions are ignored. There seems to be a matching problem.

The accounts were at another broker; I edited the account numbers in the existing FM accounts to be the Scottrade account numbers (as we've discussed previously). I've confirmed the account numbers both in the .tr1 file and the account/Investment properties. (Scottrade apparently has 2 additional digits at the end of their account numbers that aren't generally used, but they are in the .tr1 file. I don't use those extra digits on my other accounts and they import correctly so I think they are generally ignored.)

What am I missing here?

Elliot

[Mark]

Hi Elliot,

In the TR1 file the account number is in columns 10-19 (inclusive), so the account number is up to 10 characters long. If there is white space before/after these 10 characters, that white space is ignored when parsing the TR1 file. The result from parsing the TR1 file must exactly match the account number sub-portfolio property for a match to be found. One possible problem is if you have white space in the recorded account number of your sub-portfolio, this will cause a mis-match. Make sure you don't have a space character at the end of your account number in FM.

[elliots]

Thanks, that was it -- a single trailing blank.

Elliot