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Editing a Downloaded Transaction.

Comments, critical feedback, praise, or suggestions for new features.

Postby aviator » Sat Jan 11, 2020 8:20 am

Hi Mark,

When editing a downloaded transaction and Distributed Account Fee is selected, shouldn't the amount field be changed to a negative?

Thanks.
aviator
 
Posts: 419
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:47 am

Postby Mark » Sat Jan 11, 2020 9:02 am

Hi aviator,

Yes, but FM won't change the sign of the number as reported by your broker. It is erring on the side of caution, and leaves it up to you to change this.
Thanks,
Mark
Fund Manager - Portfolio Management Software
Mark
Site Admin
 
Posts: 11252
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:24 pm
Location: Chandler, AZ

Postby aviator » Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:16 am

Hi Mark,

I understand what you're saying but I respectfully disagree, and here's why. When a user selects a downloaded transaction to edit, we have made a conscious decision to disturb what has been downloaded. At this point, it would be great if the edited transaction were formatted in a way that requires no user intervention, and is ready to be processed into the portfolio.

If a user elected not to edit a transaction, I'd completely support your position in that a downloaded transaction should not be modified by FM. But in this case, having to add the negative sign in front of each amount just adds an unnecessary step, especially when managing many portfolios.

May I humbly suggest one of the following as a solution, the first being my personal preference:

1) Make this user controllable, where those of us who need account fees to be recorded as a negative (in all cases) can ensure that all edited downloaded transactions will reflect that. (Perhaps FM could flag the Total field to indicate that it's sign has changed?)

2) Prompt the user on the Total field with a message indicating that the amount should be negative (similar, I believe, to the prompt currently in place when entering a distribution transaction).

Lastly, the ability to edit downloaded transactions is a wonderful and powerful feature. I used it extensively this weekend and have a new appreciation for how much time it will save going forward. As usual, thanks for listening.
aviator
 
Posts: 419
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:47 am

Postby Mark » Sun Jan 12, 2020 9:16 am

Hi aviator,

Okay, thanks for the feedback. I like solution #2 you proposed.

I'm curious, what broker are you retrieving from where you see these problematic transactions? Would you mind sharing a sample snippet from an OFX file retrieved, showing such a transaction? After you retrieve, if you look under "Help / Logs / Transaction Retrieve (Parsed)..." you will see your data. For example, here is an ADR fee:

Code: Select all
- INCOME
   - INVTRAN
      - FITID (xxxxxx)
      - DTTRADE (yyyyy)
      - MEMO (ADR FEE)
   - SECID
      - UNIQUEID (055622104)
      - UNIQUEIDTYPE (CUSIP)
   - INCOMETYPE (DIV)
   - TOTAL (-1.25)
   - SUBACCTSEC (MARGIN)
   - SUBACCTFUND (MARGIN)
Thanks,
Mark
Fund Manager - Portfolio Management Software
Mark
Site Admin
 
Posts: 11252
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:24 pm
Location: Chandler, AZ

Postby aviator » Sat Jan 18, 2020 6:37 am

Hi Mark, the problem may be with the way I'm using the Edit function before accepting the transactions.

Here's the gist of what I'm doing:

1) When I want to transfer cash out of my brokers account, the transaction is imported as a journal entry with a negative entry. Same concept applies to fees.

2) I'm "intercepting" these journal entry transactions before they're imported and changing them to what they should be. In the case of fees, I change the journal entry transaction type to Account Fees so it's recorded properly in FM.

3) Changing these transactions before they're actually imported is a big time-saver as I can sort the soon-to-be-imported transactions in the Preview Importing Transactions screen and change all very quickly, as opposed to importing and then going into each account and changing them there. Very helpful when all fees for all accounts hit on the same day.

Would be happy to take this offline and share with you what's needed for better understanding. Would prefer not to do that publicly.

Thanks.
aviator
 
Posts: 419
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:47 am

Postby Mark » Sat Jan 18, 2020 10:00 am

Hi aviator,

Okay, understood. I believe I understand the request. My request for the log was not really necessary to understand this change request. I was just curious to see how your broker was reporting a fee. Usually these come in as negative already in my experience.
Thanks,
Mark
Fund Manager - Portfolio Management Software
Mark
Site Admin
 
Posts: 11252
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:24 pm
Location: Chandler, AZ


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