Work around for Charles Schwab download

[Sterling25]

Mark and Team,

Since it does look like Charles Schwab is in a hurry to update FM's ability to download transactions, I was wondering if you had thought of explaining how we can take their download to excel and upload it into FM? I am not sure how to make sure dividends are done correctly etc. Thank you

[Mark]

Hi Sterling25,

We don't have instructions now, but if you can download transactions through their web site you can likely import those into Fund Manager. If they offer an OFX, QFX, or QIF formatted file, those would be the easiest to import. If they offer a CSV or TXT file you can also import this with the "Generic..." import, but it will likely require some manipulation prior to importing. If you can describe what formats are available, we can try to provide more specifics.

[dlevy]

Dear Sterling25 and Mark,

I have some experience in doing this sort of thing. It is a bigger job than you might think.

When I migrated from another portfolio management package to Fund Manager in 2014, I had to move security, transaction, and pricing data. I could export it as .csv files, but I had to write a fair amount of python code to massage it so I could use FM's generic import.

The biggest work was on transactions--about 400 lines of code mostly mapping the transaction codes from old system to new. But also: dealing with situations where one system wanted one transaction, the other two; massaging date and currency formats; dealing with quantities on fixed income; etc., etc., etc.

Here's the code to handle just one type of transaction (there were 15 or so in total) from the source system.

Code: Select all

def processDecreaseBasis():
    FM.TRAN = 'DIST_T'
    FM.ANUM = str(-PM.principal)
    FM.BNUM  = '0'
    FM.CNUM  = '0'
    writeFM()
    FM.TRAN = 'DIST_R'
    FM.ANUM = str(PM.principal)
    writeFM()

Because I was moving about 25 years of transactions, I could be confident that my code covered all needed transaction types. And I reconciled one system against the other (200 more lines of code).

I worry that if you try to do this for what we hope to be a short time, each day might bring a new transaction type. And I worry that you won't have any automatic way to reconcile.

Let's hope that Schwab gets this taken care of soon! Do we have an ETA?

Best,

David

[Mark]

Let's hope that Schwab gets this taken care of soon! Do we have an ETA?

We heard from Schwab on Monday (10/26) that things are moving forward, but we weren't given an ETA.

[Sterling25]

Thank you, David. That does seem like too much work for hopefully a short time period.
I called Charles Schwab to add my name to the list of "complainers" and the person I talked to did not know anything about FM. She said Quicken and Turbo Tax were the only authorized software programs that could receive downloads. I think she didn't know who to call at her own company.

[Sterling25]

Hi Sterling25,

We don't have instructions now, but if you can download transactions through their web site you can likely import those into Fund Manager. If they offer an OFX, QFX, or QIF formatted file, those would be the easiest to import. If they offer a CSV or TXT file you can also import this with the "Generic..." import, but it will likely require some manipulation prior to importing. If you can describe what formats are available, we can try to provide more specifics.

Mark, I have uploaded my Charles Schwab accounts to a separate Quicken file. So if you or one of your team knows how to download from Quicken into FM, I can do that. But not sure if that is easy to do. Thank you. If Schwab is only a week away, I can wait.

[Mark]

Hi Sterling25,

I don't know when Schwab will restore functionality, but I am hopeful sooner, rather than later.

If you want to transfer data from Quicken to Fund Manager you can export out of Quicken to a .QIF file and then import that into Fund Manager with "File / Import / Transactions / Quicken (*.QIF)...".

[dbender54]

I received an update from my account t executive at Schwab today:

We are currently working on getting FundManager readmitted to our Schwab software. The below is a message from our Data Aggregation team. Once FundManager signs the agreement, I do not see why they would not have access reopened.

For Fund Manager (Beiley Software) – we are waiting on internal approvals (including certain vetting steps with CVM) to send them the Standard Data Access Agreement (DAA) for their signature.
Once Beiley Software signs the agreement, we will be able to temporarily re-enable OFX for their IPs until they migrate to our FDX APIs. We currently do not have an ETA on completion.

A key point -
Fund Manager software (among many other similar software programs) was accessing Schwab’s OFX mimicking the application identifier of Quicken. The software also accessed our OFX endpoint from the client’s residential IP address, making it impossible for us to identify them and communicate with them. This is important to know because we are getting feedback that access was restricted without notice.  Communications were initiated in February 2020 with third parties that identified themselves to migrate them over to our FDX APIs.