Custom Reports

[chris319]

I tried creating a custom report with the following fields:

%Gain-C

%Gain

Gain-C

Gain

and all I get is "(end)" in all of the fields. What am I doing wrong?

The distinction between fields with and without the "-C" suffix is not clear to me.

Thank you.

[Mark]

Hi chris319,

Maybe your column widths are too narrow to see the whole label? If you use "Window / Auto-Size Columns" while viewing that report, does it show the full column label okay?

For %Gain and Gain there are 3 versions: current, between, and inception. The current version (-C) reports for only the shares owned currently as of the ending report date. The between version reports between the starting/ending report dates. The inception version reports from the first transaction to the ending report date. The online help, or the online documentation gives information on every available field.

[chris319]

Hi Mark -

I am using version 2020.16.10.100
Quote module 562
Transaction module 247

Maybe your column widths are too narrow to see the whole label? If you use "Window / Auto-Size Columns" while viewing that report, does it show the full column label okay?

I went a different route. I exported the report as a .csv file and here is what I got:

Code: Select all

ETFs            
Margin Account - Investment Type: Exchange Traded Fund, 9/7/2021 - 9/26/2021            
            
   %Gain-C   %Gain   Gain-C   Gain
Investment   (end)   (end)   (end)   (end)
            
Margin Account:   N.A.   N.A.   0   0


So it's not the column widths.

Further, today I entered a purchase of 32 AVGO. The transaction is nowhere to be found in the Portfolio Editor. The position appears in the Portfolio Value and Portfolio Performance reports only intermittently; sometimes it's there and sometimes it isn't. The .dat file for AVGO is present in the data folder. I have entered several other transactions which do appear in the Portfolio Editor and the reports.

I need a good portfolio management program but these are show stoppers. I would be willing to work with you in straightening out these issues before asking for a refund. I would much rather have a properly-functioning program than my money back.

Some suggestions:

In all reports, when a column contains percentages it would be a nice touch to append a "%" symbol after the numeric value. So instead of:

20.1

it would look more polished to have:

20.1%

In the Portfolio Editor, may I suggest replacing "Retrieve Selected Prices" with "Retrieve All Prices" which would update the prices for all securities? I don't know why someone would want to update one price without updating them all.

Thank you for your help and patience.

Chris

[Mark]

Hi Chris,

That CSV file looks fine. Is that similar to how your report looks on the screen? (The CSV file displayed here on the message board looks like it just has a tab alignment issue.) When you pick the field:

%Gain (current)

That will have a column label of:

%Gain-C (end)

The "(end)" part of that is just saying the current shares as of the ending report date. If you look here:

https://www.fundmanagersoftware.com/hel ... ustom.html

You can see the "Field name", "Column label", and "Description" of each field. Maybe I'm not following the problem, so if this doesn't clarify, please send me a screenshot of your report, or you can give me a call tomorrow at 480-705-0129.

On your AVGO issue... If you don't see it in the List in the Portfolio Editor, then either it is located in a different sub-portfolio than you have selected on the left side, or it is hidden and you have "View / Hidden Investments/Portfolios" turned off. Since you see it in reports, it is open, but probably hidden or located in a different sub-portfolio than you're viewing in the Portfolio Editor. Try turning on "View / Hidden Investments/Portfolios" to see if that helps, or use "Edit / Find..." to search your whole database for it. If you do find it, and it is marked as hidden, you can turn this off under "Investment Properties... / Other / Hidden". This feature to hide investments is usually for after you've sold all shares of something, and you don't want it cluttering up the display, but want to keep it as part of your historical records. For more on hiding investments, see our Hiding Investments tutorial.

In all reports, when a column contains percentages it would be a nice touch to append a "%" symbol after the numeric value

This is an option. From within a report window, turn on "Options / Report Preferences... / General / Display Percent Fields With %".

may I suggest replacing "Retrieve Selected Prices" with "Retrieve All Prices" which would update the prices for all securities

Use "Edit / Internet Retrieve / Prices" or press the "PRC" button on the toolbar to retrieve all prices for all open investments. The price retrieve is quite flexible, and there are many options. To learn more about this, please see our Retrieving Prices tutorial.

If you still have questions, please feel free to give me a call tomorrow and we can do a quick web session, and can clear up some of your questions.

[chris319]

Hi Mark -

That CSV file looks fine.

Sorry to contradict you, but it doesn't look fine to me. I should be seeing numbers but instead I'm seeing "(end)":

Code: Select all

Investment   (end)   (end)   (end)   (end)

[Mark]

Hi Chris,

Is that how the report window looks too? Can you send a screenshot of your report? The "(end)" is part of the column labels, and should be above the rows of your actual listed investment data, like this:

Screenshot 2021-09-26 182541.jpg (33.18 KiB) Viewed 3732 times

[chris319]

Here is the screenshot. Scroll down to see the whole thing.

[Mark]

It is formatted fine, but there are no investments listed. The header is showing there is a filter on, so that the report is only listing Exchange Traded Funds in the "Margin Account" sub-portfolio. You can turn off the filter by going to "Edit / Filter Settings..." and set "Filter By:" to "<no filter>".

[chris319]

the report is only listing Exchange Traded Funds in the "Margin Account"

That is exactly how I have it set up and exactly the kind of report I want. At the moment all the assets in this account are ETF's except for the missing AVGO and cash.

[Mark]

It appears they are not assigned to this investment type since they're not being displayed. You can check their investment type under "Investment Properties... / General / Type:", and make sure they are set to the desired type, matching your filter.

[chris319]

OK, double checked the investment types and all is well now, thank you.

Now where is my missing entry for AVGO?

[chris319]

I found the missing AVGO transaction. It somehow wound up in the Master Portfolio. However, at no time did I explicitly select the Master Portfolio. Also, the folder to which .dat files are saved had changed without my explicitly changing it, forcing me to delete and re-enter those transactions.

Weird.

How do I enter a "sell" transaction? Is it a new "investment" with a negative share amount?

Thank you.

[Mark]

Hi Chris,

Glad you found the missing investment. If you want to change the location of an investment file you can use "File / Save Investment As...", or if you want to change the location of all your investment files use "File / File Operations / Set Data Location...". The location of the *.dat file on your hard drive is independent of the sub-portfolio it belongs in.

If you want to enter a sell transaction, first you must create the investment if you don't already have one for this security. There are several menu commands available to get you to the Buy/Sell dialog, but I usually prefer working from within the Data Register. Open the Data Register (Edit / All Data... or double click on an investment in the Portfolio Editor), and then under the Data Type of "All Transactions" click on "New >> / Buy/Sell...". Another way to get here is to right mouse click on an investment and choose "Investment Data / Buy/Sell...", or you can choose the "B/S" button on the toolbar.

Investments are different than transactions. An investment is a security, and contains prices/transactions/properties. To record a transaction, you record it in an investment.

[chris319]

Investments are different than transactions. An investment is a security, and contains prices/transactions/properties. To record a transaction, you record it in an investment.

I'm glad you mentioned that. It wasn't immediately apparent from my reading of the documentation. I had to rebuild my portfolio with that in mind but it's OK now.

The program is very complex with a steep learning curve. It would benefit greatly from a high-level quick-start guide explaining some of these things to get new users started. It would relieve you of some of the user-support burden such as answering questions from people like me.

One petty annoyance is the use of the word "Redemption" in various transaction reports. "Sale" would be a more appropriate word.

Thank you again for all your help.

[Mark]

Hi Chris,

Yes, it does have a steep learning curve. We're always trying to find ways to make it easier to learn, without sacrificing the power of the program. There are many tutorials available, which seems to be the best way people usually learn.