Required fields in custom importers
In addition to being able to import data to FA in one of FA's file formats, FA also supports defining custom importers for importing transactions, trade orders and market prices.
The custom importers do not require a fixed file format, and the importers are on the contrary defined against an external file. This article describes the minimum requirements for the information your external file should contain in order for you to be able to import it into FA. As well as for FA's format, the file format for custom importing is a semicolon separated text file (CSV), and one row in the file represents one transaction / trade order / market price entry.
Custom importers are defined under Preferences - Reader format configuration through first defining the basic information of the reader (name, how many header rows to exclude and which separator, date format and decimal point the imported file uses) and then mapping the actual format of the file through defining in which order and from which column each value can be found in the custom file.
Required fields for transactions and trade orders
# | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
# | Name | Description |
1 | Portfolio number | Some way of identifying to which portfolio the transaction belongs to. |
2 | Transaction ID | How the counter party identifies the transaction. Use transaction number, reference, etc. |
3 | Transaction type code | Identify the type of transaction: need to know all the potential transaction type codes and their meaning / effects. |
4 | Transaction date | No |
(5) | (Settlement date) | (Optional, but good to have.) |
6 | Security identifier | Securities can be identified with 1) security code, 2) ISIN code, 3) trade code or 4) any of the update codes (1 through 3). |
(7) | (Bank account number) | (Mandatory, if multiple bank accounts are tracked in the same portfolio. Otherwise, transactions can be directed to portfolio's default account.) |
8 | Currency | Code of the transaction's security's currency. |
9 | Amount | Number of units of the transaction. |
10 | Unit price | Unit price of the transaction in security currency. If unit price is not available or it is inaccurate, it can be left empty, when the system calculates it from Amount and Trade amount - nevertheless, if the unit price is available, it is good to have. |
11 | Trade amount | The total value of the transaction in security currency (Amount * Unit price +/- costs and taxes + accrued interests). The values in other fields have to add up to the Trade amount. |
12 | FX rate | Exchange rate between security currency and the portfolio / account currency the transaction is recorded to. |
13 | Taxes, costs, etc. | Costs and taxes can be separated into two cost fields and two tax fields. |
(14) | (Accrued interests) | (Paid / received accrued interest in the case of bond transactions.) |
Required fields for market prices
# | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
# | Name | Description |
1 | Security code | A code to identify the security: ISIN code, trade code, ticker, etc. |
2 | Date | Market price's date |
3 | Close price | Close price for the above date |
In addition to the above fields, you custom file format can include any columns available in FA's standard file format for market prices.