Any way for Quicken to read my investment account PDF

Phil Burton

I can download a PDF each month for my investment accounts which has month-end balances. I want to enter the month-end balance, nothing more, in the register for each investment account. Right now I do that manually. Is there any way I can automate that process?

Greg_the_Geek

There are PDF converters available.

https://www.propersoft.net/howto/pdf-converter

Jim_Harman

[edited] OK, go to the receiving account and enter a transfer as a split transaction with the gross distribution as a transfer from the investing account and the taxes withheld as a negative number assigned to an appropriate tax category. The net amount will show as the amount deposited.

NotACPA

Nope.  Q can attach your PDF statement to a transaction ... but it can do NOTHING with the info in that PDF.

Phil Burton

Thanks. I was hoping that there is some "magic" solution out there, but I'm not surprised that I'm stuck with my manual process.

GeoffG

Phil Burton said:

I can download a PDF each month for my investment accounts which has month-end balances. I want to enter the month-end balance, nothing more, in the register for each investment account. Right now I do that manually. Is there any way I can automate that process?

Sure, Quicken offers a fully automated download process of investment transactions for any current version. Which version do currently have and what is the name of your investment firm?

Phil Burton

I have the latest 2020 Quicken Premier. I checked my investment account website. Years ago they used to do transaction-level downloads but not any longer. All they offer now is the monthly reports, which do contain all the transaction detail. But it's a PDF, and I have no idea how to convert any of that into a Quicken transaction input format.

In any case, all I really need for my purposes is the month-end valuations. I let the investment advisor make trades based on financial goals, market conditions, etc. Works for me, except for the part about getting those month-end numbers.

Ps56k2

Phil Burton said: I have the latest 2020 Quicken Premier. I checked my investment account website. Years ago they used to do transaction-level downloads but not any longer.

which brokerage for these investments - then we can look them up -

Phil Burton

ps56k,

I appreciate the offer but for privacy reasons, I'd rather not say. However, I am certain that they do not offer transaction-level downloads any longer. It's actual an investment advisor

Greg_the_Geek

There are PDF converters available.

https://www.propersoft.net/howto/pdf-converter

Jim_Harman

If you really only care about the month-end account balance, you can define a special security - call it Advisor Joe Assets or whatever - with a constant share price of 1.00 - and make that the only security in the account.

Then when you receive a statement, manually Add or Remove shares of that security to make the balance in Quicken match the statement. If you are adding to the account or receiving distributions from it, you would transfer the cash in or out and buy/sell that security to match.

With this approach however, you will not be able to track the account's performance or tax implications. 
 

Phil Burton

Jim,

After reading some other threads about account distributions, I think I really want to track gross distribution, US federal tax withheld, and net distribution to me.

Thanks for your suggestion.

Jim_Harman

[edited] OK, go to the receiving account and enter a transfer as a split transaction with the gross distribution as a transfer from the investing account and the taxes withheld as a negative number assigned to an appropriate tax category. The net amount will show as the amount deposited.

Rocket J Squirrel

Back in the early days of Xerox Star, the original WYSIWYG demo involved holding a piece of paper up to the monitor to show that the printed page was identical to the screen display. The story is that someone in the audience believed that the Star was reading the paper document through the screen to produce the display. Remember, @Phil Burton? Maybe try that.

But seriously, there is no harm in disclosing your financial institutions here. Everyone here knows I use B of A, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, etc., because there are times it is important to specify the FI for troubleshooting purposes. Just keep your account numbers and passwords private.

If you are still looking for magic, PDF2QFX or Bank2QFX might work for you as @Greg_the_Geek suggested. They look appropriately magical. If you do try one, please let us know how it worked.

Phil Burton

I just finished doing manual entries for all of 2019, month by month, for six accounts. It didn't take that long, and from now on I will do that entry monthly.

I am a very private person, so I'd rather not disclose the name of my investment advisor. I do appreciate the offer.

Separately, I have had lots of problems lately with Citibank, no problem disclosing that checking and credit card accounts there. However, it's pretty clear that about a year ago Citi screwed up their website in multiple ways, including breaking their conformance with the OFX specs. I was able to determine that it was Citibank's problem thanks to some helpful support articles here.