How to catch up / reconcile after sustained disuse

Question

It's been a few years since I logged in and synced my accounts. When I updated them recently, the download missed some significant chunks of data. I presume this is because the older transaction history is inaccessible, due to expiration or timeout.

So, now my accounts have downloaded the most recent transactions, but the balance is WAY off.

Is there a way to regain that data without tedious, manual research and entry?

If not, what's the best way to square things up?

Frankx · Answer

Hi @schnarffs,

As you might expect, it is impossible for us to know - given what you have posted above - whether it is possible  to "regain that data", or even more so, whether "tedious, manual research and entry" might be required.  Generally, the shorter the time frame that you call "a few years" is, the easier it will be to recreate, or perhaps download the missing data (depending on the financial institution(s) involved).

To try and determine whether it makes sense for you to try to recover and/or recreate the missing data, you need to first find out what historical data might be able to be retrieved from each of your financial institutions from online downloads, or otherwise.  Some financial institutions provide their investors/holders with online downloadable historical data for several years, in various formats. Others may only offer downloaded pdf files.

Secondly, if lacking the resources above, you could recreate the transactions from data provided on historical statements previously provided by the financial institutions - although this clearly would require your inputting manual entries from historic data, such as quarterly statements.

And to your final question - if you cannot download or recreate the specific transactions - you could simply adjust the current balance to coincide with the current account holdings, which would not provide you with complete information (especially with respect to tax considerations) but would allow you to move forward with correct current holdings.

Let me know if you have any followups.

Frankx