Dates in ofx download setup, brokerage data

David Reiser dbreiser at earthlink.net
Fri Dec 2 01:07:06 EST 2011


On Dec 1, 2011, at 1:41 PM, Robin Chattopadhyay wrote:

> I'm not sure whether to go off on a tangent from here or a new thread,

I'll start a new thread, though it might not be necessary.
> but
> in getting this set up, I've come across two questions related to
> OFX/AqBanking setup:
> 
> (1) I have several accounts at my bank set-up for OFX download (2 checking,
> 2 savings, 2 credit cards). Do I have to initiate "Get Transactions" for
> each account separately? Also, when I select "Since last download" as the
> start date, is that date specific to that account or the OFX UserID?
> 
> Here's what happened:
> a) I initiated "Get Transactions" for Checking A. I selected "Since Last
> Download" as the start date and left the end date as the default.
> b) Checking A transactions are downloaded and imported with no issues.
> c) After initiating "Get Transactions" for Checking B (again selecting
> "Since Last Download" as the start date), the UI says "No transactions
> available", which -- like Alan's scenario -- is untrue.
> d) When I looked at the log, there was an error message stating that I
> cannot have the end date be earlier than the start date.
> e) I initiate "Get Transactions" again for Checking B, but this time,
> manually selecting a date for start date. This time the transactions are
> successfully downloaded and imported into GC.

When I get transactions from multiple credit card accounts at Chase with the same user login, I do not see the date storage behavior you are seeing with your checking accounts -- my "Since Last Download" appears to be stored by account, not user. Looking at the gnucash xml file, the last retrieval date is stored per gnucash account in the slot value of key: trans-retrieval. It looks to me in the gnucash code as if gnucash is passing that trans-retrieval timespec to aqbanking based on the gnucash account. So it seems very strange that you can have gnucash change two retrieval dates with one Get Transactions run. And I didn't think it was possible to point two different gnucash accounts to the same aqbanking account. Something strange is happening. 

When you choose Get Transactions, you can tell what date gnucash and aqbanking will use. The grayed out date in the Select Date box is the date Since Last Download is going to use.  That date is the trans-retrieval timespec stored in the gnucash account data. So if Since Last Download is selected, aqbanking will ask for transactions since the date that appears in the next box.

For credit cards, I have to back that date up one day to keep from missing batch file date mismatches. (If I download transactions after midnight on the 10th, aqbanking thinks I have transactions from the 10th and effectively asks for transactions after the 10th. But transactions that post at the end of business on the 10th aren't in that new list.)

> 
> (2) Is it still true that the GC implementation of AqBanking does not
> handle brokerage accounts correctly? I was able to set up the OFX User for
> my brokerage accounts and retrieve an account list, but I cannot get any
> transactions.

It isn't just the gnucash implementation of aqbanking, it is every version of aqbanking. Aqbanking cannot handle anything in a brokerage download except some dividend payments. The reason you see no transactions is that aqbanking deletes transaction it doesn't know how to handle during importing. 

When you download the ofx file outside of gnucash and then import it, gnucash is using libofx, not aqbanking. Libofx does a pretty good job importing brokerage ofx files. There are a few 401K ofx data streams that  libofx doesn't get perfect, but it is unclear whether that's an invalid ofx tag construction by the brokerage or a failing of libofx.

Dave
--
David Reiser
dbreiser at earthlink.net






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