[GNC] OFX transactional data downloads from FDIC insured banks

Sun May 21 11:03:17 EDT 2023

Hi Stephen/Bob/Gyle/all,

Gyle: I emailed Bask Bank (customersupport at baskbank.com), Presidential 
Bank (email at presidential.com), & CIT Bank (service at cit.com) on Thursday, 
May 18 at about 7 PM PST and have not heard back from any of them yet 
(CIT did send an automated response immediately). We will see what they 
say.

Bob: I made a comment on Huntington Bank's Facebook page 
(https://www.facebook.com/HuntingtonBank/) about 15 minutes ago because 
they do not seem to have email customer service options on the Contact 
Us page on their website 
(https://www.huntington.com/customer-service/contact-us). We will see 
what they say.

Stephen: you said "JP Morgan Chase Bank provides OFX/QFX format 
downloads of Checking and Savings Accounts" do you mean 
https://www.jpmorganchase.com/ or https://www.jpmorgan.com/global or 
https://www.chase.com/ or something else? JPM is an enormous financial 
institution (https://www.google.com/finance/quote/JPM:NYSE) and I don't 
know where to direct my inquiries.

In addition, my understanding is that there is a difference between OFX 
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Financial_Exchange) and QFX 
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QFX_(file_format)), but it seems like 
many people are lumping them together - ?

My standard ask goes something like this:

"Hi,

I use GnuCash (https://gnucash.org/), an open source accounting 
software. Does ____ Bank allow transactional data to be downloaded in 
the OFX file format 
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Financial_Exchange & 
https://financialdataexchange.org/ofx) or does ____Bank only allow 
proprietary/patented/corporate file formats (like QFX, owned by Intuit) 
for transactional data downloads?

Thank you,

Brad"

I changed the email subject title from the "Tax report options 
(flywire)" one as the conversation only went in this direction and Alex 
Aycinena,nor anyone else, added to what I was saying about the tax data 
format options (see emails below).

Thank you for your help in this project!

Brad

On 5/19/23 12:41, Gyle McCollam wrote:
> Bob,
> You replied to me only.  I was replying to Brad.  You should use reply all so that your reply goes to the list.
>
>
> Thank You,
>
> Gyle McCollam
>
> Gyle McCollam
>
> gmccollam at live.com<mailto:gmccollam at gyleshomes.com>            email
>
> ________________________________
> From: Bob Crochelt<rfc56 at fastmail.com>
> Sent: Friday, May 19, 2023 2:02 PM
> To: Gyle McCollam<gmccollam at live.com>
> Subject: Re: [GNC] Tax report options (flywire)
>
> Hi:
> Huntington Bank offers OFX/QFX for checking and savings, but not AFAIK CD's.
> HTH
> Bob Crochelt
>
> On Thu, May 18, 2023 at 03:48:18PM +0000, Gyle McCollam wrote:
>> Brad,
>> As fr as banks with FDIC Insurance and OFX/QFX downloads, I can think of 3 off the top of my head.  Presidential Bank in MD, good rate, but only on the 1st $25,000 in checking with conditions.  2nd, Bask Bank/Texas Capital, limited to 2 savings accounts and CDs.  Last. but not least CIT Bank (not CITI).  I'm sure there are many others and even if they only offer CSV downloads, that is almost as easy once you've done it once.
>>
>>
>> Thank You,
>>
>> Gyle McCollam
>>
>> Gyle McCollam
>>
>> gmccollam at live.com<mailto:gmccollam at gyleshomes.com>            email
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: gnucash-user<gnucash-user-bounces+gylemc=gmail.com at gnucash.org>  on behalf of Brad Morrison<bradmorrison at sonic.net>
>> Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2023 5:56 AM
>> To:gnucash-user at gnucash.org  <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
>> Cc:fdxmemberservices at financialdataexchange.org  <fdxmemberservices at financialdataexchange.org>;fdxsupport at financialdataexchange.org  <fdxsupport at financialdataexchange.org>
>> Subject: Re: [GNC] Tax report options (flywire)
>>
>> Hi Alex/all,
>>
>> Thank you for the overarching explanations about how GnuCash Tax Report
>> Options work and some of the issues behind that.
>>
>> As I covered in my April 25 post
>> (https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-April/106671.html),
>> I have been trying to find US based FDIC insured banks that allow for
>> transactional data to be downloaded in the OFX file format
>> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Financial_Exchange). I have still
>> not been able to find any that do, so I dug a bit deeper (the ICBA and
>> several other banking associations did not respond to my inquiries) and
>> noticed that the Financial Data Exchange group that hosts the "OFX Work
>> Group" (https://financialdataexchange.org/ofx) seems to be quite out of
>> date (copyright date at the bottom lists 2020 as the year, 2019 is the
>> last date on the timeline, etc.). The Financial Data Exchange homepage
>> (https://financialdataexchange.org/) looks better maintained and seems
>> to have several news items from the last month, but also has that 2020
>> copyright date at the bottom. FDX also has this Tax Data Exchange
>> section
>> (https://financialdataexchange.org/FDX/FDX/US-Tax/US-Tax-Forms.aspx?hkey=00bae613-7ec8-4c93-8e37-4712f09ae255)
>> under the "Resources" tab, but it also looks a bit stale. You may be
>> able to parse the technical information there better than I can, but it
>> might be worth a look as that Tax Data Exchange page also seems to
>> acknowledge what you are saying about TXF code being abandoned
>> ("Standards-based JSON files are superior to both CSV and TXF files CSV
>> files require proprietary programs to process. Documentation and support
>> of the TXF standard has dwindled and has now been fully-replaced by new
>> standards.")
>>
>> I do not know if GnuCash is already a member of FDX, but that maybe
>> something to consider...?
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> On 5/17/23 12:08, Alex Aycinena wrote:
>>> On Wed, May 17, 2023 at 9:00 AM<gnucash-user-request at gnucash.org>   wrote:
>>>
>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>> From: flywire<flywire0 at gmail.com>
>>>> To: Gnucash Users<gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
>>>> Cc:
>>>> Bcc:
>>>> Date: Wed, 17 May 2023 17:17:45 +1000
>>>> Subject: Re: [GNC] Tax report options
>>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-May/107018.html
>>>> flywire wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> It is a spreadsheet process to add share/franking credits to etf/franking
>>>>> credits (Distribution:13Q) and similar for capital gains
>>>>> (Distribution:18H:18A) since the components are the same tax item. Any
>>>>> thoughts of how I could sum them in reports from different account trees?
>>>>>
>>>> lol In the heat of the moment preparing tax I'd never thought of just
>>>> transferring the total to the main account for that item.
>>>>
>>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-May/107020.html
>>>> flywire wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> ...there are 13 annual returns
>>>>>
>>>> To be clear, the items on the return map to different tax codes, eg
>>>> franking credits is 13Q on a personal return and 8D on a trust return. I'd
>>>> expect a table would need to be maintained for each return type. Australian
>>>> codes hardly change over time which likely means there would be no active
>>>> maintenance.
>>>>
>>>> Is it as simple as just using a unique tax code as account code and then
>>>> reporting by account code? (Assume one return type.)
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Some questions have been asked about  Tax Report Options in the past couple
>>> of weeks. I have been away and not able to respond or make comments. Let me
>>> make these points, which may not necessarily apply to this thread, but to
>>> others (sorry):
>>>
>>> - The Tax Report Options and associated US Income Tax Report are only
>>> intended to be used for US Income Taxes.
>>>
>>> - Some time ago, someone in Germany used the US version and made
>>> adjustments for use in Germany; I'm not familiar with that and don't know
>>> if it works and is being maintained.
>>>
>>> - Initially it was intended primarily to generate a file that could be
>>> uploaded to Income Tax Preparation software (and a report was sort of
>>> secondary) and so a key element of the design was the use of TXF codes that
>>> the Tax software could understand; the specification for those codes was
>>> abandoned some time ago so the ability to expand the system is not there
>>> unless we invented our own new TXF code (ugh!).
>>>
>>> - That is why there is nothing for Form 1116.
>>>
>>> - If someone wanted to do what was done for Germany for another
>>> jurisdiction, they would have to deal with this TXF issue; I certainly
>>> don't recommend trying it.
>>>
>>> - The US version could/should be re-written to not depend on TXF codes but
>>> this would not be trivial.
>>>
>>> - One can use the 'No Tax code' tag to include accounts on the US Income
>>> Tax Report, just not sorted by Form/Schedule; you could use the account
>>> name and/or description for that purpose for those accounts to give you
>>> totals (example: for Form 1116).
>>>
>>> - The system assumes that each 'book' (i.e., gnucash file) is for one
>>> reporting entity (individual, partnership, corporation, etc.) and that one
>>> file is not used to track the accounts of more than one tax
>>> reporting entity.
>>>
>>> - You can certainly use your account structure design and other available
>>> reports to get your tax information without using this system; in fact, if
>>> you use this system, you have to carefully design your account structure
>>> and do careful data entry to get the report to be useful.
>>>
>>> Alex
>>> _______________________________________________
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