Hi everyone,
I’m trying to import my full transaction history from Firstrade (a US broker) into Portfolio Performance, and I couldn’t find a dedicated importer for it (unlike Interactive Brokers’ Flex Query XML). I’d like to ask whether there’s a recommended way to do this via the generic CSV import, or whether anyone has already built a working mapping/converter for Firstrade files, before I try to force my own transformation.
Some context on the export I’m working with (Tax Center > Download Account Information > Excel CSV Files):
- Columns: Symbol, Quantity, Price, Action, Description, TradeDate, SettledDate, Interest, Amount, Commission, Fee, CUSIP, RecordType
- The “Action” column lumps several very different event types together under the single value “Other”: dividend reinvestments, internal cash-sweep transfers (FFS), ADR agency fees, account-to-account transfers of cash/securities, mergers, stock splits, and name changes - distinguishable only via free text in “Description”.
- For these “Other” rows, the sign of Quantity/Amount does not reliably indicate direction (e.g. a security being transferred OUT, or the “from” leg of a merger/split, is still shown with a positive Quantity).
- One export variant I generated had numeric fields written like ‘0,36’ (apostrophe-wrapped, comma decimal) without proper CSV quoting, which breaks column alignment in any RFC4180-compliant parser (the embedded comma gets read as a field separator). A different export setting avoided this.
- “Dividend”-type rows appear to report a net amount (tax already subtracted, only mentioned in the description text), while some dividends appear instead as a pair of “Other” rows (gross “CASH DIV” + separate “NON-RES TAX WITHHELD”).
Given all this, my questions are:
- Is there already a known/working column mapping for Firstrade CSV files into Portfolio Performance’s “Portfolio Transactions” and “Account Transactions” CSV import types?
- Is there a better alternative to this CSV (e.g. does Firstrade support any other export format - QFX/OFX, a different report or PDF - that maps more cleanly into PP)?
- For dividend reinvestments (recorded as Action=“Other”, description containing “REIN”), is it preferable to import them as Buy or as Delivery (Inbound), given the corresponding dividend cash inflow may or may not also be imported?
Any pointers, sample mappings, or general advice on importing this broker’s data without errors would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance!