[Kmymoney] Dividend reinvestment (Scottrade, imported via OFX)

[Allan]

On 28/06/12 03:39, Robert Tomsick wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Jun 2012, Jack wrote:
>
> Thanks for the prompt reply! Reponse inlined below....
>
>> On 2012.06.27 13:52, Robert Tomsick wrote:
>>> Hi all:
>>>
>>> I have a question regarding dividends and dividend reinvestment that
>>> I was hoping somebody might answer (or at least provide some hints.)
>>>
>>> Here's the situation:
>>>
>>> I have an account with the brokerage Scottrade. I regularly import my
>>> transactions via OFX (they provide an OFX endpoint). This works fine.
>>>
>>> For assets for which I receive dividends, Scottrade generates two
>>> transactions. The first is identified by KMyMoney as being of the
>>> type "Dividend". This transaction lists an amount and the security
>>> for which the dividend was issued, but does not seem to include any
>>> other information (such as "Total"). (The transaction does include a
>>> memo such as "DIVIDEND ON 42.230 SHARES OF FOOBAR @ .061" but I
>>> believe this is generated by Scottrade, not KMyMoney.)
>>>
>>> The second transaction is the re-investment one. KMyMoney identifies
>>> this as being of the type "Buy Shares" and correctly populates the
>>> number of shares and the price, but the "Total" is listed as $0.00.
>>> [... ineffective attempts at solutions removed ...]
>>
>> You have it easy. :-) For my account with Merrill Lynch, I get three
>> transactions for a dividend reinvest. One is the dividend, one is the
>> purchase, and the third is the reinvest. I don't actually remember
>> what KMM recognizes them as, since none of them come in as an actual
>> reinvestment, and I eventually gave up on trying to import the OFX,
>> and I just do it all manually. However, you might see if either one of
>> the two imported transactions is easily edited and changed to a
>> reinvest dividend transaction, perhaps just needing to add a field or
>> two. Then you could just delete the other transaction. The second
>> option would be to stick with a dividend and a buy shares pair of
>> transactions. It may still take some editing to be sure the amounts
>> are equal, but that really is the essence of a dividend reinvestment.
>
> Well yes, I could delete one of them. But that's sub-optimal for me for
> two reasons:
>
> 1) I have to do it every time I do automatic reinvestment (not a big
> deal -- I'm resigned to the fact that I'm probably going to have to do
> *something* every time...)
>
> 2) More importantly, heaven help me if I ever tell KMM to update my
> account with a full transaction history since inception. Then -- AFAIK
> -- *all* of the deleted transactions will come back and it's off to the
> races again...
>
> I could create a dummy account that the reinvested dividends pay into
> and the reinvestments themselves are funded from... but that seems like
> a rather round-about way of doing it.
>
>> Note that the problem is not really KMM, it is how brokerages actually
>> generate OFX files, and although I have not really read the OFX
>> standard, I suspect it does not really specify in enough detail how to
>> handle this issue.
>
> Oh, I don't think it's a problem with KMM per-se, but I am frustrated
> that none of the "obvious" solutions (matching transactions, etc.) work
> the way that I expected them to. I agree that it's probably an issue
> with what the brokerage is producing -- but I'd like some input on what
> the "right" way to solve it is.
>
>> Minor point - if you have not already done so, just look at one of the
>> OFX files in a text editor - it's plain text.
>
> I have already done so. I was previously trying to debug an issue with
> GnuCash failing to connect to Scottrade's OFX endpoint (their techs were
> sympathetic, but ultimately unhelpful) so I ended up doing a fair number
> of requests with ofxconnect (a very, very useful tool, BTW.)
>
> The OFX file is correct in that it corresponds exactly to what Scottrade
> displays in my account history (dividend and reinvestment of same listed
> separately.)
>
> Further suggestions are welcome.
>
> Also, as an aside, how is the "Reinvest Dividend" transaction type
> *supposed* to work? The manual doesn't really explain it, and since not
> all of the fields are labeled clearly I wasn't quite sure on how I
> should go about using it (if at all.)
>
> Thanks,
> Rob

As I understand it, matching works only when an imported transaction is 
matched with a manually entered one.

Again as I understand it, "Reinvest Dividend" works on a single security 
transaction containing an amount and a quantity.  This works 
successfully in KMM with QIF imports.  My dealings are not with a 
broker, but with an investment company.  I am able to import 
successfully single line "Reinvest Dividend" transactions from their CSV 
file with no manual editing.

I think your problem, and Jack's,  arise from a fundamental mismatch. 
In KMM, each transaction is a single all-inclusive line, whereas yours 
involve two or three lines for a single activity.  I modified the csv 
plugin to be able to import Jack's files, but only to the extent of 
importing a series of unlinked single-line entries.  There is presently 
no way to link related transactions.  As I see it, a unique identifier 
would be required for each group of related transactions, which would 
have to be from manual intervention.  Then. possibly, the separate 
elements could be combined.

Allan