Share prices in Reckon without upgrading to 2015

Rocdearo
Rocdearo Member Posts: 4
edited August 2019 in Reckon Accounts (Desktop)
If you have access to an online broker with csv downloads or can get a csv file with end-of-day prices you can import them into Reckon in bulk for the day, but you have to do this from the Portfolio View.
First you have to save a csv file (say Myfile1.csv) (from where you get your bulk prices) to a known location on your computer (say C:\A folder).  Manipulate this file by deleting all columns except the following 3 columns: the first with each ticker symbol, the second with the share closing prices for the date required and the third for the date in the format dd/mm/yyyy.  Fill the date column with the same date.  This method will not allow high, low or volume to be imported, just closing prices.  Save your amended file.  Now with the Portfolio View open click File, select Import, Import Prices, and a window will open asking for file name.  Type in the file name with complete path (eg  C:\A\Myfile1.csv) and click OK.  Reckon should then tell you how many prices you have successfully imported.
Note:  Including the column with the date you want in your csv file, will prevent Reckon from importing the prices with the wrong date.

Comments

  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited February 2017

    You might like to review other posts on this community forum, especially :

    https://community.reckon.com.au/reckon/topics/how_to_manually_update_share_prices_in_personal_plus_h...

    or the knowledge database:

    http://kb.reckon.com.au//issue_view.asp?ID=3203

    These show how to include High, Low and Volume/100, although the format is rather strange and there are restrictions on volume, that regularly affect Telstra, FMG and other companies with volumes more than 20 million in a day.

    It is of the form below, requiring '---' and '*' fields, although their use is not explained. At least the date field is not US.

    "share,Close,,Date,,High,Low,volume,"
    amc,7.35,---,24/02/2006,---,7.46,7.32,63712,*

    I have been using this approach with RPP 2013 since 1 August, as it allows entering of prices back for many years and not restricted to ASX codes.

  • Mirko
    Mirko Alumni Posts: 1,258 ✭✭
    edited November 2015
    Thanks for the tips guys. I'm sure it will help customers who are using Legacy versions and also those looking to do more with their shareprice file imports. ^mirko
  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited February 2017

    Mirko,

    Is there any documentation of what price information is available with RPP 2015 auto download facility ?

    Over the last few months I have asked a number of questions about what is and is not provided and not yet received a clear answer. There are also numerous examples of RPP 2015 not being able to reliably use this facility.

    Is there a document which lists the exchanges and codes that are currently supported?

    John

  • Mirko
    Mirko Alumni Posts: 1,258 ✭✭
    edited February 2017
    Hey John, I've escalated this question on to our Product Managers.

    One of the developers I asked, mentioned that NASDAQ and ASX stocks should be working. He has tested on his end and managed to get the prices see image:
    image

    image

    He mentioned to check the symbol info (NASDAQ) and they have heard of "security price history file being damaged". To test for the damaged file, it's been suggested to "test the quotes download in a new data file." If you could let me know how that goes, it would be greatly appreciated.



  • gavin.nicholson.au
    gavin.nicholson.au Member Posts: 78
    edited November 2014
    I thought I would try your suggestion since as I have mentioned for YEARS I have had various companies that just don't get any share price data. As of now these are AZZ, SLX, TAP, and TME. So I created a new file, skipped the setup, went straight and entered some codes pressed update and nothing. Added another stock pressed one step update and the whole thing crashed my computer. Really! Did that a few times then deleted everything and tried again. Not a very good start but now it is updating so looks like my price history file might be damaged. So of course the question is how might one fix that?
  • Mirko
    Mirko Alumni Posts: 1,258 ✭✭
    edited November 2015
    Hey Gavin,

    If the security price history is damaged, you can delete the price history for a security and rebuild it.


        Go to File > File Operations > Validate & Repair
        Select Delete Investing Price History
        Click OK
        When complete, go to the Investing tab
        Click the Update button
        Choose Historical Prices
        Choose 5 Years from the drop-down list
        Click the Mark All button
        Click the Update Now button


    Let me know how that works.

    However, I think that there is something else going on as the new data file failed and crashed at first. I would guess something is affecting the update process (such as firewall/internet security etc. I would try to disable your security software and firewall if you have them enabled and then try to update. If this does not work, then proceed with the rebuild.

    Keen to hear how you go.

    ^Mirko


  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited November 2016

    Mirko,

    Could we have an explanation of this, specifically:

    Select Delete Investing Price History: does this delete all price records or only those companies selected ?

    Click the Mark All button: does this list include ASX codes or only the 2 US historical codes (Dow Jones and Nasdaq) that I am aware of ?

    If this is a more extensive rebuild capability, this would be a significant improvement !!

    John


  • Mirko
    Mirko Alumni Posts: 1,258 ✭✭
    edited November 2015
    Hey John, my understanding is it will wipe everything and fix the NASDAQ issue also. As I have not been able to replicate the issue on our end, I cannot confirm. Like, with any manipulation of a data file, I would suggest making a backup and then trying. Keen to hear how you go.
  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited November 2016

    Mirko,

    There is NO WAY I would try this one without some confirmation that it works, as described.

    I also have an outstanding request for documentation of what company codes are supported by the "last week" automatic update and also the "historical codes" update that applies for a longer period.

    A list of currencies that are available would be a help also.

    This is a request that appears to have disappeared into the ether, although some benefit from my $115 would be appreciated.

    John

  • gavin.nicholson.au
    gavin.nicholson.au Member Posts: 78
    edited November 2014
    Yeah Mirko, your suggestion is not a "manipulation of the data file" it is deleting and starting again which if I just had ASX listed stocks might be OK but I dont. I have all the data related to my superannuation accounts and other managed funds as well. So I know you are just the messenger but pass it back up the chain that the situation a lot of users are in is untenable. We kept thinking that these sorts of issues would be solved in future updates but they are not and the solution you are relaying to us of just delete everything and start again kind of defeats the whole point of using a database to hold 15-20 years worth of data... If you have a better idea or a way around losing all the managed fund data or if your suggestion won't actually affect that data then I am all ears.

    P.S. When I select the "Download Historical Prices" menu item the dialog box that appears has the phrase "(U.S. securities only)" at the top so that doesn't inspire me with confidence either.
  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited November 2016

    Gavin,

    There are utilities on the web to extract all price information from a .qph file, which can be re-imported with a .csv, but the import function is limited. I also have developed this to be able to correct the .qph files for incorrect imported volume information.

    I also have non asx and non-listed unit prices, but these can be re-applied with .csv import.  What happens for change of company codes and all the other splits and adjustments that happen on ASX and other companies ?

    I think this concept of deleting the .qph file and starting again is a mirage, or this is a significant new feature. Can we really get ASX price info for more than a week back from the historical option, or is this just another uninformed comment from Reckon who know little about their product.

    John

  • gavin.nicholson.au
    gavin.nicholson.au Member Posts: 78
    edited November 2014
    I just tried the reltan QPH processor but it seems to be only extracting ASX price data not my managed funds data. So unless I have missed an option this is no help to me I'm afraid :-(
  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited November 2016

    Gavin,

    If you give your managed funds a company code, you should be able to see them with reltan.  (try a nine character code like AAF0186AU works for me). (not sure if you can still access your .qph file via RPP ?)

    I have my own program like reltan and can extract everything, including managed funds but without company codes are more difficult to identify.

    The .qph file contains price and volume records only (actually mainly, as some other annual price summaries appear to be randomly included, which RPP2013+ don't appear to use). If you send me contact details I could dump out all info into a .csv file style. ("share_code,Close,---,Date,---,High,Low,volume,"

    I have written a program to export all prices to a .csv format, which can be imported (does require a company code for import).  Once RPP has imported the records, my program can then modify the price records in the updated .qph file, to correct for mainly volume errors. I have used this approach since August on RPP 2013, without any problems.

    By using RPP to add new price records, and only adjusting the values RPP imports incorrectly, I have had no problems with file corruption, as I am avoiding changing the between record pointers inside the .qph file.

    The .qph file has at least 3 types of records:

    1) Company header record

    2) daily price and volume record

    3) annual price summary records (I don't know about these and there are very few; only 10 in my file)

    Importantly, RPP stores most of the company information in another file, so it is best not to change the record structure or the location of the company records, as this may be referenced by other QDATA file records. Also, I'm not sure how the .qph file relates to share buy/sell history, so I am wary of changing the record structure.

    Another problem is that I don't think that RPP Validate does much (anything?) with the .qph file. My .qph file (now nearly 300,000 price records in a 16 mb file) has all price records before Nov-2004 duplicated, courtesy of a bug in RPP 2005, so there is a lot of junk in the file, as well as ex-company codes. I have about 80 active companies, but over 180 sets of company and price records in my .qph file. Quite a mess really, but I've given up on Reckon fixing this up.

    John

  • gavin.nicholson.au
    gavin.nicholson.au Member Posts: 78
    edited November 2014
    Hi John, Wow thanks for the detailed suggestion. I have tried putting the APIR code as the company code and it looks like reltan will now extract the data. Will take me a while to enter in all the codes and do a proper test but I will see how I go.
    Given your sage warnings about messing with the file what do you think about this idea of erasing the file and then reimporting the whole thing via csv? My QPH is sizeable as well, about 6MB, so I don't want to lose this info. I guess I cant go wrong if I just copy it all and experiment on the copy?
  • Mirko
    Mirko Alumni Posts: 1,258 ✭✭
    edited November 2015
    The Quicken/Reckon Accounts Personal Price history file contains records for your security prices over time.  Occasionally this data becomes corrupted and needs to be rebuilt.  You can rebuild the price history file using the steps provided above.  Some data may be lost when doing this process. Thus, it is recommended to make backups and copies of the file you are deleting (i.e. change .QPH to .TXT, if needing to revert, it's a matter of of changing the extension back). So you have a fail safe, it's imperative to make backups when making changes or manipulating files, whether you are importing a CSV, or using the steps above.

  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited February 2017

    Mirko,

    >> You can rebuild the price history file using the steps provided above.

    How can you reiterate this claim, as on the basis of available documentation, it is not the case.

    I have not seen any documentation to support your claim that by "Choose Historical Prices etc" that ASX price information could be recovered. The best that I expect is that the 2 US market indices will be recovered.

    Could you please confirm if any ASX codes would be supported in this way, before making any further reckless claims that the .qph file can be deleted then re-created.

    As has been indicated in posts from many users, there are many trusts etc which have historical prices stored in their .qph file and are simply not publically listed. These can not be regenerated in the way you have indicated.

    Again, could you please obtain some documentation of what price codes are supported by the "Choose Historical Prices" approach you have outlined.

    I hope no RPP user proceeds with your recommendation until the claims you have made are confirmed, which I suspect will not be the case.

    John

  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited February 2017

    Mirko,

    You also wrote:

    >> Occasionally this data becomes corrupted and needs to be rebuilt. 

    Why can't Reckon address this issue, by providing a rebuild option for the .qph file ?
    As I have indicated above, I have reviewed the structure of the .qph file and it should not be too difficult to regenerate the company and price records of companies stored in the QDATA files.

    I have no experience of corrupted .qph files, but suspect that corruption of record pointers could occur. The record structure chosen for the .qph file is not very robust, as price records do not identify the company they relate to. There is little redundancy in the one-way pointer system that was chosen.

    Reckon should look at revising the record structure, to provide a more robust format for rebuilding of the retrievable information.

    A useful alternative could be to provide a functional .csv import and export facility for information in the .qph file. ( Why Reckon have failed to fix the volume import bug amazes me and reinforces my cynicism about useful improvements ever being achieved.)

    Unfortunately I suspect this improvement is beyond Reckon's capability or drive.

    John

  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited November 2016

    Gavin,

    I do not have info on the detail of the relationship between the .qph file and other files in the qdata.xxx structure.

    What I do know is that not all the company info is stored in the .qph file, so if you change company information in RPP, this may change some implied info in the .qph file and so old .qph files may be seen differently by RPP. To cope with this you should do a full backup, not just .qph file.

    It is possible within RPP to:

     export price info, (one company at a time!) which can be compacted and converted to .csv format in Excel, and

     import most price info of companies with a code, using .csv

    However, if you delete price records in RPP, this will change the expected info in the .qph file and so the old .qph file may no longer be usable by RPP.

    As I have not seen a corrupted .qph file, I wonder what RPP could recover from a damaged .qph file anyway. You may have to set up an alternative QDATA database from a backup and export from that.

    John

  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited February 2017

    Mirko,

    Is there any update on my questions ?

    What company price data can be recovered in the way you have recommended ?

    You can't just leave out there a recommendation of deleting the .qph file without clarifying what information can be retrieved in the way you have suggested.

    I think it is important that this post be updated.

    John

  • gavin.nicholson.au
    gavin.nicholson.au Member Posts: 78
    edited November 2014
    OK I have given this a go. Firstly, I am using Reckon Accounts Personal Plus 2015 and the first step of Mirko's suggestion " Go to File > File Operations > Validate & Repair" I couldn't do as this option is not available to me (only Copy/Delete/Rename/Validate/Year End Copy). So instead I just deleted the QPH and when I restarted a new one was created.
    Then I went to find "When complete, go to the Investing tab. Click the Update button". Again I could find no button. What I do have is a menu which says "Download Historical Prices" so I tried that. It has an option for five years but as I mentioned in a different thread it also states "US securities only" so I can't MARK ALL as Mirko suggested as there aren't any securities to mark. So as far as I can tell it is impossible to import historical share prices.

    So anyway I did use the reltan QPH processor to extract all of the data. Unfortunately the CSV it creates only has closing day values. Nonetheless, I went to FILE>>IMPORT>>IMPORT PRICES. Weirdly the box states "file name or full path" I have no idea where the default file should be so just typing in the file name which is in the Quicken data directory didn't work so I copied it to C:\ but still I just received an error message of "File not found or unreadable"

    So I was playing around with different date formats to see if that was the issue and now suddenly the option to IMPORT PRICES has vanished!! Now under FILE>>IMPORT I have three options (1) Addresses; (2) Web Connect File; and (3) QIF File!! I went back to my working file and same story! Seriously how many bugs can one program have!

    I hope Mirko you can see why many people are really not happy. Firstly, you supplied a series of steps that don't relate to what appears in my version of Reckon. I mean what is that about? Then just to add to my list of weird bugs the program changes the list of menu items by itself! 

    Finally since this started by me pointing out this other weird bug where my allocation by account graph is stuck in 2006 I thought I would just check that out now that I have a brand new QPH file but nope still stuck on 26 Aug 06. So there goes that theory and I will stop messing around with my QPH file.
  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited February 2017

    I just can not believe how farcical Reckon's share price support is becoming. Not only is this thread about deleting the .qph file not being corrected, but also the attempt to replace the share prices lost last week is also pathetic.

    Why couldn't a .csv file including date, high, low, close and volume have been provided. Can't Reckon Support staff look at their own knowledge database and see how it is done. I'm not surprised that thread was closed for comment.

    And still there is no reply !!

  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited November 2016

    Gavin,

    Can you provide a menu path for creating the graph ?

    I could look at it and may be able to provide comment.

    It is relatively easy to construct a .csv file from the info in the old .qph file, using the reltan dump. If you have not ben able to do this I could assist, although I think you have been able to do this.

    John

  • gavin.nicholson.au
    gavin.nicholson.au Member Posts: 78
    edited November 2014
    Hi John,
    Yes the graph I am talking about you can get to by going INVESTING>>GO TO INVESTING CENTRE. Then in the top right corner it has four tabs. Click on ANALYSIS. There are now three graphs. The one on the right is Allocation by Account. Mine is stuck back in 2006. The other two graphs are mostly fine except for the other standard annoyances of the values being slightly different despite being configured to show the same data?!

    As for the CSV file I think I am happy with that. The Quicken website and a different post of your shows the full format. The quicken website also shows an abbreviated format that should also have been acceptable and that is what I was using. I would try the full format but as I said the menu option to import prices has vanished. Can you tell me what options you have under FILE>>IMPORT?

    Thanks!
    Gavin...
  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited November 2016

    Gavin,

    If you select Investing > Portfolio;  what date is selected for share price display ?

    In the top right; my view has "As of:27/11/2014".

    If you select the calendar, does it highlight today's date (which mine does) or 26 Aug 06 ?

    Your problem appears to be that QPP thinks that 26/08/06 is today's date. What is the date setting on your PC !!

    As for importing prices, If you select Portfolio view (Investing > Portfolio) or the Portfolio tab next to Analyse.

    Now go to File > Import > Import Prices.

    It appears that the menu system responds to what is the selected display.

    My preference would be to generate what could be recovered from the old .qph file in the extended format and import that.

    I have also downloaded all ASX share prices from 1/1/2007 into .txt files.

    If I use the DOS utility FIND for the ASX code and pipe that to a file, I can then format this in excel to a valid .csv file for import into QPP, using the extended .csv format. Works ok, although there are all sorts of problems with companies that change their code, eg AGL

    Hope this helps,

    John

  • Helmut Fuhrmann
    Helmut Fuhrmann Member Posts: 4
    edited November 2014
    This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Why are ASX prices not updating since Friday?. Why are ASX prices not updating as of 20-Nov-14
  • Gregory Tye
    Gregory Tye Member Posts: 5
    edited November 2014
    This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Personal plus 2015 cannot download quotes. It was working 0n 21/11 not since..
  • gavin.nicholson.au
    gavin.nicholson.au Member Posts: 78
    edited November 2014
    Hi john,
    I am away at the moment so can't answer all your questions but yes my "as of" date is correct as is my computers date. It is some sort of bug because it has been that way in about six versions of quicken on probably three different computers!

    I will try the price importing again when I get home. If anyone is interested since some codes just don't download for me I have written a little webpage that pulls the data from the asx for the day and formats it so you can copy it into a text file and then "hopefully" import it. It is at a free hosting company so might go down if too many people use it but the URL is:
    newsoft.site50.net/quicken_codes/?codes=ASX+CBA

    You just put whatever string of codes (three letter codes only) after the equals sign you want and soon you will see the days data! If anyone wants the code to host themselves let me know.
  • gavin.nicholson.au
    gavin.nicholson.au Member Posts: 78
    edited November 2014
    Hi again John,
    I have the price importing working now. However it did not fix the frozen graph problem. I even copied the file, deleted the QPH, fully imported the price history after using the reltan program to extract the data (which did work but took ages and of course lost all the high/low/volume data!) but NOPE still a frozen graph.
    When I click on "Show full graph" it opens with the date range as "Custom dates" which when I click that shows a from and to of 28/08/06. I don't know how to change this to "Earliest to date" and make it stick...
    I don't know how to configure any of those graphs and make those changes stick, so any ideas gratefully accepted.
  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited November 2016
    which did work but took ages and of course lost all the high/low/volume data!
    This should not be the case. I am totally puzzled.
  • gavin.nicholson.au
    gavin.nicholson.au Member Posts: 78
    edited November 2014
    OK I looked back at this. The csv outputted doesn't have volume or high/low data but the other file does. I would have to import that into excel and move the columns around. As I said though I think my QPH file is fine. 
  • gavin.nicholson.au
    gavin.nicholson.au Member Posts: 78
    edited December 2014
    Now the price importing has stopped working again. I just get the "File Not Found or Unreadable" message. I might try an uninstall re-install and see if that fixes it. This is so tedious......
  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited November 2016

    Are you importing a .csv file ?

    Check the file name (tree name) is spelt correctly, which sometimes happens without a browse option.

  • gavin.nicholson.au
    gavin.nicholson.au Member Posts: 78
    edited December 2014
    I have tried csv and txt. I have tried it in the Quicken directory without a path and I have copied it to c:\ and tried that. Same result. 
    I have tried creating a new file and importing into that. No good. I have tried long format as per:
    AGI,2.250,---,04/12/14,---,2.270,2.160,9358,* 
    and short:
    AGI,2.24,03/11/14
  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited November 2016

    Gavin,

    I use a file c:\temp\qdata_updates.csv which works ok. Sometimes it is not found, with the error you reported, which I put down to typing the name incorrectly. I try again and it works.

    There may be access right problems for c:\file.csv option.

    Do you have a past file which worked ok? It should scan and report updates.

    My first alternative would not be to reinstall RPP, as I'd expect this to be a very unlikely solution.

    Check the file name spelling or look at the .csv file with notepad. Sometimes there can be excess ,,,,,

    Did you close excel ?

    I don't have any other explanation.

    I will be importing this weeks prices and volumes into RPP 2013 tomorrow afternoon and report any problems.

    John

  • gavin.nicholson.au
    gavin.nicholson.au Member Posts: 78
    edited December 2014
    OK I have it working again. I am using c:\temp as you suggested and changed the file name and one of those two things seems to have fixed it. Thanks John.
  • Richard Winterscheidt
    Richard Winterscheidt Member Posts: 11
    edited February 2016
    I have used Quicken/Reckon since Q3, and have provided my fair share of unhappiness about some things I didn't think were working right. Time to flip the shell; 1. Because the ASX prices failed in pre RPP15, I had to find a way to imprort the prices manually - learned of the process above, and found out some things I didn't (many by accident), a. You can edit, and clean the price history downloads (eg from ASX website) to be as formatted above in something like Excel, DON"T " save as Excel, make sure extension is .csv, .or, txt (I used CSV). It won't work to start with, b. put the file in a short tree directory name, eg C:\downloads, as this must be typed exactly, paste exact file name at end in dialogue box (tip: make filename short e.g. TLS.csv) c, third column and fifth coloumn are 3 -, not two as I misread intitally, makes a difference, 2. Now I dowload the full price history of each of my portfolio items and when I purchase a new one, just get that and load it up, 3. I have never had a corruption of data, and am a little particular about back-up, but, now I know the above, and my diversity is only around 20 different items, I can rebuild quite easily, I'm pleased I learned some new stuff out og this difficulty. But: Having accessed the Hubb offer in RPP13, and use it quite a lot, is there some way tit can be linked with the Investment tab/module of RPP?? Just asking
  • John Campbell
    John Campbell Member Posts: 193 ✭✭
    edited February 2017

    Mirko,

    I have again checked this topic and still no reply from Reckon. It is very frustrating that basic problems that could be easily fixed are continuing to be ignored.

    Why can't the product manager for Reckon Personal Plus 2015 provide a response. Surely there is someone in Reckon who takes responsibility for this product and can find the time to address the repeated comments the users have made about deficiencies in what is a mature product.

    Should my next step be to try to arrange a meeting in North Sydney to try and progress the issues that continue to be ignored ?

    John

This discussion has been closed.