“My brokerage download will not import into my finance software”
A brokerage download is not the same kind of file as a bank download, even when it carries the same extension. It describes securities, quantities and prices as well as cash, and an importer set up for a checking account has nowhere to put most of that.
Symptoms
The file imports but only the cash transactions appear Buys and sells arrive without the security name or quantity The importer reports an unsupported transaction type
What actually causes it
Investment OFX uses a different message set
Investment statements are carried in INVSTMTMSGSRSV1 blocks rather than the banking blocks, with their own transaction types for buys, sells, dividends and transfers. Software that only implements the banking side reads the file as containing no transactions at all.
The destination account is the wrong type
Importing an investment file into an account created as checking discards everything that is not a cash movement. The import appears to succeed because the cash lines do land, which hides how much was dropped.
Security identifiers are unknown to your software
Positions are identified by CUSIP or ticker, and your software has to match those to securities it already knows. Unrecognised identifiers either prompt for manual matching or cause the line to be skipped, depending on the program.
How to fix it
- Create the destination account as an investment or brokerage account before importing, not as a bank account.
- Check the file with the tool below to confirm it arrived complete; structural damage and unsupported content look identical from inside the importer.
- Where your software offers both, prefer the OFX or QFX download over CSV: the CSV loses the transaction type that distinguishes a dividend from a sale.
- Match unknown securities when prompted rather than skipping them, or the same prompt returns with every future import.
Related import problems
Skip the manual edit — fix it automatically
The checker confirms whether the download is structurally intact, separating a damaged file from one your software simply does not support. Free, no signup, no upload.
Open the fixer