Egge at 17:21, 20 February 2011

2011-02-20T17:21:43Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:21, 20 February 2011
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	I used to use Scottrade as my broker and they provide capital gains information in an exportable TXF format file. I use TaxAct Online to process my tax return. TaxAct can't be bothered to create a TXF import, however, they do provide a CSV import. I figured it would be fairly trivial to transform the data from one format to another. The following is a ruby script which does just that.		I used to use Scottrade as my broker and they provide capital gains information in an exportable TXF format file. I use TaxAct Online to process my tax return. TaxAct can't be bothered to create a TXF import, however, they do provide a CSV import. I figured it would be fairly trivial to transform the data from one format to another. The following is a ruby script which does just that.

	<~~code~~ lang="ruby">		<geshi lang="ruby">
	#!/usr/bin/env ruby		#!/usr/bin/env ruby

Line 68:		Line 68:
	end		end
	end		end
	</~~code~~>		</geshi>

	Unfortunately, the TaxAct import only works with Internet Explorer. This is something I found out via trial and error. I noticed that it would reject my file so fast that it could not have possibly uploaded it to TaxAct. Their email support was completely worthless, only sending me to a link to the one and only help page.		Unfortunately, the TaxAct import only works with Internet Explorer. This is something I found out via trial and error. I noticed that it would reject my file so fast that it could not have possibly uploaded it to TaxAct. Their email support was completely worthless, only sending me to a link to the one and only help page.

Egge: Created page with 'I used to use Scottrade as my broker and they provide capital gains information in an exportable TXF format file. I use TaxAct Online to process my tax return. TaxAct can't be …'

2011-02-20T17:20:29Z

Created page with 'I used to use Scottrade as my broker and they provide capital gains information in an exportable TXF format file. I use TaxAct Online to process my tax return. TaxAct can't be …'

New page

I used to use Scottrade as my broker and they provide capital gains information in an exportable TXF format file. I use TaxAct Online to process my tax return. TaxAct can't be bothered to create a TXF import, however, they do provide a CSV import. I figured it would be fairly trivial to transform the data from one format to another. The following is a ruby script which does just that.

<code lang="ruby">
#!/usr/bin/env ruby

in_header=true
idx=0
description=nil
date_end=nil
price_end=nil
date_start=nil
price_start=nil
quantity=nil
wash_sale=''
withholding=''
ARGF.each do |line|
line.chomp!
line.strip!
line.gsub!(',', '')
if in_header then
if line == '^' then
in_header = false
end
next
end
idx += 1
case idx
when 1..4
next
when 5
if line =~ /P([0-9]+[.][0-9]{4}) of (.*)/ then
quantity = $1
description = $2
else
raise "error parsing #{line}"
end
when 6
if line =~ /D(.*)/ then
date_start = $1
else
raise
end
when 7
if line =~ /D(.*)/ then
date_end = $1
else
raise
end
when 8
if line =~ /[$](.*)/ then
price_start = $1
else
raise
end
when 9
if line =~ /[$](.*)/ then
price_end = $1
else
raise
end
when 10
if line == '^' then
print "\"#{description}\",#{date_end},#{price_end},#{date_start},#{price_start},#{wash_sale},#{withholding},#{quantity},\r\n"
idx = 0
end
else
raise
end
end
</code>

Unfortunately, the TaxAct import only works with Internet Explorer. This is something I found out via trial and error. I noticed that it would reject my file so fast that it could not have possibly uploaded it to TaxAct. Their email support was completely worthless, only sending me to a link to the one and only help page.

I logged onto a Windows machine and was able to upload the file without issue using IE 7. TaxAct then allows you to select which columns match which header. If you provide a header line it will auto select all matching headers. This is nice, but on the next screen having a header line prevents you from using the 'Import All' feature. The whole reason I went through the import process is because I have hundreds of records to input. I deleted the header, and the was able to import all the data.

[[Category:Ruby]]

TXF 2 CSV - Revision history

Egge at 17:21, 20 February 2011

Egge: Created page with 'I used to use Scottrade as my broker and they provide capital gains information in an exportable TXF format file. I use TaxAct Online to process my tax return. TaxAct can't be …'