Getting Set Up With Your Data Source

Before you can start downloading, you need to contact the clearing firms and/or DST FAN Mail to get set up for them to send you the data.  You'll need User ID's and passwords for their sites. Information for contacting each clearing firm is available in this Help, in the chapter for the Download Module you purchased.

What Does "Downloading" Mean

Downloading is actually a process that involves several steps.  Advisors Assistant has used it's 15 years of downloading experience to automate the steps as much as possible.

Investment Download Overview (9:07)

Overview Of Download Steps

Here's a quick overview of the process. The first video takes you through Steps 1-4, outlined below.

Processing Downloads (13:44)

Step 1: Retrieving The Files

There are two types of files that get retrieved:

1.Database files containing data used by Advisors Assistant for your download, such as what the various transaction codes sent by the clearing firm mean.  This is different for each download module, so DST FAN Mail will have different files than First Clearing or Pershing.  These files are stored on Client Marketing Systems, Inc.'s server.

2.Your clients' data.  This includes registrations, positions, transactions, and prices PROVIDED they are sent by the download source and are stored on the source's server.

Retrieving means moving the files from the server(s) down to your computer in the form they are stored at the firm's computer.  It usually takes just a few minutes depending on the speed of your Internet connection.

When Step 1 is complete, no changes have been made to your clients' data, but the files are on your local computer station.

Note: DST FAN Mail provides a CUSIP file which contains over 1 million CUSIPs and security descriptions.  This file can change even a few times a week.  If a newer file is available, it will be automatically downloaded from the CMS server.  Moving this file from the server to your computer can take a few minutes, depending on your computer's speed.  Processing the file will take 5 or more minutes depending on your computer's speed.

Step 2: Importing The Data Files

Once the data is on the local computer, we need to move it into your SQL Server so it can be processed.  It will process much faster if it is on your server in your database.  Advisors Assistant can also keep it for a few days in case you need to reprocess it for any reason.

When Step 2 is complete, no changes have been made to your clients' data, but the files are now stored on your server in a temporary area of the SQL Server database.

Step 3: Validating And Processing The Data

This step is all done automatically and with very little intervention by the user.  It involves determining if the data coming in is for an account that already exists in your database or if it's a new account or client.  The process includes reading in the latest prices and assigning transactions to investments. It's data processing and can take from a few minutes for a single advisor to more than an hour for many advisors.

In the very beginning of this process it will ask you to assign any new advisor or rep numbers that are not already in your Advisors Assistant database, but after that, you can have coffee because there is no user interaction needed.

Step 4: Post Process Reports

After processing, the system will automatically report back to you a breakdown of what happened during the processing.  Most of this is mundane information that is only used to track down some unexplained data.

However, there is one very important report called the Exceptions Report.  This will report any information that the system did not expect. For example, if a clearing firm added a new transaction code and Advisors Assistant didn't know what to do with it, that transaction will be on this report so you can contact Advisors Assistant Support and have us track down the meaning of the code.

Assigning Or Setting Up New Accounts

Assigning Accounts Part 1 (9:45)

Assigning Accounts Part 2 (6:54)

Any account number which is not already in your Advisors Assistant database is considered a new account.  The account is established and all of the information is processed.

However, since Advisors Assistant does not know who the account belongs to, it is set aside as Unassigned so it can be assigned at any time, at your convenience.

In the case of a MultiProducer system, the unassigned accounts are segregated by producer so that the assigning of the accounts can be done by a staff person in the office, or by each producer who is familiar with their book of business.

The Universal Rule Of Investment Downloading

When a new account comes into Advisors Assistant there is a universal rule that applies to both your client's name and your client's account.

Your client or the account or the producer's name is either already in your database, or it's not.

The assigning process in Step 4 uses a wizard to walk you through either finding the client record if they are already in your Advisors Assistant, or locating the account (in the event the account number has changed,) or adding the client as a new name to your Advisors Assistant database.

Producer codes and names sent in your data are handled by a simple matching screen used to Validate Producers.

Why Go To The Trouble Of Cleaning Up The Name And Address

Account registrations can take many forms.  They are basically an address label.  An account registration may look like any of the ones below:

John & Jane Doe, JTWROS
c/o The Doe Corporation
7465 Main St
Anytown, CA 87654-9876

or

The Doe Family Trst FBO Jane Doe
John & Jane Doe, Tstes
7465 Main St
Anytown, CA 87654-9876

or

Doe Corporation Retirement Trust
John Doe, PhD, MD, DDS, Trustee
Number 1 John Doe Parkway
Third Floor
Doe Village, CA 89654-0987

The clearing firm or mutual fund only needs to move an envelope with a report from their office to your client's address.  They do not care about establishing a relationship and will never use a salutation, such as "Dear John," in a letter.

HOWEVER, Advisors Assistant is designed to provide you with a relationship building tool.  It uses Microsoft Word to write letters and has custom salutations.  It does much more than print labels.

In order to do much more, it's necessary to know the difference between a first name, last name, business names, etc.

As you can see from the data above, when the data is downloaded from the security company you can't even rely on the investor's name being on the first line.  (We've seen it as far down as the 4th line.) So you need to help clean up the address data so that when the name is added to your database, you can immediately send a letter to that client saying "Dear John."

See Also

Analyzing Investment Data For Logic Errors