Better error hunting for PortfolioCenter data

FEB 26, 2012
Version 2.4 of ReportCheck is out. As a quick reminder, ReportCheck is an independent third-party application that integrates with and provides automated error checking for the very widely used PortfolioCenter application. I first wrote about ReportCheck after its creator John Norwood got in touch back in February. While I do my best to keep track of who has done what in the technology-for-advisers-space, I have been with InvestmentNews for just over five years. History previous to that sometimes has to be pointed out to me (thanks Jim Starcev). Mr. Norwood was a founding principal of Performance Technologies Inc., which is now a part of Charles Schwab & Co. in the form of the subsidiary Schwab Performance Technologies. Hence he has a great deal of expertise in the application, its underpinnings and how it can be improved to make an adviser's life easier. In a quick e-mail exchange Mr. Norwood wrote me that 30 firms have now licensed ReportCheck, including one of the major outsource providers for PortfolioCenter. He also hinted that a new add-on application is in the works but I don't want to spill the beans on any particulars just yet. That said, in version 2.4 of ReportCheck advisers will find a host of enhancements, including a “new type of job” is that does not require a batch print job to be created in PortfolioCenter and is up to 30% faster than a corresponding job that uses batch printing according to Mr. Norwood. The new job type checks for invalid returns, outlying returns and other issues related to performance at the portfolio or portfolio group level. Data is retrieved directly from PortfolioCenter using internal PortfolioCenter queries; there is no dependency on batch printing. The portfolios, data points, and date ranges to be checked are specified directly in ReportCheck. Users can also now limit the checks for missing cost basis and unchanged original trade date to only taxable accounts. This, according to Mr. Norwood's description will eliminate the need to create separate jobs for taxable and tax-deferred accounts and thereby in turn eliminate these checks separately for tax-deferred accounts. In addition, users can now set the application to automatically exclude unfunded or empty portfolios, thereby preventing these accounts from generating errors ("No positions to report" or "No trades to report" for example) when running reports. There are now settings to omit checks for missing cost basis and missing market values on credits, debits, transfers, and receipts for any time period prior to a portfolio's performance inception date. There are a few others to boot. Go with the pricing from the first article, link below until I have a chance to verify any changes with Mr. Norwood (it is not listed on his website that I could find). For more information on those and other aspects visit Norwood Consulting and ReportCheck online. Related Stories: Finding errors in PortfolioCenter

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