Listen up all of you TD Ameritrade customers:

I'm following up on Lynn Ostrem's call to action for all
Firstrade customers. It's also time for TD Ameritraders to
speak up on behalf of the AccountSync program!

This morning I contacted TD Ameritrade by email and
expressed my dismay that TDA 's OFX interface will not allow
the AccountSync program to have total access to some TDA
transactions, such as interest earned and foreign tax
distributions.

These transactions cannot be obtained electronically by
bivio (AccountSync) because of the limitations that TD
Ameritrade has placed on its OFX interface system.

Consequently, this information must be entered manually by
the club treasurers once the monthly statements are
obtained.

It appears that the only way TD Ameritrade, as well as other
brokerage firms, will change the OFX interface obstruction
is for bivio members to, in essence, raise a little hell!

With this in mind, I sent the following email message this
morning:

"Our investment club uses bivio as our online accounting
service. We utilize the "AccountSync" feature which allows
AccountSync to sweep our TDA account for daily transactions
and to enter them automatically into our bivio account.
Apparently, the TDA OFX interface will not allow AccountSync
to sweep and record some transactions, such as interest
earned and foreign tax distributions, from our TDA account.

It would serve everyone's best interest if AccountSync was
allowed to perform as it was intended to perform, with full
access to our daily transactions!

Your assistance in modifying your OFX interface to allow
complete access to the AccountSync function would be greatly
appreciated.

Thank you.

R. Hooper"

Now, it's your turn to voice your request for improved
AccountSync functionality with our TDA accounts! The
squeaky wheel needs to be greased!

Feel free to compose your own message, or to cut and paste a
copy of the email message I sent to TD Ameritrade.

To access TD Ameritrade's secure email system, Log In to the
TDA website > Client Services > Contact Us > Email

Best wishes to all biviots!

Bob Hooper
New Pueblo Investment Club
Tucson, AZ

Robert Hooper writes:
> Listen up all of you TD Ameritrade customers:

Excellent! We also upgraded all TD Waterhouse customers yesterday to
be TD Ameritrade customers. Your old login information did work on
the OFX server. There is no longer a distinction between Former TD
Waterhouse and Former Ameritrade. If you aren't seeing transactions
downloaded, please verify your login information.

bivio has no power with TD Ameritrade or just about any broker.
OptionsXpress has been the most responsive, and even then they have
very little control over their OFX server.

We have lots of TD Ameritrade customers.

> Best wishes to all biviots!

ROFL. That's an internal term, usually. Externally, we call
ourselves bivions, but choose the term that best describes
yourself. ;-)

Cheerio,
Rob

Cheers, Robivio!

I'm delighted to know that you have nothing more compelling on your daily
agenda than Rolling On your Floor while Laughing! :-)

Though some may call us bivions... (Mike Taylor likes bivioers)... the more
artistic among us like to orchestrate the biviolas moniker... personally, I
ran a bivioogle on "biviots" and liked what I found. (Yes, amazingly,
biviots is, indeed, recognized by all web-surfing fanatics!) We'll pause
here for a relaxing cup of cappuccino while everyone runs to do their own
bivioogle search!

biviots, unite!!! Today it's the OFX interface! Tomorrow it's the
elimination of all capital letters while corresponding in the Club Cafe'!

Best wishes to all! (And, Robivio, please get up from the floor...what will
the cleaning crew think??? :-)

Adios,

Bob Hooper
New Pueblo Investment Club
Tucson, AZ


>> Best wishes to all biviots!
>
> ROFL. That's an internal term, usually. Externally, we call
> ourselves bivions, but choose the term that best describes
> yourself. ;-)
>
> Cheerio,
> Rob

Can Bivio tell us how many of it's users have TD Ameritrade? This is a good
solution if the numbers will mean something to TD.

Cathy


>From: Robert Hooper <amigos4@bivio.com>
>Reply-To: "The Club Cafe" <club_cafe@bivio.com>
>To: club_cafe@bivio.com
>Subject: club_cafe: Account Sync and TD Ameritrade-- Call for Action
>Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 06:05:02 GMT
>
>Listen up all of you TD Ameritrade customers:
>
>I'm following up on Lynn Ostrem's call to action for all
>Firstrade customers. It's also time for TD Ameritraders to
>speak up on behalf of the AccountSync program!
>
>This morning I contacted TD Ameritrade by email and
>expressed my dismay that TDA 's OFX interface will not allow
>the AccountSync program to have total access to some TDA
>transactions, such as interest earned and foreign tax
>distributions.
>
>These transactions cannot be obtained electronically by
>bivio (AccountSync) because of the limitations that TD
>Ameritrade has placed on its OFX interface system.
>
>Consequently, this information must be entered manually by
>the club treasurers once the monthly statements are
>obtained.
>
>It appears that the only way TD Ameritrade, as well as other
>brokerage firms, will change the OFX interface obstruction
>is for bivio members to, in essence, raise a little hell!
>
>With this in mind, I sent the following email message this
>morning:
>
>"Our investment club uses bivio as our online accounting
>service. We utilize the "AccountSync" feature which allows
>AccountSync to sweep our TDA account for daily transactions
>and to enter them automatically into our bivio account.
>Apparently, the TDA OFX interface will not allow AccountSync
>to sweep and record some transactions, such as interest
>earned and foreign tax distributions, from our TDA account.
>
>It would serve everyone's best interest if AccountSync was
>allowed to perform as it was intended to perform, with full
>access to our daily transactions!
>
>Your assistance in modifying your OFX interface to allow
>complete access to the AccountSync function would be greatly
>appreciated.
>
>Thank you.
>
>R. Hooper"
>
>Now, it's your turn to voice your request for improved
>AccountSync functionality with our TDA accounts! The
>squeaky wheel needs to be greased!
>
>Feel free to compose your own message, or to cut and paste a
>copy of the email message I sent to TD Ameritrade.
>
>To access TD Ameritrade's secure email system, Log In to the
>TDA website > Client Services > Contact Us > Email
>
>Best wishes to all biviots!
>
>Bob Hooper
>New Pueblo Investment Club
>Tucson, AZ

Cathy Williams writes:
> Can Bivio tell us how many of it's users have TD Ameritrade? This is a good
> solution if the numbers will mean something to TD.

Our competitor would like to know this number so we can't divulge it.

It's important to note that Quicken and Money customers who use TD
Ameritrade have the same problem. There are probably hundreds of
thousands of TD customers who use the import feature of those
products.

Just call them, and complain. The squeeky wheel gets the oil, and all
that. :-)

Cheers,
Rob

Calling makes more sense to me -- I prefer voicing my concerns to a person.
Consider it done.


>From: Rob Nagler <nagler@bivio.biz>
>Reply-To: "The Club Cafe" <club_cafe@bivio.com>
>To: "The Club Cafe" <club_cafe@bivio.com>
>Subject: RE: club_cafe: Account Sync and TD Ameritrade-- Call for Action
>Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 08:16:23 -0600
>
>Cathy Williams writes:
> > Can Bivio tell us how many of it's users have TD Ameritrade? This is a
>good
> > solution if the numbers will mean something to TD.
>
>Our competitor would like to know this number so we can't divulge it.
>
>It's important to note that Quicken and Money customers who use TD
>Ameritrade have the same problem. There are probably hundreds of
>thousands of TD customers who use the import feature of those
>products.
>
>Just call them, and complain. The squeeky wheel gets the oil, and all
>that. :-)
>
>Cheers,
>Rob

FYI -- Just called. We need to speak to TD Ameritrade Tech Team to try to
resolve issues regarding Bivio. The wait time is 20 min right now. I will
call back over the weekend (or next week if Tech people aren't avail on
weekends) and keep you posted on what I learn.


>From: Robert Hooper <amigos4@bivio.com>
>Reply-To: "The Club Cafe" <club_cafe@bivio.com>
>To: club_cafe@bivio.com
>Subject: club_cafe: Account Sync and TD Ameritrade-- Call for Action
>Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 06:05:02 GMT
>
>Listen up all of you TD Ameritrade customers:
>
>I'm following up on Lynn Ostrem's call to action for all
>Firstrade customers. It's also time for TD Ameritraders to
>speak up on behalf of the AccountSync program!
>
>This morning I contacted TD Ameritrade by email and
>expressed my dismay that TDA 's OFX interface will not allow
>the AccountSync program to have total access to some TDA
>transactions, such as interest earned and foreign tax
>distributions.
>
>These transactions cannot be obtained electronically by
>bivio (AccountSync) because of the limitations that TD
>Ameritrade has placed on its OFX interface system.
>
>Consequently, this information must be entered manually by
>the club treasurers once the monthly statements are
>obtained.
>
>It appears that the only way TD Ameritrade, as well as other
>brokerage firms, will change the OFX interface obstruction
>is for bivio members to, in essence, raise a little hell!
>
>With this in mind, I sent the following email message this
>morning:
>
>"Our investment club uses bivio as our online accounting
>service. We utilize the "AccountSync" feature which allows
>AccountSync to sweep our TDA account for daily transactions
>and to enter them automatically into our bivio account.
>Apparently, the TDA OFX interface will not allow AccountSync
>to sweep and record some transactions, such as interest
>earned and foreign tax distributions, from our TDA account.
>
>It would serve everyone's best interest if AccountSync was
>allowed to perform as it was intended to perform, with full
>access to our daily transactions!
>
>Your assistance in modifying your OFX interface to allow
>complete access to the AccountSync function would be greatly
>appreciated.
>
>Thank you.
>
>R. Hooper"
>
>Now, it's your turn to voice your request for improved
>AccountSync functionality with our TDA accounts! The
>squeaky wheel needs to be greased!
>
>Feel free to compose your own message, or to cut and paste a
>copy of the email message I sent to TD Ameritrade.
>
>To access TD Ameritrade's secure email system, Log In to the
>TDA website > Client Services > Contact Us > Email
>
>Best wishes to all biviots!
>
>Bob Hooper
>New Pueblo Investment Club
>Tucson, AZ

TD has explained what takes place regarding the TD AM Money
Market Dividends. Here's what I have learned so far, and I
totally understand their point:

-TD Ameritrade accrues dividends for the TD Ameritrade money
market accounts on a daily basis. (Most, if not all, of us
have our cash for stock transactions in the TD AM money
market fund).

-Ameritrade posts the funds to our account at the end of the
month -- this will show up on our statement. This is the
same as what TD Waterhouse did.

-However, Ameritrade allows these dividends to be used for
stock trades as soon as they are available each day. So
dividend funds are immediately available even though they
have not formally posted to our account. This was not
available from TD Waterhouse.

-The large volume of these daily dividends makes posting
them daily a difficult task. (Perhaps “unrealistic” is more
accurate).

-Now, if you have tens-of-thousands of dollars in your money
market and you can use the dividends before they are
officially posted for your stock transactions, you’re
probably a happy camper and not too bothered by one manual
entry each month.

-As I mentioned previously – money talks. If there’s a club
out there with a huge amount of money in its account that
wants to pursue this further, feel free. Our club account
is too small to have any influence. That said, I will
contact the next person they suggested and let you know if
there's any hope of getting this resolved.

A few other things I have picked up along the way:

-TD Ameritrade statements will now be PDF files.

-The TD Waterhouse customers are now fully merged into TD
Ameritrade. There are many hiccups as a result of the
merger, so check your accounts for “Cash Transfer”
transactions as those will may need to be deleted and
re-entered to reflect what they actually are. (Carefully
review your transactions as of May 14. Part of May was on
the TD Waterhouse statement and the other half of May was on
the TD Ameritrade statement).

-The bivio total for your account can be compared to the
“Money Market Assets” section. This is the amount of your TD
account based on posted information. Since the daily
dividend updates are only posted at the end of the month, it
will vary from your “available funds” amount.

-TD Ameritrade rounds partial shares to 3 places past
decimal point. (TD rounded 4 places past decimal point).

-TD Ameritrade has excellent customer service as did
Waterhouse. However, some of their reps are totally stressed
out from dealing with this computer conversion, so you may
need to call back and get someone else if you feel rushed on
the phone. If the phone wait time is 20 minutes or longer,
you may get a totally stressed out rep so I advise calling
back at a different time.

Happy investing!


-
Cathy Williams wrote:
> FYI -- Just called. We need to speak to TD Ameritrade Tech Team to try to
> resolve issues regarding Bivio. The wait time is 20 min right now. I will
> call back over the weekend (or next week if Tech people aren't avail on
> weekends) and keep you posted on what I learn.
>
>
> >From: Robert Hooper <amigos4@bivio.com>
> >Reply-To: "The Club Cafe" <club_cafe@bivio.com>
> >To: club_cafe@bivio.com
> >Subject: club_cafe: Account Sync and TD Ameritrade-- Call for Action
> >Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 06:05:02 GMT
> >
> >Listen up all of you TD Ameritrade customers:
> >
> >I'm following up on Lynn Ostrem's call to action for all
> >Firstrade customers. It's also time for TD Ameritraders to
> >speak up on behalf of the AccountSync program!
> >
> >This morning I contacted TD Ameritrade by email and
> >expressed my dismay that TDA 's OFX interface will not allow
> >the AccountSync program to have total access to some TDA
> >transactions, such as interest earned and foreign tax
> >distributions.
> >
> >These transactions cannot be obtained electronically by
> >bivio (AccountSync) because of the limitations that TD
> >Ameritrade has placed on its OFX interface system.
> >
> >Consequently, this information must be entered manually by
> >the club treasurers once the monthly statements are
> >obtained.
> >
> >It appears that the only way TD Ameritrade, as well as other
> >brokerage firms, will change the OFX interface obstruction
> >is for bivio members to, in essence, raise a little hell!
> >
> >With this in mind, I sent the following email message this
> >morning:
> >
> >"Our investment club uses bivio as our online accounting
> >service. We utilize the "AccountSync" feature which allows
> >AccountSync to sweep our TDA account for daily transactions
> >and to enter them automatically into our bivio account.
> >Apparently, the TDA OFX interface will not allow AccountSync
> >to sweep and record some transactions, such as interest
> >earned and foreign tax distributions, from our TDA account.
> >
> >It would serve everyone's best interest if AccountSync was
> >allowed to perform as it was intended to perform, with full
> >access to our daily transactions!
> >
> >Your assistance in modifying your OFX interface to allow
> >complete access to the AccountSync function would be greatly
> >appreciated.
> >
> >Thank you.
> >
> >R. Hooper"
> >
> >Now, it's your turn to voice your request for improved
> >AccountSync functionality with our TDA accounts! The
> >squeaky wheel needs to be greased!
> >
> >Feel free to compose your own message, or to cut and paste a
> >copy of the email message I sent to TD Ameritrade.
> >
> >To access TD Ameritrade's secure email system, Log In to the
> >TDA website > Client Services > Contact Us > Email
> >
> >Best wishes to all biviots!
> >
> >Bob Hooper
> >New Pueblo Investment Club
> >Tucson, AZ

Cathy R. Williams writes:
> TD has explained what takes place regarding the TD AM Money
> Market Dividends. Here's what I have learned so far, and I
> totally understand their point:

I'm impressed. Thanks for the great post.

> -The large volume of these daily dividends makes posting
> them daily a difficult task. (Perhaps unrealistic is more
> accurate).

This statement is "illogical", unfortunately. The money is available
so it is being posted somewhere. Also, it doesn't happen with all
accounts, just certain money market accounts. For example, my
Ameritrade account gets the money posted correctly at the end of the
month.

The real problem is likely to be much simpler: incompatible accounting
and reporting systems. The software that runs the website is not the
same as the "back office" software. The two need to communicate.
Worse yet, the software that runs the "Quicken" export format server
(known as OFX) is probably written by a different group or company.
All of these systems have to work together, and in TD Ameritrade's
case, they don't.

Cheers,
Rob

Hi Rob: You seem to know more about this than I do. Have you contacted the
Tech people at TD? Just curious.

Is there something specific I should ask when I speak to them? I needed to
have a better understanding of what was taking place, which is why I had the
customer service rep explain it to me (my post earlier today). She wasn't
100% sure about why it doesn't sync but she did explain they keep track of
the interest, let you spend it and then post at the end of the month. She
thought that the daily tracking might have something to do with the problem
but said she wasn't a techie. It seems like a great feature and we only
have to enter the one transaction each month. Thank you. Cathy


>From: Rob Nagler <nagler@bivio.biz>
>Reply-To: "The Club Cafe" <club_cafe@bivio.com>
>To: "The Club Cafe" <club_cafe@bivio.com>
>Subject: Re: club_cafe: RE: Account Sync and TD Ameritrade-- Call for
>Action
>Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 20:41:40 -0600
>
>Cathy R. Williams writes:
> > TD has explained what takes place regarding the TD AM Money
> > Market Dividends. Here's what I have learned so far, and I
> > totally understand their point:
>
>I'm impressed. Thanks for the great post.
>
> > -The large volume of these daily dividends makes posting
> > them daily a difficult task. (Perhaps unrealistic is more
> > accurate).
>
>This statement is "illogical", unfortunately. The money is available
>so it is being posted somewhere. Also, it doesn't happen with all
>accounts, just certain money market accounts. For example, my
>Ameritrade account gets the money posted correctly at the end of the
>month.
>
>The real problem is likely to be much simpler: incompatible accounting
>and reporting systems. The software that runs the website is not the
>same as the "back office" software. The two need to communicate.
>Worse yet, the software that runs the "Quicken" export format server
>(known as OFX) is probably written by a different group or company.
>All of these systems have to work together, and in TD Ameritrade's
>case, they don't.
>
>Cheers,
>Rob

Cathy Williams writes:
> Hi Rob: You seem to know more about this than I do. Have you contacted the
> Tech people at TD? Just curious.

Nope. I've just dealt with a lot of software systems in big
companies. :-(

> Is there something specific I should ask when I speak to them?

The squeaky wheel gets the oil. If enough people complain, and the
cost isn't "too high", they will fix the problem. This is the way all
business works. TD Ameritrade and most other companies have way too
many software problems, and they don't really have a practical way to
prioritize them. When enough people complain, the biggest problems
bubble to the top, and some manager hears about it. It then gets in
the "to be fixed" queue.

The problem is that what AccountSync attempts to do is extremely
advanced. When you import with Quicken or Money, a human is expected
to approve each import when the software can't figure it out.
AccountSync operates in fully-automatic mode. You would be amazed at
what we have to do to make sure the 4 to 3 decimal digit conversion
happens without a hitch among the many other problems we have with
broker data. It's our biggest maintenance cost by far.

> It seems like a great feature

Yes, and it's nice to hear that you understand AccountSync.

> and we only have to enter the one transaction each month.

You will have to enter one transaction a month with TD Ameritrade.
One could argue that it might be better to forgo the 1% interest (or
whatever it is) so you don't have to deal with the few pennies that
get generated every month. Perhaps that might be a suggestion you can
make to TD. Perhaps also then, when they aggregate all the pennies
from their thousands of investment clubs, they'll have more money to
fix their software. :-)

Thanks again for contacting TD Ameritrade.

Cheers,
Rob