The Import Blotters are a workspace that allows you to preview and edit imported data before you post it and use it within your practice.
Use the links below for descriptions of the import blotter menus and columns.
Ranking by columns: You can double-click many columns to rank the data. For instance, you can double-click the account name column in the transactions blotter so that you can see all transactions ordered by account name or number.
View transactions for a holding: By right-clicking an item in the reconcile blotter, you can view the transactions for that holding. This can help you determine the cause of the position being off balance. The transactions displayed are those that have already been posted to the accounts. If you want to view the unposted transactions for the holding, click Pending Transactions in the left navigation pane.
View Help for Warning Icons: A yellow or red triangle in the Status column indicates that piece of imported data may need reviewed or updated in order to correctly post to a client account. Hover the mouse over the warning icon to view the message, or hold down the CTRL key and double-click the icon to open an associated Help topic that provides additional information for that warning.
This blotter contains the client names, addresses, account numbers, and the client and account types that are included in your import file(s).
If you are importing from a custodian for the first time, you should see all the clients and accounts that existed at the time of initialization. If you see an incomplete list of client names during initialization, you should ask your custodian for a file that contains your complete practice. After initialization, when you are importing data on a routine basis, the accounts blotter will usually show only new clients and accounts, or those that have had name or address changes
You can edit the following information in the accounts blotter:
Client type
Account type
Address
City
State
Zip Code
In the accounts blotter you also have the option of combining clients for householding purposes or to groups accounts that are associated with a single organization. To do so, you can map an imported client and/or account to an existing client or account.
For instance, if the client “Susan Smith” appears in the accounts blotter and you want to map this client and her accounts to the “Smith Household” client which you have created, you can click the magnifying glass under Mapped Client Name and choose Smith Household from the list of clients. You can repeat this process for other accounts under Susan Smith. Once this is done and you post the data, Susan Smith’s accounts will be listed under the Smith Household. Susan Smith will still be considered the owner of the account.
This blotter shows the position balances of the holdings as of the end date selected during the import. For instance, if you choose to import data from 9/1/06 to 9/30/2006, the position blotter will show you the balances as of 9/30/06. When importing Transaction Accounts, Position data is used for reconciliation purposes and reference only. It is not used to overwrite the positions that are calculated as the sum of the transactions. The position blotter is not available during the initialization step of the import process because reconciliation is unnecessary at this stage.
When importing Quick Accounts, the Position Blotter is used to create the allocation of the holdings that are posted to accounts.
The transactions blotter contains all the transactions within the files in the date range selected. Most custodians provide a single transaction file for each date on which transactions occurred in your practice. So if you import the files from 10/01/06 – 10/31/06, you will be importing the transactions that took place on those days. In some cases, however, such as Fidelity Advisor Channel, transactions for multiple dates can appear in a single transaction file. That is, you might have a file created on 10/01/06 that includes transactions for 01/01/06 through 10/01/06. In that case, you can choose to import transactions based on their File Date or according to the Transaction Date within the file. This Date Type feature allows you the flexibility to ensure that you don’t import transactions for the same date multiple times.
In the transactions blotter you can edit the following information:
Transaction date
Transaction type
Amount
Number of shares
Price
Sales charge
Commission amount
There is a Status column that notifies you if there is an error in the transaction. You can scroll to the right to the “Error Message” column to see the message for any transaction that has an exclamation in the Status field. You can also rank by double clicking on any column heading.
This blotter shows the prices of the securities for the range of dates selected. After posting, these prices are used to update the current market value of account holdings. You can edit the following information in the price blotter:
Price
Price factor
Principal factor
Price date
This blotter contains security information like name, symbol and security type. If the symbol or CUSIP in the import file is different from Morningstar’s, so that the holding is not recognized, you can map securities to Morningstar securities. To do so, click the “Morningstar Mapped Holding” magnifying glass. The mapping process is especially important for variable annuity subaccounts since subaccounts don’t have standardized symbols. If a security is not part of the Morningstar universe, such as a bond or a cash holding, the security will be added to your Definition Master as a user-defined security. Be sure to correctly identify the security type in this blotter because the range of valid transaction types for a holding is defined according to its security type.
This blotter is available when importing transactional data from custodians. When you click into this blotter, it compares the share balances in the custodian position file with the position balance calculated by Morningstar Office based on the transactions that occur. The custodian position file used is based on the date range selected during the import. For instance if the end date selected was 9/30/2006 and the last day of the month was 9/29/2006, it would use the 9/29/2006 position file for the reconciliation. The reconciliation blotter is unavailable when initializing positions because reconciliation is unnecessary until you have multiple dates of transactions to verify.
Holdings that are not in balance appear in red and blue. If items are in red, the number of shares shown in the custodian position file does not match the positions calculated by Morningstar Office. If items are in blue, the custodian does not show this holding in the position file or has a zero balance but Morningstar Office does have some shares in this holding. This is common for CASH holdings.
Click here 
for more information on troubleshooting data reconciliation issues.
Note: You cannot edit any information in the reconciliation blotter.
Note: Lots blotter is only available for select custodians. When importing tax lot files, additional file types must be downloaded from your custodian and will be available for upload in the Import Dialogue box. Click here for more information on tax lot file types.
The Lots blotter is available after importing lot and cost files from your custodian. The three components of a tax lot include Acquisition Date, Cost Per Share, and Shares Open.
Once imported, there might be discrepancies between the custodian data and the data in Office. The tax lot reconciliation tool offers a step-by-step process to help you reconcile the data discrepancies. The goal is to have the data in Office match the data provided by the custodian, and with matching data, you can generate Gain/Loss reports that are accurate and in sync with the custodian reports. Tax lot reconciliation can only be completed after the standard process of importing, reconciling, and post client transaction and position files. Click here for additional information on using the tax lot reconciliation tool.
After selecting an account to reconcile tax lots, the Lots blotters under Reconciliation Results will populate. The tax lots for the account fall under one of three outcomes or blotters: Matched Lots, Mismatched Lots, or Mismatched Cost Basis. Excluded Lots will only populate if you excluded them from the initial import process.
The Matched Lots blotter is populated with tax lots where no discrepancies exist between Office and the custodian in relation to the three components of a tax lot: Lot Acquisition Date; Cost Per Share; and Shares Open.
The Mismatched Lots blotter is populated with tax lots that have at least one of the tax lot components mismatched.
The Mismatched Cost Basis blotter is populated with tax lots where the Cost Per Share component in Office does not match what is reported by the custodian.
These discrepancies can result from a number of situations. Click here to learn about reasons for data discrepancies and tax lot reconciliation options.
This blotter contains transactions that were generated from the Corporate Action Warehouse/Wizard. The types of transactions you will see here depend on the type of corporate action. Refer to the list below to see what transactions are generated based on the selections within the Corporate Action Warehouse.
Spin-off Wizard (Non-Taxable)
Debit of Security – debits out original security
Credit of Security – credits in new security and original security with new cost basis
Spin-off Wizard (Taxable)
Sell – sells original security
Buy – buys new security and original security
Merger/Exchange Wizard (Security Only)
Debit of Security – debits out original security
Credit of Security – credits in new security
Merger/Exchange Wizard (Cash Only)
Sell –sells original security
Deposit –deposits cash from Sell into custodian’s cash holding
Merger/Exchange Wizard (Security and Cash)
Debit of Security – debits out original holding
Credit of Security – credits in new security and original security
Sell – sells original security after its credited back in
Deposit – deposits cash from Sell into custodian’s cash holding
Split/Reverse Split Wizard
Debit of Security – debits out shares of the security before the split
Credit of Security – credits in shares of the security after the split
This blotter contains transactions that were generated from the Corporate Action Warehouse/Wizard to deplete fractional shares that were received from a corporate action, if the Cash-in-Lieu option was selected in the wizard. You will see Sells from the security for the fractional share amount and deposits into the custodian’s cash holding for the cash received.
If you have a red warning stating ‘No Price or Amount.’, this is because 0.00 was entered as the Cash in Lieu Price in the Corporate Action Wizard. Generally, the cash amount that you received in lieu of fractional shares (which can be found on your custodian’s website) needs inputted in the Net Amount column.
Handling Warnings in the Import Blotters
Importing and Reconciling Tax Lot Data in Morningstar Office
Troubleshooting Guide for Common Import Reconciliation Issues
See Also