Captools/net supports importing and exporting of data through several different means.

 

Custodian Interfaces are available at the Professional and Enterprise levels of the software.  These are intended for importing the large volume of data typically associated with the relatively large number of accounts managed by investment professionals.  Data for these interfaces typically are downloaded in file form from the custodian or the custodian's clearing firm on a daily or weekly basis.  The download process often will be accomplished using software provided by the custodian or clearing firm.  Once the data is on the Captools/net server it is then imported using the appropriate custodian interface.  In some cases Captools/net will be able to schedule and run the download software so that no user intervention is required for this task other than initial setup.  Imports through a custodian interface usually should be managed by the data administrator.

 

Generic Imports and Generic Exports provide a means to get data into and out of the Captools/net database using template specifications that you set up based upon the format of the data to be imported or based upon the target format for the data to be exported.  The Generic Imports and Generic Exports both require some skill on your part to set up the import/export templates.  Some templates for importing from common third party applications, such as Quicken may be included with Captools/net.

 

Data Extracts provide a means of moving a copy of data relating to one or more accounts to another installation of Captools/net.

 

Retail Interfaces are provided as a user licensing option to download and/or import account transactional data from brokerage retail accounts. Although some industry standards have been established for formatting and transmitting such data, slight differences from brokerage firm to firm means that separate interface specifications may need to be maintained for each firm, necessitating a Captools/net licensing surcharge to support these.  The retail interfaces will generally download and import data for specified accounts directly into the portfolio records for each account.  Use of these interfaces generally requires that you have the log-on User Id and Password for the accounts to be downloaded.  These interfaces are generally suitable for downloading/importing data for a limited number of accounts, not the large number of accounts typically managed by an investment professional.

 

Custom Interfaces are provided to import data from or export data to some very widely used software applications.  The functionality of these interfaces may vary over time due to the fact that these applications may change their operation and data structure with new versions.

 

Import Data Paths Limitation - Most of the imports described in this chapter are executed by Captools/net programs that employ the MS-Windows IIS so that they can be executed remotely.  These programs generally will not have access to some folders on your server, particularly those under "Documents and Settings".   Folders under "Documents and Settings" are generally reserved as "private" for the currently logged in machine user, and therefore cannot be accessed by Captools/net unless the folder's security properties are modified to add "Users" to the folder's permissions.  Since this is not recommended, you should direct data which you want to import into Captools/net into a folder outside of "Documents and Settings".