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Scrubbing for OFX FITID problems -- split-out discussion RRS feed

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    Incidentally, my Citibank bank OFX files have been misbehaving badly. They are making the cardinal error of not keeping the FITID the same the next time the same transaction is made. I have been thinking of making a scrubber that would synthesize new FITIDs with an algorithm based on the dates, amounts, payee that the FITIDs are both consistent and unique. That algorithm would need to be able to deal with transactions that would be near duplicate, such as buying another cup of coffee at the same place on the same day. My current workaround is to download transactions and specifying date ranges that don't overlap with previous downloads. I am thinking it might just be easier to change FIs. My Citibank credit cards are behaving flawlessly, working with PocketSense for automatic downloads. The bank downloads are much less important to me than the credit card transactions. I write very few checks.

    Cal,

    Discover messed up FITIDs years ago, and this triggered Robert to introduce the scrubber routine into Pocketsense.  Perhaps his routine for Discover will work for Citi Bank too? Try it.



    • Split by Cal LearnerModerator Friday, November 15, 2019 4:24 PM good independent topic
    • Edited by ameridan Friday, November 15, 2019 5:58 PM
    Friday, November 15, 2019 3:54 PM

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    Ameridan, thanks for that pointer that the Discover scrubber was primarily fixing up the FITID.

    Regarding the Discover scrubber, I looked at it. Some nice elegant coding features, and it looks like it will do the job of avoiding duplicate FITIDs. It now appears to me that it will always produce the same FITID for a given transaction when there are different time periods involved.

    Initially I had missed the fact that the first part of the existing FITID was maintained, and only the sequencing part was modified. Brilliant! and concise.

    Since the Citibank bank FITIDs have a date followed by a 4-digit sequence number, then it could indeed be based on a slight modification of the Discover CC. This presumes that the order of transactions for a given date would always be the same, and that seems to be the case.

    If making an FITID from scratch in a scrubber if I did not presume the order would totally stay the same, it seems to me that the date, amount, in addition to a sequence number, would let you keep FITIDs that are both unique and consistent.


    Friday, November 15, 2019 4:48 PM
    Moderator