Investment Import FAQ

Dalia Waldston

Updated 10 February 2025 18:13

Can I upload multiple statement periods at once?

The statement import is meant to import 1 statement period at a time.

If you really want to upload several months at once you will have to create the file manually so it contains multiple statement periods' Transactions/Investment Activities, by scanning one statement after another. In this case they should ideally be in chronological order. However, when scanning multiple statements, the file should only contain the Asset/Holding details from the latest period's statement that is included in the file.

For example, if you are uploading statements from January, February and March, you should exclude the asset details associated with the January and February statements and only include the Asset Details from the March statement.

Do I need to upload my statements in chronological order?

No, you don't have to upload your statements in order, but statement order does matter. Certain types of transactions (like purchases and sales) can cause discrepancies or failures if recorded out of order. If you skip months (e.g., import March before importing January and February), the system could:

a) Return a warning indicating there are some discrepancies in holding quantities between Estateably and the statement. In case of this warning you can still proceed with the data sync without first uploading the missing statements. However, the holdings' positions in Estateably will not match the holding positions from the latest statement you are importing, until all missing statements for the account have been imported.

b) Fail during data sync because the system is unable to properly perform certain transactions within Estateably because other transactions have not been entered yet. For example, Estateably cannot "sell" Apple Inc. holdings in March 2024 if the Apple Inc.holdings were only purchased in January 2024.

c) In some cases there may be no impact at all. Although earlier periods' transactions typically affect holding position in later periods, this will depend on the investment activities that have actually occurred. If no purchases or sales have occurred in January, February or March, the order in which you import the statements will not break anything. Note: There may still be discrepancies such as the cash balance of the account in Estateably vs. at the end of the statement period cash balance of the account will not reconcile with the statement until you import all the statements before the latest one you have imported.

Bottom Line: Ideally, upload statements in order to facilitate reconciliation between Estateably and all account statements and ensure accurate record-keeping.

Is there a maximum size limit for the files that can be uploaded/synced to estateably?

You cannot upload/import files that exceed 10 MB in size. Also the statement import tool can parse files that are a maximum of 99 pages.

What file format can the statement import tool support?

The statement import tool will support PDF files only.

How should I name the files I will upload to Estateably?

The file names you assign for the uploaded statements can include letters and numbers, spaces or no spaces. The file extension should be lowercase '.pdf' and not uppercase '.PDF'. Technically the statement import tool should be able to accept special characters in the file name, but it is always more conservative to not use any special characters, such as @,!,#, %, $, etc. when naming your files.

Which institution's statements does Estateably support?

The statement import tool can technically accept statements from any institution but because there are hundreds of different institutions and there is no standard format applicable to investment/brokerage statements, the statement import may not know how to interpret all data properly if it is processing a statement with a unique format/layout/structure for the first time (for example, column names, document sections/sub-headings, layout of the data, terminology, etc.)

Since this tool uses AI technology it will improve over time, as it processes more sample files; we will enhance the statement import tool based on new scenarios it encounters. We will log any issues you might encounter when you are using a statement associated to an institution the statement import has never seen before. Regardless of the issues you might encounter you should usually be able to continue if you make some manual corrections/interventions to adjust the data the system may have misinterpreted or parsed incorrectly.

Are there certain transaction types that the statement import tool might not be able to import properly into Estateably?

Please refer to document Future Improvements Coming Soon. There is still some development work to be done to recognize and import certain corporate actions such as stock spin off, stock split and return of capital/principal, interest reinvestment, capital gain distribution reinvestment . When providing your feedback on the Statement Import feature (as part of your participation in this Beta Phase), feel free to indicate which improvements you would like to see prioritized first.

Does the Statement Import feature update the holdings in the account based on the latest market values if there has not been any recent investment activity for the asset/account?

Yes. If the latest statement does not include any recent transactions related to some existing holdings in the account, the system will update the existing holdings based on the latest market values reported as of the end of the last statement period. After completing the "sync" process (to import the statement data into Estateably), you will see the latest market values as reported at the end of the period, reflected in the Inventory' section's holding details.

Can I update multiple accounts at once?

No. The statement import feature is meant to upload and sync data pertaining to one account at a time

Can I import the parsed data without reviewing it?

You should always review both the Holdings tab and the Transactions tab to check the data the statement import tool has parsed.

While this tool will be a great time-saver by automatically importing statement details into Estateably so you do not need to manually enter all the holding details and transaction information into Estateably's screens, you should review each holding and transaction on-screen before syncing it into Estateably's Inventory and Accounting sections. You should verify that the system has extracted the data as you expect and mapped each transaction properly.

Can I import only certain holdings and/or transactions extracted from a particular statement? and What do I do if I don't want to import certain line items the statement import extracts from the statement?

If you do not wish to import all holdings and transactions because you need to verify some specific details before doing so or you think certain line items were extracted needlessly and dont need to be imported into Estateably, you can always exclude specific holding or transaction rows from the data sync, by unchecking/de-selecting the blue checkboxes that appear to the left of every row, on both Statement Import tool's Holdings tab and Transactions tab.

What if I need to correct some minor details associated with any holding or transaction extracted from the investment statement?

Before you import, you can click 'edit' on the right side of every holding or transaction row to make any edits to the holding or transaction's details. You can only edit 1 row at a time. You must first save your changes to a row, before you edit another row.

Why does the statement import sometimes show a transaction's Category value = 'Uncategorized' and what should I do if it has set the category = 'Uncategorized'?

What if I start validating an uploaded statement but need to leave to do something else before I have completed the process (i.e. I have not yet "synced" the statement data into Estateably's Inventory and Accounting sections)?

For now you cannot save the extracted data as a "work in progress". You can upload a statement or several statements initially and come back at a later time begin the review, validation and import process. However, once you initiate the review of the extracted data, you must complete the entire process of editing any data rows, clicking 'Validate' and 'Sync' to import the statement data into Estateably during a single work session. The user guide is available to explain how to complete each step within this process.

If my matter is a 'Probate only' file, can I use the statement import to upload/sync holding details into Estateably's Inventory?

For now the statement import is intended to be used with cases where both the inventory and accounting sections are enabled. If you have a business scenario where you would like to import holding details into your matter's Inventory but you are not doing an accounting for the estate, please advise an Estateably Customer Success representative to provide that feedback and it can be prioritized accordingly by our product/engineering team.

Why do I need to edit certain line items extracted from my statement/imported into Estateably? I thought Estateably will do "everything" for me automatically so I don't have to.

The statement import tool is based on very complex logic and is built using Artificial Intelligence. As there are hundreds of different brokerage firms/institutions and no standard format/layout used for investment statements, the statement import tool will get more accurate, the more usage it gets, and the more statements it is exposed to over time. The statement import tool can easily recognize various transaction types such as, asset sales/redemptions, purchases, dividends, dividend reinvestments. By February 20, 2025, cash transfers (in/out), holding transfers (in/out) will also be supported.

Certain corporate actions such as Return of Capital/Principal, Stock Splits, Stock Spinoffs, Interest Reinvestments, Capital Gain Distribution Reinvestments will be supported in the coming months. Refer to this document for Future Improvements Coming Soon (available in the support desk/resource center).

We expect that using the statement import feature will save you/your team the hours it would take to manually enter each investment statement consisting of on average 20-100 holdings and 20-100 transactions into estateably's Inventory and Accounting pages - while greatly reducing data entry errors that can result when entering data manually. Instead you will perhaps have to spend minutes adjusting certain data values if required; whether you entered the assets and transaction details manually or imported them automatically, you should ideally, always validate the data in Estateably to ensure the entered data reconciles properly with the account's statements and then appears as expected in your accounting reports.