Prioritized Improvements to IBs "FlexStatement" service.

Discussion in 'Interactive Brokers' started by ZenEng, Jan 2, 2007.

  1. ZenEng

    ZenEng

    As a newbie, please tell me if this is inappropriate for this forum.

    Interactive Brokers has a very nice download mechanism called "FlexStatements".
    See these links for background:
    http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/flextool.php?ib_entity=llc
    http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/flexStatementsWebService.php?ib_entity=llc

    The help information on it states that it is still in beta and has been that way for a long time.
    Perhaps we can give some impetus to get them to complete it and make it useful. I will edit this lead post to summarize the discussion and accumulate the priorities.

    Another thread includes some software that will let you use this service to do some reporting calculations at the end of the day:
    http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83759


    FlexStatements Fixes/Improvement Priorities:

    * Include all fields in the XML download that occur in a statement. One very important field that is missing is the accrued interest field. Without it, you can't calculate net liquidation value to compare with a statement.

    * Include the "customer order reference" string for the trades. This is critical to be able to tie trades back to strategies.

    * When a requested statement, isn't ready yet (such today's when today isn't complete or last month when last month hasn't been computed), it appears that the server just responds: "Statement not ready. Please try again after in [sic] a few minutes.". It ought to give a code that indicates you will never get that statement rather than making you wait

    * Add support for FlexStatement to download paper trading statements.

    * Permit some simple parameters to the query at query time such as "date range".
     
  2. fleance

    fleance

    I replied to your other thread also.
    I like your list of improvements.

    My biggest todo item is they need to expand to offer 2 years of monthly trade data for it to be really useful. I don't see why they still have it restricted to last 45 days / last month.

    You can submit your suggestions by going to www.interactivebrokers.com and clicking
    About IB->Suggestion and Complaint Box. You can click Interactive Brokers Features Poll, and add a new item.
     
  3. fleance

    fleance

    Looks like a few requests have already been posted on the IB Suggestions Poll for FlexStatements. You should definately add yours since I think they are simple enhancements that IB should be able to do.

    Title: RealTime Flex Reports
    Submitted by: kookabur
    Run a Flex Statement for the current trading day and see current state of account

    Title: FlexStatement service WSDL
    Submitted by: mikem
    Please make the FlexStatements service SOAP-compliant and post the WSDL to it.

    Title: All Accounts on Flex Statement
    Submitted by: kookabur
    Be able to set a Flex Statement for all accounts under an Advisor without needing to specify each one. When a new account is opened each reports needs to change.
     
  4. def

    def Sponsor

    I think it's fine to post your comments/suggestions on the flex statements here. However, I'd lean on the features poll as a better way to obtain progress.
     
  5. ZenEng

    ZenEng

    Thanks. I added my bullets above to the features poll.
     
  6. ZenEng

    ZenEng

    I got a commitment from IB (email) that they will add the accruals with the next FlexStatement update. They didn't say when that would be...
     
  7. ZenEng

    ZenEng

    FYI, the customer reference field from the FIX manual from IB appears to be 6010.