Tag-dsc-version: 1.0 Describes: fintrans Status: Draft Introduction:: END_I The Tag-fintrans file format is designed to provide an interchange format for financial transactions. It is not targetted at being a storage format for data (in other words a finance program would use some internal database, but to be able to export and import in this format). Auditing -------- This format is designed to be manipulated with the tag utilities which can be found at http://www.paladin.demon.co.uk/tag-types/ One of the goals of the system is that it should make accounts of small charities or businesses easier to audit in that the auditor can use their own copy of a set of auditing utilties (these dont exist yet !!) to slice the accounts any way they wish, without having to understand the particular accounting software being used by their client. Comments from auditors on the general concept and specific format would be appreciated. END_I End: Tagname: Id Description:: END_D For a transfer format it is useful if every transaction has some form of unique identifier. (Unique within a particular accounting system at least). For example if you enter your transactions into a palmtop computer as you spend your money, and export those transactions from time to time to another system which holds your main finances then the importing system should be able to avoid entering the transaction a second time, but it SHOULD check to see if the transaction data has changed, in which case it may wish to update the master copy. END_D End: Tagname: Date Description:: END_D The date on which the transaction occurred. This should be written in a standard format - which should include a 4 digit year. This should be ISO 8601 format i.e. yyyy-mm-dd END_D ValueType: Date End: Tagname: Account Description:: END_D The account to which this transaction relates. If this is in the header then all transactions in the file relate to this account, otherwise this field must be in every record. END_D End: Tagname: Payee Description:: END_D The external account, or person which this transaction is going to, or coming from if it is a credit. END_D End: Tagname: Transfer-account Description:: END_D The other account, also able to be referenced as a tagged file, to which a transfer is being made. Similar to Payee, but it may be constrained to be the name of a known account END_D End: Tagname: Reference Description:: END_D This is the bank (or other accounting system) reference for this transaction, for example for a cheque it would be the cheque number. END_D End: Tagname: Status Description:: END_D Keywords related to this transaction - the only defined one so far is Reconciled - indicates that the transaction has been confirmed by appearing in your bank statement. (Actually I am in a bit of a dilemma on a Reconciled flag - it may be better to use the Cleared-Date field below, and fake one if we are converting from QIF) END_D End: Tagname: Description Description: Long description of the transaction End: Tagname: Cleared-Date Description:: END_D Date the transaction cleared. When converting from Quicken this field will be filled in with the transaction date as that is the only one Quicken knows. When converting to QIF the Reconciled flag will be set if this field is present. END_D ValueType: Date End: Tagname: Amount Description:: END_D The amount of the debit from the account, or credit to the account (specified as a negative number). This will be the amount in the currency in which the account is maintained. END_D End: Tagname: Foreign-Amount Description:: END_D The amount of the debit from, or credit to, the account, in some currency which is not the normal currency in which the account is maintained. END_D End: Tagname: Currency Description:: END_D As a header tag the default currency for all transactions in this account, or for a foreign currency transaction it should be the currency of this particular transaction. This should be a 3 character code from ISO4217, e.g. GPB for UK Pounds or USD for US Dollars END_D End: Tagname: Asset Description:: END_D This transaction relates to something which will be regarded as an asset. This name must be used consistenly to refer the to asset. END_D End: Tagname: Value Description:: END_D The value of the asset at the time of the transaction. Note that 'revaluation' transactions are permitted, which have no Amount entry, but which just indicate that the nominal value of a asset, such as a share or a house, has changed. Of course valuation records have no 'real' meaning, in that if your shares or house value seem to have gone dramatically up or down this is not actually a change in your net worth until you actually change that asset into cash. END_D End: Tagname: Quantity Description:: END_D This goes with an Asset and Value entry. If it is not present the implied quanity is 1. It indicates the number of Assets which have the given value, for example you could have 100 shares with a value of 625 pounds then you could express the value as Asset: Some Share Value: 625 Quantity: 100 or as Asset: Some Share Value: 6.25 (where you keep track of the number of shares you hold by knowing that you have not acquired or disposed of any) END_D End: Tagname: Item Description:: END_D This can be used to indicate that more than one item is refered to in this transaction. END_D End: Tagname: Cost Description:: END_D The cost associated with a particular item, for example Item.1: Petrol Cost.1: 12.9 Quantity.1: 24.3 Item.2: Newspaper Cost.2: .40 END_D End: Tagname: Subamount Description:: END_D Similar to Cost - possibly a more descriptive term for implementing Quicken style splits. END_D End: Tagname: TaxCredit Description:: END_D The amount of tax deemed to have already been paid on a share dividend payment. This will not affect the amount of the transaction, but may be used by specialised tax software in preparing annual returns. END_D End: Tagname: TaxCat Description:: END_D The Taxation Catagory for this tranaction - this will only appear in transactions which have tax implications. For the UK the values are: EarnedIncome END_D End: Tagname: Catagory Description:: END_D A key phrase which describes the overall purpose of this transaction END_D End: