Omni – Data Feeds

Investment Platform Feeds

Omni currently supports data feeds from platforms such as Alliance Trust, Fidelity and Skandia/Old Mutual. Other feeds can be added if needed – please contact us for details. The files provided for the data feeds are very specific – we would need a copy of the data feed supplied by your platform to see whether it can be incorporated.

Bank Data Feeds

Omni currently will accept transaction data via electronic data feeds from various banks, including Cater Allen and Bank of Scotland.

However, the banks will not provide the data feeds to all of their introducers and so you need to arrange the data feed with the bank. If you interested we can supply details of the steps to implement the data feed.

Once the data feed is arranged with the bank, you can run the ‘System, Data Feeds’ option in Omni to read the data file provided by the bank.

This will create some records (e.g. bank interest) and will reconcile as many accounts as it can. The precise details depend on the bank involved. This can save a great deal of time, especially for those SIPPs that have to reconcile accounts within 10 business days.

The Bank Data Feeds folder can be stored within a user defined location which can be accessed by both SSAS and SIPP databases so as to avoid the need to store duplicate information, as explained in Settings.

The details of the process are:

1. Once the system has been set up, the data file received from the bank each month should be stored in the BankFeeds folder in your Omni database e.g. for Cater Allen, the folder would be ‘…….\Database\BankFeeds\CAPB’. Alternatively the folder you have specified in the Settings screen can be used.

2. The file name needs to be changed to a standard format for Omni to recognize – ‘trans’ + date e.g. ‘trans31122007.dat’ for the bank transactions for the month ended 31^st December 2007.

3. To run the data feed the user needs to have the Master User rights.

4. In Omni, select the menu item ‘System, Data Feeds’ and then the name of the bank involved.

5. Omni will search the data files stored for that bank and find the latest date (based on the name that the user has used for the file).

6. Omni then displays the date it has found and asks the user whether this is the correct date.

7. If the user tells Omni to proceed then the process is

a. The data is read in

b. Some bank transactions are created

c. Account reconciliation is attempted

Creating Bank Transactions

8. The details of each transaction provided by the bank are compared with the data already in Omni. The account number is checked and the bank’s transaction date is found. If a transaction for the same amount cannot be found in Omni in the period beginning 14 days before the bank’s date and ending 5 days after that date, the transaction is created using the date supplied by the bank.

9. The ‘Payment Type’ will either be ‘Bank Interest’ (if the bank has used the label of ‘Credit Interest) or ‘Unknown’.

10. A ‘Comment’ will be added for each transaction. It will start with ‘DF’ (for Data Feed) so that such transactions can be spotted easily. The description provided by the bank will then be added to the comment.

11. The details of each transaction created are sent to an Excel spreadsheet – on the ‘New Transactions’ tab.

12. The user needs to adjust all of the transactions created by the data feed to change the ‘Payment Type’ from ‘Unknown’ and confirm the date. The date supplied by the bank may be inappropriate e.g. for a pension payment the required date is the date that the administrator processes the payment and not the date that the member cashes the cheque.

13. If 2 transactions are found for the same amount in the same period that are present in the bank’s records but not in Omni’s records, Omni will not create the second transaction. Remember that the intention of the data feed is to compare the Omni data (which should be complete) against the banks records and it is not intended to copy the bank’s records.

Bank Reconciliations

14. If the bank supplies data for an account number that cannot be found in Omni, the account is added to the ‘Missing Accounts’ tab of the spreadsheet.

15. The Omni bank balance for each account is calculated including any expected transactions.

16. The balance provided by the bank is compared with the balance reported by Omni. If they are not the same then

a. a reconciliation record is created for the data feed date but it is left as unreconciled with a Note of 'Automatic stub – discrepancy of £x’.

b. the account is added to the ‘Stubbed Accounts’ tab of the spreadsheet. This shows the bank’s balance, Omni’s balance and the difference.

c. All expected transactions are left as expected and new transactions are not posted

17. If Omni has entered any transactions, other than bank interest, whilst processing the data feed, the account is stubbed as well.

18. If the balances agree and no transactions (other than bank interest) were created, then

a. the reconciliation record is created and the ‘date reconciled’ is entered using the date that the data feed is being run, with a note of 'Automatic Reconciliation'.

b. the account is added to the ‘Reconciled Accounts’ tabs of the spreadsheet (there are separate tabs for those accounts with Unknown transactions and those without).

c. Any unposted transactions with a ‘Payment Type’ that is not ‘Unknown’ are posted and added to the Posted Transactions tab of the spreadsheet. This can include transactions that pre-date the data feed period but not later transactions.

d. Expected transactions are treated the same as unposted transactions.

e. If an expected transaction for an investment purchase or a sale was generated from the Regular General Transactions screen (where an investment was attached using the setting which allows you to ‘Input Investment transactions from bank account’), an investment transaction is created when the bank transaction is posted.