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Import fund amounts and valuations

Update fund amounts or record market values from a CSV file, such as one exported by your investment manager, and check every row before anything changes.

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The Import menu on Plan > Funds takes two kinds of file. Import Funds updates each fund's Distribution Amount and can add new funds. Import valuations records what each fund's investments are worth on a date.

Both work from a file you upload: usually one exported by your investment manager and put into our template. Backed reads only the file you give it, and nothing arrives by itself. Labels that name Fund use your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

Before you start

You need the Can access Payments permission. Without it the Import menu isn't shown.

A file is a CSV of up to 5 MB and 5,000 rows. Select Download CSV Template in either dialog for a file with the right headings and no rows.

Import funds

  1. Go to Plan > Funds, select Import, then Import Funds.
  2. Under CSV file, choose your file. Backed reads it and shows how many funds it will create and update and how many rows it rejected, then every row, with rejected rows first.
  3. Check the rows. If a row is rejected, its reason is beside it. To correct a file, remove it, fix it and upload it again.
  4. Select Import, or Cancel to change nothing. Rejected rows are left out either way.

The import runs in the background and the dialog counts the rows as they finish. You can close the dialog and the import carries on. When it finishes the dialog shows what was created, updated and not imported, and the list shows the new amounts.

If an import stops part-way, the dialog says how many rows it finished and which row it stopped on. The rows it finished stay imported.

The columns

External ID, Name and Distribution Amount must be in the file. The rest can be left out, and the headings can be in any order and any case.

Column What it does
External ID Matches the row to a fund, ignoring case. An ID can appear only once in a file.
Name The name of a new fund, when External ID matches none.
Distribution Amount The fund's new amount: 0 or more, with at most two decimal places.
Description Replaces the fund's description. A blank cell leaves it alone.
Accounting Code Used only while an accounting integration is connected. A blank cell leaves it alone.
Tags Names separated by commas or semicolons. A blank cell leaves them alone.
Source Where the amount came from, shown on the Ledger.
Effective Date The date of the change, as YYYY-MM-DD or DD/MM/YYYY. Blank means the day of import.

How rows are matched

  • A row whose External ID matches a fund updates that fund.
  • A row with no match and a Name creates a new fund, and the preview says so first.
  • A row with no match and no Name is rejected.

Where the change appears

  • On the fund's Ledger: a change to the Distribution Amount, dated by Effective Date, showing the row's Source or CSV import if it had none.
  • In the fund's History: the old and new values, who imported them, and the name of the file.

See the fund's record.

Import valuations

  1. Go to Plan > Funds, select Import, then Import valuations.
  2. Under CSV file, choose your file. Backed shows every row and the fund it matched. A row that matches no fund, or that can't be read, comes first with the reason, and it won't be imported.
  3. Select Import to record the rows that matched, or Cancel to record nothing. The dialog shows how many were recorded.

The columns

Column What it does
External ID Matches the row to a fund, ignoring case.
Fund Name Matches the row to a fund by its exact name, when no External ID does. A heading of Name works too.
Valuation Date The date of the value, as YYYY-MM-DD or DD/MM/YYYY.
Market Value What the fund's investments were worth: 0 or more.
Income The income on that date. It can be left out, and then counts as 0.

Importing a second value for the same fund and date replaces the first.

Where a valuation appears

On the fund's Ledger, marked No effect, with the market value as its Amount. A valuation doesn't change the fund's Available Amount. See the fund's record.

Why a cell is refused

A cell that starts with =, +, - or @ followed by anything but a digit could run as a formula in a spreadsheet, so its row is rejected and the reason names the column. Amounts such as -5.00 are read as values.

See also

This page uses Backed's default terms, such as Funding Round and Application Template. An organisation may rename them, so read each as your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.