Imagine your data as an ocean. Most portfolio accounting systems focus on the surface of this ocean--your current positions and current prices. You run a report to compare those current account balances against those of your custodial system of record. They are easy to see and you can catch many reconciliation problems. But your data is more than current positions, there is a vast ocean of data beneath them that you can't easily see. As you go deeper into your transaction history, there are thousands of ways your data can be incorrect, but not be visible from the ocean's surface.

What if you have a dividend reinvest miscoded as a purchase? What if your data outsourcer added adjustment transactions? Or your Transfers are missing their starting cost? Any of these data problems mean incorrect reports and calculations, but not a single one would show up on an industry standard reconciliation report.

FinFolio has pioneered a concept called deep reconciliation. Our patent pending CleanData™ shield analyzes your data as it is imported or keyed into your system. It compares your most recent share balances to the custodial share balances, just like most other reconciliation systems. But we also dive deep into your ocean of data to uncover any problems with your historical transaction stack. Those problems are found instantly, when the data enters the system, and are presented for you to analyze.

CleanData™ looks for double entry bookkeeping errors. It checks your dividends against the dividend declared at the security level. It watches for missing cost data and notices when your custodians forget to send your daily import files. This system of interlocking checks and balances ensures the accuracy of your data.

You can build your own CleanData™ rules to catch problems specific to your firm. Maybe your firm only makes trades on Monday through Thursday. You could build a rule to flag any Friday trades and add them to your reconciliation list. Maybe you only trade no-load, no-transaction fee accounts, so you create a rule that flags any custodial or exchange fees that are accidentally charged to your clients.

Once you start using CleanData™, your perception of reconciliation will change. Your data becomes rock solid and your reports are always correct. Your reconciliation process is also faster, because data are presented in such a way that problems are instantly apparent and easy to fix. You will be astonished at the problems you uncover in your transaction history and you won't know how you ever managed your accounts without CleanData™.