# Audit against your brokerage

**Goal:** catch drift between what zfin thinks you hold and what your
brokerage actually reports -- wrong share counts, sales you forgot to
record, missing lots, stale manual prices -- by reconciling
`portfolio.srf` against a positions export.

**You'll need:** a portfolio whose [`accounts.srf`](set-up-accounts.md)
entries carry `institution::` and `account_number::` (that's how zfin
ties an export back to your accounts -- see
[How accounts are matched](#how-accounts-are-matched)), plus an export
from a supported broker.

> Heads up: this is the most heuristic corner of zfin. The brokerage
> parsers are format-specific, account matching depends on metadata you
> maintain, and the comparison uses deliberate tolerances. It's the best
> way to keep your records honest, but expect a little setup and the
> occasional "why didn't that match?" -- this guide covers the gotchas,
> not just the happy path.

## Supported brokers and how to export

`zfin audit` reconciles against **Fidelity** and **Schwab**. (Wells
Fargo is handled by [`import`](#what-about-wells-fargo), not audit.)

| Broker                   | How to export                                                                                               | Flag               |
|--------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------|
| **Fidelity**             | *Positions* tab -> the three-dot (**⋮**) menu -> **Download** (a CSV)                                       | `--fidelity <CSV>` |
| **Schwab** (per-account) | *Accounts -> Positions* -> **Export** (one CSV per account)                                                 | `--schwab <CSV>`   |
| **Schwab** (summary)     | *Accounts -> Summary*: select the accounts table and copy it ([what to copy](#schwab-summary-what-to-copy)) | `--schwab-summary` |

The two Schwab inputs differ in detail: the **per-account CSV** has full
per-position data (shares, price, value); the **summary paste** carries
only each account's cash and total value, so it reconciles *totals*, not
individual holdings. Use the summary for a quick "are my account totals
right?", the CSV for position-level checks. (Fidelity money-market rows
and Schwab "Cash & Cash Investments" rows are recognized as cash.)

The Fidelity **Download** isn't a top-level button -- it's behind the
three-dot (**⋮**) menu at the top-right of the positions panel:

![Fidelity Positions tab with the three-dot menu open, showing the Download item](../images/fidelity-positions-download.png)

*(The account list down the left side is blanked out above.)*

### Schwab summary: what to copy

The summary paste comes from Schwab's **Accounts -> Summary** page.
Scroll to the **Accounts** table, drag-select from the first account's
name through the last row, and copy. Then either save it as a `.txt`
file in your `audit/` folder (where auto-discovery will find it) or pipe
it straight in:

```bash
zfin audit --schwab-summary    # paste, then Ctrl-D
```

A good paste is repeating three-line blocks -- the account name, the
"ending in" line, then a values line -- and looks about like this
(figures fictional):

```
Sample Roth IRA
Account number ending in 1234 ...1234
Type IRA $46.44 $227,058.15 +$1,072.88 +0.47%
Sample Brokerage
Account number ending in 5678 ...5678
Type Brokerage $12,500.00 $980,000.00 +$3,200.00 +0.33%
Sample Trust
Account number ending in 9012 ...9012
Type $2,000.00 $415,300.00 +$1,150.00 +0.28%
```

zfin anchors on each **"Account number ending in"** line (its trailing
digits are the account number) and reads the **first two dollar figures**
on the line below as **cash** then **total value** -- everything else on
that line is ignored, and the account-type word is optional. If your copy
looks nothing like this -- no "ending in" lines, or no dollar figures --
you grabbed the wrong region. Because it carries only cash and totals,
the summary reconciles **account totals**, not individual positions.

## Run it

**Point it at a file:**

```bash
ZFIN_HOME=~/finance zfin audit --fidelity ~/Downloads/Portfolio_Positions.csv
ZFIN_HOME=~/finance zfin audit --schwab   ~/Downloads/Positions-Individual.csv
ZFIN_HOME=~/finance zfin audit --schwab-summary    # then paste the page, Ctrl-D
```

**Or run it with no flags** -- `zfin audit` does a portfolio hygiene
check *and* auto-discovers and reconciles any recent exports it finds
(next two sections).

## The hygiene check

With no flags, `zfin audit` first prints a health report:

- **Stale manual prices** -- lots with a manual `price::` older than
  `--stale-days` (default 3).
- **Accounts overdue for update** -- accounts past their
  `update_cadence` (see [accounts.srf](set-up-accounts.md#3-tune-the-maintenance-cadence)).
- **Brokerage files** it discovered, which it then reconciles.

```
  Portfolio hygiene

  Stale manual prices (>3 days — --stale-days to configure)
    (none)

  Accounts overdue for update (weekly default — set update_cadence in accounts.srf)
    Sample IRA                       weekly    no update history found
    Sample Brokerage                 weekly    no update history found
```

"No update history found" is a nudge, not an error -- silence accounts
you don't actively track with `update_cadence::none`.

## Auto-discovery (and your download folder)

With no `--fidelity`/`--schwab` flag, zfin looks for exports in two
places:

1. **`$ZFIN_AUDIT_FILES`** -- a directory *you* set. Point it at wherever
   your browser saves downloads (e.g. `~/Downloads`) so a
   just-downloaded export is found with no copying or renaming. (zfin
   does **not** scan it on its own -- you opt in by setting this.)
2. **`<portfolio-dir>/audit/`** -- a dedicated subfolder next to your
   `portfolio.srf`, for exports you want to keep around.

What it considers:

- **Only files modified in the last 24 hours.** Your browser saves the
  export to its download folder with names like
  `Portfolio_Positions_Jun-19.csv`; the
  recency window keeps zfin reconciling *the one you just pulled*, not
  last quarter's.
- **Detected by content, not filename.** zfin sniffs the first lines --
  Fidelity begins `Account Number`/`Account Name`, a Schwab CSV begins
  `"Positions for ...`, a Schwab summary contains `Account number ending
  in`. A renamed file still works; an unrelated CSV is skipped.

So with `ZFIN_AUDIT_FILES=~/Downloads`, the workflow collapses to
"download from your broker, run `zfin audit`, done."

## How accounts are matched

This is the part that trips people up. An export covers one or more
**accounts**, and zfin has to tie each one to an account in your
portfolio. It does that through
[`accounts.srf`](set-up-accounts.md#2-add-institution-and-account-number-for-auditing):

- The export carries an account number -- Schwab's from the "Positions
  for account ...1234" title, Fidelity's from the Account Number column,
  the summary's from "...ending in 1234".
- zfin finds the `accounts.srf` entry whose `institution::` (`fidelity`,
  `schwab`) **and** `account_number::` match, and compares against that
  account's lots.
- **No match -> the account is shown as `unmapped`** and flagged as a
  discrepancy. Fix it by adding `institution::` and `account_number::`
  to that account in `accounts.srf` (a placeholder number you recognize
  is fine -- it just has to match what the export shows).

## Reading the report

zfin treats the **brokerage as the source of truth** and shows, per
account, your portfolio (PF) against the broker (BR). Figures below are
illustrative and fictional:

```
Portfolio Audit  (brokerage is source of truth)
========================================

  Sample Brokerage *1234
    Symbol      PF Shares   BR Shares   PF Price   BR Price
    VTI           100.000     100.000     373.38     373.38   ok
    SCHD          200.000     210.000      31.86      31.86   brokerage +10.000
    AGG            50.000       0.000                          portfolio only
```

- **Portfolio-only** rows are lots the broker no longer shows -- a sale
  you forgot to remove, or a mistyped symbol.
- **Brokerage-only** rows are holdings missing from your portfolio.
- A share or value **delta** flags a count or price mismatch.

`--verbose` prints the full comparison even when everything reconciles.

### Why "close" counts as a match

- **Cash matches to the penny.** It's an exact figure on both sides, so
  any gap is real (e.g. money-market dividend accrual between updates)
  and worth surfacing.
- **Securities get ~$1 of slack.** A sub-cent NAV-rounding difference on
  a six-figure fund position can exceed a dollar without being
  actionable, so small *value* deltas are tolerated -- but *share-count*
  mismatches never are.

### Institutional share classes

If a lot is priced through a retail-ticker `ticker::` alias while the
account actually holds an institutional class (a different NAV), audit
compares against the broker's NAV and can **suggest a `price_ratio`** to
bridge the gap. Accounts flagged `direct_indexing::true` get the same
treatment to track drift. See
[price resolution](../reference/config/portfolio-srf.md#advanced-and-option-fields).

## Why it's finicky

- The parsers are **broker-specific and hardcode each export's column
  layout** -- if Fidelity or Schwab changes their format, parsing can
  break (Fidelity's header is validated to catch this; Schwab's is not).
  They are not full RFC-4180 CSV parsers (no escaped quotes or
  multi-line fields) -- fine for the real exports, not for arbitrary
  CSVs.
- Matching is only as good as the `institution::` / `account_number::`
  entries you keep in `accounts.srf`.
- Options and cash are reconciled separately from share counts.

None of this is a reason to skip it -- it's the single best way to keep
your records honest -- just know it expects some setup and an occasional
manual nudge.

### What about Wells Fargo?

Wells Fargo's portal has no clean positions export, so it isn't an
`audit` target. Instead, [`zfin import --wells-fargo`](../reference/cli/import.md)
rebuilds a portfolio file from a paste of the WF positions table (copy
the rendered table from the brokerage portal and save it to a file).
Fidelity and Schwab exports can be imported the same way.

> **Keep brokerage exports private.** They contain real account numbers
> and holdings. Store them outside any git repository and delete them
> when you're done reconciling.

## Next steps

- [`zfin audit` reference](../reference/cli/audit.md) -- every flag.
- [Map your accounts](set-up-accounts.md) -- the `institution` / `account_number` matching keys.
- [`zfin import`](../reference/cli/import.md) -- build a portfolio file *from* an export (including Wells Fargo).

---

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