CSV data from CC today on Website missing data

  • jshn's Avatar
    On the look out
    @unwina

    Thanks for your suggestions. I'll follow that up. Addressing the CEO seems a good approach.

    I use the downloaded .tsv file to feed Excel, summarise and categorize the transactions and feed the summary into a Quicken database.

    Have you any suggestions for transferring the data into Excel other than typing the detail in?

    TIA
    Last edited by jshn; 13-04-22 at 10:17. Reason: missed plural
  • Johnny_Mo's Avatar
    On the look out
    @Maureend

    @JoeC, @RossM

    It would be nice to be updated at all but it is what it is. I guess they keep this here and no one knows what is happening in the wider world but for me this kind of issue always makes one worry if a company is up to the job with these types of gaffs assuming they are not designed out of the system on purpose. Worse than this begs the question what other things are lurking that these people miss under the hood (It's the main reason i keep such close tabs on all places where my money is being stored).

    I can download the files but sadly there is still no change in the data that is being downloaded as described previously. I checked all 3 again yesterday (I only have tools that work with csv) to check what state its in and it has not changed since it was first reported the others i just looked at the first few lines in a simple text editor. It seems that Tesco developers perhaps do not know what they are doing or worse the systems have been trashed in some way and its taking time to unpick what caused it. Worse the people helping here should easily be connected to the developer teams and to be honest should bee able to come back in days not weeks with a prognosis.

    As an ex developer in a previous life when tools were more basic and things were easier to work with we never ever allowed something to be released into live environments without thorough testing but I guess times have changed with more on the hoof updating these days. I'm sort of assuming that it will no longer be available for the moment and have moved onto changing my spread sheets to use a simple scrape from the visible screens - way more cumbersome but at least i can manage it again with other web tools until they fix this if they do.
    As this also when wrong a few months earlier I am assuming Tesco views this feature as a nice to have rather than key business logic. After the last issue tests should have been added to the release process to catch this but obviously they did not.
  • unwina's Avatar
    Eagle eye
    @unwina

    Thanks for your suggestions. I'll follow that up. Addressing the CEO seems a good approach.

    I use the downloaded .tsv file to feed Excel, summarise and categorize the transactions and feed the summary into a Quicken database.

    Have you any suggestions for transferring the data into Excel other than typing the detail in?

    TIA

    @jshn

    I don't actually use the .TSV version i use the .csv one but since all 3 are broken since they changed things and I needed to know where i was I did the following. I think that's what I did ... ;-) The simple answer is text copy and replace but hopefully this procedure helps.

    1. Open up the current cc screen and make it show the full amount of data down to the end of the SYLS (Since your last statement) screen. I went back as far as the error but to get it correct, balance wise, I eventually went back as far as the last months whole list.

    2. From the bottom of the list I just grabbed the whole lot each section so that all i had was the data with the section titles. and copied it using right click on my PC not sure on a tablet or phone I would never use these things for banking. I then opened up an new Excel table, selected the top left cell and just pasted the items in.

    Sadly my version of excel (2007) scrunches everything but i just changed all the items to simple text. Also when I tested this procedure I noticed that the whole lot (Pending and SYLS) can be copied complete - well almost!.

    3. I then spread the columns slightly so all info fitted into a single line and double clicked on the line markers to scrunch them to single rows. (You need to select the whole page for this action)

    4. There may be a a little bit of further juggling with excel formatting.

    5. I then created a balance column and starting from the previous months final balance I just did a simple balance = previous balance + in - out etc depending on how you like to see a rolling balance if you do.

    I created the upper section in a similar way and joined the two to get a true current balance but you may not need that bit depending on your needs. The thing i am expecting at the end of this month where the current SYLS is copied to the whole month and we start all over again, well they do if i'm right, then the same problems may occur till they fix it. In my case I don't care anymore as i'll just carry on with the lower half being populated with the top half as and when they move from top to bottom. (I just use simple text copy - bit long winded if wife spends a lot in a day! but it works.

    In my case also I've noticed that stuff i'm expecting from receipts appears in the pending section but then sometime times gets dropped but does not appear in the current SYLS for quite some time - I Leave them in my top section marked in red and make them remain part of the balance. I'm guessing a lot of that is due to outside transaction dropouts caused by donor ends.

    Anyway not sure i've got it 100% but my wife is spending quite a bit on our card since we gained a grandchild and i keep up with the top half and moving them down manually - it is a bit of a juggle making sure the inserts and subtotals are correct but one gets used to this very quickly with a wife like mine ;-).

    Good luck.
    Last edited by unwina; 13-04-22 at 12:30.
  • jshn's Avatar
    On the look out
    @unwina

    Thanks for that. I'll give it a try. I was hoping that you had found some little trick that would make it simple.

    I've just tried it. There are, of course, some problems with it, mainly the dating

    The Transaction Date copies as 'Day DD MMM YY' and there is no Posting Date.

    But that method helps a great deal.

    I use .tsv because if a retailer includes a comma in the trading name (e.g. Smith, Jones & Co) then a .csv will add an extra column. Tabs won't occur in trader's names.

    I currently have a rolling spread sheet that I slot the download into. At the end of the month I summarize all my categorized transaction in a Quicken database, a great way of keeping track of where and how we are spending our money.

    Thanks for the tip.

    Since I started writing this (I'm playing with the copied transactions whilst writing) I've found a simple way to automate converting 'Day DD MMM YY' to DD/MM/YY, slightly clunky but I don't have to re-enter all the dates. Now the only serious missing bit is the posting date but I guess that's only important around the billing date.

    But I really want it fixed.
  • unwina's Avatar
    Eagle eye
    @jshn

    Glad you got something out of it. I wasn't so bothered about the dates as like you i'm hoping they will fixit. My solution whilst a fully fledged spread sheet was only to be able to see how much i owed, pay and move on.

    In case they don't fix it then i might consider reworking the dates issue. I'm intrigued what happens when the month is finished and it appears in the month section but to be honest i'm only really interested in the actual spend per month.

    Anyway fingers crossed they fix it soon if not then when the eight weeks is up for me then i'll poke it at the regulators.
  • glaciernet's Avatar
    Just looking
    @JoeC and @RossM, it's been painfully long already, is there any update that can be provided?

    As I've mentioned in a different thread on the same problem, this really is essential functionality for many people. For me, it's just an annoyance as I have a set of automated scripts that classify transactions based on that CSV. For others though, it could even be a UK GDPR "Right to data portability" concern.
  • KPPC's Avatar
    Fresh Eyes
    There have been some changes over time, you used to be able to download csv's of all past statements but that disappeared awhile ago this suggests to me that Tesco are in middle of an process upgrade and something has fallen through the gap. Very annoying as it means I have to type data in to my tracker manually now
  • Johnny_Mo's Avatar
    On the look out
    @unwina...
    I use .tsv because if a retailer includes a comma in the trading name (e.g. Smith, Jones & Co) then a .csv will add an extra column. Tabs won't occur in trader's names.
    ...

    .
    The fields, except for the transaction value, are enclosed in quotes "Smith, Jones & Co" should be correctly recognised as a single field.
    Last edited by Johnny_Mo; 17-04-22 at 20:50. Reason: Formatting
  • jshn's Avatar
    On the look out
    To the debuggers:

    Thank you for fixing this.
  • unwina's Avatar
    Eagle eye
    To the debuggers:

    Thank you for fixing this.

    Is it fixed, doesn't look like it to me so I assume this is either a gentle dig at Tesco or just a thank-you for all of us that are trying to work with the mess. 😉

    BTW, i noticed the other day that, sometimes items skip the pending screen completely and go straight to the SYLS section - depending when one checks although most seem to come through very quickly and may disappear altogether for a few days too. In particular i noticed this with a recent Tesco Petrol entry, they always seem problematic from our location. Fortunately with my new spreadsheet i was able to notice it as I put all my expected items in my pending section and mark them in Orange until they appear in the pending screen. If it were not for my version of the SLYS (I think i will keep it as rolling if it doesn't get fixed soon) adding up different to the onscreen available credit and onscreen balance items i might have missed it altogether!

    Of course if one is simply loading all the csv/tsv/qif data then this would probably not be an issue. The new process does not seem to cater for a complete list or at least the last 3 months as it used to!.