Create a file to import statement notes to T2

T2
1

I am trying to create a file (maybe a CSV file?) that TC can import the notes in the financial statements to T2 FinNotes. Wondering if anyone knows which file format does TC take. And how to indicate TC the notes to be imported? Thanks.

2

I’m not sure about file formats for this but I print all financial statements to PDF and then copy and paste the notes from the PDF into TC. Easy.

3

I always type in “available on request”
I have a couple of reviews where the statements are 6 pages and the notes another 10. Maybe I’ll try the copy & paste thing sometime.

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4

Copy and paste is also how I transfer the notes to TC currently. I noticed TC can import GIFI and notes from some software like Caseware. I managed to export GIFI codes to a CSV file and then import them to TC but have no idea how to make the FinNotes part works.

Anyone has experience about this? Thanks.

5

Caseware exports Notes to a GIFI file which TaxCycle imports without issue. I have never inspected the contents of that GIFI file, but expect it is similar to the balance sheet and income statement GIFI file.

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6

Thanks Nezzer. TC imports S100 and S125’s information according to their GIFI codes in the exported file created by the software. I bet it is similar to the notes as well. But I don’t think there is a GIFI code for the notes. Then what would that be?

7

Hi @sunnywong,

I see one of our technical supports tried to help you with this question a while back and see that your last question to us was not answered. I apologize.

As far as the .csv goes, it’s a format that we developed internally in the first year of the T2 module. So, the .csv format supports importing of GIFI codes and amounts but as it stands currently, does not support importing of GIFI notes.

Steven

8

Thank you Steven for your clarification. Do you have suggestions on the file format that TC takes to import the notes to FinNotes?

9

You can copy from PDF, Word etc…so no specific file format that is preferred or allowed.

However, from experience, copying from Excel brings in invalid cell formats that may result in transmission errors. Or from pdf, bullets in front of sentences.

But, if you run into transmission error, email us and I can fix or tell you where to fix quite quickly.

Steven

10

Sometimes, what I do is paste first to Notepad and copy from Notepad and paste into TaxCycle. That usually strips any invalid characters.

11

Thanks again, Steven. I am not having any trouble with copy and paste; I’m just looking for a way to export and then import to TC. I hope this method will be faster and help eliminate mistakes.

12

Like I stated, using .csv, financial statements notes cannot be imported into TaxCycle’s FinNotes.

Steven

13

Below is the content of the GFI file produced by Caseware. This is flat file (text file) with what appears to be comma separated values on the first two lines. The items in square brackets “[”]" are fields you need to replace with appropriate info. The second-last and third-last fields in the first line are date/time fields: fiscal year-end (with 0900 as the time), and file creation date/time (yyyyMMddhhmm). The second line is probably a required code. Then there are 5 blank lines, after which the financial statement notes are listed in plain text (starting with “COMPILATION ENGAGEMENT REPORT”).

“GIFI01”,“0001”,“ASCII”,“-”,“L”,“CaseWare International Inc.”,“”,“469 King St. W”,“Toronto, Ont.”,“Mike”,“CaseWare”,“98.0”,“02”,“”,“[client company name]”,“”,“[address]”,“[city]”,“[province]”,“[postal code],”[client contact name]“,“202306300900”,“202408231249”,”",
“GIFI02”,0,
.
.
.
.
.
COMPILATION ENGAGEMENT REPORT
(snipped for brevity as well as confidentiality)

14

Thanks, Steven. Yes, you have been clear that CSV does not work. In Nezzer’s recent reply, he pointed out that Caseware generates text files for this purpose. It would be really helpful if you could tell me what the codes in the text file to initiate TC to pick up and place the wanted content to FinNotes.

15

Thanks a lot Nezzer. I will modify the content you extracted from your text file and see if I can make it work.

16

@sunnywong

Just so we are clear, you are trying to manually create a .gfi file (files with this extension means that it is a GIFI file that was exported from accounting program). Am I understanding this right?

So, I just looked at some examples, we used 12 years ago to add the GIFI import feature and in that .gfi file, before the FS notes start you will see the following: (“GIFI02”,143,

image
image1258Ă—422 22 KB

Good luck!

Steven

17

That’s great Steven. Certainly it helps. I hope you don’t mind for more clarifications:

  1. The opening statement for the notes is “GIFI102”,143,", do we need any closing statement after the notes content?
  2. What is the “real” file format of the .gfi file? Would it be a delimited text file or some other types?
  3. What are the opening statements for S100 and S125?

Thank you and have a nice weekend.

18

From our support email, I will email you a sample .gfi file that I have.
You can then try figure out the rest.

I am not entirely sure how you are trying to achieve what you are trying to do but .gfi file format was something that the CRA provided 20-25 years ago for accounting software vendors but the CRA specification is no longer available anywhere. So, all that TaxCycle does is simply read what’s in the .gfi file and try to make sense of it so that it can import values into proper fields and GIFI forms.

Steven

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