The friendly folks at Schwab PortfolioCenter keep adding great tools to the PortfolioCenter data management arsenal.  Organizing, updating and revising data has become much easier and error-proof since the Centerpiece days!

If you’ve been too busy to explore the new tools, it’s worth blocking some time to get to know them.  Once learned and configured these tools are not only great time-savers, they help reduce data entry errors.

Here are some of my favorite tools and what they can do for you.

Portfolio Default Settings

The  Portfolio Defaults Settings allows you to set choices for new accounts and groups before they are created.  If you are a long-time user and have never set these defaults, take a moment to review them — especially your matching method defaults.

Custom Portfolio Fields

As the name suggests you can create client information fields specific to your practice.  While the possibilities are endless, be careful you don’t geometrically inflate the size of your database.  I recommend you consult a “geek” to ensure your custom fields are necessary, flexible and designed for the general case.

Smart Sets, Rules & Views

While technically these are three different tools, they work together in practice.  Rules help you sort and grab portfolios with specific data.  Views let you see only the portfolios that fit those rules and Smart Sets lets you work with a list of portfolios that meet specific rules.  Using them together you can quickly find, review and organize like accounts and groups. 

Portfolio Data Manager

The Portfolio Data Manager allows quick access to the detail and custom fields related to accounts and groups.  It makes updating and organizing easier because you can copy and paste data from one field to another, as well as export and import from a CSV file.

Securities Data Manager

The Securities Data Manager is our newest tool. It works like the Portfolio Data Manager for all your securities fields.  Updating and reviewing asset classes and sector codes is finally easy!

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