Note: This article was originally published in 2013. Some steps, commands, or software versions may have changed. Check the current Mint.com documentation for the latest information.
In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn add your interactive brokers account(s) to your mint.com account.
How to: Add your (http://www.interactivebrokers.com “Interactive Brokers”) account(s) to your (http://www.mint.com “Mint”).com account
After several months of waiting for (http://www.mint.com “Mint”) to support Interactive Brokers finally they have that option available to their users! Unfortunately, it does come with additional work users are not used to. Usually just typing in your username and password is all you need to download your financial information into Mint. Well, it’s not quite that simple with Interactive Brokers. I’ve been trying desperately to find instructions from Mint.com or Interactive Brokers on how to successfully connect my account to Mint.com but I gave up. I decided I would figure it out myself and later on adjust my settings if an official guide becomes available. Thus far I have been able to sync with no problems and identified some common pitfalls so I hope this helps everyone!
Updated Instructions (January 2020):
Since originally posting this article Mint.com and IB have been working close together to facilitate the interface as well as fixing the issues brought to their attention. Below are the new updated instructions that facilitate adding your Interactive Brokers account to Mint.com. These changes reflect the updated Account Management and new location to find the Query ID and Token ID:
- Log in to your Account via Account Management
- Go to Settings > Account Settings (https://www.interactivebrokers.co.uk/AccountManagement/AmAuthentication?action=Reports)
- On the bottom right on a panel you’ll find a section titled “Reporting” that looks like this somewhat:
Reporting __
Flex Web Service : Enabled __Third-party Services : Enabled (1 of 5)
- Make sure Flex Web Services are enabled and then click on the gear next to “Third-party Services” where you’ll find 5 third party services. One of them is Mint
- If you’ve done this before you just need to reactivate your token (as they expire every year) otherwise, enable it by clicking the checkbox and saving which will in return provide you with a Token and Query ID.
- Provide the supplied Token and Query ID to mint and you’re set!
- Remember: Tokens expire every year thereabouts (it will show below the Token the expiration date). Be sure you set up a reminder to reactivate your token soon after that date so you don’t miss updates to your mint.com account.
Updated Instructions:
Since originally posting this article Mint.com and IB have been working close together to facilitate the interface as well as fixing the issues brought to their attention. Below are the new updated instructions that facilitate adding your Interactive Brokers account to Mint.com:
- On https://gdcdyn.interactivebrokers.com go to Reports -> Delivery Settings -> Mint.Service (http://technology.bauzas.com/files/2013/01/Technology.Bauzas.com-Mint.com-Service.png)](http://technology.bauzas.com/files/2013/01/Technology.Bauzas.com-Mint.com-Service.png)
- Click on Activate. This will generate the token ID and Query ID for your Mint Service connection. Copy paste this into Notepad or similar word editing program so you can copy paste this into Mint.com later on.(http://technology.bauzas.com/files/2013/01/Technology.Bauzas.com-Mint.com-Service-Activated.png)](http://technology.bauzas.com/files/2013/01/Technology.Bauzas.com-Mint.com-Service-Activated.png)
- You should double check how long is your token ID good for. Now navigate to: Reports -> Delivery Settings -> Flex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_service “Web service”). You will see you have a token ID which you will need to provide Mint.com. Word of caution : The Token ID has a predefined period of time through which is valid. The default token lasts only 6 hours! I would recommend generating a new token with a validity period of 1 year. Once the year is over you are going to have to update this information on Mint.com most likely. If your token is already good for a long period then go ahead and leave this setting alone. If you generate a new token make a note as it replaces the one you obtained on Step 2.
- Navigate to Mint.com and add a new account as you would generally do. Your accounts -> Financial -> Add account.
- One you find Interactive Brokers on the list, provide the information required on the screen:
- TOKEN (for yourInteractive Brokers account): Provide the Token ID from step 2 or 3.
- QUERY (for yourInteractive Brokers account): Provide the Query ID from step J which is a number.
- One you find Interactive Brokers on the list, provide the information required on the screen:
Old / Manual / Long Instructions:
Step-by-step instructions on how to connect Mint.com with IB. The new instructions save you the hassle of creating your own Flex Query for Mint.com but if you feel like you want to tweak what information is sent over you can follow these instructions:
- On https://gdcdyn.interactivebrokers.com go to Reports -> Activity -> Flex Queries
- Create a new Flex Query for Mint.com. This is one of the more complex parts as no one knows really what you need in your Flex Query. I have identified a subset of data that seems to do the trick, but I recommend you simply add everything to the query. Extra information does not hurt Mint.com, too little information will cause you to get discrepancies though.
- Query Name: Whatever you want… sayMint.com?
- Output format: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML “XML”)
- Accounts: The accounts you wish to sync with Mint.com… I recommend All
- Closed Accounts: Do not select Include closed accounts unless you have an account that you closed but you want to see the data on Mint… I wouldn´t recommend.
- Account Alias: Do not select Display Account Alias in Place of Account ID as if you change your Alias mint might think it is a new account… better play it safe.
- Include Canceled Trades: No
- Include Currency Rates: Yes
-
Date Configuration
Period: | Select OneLast Business DayLast MonthLast 30 Calendar DaysLast 365 Calendar DaysMonth to DateYear to Date
This last one is VERY IMPORTANT. Mint by default syncs from 90-30 days depending on their mood I guess. Adding more than 90 days therefore is worthless. More importantly, Mint.com has limits on how long it is willing to process your FlexQuery results. Say you select your last 365 calendar days: Mint.com is going to work on the request but then output an error saying there is a temporary issue connecting. The issue here is Mint tried to process that huge XML and decided it was too long for it to bother with it. Many people if they are not careful with this setting will not be able to do the initial sync as Mint.com is only willing to spend so much time trying to generate your account initially. If 30 days still causes issues, keep decreasing the timeframe. One thing to keep in mind though: Say you don´t sync your Mint.com in more than 30 days… you might lose days worth of data. After your initial sync you can increase your Period to include up to 90 days (Mint won´t sync further out than 90 days) so that you keep your data.
9. Add all the information for all the sections found below on the “Activity Flex Query” page, this includes:
1. Account Information,
2. NAV in Base,
3. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark-to-market_accounting “Mark-to-market accounting”) performance summary in base,
4. Realized and unrealized performance summary in base,
5. Month & mear to date performance summary in base,
6. Cash report,
7. Statement of funds,
8. Change in position value summary,
9. Open positions,
10. Net stock position summary, trades,
11. Option exercises,
12. Assignments and expirations,
13. Incoming/outgoing trade transfers,
14. Unbooked trades,
15. Unsettled transfers,
16. Unbundled commission details,
17. Prior period positions,
18. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_action “Corporate action”),
19. Transfers (ACAT, internal),
20. Cash transactions,
21. CFD changes,
22. IBG notes,
23. Interest accruals,
24. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_%28finance%29 “Security (finance)”) borrowed / lent,
25. Securities borrowed / lent activity,
26. Securities Borrowed / Lent fee details,
27. Change in dividend accruals,
28. Open dividend accruals,
29. Security information, etc.
10. If for some reason you want to select a smaller subset which I generally don’t recommend this worked for me but I didn’t test it exhaustively. I think it is better to have extra information and let Mint discard it than to miss something important:
1. Account Information
2. Cash Report
3. Settlement Funds
4. Trades
5. Option Exercises, Assignments & Expirations
6. Incoming / Outgoing Trade Transfers
7. Corporate Actions
8. Transfers (ACAT, Internal)
9. Cash Transactions
10. Interest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accrual “Accrual”)
11. Security Information
11. Save your query and note the Query ID which is generally 5 digits long (probably 6 after all those Minters create a bunch of Queries, lol)
3. Now navigate to: Reports -> Delivery Settings -> Flex Web Service. You will see you have a token ID which you will need to provide Mint.com. Word of caution : The Token ID has a predefined period of time through which is valid. The default token lasts only 6 hours! I would recommend generating a new token with a validity period of 1 year. Once the year is over you are going to have to update this information on Mint.com most likely. Hopefully once Mint.com releases instructions you can also restrict which (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address “IP address”) has access to that token. Take note of your new token ID as you´ll need it on Mint.com
4. Navigate to Mint.com and add a new account as you would generally do. Your accounts -> Financial -> Add account.
1. One you find Interactive Brokers on the list, provide the information required on the screen:
1. TOKEN (for yourInteractive Brokers account): Provide the Token ID from step K
2. QUERY (for yourInteractive Brokers account): Provide the Query ID from step J which is a number.
Remember:
- If you get an error on the screen (like, temporary connectivity issue) it is because you have too much data coming in into Mint.com and the system can´t process it. After the initial sync Mint.com will ignore all data in the past and will only look for new data on the query.
- If your trades, account value, etc does not look correct DELETE the account and add it again following this instructions. You should add all available information in the query for that information to display properly.
Known issues:
- Temporary connectivity issues appear sporadically.
- When adding the account for the first time you can get connectivity issues if you select a very long date range for your flex report.
- The transaction log shows trades but does not show the Symbol for the security, therefore the positions are not reflected correctly.
Updates from Mint.com:
Received an update from the issue submitted when it didn’t allow me to add more than 30 calendar days… However my account still shows a $0 balance. **Mint: Interactive Brokers Error 112 **
| Mint.com Customer Service support@quickenonline.com | Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 5:04 PM |
|---|---|
| Reply-To: “Mint.com Customer Service” support@quickenonline.com To: | |
| Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you. | Subject |
Mint: Interactive Brokers Error 112
Response (CustomerCentral Support) | 02/15/2013 03:04 PM
We are pleased to inform you that your bank issue in Mint.com has been resolved. The resolution has been implemented and this bank account should be ready for your use in Mint.com.Also, please feel free to contact us through our contact form at https://wwws.mint.com/support.event? with any additional questions or to report a new issue.All the best, The Mint Customer Service Team
Customer (Carlos) | 01/26/2013 09:21 AM
Added an account
| After submitting the requested information showing the bugs: Response (Shelane D.) | 02/13/2013 07:10 AM |
|---|---|
| Dear Juan Carlos,We appreciate the information that you have provided. In order to provide the most accurate response, I need to seek advice from my team lead. I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.I appreciate your patience in the meantime. Best, Shelane D. Mint.com | |
| Dear Carlos, Thank you for contacting Mint.com. In order to assist you further, I am going to have to ask an engineer to look into the issue. Because this work will be prioritized against other issues, I can’t confirm when we’ll have a fix, but I will keep you posted as I get updates. Thanks for your continued patience as we work to resolve this issue, we apologize for the inconvenience. Best, Shelane D. Mint.com |
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Summary
You’ve successfully learned add your interactive brokers account(s) to your mint.com account. If you run into any issues, double-check the prerequisites and ensure your Mint.com environment is properly configured.