Questrade exports and your pooled ACB

Questrade account activity is a useful starting point for an adjusted cost base ledger, but an export needs to be matched to its purpose. Transaction history, trade confirmations, and tax slips are different documents. For a running ACB record, begin with the transaction history and keep the confirmations and slips as supporting checks.

myCostBase’s Questrade mapping is production-supported. Preview the file before committing it, and verify the ownership and taxable status of the destination account. An import can organize the rows you provide; it cannot supply earlier purchases or outside holdings that are absent from the file.

Download account activity rather than a holdings snapshot

Questrade’s reporting guidance directs users to Reports and the transaction-history view. Select the account and date range, then use Export to Excel. If the download is a workbook, retain that original and save the activity worksheet as CSV for the CSV importer. Preserve the column headers and review dates after conversion.

Do not substitute the investment-summary download: it describes a position rather than the events that created it. Trade confirmations are useful for individual amounts, but a trade-only export may omit other activity you need to review. Keep the original history file before making mapping corrections.

Export a period that includes the opening history required for the positions you are calculating. If the available history starts with holdings already in place, obtain earlier records or establish a supported opening balance. A recent export does not prove an opening ACB of zero.

Check the fields in the preview

The Questrade mapping uses Transaction Date, Action, Symbol, Quantity, Price, Net Amount, Commission, Currency, and Description. The recognized header signature also includes Gross Amount. Keep these distinct so a net cash amount is not mistaken for a price per share.

The importer derives the trade amount from the net amount and commission according to the transaction type. Review a purchase and a sale against their confirmations: acquisition cost and sale proceeds have different relationships to commissions. Do not manually add the commission to every source amount and then leave the separate commission field populated.

Description is especially important for option activity. The parser uses contract information in that text to distinguish options and construct readable contract identifiers. Replacing descriptions with a generic label can remove information needed to interpret an opening, closing, expiry, or assignment event.

Understand what classification can and cannot establish

The parser distinguishes supported trading actions from cash-only activity. An ordinary cash dividend, deposit, or withdrawal is not automatically an ACB purchase. A dividend reinvestment, however, needs the corresponding purchase history and quantity. Check those events explicitly rather than assuming every distribution row should enter the securities ledger in the same way.

Some option actions require chronological position history to identify the correct event. An isolated expiry or assignment row may be insufficient without the earlier opening transaction. If an import issue identifies an ambiguous event, resolve it from the confirmation and prior position; do not change its label merely to suppress the issue.

The mapping’s date field is Transaction Date. Compare the preview with the confirmation’s trade and settlement information, particularly around year-end or a superficial-loss review. Retain both dates where available and confirm the date used for tax reporting rather than relying on the column name alone.

Worked example with an outside holding

Assume you bought 100 identical shares at Questrade for $30 each and paid a $10 commission. You also bought 50 shares at another taxable brokerage for $40 each with a $5 commission. There are no other holdings or adjustments.

The pooled cost is $3,010 + $2,005 = $5,015 for 150 shares. The ACB per share is $33.4333333. If you sell 60 shares at Questrade for $2,700 and pay a $10 selling commission, the allocated ACB is $2,006 and the gain is $684.

A calculation using only the Questrade purchase would allocate $1,806 of cost and show an $884 gain. The $200 difference arises from the missing outside holding. It is not evidence that the Questrade source row itself is incorrect. Import or enter the other brokerage’s history into the same owner’s taxable pool.

The T5008 checker helps compare a later slip with the supported disposition. The pooled ACB article explains why the account in which you sold does not isolate the tax cost.

Reconcile the year-end documents

Questrade explains that its Trading Summary and T5008 do not by themselves provide the investor’s actual realized capital gain or loss. Compare the slip’s proceeds and cost fields with your completed ledger. Use the trading summary to locate missing or duplicated sales and the confirmations to check expenses.

ETF return-of-capital and reinvested-distribution adjustments may require issuer or tax-package evidence beyond the activity export. Retain the supporting amounts and dates, and apply them to the relevant pool before finalizing a sale calculation. Do not assume a cash distribution line identifies its final tax character.

Keep a reconciliation note for each material difference. A useful note identifies the security, sale, source figure, ledger figure, and the transaction or adjustment explaining the gap. “Software says otherwise” is not an explanation that a future reviewer can reproduce.

Common mistakes and the final import check

Avoid importing the same period from both an annual export and a monthly file without reviewing overlap. Avoid treating an incoming transfer as a new purchase at current market value. Avoid replacing a contract description or ticker until the security identity is established.

Before committing, compare quantities, currencies, commissions, and a sample of classified transaction types with the original export. After committing, reconcile closing quantities by account and the combined taxable pool. Retain the original CSV, any conversion workbook, the import review notes, and the final ledger export.

The Free plan includes unlimited manual entry, plus 100 imported transactions. Paid plans allow unlimited transaction CSV imports; T5008 batch-import and reporting features have separate plan limits. Check supported brokers and pricing for the current scope before choosing a workflow.