On 12th Aug 2023, Sudheer Tammini announced that he had developed a “simple Free & Open source software that I have developed to export Mutual Funds CAMS statement data onto a nice CSV file”. We asked him to share more details with us. Cams2CSV could be helpful to users of the freefincal MF portfolio tracker on Google Sheets.
About the author: My name is Sudheer Tammini based out of Bangalore; living with my wife and seven years old son, and I’m an MBA Finance graduate by qualification. The fun fact, I do not have a technical degree, and I’m a self-thought programmer with endless curiosity about Technology and Computers, currently exploring Deep Learning. In my free time, I do a lot of tinkering with Computers and write a blog at www.settingbox.com.
Personal Finance: My personal finance journey started back in 2014 with Direct Equity and Regular Mutual Funds (like many) and the journey, I’ve come across people like Pattu, P.V Subramanyam, and Deepak Shenoy and started reading/listening to their blogs/podcasts.
I’ve slowly started learning Personal Finance concepts like Direct Mutual Funds, How Index funds work, why we need to Emergency fund, Portfolio re-balancing etc. In the process, I’ve slowly built a reasonably large portfolio consisting of various instruments like Mutual Funds, T Bills, PPF, EPF etc.
However, there was one problem here, since I was investing all my money directly (without any third-party platform), it has become hard for me to track all my investments. So that’s when I came across a platform called Perfios –PFM (a reputed company based in Bangalore). I’ve opted for their platform.
🔥Secure your future with our Robo-advisory tool trusted by over 3,500 investors and advisors. From effortless retirement planning to funding your children’s biggest dreams, turn your financial goals into reality. 🔥
Subscribe for money management solutions via email! (Link takes you to our email sign-up form) Join 32,000+ readers in our community.
👉 New Tool Alert! NaviPlan: A Privacy-Focused Multi-asset Tracker and Goal Planner 👈
I was a paid member, and the platform was fantastic with all the automated aggregation features. I need to upload my CAMS statement then all my Mutual Funds data get updated and tabulated in a friendly dashboard format with all kinds of reporting.
But due to business reasons, they have shut down their platform effective Aug 2023, so I started thinking about what next.
My thought process this time was different; why not build something my own instead of depending on others? So that’s when I started building a simple Portfolio Tracker using Google Sheets. I’ve completed it in a couple of days, but that’s when reality hits me hard.
Since I have invested in Mutual Funds for a long time, my CAMS statement had many entries. So how do I bring all these entries from a PDF statement to Google Sheets? Of course, one way is to copy and paste each line manually, which is inefficient and painfully time-consuming.
That’s when I started testing my Python skills to try and see if I could automate this process. I’ve spent a couple of weeks exploring this option and finally built a simple tool to export all CAMS entries to CSV files with a single click. The good thing is I’ve learned so much in this process.
Since the tool was working so well and saving a lot of time for me, I’ve decided to open-source it so that others can also benefit from this tool.
How to use Cams2Csv
It is an app that can be downloaded for Windows and Ubuntu from Github (link below). The UI is very simple and self-explanatory.
Install Cams2CSV from Github. Choose “Run as administrator” to install the exe on Windows.
Step 0: Request CAMS detailed (not summary) Mutual Fund statement from MyCams (link)
Step 1: Click on the Browse button and select your CAMS PDF file
Step 2: If your PDF statement is password protected (in most cases, yes), click on the “Password?” Checkbox
Step 3: Enter your password and hit Submit button – that’s it.
A CSV file will be saved in your Downloads folder in a couple of minutes.
If you find the tool useful or have any feedback, please contact the author via Twitter: Sudheer Tammini. I tried the tool, and almost 1000 transactions were neatly exported onto a CSV file which can be opened on Excel or any spreadsheet tool for further manipulation.
Cams2CSV could be helpful to users of the freefincal MF portfolio tracker on Google Sheets.