I have never attached anything to the new SAR Report and I'm wondering if an attachment would also be listed in the narrative as supporting documentation. I'm thinking it would, but I'm not sure.

I hope not - filed my first with an attachment today and did not list it.

Make sure you mark the attachment indicator and:

6. Supporting Documentation: Filers can include a single Microsoft Excel compatible comma separated values (CSV) file with no more than one megabyte of data as an attachment to the FinCEN SAR. The contents of this file must be described in Part V.

Oops. Missed that one.

Thanks much, Randy.

Greg, did you have any trouble filing with the attachment? I tried but for three days I kept getting an error message after I hit submit saying the form hadn't been signed with a PIN (it had and I had saved the document after it was signed). I called the Helpline and also e-mailed them but never got a response. Finally, I removed the attachment and the submission went through.

FinCEN held a webinar on new SARs where they discussed what they wanted to see in the attachment. You can see the presentation here (they talk about attachments somewhere in the middle)
http://www.fincen.gov/whatsnew/html/20120928.html

Mine went on the first try.

You are suppose to mention the attachment in the narrative, according to what a Treasury Dept official told me. They only get the narrative,and don't retrieve the attachment unless they know it has been attached.
I filed my first one without mentioning it. Now, I attach the document and in the narrative refer to the activity listed on the attachment.

As noted in the instructions copied above...

We rely heavily upon the csv attachment, and will often put multiple tables into one sheet. So to add to what NotDoneYet said, not only is it helpful to indicate that there is an attachment, it's also beneficial to describe what's on it and where. For example, you can use some language along the lines of "For additional details regarding John Doe's suspicious cash deposits, see rows 1-10 of the attached file (13-123.csv); for additional details of his suspicious wires, see rows 12-20 of the attached file (13-123.csv)." In my opinion, you should treat the attachment like any table or figure in a written report, and describe what it means so the unfamiliar audience can better comprehend it.

I had this same problem, and also spent about an hour and a half on the phone with a tek from Help Desk at FinCEN. We eventually determined that it didn't like whatever I had named my CSV file. It had a character in it that wasn't accepted. Try re-naming your file, don't include any special characters. I blew his mind when he heard me discover that. It was a frustrating process.

Thank you. That must be what the problem was. I just checked the name for the file I was trying to attach and it did include a special character. It would have been nice to know that ahead of time since my SAR ended up being filed late (without the attachment) while I was waiting for FinCEN to return either my phone call or my e-mail (neither of which has been returned to date). It might also be nice if they fix the error message because it kept saying the form hadn't been signed with a PIN when it had been.