Moving from Quickbooks

[Keith Lofstrom]

Howdy all.

I'm new to this list, though I scanned through the archives and didn't
see much that applies.  The question:

How do I transition from Windoze/QuickBOOKS/Current-Accountant to a
Microsoft-free alternative like gnucash?  I currently have about 13
years of accounting data stored in Quickbooks, which seems to be
"Write Only"; the program does not seem to want to export the actual
data except as printer files.  I generally bring a disk to my accountant
every year at tax time, who does his magic.  I am not interested in
re-entering 4000 or so transactions, losing access to my accounting
trail, etc.

The ideal solution, probably impossible, would be to move everything
over to gnucash by some miraculous means, then by some other miracle
be able to export .QBW or .QBB files that my accountant could read.

Another solution would be to run Quickbooks under Wine.  Can't make
it install, though.  I'm a chip designer, not a wizard.  I don't
especially like Intuit's data obfuscation policy, but their program
is OK, and as long as I pay for it they don't send me threat letters.

Another solution would be to learn the miraculous data translation
technique, and then an accountant that wants to use gnucash (yet
still knows all the magic tax voodoo for the U.S. and Oregon).  

Perhaps there are other solutions.  I'm sitting here pinned between
a festering dislike of Microsoft, and a festering dislike of the IRS,
and hoping to minimize the money given to either one.  I'm not 
interested in violating copyrights, even the ludicrous ones they
are currently claiming, but dammit, it's my data!

Is there a good solution, or am I stuck paying Bill and Sam?

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom           keithl@ieee.org         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs