question about importing .qif files

[Richard Wackerbarth]

On Fri, 21 Jul 2000, Rob Walker wrote:
> I have 3 1/2 years of
> data there, will it create these new accounts for me as it goes when
> it encounters my new categories while I do my imports?

Fundamentally, yes. The procedure works best if you have exported all of the 
data for another set of books such as Quicken. The import is in two phases.
In the first phase, the files to be imported are examined and gnucash builds 
a working "dictionary" that tells it how to translate from Quicken Accounts 
and Categories to Gnucash Ledger Accounts.
The user is given an opportunity to edit this translation dictionary before 
the second phase when the actual import is performed.

The system works very well with well formed QIF files and most files that 
were generated by programs which come close to meeting the spec.
We are interested in any failures encountered so that we can develop 
appropriate corrections and/or workarounds to enable us to import data from 
any reasonable source.