Duplicate removal for QIF import, 1st try

[Carol Champagne]

Bill Gribble wrote:

 
> There are lots of tweaks to the detection and handling that need to be
> done.  Please let me know what you think the "right" behavior is.

Hi Bill,
I tried this out and couldn't get it to work.... I imported my Quicken
data first, then imported a December Visa statement.  I'd already
entered and reconciled every txn on that statement, but the importer
didn't find any duplicates.  I then tried importing the same Visa 
statement a second time, and this time it found duplicates.  I like that 
it gives you an opportunity to match up txns. before you import, but I'd 
like it to do a few more things.

Here's a "wish list" of how I think I'd like the statement importer to 
work....I'm not sure how hard all this is to do, though, or if anyone 
else would want it to work this way:

--When the user loads a statement QIF, the importer shows *all* the 
statement txns in the left panel.  In the right panel, it shows a list 
of unreconciled txns. in that account. (For ex., a Visa statement on the 
left and the unreconciled GnuCash Visa account txns on the right.)

--The user finds duplicates and clicks to match them up.  As txns. on 
the left are matched with those on the right, the ones on the left 
change sort order so they are directly across from their duplicates on 
the right.

--Once all the txns are matched up, there will still be some on the left 
that don't have duplicates on the right.  For those, the user can either 
choose to "Add All", "Add", or "Ignore."  If the user chooses "Add All," 
all remaining statement txns are imported to the account.  If the user 
chooses "Add," an option to edit the txn fields appears and the user can 
edit each txn before importing it.  "Ignore" tells the importer not to 
import that txn.

--The user clicks "Finish" to complete the import.


Once the import is done, a dialog can ask, "Do you want to reconcile 
this account now?"  If the user clicks "Yes", the reconcile dialog pops 
up, asks for an ending balance and then displays all of the 
matched/imported accounts as cleared. If the balances don't agree, the 
user can either postpone recon. or jump to the account to correct errors.

One more item for the wish list---what about storing the mappings from 
statements in a file somewhere?  For example, Visa might call a payee 
"CompUSA12345689" with no transfer account, whereas I call it "CompUSA" 
with a transfer account of "Computer."  Once I match up the two 
transactions, GnuCash creates a mapping that it will use the next time I 
import a Visa statement.  So each time I import a statement, I improve 
GnuCash's ability to "guess" the correct GnuCash matching next time.  If 
it doesn't find a duplicate txn. to match, then GnuCash can use this 
information to auto-fill the txn. fields when importing, based on 
previous matching.

Just my $.02. :-)

Thanks,
Carol