Conduit to Freecoins

[Matthew Vanecek]

GNUCash can import properly formatted QIF files.  I believe there is also
work in importing OFX data, with which I am not familiar.

Having a conduit-ized checkbook-type program on a Palm device would be
incredibly handy. I've been trying to work on such a beast for a while
now, but life keeps getting in the way. ;(.  My thought is that the
synchronization should be one-way: the Palm device serves as a temporary
device for recording transactions, using a set database of accounts. 
Transactions would be downloaded from the Palm to GnuCash.  An enhancement
project would include a way to synchronize the accounts database.

FreeCoins seemed to me to be a more complete accounting solution than what
I was planning.  To me, it seems more geared towards people that just want
to maintain their financial info on the Palm.  Trying to keep it
synchronized with GnuCash is going to be a full-fledged project all by
itself.  If a person uses *just* FreeCoins, and only imports the QIF into
GnuCash, then it should be OK.  If, however, a person routinely makes
changes in both places, you'll have to figure out what changes need to be
propagated, how to track those changes, how to mark them as synchronized,
etc.  A program I use with Lotus Notes offers the capability of limiting
synchronization to a specific range of records (last week, last 2 weeks,
etc)--something similar would, as you stated, be necessary due to space
constrictions on the Palm device.

Just some things to think about.....
Good luck.

<quote who="John F. Meinel Jr.">
> Hello all-
> I am currently a developer on the Palm financial program freecoins
> <http://freecoins.sourceforge.net>
> Basically, for any who don't know about it, it is a simple transaction
> program that uses a similar ideology to that of gnu-cash
> (split-transaction, double bookkeeping [if I have the terms correct]).
>   Anyway, I am developing an export program (freecoinsExport) for taking
> the Palm database files and exporting them into other formats (such as
> csv for a spreadsheet, or hopefully QIF for import into Quicken or
> gnu-cash).
> So naturally, I am interested in finding a way to export to a format
> that gnu-cash can import into.  So far my attempts at exporting QIF have
> met with some limited success.  I wasn't able to find a lot of
> information on what the QIF format should really be.
> There has also been some work to create an XML formatted document that
> is similar in design to the gnu-cash system.  However, [at least people
> tell me] that there isn't an easy way to import an XML file into
> gnu-cash. I should also state that I don't have much personal experience
> with gnu-cash.  This has mostly been 3rd party people who tried my
> program, and then offered some suggestions.
> Of course, the ultimate goal would be to create a conduit between
> gnu-cash and freecoins that allows the two programs to stay
> synchronized.  I don't think you would want to keep the full transaction
> record on your Palm (not enough space), but you could keep say the last
> month or so.  I am looking into what all of this would take, and I was
> hoping that I could get some information from the group and see if
> anyone would be interested in working on it with me.
> Thank you very much,
> John
> =:->
>
>
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