Invoice & payment import script

[Geert Janssens]

Op vrijdag 17 februari 2012 12:52:15 schreef Reuben Cummings:
> I wrote a script to import invoices and payments into the gnucash
> database. It seems to work ok but in the accounts payable register,
> the 'Type' column displays '?' instead of 'P' or 'I'. Is there a
> setting in the database that controls this behavior or will I have to
> modify each transaction in the register individually? Also, is there
> anything I should be careful of with the database?
> 
> Reuben

Hi Reuben,

I'm afraid you don't give much context here to evaluate your effort.

It is for example not clear to me what you are trying to achieve exactly. I 
read that you want to import invoices and payments. But are you only 
interested in creating transactions for it, or do you also want these imported 
invoices to be fully integrated in the business functions of GnuCash ? The 
latter certainly requires more than only adding transactions.

How does your script work ? Do you use the gnucash (scheme or python) api to 
enter invoices and payments into your gnucash database or are you adding those 
directly ? The latter is not a good idea, since you will be bypassing all the 
business logic and sanity checks that are run when using the gnucash api.

And apart from that, to me the bi-importer plugin seems to do a similar thing. 
It's not built by default though, so you will have to build gnucash yourself. 
Have you considered using this plugin or is it doing something totally 
different ?

I hope I'm not discouraging you with all these questions and warnings... I 
would just like you to end up with a script that is safe and future proof to 
use.

Geert