Newbie questions

[warlord at MIT.EDU]

Hi,

Rory Campbell-Lange <rory at campbell-lange.net> writes:

> 1. Import and Export
> --------------------
>
> I've successfully imported a file from my bank's website which has a QIF
> format. Big suprise! However I have been running my (very small)
> company's accounts using Filemaker over the last 18 months and would
> ideally like to import this data which could be presented in .csv or
> .tab formats.

GnuCash cannot import a csv or tab format file.

> I'd like to know how easy it is to export data to csv or something like
> that. My accountant uses Excel and I'd like to back my accounts up to
> postgres. 

You could write a report to generate the HTML table and export it that
way, but there is no QIF/CSV/TAB export, either.  Also note that
postgres does NOT support any of the business features
(customer/vendors, invoices/bills, etc).  So if you plan to use the
business features, you're (currently) stuck with the lame XML file
format.

> 2. VAT
> ------
>
> In the UK most transactions require VAT to be paid at 17.5%, which is
> then recouped by Customs and Excise. Do I have to do a transaction split
> on every VATable item to render it to a VAT account?

Yes, this is how you have to do it unless you use the Tax Table
support in the Invoice/Bill features.

> 3. Dealing with imported data
> -----------------------------
>
> I have a personal bank account for which I would like all the data to be
> simply imported, and not be required to run a transaction against each
> entry. Is this possible to achieve?

I dont understand...  Could you rephrase the question?

> Similarly, is it possible to define a default transaction for any
> imported data when imported to a particular account?

Again, I don't understand the question...  Are you trying to match
an imported transaction to a hand-entered transaction?

> Is it possible to detect duplicate data entries on import? (i.e. when I
> have data from the same dates mistakenly imported twice.)

Yes.

> 4. Fonts
> --------
>
> OK, this isn't a fair question! I'm running Debian testing/unstable and
> I spend my life in blackbox/xterms. The only app I use at the moment
> with a conventional gui is Firebird, which has very smooth fonts.
> Gnucash's fonts look very jaggedy in comparison. Messing around with the
> font preferences hasn't helped (in fact, the display fonts don't change)
> -- maybe the error message noting a missing library (libxfce.so) has
> something to do with it?

This is a problem with gnome1.  It will get fixed with the gnome2
port, which has real, anti-aliased fonts.  There isn't much you can do
until then.  Sorry.

> Thanks for all and any help.
> Rory

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available