GnuCash 1.8.7, debian packages, OFX, and guile REPL

[Derek Atkins]

Ken Restivo <ken at restivo.org> writes:

> I have GnuCash 1.8.7 via James Treacy's debian woody backports (thank you!!!). But I am in a (verbose) world of hurt.
>
> Problem 1): broken QIF imports
> I tried to import some bank transactions via QIF format, but it came through utterly botched: the descriptions of the transactions doesn't get imported, only "Purchase", thus rendering it useless. 
> Sample QIF data:
> 	D24/8/2003
> 	T-10.75
> 	PPurchase
> 	MTRADER JOE'S #00000679 SAN MATEO,CA 082103
> 	LPoint of sale debit or credit (Note: Depends on signage of amount)
>
> OK, I import this, and "Purchase" shows up, but none of the other information "Trader Joe's", etc) shows up at all, not even in comments/memo/whatever, at least not in the GnuCash registers. And yes, I have it set to view double-line entries. However, the information DOES appear to be in the XML files that GnuCash saves. I just have no idea how to put it in the *right* place: the transaction description. I think the bank is brain-dead and should put the MEANINGFUL data into the "P" field, but GnuCash isn't making life easier by "hiding" the "M" field completely. Arrrgh! I'd love to be able to write some guile that moves *all* of those "M" entries into the right place. But I can't: see problem (3) below.

M == Memo.  It's stored in the Split Memo.  If you go into Split mode
you'll see it.  The P == Payee, which is the Transaction Description.
Your bank is sending you data incorrectly.

> Problem 2): OFX not supported?
> I try to import via OFX instead, hoping against all hope that the bank's OFX data is better-formatted than its QIF data, and maybe I won't have these weird QIF useless/meaningless-data problems. Unfortunately, when I run GnuCash, I can't find any options for importing OFX files. I googled around for "ofx import gnucash how" and found no answers. Um, is it possible to import OFX files into GnuCash? Am I trying to do the impossible?  BTW, the libofx0c102 debian package is installed.  So, maybe I just need to rebuild the package from source, after adding --enable-ofx to debian/rules. Well, theoretically, anyway: /var/lib/apt/lists/people.debian.org_%7etreacy_gnucash.woody_._Sources - open (2 No such file or directory) (Screams of anguish).

Gnucash needs to be built against libofx.  I have no idea why the
debian package doesn't include it.  Normally there would be a
File -> Import -> OFX/QFX menu option.

> Problem 3): no scheme listener
> I would like to customise my tax report to show not only the totals, but the DETAIL transactions for all my tax categories, which is what my tax preparer wants to see. I have a read through /usr/share/gnucash/guile-modules/gnucash/report and I know enough guile to be able to make sense out of it. It looks pretty neat. But what I *really really* want is a guile listener inside GnuCash, so that I can trial-and-error my way through customising reports, without having to quit and restart GnuCash. But I don't see a scheme listener anywhere in GnuCash. OK, then I manually run gnucash/overrides/guile-env and yes, I can start GnuCash from within a guile listener. Yippie! Except, if I start it using gnc:main, it calls gtk-main, which hangs my REPL. Auugh! There *has* to be a way to do this; I'd be shocked if all the GnuCash development through the years has been done without such a fundamental scheme tool as an REPL.

At one point in the long-and-distant past there was a way to get a scheme
shell from gnucash.  Thoses days are no more, now that gnucash is just a
scheme script.  But there isn't much scheme development nowadays.  When
there is, it's usually via trial-and-error, or you could add a menu option
to reload your scheme file.

> If it seems like I am frantically attempting somewhat random things, and hitting a wall each time, it is because time is running out for me. Tax time is fast approaching in the USA, and I'm on a wife-imposed deadline to import the remaining from last year and squeeze the neccessary reports out of GnuCash, to give to my tax guy. I'm stuck with GnuCash now; half of our data is in there now, and it's too late to go back to Quicken. So I must solve at least one of these problems very soon. Any help would be appreciated.

Write a quick perl script that goes over your QIF file and, for each
transaction, swaps the Memo and Payee lines.  At least that would be
IMHO the quickest way to solve ONE of these issues.

> Thanks!
>
> -ken

-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