Hello, My name is Roberto and I'm a Microsoft Money user...

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

Roberto Leibman <roberto at leibman.net> writes:

> So, for the nth time in I don't know how long, I'm going to try
> converting to gnucash. This time I'm not going to try converting every
> single account (open and closed) that I've accumulated, in fact, I've
> decided to just stick with the accounts I have open and those only for
> the past three months or so, and actually, I'm not even exporting them
> From Money but will try to recreate them from the bank's QIF. 

I'd still recommend you import your data from Money....  But it's
of course up to you.

>  As you can
> imagine I have lots of questions, not only about how to do particular
> things, but as to good general strategies that other users may be
> following. So here's a first round, some of these are just "nice to
> have":

I'll answer whatever I can...

> 1) Printing. In Money, when I enter a check transaction I have the
>    option to choose 'Print' for check number, checks therefore queue
>    to be printed. I use checks that come 3 to a sheet, and it is very
>    convenient to just enter them all, then print them all, then sign
>    them all then stuff all of the envelopes. What is the equivalent
>    strategy in gnucash? Is there a way to print more than one check at
>    a time? I could see a way to print a single check, and of choosing
>    which of the three vouchers to use, but I'd hate to have to reload
>    the same page three times unecessarily.

Right now GnuCash can only print one check at a time.  It cannot queue
checks to be printed.  It CAN print multiple checks on a single page,
but you need to print them one at a time (meaning the paper needs to
go through the printer three times).

See bug# 86636.

> 2) Importing. My bank (BofA) gives me the option to download to
>    Quicken Web Connect, Money Active Statement (ofx), 2 digit QIF or 4
>    digit QIF. Which is the prefered method for Gnucash?

Any but the first should be fine.  I'd recommend OFX, then 4-digit
QIF.  GnuCash does not yet support Direct Connect (because libofx does
not yet support it).  Once libofx supports it, integrating into
Gnucash should be relatively easy.

> 3) Forecast. In MSMoney, I can take a look at a nice graph that shows
>    (given all scheduled transactions) the curve of available moneys in
>    a timeframe. This is very convenient to maximize my interest and
>    makes my daily averages look better, it helps me choose the best
>    time to send particular payments. Is there something similar in
>    gnucash?

Nope.  Bug #87538.

> 4) MSMoney lets me automatically download my American Express
>    transactions. Though I can log into the website and download the
>    transactions manually, it's nice that it does it automatically.

This is the same as #2.  It requires Direct Connect.

> Has anyone perchance written a how-to for us poor MSMoney or Quicken
> users? How to get through the shock?

Nope.  Care to donate one?

> Thanks a lot for your patience and time.
>
> Roberto Leibman

-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