OFX Importer and Transaction Matcher

[Derek Atkins]

"Berck E. Nash" <flyboy at gmail.com> writes:

> Derek Atkins wrote:
>> I disagree that ANY uncleared transactions should be a candidate to
>> match..  However it's possible that the match-chooser algorithm can be
>> improved.
>
> Well, either the matching algorithm needs to get much, much better, or 
> there needs to be a way to manually match transactions...

Agreed; most of my experience is with the QIF importer, not the OFX
importer.  I don't actually have a good idea what the OFX importer's
algorithm does.  I'm hoping that Benoit will chime in soon.

> I'll point this out-- in the years I was using Quicken, I don't recall 
> that it ever failed to properly automatically match transactions.  I 
> understand that the traansaction matcher is probably still in its 
> infancy and some paatience is needed.  But my complaint is not simply 
> that it's failing to automatically matching the correct transactions, 
> it's not even giving me the correct transaction as an option to manually 
> match!  My only recourse has been to skip importing the transaction 
> alltogether and manually mark it as clear.  Then next time I import, I 
> have to once again skip the transaction.  It's really, really annoying. 
>  For EFTs with a description, sometimes I'll actually delete my manual 
> entry off the transaction then import the version from the OFX file as a 
> new transaction.  This doesn't work for checks since the description is 
> "CHECK".
>
> If offering up every uncleared transaction as a possible match is too 
> much, how about every uncleared transaction with the SAME AMOUNT?  It 
> only makes sense.
>
> To give you a concrete example:  Yesterday I tried to import a $100 
> transaction and the ONLY ONE it offers as a possible match is a $40 
> transaction!  Yet there were TWO $100 uncleared transactions it should 
> have listed as a match...

What are the dates of the transactions?  The matcher should look for
<date> +/ <date_delta> and <amount> +/- <amount_delta>

> It's not like I'm dealing with more than 30-50 transactions a month... 
> Most with different amounts.  It seems like it really should be able to 
> figure it out.

Agreed, it certainly sounds like you're hitting a deficiency in the
matcher.

-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