QIF Import and accounts

Mon Dec 17 03:41:28 EST 2007

Georg,

Thanks for posting this in user. This is really where an issue like this
should be posted.

I picked up on what your problem might be the second time around. I had a
similar problem recently and since you are working with multiple currencies
I'm guessing this is your problem. If you are importing QIF files that have
a different currency than the currency for your locale it will often try to
import the QIF as your locale currency rather than the account currency. I
submitted a bug for this. The QIF import should allow you to select a
currency.

See this mailing list thread:
https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2007-December/thread.html#22727
and the bug report: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=504007
Feel free to add yourself to the notify list on the bug report.

I believe that I was able to import properly by changing the default
reporting currency in the preferences->reporting to the currency I was
importing then doing the import and then changing it back to what it was
before. I would have to try that again when I get home to confirm but give
it a try.

Ian

2007/12/17, Georg Stapper <georgstapper at yahoo.com >:
>
> Hi there.
>
> my checking and savings accounts are with ABSA (ZAR), Barclays (GBP), and
> ING DIBA (EUR). So far I kept track of my accounts with Excel, but that's
> far from perfect and I thought it would take too much time to put it all
> together. I have spent so much time now trying to import my Excel data
> history into a software package that I could have continued with Excel for
> the rest of my life. My wife is freaking out already.
>
> So I am looking for a better option. Strangely enough only the South
> African bank allows to download the transaction data in different formats.
> The other two banks provide only CSV downloands for each account separately.
> My first attempt was MS Money 2007 with QIF files and a category and a
> sub-category, but MS Money does not even recognise the categories of its own
> QIF files. GNU Cash seems to be the better choice then.
>
> Instead of using just two categories I tried to set up the whole account
> structure using the category field and a colon as the account separator.
> This ended up in a mess. So, I decided to set up the account structure by
> hand. A simplified version looks like this:
>
> Assets (EUR)
>     Current Assets (EUR)
>         Cash (EUR)
>             EUR
>             GBP
>             ZAR
>         Checking (EUR)
>             Absa (ZAR)
>             Barclays (GBP)
>                 reimbursed expenses (GBP)
>             Diba (EUR)
>         Savings (EUR)
>             Absa (ZAR)
>             Barclays (GBP)
>             Diba (EUR)
>
> Equity (EUR)
>     opening balance EUR
>     opening balance GBP
>     opening balance ZAR
>
> Expenses (EUR)
>     flat (GBP)
>         renovation (GBP)
>
> Income (EUR)
>     Bonus (EUR)
>         Barclays (GBP)
>
> If I try to import the following QIF files for my Barclays accounts GNC
> comes up with an additional asset account structure due to "QIF import: Name
> conflict with another account" only for the reimbursed expenses.
>
> During the import process the QIF account name and the GNC account name
> for both physical accounts are recognised to be the same. I am happy with
> that.
>
> The problem starts when GNC tries to match the QIF categories its own
> accounts even though they should be exactly the same. It wants to set up
> another account for the reimbursed expenses even though it exsits already:
>         Assets:Current Assets:Checking:Barclays:reimbursed expenses
> By double clicking on the entry the "Select Account" window pops up, but I
> cannot change there anything except setting up another new account. That
> does not help. The same applies to
>         Assets:Current Assets:Savings:Barclays
> and
>         Expenses:flat:renovation.
>
> The result is a mixture of new accounts in the existing account structure
> and a whole new "Asset 2" branch.
>
> I did not go any further to import my EUR and ZAR accounts, because it's a
> mess already at this stage.
>
> First file:
> ------------
> !Account
> NAssets:Current Assets:Checking:Barclays
> DBarclays Checking
> TBank
> /01/08/2007
> $0.00
> ^
> !Type:Bank
> N1
> D03/08/2007
> MEmployer EXPENSES
> T100.00
> PEmployer
> LAssets:Current Assets:Checking:Barclays:reimbursed expenses
> ^
> N2
> D08/08/2007
> MK A C BUILDERS MER
> T-16.00
> PK A C BUILDERS MER
> LExpenses:flat:renovation
> ^
> N3
> D28/11/2007
> MMe
> T-100.00
> PMe
> LAssets:Current Assets:Savings:Barclays
>
> Second file:
> ----------------
> !Account
> NAssets:Current Assets:Savings:Barclays
> DBarclays Tracker Account
> TBank
> /01/8/2007
> $0.00
> ^
> !Type:Bank
> N1
> D29/10/2007
> MMe
> T1000.00
> PMe
> LAssets:Current Assets:Savings:Barclays
> ^
> N2
> D29/10/2007
> MEmployer
> T1000.00
> PEmployer
> LIncome:Bonus:Barclays
> ^
> N3
> D28/11/2007
> MMe
> T100.00
> PMe
> LAssets:Current Assets:Checking:Barclays
> ^
>
>
> I have some questions now:
> 1) Is there anything wrong with my QIF files?
> 2) How do I make GNC import my accounts properly?
> 3) Should I maybe use an older GNC version?
> 4) Does it make sense to enter reimbursed expenses under assets?
>
> I deleted always qif-accounts-map to start all over again.
> I am using GNC 2.2.1, built from r16462 on 2007-08-20 on Windows XP.
>
> Thanx for your help
> Georg
>
>
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-- 
Ian Lewis
ianlewis at member.fsf.org
http://www.ianlewis.org/