dealing with invoices and QIF imports

Leigh Morresi dgtlmoon at gmail.com
Wed May 28 04:05:17 EDT 2008


hi all

Ok i just tried to import my QIF by typing "Assets: Accounts Receivable"
into the "To Account:" field of the .QIF importer.

To cut this short - im getting this new account show up after i import

"* Assets 2    QIF Import: name conflict with another account
  * Accounts Receivable  $0.00
"

as per the advice of someone from this list to type in the A/R account


heres the steps i took.



* New file

* select business accounts so i have "Assets: Accounts Receivable"
already

* create a new client called 'test'

* create a new invoice for 'test', i set "Income Account" to
"Income:Sales" as theres no Assets in the drop-down list for this one.
The invoice contains one entry for "project" at a cost of $500

* Post invoice to "Assets: Accounts Receivable"

Now in my account tree i see that ;

Assets:Accounts Receivable is +$500
Income:Sales is +$500

I import the following QIF..

!Type:Bank
D02/05/2008
T500.00
MDIRECT CREDIT INVOICE 01
^

and set "Account Name:" to "Assets:Accounts Receivable"

now im getting a new account called

* Assets 2    QIF Import: name conflict with another account
  * Accounts Receivable  $0.00



Im *really really* struggling to make basic use of gnucash, it seems to
have a lot of features but im not sure why this is so hard?

leigh








On Tue, 2008-05-27 at 21:17 -0400, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Oh, we understand the importance.  The QIF Importer UI was written, oh
> a decade ago... Well before ANY of the current developers even started
> working on GnuCash.  Nobody has offered to re-implement it, and in the
> name of "if it aint broke, don't fix it" nobody has wanted to touch it
> either.
> 
> As for knowing to type <foo>:<bar> --- that UI is EVERYWHERE in the
> application.  The only difference is that elsewhere there are additional
> UI features to help you along, like QuickFill or dropdown lists.  But
> it's there, everywhere, if you look.
> 
> -derek
> 
> Quoting Leigh Morresi <dgtlmoon at gmail.com>:
> 
> > Cool
> >
> > I wish developers would realise how important the UI is.
> >
> > I've been - believe it or not - stuck on this same issue for maybe 2 or
> > 3 years and have just been "plowing ahead" with my old ways and working
> > around having duplicates.
> >
> > All because I should have been selecting an existing account name/branch
> > instead of typing in an arbitrary account name??
> >
> > leigh
> >
> > On Tue, 2008-05-27 at 17:51 -0700, Charles Day wrote:
> >> On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 5:46 PM, Leigh Morresi <dgtlmoon at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>         Cool, i'll give it a go shortly
> >>
> >>         sounds like a bit of an oversight in the UI if it it asking
> >>         for you to
> >>         *type* in an "Account name:" instead of selectin it from a
> >>         list, surely?
> >>
> >> Yeah, it's pretty lame. The QIF importer won't win any beauty
> >> contests.  -Charles
> >>
> >>
> >>         theres nothing else in gnucash that acts this way... it seems
> >>         to be all
> >>         select lists, and users dont know to use the
> >>         "parent{colon}child"
> >>         syntax?
> >>
> >>         leigh
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>         On Tue, 2008-05-27 at 17:36 -0700, Charles Day wrote:
> >>         > On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 5:16 PM, Leigh Morresi
> >>         <dgtlmoon at gmail.com>
> >>         > wrote:
> >>         >         Charles
> >>         >
> >>         >         thanks for your reply
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         >         On Tue, 2008-05-27 at 08:03 -0700, Charles Day
> >>         wrote:
> >>         >         > On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 2:08 AM, Leigh Morresi
> >>         >         <dgtlmoon at gmail.com>
> >>         >         > wrote:
> >>         >         >         heya's
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         Something i've never been able to clear-up
> >>         for
> >>         >         myself even tho
> >>         >         >         i'm
> >>         >         >         following the recipe from the
> >>         documentation, can
> >>         >         someone shed
> >>         >         >         some
> >>         >         >         light?
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         Im creating an invoice, with the 'Income
> >>         account'
> >>         >         set to
> >>         >         >         "Income:consulting" and "Post"'ing it to
> >>         my Assets
> >>         >         -> A/R
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >
> >>         
> >> http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.0/C/gnucash-guide/bus-ar-invoices1.html
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         And then once i receive payment i process
> >>         the
> >>         >         payment as per
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >
> >>         
> >> http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.0/C/gnucash-guide/bus-ar-payment1.html
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         So now now the payment is "Transfer
> >>         account: Assets
> >>         >         ->
> >>         >         >         Checking" which
> >>         >         >         is all cool.
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         now the part i dont understand
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         I'm doing a QIF import from my bank, I
> >>         have a
> >>         >         structure as
> >>         >         >         thus;
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         + Assets
> >>         >         >          - Accounts Receivable
> >>         >         >         + Expenses
> >>         >         >          - Computer Repairs
> >>         >         >         + Income
> >>         >         >          - Consulting
> >>         >         >         + MyBank
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         When I import a .QIF it asks me for an
> >>         'Account
> >>         >         Name' so i
> >>         >         >         enter
> >>         >         >         'MyBank' - now i end up with a 'MyBank'
> >>         entry in my
> >>         >         account
> >>         >         >         tree (whhich
> >>         >         >         is fine i guess? or should this be
> >>         elsewhere?)
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         > If the bank account already exists in GnuCash as
> >>         >         Assets:Checking, then
> >>         >         > that's what you should tell the QIF importer
> >>         instead of
> >>         >         making up a
> >>         >         > new name (MyBank).
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         >         My gnucash gives me a textfield to enter not a
> >>         select list...
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         > Simply type Assets:Checking into the text field, or whatever
> >>         is the
> >>         > name of your existing account.
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         I tell it to put payments in the QIF
> >>         import for
> >>         >         monies for
> >>         >         >         work i've
> >>         >         >         invoced for into "Income:consulting"
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         Now when i view "Income:consulting" i see
> >>         have
> >>         >         duplicates of
> >>         >         >         just about
> >>         >         >         everything, the "Transfer" field says
> >>         either
> >>         >         "Assets->A/R" or
> >>         >         >         "MyBank"
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         so it looks like my income:consulting is
> >>         roughly
> >>         >         twice that of
> >>         >         >         what i
> >>         >         >         should be at.
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         what am i doing wrong?? should i be
> >>         deleting the
> >>         >         items from my
> >>         >         >         "Income:consulting" that have a transfer
> >>         of
> >>         >         "MyBank" ? (so
> >>         >         >         that
> >>         >         >         Income:consulting always shows my total
> >>         income not
> >>         >         includin
> >>         >         >         the fact
> >>         >         >         that those invoices might not have been
> >>         paid - altho
> >>         >         this
> >>         >         >         difference
> >>         >         >         *should* be sighted in accounts
> >>         receivable?)
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         > What you are manually entering into GnuCash sounds
> >>         >         reasonable to me.
> >>         >         > Now if you set up the QIF import correctly, all
> >>         the
> >>         >         transfers from
> >>         >         > Assets:A/R to Assets:Checking that have already
> >>         been entered
> >>         >         by hand
> >>         >         > should get noticed during duplicate detection,
> >>         allowing you
> >>         >         to check
> >>         >         > them off and avoid importing duplicates.  However,
> >>         since you
> >>         >         seem to
> >>         >         > be saying that the imported transactions are
> >>         transferring
> >>         >         from
> >>         >         > Income:Consulting rather than Assets:A/R, take a
> >>         good look
> >>         >         at the
> >>         >         > account, category, and payee/memo mapping pages of
> >>         the QIF
> >>         >         importer.
> >>         >         > Anywhere you see Income:Consulting, you should
> >>         change it to
> >>         >         > Assets:A/R.
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         
> >> http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.0/C/gnucash-guide/bus-ar-invoices1.html
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         >         So you mean on the invoice where it says (in this
> >>         >         documentation under
> >>         >         the Edit section) "Income:sales" it should be
> >>         "Assets:A/R" ?
> >>         >
> >>         > When enter your checking deposits by hand, you are
> >>         transferring from
> >>         > Assets:A/R to Assets:Checking, correct?  And I think you
> >>         said that
> >>         > imported checking deposits are instead transferring from
> >>         > Income:Consulting to Assets:Checking (or would be, if you
> >>         entered
> >>         > Assets:Checking instead of MyBank). If those two things are
> >>         true, then
> >>         > I'm suggesting that while in the QIF importer, you change
> >>         any existing
> >>         > mappings for "Income:Consulting" to "Assets:A/R". Then the
> >>         imported
> >>         > deposits should get detected as possible duplicates of your
> >>         existing,
> >>         > hand-entered deposits.
> >>         >
> >>         > I didn't say anything about changing how you enter invoices.
> >>         I really
> >>         > don't know about the business part of GnuCash.
> >>         >
> >>         > -Charles
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         >         thanks
> >>         >
> >>         >         leigh
> >>         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         > Cheers,
> >>         >         > Charles
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         cheers
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >         leigh
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         >         >
> >>         _______________________________________________
> >>         >         >         gnucash-user mailing list
> >>         >         >         gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> >>         >         >
> >>         >
> >>         https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> >>         >         >         -----
> >>         >         >         Please remember to CC this list on all
> >>         your replies.
> >>         >         >         You can do this by using Reply-To-List or
> >>         Reply-All.
> >>         >         >
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         >         --
> >>         >         Leigh Morresi
> >>         >         +61401883741
> >>         >         dgtlmoon at gmail.com
> >>         >         http://dgtlmoon.com
> >>         >         skype: dgtlmoon
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>         >
> >>
> >>         --
> >>
> >>         Leigh Morresi
> >>         +61401883741
> >>         dgtlmoon at gmail.com
> >>         http://dgtlmoon.com
> >>         skype: dgtlmoon
> >>
> >>
> >>
> > --
> > Leigh Morresi
> > +61401883741
> > dgtlmoon at gmail.com
> > http://dgtlmoon.com
> > skype: dgtlmoon
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > gnucash-user mailing list
> > gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> > -----
> > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> >
> 
> 
> 
-- 
Leigh Morresi
+61401883741
dgtlmoon at gmail.com
http://dgtlmoon.com
skype: dgtlmoon



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