Using Downloads of Accounts

[marcus.wolschon at googlemail.com]

On Mon, 18 May 2009 14:27:37 -0700, Robert Smits <bob at rsmits.ca> wrote:
> I'm finding very little information at my local credit union about
> downloading 
> my account activity, (although I've sent a request for more info),
although
> 
> when I'm interactively online, it says I can download accounts activity
in 
> the following formats:
> 
> Download to Quicken
> Download to Quickbooks
> Download to Microsoft Money
> Download to Simply Accounting
> Download to Comma Delimited Text
> Download to PDF

> With these options, which one would give me the least amount of trouble
to 
> import into Gnucash?

Comma Delimited Text (CSV) is the only one in this
list that makes sense. Note that CSV is not CSV.
One can have "accountid;sum;currency;description" while
another bank could use something like 'date,time,"description",sum,balance'
so there can only be a csv-import for the format of one
bank, not a general one unless it can be configured to
match the format of that one bank.

> Is there a recommended url for documentation on how to accomplish this?

That depends on what program you want to make the import
with or what language you want to use to write your import.

> 
> Lastly, it occurs to me that downloading account activity will result in
> all 
> my cheques only being noticed by the credit union when they clear, not
when
> I 
> write them. Do I stop entering my cheques in Gnucash and only use the
> banking 
> data? It seems to me if i do that I can miss cheques that take a long
time
> to 
> clear. 
> 
> How do the rest of you deal with this?
> 
> Bob