GnuCash: transaction dates on import

[Fred Bone]

On 24 May 2009 at 19:59, David Reiser said:

> 
> On May 24, 2009, at 12:02 PM, PaulDavidSumner wrote:
> 
> >
> > When importing an .ofx into GnuCash (2.2.8 Portable), the dates  
> > shown for the
> > transactions are 1 day earlier than shown when the same .ofx is  
> > imported
> > into Microsoft Money. My concern with this is that the Microsoft  
> > Money dates
> > match those shown in HSBC Internet Banking, i.e. if one of the 3  
> > tools is
> > 'wrong' it would appear to be GnuCash.
> >
> > Does this sound like any known issue?
> >
> > (The reason for the use of Microsoft Money is I am temporarily using  
> > the 2
> > tools in parallel until I am more competent with GnuCash. I previously
> > attempted to switch to GnuCash in a big bang and made a mess of it,  
> > so want
> > to ensure I do not do the same again until I am fully ready to  
> > switch off
> > using Microsoft Money).
> 
> That's probably a time zone issue. I believe that many (all?) ofx  
> providers use local time in their data files, but gnucash is assuming  
> UTC. I don't think the ofx spec requires a time zone declaration. And  
> I don't remember seeing one in my ofx data streams.

Having just checked the OFX docs (v1.0.3) ... the OFX spec follows 
ISO8601 in making the time zone optional, if and only if the date/time is 
given in UTC ("GMT" as OFX calls it).

IOW, if no time zone is given, then Gnucash is correct in assuming UTC.