Handling bank transfers from savings to checking

[David T.]

Russell, Randy--

Russell-- I'll admit I didn't look at the article you linked to; I think you're missing some points within Gnucash.

It is my experience that the QFX importer does an admirable job of matching transactions that are already present in my Gnucash data file. I do what you describe on a regular basis, and import QFX files with transactions from one account to another within an institution, as well as for transactions between institutions, and pretty much without fail, these imported transactions are matched to the existing ones. 

The first import creates the transaction; subsequent imports match to that first one. My process is reliable enough that the matcher even automatically chooses the right destination account most times (I am still, unfortunately, stuck with editing the descriptions to be human-readable).

I suspect that you are not allowing the matcher to do its thing--check first that the Bayesian matching preference is checked (somewhere in Preferences), and then work through your first import, making sure to modify transactions to reflect your accounts. Then, the next import should pick up most of your accounts automatically. And it should match the second import's transaction to the first.

HTH, 
David

--- On Wed, 5/5/10, Russell Mercer <rmercer206 at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Russell Mercer <rmercer206 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Handling bank transfers from savings to checking
> To: "Randy Arrasmith" <rca at san.rr.com>
> Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Date: Wednesday, May 5, 2010, 11:14 AM
> Randy,
> 
> Just did a quick search, and found this article.  It
> is a direct
> connect between your bank and GnuCash, password
> protected.  It does
> the same thing you are doing, importing bank account
> transactions
> directly to your account register in GnuCash.  What
> seems promising is
> that part of the setup is matching your GnuCash accounts to
> the bank
> accounts.  This matching might enable it to correctly
> handle transfers
> between accounts.
> I'm not exactly sure, but worth a shot if you are willing
> to do this
> type of online connection.
> 
> Russell
> 
> On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 10:44 AM, Randy Arrasmith <rca at san.rr.com>
> wrote:
> > Russell,
> >        Thank you for the response.  I created a
> new file (in a new folder) to experiment with the suggestion
> to import multiple qfx files at one time.  The dialog
> window will not allow selection of multiple files (and again
> google and the mailing list did not yield insight :( .  I
> tried holding shift, control, option, and command keys.  I
> also tried opening them one at a time with the generic
> import transaction matcher open to see if that would work
> but it resulted in multiple matcher windows, so no luck
> there.  I should mention, in case this is supposed to work
> but doesn't on my platform/version, I am using OS X 10.6.3
> and GNUCash 2.2.9 (stable version downloaded a few days
> ago).
> >        How is the multiple file import supposed to
> work?  This would be exciting to get this to work...
> >
> > Thank you,
> > Randy
> >
> > On May 4, 2010, at 4:36 PM, Russell Mercer wrote:
> >
> >> Randy,
> >>
> >> I think your initial instinct is correct.  For
> the existing
> >> transaction that you have imported, change one of
> them to be a
> >> transfer between accounts, then delete the
> duplicate transaction that
> >> appears in the other account.
> >>
> >> For new imports of the qfx files, there is a way
> to import multiple
> >> qfx files at one time.  You simply attach more
> files to the import
> >> session.  Then, as the import process goes
> through, it will look for
> >> transactions that are transfers between accounts,
> and should link them
> >> as you say, instead of creating duplicate
> transactions.
> >>
> >> I will say that diligence is always necessary on
> import.  I always go
> >> through and make sure that my account balances
> match what I think they
> >> should be, after the import has completed.
> >>
> >> Hope this helps.
> >> Russell
> >>
> >> On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 4:10 PM, Randy Arrasmith
> <rca at san.rr.com>
> wrote:
> >>> I am new to accounting software so please
> excuse me if I am asking a basic question.  I did a search
> of the mailing list and on google but could not find an
> answer to this question which seems like others would have
> come across the same situation: I have downloaded a .qfx
> file for my saving account and one for my checking account.
>  I had previously transferred $450 dollars from saving to
> checking at the bank and this transaction appears in each
> .qfx.  The problem I am having is GNUCash treats them as
> two separate transactions (because of the two different
> files).  So when I tried to "transfer" the savings
> transaction in GNUCash from Imbalance (which is the default
> import listing) to checking, it creates a second transaction
> in checking and checking is now $450 more than it should be.
>  I think a simple solution would be to delete the "other"
> transaction from checking first but this doesn't seem clean.
>  Is there a way to select two transactions and link them
> for this scenario?!
> >>>   I don't mind doing it once, but it seems
> without knowing how to deal with this, I would have to
> manually do it each time I transfer funds at my bank and
> import the data.  Surely others have downloaded multiple
> .qfx(s) and have moved money around at the bank.
> >>>
> _______________________________________________
> >>> 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.
> >>>
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
> 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.
>