Transferring data between two Gnucash files

Mon Jan 9 23:01:37 EST 2012

I prefer OFX, but I think you'll have an easier time getting stuff into QIF. I believe that there are packages that will convert a csv output from Gnucash into a QIF file, but it sounds like you're willing to write an exporter directly for Gnucash. In that case, I believe that QIF is Quicken's format, while OFX is more generic. You will no doubt earn many thanks from the community if you write such an exporter.

The importer has a Bayesian Matching option that learns from your imports, so if you tell the importer which accounts your regular entries should use, it will supply that for you the next time.

David

________________________________
 From: Jesse C <crimson.corelio at gmail.com>
To: Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu> 
Cc: David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>; "gnucash-user at gnucash.org" <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> 
Sent: Monday, January 9, 2012 2:44 PM
Subject: Re: Transferring data between two Gnucash files

Hey Derek,

Thanks for the reply.

I can definitely make a QIF file (or an OFX file).  I've never used the QIF importer in Gnucash.  QIF (and also OFX) appear to be single-entry formats, rather than double-entry formats.  I assume that GnuCash does some guessing as to what balancing account a transaction belongs in based on the memo associated with the transaction?  Which would mean there really isn't a fully automated way to import the information, which would less than stellar, but still better than having to manually enter all the information.  

It also seems like (from the mailing list archive) that the OFX importer can match up transactions from different OFX files with the same date and amount.  So I could technically generate OFX files for each account and once they are all imported, GnuCash will automatically match them up.  Is that correct?

Is there a preference in GnuCash for QIF vs OFX?  There appear to be java bindings in some form for both (and QIF is so simple that writing a generator for it would be trivial), so I can create either with minimal effort. 

Once I get this working, I'll push out the results of my work to the community, in case there are other people who are interested in doing something similar.

cheers

jesse

On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 1:20 PM, Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu> wrote:

Hi,
>
>
>"David T." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> writes:
>
>> As I understand it, there is no facility to do what you want.
>>
>> You already seem to have the mechanics of coordinating the two sets of books; I think that's the prescribed method.
>>
>> Have you considered merging your books? It would reduce the overhead...
>
>My other recommendation is that if you can take the entries from one
>file and programatically decide what you need entered in the other file,
>just generate a QIF file and use the QIF Importer to import those
>additional transactions.
>
>> David
>
>-derek
>
>
>>
>> ________________________________
>>  From: Jesse C <crimson.corelio at gmail.com>
>> To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> Sent: Sunday, January 8, 2012 1:18 PM
>> Subject: Transferring data between two Gnucash files
>>
>> My wife and I both use Gnucash to keep track of our finances, in separate
>> Gnucash files.  There are some expenses that one of us incurs which are
>> shared expenses, that the other person is liable for a portion of (usually
>> half).  Currently all transfer of these expenses is done manually, by
>> exporting a report that contains the expenses, which the other person then
>> has to enter by hand.  That's a lot of work and it sucks.  So I'm looking
>> for a better way to accomplish this.
>>
>> It is easy to export the list of transactions to be transferred as a html
>> file and it is simple to parse the html and obtain a programmatic
>> representation of the data (my languages of choice are Java and Scala, but
>> python, php, lua, etc. are also options, though I don't have any scheme
>> experience).  But once I have that programmatic representation of the data,
>> I don't know what to do with it.  What sort of file can I write that will
>> allow me to import transactions, complete with account information, into
>> gnucash/  I've never used the QIF or OFX functionality in Gnucash, so I'm
>> not sure if one of those would be answer.
>>
>> part of me wants to just switch to the SQL backend and stuff the data in
>> there, but from reading on the wiki this sounds like a terrible idea.
>>
>> To present a quick example:
>>
>> I have a Rent transaction, for a month where I paid the entire amount.
>>
>> (Asset Account) Wife A/L:Shared Expenses:Owed To Me:Housing:Rent  +50
>> (Asset Account) Assets:Current Assets:Checking Account   -100
>> (Expense Account) Expenses:Rent   +50
>>
>> I then export the entire Wife A/L:Shared Expenses account to a report
>> file.  I'd then like to write some new file that she can import which will
>> contain the following transaction
>>
>> (Liability Account) Husband A/L:Shared Expenses:Owed to Him:Merged  +50
>> (Expense Account) Expenses:Housing:Rent  +50
>>
>> I'm not opposed to doing some development work to solve this problem, but
>> some direction would be great.  Thanks for any help.
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> jesse
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>
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>      Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
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