Transferring data between two Gnucash files

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

Jesse C <crimson.corelio at gmail.com> writes:

[snip]
> Uhm, I am trying to account (haha) for the double-entry part of it.  Going
> back to my original example, I want to import the following transaction:
>
> (Liability Account) Husband A/L:Shared Expenses:Owed to Him:Merged  +50
> (Expense Account) Expenses:Housing:Rent  +50
>
> That's a fully balanced gnucash entry (or maybe it should be -50 for the
> expense, if that's how you think about things.  Either way it is increasing
> the expense # and driving the liability)
>
> I want to import that transaction using QIF files.  What I was hoping to be
> able to do is make one QIF account from the Liability account and one for the
> Expense Account and have GnuCash match them up when I import them.  Is that
> being too optimistic about the QIF importer?

You don't need to do that.  All you need to do is create a QIF file for
the transaction from the Liability account.  E.g.:

Husband.qif:
!Type:Oth L
P...
M...
N...
T50.00
LExpenses:Housing:Rent
^

This assumes that this is a Liability account.  If it's an asset then
you could use use !Type:Bank or !Type:Oth A.

When you import this QIF file you map the Qif Account "Husband" to the
GnuCash Account "Husband A/L:Shared Expenses:Owed to Him:Merged".  And
the QIF Category "Expenses:Housing:Rent" to the GnuCash Account
"Expenses:Housing:Rent".  Eh viola.  You have your transaction imported.

> Since I know every account before I start importing, on both sides of the
> transactions, I can specify this.

Correct.

>     [snip]
>     > I don't need splits, but having looked at the syntax for OFX, I have to
>     > agree that QIF is a much simpler format.
>    
>     So you never import a Salary with Withholdings?  Okay.
>
> Hmm, there are transactions with multiple-splits.  I may need to use OFX
> then.  Hopefully the java libraries are up to snuff.  Assuming that what I
> want to do is possible at all.

No, you *CANNOT* use OFX then.  OFX does not support that.  QIF Can.
You just need to add the S, M, and $ tags to specify the split
categories instead of using L.

> cheers
> jesse

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available