Importing CSV files

Richard Thomas richdthomas at gmail.com
Fri Jul 20 04:51:27 EDT 2012


Hi,

Thanks for pointing all that out, I have given the concepts and tutorial
guide a read and understand about the double accounting system now (which
admittedly I had no idea was the way that GnuCash worked).

There's a few things I'd like explain at this point...

Firstly, the way I have been entering transactions.  If I can take the
"buying a pizza" example (just search the PDF for "pizza" and you'll see
it).  I would typically pay for a pizza using my debit card, so I'd enter
the transaction in my Checking Account (the only account I really use).  So
in the description, I enter the name of the pizza place that I ordered the
pizza from.  The default "Transfer Account" that is used is called
"Imbalance-GBP".

Whether this is the correct Transfer Account for this type of transaction,
I really don't know.  All I know is that the Transfer Account should really
be the pizza place's bank account, as they are the ones receiving the money
that I am sending.

I have tried to figure out from the guide what the correct way of using
GnuCash is for this type of activity, but I don't mind the Transfer Account
being Imbalance-GBP, as long it does not seriously go against GnuCash's
principles or cause me a really big headache down the line.

The second thing I'd like to explain is what I'm trying to achieve by
importing the QIF file.

A number of days later, my pizza transaction will be cleared by my bank and
this is indicated by the transaction appearing on my on-line bank statement.

So I save the QIF file, add in the missing parameters, such as the num
record and cleared record and go to import it into GnuCash.

What I want GnuCash to do when importing the QIF file is to simply
correlate the transactions in the QIF file, with the uncleared transactions
in GnuCash and to change them from uncleared to cleared.

To make sure my terminology is correct, I want the letter in the "R" column
to go from "n" to "c".

Am I trying to attempt something that is not possible with QIF importing?

If so, I can go back to importing CSV files instead, as what I'm trying to
do works fine with CSV files.

Thanks,

Richard.



On 19 July 2012 22:14, Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:

> Um, you can't have only one account.  GnuCash wont let you.  Double-entry
> accounting requires at least two accounts (a debit account and a credit
> account) for each transaction.  GnuCash enforces this, as does the QIF
> importer.
>
> If you don't specify a correct Expense account, the QIF Importer will
> target them all into the "Unspecified" expense account.
>
> But to me, based on this log (not sure what those GObject issues are!) and
> the previous transaction log file, the QIF importer is working correctly
> and your transaction is getting marked "Reconciled".  Perhaps you're not
> importing it into the account you think?
>
> I highly recommend you read the GnuCash Concepts & Tutorial Guide before
> you reply again.
>
> -derek
>
> On Thu, July 19, 2012 4:55 pm, Richard Thomas wrote:
> > Hi Derek,
> >
> > Thanks for taking a look at my QIF file, nice to know it looks OK.
> >
> > On running this on a Windows system, so I found a
> gnucash.trace.5THUHW.log
> > in my C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp directory.  I put a
> > copy-and-paste
> > of this at the bottom of this reply.
> >
> > I only have the one account set up in GNUCash at the moment and that's by
> > Bank account.
> >
> > I'm don't know where references to an Expenses account from, I'm not
> > looking to do anything in GNUCash for Expenses.
> >
> > Please could you let me know what I should look at next.
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> > Richard.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > * 19:40:58  WARN <qof.engine> [guid_init()] only got 3517 bytes.
> > The identifiers might not be very random.
> > * 19:49:40  WARN <GLib-GObject> invalid uninstantiatable type `<invalid>'
> > in cast to `GObject'
> > * 19:49:40  CRIT <GLib-GObject> g_object_notify: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT
> > (object)' failed
> > * 19:49:43  WARN <GLib-GObject> invalid uninstantiatable type `(null)' in
> > cast to `GObject'
> > * 19:49:43  CRIT <GLib-GObject> g_object_notify: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT
> > (object)' failed
> > * 19:49:47  WARN <GLib-GObject> invalid unclassed pointer in cast to
> > `GObject'
> > * 19:49:47  CRIT <GLib-GObject> g_object_notify: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT
> > (object)' failed
> > * 19:49:51  WARN <GLib-GObject> invalid uninstantiatable type `<invalid>'
> > in cast to `GObject'
> > * 19:49:51  CRIT <GLib-GObject> g_object_notify: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT
> > (object)' failed
> > * 19:49:55  WARN <GLib-GObject> invalid uninstantiatable type `(null)' in
> > cast to `GObject'
> > * 19:49:55  CRIT <GLib-GObject> g_object_notify: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT
> > (object)' failed
> > * 19:49:58  WARN <GLib-GObject> invalid unclassed pointer in cast to
> > `GObject'
> > * 19:49:58  CRIT <GLib-GObject> g_object_notify: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT
> > (object)' failed
> > * 19:56:40  WARN <gnc.gui.search> [type_label_to_new_button()] No
> > translatable new-button label found for search type "Split", please add
> > one
> > into dialog-search.c!
> > * 21:37:33  CRIT <gnc.gui> gnc_tree_model_budget_get_iter_for_budget:
> > assertion `GNC_BUDGET(bgt)' failed
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 19 July 2012 21:44, Derek Atkins <derek at ihtfp.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> On Thu, July 19, 2012 4:39 pm, Richard Thomas wrote:
> >> > Hi,
> >> >
> >> > Thanks for your help.
> >> >
> >> > Here's a copy-and-paste of the QIF file I have generated:
> >> >
> >> > !Type:Bank
> >> > D19/07/2012
> >> > NTST
> >> > PRICHARD ENTERPRISES
> >> > CX
> >> > T-12.34
> >> > ^
> >>
> >> This looks reasonable..
> >>
> >> > Here's a copy-and-paste of my log file (is that the trace file?)
> >>
> >> No, the tracefile is /tmp/gnucash.trace, like I said.  However, the
> >> transaction does look to be reconciled in the log file you posted.  Keep
> >> in mind that it will only be reconciled in the Bank account, not in the
> >> Expense account.  Are you looking in the Bank or Expense account to look
> >> for the reconciled state?
> >>
> >> -derek
> >>
> >> --
> >>        Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
> >>        derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
> >>        Computer and Internet Security Consultant
> >>
> >>
> >
>
>
> --
>        Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
>        derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
>        Computer and Internet Security Consultant
>
>


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