Bank statement import strategies from bad formats?

[yggdrasil at gmx.co.uk]

Cristian Marchi <cri79 at libero.it> writes:

> Il 04/02/2014 20.49, yggdrasil at gmx.co.uk ha scritto:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Sorry for polluting the list with a very peripheral gnucash issue, but I
>> guess others have faced challenges in getting bank statements imported
>> to gnucash when the bank doesn't kindly provide any usable format.
>>
> I had a similar experience a couple of days ago when trying to import
> paypal statement (CSV format) in GnuCash 2.6.1. In my case I needed to
> edit the CSV file with a text editor:
> - I had to change the date format from XX-XX-XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX as the
> GnuCash CSV importer need the date in this format
> - I had to remove some rows related to currency exchanges and keep
> only the rows with my current currency in GnuCash
>
> Then the file was ready to import in GnuCash using
> File->Import->Import transactions from CSV
> After selecting the CSV file I selected the options about the date
> format, the separator, the columns matching etc.... Then you need to
> select the "starting" account for the transactions (in my case
> "Assets:PAYPAL"). In the last screen of the assistant you can assign
> every transaction to a "receiving" account, mark them as reconciled or
> exlude them from the import. Not a straightforward process, 

Many thanks for your input Christian! I have some awkward memories of
dealing with this before, trying to get the data in the right
places. 

> but developers can't cover any format that institutions adopts.
>

I agree and wish banks were more customer oriented with their
statemnets. As it is now, they seem to want you to use /their/ online
systems for financial managemnet that is mostly incompatible with any
other systems.