Second Request - Importing and Categorizing

[David Carlson]

On 11/2/2014 7:56 PM, mspringer wrote:
> I have downloaded OFX files to import into GC and it is not
> recognizing or categorizing the transactions properlywhen I import
> them to the register; it assigns all the transactions to a single
> category (i.e., 'transfer') and I then have toedit each transactionand
> place it in the proper category.  This seems to defeat the purpose of
> downloading and importing transactions; it would be almost as easy for
> me to enter each transaction manually when reconciling.
>
> For example, I downloaded a few months of credit card transactions and
> imported them.  Theywere all assigned to a category I use called
> 'Computer Expenses'.  Most, if not all, of the vendors that I had made
> purchases from were already inthe account, so none of the categories
> (transfers) were new.
>
> I don't believe I had this problem when I first started using GC, it
> seems to have developedsomewherealong the way.  I don't reconcile my
> accounts every month so I'm not sure exactly when this started.
>
> I switched from Moneydance- which did automatically categorize
> downloaded transactions - but it frequently skipped transactions that
> were downloaded during import, so I switched to GnuCash.  Everything
> seemed to be OK at first, but as mentionedproblems have shown up at
> some random time.
>
> Mark Springer
> industrial arts
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I will try to break this to you gently.  GnuCash is not really great at
guessing which account a given transaction should be assigned to when it
is imported using the OFX importer.  If you think about it, a lot of
stores have very cryptic names that tell you nothing about what they sell. 

However, GnuCash is supposed to match new transaction names to names on
previously imported transactions, at least most of the time.  You can
tune this by looking under Preferences > Online Banking in the Generic
Importer section for OFX import behavior settings.  It is not magic,
however.  In my case it often confuses restaurants and gas stations, and
sometimes makes other errors.  In my last import it tried to charge a
doctor bill to bank interest.

The OFX importer does give you a chance to monitor it's behavior, and I
strongly recommend choosing a time when it is quiet and you have a cup
of coffee(better to be sober for this) and plenty of time to check each
transaction individually as it is imported.  I always click on File >
Save just before starting, so I can abandon the import if I make a
mistake.  It is very important to watch it if there are existing
transactions to try to match to , because if it is wrong (and sometimes
it will be) there is no going back to redo the import.  Some errors can
be corrected manually later, but mis-matches may result in transactions
missing altogether when doing your final manual reconcile, which is
still necessary.  I do not use the Database filetype, so I do not know
if File > Save actually creates a backup directly for that filetype.

I am somewhat surprised that the other program actually skipped
transactions, but there is a mechanism in the OFX specification that is
supposed to help avoid importing the same transaction twice, but
sometimes (in my experience) that mechanism can cause missing
transactions after a mis-match in any program, even GnuCash or (Ugh)Q______.

David C