How to find/delete/convert all split transactions?

[Wm...]

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 10:28:38 
<CAGQ70euMS9VMqdHkFTtNxCR3rUpMxzR1O9ytuuO7JEacD877pA at mail.gmail.com>
Oon-Ee Ng <ngoonee.talk at gmail.com> wrote...

>Hi all,
>
>I've been using gnucash for a long while now (oldest imported
>transactions are from 2008, original import was done somewhere in 2010
>or so), so I've built up quite a bit of financial data (personal for
>my family, not business data) through manual entry.
>
>In recent months I've gotten quite frustrated with the manual entry
>process, in particular because I do it twice (initial entry on mine
>and/or wife's phones followed by copying that data manually to
>gnucash). I tried the GnuCash android app, but that was a real
>headache because I still had to manually export files and import them
>to gnucash.

Have you considered that the record of entry might be the problem? 
Probably not :(

>Anyway, because of that I want to try out an alternative (MMEX, at
>this point), but to do that I've got to export my transactions
>properly.

do you mean
===
http://www.moneymanagerex.org/
===
if so you must understand that it is very different to gnc.

I wouldn't call it accounting software.

It is a great product [1] and I follow the forums and the software, so I 
am not negative about it.  I just want to make sure you know the 
difference.

>The qif convertor (3rd party) seems to work pretty well, as far as I
>can tell, but MMEX can't handle split transactions at all (it really
>chokes on them). CSV export, again MMEX doesn't handle the imports for
>this well as transfers between accounts are lost.

I've played with MMEX <--> gnc more than once, the limit is MMEX not 
understanding non-trivial transactions.

I'm going to be firm now: THIS IS AN MMEX PROBLEM, yeah, I shouted.

>I think I can hack something together with QIF export if I could just
>remove/replace all split transactions I've ever entered over the
>years.

MMEX still duplicates and replicates, you are welcome to try but even 
with correctly formatted files it goes wrong.  The MM£X forums are your 
best bet, it has been raised there before but don't expect anything 
soon.  They don't do double entry accounting so your exported gnc 
transaction makes no sense to them.

Fact: if you go from a double entry system to a single leg one you 
*must* lose something.  If you are happy with that, be my guest.

> Is there a way to search only for split transactions or in some
>way isolate them? Doesn't look like the main UI can do it, so perhaps
>another app which accesses the same data?

It won't help, MMEX (because it doesn't do double entry) duplicates and 
you'll end up doing it by hand unless it is really simple.

[1] it has a really nice sql report writer that I've thought of 
borrowing for gnc sql

>So to summarize, my question is about replacing splits, and the reason
>is because I can't find a convenient way to use gnucash from my
>smartphone.

Heh, y'know double entry isn't only the correct but also the honest to 
yourself way? :)

I suggest you try MMEX standalone for a month or so and put the tx back 
into gnc.  It as lots of pretty stuff but balancing end of month is not 
its forte.

So your question to yourself should be, "am I saving time long term by 
using this other app?"

-- 
Wm...