Recocile checking account with OFX file

[David T.]

David, Michael,

It does look like the OP was worried mostly about overwriting transactions on import, but he used both terms in his question. I think I misinterpreted the more general use of the term “reconcile” with its more specific use as a defined procedure within financial applications.

David H. mentions bringing in duplicates and removing them later. My preference is to ensure that the OFX importer uses only the “R” option for transactions it matches. This reconciles the incoming transaction to the existing one (which presumably I have entered myself), and leaves the existing transaction as I entered it. 

Which raises a couple of questions I’d toss out here:

First, where is the documentation that identifies the OFX import process? I couldn’t find anything on importing except for the section of QIF in Chapter 3 of the Guide. It would seem to me useful to have this import process documented better.

Second, in the absence of documentation, I have determined that the OFX options allow a transaction to be Updated, Reconciled, or Updated and Reconciled. I have a vague idea that the Reconcile portion of this process inserts the FITID into the transaction in a hidden spot so that future OFX downloads will skip this transaction, but I could be entirely wrong. I have further determined that Updating will replace the content of the existing transaction with that of the incoming transaction, so your “Bob’s Grocery Store” entry would be updated with “0974329876 BOBS EMPM 123ANYTOWN 7234SS675.” My question is, why have the default be to Update and Reconcile? This will result in the user’s books reading like a computerized gibberbot, instead of what they had already chosen as the description. It seems to me it would be preferable to have this default to Reconcile. Perhaps the developers could weigh in?

Thanks.

David

On Mar 15, 2015, at 5:26 AM, David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 3/15/2015 4:58 AM, Michael Hendry wrote:
>>> On 15 Mar 2015, at 03:07, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Import and reconcile are two different procedures. Try importing, then reconciling. It works for me.
>> I’m not sure why importing would help with reconciliation, assuming that Dave (Boland) is saying that he’s entered transactions relating to his bank account, but has failed to go through the process of reconciliation.
>> 
>> The purpose of reconciliation is surely to make sure that the transactions that you’ve entered through GnuCash agree with those in your bank statement, allowing you to pick up errors at either end, and detect fraudulent activity.
>> 
>> Unless the entry of bank-related transaction has been long delayed, there are bound to be duplicates after the import has taken place, which will have to be weeded out. If there has been a big gap in recording, then the reconciliation will be a futile one, between the bank statement and the bank’s records.
>> 
>> Am I missing something here?
>> 
>> Michael
>> 
>>> David
>>> 
>>> On Mar 14, 2015, at 11:31 AM, dave boland <dboland9 at fastmail.fm> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> All,
>>>> 
>>>> I have gnuCash 2.6 and use it do do personal accounting.  I got behind
>>>> on reconciling my checking account, and was wondering if it is possible
>>>> to import/reconcile the account with the OFX file I downloaded from my
>>>> bank?  If so, how do I do that?  I saw one post on this subject, but the
>>>> person said that the description he entered was being replaced by the
>>>> generic bank description ("CHECK").  I want to avoid that problem.  The
>>>> online documentation and FAQ doesn't address this specifically, thus the
>>>> question.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Dave
>>>> -- 
>>>> dave boland
>>>> dboland9 at fastmail.fm
>>>> 
>>>> -- 
>>>> http://www.fastmail.com - Access all of your messages and folders
>>>>                        wherever you are
>>>> 
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> 
> I think that the OP is worried that GnuCash will overwrite his manually
> entered text with text from the OFX file. 
> 
> When I am worried about that I make sure that I do not allow the import
> to "Update..."  I change each one to either match exactly or enter new
> and plan on manually deleting duplicates after the import.  Yes, that is
> often overkill, but it makes me more comfortable.
> 
> David C
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