Getting Started - Encryption

[John Ralls]

> On May 9, 2015, at 6:12 AM, jake togiveout <jaketogiveoutemail at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> So I'm making the switch from quicken to this. Had looked at
> personalcapital.com and they look nice but I don't like somebody else
> having my data.
> 
> Can I encrypt the files which store this information? What about switching
> types of DB files later from local to mysql?

You can't directly encrypt the files because GnuCash wouldn’t know how to open them, but you can keep them in an encrypted image or on an encrypted volume. You can  use “File>Save As…” to change the backend type. 
> 
> Also regarding the online items, I was having some trouble setting up bank
> import. Does that work?

It does if your bank supports either OFX Direct Connect (USA) or HBCI(Europe). GnuCash does *not* support OFX Web Connect. Even with OFX Direct Connect setup can be fiddly.

> 
> What about stock price updates? Is there a screen for reports to update all
> of my investments?

GnuCash does support online quote retrieval, though you must install a Perl module called Finance::Quote to do the actual retrieving. The MSWin version of GnuCash provides a utility to make this simple.
> 
> Sorry they are very basic questions, I had some trouble following
> http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.4/C/gnucash-help/import-qif.html, the
> backups were encrypted.

Please use the current 2.6 documentation and please study thoroughly the Tutorial and Concepts Guide; both are available for online reading or download at http://www.gnucash.org/docs.phtml. GnuCash works rather differently from Quicken.

Regards,
John Ralls