GC 2.6.12 QIF Import Comments

[David T.]

As I have noted over the years, when I imported my  large data set from Quicken (over ten years ago), I ultimately used Quicken’s (then-available) export Accounts, Categories & Transactions option to export the entire file from Quicken, and then imported the entire file into GnuCash, with very little adjustment (or training) necessary. My Quicken data was well-suited for this, as I was ruthless about assigning every transaction to a Quicken category, which GnuCash very easily converted into accounts. I also ran test imports several times, and located gaps in my Quicken data (as evidenced by transactions directed to Imbalance-USD), and fixed them in Quicken, because Quicken could bulk change transactions better than GnuCash. When I got the result to a tolerable level, I went through the remainder and cleaned as best I could in GnuCash.

There were some edge cases that were tough: 
* Retained earnings for stocks and mutual funds
* Opening balances for stocks and mutual funds
* Cost basis for stocks and mutual funds

These are rather complex areas for me to understand under best of circumstances, but my Quicken data did not help, as at some point in the past, I had split my Quicken file, which in Quicken-land creates a horrific combination of actual transactions (for cost basis purposes, I believe) in some accounts, and summary opening balance transactions in others. I have done my best over the years to ignore that ugliness.

Importing the whole means that matching is not needed, since it is all contained in the file. Training the matcher algorithm would then be left for later imports.

David


> On Jul 7, 2016, at 6:28 AM, Liz <edodd at billiau.net> wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 6 Jul 2016 22:58:24 +0100
> "redrupj at o2.co.uk" <redrupj at o2.co.uk> wrote:
> 
>> I think I got that advice from here:-
>> 
>> https://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb/project/gnucash/1.6.4/arch/i386_linux24/share/gnome/help/gnucash/C/xacc-qif-import.html
>> 
>> Logically approach sounds correct because as in my case where you are 
>> migrating from Quicken or another product if you do not import 
>> everything in one go the inter account transactions cause problems.
>> In my case the single bulk import kept choking for some reson so I
>> had no choice but to do smaller groups and correct afterwards.
>> 
>> John
> 
> There are two basic approaches here.
> You can choose to import or you can choose not to import, and just
> start afresh.
> 
> While it can be handy for some to use one set of tools for inter-year
> comparisons, those from the accounting package, an alternative is to
> use another set of tools for that purpose, and archive the old files,
> and the old program.
> 
> If you decide to import a large amount of data from another program, it
> is a once-only exercise. You aren't doing it every year for the next
> ten years, so it is OK to spend time on it and do it well.
> For the same reason, those of us who migrated many years ago from
> another program don't recall much of the trouble we had at the time,
> and certainly have little incentive to improve the process.
> 
> We should discuss a reasonable plan for importing from QIF, and then
> put it on the wiki.
> 
> I'd suggest starting a set of books which will not be the final books.
> I'd import small sections of the data into this file (or set of books)
> for the purpose of training the importer, because it has learning
> capacity.
> When you import random pieces of your old data without too many
> matchings, then start imports into another set of books, and continue
> this process - and when you are happy with the results do a major final
> import and tidy up, and then delete the trial sets.
> 
> Liz
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