GC 2.6.12 QIF Import Comments

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

"redrupj at o2.co.uk" <redrupj at o2.co.uk> writes:

> 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

Oh, wow... This is ... OLLLLDDDD!  GnuCash 1.6.4?  That's, like, from
last century!  Since then there's been 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, and 2.6!
Assuming 2-3 years between major releases, this is 10-15 years ago!  I
wouldn't trust ANYTHING from those docs in this decade!!

> 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.

Sometimes this is helpful, sometimes not.  Specifically with QIF, you
get the issue of the importer losing the intersection of transactions.
For example if you have two bank accounts and transfer between them,
there will be two (duplicate) QIF transactions.  If these two
transactions are in the same multi-account QIF file then the importer
will properly handle that.  If not, if they are imported separately,
then you'll need to manually mark the second as a duplicate (and you'll
need to make sure you properly match the QIF Account to the GnuCash
Accounts both times).

The duplicate matching is heuristical -- it looks for transactions
between the same accounts with the same amount but within ~20 days.
When it finds something that may be a match it provides you the option
and lets you decide if it's really a duplicate.  Part of the reasoning
for this is that QIF is dumb (OFX solves this by having a FITID that
is supposed to be unique, but QIF has no such thing).

Then there is the case that you need to be sure to consistently map QIF
Accounts and QIF Categories to the appropriate GnuCash accounts, and
then at the end map Payee/Memo to GnuCash accounts.  GnuCash DOES
remember this when you import the same qif account again (based on the
filename), but if you import different accounts from the same QIF source
then you need to ensure you create the same mappings over and over
again.  This is yet another reason it's beneficial to perform a single
import if you can.

Your other option is to forego your history.  Keep quicken around (in a
VM) for a while and just start from scratch with GnuCash.  If you NEED
access to your historical data then you can bring up the VM.

Hope this helps,

> John

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-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available