GnuCash import from Quicken 2007 on OSX

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

dbowen <DanEms at enkito.com> writes:

> Derek,
>
> A Class removal is, IMHO, not possible.
> I am open to arguments indicating foolishness on my part.

Why not?

NOTE that I mean "remove them from the QIF file after you export and
before you import", which means you can use a scripting language to
modify the QIF file.

> A restructure like you propose is possible, but I'm nervous having not checked all historical
> data for applicability. My Category/Class structure has migrated over the years.
>
> Question: -- Can GnuCash restructure any <out of order> accounts in the COA into more cogent ones easily?
> [ Can /Expenses/Medical/.../<person>... be changed en-mass to /Expenses/Medical/<person>/... ] 

Of course, it's very easy to move accounts around, although you DO have
to do it one-account-at-a-time.  But if you have a structure that looks
like:

  A/B/[Cx]/[Dx]

and you want to change it to
  A/B/[Dx]/[Cx]

You can.  The easiest way to do this (assuming there are no actual
transactions in the current Cx accounts) would be to create new accounts
named [Dx]:
  A/B/[Dx]
and then you can move and rename the existing [Dx] accounts.  For each
[Cx]/[Dx] account you would edit the account, change the name from Dx to
Cx, and re-assign the parent from A/B/[Cx] to A/B/[Dx].

It is a bunch of manual labor, but assuming you only have a few dozen of
these to swap around it's a one-time deal.

> I also have to report /Expenses/Insurance/MedPremium, DentalPremium, CmsPremium and the
> individual payments for service (Doctor, Dentist, Pharmacy, Glasses, Durable Supplies, Transportation ...)
> for myself and my wife. We qualify for medicare, so reporting is more extensive than it used to be.

Which would mean that it makes sense to have separate accounts, so the
question would be which is more important:  to know how much YOU spent
on each of those items, or to know how much you, as a family, spent on
e.g. Doctor and then have that split out.

Yes, I understand this is why Classes exist, so you can have multiple
views.  And adding Tags to GnuCash is an oft-requested feature that
nobody has added, yet.  But given what GnuCash *CAN* do (with existing
reports), what data you need out would help you decide whether it's
better to create a hierarchy that looks like:

  Expenses/Medical/Doctor/{Him,Her}
vs
  Expenses/{Him,Her}/Medical/Doctor

> For a specific instance:
> 	My Class for vehicles is most amenable to a Class->Category change (as long as GnuCash can restructure it later) 

See above.

> 	Other Classes cause far more problems due to the multiple uses they represent as my thinking changed.
> 	I have already changed some Classes in earlier years to Category entries for last year, but not everything is so modified.
> 	Given the tight deadline to get an 1st-guess 1040 ready, I don't think I have the resources to do so.

Well, the good news is that it's easy to start over ;)

> 	I also have Classes that tag transactions in most all categories. The ones for my wife and I are best examples.
> 	I have tagged CreditCard data with the one who created the request so reconciliation is less fraught.
> 	I have tagged Grocery data with the same tags. This tagging is probably unnecessary, but I cannot remove the Class
> 		without removing it everywhere.

Sure you can -- from the QIF file..  When you see a transaction for the
Grocery you just remove the Class from that transaction.  It's a SMOP in
a script.

> 	Turning the Class into a Category is a exceedingly tedious process.

This is why you script it -- process the QIF file.

> 	I must find all occurrences of a given category-path+class-path use,
> 		- run a GUI find/replace with manual entry --and--
> 		- correctly recognize when the current pattern-find/change request for a single-item is NOT indicated.
> 	IMHO, multiple Category paths for a transaction may require different results even though
> 		a given class is present in both.

Nah, just script it; modify the QIF.

> 	Can the same things be handled with an all-accounts export to *.qif or
> 		does the absence of an account inside the *.qif
> 		cause problems for the script (perl, python, ???) that would be required?
> 	Can an account-by-account export make things easier?

I'm not sure. I think you'd have to play with that.

> I checked my Quicken 2007 reporting capabilities to see how they might help recognizing special-cases.
> I can sort by either Class or Category, but not by both.
> I can only sort by Account, Amount, Category, Check#, Class, Date, Memo or Payee.
> Any change to the sort-by option discards the existing report and generates a new one.

FUN!  (not)

> I also know I am VERRRRRY near the storage limit in this version of Quicken.
> ( A full transaction report for an account failed to finish after running overnight and generating 700k pages! )
> If I add more categories, I have no idea if I can complete the category update process.

Don't add them in Quicken.  Export what you have and massage the QIF
file before you import it into GnuCash!  Much easier, much faster, and
gives you the ability to try different things to see how you like it.

> Thanks for listening.

Ditto!

> Dan

-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