Merging imported transactions

[jeffrey black]

Warner:

I may be wrong but: it sounds like the Bayesian matching routine has been taught to match these transactions to "Imbalance-USD".  You need to do several small imports of ofx/qfx files, from any and all of these financial institutions that use ofx/qfx.  The Bayesian matching routine is going to have to be "UN-taught" to point at the wrong account.  Do several small imports.  I do not know how many transactions you run monthly but; for sake of argument let us say import only a half-dozen transactions at a time (over time you can increase the number as it learns).  The Bayesian matching routine catches on faster that way, short fast lessons not long boring ones.  Since you are getting a lot of Imbalance transactions select the "A" box and manually select the account where the transaction should go.  After 2 or 3 imports the importer should slowly begin to catch on so you can use the "R"econcile option more often.  It will help some if you can already have some of the transactions already entered manually, and always check to see if the "R"econcile brings up the right transaction, if so reward it and select "R"econcile otherwise correct it by manually selecting the proper account with the "A" option.  Keep in mind you have to double click either side of the "A", "U", "R" box's to see what it is matching to.

Right now all it knows is all imported transactions balance with "Imbalance-USD".  Think of it as a 2 year old who's favorite word is "NO", latter it will be "CAN I HAVE THIS ONE?".  Until it "learns" to associate a specific payer to a specific payee you will have to manually assign each transaction with the "A" option.  Like David said, the matching routine is not perfect so you need to double check each transaction as you accept the match.

QIF works a lot differently.  And when you get to importing PayPal at individual transaction level, well .... aspirin and a ball bat help.

--JEffrey Black M.B.A.





________________________________
From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+beastmaster126=hotmail.com at gnucash.org> on behalf of David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2017 9:23 PM
To: Warner Losh
Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: Re: Merging imported transactions

The OFX import assistant includes a step to match newly imported
transactions to existing transactions, as you probably noticed.

The problem is that it is error prone and has to be monitored carefully
during the import process.  I prefer to import a small number of
transactions at a time so that I am less likely to be overwhelmed.

The program is supposed to learn from previous imports and improve it's
accuracy eventually, but in my experience it still seems to make a lot of
mis-matches.  I still end up with duplicates when it fails to find the
correct match or I just get tired of searching and just let the duplicates
through.  I am less likely to miss a transaction if I use the import
assistant, so I continue to use it.

David C

On Mon, Sep 25, 2017 at 11:00 AM, Warner Losh <wlosh at bsdimp.com> wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> I download all my transactions from my back in quickbooks OFX format. I
> import them into gnu cash. This works well; however, I’ve hit a snag.
>
> I have a credit card, a paypal account and a bank account. These all have
> different formats for downloading the data from, which I can convert to
> something gnu cash can import. When I do this, though, I have a small
> problem. The bank account comes in via OFX, so has lots of Imbalance-USD
> entries. I’ve used this account for the import of some items from the
> credit card and paypal accounts as well. So I wind up with a transaction in
> the bank ledger that is a payment to the credit card, but doesn’t credit
> that account. There’s also a separate transaction in the credit card that’s
> a payment from the bank, but doesn’t debit the bank account. In a sense,
> there’s two double entries I’d like to combine to eliminate the
> Imbalance-USD account entirely since I don’t think that’s a real account
> and find it sloppy book keeping. Is there anything I can use to merge
> entries when I’m replying on downloading the bulk of the data rather than
> entering it myself?
>
> Thanks for any help you can give me here.
>
> Warner
>
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