[GNC] Import qif does not remember account allocation.

[DaveW]

David C

I apologise for the duplicated messages.  (I was troubled by the
fact that I saw no evidence in the List that my message was
properly sent.  Even now, I don't seem to be receiving my gnu-cash
user copies from the List?  Be that as it may, I regret the nuisance
value of my emailing dilemma.)

Thank you very much for the very helpful comments you provided.  I now
understand it is imperative to make/correct the account assignment
during the wizard process.  (As an aside, that the wizard doesn't show
the $ amount on the  appropriate page, often makes it difficult to
recall where the transaction belongs.  Just by way of comment.)

All of that said, it seems that I should await, or install, version 3.x

Thank you again Dave and a Happy New Year to you and this user group.
It is an excellent facility.

Dave W





On Sun, 30 Dec 2018 02:56:05 -0600
David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dave W,
> 
> Once is enough with the duplicated messages.  The previous responses
> by John and Derek seemed to cover your concerns but since you are
> asking for elaboration, I as an experienced user can answer your
> questions #1 & #2. The QIF Import wizard in the GnuCash Releases
> 2.6.21 and earlier assign the unspecified account when there is not
> enough history detected by the Bayesian matcher to assign an existing
> account to a transaction.  The user must monitor the import and
> correct those transactions during the import process as well as
> catching and correcting any other assignment errors arising from
> similar transactions in the history before accepting the assignments
> in the import.  Since each financial institution structures their
> descriptions somewhat differently, it sometimes takes much more
> history to get better accuracy with the matching.  Even after many
> years using the OFX importer, I still get frequent mis-assignments
> between gasoline purchases and restaurant purchases in one of my bank
> accounts.  In my experience, the OFX import wizard historically has
> given me better results than the QIF importer, and I have few
> accounts that do not offer OFX format.
> 
> To make things more interesting, the 3.x release series has the
> importers re-configured to work differently so that it is, as a
> practical matter, necessary to start over with matching once you have
> migrated to that release series.  The bright side of that change is
> that it should work better fairly quickly, and best of all, it will
> be easier to purge out bad history when needed.
> 
> I cannot answer your questions #3 and #4.
> 
> David C
> 
> On Sat, Dec 29, 2018 at 11:29 PM DaveW <wasserland44 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 03 Dec 2018 19:13:53 -0500
> > Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU> wrote:
> >  
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.fremont.ca.us> writes:
> > >  
> > > >> On Dec 3, 2018, at 6:06 AM, David wasserman
> > > >> <wasserland44 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >> Running Ubuntu 18.04.  GNC version 2.6.19.
> > > >>
> > > >> Whereas GNC remembers previous account allocation on my
> > > >> Mastercard. Importing from my recently new AMEX credit card,
> > > >> the system doesn't remember the account allocation even for
> > > >> exactly the same transaction multiple times previously booked.
> > > >>
> > > >> How to fix, please?  
> > > >
> > > > Keep importing. It takes several runs of the importer to build
> > > > up enough matching data to generate matches, and it’s runs of
> > > > the matcher that matter, not the number of transactions in an
> > > > import.  
> > >
> > > Keep in mind that the QIF importer matches on FULL LINES.  If
> > > there is even a single character different in the Payee or Memo
> > > then the QIF importer will consider it different.
> > >  
> > > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.  
> > >
> > > -derek  
> >
> > Ongoing . . . . .
> >
> > I have now been through 8 monthly iterations of my newer Amex qif
> > importations.  Still no auto account allocation generation as
> > suggested will eventually occur. (Yet my long-term Mastercard
> > account .qif downloads continue to import and allocate correctly.)
> >
> > In my frenetic searching, I find this
> > file: /.gnucash/qif-accounts-map. It seems to be the memory source
> > of previous transaction.  It's a long file that obviously has
> > followed me over the years.  In it I recognise that, typically, the
> > Mastercard allocations Line Description has the correct account
> > allocation recorded.
> >
> > So I searched a recent Amex transaction that has twice previously
> > been manually corrected from "Unspecified" to it's correct Expense
> > account yet this is what is recorded inter alia:
> > ("ROMEO S FOODHALL SUTHER SUTHERLAND" "ROMEO S FOODHALL SUTHER
> > SUTHERLAND" (9 8 0 3 4 2 11 12 5 6) #f "Unspecified" #f #t).
> >
> > Sorry about the long preamble. ):
> >
> > *1. Once designated "Unspecified" how/when, and by what means, does
> > the correct allocation be recorded?
> > *2. Is there a difference between manual correction while in QIF
> > Download mode and after Import has been completed?
> > *3. What do the numerals and #'s mean?
> > *4. Shall I upload the said qif-accounts-map file for you?
> >
> > Dave W
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > gnucash-user mailing list
> > gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
> > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see
> > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information.
> > -----
> > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.