[GNC] OFX Import add Memo to transaction

Jeff Albrecht jeffa at rodaw.com
Fri Apr 26 13:39:12 EDT 2019 

Groovy, boss and kean -or- OMG, snap and Shredding. Plus red face and a 
little embarrassment. But I didn't realize and it never occurred to me 
that my vendors / sellers had report exports!

Amazon has CSV export as well as a much more useful on screen report 
than looking through the online 'your orders' section. Which doesn't 
have a total of all items and shipping.

eBay doesn't have a purchase export, and their 'MyEbay->Purchase 
history' has an order total, but it doesn't reflect shipping charges! It 
makes it difficult to simply ^F search on a bank transaction amount to 
find the matching seller transaction.

PayPal has a transaction export. In fact you can export .QIF from 
PayPal. Dare I try an import from my primary PayPal bank and Paypal. 
This report does have Transaction total including the shipping.

I'll have to experiment with that in the GNUCash 'Generic import 
transaction matcher' after I accrue some new transactions.

With these reports quit a bit of frustration and time sink will be 
removed from my GNUCash import work flow!


Some icing on this workflow would be a simple filter input box at the 
top of the COA account selector in the 'Generic import transaction 
matcher' such that I can filter all those accounts to those that contain 
a string say gas, fuel, netflix, dining, clothing etc... It sure would 
make the matching account selection a lot easier, faster and error prone.

On the GNUCash user voice this sounds a bit similar to my 'icing' 
https://gnucash.uservoice.com/forums/101223-feature-request/suggestions/1589607-type-ahead-search-when-entering-the-accounts-to-a 
but rather than a type ahead match a straight filter on search of any 
COA account that matches any part of the account name on that filter 
string.

If others think this 'icing' suggestion worthy I'll add it to the user 
voice. I did spend some time searching to see if this request was 
already there. Looks like there are 351 feature requests.
<https://gnucash.uservoice.com/forums/101223-feature-request/suggestions/1589607-type-ahead-search-when-entering-the-accounts-to-a>
  - Jeff


On 4/26/2019 8:07 AM, David Carlson wrote:
> I can see a new workflow developing for some users.
>
> First, download lists of recent purchase transactions from Amazon, 
> EBay, Paypal or Walmart.
> Second, download lists of recent charges to one or more bank or credit 
> card accounts.
> Third, reconcile both sets of lists, including linking transactions 
> between those downloads and watching for fraudulent transactions.
>
> Perhaps the developers could refine the import process to allow 
> performing the first and second parts simultaneously.
>
> That is my suggestion.
>
> David Carlson
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 26, 2019 at 9:22 AM Jeff Albrecht <jeffa at rodaw.com 
> <mailto:jeffa at rodaw.com>> wrote:
>
>     On 4/26/2019 3:22 AM, Liz wrote:
>     > On Wed, 24 Apr 2019 13:24:29 -0700
>     > Jeff Albrecht <jeffa at rodaw.com <mailto:jeffa at rodaw.com>> wrote:
>     >
>     >> I'm using GNUCash on Windows 10 using version 3.5.1 upgraded from
>     >> 2.6.19.
>     >>
>     >> As I import a .OFX file from my bank or credit card and
>     >> match/enter/edit with the 'Generic import transaction matcher'
>     I sit
>     >> with my Ebay and PayPal accounts open in browser tabs to lookup
>     >> transactions to be sure I categorize them to my liking. There is
>     >> information important to me that I want to add as a memo in each of
>     >> the transactions. Sometimes I try to modify the transaction after I
>     >> enter / classify it into the correct 'category' entering a memo
>     >> however I generally get message something to the effect of
>     >> 'transaction is open in another window, please close or finish that
>     >> edit' I'm assuming the message is referring to the 'Generic import
>     >> transaction matcher' window, other times I get a message about the
>     >> transaction being out of balance after I've added a memo - usually
>     >> the former about the record being open in another window.
>     >>
>     >> Is there a way to add a memo during the import process?
>     >>
>     >> If not It's a feature I'd very much like to see. I imagine that
>     once
>     >> I select the account for the match it could open up in a
>     'transaction
>     >> journal' view allowing me to enter a memo and clicking a O.K.
>     accept
>     >> button. The 'transaction journal' view could be displayed in the
>     >> 'Generic import transaction matcher' for items that have been
>     >> matched. A check box could enable (or disable) this behavior in the
>     >> 'Generic import transaction matcher' screen. And / or as a
>     >> preferences selection.
>     >>
>     >>    - Jeff
>     >>
>     >>
>     > To help us understand, we need some more information about your work
>     > flow.
>     > Do you enter transactions into Gnucash one by one, and then run the
>     > import looking for ones you have missed (or could be fraudulent)
>     OR do
>     > you use the OFX file to populate your Gnucash ledger?
>     >
>     > If you do enter one by one you can of course put the memo in at that
>     > stage. The importer will find the transaction as a possible
>     match, and
>     > you will tell it NOT to amend the matched transaction.
>     >
>     > Liz
>
>     I use the OFX file to populate the Gnucash ledger. As I import and
>     categorize I check transactions against vendor (seller) online
>     records.
>     Other than recurring transactions I generally want to add a memo
>     to most
>     other transactions.
>
>     I generally am working through a number of transactions. As I lookup
>     each item in the sellers site to verify the transaction and decide
>     classification there is no opportunity for me to add the memo. I
>     have to
>     go through seller site transactions again after moving each item from
>     the 'Generic import transaction matcher' to add the memo. Time
>     consuming.
>
>     What I've started to do is move the un-categorized transactions
>     that I
>     want a memo for into a register "UnAccounted For" There I can
>     categorize
>     and add memos at the same time working my way through verifying
>     against
>     online seller transactions until there are no more remaining. mostly
>     Ebay, PayPal and Amazon.
>
>     I read about "6.15.5.2. Assign a Destination Account to Multiple
>     Transaction" and once David gets that functionality restored to
>     3.5.x,
>     see thread; "6.15.5.2. Assign a Destination Account to Multiple
>     Transaction" that will be handy in the 'Generic import transaction
>     matcher' window to deal with some of the transactions that have a
>     common
>     destination and don't need a memo. Then I can use the multiple
>     transaction selector to move all reaming un-categorized
>     transactions to
>     my "UnAccounted For" account to classify and add memos. It's a bit
>     tedious right now as I have to move one transaction at a time
>     however it
>     saves me the time sink of looking up each item twice. I can enter the
>     memo and the destination category / account at the same time while
>     verifying that transaction on seller sites. If I don't recall the
>     transaction and can't find it on a seller's site then It's
>     suspicious of
>     being bogus.
>
>       - Jeff
>
>
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> -- 
> David Carlson

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