[GNC] Changing account tree on large database

[David Carlson]

Cricket,

One more point...

Strongly consider only moving one or two years data to GnuCash.  When your
file gets large you may prefer to have a new file for each year or whatever
to keep GnuCash from bogging down and running too slow.  It gets worse
quickly if you leave a lot of reports and register windows open, or if you
have a Hi-Res monitor, and having a powerful computer is not enough to
prevent that.

In my case it takes over a minute to open my file and about 10 seconds
every time I press the Enter key.  the periodic saves take so long that I
can squeeze in about 1/2 a game of Solitaire.

David Carlson

On Fri, Apr 26, 2019 at 4:31 PM Cricket Onebit <cricketbeautiful at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Thu, 25 Apr 2019 at 17:29, Adrien Monteleone <
> adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> wrote:
>
> > > I'm preparing to convert 14,000 transactions from Quicken. It's a bit
> > > overwhelming, and I've put it off for years.
> >
> > Sounds like a daunting task. I don’t do such imports, but reading the
> > various threads over the years, this will be a doozy.
> >
>
> Yes, it's a daunting task, but I do't want to lose 10+ years of data. I'm
> using an old version of Quicken, and don't trust the new version to be able
> to read it. The old version might not work on newer Windows. I need to move
> it.
>
> I’d try finding some of those threads or asking about a general ‘best
> > practices’ or ‘workflow’ to accomplish this with the least amount of
> > headache.
> >
>
> There doesn't seem to be an easy way to find those threads. I might not be
> searching right. "site:lists.gnucash.org quicken" has posts from many
> years
> ago on the first page, but not any from 2019. I know there are some from
> 2019.
>
> Two gnucash.org pages need to be updated. They have broken links.
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> https://lists.gnucash.org/search/?idxinfo=gnucash-user
>
> Yes, you can do this at will, over and over till you have your tree the way
> > you like it. (and then re-factor it again months later when you change
> your
> > mind)
> >
>
> Yay! for easy moving / promoting / demoting / etc child / parent / sibling
> / cousin accounts. Both your suggested methods make sense.
>
> One less reason to put off the migration.
>
> Also, for this particular example, I’d opt for tags for each kid instead of
> > accounts, see below about Cars.
> >
>
> I didn't think GNUCash supported tags. I plan to use #tagone in a text
> field. That's one of the things I need to do in Quicken. Search for each
> transaction using a label, and put it in a text field. Problem: The text
> fields are short. Maybe I'll create accounts/categories for each tag, and
> add a $0.01 line. That will at least preserve the info. Then in GC edit
> again to put the tags in a text field and undo the $0.01 split. (Not $0
> because I think Quicken ignores $0 lines.)
>
> I’ve not found one yet, though that may be in the documentation. Look into
> > Double-Line mode to give you an extra note field. Once discovered, I now
> > use it extensively.
> >
>
> I like that GNUCash makes it easy to switch between journal, register, and
> split views.
>
> The #1 piece of advice I could give to anyone who even thinks they might
> > want detail or multiple levels of categorization is to record as much
> info
> > as possible in each transaction. Record each split line from a receipt
> and
> > never combine items. Be descriptive for each split. That way, in the
> > future, should you decide to break something out into its own account,
> the
> > process will be much easier. But if you don’t have that info in the first
> > place...
> >
>
> I've annoyed many people with data. It runs in the family.
>
> "Nothing ruins an argument like a fact." -- RM Thomas, P.Eng. (aka Dad)
>
>
> > On the reporting end, if you really need to have parents with their own
> > transactions (instead of just as placeholders), set your options like
> this
> > on the P&L (Income Statement):
> >
> > Options > Display > Parent account balances > Account Balance
> > Options > Display > Parent account subtotals > Show Subtotals
>
> ...
>
> Parts` has one break-out sub-account with the remaining transactions in
> > itself. So that one shows its own balance, and the `Total Parts` line
> > combines it with its sub-account.
> >
>
> Yay! I wasn't looking forward to creating "misc" (grand) child accounts for
> every parent and moving the transactions. The GC report is similar to the
> Quicken report.
>
> Does it also do that for a Transaction, Group by (sub-)account report? I
> use that one a lot. There's probably something close enough.
>
> +++
>
> Enough stalling. Today's goal is to replace all the investment accounts
> with basic accounts. Apparently migrating investments isn't reliable. I
> won't lose any data because I haven't tracked investment details in Quicken
> in years. Also create appropriate income/loss accounts for the investment
> accounts so the year-end balances work. And, of course, lots of pre/post
> change reports to catch problems.
>
> Wish me luck!
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-- 
David Carlson