[GNC] Migrating from AceMoney

[aeg]

Hi Jason,
I've been using AceMoney for my personal accounts since 2005 and like it very much but I also started using GnuCash two or three years ago for a family house-building project and, for that purpose, it has been more useful than AceMoney.
I recently started running personal accounts on GnuCash in parallel with AceMoney in order to check which suits my needs best.
The way I transferred data from AceMoney to GnuCash was via csv (because they can be edited easily in Excel). The first transfer did not work very well because I was unsure about the process and, in particular, which field names to use. Once I had figured it out and deleted those first attempts, importing became quite straightforward, although I did find it necessary to edit amounts that did not have a decimal point as GnuCash divides such amounts by 100.  It was easier to do that edit in Excel than in GnuCash.
I agree with David's comments (copied below) recommending that you limit the number of files imported initially while GnuCash learns how you want them assigned.
Kind regards,Alan
Quoted texts below...      
From: Jason Voss <jasonvos at swbell.net>

My wife stayed on Windows much longer than I did but I have recently moved her to a MacBook Air.Now I'm trying to get her a basic checkbook register app to replace AceMoney Lite and I'm looking at Gnucash for this purpose.
We have several years of historical data in .amj files on a Network Attached Server (NAS) and I'd like to verify whether Gnucash can read these, or if they can be imported and then used by Gnucash.
Any insights or advice is much appreciated.
Thanks,Jason

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From: David Cousens <davidcousens at bigpond.com>

Jason

AceMoney does not list any export formats in its documentation.  GnuCash
will not be able to read AceMoneys file format unless someone has written a
translator and this is unlikely. 

GnuCash can import OFX/QFX, QIF, CSV files if Acemoney can export data in
any of these formats. OFX/QFX is generally the most reliable if the OFX/QFX
formats have been correctly implemented in the export. Another factor is
what information exists in any exported data. It is generally better to
export data for a specific period, e.g. a month or quarter and import the
data in batches in sequence. Also if you start with your major Asset and
Liability accounts, i.e.  with the largest number of transactions, first it
will make importing easier as this will import most or all of the data for
income, expense and equity account. 

GnuCash's importers have a matching algorithm, which for imports to a given
account, looks for matches in data already in the GnuCash file to existing
transactions to minimise duplication and also matches and automatically
assigns the second account in a transaction if enough information is present
to allow this. It uses a Bayesian algorithm which is trained by the data you
have already imported to match transaction.  It is generally better to
import transactions, at least initially, in small batches, as this makes it
easier to detect mismatches in imported data and "train" the automatic
matching and assignment of the second account of a transaction. Any
automatic assignment by the matcher can be overridden before importing. It
pays to check the account assignment data (displayed in a window) before
importing as importing incorrect assignments will not train the algorithm
correctly which results in less successful matching in future imports.

Another suggestion is to perhaps start using current data and then gradually
add your historical data. GnuCash can set opening balances for accounts at a
specified date. This can be edited to the opening balance at an earlier date
as you import your historical data. The opening balances are just another
transaction.

David Cousens