[GNC] Having trouble trying to use Gnucash instead of Aplos

[Daniel Wieberdink]

David,

Thanks so much for all the detailed information and help. I did read "The
Basics" and some of the other Help Documentation. But then I got impatient
and wanted to try something. Another problem, I suppose, is that I have no
accounting background whatsoever. You're right I should have started with a
much smaller chuck of data to import. I will try the File>Export>Account
Tree function to save my account setup and start over. Thanks again.

On Sun, Sep 15, 2019 at 4:54 PM David Cousens <davidcousens at bigpond.com>
wrote:

> Daniel,
>
> Have you read the first few chapters of the guide which will help with
> understanding how GnuCash works. The section headed "The Basics"
> (https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-guide/index.html)> is an
> introduction to the conceptual basis. Unllike many programs GnuCash's
> operation is upfront double entry accounting and actions are generally
> initiated from the account registers.
>
> There is also the Help Manual which is more gui oriented rather than
> process
> oriented (https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-help/help.html).
>
> Importing can be interesting. AT present the documentation on the importer
> is being upgraded but this is not yet complete  in the current
> documentation. It is likely you end up with Imbalance entries on input
> because the records you are inputting do not specify the second account for
> a transaction. There are at least two accounts associated with each
> transaction (and sometimes more  - see the basis section above if you are
> not familiar with this). If you have exported the transactions from Aplos
> from a single account at a time then the source account will generally be
> the account you have exported from and this may or may not be a field in
> the
> exported data.
>
> I don't know how Aplos functions and whether it uses categories like
> Quicken
> but if it does then the category for an expense or income item will usually
> become the account name of an expense, income, asset(for transfers) or
> liability (loans and credit cards) account in Gnucash. This should be
> specified in another field of the output data and it is this field which is
> not being imported correctly. Your export format will either have an amount
> column or separate columns for Debits and Credits. On importing these have
> to be matched with the Deposit or Withdrawal column headers if multicolumn.
> If importing an Asset account and you have a single amount column if +ve
> numbers are debits to the account and negative numbers credit  you would
> normally match the GnuCash  Deposits header to that column.
>
> It is usually better to experiment with a small file of 10-20 lines first
> and sort out the settings that work before trying to import all your back
> data. GnuCash can stroe those settings in the import setup dialog so you
> can
> resue them. One reason for this is that GnuCash has an automatic process
> for
> matching the second or transfer account in imported data. This is a window
> called the Import Matcher which comes up immediately after you hit the
> button to import.
>
>  If the imported data does not contain the second/transfer account in a
> field or if it is the first lot of data you import GnuCash does not have an
> association between the account names/categories in the imported data and
> the internal GnuCash account names which you may or may not have created at
> this stage.  Unmatched rows will have a gold background and will have the
> Imbalance account specified in the Info column if this is the case. Double
> click on the row to open a dialog to assign an appropriate transfer
> account.
> If you do not have a suitable transfer account created there is a new
> account button which will allow you to create one. It is probably better to
> think out at least a basic set of expense and income accounts before
> starting if you can.
>
> If the background to a row is green and the A checkbox is checked GnuCash
> will have matched the imported information to an existing account. You will
> need to check that this match is correct.  If the U+R checkbox is checked
> and the background is green then an existing record in GnuCash has been
> matched double clicking on the row in this case opens a dialog to examine
> that match and allow you to accept or reject it. If the R box is check and
> the background is green it has been matched to an existing transaction and
> will not be imported. Anything with a red background will need action  as
> it
> neither matches an existing transaction or is valid to be imported.  You
> can
> alter GnuCash's decision by changing the checkedcheckbox to A if you want
> to
> import the data.
>
> The other problem you will encounter is that if you import your checking
> account and then later a credit card account payments from your checking
> account to the credit card account are generally imported in both data sets
> and you can end up with duplicates. GnuCash handles this by searching for
> existing transactions matching the imported data  as above. In this case
> you
> don't change the decision be GnuCash to not import the data.
>
> The easiest way to get rid of the transactions you have already imported
> incorrectly is to open a new file and save it over the same filename. If
> you
> have setup a Chart of Accounts already this will also clear that.  In that
> case use  File->Export->Account Tree to CSV to export the account tree
> before overwriting the file and then reimport it using
> File->Import->Import
> Accounts from CSV (not necessary if you are using an account setup created
> during the new file setup process and have not added to it).
>
> If you still have access to the previous program consider whether you are
> not better off just starting from the current date using GnuCash. It is
> also
> possible to import back data later when you are more familiar with
> GnuCash's
> operations if absolutely necessary. When I did this, I did it six months at
> a time and adjusted the opening Balances and dates on them as I worked
> backwards and reconciled the major asset accounts against statements once I
> had the data in.
>
> David Cousens
>
>
>
> -----
> David Cousens
> --
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