[GNC] importing account info

[David Cousens]

Alan,

Your screenshot is not attaching correctly, it is only 2 bytes. If you can
attach it as a jpg or png file it may come through.

>From what version of GnuCash did you upgrade to V3.8 ? The importer was
completely rewritten in the upgrade from 2.6.x to V3.  I had to completely
retrain the Bayesian matching in the import matcher after the transition. I
don't fully understand why as the information is stored in the xml datafile.
Geert maybe able to explain what caused this. I think there may have been
some changes to the parsing of tokens and maybe storage, but I am not sure
of this.

If the import matcher is incorrectly assigning an account, it is important
that it is corrected in the import matcher and not later in the account
register after importing as only assignments made during the import process
are used in defining the import matcher database of tokenized information
from the description field. That information is only stored when you
complete the import process after assigning any unassigned transfer accounts
and correcting any mistakes the automatic process made. At present no use is
made of the information in existing transactions unless they have passed
through the importer.

I don't import QFX files but I do import OFX files where the structre is
similar. After the initial problem going from 2.6.19 to 3.0 and retraining
the matcher by importing data a month at a time and checking the account
assignments carefully before completing the import, my original account
assignments have largely been restored. Double clicking on a transaction in
the import matcher window will bring up the account asiignment dialog.

It is also possible to edit the information used for the matching process.
If incorrect information has been stored there it can take some time and
several imports to the same account to correct the information.
Tools->Import Map Editor. You may need to exercise a great deal of caution
and have a good idea of how the bayesian matching process works to
successfully edit the data. So far I have looke at it but have not tried it.
It usues combinations of the tokenized information to produce the overall
weighting for a specific transfer account to be assigned. If it is only a
single account that is causing a problem it should be possible to find the
data which is causing the wrong assignment and delete it. AFAIK the Import
Map Editor has not been documented yet.  I have been upgrading some of the
import process documentation but  haven't got to this as yet and I am not at
all familiar with the code in this area.

I can't see what screen it is that is coming up but whether the account
picker dialog or  a list of the possible matches is displayed depends upon
the state of the checkboxes labelle"A", "U" and "R" and it sounds like it
was the latter nad not the former. 

If the A checkbox is checked, the transaction has been identified as not
matching an existing transaction and flagged for import. It may have either
a grren or gold background color. If green the matcher has assigned a
transfer account and you will need to check it has made a correct choice. If
gold it has not been able to match a transfer account and you will need to
assign a transfer account to it. By default it is assigned to an Imbalance
account if you do not assign an account before completing the import.
IDouble clicking the transaction will bring up the account picker dialog. It
is important for the training of the Bayesian match picker that the transfer
account be assigned at this point. The dialog allows you to create new
accounts if this should be necessary

If the R checkbox is checked it has matched an existing transaction with the
transaction to be imported and flagged it not to be imported and it will
usually have a green background. The bar code displayed will give some idea
of the quality of the match. Here double clicking will display the data for
the imported transaction and the best matched transaction and any other
close matches. You can select another of the close matches if it is the
correct transaction to match. At this point you might decide that the import
matcher has got it wrong in this case and the transaction needs to be
imported as it isn't a match to any existing transaction. Cancel out of the
display of matching transactions and click on the A checkbox to flag it for
import. GnuCash will then attempt to assign a transfer account and the
background will change to either green or gold. Again you can now accept or
reject the assigned account or change it as above

If the U checkbox is checked.it usually means any attempt at a match to any
existing transaction had some limited success but not enough to mark the
transaction as a match. It will have a red/pink background to indicate that
the transaction requires some manual decision.  A double click will bring up
the dialog displaying the matching existing transaction information. You can
select one of the matches if it is appropriate then accept it which will
change the checkbox status to "R" or you can decide it is not a match at all
cancel out of the dialog and then manually click on the A checkbox to import
it and proceed as above.

Hope this helps you sort out the hassles.

David Cousens



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David Cousens
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