[GNC] Fwd: Fastest ways to enter my transactions into GnuCash ?

[Kevin Buckley]

Oops: forgot to copy to the list.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Kevin Buckley <kevin.m.buckley at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 29 Feb 2020 at 19:23
Subject: Re: [GNC] Fastest ways to enter my transactions into GnuCash ?
To: Long <Phamhoanglongvn at outlook.com>


On Fri, 28 Feb 2020 at 18:22, Long <Phamhoanglongvn at outlook.com> wrote:
>
> ... But
> sometimes, i need to enter large amount of transactions into GnuCash. So i
> really want to hear some idea from who have experienced with this problem.

As other people have stated it very much depends om the format that
the transaction you wish to enter are in, as well as the nature of the
transactions once you put them into GnuCash.

Transactions with a lot of splits are going to be hard to automate.

If though, your large amount of transactions are all doing a single
amount from the same credit account to teh same debit account,
you may be able to get some joy by playing with the XML that
GnuCash stores its data in.

This is DANGEROUS and you SHOULD backup your GnuCash XML
file BEFORE starting to edit it.

Here is the XML for such a simple transaction from a GnuCash 2.6.1
file


<gnc:transaction version="2.0.0">
  <trn:id type="guid">d81e27dc72c046f6b6fea3bbcb134593</trn:id>
  <trn:currency>
    <cmdty:space>ISO4217</cmdty:space>
    <cmdty:id>AUD</cmdty:id>
  </trn:currency>
  <trn:date-posted>
    <ts:date>2020-02-26 00:00:00 +0800</ts:date>
  </trn:date-posted>
  <trn:date-entered>
    <ts:date>2020-02-29 14:35:45 +0800</ts:date>
  </trn:date-entered>
  <trn:description>Stephanie's</trn:description>
  <trn:slots>
    <slot>
      <slot:key>date-posted</slot:key>
      <slot:value type="gdate">
        <gdate>2020-02-26</gdate>
      </slot:value>
    </slot>
    <slot>
      <slot:key>notes</slot:key>
      <slot:value type="string"></slot:value>
    </slot>
  </trn:slots>
  <trn:splits>
    <trn:split>
      <split:id type="guid">2c98f40a1b12123cf1f899a4cc256765</split:id>
      <split:reconciled-state>n</split:reconciled-state>
      <split:value>900/100</split:value>
      <split:quantity>900/100</split:quantity>
      <split:account
type="guid">239cccee94937c10e2aeeab5c665cebc</split:account>
    </trn:split>
    <trn:split>
      <split:id type="guid">56eb9eaabb9de85dc371a5a438a17ca7</split:id>
      <split:reconciled-state>c</split:reconciled-state>
      <split:value>-900/100</split:value>
      <split:quantity>-900/100</split:quantity>
      <split:account
type="guid">d45c15b5c7634235e47c2cd5ca668094</split:account>
    </trn:split>
  </trn:splits>
</gnc:transaction>

It looks intimidating doesn't it, however, there are only THREE GUIDs that
you need to regenerate in that block so as to be able to be able to add it to
your GnuCash file, and have it seen as a NEW transcation when you reopen
the file, vis

<trn:id type="guid">d81e27dc72c046f6b6fea3bbcb134593</trn:id>

<split:id type="guid">2c98f40a1b12123cf1f899a4cc256765</split:id>

<split:id type="guid">56eb9eaabb9de85dc371a5a438a17ca7</split:id>

Of course, you may want to change the time, amount and description
as well.

If you have, and know how to use, somethng akin to uuidgen, then you
may be able to evisage a simple program that takes arguments such has

"2020-02-29 14:35:45"  "9.00"  "Stephanie's"

and then writes out a block of transaction XM than you can add into
your XML file.
.
As I say, editing the XML fille is not somthing to do unless you know
what you are doing but it can be useful for some simple things.


Another approach to entering a lof of transactions that are very similar
would be to create a Scheduled Tranastion that you set to start at some
point in the past and have them run daily.

When you next to a "Since last run" you'll get as many nes trasnactions
as there are days between your start date and today.

This may not sound all that useful but it will mean that most of the info
will now be inside your GnuCash, which may be a better place to start
from that only having data in some non-GnuCash format outsidde it.

You still have to edit amounts and totehr deatils but that may ease the load.

It really does depend on the nature of your trasnactions though.