[GNC] Can I Prevent OFX/QFX Import Overwriting Notes?

[Kalpesh Patel]

I've established a bit of a different workflow. I "convert" what would have
been the note into a very specific sub-account so that no matter what the
note's information doesn't get lost. For example if I paid for a gift via
check for xyz then I will create a sub account of xyz under gifts
(Expenses:Gifts:XYZ) if I want to track it for that specific person but if
not I can always assign the expense category of gifts (Expenses:Gifts) as a
more general way. This way those notes shows up correctly in the report too.
Far as I know, there is no limit how deep of nest it can be in such fashion.

 

If the enhancement were to come, it would be great since I have accounts on
both side of the transactions that get downloaded via OFX so I can cross
reference them, for example check number 123 from a bank on one side and as
note for credit card payment on the second side, while display description
can say something a bit about transaction like CC Charges payment. 

 

 

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Message: 3

Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2021 16:55:35 -0400

From: gcul209 at mynym.us <mailto:gcul209 at mynym.us> 

To: "gnucash-user at gnucash.org <mailto:gnucash-user at gnucash.org> "
<gnucash-user at gnucash.org <mailto:gnucash-user at gnucash.org> >

Subject: [GNC] Can I Prevent OFX/QFX Import Overwriting Notes?

Message-ID: <1ba8c2d0-0b20-42dc-bcbf-5946e6173e03 at mynym.us
<mailto:1ba8c2d0-0b20-42dc-bcbf-5946e6173e03 at mynym.us> >

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I wouldn't be surprised if this has been asked in the past, but I don't know
of a good way to search the archives for these mailing lists (seems I'd have
to download a month at a time in order to search manually).  I also wouldn't
be surprised if the answer is blatantly obvious / right in front of me and
I'm just missing it.  I did try an Internet search and got too many
irrelevant results (outside of the manual and basic import information,
which I did look through a bit, without much luck).

 

I recently migrated from an old PC to a new Mac.  As far as I can tell, I
was running GnuCash 2.6.16-1 on the PC (I don't remember why I stopped
updating), but I figured I should upgrade during the transition, so I'm
running 4.6-1 on the Mac.  I have always downloaded OFX and/or QFX files
from my banks in order to reconcile my manual entries and import additional
transaction data (using U+C to complete my register).  For the manual
entries, I have always used the notes field in the register for most of my
bank accounts because there's typically nothing worth importing there anyway
(just something like "OFX ext. info: |Trans type:Generic debit").
Previously, on the PC, my manually entered notes were NOT overwritten.  Now
that I'm on the Mac, the notes are being overwritten by that arcane data,
but I don't know if that is a PC vs Mac thing or a version change thing.  I
also don't know if there is anything I can do to prevent it in either case.
What I do know is that the behavior is consistent across file types and
banks (I ignored it the first time it happened because I didn't want to
re-enter a bunch of previous transactions in order to try to work around it,
but I was expecting it this time, with a different bank providing the data,
and confirmed it happens for both formats).

 

I don't really want to lose my manually entered data, but I would like to
have the bank data imported an synchronized as well.  Is there anything I
can do so that the generic transaction information doesn't overwrite my
previously entered notes?

 

 

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