[GNC] What does OFX Direct Connect do?

[Steve Cohen]

"steadily dwindling list" - doesn't sound good.  I never got direct
connection to work, but I was happy enough downloading my Amex card
transactions via QFX.  Now I can't even do that. :-(  Hmm.  What options
besides .QFX does GnuCash support?  As I recall, QFX was best.

On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 3:28 PM John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:

> Please remember to copy the list on all replies.
>
> GnuCash does not have such a list, but the website http://ofxhome.com
> maintains a directory of US financial institutions that do or did support
> OFX Direct Connect. Be sure to check the bottom of the institution's page
> to see when the ofxhome test script last ran successfully.
>
> If your existing FI decides to support only Quicken then your options are
> to switch to somewhere that still supports OFX Direct Connect (a steadily
> dwindling list), switch to manually downloading your transactions in one of
> the formats GnuCash supports, or getting Quicken.
>
> Regards,
> John Ralls
>
>
> > On Jan 4, 2021, at 1:19 PM, Steve Cohen <stevecoh2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > and if your financial institution, like American Express, forces you to
> maintain an account with Quicken in order to download QFX files, what,
> short of closing your account with them, are your options?  Does GNUCash
> maintain a list of institutions that do or don't support import of data?
> >
> > I quit Quicken several years ago because I was tired of being forced to
> upgrade every 2 or 3 years to get a bunch of features I had no need of, yet
> bug fixes I did have need of were never made.
> >
> > On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 10:09 PM John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
> > No, OFX is a file format. Many financial/bank websites offer OFX or QFX
> downloads of your transaction data; more in fact than offer OFX Direct
> Connect. Since OFX (and it's slightly altered evil twin QFX, for Quicken
> Financial eXchange) are formats expressly designed for transferring
> consumer transaction information it's a more efficient and less error prone
> way to import transactions into programs like GnuCash.
> >
> > If your bank offers OFX Direct Connect then GnuCash can connect to your
> bank and get that OFX download. If not but allows downloading OFX-formatted
> files then you go to the bank website, log in, and get the download, then
> use File>Import>Import OFX/QFX to import it.
> >
> > Regards,
> > John Ralls
> >
> > > On May 18, 2020, at 2:20 PM, Fran_3 <mailbox0600 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Woops! No ill intent. I've seen the same response on other SIG's when
> someone started a new thread that a groups member or admin thought should
> have been included in a recent thread on that some related topic. Oh well.
> > >
> > > Back to the topic... so OFX just saves you the steps of downloading
> the transactions as CSV and then having to do a bit of formatting before
> you import them into GC... right?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Monday, May 18, 2020, 1:48:19 PM EDT, John Ralls <
> jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > Don't hijack threads, it's rude. Start a new one when you have a new
> question.
> > >
> > > OFX Direct Connect is just like importing an OFX or QFX file
> downloaded from your bank's website except that it will connect to the bank
> and get the OFX file for you.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > John Ralls
> > >
> > >
> > > > On May 18, 2020, at 10:27 AM, Fran_3 <mailbox0600 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > If I can jump in here I would like to learn more about OFX Direct
> Connect with GnuCash.
> > > >
> > > > Does such automatically determine what transactions occur at the
> bank that are not in GC...
> > > > And then automatically update GnuCash?
> > > >
> > > > Or what?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Monday, May 18, 2020, 12:35:10 PM EDT, John Ralls <
> jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > On May 17, 2020, at 12:06 PM, Hershey <Hershey at triad.rr.com>
> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > I'm new to Gnu and am having issues setting up online downloads.
> > > > > My first attempt is Wells Fargo and I get a 2000 error message.
> > > > > The Tutorial show Wells Fargo in its example but I've also seen
> this
> > > > > statement on the web: Wells Fargo has switched to OFX Web Connect.
> GnuCash
> > > > > doesn't support this authentication.
> > > >
> > > > That last sentence is your answer, but perhaps you need some more
> detail. There are two ways of connecting to a bank for OFX online
> communication, OFX Direct Connect and OFX Web Connect. The former collects
> your user name and password as part of the online session and the latter
> has you log in to the bank's website and launch the OFX session from there.
> The way that the bank's website connects to the financial software is
> proprietary to Intuit, the makers of Quicken, so that it works only with
> their products. GnuCash is able to work only with OFX Direct Connect.
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > > John Ralls
> > > >
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