[GNC] QIF Import troubles

[Steve Silva]

Hi Kalpesh,
Thank you for the very thoughtful insight into this process.  I will review it again and see if I can get some traction.
Steve    On Thursday, December 15, 2022 at 11:30:49 AM CST, Kalpesh Patel <kalpesh.patel at usa.net> wrote:  
 
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Steve,

  

I went through this process of converting Quicken data into GNC format in early 2020 when Quicken 2017 got sunset and Quicken pulled the plug on able to connect via direct connect before moving on to subscription model. My data was even more messier (my earliest data file is from end-of-year copy from 1993 that was upgraded but I believe it is even earlier when I started using it as I was on 3 year upgrade cycle).

  

For me it was well worth the exercise going to double entry system which gives me more power to generate reports then Quicken provided. Most of my transactions did not have “categories” (in quicken they normally were enclosed in square brackets in the memo field – so called quicken “transfer”) as I was liberally using  memos only. As it turns out that in GNC converted those memos into contra accounts when imported. And then use the delete account feature of the GNC to “re-position” account transactions to consolidate them or create parent-child relationship by re-parenting contra accounts – this is where a bit creativity comes in as its precision allows you to see how you want this set up for your own use; this capability does NOT exist in Quicken.

  

This is the general flow that worked great for me in case you want to give a try to the conversion –

  

§  Get quicken file to be error free (‘file à file operation à validate and repair’ and then followed by ‘file àfile operation àcopy’; did this at least three times and when you open it  in next iteration open the copy and perform the process again; review and fix transactions as necessary until at least two consecutive runs are error free)

§  Create year end file from the last set of cleaned up files and work with that to export transactions (‘file àfile operation à year-end copy’)

§  NOTE: Make sure you make a backup copy in GNC before going on to next file import so if imported transactions doesn’t look right then you can “roll back” and try import again until you get it right.

§  Export one, and only one, account to a single QIF formatted file at a time from the year end copy and import that single file only and iterate for all accounts in Quicken in this manner (this will give you opportunity to reconcile contra accounts if transactions do not match up as you import one account at a time)

·         Start with the largest investment account and go down to smallest investment account until all are imported. (Primary Accounts à Investing and Retirement in Quicken; this will create the most work as you will have to create each security if it doesn’t exist – if you want a quick way to import securities then download a qfx/ofx formatted file from your broker, import while letting GNC bulk create securities then deleting all transaction from GNC so that you are only left with securities and no transactions. Do so for all brokerage accounts before importing very first QIF file)

·         Start with the largest Bank account and go down to smallest bank account (Primary Accounts à Spending & Savings in Quicken)

·         Start with the largest credit card account and go down to smallest credit card account  (Primary Accounts à Spending & Savings in Quicken)

  

 With this I was able to bring in entire history of investment transactions and banking account which were the most important transactions for me. Credit Card and etc. I started with blank with an opening balance entry and moved forward from there on. If there is any particular account for which you desire to have longer history then you can export from the pre-year end copy of the Quicken file as a single QIF file and import.

  

Hope this helps. 

  

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Message: 4

Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2022 00:34:11 +0000 (UTC)

From: Steve Silva <stv_007 at yahoo.com>

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

Subject: [GNC] QIF Import troubles

Message-ID: <1846355561.5252767.1670978051086 at mail.yahoo.com>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

  

Hi All,

I am trying out gnucash to replace Quicken.? I have Quicken convert my accounts into a QIF file and import that to gnucash.? The whole process seems to go well until I see the result.? It seems like all or most of the register entries are duplicated, each with a debit and credit of the same amount.? I have tried various permutations of exporting and importing but these split transactions keeps showing up.? Is there someone who has seen this issue and figured out a way around it?

Thanks, Steve

  

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