[GNC] OFX import date questions

[David Carlson]

Phyllis,

Reconciliation does* not* always change the date to date cleared.  In fact,
the only date messed with during reconciliation is the reconciliation
date.  That date is always automatically set to the date used by the
reconciliation process.  In fact, that date has been the topic of other
threads in recent months.  The OFX import may or may not change the
transaction date when the imported transaction date differs from the
existing matched transaction date depending on whether you choose to use
the Update feature for that particular transaction.  You may wish to
re-read the Tutorial regarding how the matching process works.  I am not
sure even what you mean by 'date issued'  Is that the the date you wrote
the check?  If I want to keep that date in the record I manually write it
in the Notes field.

By the way, if you want to test anything in GnuCash, just make a disposable
and renamed copy of your data file or backup from earlier and put it in a
folder labelled Test.

On Sat, Dec 31, 2022 at 7:54 AM Phyllis Bruce <pobruce46 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks Jean and David,
> My thresholds are prolly set to the defaults.  Another thing I will do is
> filter for "Unreconciled" before I start my reconciliation.  I often have
> some withdrawals that don't occur within two months.  If I know they're
> there, I can change the threshold to look for them.
>
> Second thought, clearly a preference because we are looking at "statements"
> from the bank.  How might I keep the date issued as part of my record?
> Where should I enter that since, in the reconciliation the date is always
> changed to date cleared?  Just finished reconciling for the month so it
> will be a while before I can test this.  New year - new start
>
> On Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 7:25 PM Simon Roberts <
> simon at dancingcloudservices.com> wrote:
>
> > Thank you for the help to this point. I think I've worked out the date
> > issue (very embarrassing, nothing to do with GC). Now I have a bunch more
> > questions, but I'll ask them in dedicated threads to minimize confusion.
> >
> > I did notice that the CSV version of the transaction information contains
> > two different date columns one called "Posting" and the other
> "Effective",
> > but in all my samples so far, they're the same. That had nothing to do
> with
> > my stupi^H^H^H^H^H ... er, "problem", but I mention it in case it has any
> > relevance to anyone looking at this thread years from now. The OFX file
> > only seems to contain a single date field ("DTPOSTED").
> >
> > But yeah, overwhelm induced stupidity on my part, sorry. Next question
> will
> > be a bit more real, but many thanks to everyone who was kind enough to
> > pitch in their ideas.
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 3:19 PM David Cousens <davidcousens49 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Simon,
> > >
> > > The OFX file will be the immediate position in the banks records at the
> > > time of
> > > download. What appears in a statement may be after completion of
> > interbank
> > > clearances of funds and the dates in the statement may reflect when
> this
> > > occurred rather than when the transaction was first received by the
> bank.
> > > Clearnce times are generally a lot shorter with electronic clearances
> > than
> > > they
> > > used to be can sometimes be delayed. SInce this is a disagreement
> between
> > > OFX
> > > records and statement both produced by the bank, they are best placed
> to
> > > explain
> > > what such discrepancies are and why they occur.
> > >
> > > David Cousens
> > >
> > >
> > > On Fri, 2022-12-30 at 14:35 -0700, Simon Roberts wrote:
> > > > Beginner/refugee from QuickBooks here (more context below if you
> > > > care).  I'm working in a scratch file, so I can do stupid things
> while
> > > > learning without damaging anything "important".
> > > >
> > > > I'm working with importing my bank transactions using OFX format
> > (though
> > > > I've also tinkered with CSV, and am willing to use that if it
> > > > solves my problem).
> > > >
> > > > I imported some transactions using OFX. Several things surprised me,
> > but
> > > > the one that I think needs resolving first is that the transaction
> > dates
> > > do
> > > > not match the bank statement.
> > > >
> > > > Earlier I tried the CSV import and saw there were *two* date fields
> > > > (presumably difference between being received and being acted on?
> > > >
> > > > Can someone tell me what I should do to fix this? Is there a way to
> > > "tweek"
> > > > the OFX import, or do I need to use CSV? Or is this something else
> > > entirely
> > > > that's gone amiss?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks for any hints,
> > > > Cheers,
> > > > Simon
> > > >
> > > > Background in case it's relevant:
> > > >
> > > > I'm a refugee from Intuit, and very early in my learning process.
> > > >
> > > > I"m not a bookkeeper, I'm a programmer. Conversely, my bookkeeper
> > isn't a
> > > > software person--she would have continued paying the annual ransom to
> > > > Intuit but I'm sick of their hostage taking. Of course this means I
> > need
> > > to
> > > > do a decent part of the legwork for this transition.
> > > >
> > > > Of course because I'm not a bookkeeper, I don't understand the
> > accounting
> > > > side of this stuff, and likely won't know how to ask/phrase the
> > > questions.
> > > >
> > > > Neither of us are going to be great at searching the documentation
> > since
> > > it
> > > > seems like the terminology is different between GC and QB (and I
> don't
> > > > really know the terminology anyway)
> > > >
> > > > So, please forgive the idiot question, and if the simple answer to a
> > > > question is RTFM, we're very happy to do so, but likely are asking as
> > > we've
> > > > failed to find the relevant part of said references.
> > > >
> > > > Anyway, thanks for your indulgence :)
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> >
> > --
> > Simon Roberts
> > (303) 249 3613
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-- 
David Carlson