[GNC] Slow migration

[Adrien Monteleone]

Please forgive me if this is too non-specific and generalized, I'm sure 
someone else who's made the MSmoney –> GnuCash migration can lend 
assistance (there are threads from the past on this subject, so it has 
been done) but I'll offer some general considerations and ideas.

#1 Can MSmoney export a chart of accounts?

If so, do that and then import to GnuCash. Else, manually recreate your 
accounts in GnuCash with MSmoney open side-by-side. Get your existing 
accounts straight as a first step.

#2 Can MSmoney export CSV of all, or better, individual accounts? If so, 
export a singular account, probably an asset (which will of course, 
contain splits linked to many others, likely expenses) and import it to 
GnuCash. If due to the size of your MSmoney history, there is no such 
thing as 'small' account, then pick one and export at least one month or 
so of transactions for practice.

Import that to GnuCash to learn the import process.

You'll likely do this a few times to refine your learning. Keep the Help 
& Tutorial open for reference while doing so. Take your time. Don't rush 
or try to import too much.

#3 If you've gotten this far, then iterate, if not, ask for more help.

Import more periods of the same account, and/or, import more accounts.

Eventually, you'll end up with everything in GnuCash.

I'd start with all Asset accounts, then move to fill in gaps with any 
transactions that only involve non-asset accounts.

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The reason for this piecemeal approach is that there is no 'all-in-one' 
conversion between the two apps.

By breaking up the import, you get to tell GnuCash how to import data 
and 'teach' the importer along the way so that it will guess what you 
want to do as you go through the subsequent periods and accounts. (a 
piece by piece approach with iterative 'learning/correction/teaching' 
results in less work overall vs. an all-at-once attempt. It keeps 
guessing as you go and gets better at guessing as you teach/correct it.)

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At any particular point, if you get stuck, ask back here for help.

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As others have mentioned, establish a date cutoff. Once you've imported 
your current Chart of Accounts from MSmoney, then enter all new 
transactions past that date directly into GnuCash only.

Then you get to take your time importing your historical data.

If you want, you can create 'opening balances' based off your current 
accounts as of the 'cutoff dates' and then later remove those entries 
when you successfully import your historical data. (which means at that 
point your 'opening' entries in GnuCash would be considered 
'duplicates', superfluous, and eligible for deletion, or at least 
reversal if you're a stickler for non-editing.)

Regards,
Adrien

On 10/15/22 5:15 AM, Trevor Richards via gnucash-user wrote:
> I've been using MSmoney for my personal financial management for about 20 years. When it went 'sunset' I started looking around and found GNUcash. I signed up & I've been following you all here ever since. I made some tentative attempts to convert over but it has always been a disaster. I have personal bank accounts and investments with about multiple banks & institutions around the world (NZ, UK, Jersey, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore). I think you can imagine what my MSmoney records look like. It does not seem feasible to me to attempt a full on file transfer. I've tried a few times in the past but I just create a mess that I have no time to solve.
> I was wondering if there was a better strategy for a 'slow' migration. Any thoughts on this?