[GNC] Help with downloading transactions.

[David Carlson]

One thing that I am having trouble figuring out how to adapt to with
imports in any format is getting the transfer account right, particularly
with such things as "Zelle", which my bank gives very little additional
information with.  For those, sometimes there is an invoice in the mail but
we don't get a reference to it in the import from the bank.  I don't know
if the "Zelle" process allows adding a description when initiating the
transfer.

On Fri, Mar 17, 2023 at 6:56 PM George Riner <georgeriner at mycogeo.com>
wrote:

> I'm and 'M' and a 'K'.  I download from banks and I reconcile. I'm also
> a enter-by-hand (I don't know what letter-type that would be).
>
> I like downloading because it catches things I don't get receipts for
> and that I forget to hand-enter. On-line purchases, gas pumps that run
> out of receipt paper, or the receipt didn't get out of my pocket and
> went through the laundry.
>
> I reconcile, because it catches when I enter the charge in the wrong
> credit card acct, and it informs me for when a check I wrote has not
> cleared the bank, or some charge is delayed, or for when I hand-enter
> something and I do a typo.
>
> When I download, I never use the 'U' option - there's too much useless
> noise in the downloaded transactions that gets into my registers that
> only serves to clutter up reports. I'm assuming these numbers are
> meaningful to someone at the bank/creditcard, or maybe the retailer, but
> I've yet to find anything they match. They aren't Amazon order numbers
> or Amazon receipt numbers, nor Amazon invoice numbers. Maybe some
> transaction number that only the bank knows about?  Plus, names of
> businesses rarely match, and even when they do, they're often all UPPER
> CASE and often include misguided attempts by the retailer for Customer
> Relationship Management by adding in "THANK YOU FOR YOUR PURCHASE!!"
> which is totally useless in my accounts & reports.
>
> I wish there was a way to turn off the 'Bayesian" amount matching.
> Because I don't want to be close, I want to be exact. So when
> reconciling I have to carefully watch the matching transactions to make
> sure they're aren't off by $0.02 or some tiny amount.
>
> For downloaded transactions that have to be added, I use the 'A' option,
> but I force all those transactions to go into a special account - I name
> it 'Unspecified' (under Expenses).  I then apply the downloaded
> transaction and then go through all the 'Unspecified' entries in Journal
> view and clean them up and correct the expense account to apply them to.
>
> The Reconcile function also has a really useful way of creating the
> payment transaction and giving it a future date (the payment due date,
> for example), and posting it to my bank acct.
>
> :George
> Windows 10 build 19045.2604
> Gnucash Build ID: 4.11+(2022-06-25)
>
>
>
> On 3/17/2023 1:57 AM, edodd at billiau.net wrote:
> > On Thu, 16 Mar 2023 15:38:25 +0000
> > Gyle McCollam <gmccollam at live.com> wrote:
> >
> >> You really should try to download and import transactions.
> > This is a philosophical point.
> > There is group "M" who always enter every transaction first in their
> > books and then use the bank documents to reconcile
> >
> > and
> >
> > There is group "K" who enter some things and use the bank download to
> > keep their accounts.
> >
> > There are pros and cons to each method. Gnucash allows you to make your
> > own choice.
> >
> >
> > Liz
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-- 
David Carlson