[GNC] How to import transactions from Release 5.10 into Release 4.8

[Kalpesh Patel]

Ah, ok – different use case than what I was envisioning. Is it possible to export single transaction at a time, never came across that need so not sure there? 

 

In any case best bet is to export from higher version to lower version using “Simple Layout” format. It may, however, might require some processing after exporting but before importing, and then appropriately match up the columns during import. 

 

From: David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> 
Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2025 11:23 AM
To: Kalpesh Patel <kalpesh.patel at usa.net>
Cc: David Cousens <davidcousens49 at gmail.com>; gnucash-user at gnucash.org
Subject: Re: [GNC] How to import transactions from Release 5.10 into Release 4.8

 

Kalpesh,

 

This question started when I accidentally deleted a transaction from the file that I was editing with GnuCash 4.8 but the transaction was still present in the file that I was editing with GnuCash release 5.10.  I wanted to replace the 'lost' transaction in the file for release 4.8 editing.  (I am running two instances of GnuCash concurrently while testing release 5.10).

 

It occurred to me that there may be a need for other users to export transactions while using release 5.10 or later to import back to release 4.x which can do the multi-line CSV import, but with somewhat different format details.  I thought some users may have enough transactions to need a better solution than a brute force one-field-at-a-time cut and paste with clipboard type of solution and that there could be an 'automatic' solution provided by a developer or experienced user.

 

It may not continue to be possible to open the same file with either release 4.x or 6.x when GnuCash gets to that point.  I solved my problem shortly after my original post but others may need a solution in the future.

 

On Thu, Feb 6, 2025 at 9:44 AM Kalpesh Patel <kalpesh.patel at usa.net <mailto:kalpesh.patel at usa.net> > wrote:

Hmmm. Why would you want to export from 4.8 to import into 5.10 when you can simply open the file in 5.10? I would think that making copy of the file (save-as option from GNUCash), then delete un-wanted accounts in 4.8 version and then open that pared down one in 5.10 is much cleaner to go about.

Are you trying to merge books (or files)?

-----Original Message-----
From: David Cousens <davidcousens49 at gmail.com <mailto:davidcousens49 at gmail.com> > 
Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2025 4:57 PM
To: David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com <mailto:david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> >; gnucash-user at gnucash.org <mailto:gnucash-user at gnucash.org> 
Subject: Re: [GNC] How to import transactions from Release 5.10 into Release 4.8

David 

I don't think one could expect there to be a setting in Gnucash 4.8 to import the Export format from later versions of the program  e.g. 5.10 as that Export format did not exist at the time of release of GC 4.8.

The workaround might to be to export the same or a similar set of transactions from 4.8, compare that to the format of the same or a similar set of transaction exported from 5.10. Then compare the two formats and note any differences.

You may be able to get an import by a reassignment of the headers to different columns in the input file, but if the differences cannot be handled by that then using a macro/scripted editor to reformat the file to a format which can be imported may be necessary.

David Cousens

On Wed, 2025-02-05 at 13:44 -0600, David Carlson wrote:
> There is no setting to import transactions from a csv file made by 
> release
> 5.10 into a file using release 4.8.
> 
> Is there a work-around?
> 








-- 

David Carlson