[GNC] Starting from scratch

[Clint Chaplin]

No database, but it turns out some CSV exports are possible from one of the
programs; just unsure just how much cleaning up will be necessary when I
import.

On Mon, Apr 27, 2026 at 6:41 PM David Cousens <davidcousens49 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Clint,
>
> You can certainly reset the starting balances as you work your way
> through imposrting data. I did that when I shifted from MYOB to GnuCash
> many years ago now.The starting balances are just a normal
> transactionbetween the account and an equity account usually named
> Opening Balances  and can be edited like any other transaction in
> GnuCash
>
> If your previous program can export in CSV format then you should be
> able to import the data into GnuCash in that format.If it was a
> database based program you may be able to query the data directly with
> SQL to export it in  a CSV form.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, 2026-04-27 at 08:12 -0700, Clint Chaplin wrote:
> > Hi, (soon to be) new user here.  I have almost 40 years of
> > transactions, in
> > programs that are incapable of exporting, so I'll have to start
> > entering
> > them in manually.
> > 28/04/2628/04/26
> > What strategies have people used in the past when starting up
> > GnuCash?  I
> > sorta understand for normal "cash" transactions I can probably just
> > start
> > entering in transactions for the current year, but can the starting
> > balance
> > be changed as I work my way backwards?
> >
> > For stocks and mutual funds, should I start at the beginning and work
> > my
> > way forward?  I'm not sure just how clean it is to start entering
> > current
> > transactions and then work my way backwards, especially given that
> > account
> > fees are taken FIFO from the first purchase in the mutual fund.
> >
> > Mortgage may be interesting, or simple.
> >
> > BTW, USA user.
> >
> > Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.
>
> -- 28/04/2628/04/26
> David Cousens
>


-- 
Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin