[GNC] New CSV Import Wiki Entries

[David Cousens]

Patrick, 

Have you considered including your guide into the documentation 
directly rather than in a separate wiki page. I rewrote what is in the
documentation after Geert had rewritten the CSV import procedure 
several years ago but it would likely benefit from a perspective which
was more user oriented rather then coder oriented which I suspect my
efforts were.




On Sun, 2026-08-16 at 15:48 -0700, Patrick James via gnucash-user
wrote:
> Reply at bottom.
> 
> 
> > On 08/16/2026 3:07 PM PDT Michael or Penny Novack via gnucash-user
> > <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
> > 
> >  
> > On 8/16/2026 12:22 PM, Patrick James via gnucash-user wrote:ou
> > > For various reasons, new users have struggled with the CSV import
> > > of transactions. I looked back at the various questions, and
> > > while there is no single magic solution, I decided to write a
> > > Guided CSV Import. The strategy is to start with known CSV data,
> > > as published on the Wiki page, a clean GnuCash file and import
> > > the data both non-multi-split and multi-split.
> > >   
> > > If someone is struggling with a first CSV import, this guided
> > > tour will probably answer the questions of where things are going
> > > wrong.
> > >   
> > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Guided_CSV_Import
> > 
> > Might I add a perhaps useful tip? The csv format ONLY specifies
> > that the 
> > fields of each record will be delineated by commas. It does NOT
> > specify 
> > the order of the fields of each record. Therefore ......
> > 
> > FIRST do an export of transactions to csv. Almost all applications 
> > export records with fields in the order they expect when importing.
> > If 
> > you know (from gnucash) what the amounts/dates/accounts/etc. of the
> > transactions you exported you can look at the records in the file
> > you 
> > exported to learn what the order of fields is.
> > 
> > THEN look at the file you want to import/ Same order? Different
> > order? 
> > If different you will need to reorder the data.
> > 
> > Michael D Novack
> > 
> 
> Thanks for the comments.
> 
> During the GnuCash IMPORT PREVIEW step, the import columns are
> selected from drop-down menus at the top of each column. It does not
> really matter what order the imported data is.
> 
> Also, the CSV data is provided on the Wiki page I authored, so there
> is no exporting of anything with these two new Wiki pages.
> 
> In terms of the import columns, not all fields are required. I often
> import memos or notes, and it's possible to do one or the other, or
> both or neither.
> 
> The only required fields, as covered in the Wiki page, are Date,
> Description, Amount, and Account (plus, for non-multi-split,
> selecting a common account).
> 
> On my list of possible additions to the Wiki pages is more about the
> IMPORT PREVIEW window, and how Saved Settings are an option. Using
> the saved settings allows for the creation of automated workflows.
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-- 
David Cousens