[GNC] suddenly will not accept a normal transaction in a batch import.

[Eric S]

(Caveat: I've played around a little with CSV import, but the only import format I've used for real work is OFX.  I don't think there are any meaningful differences once you get to the transaction-matching stage, but could be wrong about that.)


On Mon, May 04, 2026 at 03:19:07AM +0000, arthur brogard via gnucash-user wrote:
> [...] the mechanism for identifying possible duplicates?

There are two different mechanisms, actually.  One of them only comes into play when you attempt to import the same transaction multiple times (e.g. if you downloaded and imported a transaction list for April 1-15, but now it's month-end and you're importing a whole-month list for April 1-30.)

But I won't say too much about that.  Your question is about the other mechanism, which is what gets used the first time you go to import a given transaction.


> So certain?  That's it?  It claims this is an existing transaction already in the books?

Yes.  Red + "Do not import (no action selected)" seems to be what you get when GnuCash has detected what it thinks is a perfect match (not merely an excellent one) with one of your existing transactions.  (I have complaints about that user interface, but that's a different topic...)

Be aware that sometimes GnuCash guesses wrong, so it's worth double-checking those Red transactions.  (I had a completely bogus "perfect" match just a few days ago.  GnuCash had paired up two completely unrelated transactions.)


So how to double-check?  A trick I've just discovered is to temporarily turn on the red transaction's "C" or "U+C" checkbox.  That will reveal the ">" icon and (in "Additional Comments") the peer account(s) GnuCash wants to use, giving you the info you need to make a decision:

  - If you agree with the match, choose "U+C" or "C".  The former copies some of the data from the import into the GnuCash transaction (date and description for sure, and maybe other fields; see also the "Append" checkbox at the bottom of the dialog).  "C" keeps your own data unmodified

  - If you disagree with the match, and need the import file's transaction to be added to GnuCash as a new, independent one, choose "A"

  - If you uncheck all three checkboxes, that will turn the transaction Red again and set it back to "Do not import (no action selected)".  When you ultimately click "OK", that import-file transaction will be ignored completely


Note that if you check any of the three checkboxes, the GnuCash transaction's Reconciled status will be set to "Cleared" (only the new one in the case of "A").  If you leave them all unchecked, the status won't change.


Hope this helps.
  - Eric