Imported transactions will generally be to a specific account in your account tree. In the following this will be referred to as the import or base account. It may or may not be specified in the data being imported depending on the import format. It is usually the first split of a transaction being imported.
All transactions will also need to have a destination account for at least a matching splits. This may or may not be supplied in the imported data. If it is not, an account can be assigned on the basis of the previous import history by matching to infomation in the imported data. The user may always over-ride this assignment.
Multi-split data previously exported from GnuCash may have both the import and destination accounts for transaction splits specified in the data file.
Gnucash allows transactions to be imported in the following formats:
These import methods can be accessed from the
submenu of the main menu entry, along with methods for importing other types of data. Select the appropriate entry in the sub menu to initiate importing transactions.To import data from Quicken®, MS Money, or other programs that use QIF(Quicken® Interchange Format), you must first export your data to a QIF file. One way to do this is to export each account as a separate QIF file. An easier way, available in Quicken® 98 and beyond, is to export all accounts at once into a single QIF file. Check your program's manual to determine if this option is available.
To do this, select
→ → from the menu. When the QIF Import dialog box appears, click button and follow the instructions to guide you through the process of loading your files.This image shows the start of the QIF Import Druid.
You will be prompted for a filename to load. Use the Select button to select your QIF file and click Next to load it. Once the file is loaded, select Load another file if you have more files to load. When you have loaded all your QIF files, click Next to continue with the import process.
The importer then matches up your QIF accounts and categories with GnuCash accounts and gives you a brief description of the matching process. Clicking Next will bring you to a view comparing your QIF accounts with the corresponding GnuCash accounts created. To change an account name, select the row containing that account name and edit the name in the dialog box provided. Click Next when you have finished making changes, and proceed through a similar category matching process. QIF income and expense categories import as GnuCash income and expense accounts Make changes to these account names if necessary, and click Next to continue.
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If you are not sure what changes are needed, it is safe to accept the GnuCash account names. It is easy to edit the accounts later if you find you need to make a change. |
From the drop-down list, select a standard currency to be used for the imported accounts and click
to continue. If you have stocks, mutual funds, or other securities, you will be prompted for additional information. The importer dialog will ask for the exchange or listing (i.e. Nasdaq), the security's full name, and the ticker symbol. If you do not have this information handy, you can edit the account information later, once the import is complete. Click button to continue.The last step is the import. Once you have verified your account names and investment information, click
button in the Update your GnuCash accounts page to complete the import process. Depending upon the size of your file, the import might take a few minutes to complete, so a progress bar displays the percentage finished. When the import process is complete, GnuCash will return you to the main window, which should now display the names of the accounts you imported.This opens a file selection dialog. Navigate to the file you wish to import, select a file with the appropriate extension (.ofx or .qfx), then press the
button button.Gnucash opens an Account Selection dialog to select an account in your CoA corresponding to data source. Select the appropriate account from the account tree and press the
button. On subsequent import of files from the same source (identified by tags in the file), the source is remembered and the account selection dialog is not displayed.The generic import transaction matcher dialog is opened next. See the Import Matcher section (common to both OFX/QFX and CSV import formats) following the Import CSV section to continue the import process.
Clicking on
in the Import menu will bring up the Import Assistant dialog. The first step brings up a file selection dialog. Navigate to the location where the file you wish to import is located and select the file to import then click the button.The next window will allow you to set parameters for the importing of the file. All widgets have tooltips which explain what the setting affects and the options for the setting.
If this import is a regular occurrence, once you have set the other import paramters, you can save these settings by typing
in a setting name in the Load and Save Settings Entry combo box and pressing the button just to the right of the box.
Previously defined settings can be retrieved by selecting the appropriate setting name from the dropdown list activated by
the down arrow at the right end of the text box. The trash can button to the right of the Save button can be used to remove
the settings selected from the drop down list for the box. The settings group "GnuCash Export Settings"
define a setting
group for the export and reimport of GnuCash transaction data - use this if importing data previously exported from GnuCash.
This combo box allows you to select the base or import account into which the transactions will be imported. It may be left unset if the imported data contains a column listing the accounts associated with each split or the import data specifies the account for first split of the transaction.
This section allows you to define whether the file has:
Fixed width columns: Selecting this radio button will allow you to define column boundaries by double clicking at the appropriate positions in the sample records displayed in the panel below. Single clicking in a column will narrow, widen or merge the column.
Separators: Selecting this radio button will allow you to define characters which will be used to distinguish columns in the input file. The default is comma separated however spaces, tabs,colons or semicolons or any combination of them may be used to separate columns in the input file by selecting the appropriate check boxes. You may also define custom separators by typing the required characters into the text box and selecting the Custom checkbox. This may be used in combination with any of the predefined separators.
Multi-split: Selecting this check box allows the splits for a single transaction to be defined on consecutive lines within the file with each line defining a single split. If not selected each line is assumed to contain the information for a single transaction including one or two splits.
The miscellaneous settings allow you to set:
Encoding: This is usually the UTF-8 variant for your locale;
Date Format: This does not default to the Locale setting so check it matches the data you are importing;
Currency Format:
Leading Lines to Skip:
Trailing Lines to Skip:
Skip alternate lines:
to match the settings for the file you are importing. Tooltips may also contain information on the setting and options.
The import panel shows the data being imported as it is interpreted using the settings chosen to define columns and formats. The dropdown lists in the headers for each column of the import allow you to associate a specific column in the imported data with a specific field in the display of a transaction in an account register. At a minimum to import data, columns in the imported data containing the following information must be specified:
Date: of transaction;
Account: into which transaction is to be imported (or alternatively set the base account as above);
Description: of the transaction;
Deposit or Withdrawal: column.
The Skip Errors check box will skip trying to import any rows with errors in matching the columns.
When you are happy with all the import settings, save them if you will use the same settings again, then press the button. This will bring up a window which allows you to map the accounts identified in the account column (Account Id) with accounts in the GnuCash account tree (Account name). Double click on a row to bring up a dialog to select the matching GnuCash account. When you have selected a match for all accounts, click on the button.
The Transaction Information panel allows review of data entry settings so far.
Clicking on Match Transactions will then bring up the main Import Matcher window described in the next section.
The Import Matcher checks whether an imported transaction matches an existing transaction already recorded in GnuCash within a predefined time window for the account into which the transactions are being imported. A match probablity is calculated based on the Date, Amount, Transaction ID's(if present), Check numbers (if present) and the Description and split Memo fields. Exact matches will generate a high match probability and flag a transaction as matching an existing transaction and therefore not to be imported. If there is a lower quality match to an existing transaction, the imported transaction may be flagged for updating of non-matching information in the GnuCash record of the matching transaction. These decisions can be overridden by the user.
If no matching transaction can be identified the transaction will be flagged for import. The matcher will attempt to assign a transfer account based on matches between tokenized information for previously imported transactions stored in lists associated with the transfer accounts which were assigned to them on import. If a good match is obtained, the transfer account is assigned and the transaction is flagged as ready to import. If a transfer account cannot be assigned, the transaction will be flagged for import and manual assignment of the transfer account by the user. By default, if no transfer account is assigned, transactions will be assigned to an Imbalance account on import. This is to indicate that they need an appropriate account assigned to them.
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It is important to assign a transfer account to each transaction prior to import of the transactions. Otherwise the tokenized information from the imported transaction will not be appended to the list of tokens for an assigned account for use in future matching of transactions to transfer accounts. |
The status of the transaction rows to be imported is indicated in the matcher by a combination of the background colour for the row and three checkboxes in the columns labelled A (Add), U+R (Update and Reconcile) and R (Reconciled) as described in Table 6.1, “Status of transactions”.
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Note that "reconciled" in this context does not mean the same as "reconciled" in the process of reconciling an account to an external statement. |
Table 6.1. Status of transactions
Checked Box | Background | Meaning |
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A | Gold | Flagged for input: – Intervention required, transfer account must be selected. |
DarkSeaGreen1 | Flagged for input: – Intervention not required, transfer account matched. | |
U+R | DarkSeaGreen1 | Matches an existing transaction: – Intervention not required, import and update amount. |
Brown1 | Transaction matched: – Intervention required, not to be imported. | |
R | DarkSeaGreen1 | Matches an existing transaction: – Intervention not required, will not be imported. |
Brown1 | Matches but not reconciled: – Intervention required, will not be imported. | |
Cornflower Blue | Row is selected |
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The colors illustrated here are the defaults for GnuCash specified in gnucash-fallback-310.css. You may experience different colors if the gtk-3.0 CSS files have been modified |
Where a row has been matched to an existing transaction or is to update an existing transaction or a transfer account has been matched and supplied, double clicking on the row will bring up a dialog which displays detail of the imported transaction and the transaction in GnuCash to which it has been matched to allow the user to vet the match and correct it, if they feel the wrong transfer account has been assigned or the matcher has not produced a valid result. You may change the checkbox selection if you disagree with the matcher decisions and you may reassign an assigned transfer account (see below).
The currently selected row is selected by Cornflower Blue background color.
clicking it. It is displayed with aDouble Light Green and the assigned destination account will be displayed in the Info column.
clicking on a row will select it and open an Account Selection dialog to allow you to assign a transfer account. Select the desired transfer account in the dialog and click . The dialog has a button which will allow you to create a suitable account if there is no existing account which can be applied as the transfer account.The row background will change to aor alternatively, Account Selection dialog, select the destination account and click the button.
click on a row to select it followed by a click to bring up a popup menu then select to display theSometimes you will have several transactions which can have the same destination account. Gnucash allows you to select multiple transactions and apply the same destination account to all transactions in the selection.
Rows in a selection are displayed with a Cornflower Blue background.
Only rows which have the A checkbox checked and either a Light Green or Yellow/-Gold background colour can be selected for inclusion in a multiple selection. Rows with a Bright Red background or with the U+R or R checkboxes checked cannot be selected in a multiple selection.
To select rows either:
click on first row and then Ctrl+Left click on other rows to add to the selection or
click on first row and then Shift+Left click on another row to select all rows between them.
Rubber banding is also enabled so you may also click and drag over rows to create a selection. To add more rows, hold down Ctrl and click and drag over more rows.
then
click to display a popup menu and then select to open the Account Selection dialog. Select the desired destination account (create a new account if necessary) and click the button in the Account Selection dialog.Once you have assigned destination accounts for all the imported transactions using the above methods (all row backgrounds will be a light green colour), check that the assigned destination acounts are correct and then press the
button at the bottom of the Generic Import Matcher window. The transactions selected for import will have their splits added to the selected source and destination accounts.The tokenized data from the transactions assigned to a given transfer account is stored on exiting from the matcher and is used to match transactions to the appropriate transfer account in future imports.