
<ARTICLE ID="XACC-QUICKEN">
<ARTHEADER>
<TITLE>A Guide for Former Users of Quicken</TITLE>
</ARTHEADER>
<SECT1 ID="XACC-QUICKENGUIDE">
<TITLE> Quicken (TM) User's Guide</TITLE>
<PARA>    </PARA>
<PARA>Not all accounting systems use the same words to describe
    the same concepts. The following are some notes that may be
    helpful to users accustomed to Intuit's products.

    </PARA>
</SECT1>
<SECT1 ID="XACC-QUICKENCATS">
<TITLE> Quicken Categories</TITLE>
<PARA>What Quicken calls <EMPHASIS>Categories</EMPHASIS> are
really just <LINK LINKEND="XACC-INCOMEEXPENSE">Income/Expense
accounts. </LINK> Thus, if
    you are used to specifying a category in Quicken, just create
    an income/expense account of the same name in GnuCash, and use
    that as the name of the account.

    </PARA>
</SECT1>
<SECT1 ID="XACC-QIF">
<TITLE> Quicken QIF File Import</TITLE>
<PARA> GnuCash supports the import of Quicken
    Import Files (QIF). (Note: Only Quicken Version 3.0 QIF has
    been formally tested so far.) 

    </PARA>
<PARA>Note that the QIF format is representative of a somewhat
    peculiar data model that is not as expressive as one might
    wish; it requires dumping out a separate data file for each
    account, rather than permitting you to have one file that
    represents <EMPHASIS>all</EMPHASIS> of the accounts you might have had in
    Quicken.

    </PARA>
<PARA>Furthermore, while there are plans to do so in the future,
    there is not, at this point, a way of mapping the account or
    category names used in Quicken to a <EMPHASIS>different</EMPHASIS> set of
    account names that you might be using in GnuCash.

    </PARA>
<PARA>As a result, please read this section carefully. You may be
    somewhat disappointed with the results of a QIF import; this
    will at least give you some more accurate expectations as to
    what will happen.

    </PARA>
<SECT2>
<TITLE>Creating QIF Files</TITLE>
<PARA>    </PARA>
<PARA>To create a set of Quicken <FILENAME>QIF</FILENAME> files, perform the
    following procedure:

    <ITEMIZEDLIST>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA>        Start Quicken. 

        </PARA>
<PARA>It works on <ULINK URL="http://www.winehq.com/">Wine,</ULINK>
        Caldera's Wabi, and doubtless on VMWare, so this may not
        forcibly require that you run Windows.
      

      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA>        Select the account that you wish to export. 

        </PARA>
<PARA>Quicken can only export one account to each data file,
        which means that if you have many accounts, this may prove
        to be a somewhat tedious process. (On the other hand, it
        should be a whole lot <EMPHASIS>less</EMPHASIS> tedious than entering
        the data from scratch.)
      

      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA>        Choose the menu <GUIMENU>File</GUIMENU> and select the <GUIMENU>        Export...</GUIMENU> menu entry. 

        </PARA>
<PARA>This will provide a dialog that requests a filename,
        effective dates, as well as a series of checkboxes,
        including <GUIMENU>Transactions</GUIMENU>, <GUIMENU>Accounts List</GUIMENU>,
        <GUIMENU>Category List</GUIMENU>, and so forth.

        </PARA>
<PARA>For best results, you should make sure that those three
        are checked.

        </PARA>
<PARA>If you do <EMPHASIS>not</EMPHASIS> check the <GUIMENU>Accounts List</GUIMENU>
        box, then the name of your account will likely be lost, and
        that will cause problems when you try to import the data
        into GnuCash later.
      
    </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
</ITEMIZEDLIST>
    Now you have a set of <FILENAME>.QIF</FILENAME> files, and should run
    GnuCash. 

    </PARA>
</SECT2>
<SECT2>
<TITLE>Loading QIF files into GnuCash</TITLE>
<PARA>    <ITEMIZEDLIST>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA>To import a Quicken QIF file, choose the menu <GUIMENU>      File</GUIMENU> and select the entry <GUIMENU>Import QIF</GUIMENU>.

      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA>The imported file will be merged with whatever other data
      you currently have in GnuCash. The merge allows multiple
      Quicken accounts to be imported and merged into one account
      group.
      
      
    </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
</ITEMIZEDLIST>

    </PARA>
</SECT2>
<SECT2>
<TITLE>Things To Note About QIF Import</TITLE>
<PARA>    <ITEMIZEDLIST>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA>        <EMPHASIS>Duplicate Entry Scanning</EMPHASIS> 

        </PARA>
<PARA>Note that during merge, a scan is made for duplicate
        transactions, and duplicates are removed. A duplicate
        transaction is one where the date, description (payee),
        memo, quantity, share price, and debited/credited accounts
        or categories match <EMPHASIS>exactly.</EMPHASIS> Thus, the merge <EMPHASIS>        should</EMPHASIS> be safe unless you have multiple transactions
        on the same date, to the same account, for the same amount,
        with the same description and memo.

        </PARA>
<PARA>This unfortunately <EMPHASIS>can</EMPHASIS> occur, the typical
        scenario involving where you make multiple withdrawals of
        identical amounts from ATM machines on the same day.
      

      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA>        <EMPHASIS>Empty Accounts</EMPHASIS> 

        </PARA>
<PARA>Note that when the <GUIMENU>Accounts List</GUIMENU> and <GUIMENU>        Category List</GUIMENU> is exported from Quicken, <EMPHASIS>all</EMPHASIS>
        accounts and categories will be exported, even if they are
        empty and contain no transactions. When these are imported,
        they will appear as accounts with a balance of zero. If you
        do not plan to use such accounts, feel free to delete them.
        Future enhancements may allow you to delete them "en
        masse," or to make them invisible without deleting
        them.
      

      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA>        <EMPHASIS>QIF Mark II</EMPHASIS> An ongoing project is to build an
        alternative import utility in Guile that will be more
        flexible, and which, by virtue of being stored as a set of
        Scheme scripts, may be modified without needing to
        recompile the whole application. 

        </PARA>
<PARA>At this point, it successfully parses <FILENAME>QIF</FILENAME>
        files; what remains is the (rather complex task) of
        determine appropriate correspondences between the Quicken
        <EMPHASIS>Categories</EMPHASIS> and the GnuCash equivalents. That is one
        of the most significant weaknesses with the present QIF
        import scheme.
      

      </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
<LISTITEM>
<PARA>        <EMPHASIS>More about QIF</EMPHASIS> 

        </PARA>
<PARA>Further details about the QIF Interchange Format may be
        found <LINK LINKEND="XACC-QIF-IMPORT">        here.</LINK>
      
    </PARA>
</LISTITEM>
</ITEMIZEDLIST>


</PARA>
</SECT2>
</SECT1>
</ARTICLE>

<!-- Local variables: -->
<!-- sgml-parent-document: "gnucash.sgml" -->
<!-- End: -->
