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173 lines
6.1 KiB
HTML
173 lines
6.1 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
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<html>
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<head>
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<link rel="stylesheet" title="normal" type="text/css" href=
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"gnucash.css">
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<title>A Guide for Former Users of Quicken</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Quicken (TM) User's Guide</h1>
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<p> Not all accounting systems use the same words to describe
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the same concepts. The following are some notes that may be
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helpful to users accustomed to Intuit's products.</p>
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<h1>Quicken Categories</h1>
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<a name="QUICKENCATS"></a>
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<p> What Quicken calls <tt>Categories</tt> are really just <a
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href="xacc-expense.html">Income/Expense accounts</a>. Thus, if
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you are used to specifying a category in Quicken, just create
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an income/expense account of the same name in GnuCash, and use
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that as the name of the account.</p>
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<h1>Quicken QIF File Import</h1>
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<a name="QIF"></a> GnuCash supports the import of Quicken
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Import Files (QIF). (Note: Only Quicken Version 3.0 QIF has
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been formally tested so far.)
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<p> Note that the QIF format is representative of a somewhat
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peculiar data model that is not as expressive as one might
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wish; it requires dumping out a separate data file for each
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account, rather than permitting you to have one file that
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represents <em> all</em> of the accounts you might have had in
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Quicken.</p>
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<p> Furthermore, while there are plans to do so in the future,
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there is not, at this point, a way of mapping the account or
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category names used in Quicken to a <em> different</em> set of
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account names that you might be using in GnuCash.</p>
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<p> As a result, please read this section carefully. You may be
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somewhat disappointed with the results of a QIF import; this
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will at least give you some more accurate expectations as to
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what will happen.</p>
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<h2> Creating QIF Files</h2>
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<p> To create a set of Quicken <tt>QIF</tt> files, perform the
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following procedure:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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Start Quicken.
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<p> It works on <a href="http://www.winehq.com/"> Wine,</a>
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Caldera's Wabi, and doubtless on VMWare, so this may not
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forcibly require that you run Windows.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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Select the account that you wish to export.
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<p> Quicken can only export one account to each data file,
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which means that if you have many accounts, this may prove
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to be a somewhat tedious process. (On the other hand, it
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should be a whole lot <em> less</em> tedious than entering
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the data from scratch.)</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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Choose the menu <tt>File</tt> and select the <tt>
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Export...</tt> menu entry.
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<p> This will provide a dialog that requests a filename,
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effective dates, as well as a series of checkboxes,
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including <tt>Transactions</tt>, <tt>Accounts List</tt>,
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<tt> Category List</tt>, and so forth.</p>
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<p> For best results, you should make sure that those three
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are checked.</p>
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<p> If you do <em> not</em> check the <tt>Accounts
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List</tt> box, then the name of your account will likely be
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lost, and that will cause problems when you try to import
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the data into GnuCash later.</p>
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</li>
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</ul>
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Now you have a set of <tt>.QIF</tt> files, and should run
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GnuCash.
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<h2> Loading QIF files into GnuCash</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>To import a Quicken QIF file, choose the menu <tt>
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File</tt> and select the entry <tt>Import QIF</tt>.</li>
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<li>The imported file will be merged with whatever other data
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you currently have in GnuCash. The merge allows multiple
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Quicken accounts to be imported and merged into one account
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group.<br>
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<br>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<h2> Things To Note About QIF Import</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<b> Duplicate Entry Scanning</b>
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<p> Note that during merge, a scan is made for duplicate
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transactions, and duplicates are removed. A duplicate
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transaction is one where the date, description (payee),
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memo, quantity, share price, and debited/credited accounts
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or categories match <em> exactly.</em> Thus, the merge <em>
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should</em> be safe unless you have multiple transactions
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on the same date, to the same account, for the same amount,
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with the same description and memo.</p>
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<p> This unfortunately <em> can</em> occur, the typical
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scenario involving where you make multiple withdrawals of
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identical amounts from ATM machines on the same day.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<b>Empty Accounts</b>
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<p>Note that when the <tt>Accounts List</tt> and <tt>
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Category List</tt> is exported from Quicken, <b>all</b>
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accounts and categories will be exported, even if they are
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empty and contain no transactions. When these are imported,
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they will appear as accounts with a balance of zero. If you
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do not plan to use such accounts, feel free to delete them.
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Future enhancements may allow you to delete them "en
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masse," or to make them invisible without deleting
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them.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<b> QIF Mark II</b> An ongoing project is to build an
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alternative import utility in Guile that will be more
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flexible, and which, by virtue of being stored as a set of
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Scheme scripts, may be modified without needing to
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recompile the whole application.
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<p> At this point, it successfully parses <tt>QIF</tt>
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files; what remains is the (rather complex task) of
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determine appropriate correspondences between the Quicken
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<b> Categories</b> and the GnuCash equivalents. That is one
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of the most significant weaknesses with the present QIF
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import scheme.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<b> More about QIF</b>
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<p> Further details about the QIF Interchange Format may be
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found <a href=
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"http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/financeformats.html#QIF">
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here.</a></p>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<hr>
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<p> Return to <a href="xacc-main.html"> Main Documentation
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Page.</a></p>
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</body>
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</html>
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