tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:/discussions/general-questions/100018-testing-moneydance-importing-quicken-filesInfinite Kind: Discussion 2020-10-03T21:30:23Ztag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/484423202020-07-03T21:37:14Z2020-07-03T21:37:14Ztesting MoneyDance - importing quicken files<div><p>I'm a fellow user.</p>
<p>Quicken allows you to enter a transaction where an account actually credit or debits itself, so in effect you put the name of the account in the category field. This allows Quicken to either create money out of thin air or to dispose of it in the same way.</p>
<p>For a program like Moneydance which is based on accounting rules this is a total no-no you just cannot handle transactions like this (if you were in a business and tried to do this the auditors would be asking lots of questions before getting the authorities involved). So what Moneydance does to resolve the problem is to create an account with the trailing 'X' in its name and uses this for the other side of the transaction.</p>
<p>To be able to remove this account you need to go back to the original transaction and determined where the money really comes from or should be going to and set the category field appropriately.</p></div>dwgtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/484423202020-07-03T21:54:36Z2020-07-03T21:54:38Ztesting MoneyDance - importing quicken files<div><p>OK - thanks, I'll have to roam around a bit in the program. On another front, I saw a suggest resolution idea showing an 'import from quicken' option on the startup/splash screen. I noticed this was on Mac - on windows, I don't have such an option. Maybe the help graphic was from an older version? I'm importing quicken QiF by QIF, and it sounded like this option looked at the complete quicken (QDF) file. Can someone point me to that option? Thanks-</p></div>Kevin Spahrtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/484423202020-07-03T22:09:27Z2020-07-03T22:09:27Ztesting MoneyDance - importing quicken files<div><p>Is there a holistic way to import quicken data? I’m finding that upon<br>
initial import from QIF for each account, that the ending balance matches<br>
that in quicken. When I closed and reopened the file, the balances are all<br>
messed up – obviously a lot of interdependencies between accounts, with the<br>
‘out’ of one account being the ‘in’ of another, so I’m surprise anything was correct until it was all imported. Now I’m also seeing an account<br>
‘restored [GUID]’ and references to it in some of the other accounts.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p><em>From:</em> dwg <a href="mailto:tender+d82aec91cd@tenderapp.com">tender+d82aec91cd@tenderapp.com</a> <em>Sent:</em> Friday, July 3, 2020 4:37 PM <em>To:</em> <a href="mailto:krspahr@ieee.org">krspahr@ieee.org</a> <em>Subject:</em> Re: testing MoneyDance - importing quicken files [General Questions #100018]</p></div>Kevin Spahrtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/484423202020-07-03T22:14:11Z2020-07-03T22:14:11Ztesting MoneyDance - importing quicken files<div><p>I'm a fellow user.</p>
<p>There used to be a specific Import from Quicken Essentials option in older releases - Quicken Essentials was discontinued some years ago now, it was a Mac only program.</p>
<p>Quicken Essentials however was a totally different program in all respects, it does not use QDF files. QDF is a proprietary format and there are no specifications published for the file format hence why no other vendor can read these files and thus the need to use QIF files to migrate the transaction data.</p></div>dwgtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/484423202020-07-03T23:11:56Z2020-07-03T23:11:56Ztesting MoneyDance - importing quicken files<div><p>Just a user - you can avoid a lot of the issues you describe (you'll still get ACCOUNTX bits) by exporting ONE QIF with all accounts and all dates. That way MD can resolve the issues as it imports all your accounts.</p>
<p>I do note that you are using Home & Buesiness, so you may encounter some cash balance issues with your investment accounts, as MD does not import many investment transactions properly. The security values almost always come out correct, cash balances not so much.</p></div>dtdtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/484423202020-07-04T15:23:59Z2020-07-04T15:24:00Ztesting MoneyDance - importing quicken files<div><p>Thanks for the idea – tried a single QIF import, but seems even more<br>
messed-up. Am I seeing import problems because MD isn’t licensed yet? I’m<br>
running in demo mode. If I’m not going to be able to successfully migrate<br>
to a new platform, there isn’t much point in buying a license. I see that<br>
I’m limited to 100 manual entries – is that the only limitation?</p>
<p><em>From:</em> dantdavis <a href="mailto:tender+d82aec91cd@tenderapp.com">tender+d82aec91cd@tenderapp.com</a> <em>Sent:</em> Friday, July 3, 2020 6:12 PM <em>To:</em> <a href="mailto:krspahr@ieee.org">krspahr@ieee.org</a> <em>Subject:</em> Re: testing MoneyDance - importing quicken files [General Questions #100018]</p></div>Kevin Spahrtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/484423202020-07-04T15:39:56Z2020-07-04T15:39:56Ztesting MoneyDance - importing quicken files<div><p>I am not support staff, just a user.<br>
Hi Kevin</p>
<p>The demo mode with its 100 manually entered transaction will have no effect on importing a QIF file.</p>
<p>The following some notes I have made on QIF import, they may help.</p>
<p>Make sure you are running this build of Moneydance <a href="https://infinitekind.com/preview">https://infinitekind.com/preview</a></p>
<p>You need to use Quicken to export your data in a QIF file type. Ensure any closed account that have transfers to any open accounts are included in the QIF file, re-open these accounts if necessary. Export everything Quicken export will allow.</p>
<p>Open the QIF file in a text editor. You are looking for the date format used in the file e.g. D25/03'2019 Day Month Year or D5/ 17'19 or D05/31/2017 Month Day Year etc. You will need this information later. If you get this wrong it will be apparent as the dates in Moneydance will be all over the place and you will need to start again creating a new data set.</p>
<p>QIF files were never meant for transferring data from one program to another, but it’s all that is available, you will need to spend time cleaning thing up when import is complete.</p>
<p>When you first start Moneydance it opens in the Welcome window click on “Create a new account set”. If you have opened Moneydance before create a new data set under FILE (MONEYDANCE on Mac) – NEW.</p>
<p>Select “Create New File” (Data Set) and click NEXT. Type in an Account Set Name (Data Set) and click NEXT. Change Primary Currency (base currency), if required. File Type, leave at “Standard Account set”, click FINISH.</p>
<p>In the side bar (list on left) under BANK deleted the two default Bank accounts, highlighting them in turn and using ACCOUNT – DELETE ACCOUNT.</p>
<p>NOTE: If you have accounts with currencies that are not in your base currency (foreign currencies) perform the steps under NOTE 1 before importing your QIF file as follows.</p>
<p>Drag and dropped the QIF file into the side bar (list on left).<br>
Waited for import window to appear, this can take a few minutes.</p>
<p>IMPORTANT: Checked all listed accounts are of the correct type and currency and changed if required.</p>
<p>The “Date Format” should be set to the date format used in the QIF file not the date format you want to use in Moneydance. Select the correct Decimal Character.</p>
<p>Click import and waited to account values to file in, again this can take some time, it may appear nothings happening.<br>
Some accounts maybe hidden under the “+” at the bottom of the side bar, added them back.</p>
<p>Some QIF files don’t include initial account balances. If you think this is the case you can add initial balance to affected accounts as follows.<br>
Highlighting an account, then click ACCOUNT – EDIT ACCOUNT and add an Initial Balance.</p>
<p>For investment accounts QIF file don’t always carry security prices other than buy sell prices, so investment account balances maybe wrong until you update with current security prices.</p>
<p>Reminder are not included in QIF files.</p>
<p>Any accounts that are inactive (closed) should be made inactive by highlighting the account in the side bar and clicking ACCOUNT – EDIT ACCOUNT and ticking the inactive box. To remove them from the side bar, right click and select REMOVE FROM SIDE BAR.</p>
<p>Now the real work starts to check balances and tidy thing up. This is especially true of investment accounts as not all action types are supported. But worth it in the end.</p>
<p>For information on how to use Moneydance see <a href="https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/kb">https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/kb</a></p>
<p>Note 1: This section only applies if you have accounts with currencies that are not in your base currency. For these currencies ensure “Show on summary page” box is ticked under TOOLS – CURRENCIES – highlight subject currency and double click – EDIT.<br>
Note: QIF file do not contain exchange rates. To overcome this QIF file shortcoming the Currency/Security History window must have current and dated exchange rates filled in which cover the date range of transactions in non-base currency account. As well as manually adding exchange rates you can import CSV exchange rate files downloaded from sites on the web. Use IMPORT button in the Currency/Security History window. If you have investment account their balances will probably be incorrect. This is due to the fact that the currency set in the security history windows will be in the Moneydance base currency. You can change to the correct security currency and provided exchange rates exist the values will be converted. As you do this re-calculation occurs, but I think the results should to be correct. No guarantees the section will work correctly.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p></div>derekkent23tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/484423202020-07-04T20:18:15Z2020-07-04T20:28:43Ztesting MoneyDance - importing quicken files<div><p>just a user here...</p>
<p>derekkent23 posted an absolutely excellent post to get you going with the QIF import, initial inspection, and initial verification that you had a successful import. This will get you a long way, then you will run into his paragraph:</p>
<p>"Now the real work starts to check balances and tidy thing up. This is especially true of investment accounts as not all action types are supported. But worth it in the end."</p>
<p>Given you use Home and Business - I assume this will be the case for you, but if you just use Checking/Savings/Credit Cards, it will be pretty clean. If you use investment accounts, you might say "but it seems even more messed up"...</p>
<p>[I almost gave up when I finally successfully imported my 35 YEARS of data in one gigantic QIF file. I had about 20 ACCOUNTX files. Every investment account cash balance was terribly off, and any regular account that ever transferred money to an investment account also had totally wrong cash balances. - My initial import said my net worth was MINUS 11 MILLION dollars... so I was about to give up.]</p>
<p>After a very long thread here, I realized 35 years of data would require extensive work to clean up, but over time realized there were two things I could have done initially to give me confidence that I could use MoneyDance with these two fixes, or at least to start the clean up process on the Quicken Action items MD didn't support well.</p>
<p>The quickest "well, I believe it will work out" is to make a few changes in MD once you've successfully imported your QIF file, and are lamenting about the wild cash balances.</p>
<p>1) IMPORT QIF FILE (details in many places)<br>
2) Hide and make inactive all ACCOUNTX creations (Account/Edit Account)<br>
3) Make the final balances for all crazy cash balances match quicken by changing the Initial Balances (Highlight each account, Use Account/Edit Account/Change Initial Balance) - yes, the values you enter will make absolutely no sense other than forcing MD to match Quicken as of the current date.<br>
4) Your cash balances from day 1 through today will be totally wonky. Look it over, report if other things are wonky other than cash balances through time.</p>
<p>Hopefully, AS OF THIS DATE - everything will look copacetic, and give you confidence you can move forward, if not backward at historical cash balances.</p>
<p>This isn't really a final solution, but it may make you look past some things that are wrong and let you see the things that are right (credit cards, security holdings, etc.)</p>
<p>Then you can decide if you can live with the above - given you have a life, or now at least be able to see what you need to do further.</p>
<p>And if you decide to go further - you can explore the rabbit holes of investment transactions, and possibly look at my tl:dr thread from a while back.</p>
<p>Hope that helps some rather than just throwing up your arms when you get to this point.</p></div>dtdtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/484423202020-07-04T21:00:07Z2020-07-04T21:00:08Ztesting MoneyDance - importing quicken files<div><p>Thanks for the community support! I don’t have any investments in quicken<br>
any more - I only have 2 cash accounts that I track 401k deposits into for<br>
cash basis. I wasn’t able to download updates anymore, so I gave up. I also<br>
spent some time pruning inactive accounts, and validating, and archiving<br>
old records, and re-validating etc. I’ve made sure that the removed<br>
accounts have proper ‘links’ to ‘ [Unspecified Account]’ as they should<br>
when accounts are removed. I’ve taken little steps and have been saving<br>
file snapshots along the way until I got to a pretty lean and mean quicken<br>
file. Like so many others, I’ve had this love-hate thing going on with<br>
quicken for some time now, and decided it was worth some effort to convert.</p>
<p>At any rate, I’ve tried importing a single QIF with no success (yet), The<br>
very first attempt to import data after I installed MD, I did one<br>
account/QIF at a time, and that worked reasonably well, so I may try that<br>
again. Kind of tedious though-</p>
<p>My interest in MD would be in being able to download transactions for<br>
Bank/CC/etc. accounts, and also to know that the software is going to be<br>
around for a while, and actively developed (but not too ‘developed’). I<br>
just want rock-solid performance with no surprises. I didn’t do a lot of<br>
research on the product, but I’m hoping ‘this is the one’. I’m also<br>
interested in open-source solutions because, being an ex-windows SW<br>
developer, I feel like I could control my own destiny with a product that I<br>
can maintain and tweak as necessary. But MD looks (so far) like the best<br>
‘out of the box’ experience.</p>
<p><em>From:</em> dantdavis <a href="mailto:tender+d82aec91cd@tenderapp.com">tender+d82aec91cd@tenderapp.com</a> <em>Sent:</em> Saturday, July 4, 2020 3:18 PM <em>To:</em> <a href="mailto:krspahr@ieee.org">krspahr@ieee.org</a> <em>Subject:</em> Re: testing MoneyDance - importing quicken files [General Questions #100018]</p></div>Kevin Spahrtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/484423202020-07-04T21:09:21Z2020-07-04T21:21:36Ztesting MoneyDance - importing quicken files<div><p>I did a fairly extensive overlook of Quicken replacements. My main decision criteria came down to "similarity to quicken" (i.e. look/feel for my spouse), privacy (not an online product), downloads of stock prices and financial data, and syncing across computers/devices without needing to exchange data files.</p>
<p>Moneydance fulfilled those criteria. Took a while to convert 35 years of data, but... now I'm a happy camper. I'm a little concerned that some banks are messing with or dropping direct connect, but MD is working on what is "basically" a built in web connect type download that you control, vs. Quicken - but it's not finished yet.</p>
<p>As for QIF - I think you said you are using Quicken 2017 H&B? So was I, let me see if I can bring up the QIF conversion screen... but basically, bring that screen up, make sure EVERY SINGLE BOX IS CHECKED to get as much info as possible, and set it for "All accounts" - and given you've made the file data "lean and mean" - still make sure you follow derekkent23 process. My only concern in you making it lean and mean is that you might have munged something - but you say it's all good, so we'll go with that.</p>
<p>Also, given you seem comfortable with Quicken changes, you might do what I did - once you get a successful import (you are still working on that), you might examine more closely what IS wrong - then go back and fix that in Quicken before you make a new QIF file - i.e. it becomes iterative.</p>
<p>Also, if everything does work correctly, I also recommend CLEARING every single transaction that you move over. That way, when you re-set up your bank connections, and they invariably will redownload everything they have since QIF does not transfer "yep - that's been downloaded, cool" - so that you can distinguish between the new download and the old matched transaction. With non-investment accounts, you can merge them. With investment accounts, you delete the matched cleared item, keeping the new download - so that from then on, MD and the bank knows it's been downloaded.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p></div>dtdtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/484423202020-07-04T21:26:50Z2020-07-04T21:28:03Ztesting MoneyDance - importing quicken files<div><p>It appears you are responding to emails - I suggest going directly to the forum and looking over the thread, or examining other threads.</p>
<p><a href="https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/discussions/general-questions/100018-testing-moneydance-importing-quicken-files">https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/discussions/general-questions/10...</a></p></div>dtd