qif imports
I am currently using Quicken Deluxe 2015 on a ten-year-old Windows 10 Dell PC. I would like to import all my accounts to Moneydance on a new Windows 11 machine. These accounts go back over 30 years! Some of them are inactive, but I like to have the data available. I have tried exporting from Quicken to QIF and then importing to Moneydance. The results are very confusing. I think it might be easier if I export each account separately into Moneydance, but it doesn't seem possible. Has anyone else had a similar experience?
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1 Posted by dwg on 13 Jun, 2024 12:36 AM
I'm a fellow Moneydance user.
Generally exporting all accounts in a single file works best as it helps to avoid duplicates, when you export them file by file and then import them you can have problems with duplicates in transfers between accounts.
I would suggest outlining the issues, there are certain things we do see with QIF imports, but to document all the possibilities would require a book however, and we keep seeing new things.
2 Posted by dtd on 13 Jun, 2024 12:41 AM
First - dwg is totally right, he usually is. But here is MY outline of the issues.
Your best bet is to export everything (check all boxes) and import everything to MD in one go.
If you have closed/inactive accounts in quicken, open them all first, to insure they get exporteed as well.
Doing each account separately is indeed possible, but it will MUCH harder to resolve the issues that will arise.
I exported 35 years of data from Quicken HB 2016, and imported it into Moneydance.
A lot went well, but there were, as you say "results that were very confusing". Like negative half million dollars balance confusing... yep.
I initiated a VERY long thread about 3+ years ago on this, but it is so long (as I was learning what the actual problems were) that I will only direct you to that link if you are a glutton for TMI.
Bottom line: VERY doable. This all seems like way too much information, but actually it's a way to get to the destination (i.e. a great MD file with 30 years data). Me, I had to do more - to get a perfect file, and that is doable too, but with a lot more work.
------------- conclusions from that long thread ------------------
Edit
99 Posted by dtd on Sep 08, 2022 @ 04:59 PM
dtd's Avatar
Copied from a newer thread:
Ok, here goes, while I'm in the mood. Realize all of this is from my 3 year old memory, so I'm willing to edit when called out.
1) Extract to one QIF file with everything checked. Import to a new MD File. Note what works, and what does not. Banks/credit cards should basically work, investment accounts should have all security values correct (though current stock value may be wrong - Quote Loader can help there). Balances for all accounts could be very crazy.
You may find the existence of many ACCOUNTX accounts, some of which may have one entry, some many.
You can stop here by changing the initial balance to an arbitrary value that causes each account to have the correct value for TODAY. Hide the ACCOUNTX accounts. This SHOULD give you something you could work with, but some will want to go further. If you do not have something you MIGHT work with, there may be a different problem.
2. Start to fix things (I did it in Quicken). This is an ITERATIVE process. I imported QIF exports many times to observe what I'd improved and what I had not.
ACCOUNTX: If one entry - go fix the entry in Quicken, if many - well, maybe make a category (CAR-Change in Asset Value) and point the transaction to that versus to the account itself.
Cash Balance Issues between investments/banks - XIN/XOUT is your friend. Find where this happens and understand the action is probably not supported outside of Quicken. Quicken DOES allow batch changes to Action Types (MD does not). Change all BLAHBLAH actions to something like XIN/XOUT or some other type MD recognizes.
Investment account cash balances - Whatever makes BUYXFER/SELLXFR from Quicken in MD doesn't work. Change to BUY/SELL in Quicken or something that works. (I don't remember them all after 3 years)
Do this iteratively and see the cash balances at least improve.
Quicken IRA Accounts. I pray you don't have to deal with this, so I will leave it alone for now.
The two primary things that have to be fixed are ACCOUNTX items and Daily cash balances. Again - there are ways to leave them alone (hide accountx, and live with historical cash balances)
That's at least a start on a process article. Going to get dinner
------------------------------------------------------------
And this:
https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/discussions/switching-from-another-personal-finance-program/15012-the-vicissitudes-of-quicken-to-moneydance#comment_57174342
3 Posted by Dick on 13 Jun, 2024 01:26 AM
Thanks for the prompt responses. You've given me a lot to absorb. You may not hear back from me for a while, but I will be working on this.
4 Posted by dwg on 13 Jun, 2024 01:58 AM
If there is a QIF issue it has probably been seen before, @dtd did manage to find a couple of actions that had not been documented, were more recent, and were U.S. centric which threw us for a while, until the transactions were understood.
5 Posted by Dick on 13 Jun, 2024 02:21 AM
Before I start working on this, I should probably ask a stupid question. I'm still using the trial version of MD. Could that be a big part of my problem?
6 Posted by dwg on 13 Jun, 2024 02:31 AM
It is the same software, in trial mode there is a limit of 100 manually entered transactions, that is the only difference.
7 Posted by Dick on 13 Jun, 2024 03:20 AM
Right, but if my QIF file has more than 100 transactions....
8 Posted by dtd on 13 Jun, 2024 05:41 AM
Imports and such have NO EFFECT. It is really 100 MANUAL entries. I imported QIF files multiple times (testing to new files each time) with thousands of entries. Doesn't affect the 100 issue.
9 Posted by Dick on 13 Jun, 2024 05:44 PM
OK, thanks everyone. I think I've got it. What I did wrong was not checking all the boxes on the export. Having done that, it looks like everything came over OK. Still checking, of course. Will get the license now.
Maddy closed this discussion on 14 Jun, 2024 02:47 PM.