Text File Importer Extension

The CSV (comma separated values) format is essentially a table of rows and columns, like a spreadsheet. It is very versatile and not specifically designed to contain financial information.

As such there is no standard way for a bank to store data in such a file. There is no standard order for the columns in a CSV file or names for those columns.

As a result of this the import process for CSV files is much more involved that any other standard format.

For this reason, we recommend using either OFX, QFX, OFC or QIF files for importing your data whenever possible. OFX and QFX files are the best format, with QIF files being the second best and CSV files being a distant third.

The 'Text File Importer' extension allows you to specify which columns in a CSV file should correspond to which fields in a Moneydance transaction.

To install the Text File Importer extension, navigate to Extensions -> Manage Extensions and install the extension there. If you purchased Moneydance from the Mac App Store, then you can go here to download the extension, then drag and drop it onto the Moneydance window to install it.

Importing CSV Files -

Once you have installed the "Text File Importer" extension, select Extensions --> Text File Importer.

A window will open, allowing you to browse to the CSV file you want to import. Navigate to the CSV file and select it to begin the import process.

You'll be given the option to select the file encoding from these options:

UTF-8
UTF-16BE
UTF-16LE
UTF-16
US-ASCII
ISO-8859-1

In most cases, you can leave it to the default option. Click Next to continue.

In the next window, specify the account you want to import the data into.

Select the Fields Delimiter from these options -
[tab] [space] [,] [.] [/] [] [-] [_] [*] [~] [;]

This is the character that's used in your CSV file to separate the fields. Comma is quite common and so is tab, but if you're using something different you can specify that as well. If you're unsure, select comma.

You may also need to change the date format to that used in the file. To do so, select the Date Format from the following options -
MDY, DMY, YMD, YDM

After that, specify either a period '.' or comma ',' as the decimal used in the file and click Next.

The next window displays a list of fields. Each of these fields represents a column in the CSV file.
E.g. "Field 1" is the first, left most column in the file. "Field 2" is column 2, to the right of the first column, and so on..."

You need to select the Moneydance transaction field that corresponds with the column in the CSV file.

To do this we suggest opening your CSV file in a spreadsheet program to see which column is which, and use that as a reference to match the different field values to the corresponding columns in the CSV file.

Use the "More Fields" and "Fewer Fields" buttons to adjust the number of fields to import, corresponding to the number of columns in your CSV file.
You should remove any unnecessary fields, rather than assigning as 'Ignore'.

Then, for each field/column, select the transaction field in Moneydance that the column value corresponds to from these options -

Date
Check Number
Description (Payee)
Account (this is "Category" in the register)
Amount (positive for deposit, negative for payment)
Memo
Status
Ignore

Click "Finish" to import the file.

CSV importing problems -

The Text File Importer supports dates in the format of XX/YY/ZZ and XX/YY/ZZZZ. If your dates are in a format that includes letters (Jan-1-2015, for example), the Text File Importer will not be able to recognize your dates. You'll have to change the format in a spreadsheet program to a format that the Text File Importer can recognize.

If your CSV file has your credits and debits in one column, and another column that specifies whether the row is a debit or credit - you'll have to adjust the amount column in your CSV file to make the credits negative (with a minus sign in front of them).

If your CSV file has credits and debits in two columns, then you'll have to merge the columns into one to be able to import it with the 'Text File Importer' extension, or use the 'CSV Importer' extension to try importing the data.