Possible Problems After QIF Import

Incorrect account balances

If transactions in your account appear up to date, but the balances are incorrect - it's most likely the QIF file did not include an initial balance transfer as the first transaction for the account.

Some QIF files include this initial balance transfer some don't, it depends on the software you are using.

To correct this, you can set the initial balance on your accounts in Moneydance manually.

To do this, select then account, then navigate to Account -> Edit Account. You can then enter an amount in the Initial Balance field. This is detailed further within the 'Initial Balance' section.

Foreign currency transfers with incorrect rates

Unfortunately QIF files do not contain any currency or exchange rate information.

Moneydance is using the current rate on all foreign currency transfers.

There is no way to get the correct exchange rate information out of the other software for your transactions.

To confound things even more, it's likely you are going to get duplicates for every foreign currency transfer because the amounts are different on each side and Moneydance is unable to match them up.

If you have a lot of foreign currency transfers, and you want to move to any other personal finance program, you may want to consider starting your data set from the beginning of the year rather than trying to import all of your data.

Incorrect transaction dates

The QIF file can store the dates in one of 3 different formats.

You'll need to select the date format manually during the import process, as the QIF file doesn't tell Moneydance which format it is using.

The Moneydance QIF import window has a "Date Format" option.

The date format used in the QIF file is not necessarily the same as the date format that you have specified for display purposes.

You can create a new blank data file (navigate within Moneydance to File --> New) and try the import again with one of the other "Date Format" options you haven't yet tried.

You may need to repeat using each of the date formats until your data imports correctly.

Imported categories names include 'xxxx'

These were hidden categories that your software was using behind the scenes for various reasons (depending on the software you were using) and have been included in the QIF export file.

Some might be used for the initial balance transfer. Others may include a number of $0.00 transactions that were likely used for storing budget information.

Generally speaking these 'xxxx' categories can safely be deleted. However you should look at the transactions inside the category to make sure before removing it.

Incorrect categories -

If the categories have imported incorrectly, or all transactions have been assigned to the same category - It's most likely that your settings were slightly incorrect when you imported the QIF file.

Duplicated transfers -

If transfers have been duplicated, you'll need to ensure that the dates are the same on both sides of the transfer.

Some software supports different dates on the other side of transfers.

Unfortunately Moneydance cannot match the two sides of a transfer in such a case.