Transfer from Quicken
Just downloaded your trial program and want to transfer my ACTIVE accounts and data from Quicken. I've tried several times using all the info in this forum but it isn't working in a usable format. What I'm getting in Moneydance is every account for the past 6 or 7 years, including all the inactive accounts with zero balances, stocks long since sold, all sorts of duplication. What a confusing mess! I want very much to give Moneydance a fair trial, but I just spent an entire afternoon and am no further ahead than when I began. A total waste of time. I don't love Quicken, but it may be easier to continue with them than to switch to Moneydance. All I really need is 2010 data. Can you advise me? Thanks.
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1 Posted by -Kevin N. on 03 Sep, 2010 09:18 PM
Hi bobtell,
There is a Moneydance Knowledge base article that gives step-by-step instructions for users who have exported their Quicken data as one .QIF file or for users who have exported each account as a seperate .QIF file.
http://help.infinitekind.com/faqs/importing-from-quicken-or-ms-mone...
The inherent problem with importing data is that if any of the imported transactions are transfers from other accounts, those accounts will also be imported in some form or another.
Does Quicken offer any form of an Archiving process? Perhaps you could cull out the data you need first and then do the export. Personally, I've steered clear of Archiving but it might be worth a try.
Make sure you have a recent backup before you make any changes to your data file.
HTH -Kevin N.
2 Posted by Angie Rauscher on 04 Sep, 2010 02:57 AM
Bobtell,
Kevin's advice is excellent and is exactly what I would have told you to try. It is also possible that your version of Quicken might permit you to set a date range for the data you are exporting, which could definitely cut down the number of transactions (and so the amount of housekeeping necessary after import) which you are bringing over.
Please let me know how it goes, and we'll keep working on it if the info in the knowledge base doesn't resolve the issue.
Angie Rauscher
Moneydance Support
3 Posted by bobtell on 04 Sep, 2010 06:19 PM
Hi Angie & Kevin
Thank you for your kind attempt to steer me through this process. It certainly is a more user friendly approach than any other support site I've ever used. However, I am stumped and just about ready to call it quits. I've now spent all morning today on top of all afternoon yesterday and I have a mess here. All I want is my current data from Quicken imported accurately into Moneydance. That seems like a simple request, or it least it should be.
How to explain this? Well, my Quicken version indeed permits selection of a date range. That part works. It also permits selection of specific accounts. But that feature doesn't seem to work. No matter which accounts I select, when I import to Moneydance every account I've ever had on Quicken is imported, even if I limit the date to 2010. I've tried this at least ten times today with the same result.
So I decided to try making corrections manually. First I started to delete old accounts one by one. Time-consuming and tedious, but doable. But then I noticed that my current accounts have inaccurate balances. It turns out that most transactions have been imported to each account three or four times. I tried correcting this manually by deleting the superfluous transactions, but this took about a half an hour for one account. I don't have the time to do this for all my accounts.
Another problem: deleting superfluous investment accounts takes forever as the software tries to obey the “delete” command. Also, it's rather difficult to identify transactions and amounts in my current investment accounts which have also been imported inaccurately. By the way, I don't seem to be able to archive any of my Quicken data. And I also get a bunch of "Unknown Budget" and "Unknown Payee" acounts and have no idea what that is all about.
Are you getting the picture? It seems to me that Moneydance has a lot to offer as compared to Quicken. But making the transition is becoming a nightmare. A less satisfactory alternative might be to start from scratch with Moneydance-or perhaps just forget about it altogether. I'm sure that others have faced the same issue. Your boilerplate online discussions do not quite do it for me.
What now? All suggestions appreciated. Many thanks.
Bob Tell
4 Posted by -Kevin N. on 04 Sep, 2010 10:24 PM
Hi Bob,
It's a shame that you're having such a nightmare with this export / import issue.
I've never heard any glowing reviews of Quicken on these forums. Quite the contrary. Then again, anyone who is happy with Quicken wouldn't be lurking here. But I digress
I'm a former Microsoft Money user. Moneydance is as good, if not better in most areas.
I will admit that it took me a day or two or maybe three to reconcile the import of 11 years worth of data from MS Money into Moneydance. I'm glad I did it and I never looked back. I'm completely satisfied with Moneydance. It does everything I need it to do and easily.
Perhaps you could do a start from scratch on 01/01/2011. I doubt that you'ld be sorry to wash your hands of Quicken I just hope that Quciken doesn't make you renew your license before then.
-Kevin N.
5 Posted by Ginny on 04 Sep, 2010 10:45 PM
I just tried importing a selected date range from Quicken and I'm having the same issues. I exported to a single file, supposedly excluding transactions from accounts with no activity since 2002, and all those accounts got transferred anyway - as empty, so deleting them is not a big deal. But it split my checking account into two accounts, and I don't see any way to merge them back together - they're only in one account in Quicken, but I did change the name at some point. Apparently doing that doesn't also export a beginning balance, but just adding those would be doable, but wouldn't fix all the issues I've seen. I haven't spent much time on this, but reading this discussion, I'm not too included to spend much more time, either. I have so many security prices, I don't really want to see them all on the main page. And it doesn't make sense to me to see investment accounts also listed as bank accounts. I'll keep thinking about this, but I was also hoping for a more reliable export/import experience.
6 Posted by -Kevin N. on 05 Sep, 2010 01:25 AM
Hi Ginny,
Make sure you have a backup of your data file before making any major changes.
To merge the two checking accounts, select (highlight) all of the transactions in the checking account that you want to move all of the txns from. Right click on any one of them and choose 'Batch Change' then 'Account' Choose the account that you want to move all of the txns to from the drop down list.
To set the initial balance, access the account in question, then from the Menu bar, choose 'Account' > Edit Account...' in the resulting form, you can set the initial balance.
To temporarily hide securities from the Home Page, click the (-) minus sign next to the investment account name. To hide securities a little more permanently, click on Tools > Edit Securities, choose a security from the resulting list and click 'Edit' On the top of the next form, click on 'Edit' and finally in the resulting form, uncheck 'Show on Home Page'.
The Investment accounts that are also listed as bank accounts are most likely the Investment accounts associated Cash accounts. I don't know if Quicken uses seperate cash accounts for their investment accounts so don't hold me to this. If it is the case, then you need to merge the Cash accounts into the Investment accounts. Use the same method as combining the two Checking accounts by means of the 'Batch Change'
Again do not attempt any of this without a recent backup.
HTH -Kevin N.
7 Posted by bobtell on 06 Sep, 2010 11:02 PM
Hi Angie & Kevin
Thank you for your kind attempt to steer me through this process. It certainly is a more user friendly approach than any other support site I've ever used. However, I am stumped and just about ready to call it quits. I've now spent all morning today on top of all afternoon yesterday and I have a mess here. All I want is my current data from Quicken imported accurately into Moneydance. That seems like a simple request, or it least it should be.
How to explain this? Well, my Quicken version indeed permits selection of a date range. That part works. It also permits selection of specific accounts. But that feature doesn't seem to work. No matter which accounts I select, when I import to Moneydance every account I've ever had on Quicken is imported, even if I limit the date to 2010. I've tried this at least ten times today with the same result.
So I decided to try making corrections manually. First I started to delete old accounts one by one. Time-consuming and tedious, but doable. But then I noticed that my current accounts have inaccurate balances. It turns out that most transactions have been imported to each account three or four times. I tried correcting this manually by deleting the superfluous transactions, but this took about a half an hour for one account. I don't have the time to do this for all my accounts.
Another problem: deleting superfluous investment accounts takes forever as the software tries to obey the “delete” command. Also, it's rather difficult to identify transactions and amounts in my current investment accounts which have also been imported inaccurately. By the way, I don't seem to be able to archive any of my Quicken data. And I also get a bunch of "Unknown Budget" and "Unknown Payee" acounts and have no idea what that is all about.
Are you getting the picture? It seems to me that Moneydance has a lot to offer as compared to Quicken. But making the transition is becoming a nightmare. A less satisfactory alternative might be to start from scratch with Moneydance-or perhaps just forget about it altogether. I'm sure that others have faced the same issue. Your boilerplate online discussions do not quite do it for me.
What now? All suggestions appreciated. Many thanks.
Bob Tell
8 Posted by Tom Freeman on 07 Sep, 2010 03:09 PM
Bob
When you imported the selected date range QIF into Moneydance, Did you import it into a new .md file or the previous one?
Tom
9 Posted by bobtell on 07 Sep, 2010 05:52 PM
New, each of the many times I've tried.
10 Posted by Tom Freeman on 07 Sep, 2010 06:02 PM
Bob,
Have you tried to import account by account. This is the second part of the FAQ article. :http://help.infinitekind.com/faqs/importing-from-quicken-or-ms-mone...
This takes a little more time but may solve your issue.
Tom
11 Posted by bobtell on 08 Sep, 2010 12:18 AM
I did try this but the imports of my investment accounts at Vanguard Mutual Funds were totally distorted and unusable. It captures some of my funds in each account, but not all of them and also combines some funds from different accounts. I even tried to start new accounts rather than importing them. Same problem. Maybe I'll try again. Any advice on fixing mutual fund accounts after importing or downloading?
12 Posted by Tom Freeman on 10 Sep, 2010 06:39 PM
Bob,
I'm sorry the importing process seems a mess. Without having a view at your QIF file, what I suggest is manually entering your investments.
If your investment accounts are too large or you feel a loss of functionality in the reports, let me know and I'll try to think of something else.
Tom
13 Posted by bobtell on 10 Sep, 2010 07:20 PM
Hi Again Tom
Thanks for your ongoing interest. I think the problem lies with the way Vanguard downloads and Quicken exports the QIF files. I must confess to trying any number of other programs during the past week. iBank, Gnucash, Squirrel all failed to do a better job than Moneydance. The only one that works (other than Quicken) is Mint.com but, frankly, I don't feel all that comfortable with the security of having all my stuff on line 24/7 through that program. The result of all my research is to conclude that Moneydance really would be the best program for me if (a big IF) I can get it to work for me.
So here's my question to you: If I manually enter sixteen or so Vanguard mutual funds to set up the program, will I be able to download future updates without messing up everything I've entered manually? If I can't use the download feature of Moneydance, I'm no better off than by staying with Quicken.
Bob
14 Posted by Tom Freeman on 10 Sep, 2010 07:57 PM
Bob,
After the Investment accounts are set up, downloading new transactions should be simple. From the Investment account you would click Online > set up online banking. There is a pop up window that walks you through it.
If you don't already have it, our user's guide can be downloaded from here: http://help.infinitekind.com/faqs/frequently-asked-questions-2/down...
The user's guide will help you set up both the investment account and online banking.
Tom
15 Posted by bobtell on 11 Sep, 2010 01:25 AM
Tom
I've read the on line discussion (and the user's guide) at least a dozen times and have followed it's instructions very very carefully at least as many times. I know how to set up on-line banking. Again, the problem is that the download doesn't do what it is supposed to do. It leaves an awful mess. The only thing I haven't yet tried is your suggestion to manually enter these investments one by one. I would predict that after doing this rather tedious job and correctly setting up online banking (yet again) that the download will wipe out all of my manual entries and re-create the mess I now have. However, I'll give it a try with my fingers crossed.
Thanks again for sticking with me on this. I'm determined to make it work if at all possible.
Bob
16 Posted by Tom Freeman on 13 Sep, 2010 01:25 PM
Bob,
Before downloading, go to preferences > network and click the auto merge downloaded transactions options.
Also when you are downloading from your financial institution make sure sure downloading in the OFX format and not QIF. It makes a big difference.
Tom
17 Posted by bobtell on 13 Sep, 2010 07:12 PM
Tom--
I did as you suggest with respect to the auto merge option and made sure downloads are OFX (which they are). I also spent hours over the weekend manually setting up individual accounts for each mutual fund at Vanguard. Today, just as a test, I clicked download all and guess what? After the download ALL the information was totally inaccurate for ALL of the accounts that I so tediously entered into the program. Fortunately, I didn't save the changes so I'm back to what I entered, but this is getting to be ridiculous. I'm not a beginner with computer programs and have successfully mastered all kinds of complicated stuff. Moneydance has me disgusted and stumped. I've put aside all sorts of other business because this has become a challenge, but I'm at my wit's end. I can't believe I'm the only Vanguard/Apple/ user to have this problem at Moneydance and there just has to be a solution. However, I have a life I need to get back to, so I guess I'm just stuck with Quicken (which, for all of its limitations, at least works).
Bob
18 Posted by Angie Rauscher on 15 Sep, 2010 02:22 PM
Bob,
I am very sorry we could not help you more successfully resolve the issue. We do take the issue with Vanguard seriously and are working to improve the functionality of our investment accounts with respect to transaction downloads. We also recognize that transitioning personal finance programs is an investment of time and effort, and that sometimes the price is too high. I hope you'll check us out again in the future, some of the improvements we're planning on making to OFX downloads (including Moneydance more accurately picking up ticker symbols from downloads) might make the program a more attractive prospect.
Again, I apologize for the frustration you have experienced and wish you the best of luck in finding a personal finance solution which meets your needs.
Angie Rauscher
Moneydance Support
Angie Rauscher closed this discussion on 15 Sep, 2010 02:22 PM.