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Help with export formats

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tracylea

Oct 18, 2015 @ 09:42 PM

Since first upgrading to MD 2015 last Feb, my data set has been corrupted with duplicates. I managed to cobble together a workaround using a combination of inactivating some duplicate accounts and manual editing of transactions. Since applying the latest update, 2015.6 (1299) a couple of weeks ago, my data set is again corrupted and it's worse than before. MD tech support has been responsive but unhelpful.

I have data imported from Quicken that dates back to 1993. Been using MD since June, 2012 and never had a problem until 2015. I occasionally find it useful to search or sort the old transactions, but I'm over that now: I just want to balance my accounts. I've decided to start from scratch and create all new accounts, but I really would like to include the last year or two of transactions. I think the best way to do this is to export a date span and import into the new blank data set.

My question is: when exporting from MD 2015 for importing back into MD 2015, what is the best export format? Choices are QIF, Tab Delimited, MD XML, MD 2008, MD 2010. My guess is XML, but I can't find anything in the user guide or knowledge base that explains the differences.

Thanks in advance.

1. 1 Posted by Ben Spencer on Oct 21, 2015 @ 01:18 AM

   

   tracylea

   If you are able to open your dataset with MD2015 then there is no advantage to exporting it and then importing it back in. Doing this will not fix any of the issues you have with your data set.

   Ben Spencer
   Infinite Kind Support

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2. 2 Posted by tracylea on Oct 21, 2015 @ 01:58 AM

   

   Hey,

   Thanks for responding, but you are missing the point. I want to create a new series of accounts and export/import into them only the last 12 months or 24 months of transactions. That will minimize the manipulation I'll need to do to get a usable data set with accurate balances and still have a minimal amount of historical data. Right now what I have is useless.

   The question I’m seeking advice on is: if I want to export from one MD 2015 data set and import into a clean, blank MD 2015 data set what is the best export format among the possible choices?

   It’s hard for me to believe I am the only user having this problem.

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3. 3 Posted by Scott Meehan on Oct 28, 2015 @ 04:50 PM

   

   Hi Tracey,

   I'd recommend taking a different approach to accomplish what you're looking to do. I would suggest making a copy of your data set by going to File -> Export Backup, then naming the backup to whatever you'd like the name of your new data set to be, then opening that data set in Moneydance and clearing out any old data that you don't want. You can do this en masse by selecting the transaction before the oldest transaction that you want to keep, then holding Shift and scrolling to the end of the register (with the oldest transaction and all the transactions that you want to get rid of) and clicking the last transaction, then pressing the delete key to delete all the old transactions.

   The problem with exporting is that all the export formats have limitations in the data that can be exported, so you may lose some of the depth of information when exporting; with the above method, that won't happen.

   I hope that helps!

   Scott Meehan
   Infinite Kind Support

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4. 4 Posted by tracylea on Oct 29, 2015 @ 01:27 AM

   

   Thanks for the recommendation. I reached the same conclusion and did something very close to what you suggested. I plugged in a bogus transaction to reconcile the balance and have resigned myself to accept that and move on.

   Although I found a workaround, my process-oriented brain is puzzled as to why no one seems to be interested in addressing the fundamental question. I’ll repeat it here from the original post in case someone wants to dive in.

   My question is: when exporting from MD 2015 for importing back into MD 2015, what is the best export format? Choices are QIF, Tab Delimited, MD XML, MD 2008, MD 2010. My guess is XML, but I can't find anything in the user guide or knowledge base that explains the differences among the formats.

   Thanks again.

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5. 5 Posted by Ben Spencer on Oct 29, 2015 @ 01:37 AM

   

   All of the formats you list will lose some data. In order of badness from most bad to least bad.

   1) Moneydance XML. This is a legacy format. MD2015 cannot import the old MD xml files)
   2) Tab Delimited. There are some extensions that can import CSV files into MD but they all take a lots of work and will result in lost data. CSV is just a table, there is not standard way of encoding transactions in a CSV file.
   3) QIF. There is no official specification for QIF. QIF does not support multiple currencies, reminders, memorized reports, transaction attachments. You will probably end up with a lot of duplicate transactions and have to remove them manually.
   4) MD2008
   5) MD2010. You won't get transaction attachments but you'll get most of everything else.

   Ben Spencer
   Infinite Kind Support

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6. System closed this discussion on Mar 19, 2016 @ 04:58 AM.