tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:/discussions/switching-from-another-personal-finance-program/12305-convert-from-quickenInfinite Kind: Discussion 2019-06-03T20:30:23Ztag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-01-28T23:17:02Z2019-01-28T23:17:02ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Hello,</p>
<p>Moneydance cannot read QDF files. Only Quicken can do this, since it is a propitiatory format owned by Intuit. To move your data from Quicken, you must first open it in Quicken, and export it in the QIF format. Detailed instructions on where to go from there can be found at: <a href="http://help.infinitekind.com/kb/importing-data-from-other-programs/importing-data-in-qif-format">http://help.infinitekind.com/kb/importing-data-from-other-programs/...</a></p>
<p>Ethan<br>
Infinite Kind Support</p></div>Ethantag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-01-28T23:35:33Z2019-01-28T23:35:34ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Hi Patrick,</p>
<p>did the conversion from Quicken to Moneydance work well for you? I am also a Quicken user and thinking about switching. Also, what are you thoughts on Moneydance?</p>
<p>Thanks,<br>
George Khawand</p></div>George Khawandtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-01-28T23:45:17Z2019-01-29T19:55:05ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>If this works as easily as you explain it, I can almost guarantee a switch!</p>
<p>Best Regards,</p>
<p>Pat</p>
<p>Patrick Kiernan<br>
<a href="mailto:phkiernan@gmail.com">phkiernan@gmail.com</a><br>
301.910.0405</p></div>phkiernantag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-01-29T00:41:48Z2019-01-29T19:55:05ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Let you know after I download my data. Seems to be taking a heck of a long<br>
time - though I have like 22 years of data in it.</p>
<p>Best Regards,</p>
<p>Pat</p>
<p>Patrick Kiernan<br>
<a href="mailto:phkiernan@gmail.com">phkiernan@gmail.com</a><br>
301.910.0405</p></div>phkiernantag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-01-31T01:00:10Z2019-01-31T01:00:10ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Okay. So it is all loaded and working. Hooray. However there is nothing much correct with the data. Among the issues:<br>
- Accounts I brought over seem to have an X at the end of them. Why? -The balances and even some transactions are missing. -I have all kind of accounts under checking, including my automobile accounts. How can I change it to the correct category?</p></div>phkiernantag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-10T18:26:08Z2019-02-10T18:26:09ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>I have also found a problem with conversion from Quicken. As an example, I have a Money Market Sweep account. I sold an investment and deposited the funds into the MM account (Balance $10000). I subsequently bought a different investment with those funds and MoneyDance added rather than subtracted the $10000 (Balance $20000). A third line shows a $10000 reduction to buy the second investment, but leaves me with the original $10000 in my MM account which should now be $0 Is there a simple fix?</p></div>RJtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-10T20:06:57Z2019-02-10T20:06:57ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>I'm a fellow user.</p>
<p>What you get with QIF files is raw transaction data, how good or bad it is depends on the application creating it, the problem is it is about the only format that can hope to contain decent information but it is not necessarily complete.</p>
<p>One of the most common problems is the file not including initial account balances. There is an initial balance field in Moneydance that can be used to correct this.</p>
<p>Other common problems are outlined in:</p>
<p><a href="http://help.infinitekind.com/kb/importing-data-from-other-programs/possible-problems-after-qif-import">http://help.infinitekind.com/kb/importing-data-from-other-programs/...</a></p></div>dwgtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-10T21:28:18Z2019-02-10T21:28:18ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Yes, well, I think at this point I'm going to need to cancel MoneyDance.<br>
Maybe in a few years it will be a bit more ready. Too bad too, as I'm<br>
really rooting for MD to survive. It seems the best alternative to<br>
Extortionists at Quicken. But I can't just walk away from 25 years of data<br>
(or even 5 years).</p>
<p>Best Regards,</p>
<p>Pat</p>
<p>Patrick Kiernan<br>
<a href="mailto:phkiernan@gmail.com">phkiernan@gmail.com</a><br>
301.910.0405</p></div>phkiernantag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-10T21:31:33Z2019-02-10T21:31:33ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>I fixed all the starting balances. Also got rid of a lot of the duplicates<br>
and other obvious transaction issues.</p>
<p>The data has a 1.5M swing in Net Worth and that means too many transactions<br>
with too many accounts to realistically figure it out.</p>
<p>Best Regards,</p>
<p>Pat</p>
<p>Patrick Kiernan<br>
<a href="mailto:phkiernan@gmail.com">phkiernan@gmail.com</a><br>
301.910.0405</p></div>phkiernantag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-10T21:57:19Z2019-02-10T21:57:19ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Pat,</p>
<p>I'm afraid it is never going to be really quick and easy. There is no commonality between the programs and I never expect there to be. So it will always remain a migration exercise to move programs, something some vendors no doubt rely on. make it really difficult or long winded and people will not move. Be thankful that QIF actually exists - because it was developed as a support tool - and without it migrations would be even more difficult than they already are.</p>
<p>I spent a couple of weeks on my migration.</p></div>dwgtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-10T23:29:22Z2019-02-10T23:29:23ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Thank you for the input. I will give that a try. In another example, I periodically updated the value of some property in Quicken, but MD only has it valued at its opening value without any appreciation. I admit that I am just starting, but it is a little disconcerting when the program shows my net worth as a negative.… I like a challenge, but with over 25 years of data this conversion may be a bridge too far. Thanks again, RJ</p></div>Dick and Peggy Johnsontag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-10T23:39:22Z2019-02-10T23:39:22ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Hello all,<br>
If you are a long time Quicken user like me (since 1994) it's not worth the effort to convert. Moneydance account structure is completely different.</p>
<p>I am currently on Quicken 2016, I ran repair data before exporting to QIF in hopes I don't bring ghosted transactions. So my data was clean, I imported and I got all sorts of problems especially in the investment accounts, I have over 20 brokerage accounts over the years and I transferred securities and fund between them, all these transactions are messed up since Moneydance does not support this functionality. My bank accounts, had transactions added or duplicated, categories removed. I had over 100 accounts in Quick with 80% were closed before the transfer with zero balances and all were messed up after the import. I spent a good 30 hours trying to clean up, and since I am using the eval version of Moneydance (to see it will work) I used up the 100 manual data entry limit!! And this is where I stopped. Not paying before I know it's going to work, so i gave up. Then I figured I wanted to know if my data is bad or Moneydance does not know how to import, guess what, moneydance is the issue. I imported the same QIF file into Banktivity and had very few issues mainly stock splits, I fixed those in a couple of hours and was done. Only problem, i don't want to use my Macbook for my money management software since the kids use it too!</p>
<p>I guess we are stuck with Quicken forever now that after version 2018 export functionality will no longer be available!</p>
<p>So, if you are a long time Quicken user like me and need to bring the data so that you are using one app for all current and historical reporting then we are stuck, don't waste your time, way too many problem, even Moneydance support had no clue what I am asking about in my emails to support. Unfortunately I cannot send them my entire file to troubleshoot and learn from!</p></div>Varoujtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-10T23:58:58Z2019-02-10T23:58:59ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Thank you Varouj. Not the message I hoped to hear, but you have saved me a lot of wasted effort. RJ</p></div>Dick and Peggy Johnsontag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-11T02:11:54Z2019-02-11T02:11:54ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>I feel your pain, bro. Mine started in 1994 as well. And I haven't seen a<br>
worthwhile release since Quicken 2006.</p>
<p>In the last 24 hours I reconciled myself to a Quicken life. Now, do I want<br>
to pay the extortion each year, or just update manually. In the end, I'm<br>
going to suck it up and load Quicken 2019. Gad I hate that Quicken team.</p>
<p>Best Regards,</p>
<p>Pat</p>
<p>Patrick Kiernan<br>
<a href="mailto:phkiernan@gmail.com">phkiernan@gmail.com</a><br>
301.910.0405</p></div>phkiernantag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-28T13:03:27Z2019-02-28T13:03:27ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>FWIW, I too almost gave up on Moneydance. I have 25 years of data on Quicken and transitioning over wasn't easy, but it was possible. It took me about 22 hours (spread over a week) to get everything squared away, and although I'm keeping my Quicken file in case I need to reference something I don't see myself going back.</p>
<p>The most helpful trick I found was creating a blank default category before importing my QIF files. MD (correctly) insists on a transfer category for everything, and it will default to the first account in your list unless you prevent that in advance. Once that became clear I started the whole process over and that eliminated many of the opening balance errors.</p>
<p>Naturally, any file migration between programs will need tweaking and I personally found it worth my time to extricate myself from Quicken. At least with MD I can upgrade when I want to, not when they decide I need to pay for it again. I encourage you to give Moneydance another try.</p></div>rivernuttag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-28T14:42:23Z2019-02-28T14:42:23ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Rivernut, Could you provide a few more details on the blank default category? I am not sure what you did. I bought another year of Quicken, but would still like to find a better alternative. Thank you, RJ</p></div>Dick and Peggy Johnsontag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-28T16:20:29Z2019-02-28T16:20:29ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Thanks for the words. I didn't understand the part on creating a default<br>
category. What dos this mean, how do you do it? Frankly, the starting<br>
balance issues were not too bad, only took a couple of hous to fix. My<br>
issue really was limited to investments and investment accounts were a mess<br>
I couldn't work back from.</p>
<p>Best Regards,</p>
<p>Pat</p>
<p>Patrick Kiernan<br>
<a href="mailto:phkiernan@gmail.com">phkiernan@gmail.com</a><br>
301.910.0405</p></div>phkiernantag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-02-28T16:21:07Z2019-02-28T16:21:07ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Im with you RJ. Same question and same outlook.</p>
<p>Best Regards,</p>
<p>Pat</p>
<p>Patrick Kiernan<br>
<a href="mailto:phkiernan@gmail.com">phkiernan@gmail.com</a><br>
301.910.0405</p></div>phkiernantag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-03-02T02:14:38Z2019-03-02T02:14:40ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Hi Rivernut, thanks for sharing. I tried your process, created a blank account, created a category called it 00 Dummy so that it's at the top of the list, could not find a way to make it default, and then imported the QIF file, the result was exactly the same as with not creating a new category. All balances are all over the place, the investment accounts messed up too.</p>
<p>Whenever you have time, it will be great if you can share your steps in more details. I know we still have to do clean up, but at the state it is now, it will take way too much work to clean up. We are only a few more week, once we upgrade to Quicken 2019, we are stuck forever since there will be no more exporting to QIF in 2019 and on.<br>
Thanks!<br>
Varouj</p></div>Varoujtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-03-02T02:26:02Z2019-03-02T02:26:02ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>I believe what rivernut means was that he create a category with a blank, or what is really an empty, name. when a new account is created if no Default category it specifically set the software takes the first category that appears in the category list which is normally "Automotive" but due to the sorting rules it should be the "blank" category.</p>
<p>After finishing the import I would suggest renaming this "blank" category even to something like None or NA. I have seen strange problems when I tried using a blank category name in general usage.</p></div>dwgtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-03-02T03:32:19Z2019-03-02T03:32:20ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Thanks dwg!<br>
Tried blank name method, yes the accounts got assigned to the blank category, but still created all the accounts with X and the balances are all over the place and it's the same as without the blank category. On top of it, almost all the accounts are no longer listing on the side bar, they are in the summary section. From balance perspective it created the same as before.<br>
It's shame that MoneyDance is not making an effort to fix this issue or provide guidance on this. They are waiting for the consumers to troubleshoot and figure out their issues.</p></div>Varoujtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-03-02T03:46:42Z2019-03-02T03:46:42ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>I think I am just going to create a starting transaction to get my<br>
portfolio in the system</p>
<p>Best Regards,</p>
<p>Pat</p>
<p>Patrick Kiernan<br>
<a href="mailto:phkiernan@gmail.com">phkiernan@gmail.com</a><br>
301.910.0405</p></div>phkiernantag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-03-02T04:23:13Z2019-03-02T04:23:13ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>There have been a few bugs reported with the new QIF importer, it is a shame the old one is not there as an alternative. There is a QIF fix in the latest preview version but I do not know what problem(s) it addresses.</p></div>dwgtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-03-02T08:14:08Z2019-03-02T08:14:08ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>I am not support staff, just a user.</p>
<p>Just to add the latest preview build can be found at <a href="https://infinitekind.com/preview">https://infinitekind.com/preview</a></p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p></div>derekkent23tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-03-02T16:41:03Z2019-03-02T16:41:03ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>Regarding the blank category, dwg has it right-- create an expense category with nothing at all in the field area. Since it will be the first option in the category list MD makes it the default.</p>
<p>In my case, I made that adjustment and THEN imported my Q files, which made MD keep all the categories I had already assigned in Quicken. New transactions defaulted to [blank], allowing me to assign the appropriate ones and eventually the software "learned" what to assign. There were still a few corrections to make but it was much simpler than when I tried it the first time, doing what I believe you did.</p>
<p>I also went through the category list and made it conform to what I was used to, deleting things that MD uses that are essentially duplicates. For instance, I had a full breakdown under Medical in Quicken for doctors, dentist, medicines, etc. and wanted to keep those for consistency, so I deleted all the "Healthcare" categories in MD. I did the same with things like Insurances, Taxes, Utilities -- anything that was really an already existing category but with a different name -- and that kept MD from assigning perfectly reasonable but unnecessary categories.</p>
<p>Also, for investments, Quicken always differentiates between interest earned in banks and interest earned in brokerage accounts, something I never liked, so I eliminated the "<strong>div" "</strong>int", etc categories and bulk renamed to DIV and INT where appropriate. The bulk renaming option comes in VERY handy when cleaning up your investment entries!</p>
<p>Does any of that help, or have I missed what you're asking? I'll try to help as I can.</p></div>rivernuttag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-03-02T16:47:55Z2019-03-02T16:47:55ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>PS, I believe "setting the stage" so to speak before importing Quicken eliminates most of the X entries where MD is trying to create a source or destination account and doesn't yet know what to do. At least that worked (mostly) for me.</p></div>rivernuttag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-03-03T20:37:15Z2019-03-03T20:37:16ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>I finally tried the trial version of MoneyDance and I am somewhat disappointed. I am a long term Quicken user and I have lots of data. When I did the import into MD there was major data missing.</p>
<p>I am off to the next alternative software to try....next on the list is Moneyspire. Blogs claim that it works better and potentially seamless with Quicken imports. Anyone has any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.</p></div>George Khawandtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-03-03T21:04:14Z2019-03-03T21:04:17ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>@George Khawad, I just found the solution with Moneydance and it worked really great, only few corrections needed in some accounts and finally have everything in Moneydance matching my Quicken data. I tried every software out and none of them worked properly, none, and I gave up until thanks to @rivernut for his suggestions which got me interested again and thanks to @derekkent23 for suggesting to use the preview. So this is what I have done. - Uninstall MoneyDance if already installed - Go to the downloads section, scroll down and click on download previous versions - Download and install MoneyDance 2015 (yes the old version conversion works) - Launch Moneydance and import the QIF file. - Exit Moneydance, and download and install 2019, and this will upgrade your existing installation. - Launch Moneydance - In my case, the accounts that had the wrong balance, i looked for un-cleared transactions and verified that they were duplicates (for some reason some entries created duplicates) I deleted and things started shaping up. - You will see an account that has no name with a big balance, basically and transaction you had in any account that did not have a Category for the spend got added to this account. Once you are done fixing you accounts, go to this no name account and go to the Account menu and select edit account, and check the box for inactive and close, your net worth now be correct.</p>
<p>I only spent about 3 hours of cleaning up. Last time I installed the latest version and had the issues, i spent 30 hours and still had issues and I gave up.</p>
<p>Thanks for all who shared their success and experiences with the upgrades and I got to get things working correctly.</p></div>Varoujtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-03-03T21:30:53Z2019-03-03T21:30:54ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>After many tries, I have given up on MD. Without an ability to transfer Stock and Mutual Fund shares between accounts without first selling and then buying in the new account and thereby screwing up the basis, MD is a non-starter. Maybe they will fix this in a future version, but given the history of this problem, I have little confidence that they will.</p></div>Dick and Peggy Johnsontag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/468830182019-03-03T22:40:28Z2019-03-03T22:40:28ZConvert from Quicken<div><p>I had the same issue in my first (failed) attempt for the exact same<br>
reason. But this time it was so much easier, mostly because I understood<br>
the issues better and I found a way to address the issues in Investments.<br>
Two tips if you want to try again</p>
<ol>
<li>If you have expenses, like account management fees, etc. in Quicken,<br>
they import to MD as a transfer. This means it doesn't impact the cash<br>
balance. So you need to change the Xfr to MiscExpense, which will reduce<br>
the amount from the cash balance. This fixed most of the problems I had.<br></li>
<li>The second problem was the tougher nut - getting the share balances<br>
correct and keeping my cost basis. Here is how I solved it: I started<br>
tracking data I exported from Quicken as of 1/1/2010. For any Security I<br>
had prior to 1/1/10 I created a transaction dated 12/31/2009 to "buy" the<br>
stock or MF shares and used the average cost as identified in the MD<br>
portfolio view as the dollar amount. That should keep me pretty true on<br>
the cost basis and gains, and I also balanced my portfolio. It was easy,<br>
fast and it worked well.</li>
</ol>
<p>Best Regards,</p>
<p>Pat</p>
<p>Patrick Kiernan<br>
<a href="mailto:phkiernan@gmail.com">phkiernan@gmail.com</a><br>
301.910.0405</p></div>phkiernan