tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:/discussions/switching-from-another-personal-finance-program/15631-will-my-files-convert-automaticallyInfinite Kind: Discussion 2020-04-30T08:30:23Ztag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/480501182020-01-30T08:28:03Z2020-01-30T08:28:03ZWill my files convert automatically?<div><p>I am not support staff, just a user.</p>
<p>I am a former Microsoft Money 2005 UK version user converted back in end 2015.</p>
<p>The move included just over 15 years of cash type accounts, Building Society, Bank, ISA and credit cards. 37 accounts in all, only 5 still open. This involved a lot of repetitive work as each account has to be exported from MS Money as a QIF file, a corresponding account set up in Moneydance and then each QIF file imported into Moneydance. This went well. The only thing I needed to check was the opening balances of accounts that were already open when I initially started to record them in MS Money. If I hadn’t transferred all my cash accounts then Moneydance may have had many more issues to fix as there would have been missing information on transfers between accounts.</p>
<p>Investment accounts, fund, bonds etc., were more of a problem. I had to develop some work arounds to cover the way I had set up investments in MS Money. That said, once I had developed my workarounds things went well with only a little more work required compared to transferring cash type accounts. The only real issue was that investment prices history associated with each security investment are not exported by MS Money, only the price associated with a sell or buy. I had updated securities prices at the end of each month in MS Money and so had to manually enter price history into Moneydance. For this reason I only transferred investment accounts going back 6 years.</p>
<p>I does take a lot of work but I am pleased with the result.</p>
<p>Try it out for yourself.</p>
<p>The downloaded version of Moneydance is a full working version with the only limit being a maximum of 100 manually entered transactions, with no time limit. Imported files from other financial programs and your bank have no limit on imports, provided that you do not confirm them. If you decided to purchase you are sent a key by email that unlocks the 100-manual transaction limit. If after testing with this free trial version you purchase and change your mind see the 90 day money back guaranty at <a href="https://infinitekind.com/refunds">https://infinitekind.com/refunds</a><br>
For the future Moneydance never sunsets the version it releases. So, you don’t have to upgrade. If you won’t to upgrade the next version is free (say 2017 to 2019) and from then on you get a 50% discount. All upgrades within a version are free.</p>
<p>Download Moneydance 2019 from <a href="https://infinitekind.com/download-moneydance-personal-finance-software">https://infinitekind.com/download-moneydance-personal-finance-software</a></p>
<p>You need to use your old program to export your data in a QIF file type, one QIF file for each account, including any closed account that have transfers to any open accounts, re-open these accounts if necessary. If you are exporting from MS Money you should use loose as the QIF export format</p>
<p>Open one of the QIF files in a text editor. You are looking for the date format used in the file e.g. D25/03'2019 Day Month Year or D5/ 17'19 or D05/31/2017 Month Day Year etc. You will need this information later. If you get this wrong it will be apparent as the dates in Moneydance will be all over the place and you will need to start again creating a new data set.</p>
<p>QIF files were never meant for transferring data from one program to another, but it’s all that is available, you will need to spend time cleaning thing up when import is complete.</p>
<p>When you first start Moneydance it opens in the Welcome window click on “Create a new account set”. If you have opened Moneydance before create a new data set under FILE (MONEYDANCE on Mac) – NEW.<br>
Select “Create New File” (Data Set) and click NEXT. Type in an Account Set Name (Data Set) and click NEXT. Change Primary Currency (base currency), if required. File Type, leave at “Standard Account set”, click FINISH.</p>
<p>In the side bar (list on left) under BANK deleted the two default Bank accounts, highlighting them in turn and using ACCOUNT – DELETE ACCOUNT.<br>
NOTE: If you have accounts with currencies that are not in your base currency (foreign currencies) perform the steps under NOTE 1 before importing your QIF file as follows.</p>
<p>Select one of your QIF account files, the one with the most transfers to other accounts.<br>
1. If in step 3 you don’t see the name of the account you are importing click CANCEL and setup the account. ACCOUNT – NEW ACCOUNT - select account type – NEXT – Enter the name of the account exactly as it appears in your old program under “Account Name” – OK.<br>
2. Drag and dropped the QIF file into the side bar (list on left).<br>
3. Waited for import window to appear, this can take a few minutes.<br>
IMPORTANT Checked all listed accounts are of the correct type and currency and changed if required. Find the name of the account you are importing in the list and highlight it.<br>
4. The “Date Format” should be set to the date format used in the QIF file not the date format you want to use in Moneydance. Select the correct Decimal Character. Do not tick “File was downloaded”.<br>
5. Click import and waited to account values to file in, again this can take some time.<br>
Account that have transfer within the QIF file you imported will be automatically created. Don’t worry that their balances are incorrect, as you import the other QIF account files thing will sort themselves out.<br>
Some accounts maybe hidden under the “+” at the bottom of the side bar, added them back.</p>
<p>Repeat the process steps 1 to 5 for each QIF account file.</p>
<p>Some QIF files don’t include initial account balances. If you think this is the case you can add initial balance to affected accounts as follows.<br>
Highlighting an account, then click ACCOUNT – EDIT ACCOUNT and add an Initial Balance.</p>
<p>For investment accounts QIF file don’t always carry security prices other than buy sell prices, so investment account balances maybe wrong until you update with current security prices.</p>
<p>Reminder are not included in QIF files.</p>
<p>Any accounts that are inactive (closed) should be made inactive by highlighting the account in the side bar and clicking ACCOUNT – EDIT ACCOUNT and ticking the inactive box. To remove them from the side bar right, click and select REMOVE FROM SIDE BAR.</p>
<p>Now the real work starts to check balances and tidy thing up. This is especially true of investment accounts as not all action types are supported. But worth it in the end.</p>
<p>Note 1: If you have accounts with currencies that are not in your base currency make sure their exchange rates are displayed on the Summary Page. Ensure box “Show on summary page” is ticked under TOOLS – CURRENCIES – highlight subject currency and double click – EDIT. Note: QIF file do not contain exchange rates. To overcome this QIF file shortcoming the Currency/Security History window must have current and dated exchange rates filled in which cover the date range of transactions in non-base currency account. As well as manually adding exchange rates you can import CSV exchange rate files downloaded from sites on the web. Use IMPORT button in the Currency/Security History window. If you have investment account their balances will probably be incorrect. This is due to the fact that the currency set in the security history windows will be in the Moneydance base currency. You can change to the correct security currency and provided exchange rates exist the values will be converted. As you do this re-calculation occurs, but I think the results should to be correct. No guarantees the section will work correctly.</p>
<p>For information on how to use Moneydance see <a href="https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/kb">https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/kb</a></p>
<p>Hope this helps</p></div>derekkent23