Import from Quicken 2004XG - problems, solutions and further suggestions
Firstly, Moneydance does look as if it might provide the modern replacement for Quicken. Because of this I am persevering in my atempts to get the starting balances to match with Quicken.
I exported my data (since 1999) from Quicken as one big QIF file, over 3 MB. I then followed your recommended steps precisely.
What I've got is an enormous number of duplicated entries, and so far a days work de-duplicating, with at least that again to go. Most of them seem to be because each side of the entry creates both itself and the opposite side.
What is has also done is create several "accounts" as sub headings of Bank which are not accounts at all. They are categories.
The major problem in trying to do this is the incredible way in which Moneydance sorts entries. It does of course sort by date, but outside of that, none of the entries within a date are in either the order they were in Quicken, nor in amount order. Within my Investments Registers, there are many dates on which (due to changes in investments or between accounts) I have 10 or up to 30 entries, and Moneydance cannot sort those in amount order because they do not change the cash balance. I've posted elsewhere that this was supposed to have been raised as a bug in 2011. http://help.infinitekind.com/discussions/problems/2217-divreinvest-or-buyxfer-inevstment-register-items-not-sorted-by-amount
It would be wonderful if Moneydance could sort by more fields, and search by more fields. I can't even search by amount which I could easily do in Quicken.
One big problem is that many of my investments have 6 decimal places of accuracy to the number of units held (and the unit price), yet Moneydance rounds them all to 4 places. I canot find any setting to allow me to increase that, so I have rounding errors.
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Support Staff 1 Posted by Jenny on 26 Apr, 2016 01:16 PM
Hi Jim,
Sorry to hear about the issues you've encountered.
I'm afraid that migrating from Quicken to any other software is likely to require some work; they do not make it easy, and depending on version it sometimes seems they try to make it impossible. The QIF file format was never really intended for transferring all data between personal finance software and as such it contains inherent ambiguities that will need to be manually corrected post import. How much manual correcting needs to be done is hard to predict. I'm afraid that typically investment accounts fair worse than regular accounts in this matter.
Regarding the duplicates, are the dates the same on both sides of the transaction transfer? Some version of Quicken support different dates on the other side of transfers and unfortunately, Moneydance cannot match the two sides of a transfer in such a case.
The issue you've encounter with the decimal places cannot be amended. When the security is created, the number of 'Max decimal places' is set, and unfortunately this cannot be changed. The securities would need to be removed and re-added with the correct information. Theres an existing suggestion ticket regarding this issue, so I've attached it to this discussion.
In regards to the 'sorting' issues, I can see you've added a comment to this thread. Thats actually regarding sorting the register in a bank account, which is different from an investment account. I've attached the relevant suggestion ticket to this thread, but unfortunately I cannot provide a timescale for when/if this will be implemented. I will pass your feedback to the developers, and they'll look into this further.
I hope this information is helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Jenny
Infinite Kind Support
2 Posted by JimRB on 26 Apr, 2016 01:30 PM
THanks for the prompt reply Jenny. I do appreciate the huge limitations in the QIF format. I came across it when I tried Microsoft Money and decided against - thank goodness, as they stopped supporting the UK too. My duplicated entries DO have the same dates. They are identical in every field. But Investment accounts are indeed the problem.
With regard to max decimal places, I am now completely xxxed. Please can you put something in your recommended workflow for new users moving from Quicken? I read everything carefuly, but that was not highlighted. Presumably if I had known, I could have imported the list of accounts, then changed all the decimal places, then imported the data. BUT I didn't know, so I could not do that.
I've got data going back to 1999 so I am not goving to go back and re-enter everything. I will consider once I've decided whether to stick with Moneydance as to whether I should be closing my existing securities and starting each anew with an opening balance.
As I get to know the program a bit better you will see I am posting several suggestions!
Support Staff 3 Posted by Jenny on 26 Apr, 2016 01:57 PM
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your feedback. We're currently in the process of updating the documentation and knowledge base articles, so I'll be sure we include some more information about the possible issues. It is hard to predict as I mentioned - every version of Quicken, MS Money etc has different export capabilities, and therefore the amount of manual sorting to be done can vary from one extreme to the other with each customer.
Generally, if your data includes more accounts or historical data (such as yourself), then the chances of encountering issues are increased. We do currently have an article which details the possible problems after import, however, I believe you've followed the instructions exactly, to have got this far, so most won't be applicable.
With the investment decimal place issue, this is likely something you'd want to test first as theres a possibility of the securities being created correctly when importing. Please accept my apologies that we did not make you aware of the lack of functionality, and that this has meant you have spent time unnecessarily amending the account. As I've attached the relevant suggestion ticket to this thread, we'll notify you of any updates here.
Regarding the other thread (conversation with Ian O) I have created a suggestion ticket in our system regarding the issue. To confirm, when you select and highlight a transaction in the register, then sort, the register does not move with the highlighted transaction and the relevant transaction must be located by scrolling, which can be time consuming if its a large account. With the tickets I've attached, your feedback will be passed to the developers for consideration, and any updates will be posted within this discussion.
Jenny
Infinite Kind Support
4 Posted by JimRB on 26 Apr, 2016 03:04 PM
Thanks Jenny
I shall attach any other suggestions to this thread rather than start a new one.
Jim
Support Staff 5 Posted by Jenny on 26 Apr, 2016 03:05 PM
Great, I'll leave this discussion open. You can let me know if theres any other suggestions I can add, or if you need further assistance with anything.
Jenny
Infinite Kind Support
6 Posted by JimRB on 01 May, 2016 10:41 AM
Further Issues and Suggestions
I like that clicking on an entry in a bank account does not immediately enter the editing mode. It is different to what I am used to, but it is better and I am getting used to it.
Standing Orders and DIrect Debits p88 of the manual - not imported. I see from another thread I have to use Tools/Reminders and set them all up again. That is a lot of work. Please put that in your KB article about switching!
Glad to see that RIght Clicking on an entry gives an option to create a reminder from it. :)
Balancing Credit Card Accounts One thing I miss from Quicken is a pop up on balancing that gives me an option to enter a payment from my linked current account. MoneyDance does go to a New Item but it would be great if the amount and the linked current account were prefilled.
It depends on where an item that you delete is, how it works
For example, I deleted a transfer in my Bank account entitled JRB SAYE 2003, where the other side to that item is in my Investment account JRB Shares. What happens is that it does not delete the Investment side of the entry, instead it changes the Category in the Investment account entry to "Alimony", being the first in the list of categories that have been imported from Quicken (one I have never used nor will I need it). Thank goodness it was an unused category, as it has made identifying and hence correcting my mistakes easy.
However, if I undo that, then delete the entry from the investment account, it works correctly, deleting the entry in the bank.
I'm coming across a lot of Alimony items, all of which are where I have deleted the "wrong side" of a transaction. Since I realised, I have tried hard to delete from the investment account. I cannot find anything in the manual or the Knowledge Base that says anything about this feature.
That at least needs a warning in the manual and the KB, and definitely in the "import from Quicken" FAQ, if not a pop up in the program to say it hasn't deleted the other side of the transaction.
Selecting Uncleared tab in an account, then highlighting an entry loses view
I am trying to work out why some accounts don't balance, and it is because some entries have lost reconclied status on import. That isn't the issue. To identify them, I selected the Uncleared tab. Then I highlight the first really old uncleared entry, and select the All tab. It jumps to the first entry in the account, and I have to scroll down to find the one that is (still) highlighted. It is very similar to the issue previously raised http://help.infinitekind.com/discussions/suggestions/9622-how-to-ma... .
Shortcuts Your page http://help.infinitekind.com/kb/account-basics/keyboard-shortcuts-i... has shortcuts. In the reconcile window, the Enter key marks an item as reconciling, up or down arrow moves to the next entry. CTRL+A (CMD+A on a Mac) selects all, then Enter marks all at once. It speeds reconciliation.
I'd also love a "Mark All" button in addition to the "Unmark All" in the reconcile window.
Suggestion: Besides the CTRL + B shortcut, and the File Menu's Account / Reconcile... it would seem sensible to have reconciliation on the right click menu for an account in the side bar. Not a priority, but I kept trying to do that till I trained myself to use the keyboard.
I'm almost at the stage of putting some entries in, but MD told me when I opened it this morning I've only 25 allowed! I guess that must be becasue I have had to amend some, and in a few cases add new ones for the likes of dividends where it has the transfer showing but not the income, so the dividend account didn't balance. Update - I ran out of test entries and I haven't even finished fixing the errors in the import. Ah well, you've got a new customer! There are still things I could do in Quicken 2004 that I cannot in MoneyDance in 2016.
I notice you're on 2015.7 version at present, with a big update due. Blog entry Does this mean as I have bought now, the 2016 update will be free (as the 2015 one is for 2014 users)?
7 Posted by JimRB on 01 May, 2016 10:46 AM
Import from Bank and Reconcile Import from UK Bank NatWest achieved using download from bank, then File / Import of the OFX file. FIrst time around it wanted me to allocate the downloaded accounts to my MoneyDance Acounts. That makde me look at the account (Account / Edit) where it shows that MoneyDance imported the account number into the bank name field. I guess if I had changed that first, would it have identified them correctly?
Another thing to add to the KB - before doing an import from your bank, check that the account number and other details have imported correctly.
Reconcile (CTRL + B) gives a pop up which now no longer all fits in the window! Pop up oops!
8 Posted by JimRB on 01 May, 2016 11:56 AM
Cheque# I found out by mistake that you can edit the drop down for this by - from the Side Bar - select the very top item "Summary", clicking Account then edit. Cheques are so far out of date now - I haven't written one for a year!
I have realised that I can actually put anything in this field to make more sense to me, but the standard options could do with some additional ones at least. Any chance of adding additional options for this to make a bit more sense to UK users?
DirDeb = Direct Debit
St Ord = Standing Order
9 Posted by JimRB on 01 May, 2016 04:35 PM
Reminders The layout of the possible dates in a monthly payment is daft. They should go across then down. Surely if a date for the first payment is set, that ought to be pre-filled as the repeat date. 99 times out of a hundred, that will be the date of the repeat.
If editing a Reminder transaction, it would be great if the currently set repeat tab was open rather than always the weekly.
Print Calendar This only prints the month! I had hoped for a full list of my reminders - I definitely miss this one from Quicken.
10 Posted by JimRB on 01 May, 2016 04:58 PM
strange situations I have found several times in different accounts and even different types of account that I ask MoneyDance to delete an entry, and it just point blank refuses. It does nothing. It will do other things.
I had an extraneous Bank Account created on import with three transactions. A feature of the QIF file format, not an MD issue. I found the other sides and recategorised them to the proper category, then tried to delete the account from Account / Delete Account in the File Menu. It wouldn't. I tried several times, then finally closed and tried to reopen MoneyDance. It didn't reopen. I restarted my laptop (Windows 10) and then MD would open. The entries were correct, and this time it let me delete the account. But subsequently in an investment account when I tried to delete some duplicated entries, it just does nothing.
While entering Reminders, I've managed to put one in for 8th of this month, whereas due to advance entry it was already in Quicken and is now in MoneyDance twice. Neither of the duplicate entries will delete. The dialog pops up and I click on the Yes button, and it goes away without doing anything.
When I close MoneyDance (to see if closing and reopening will help me delete this error), it doesn't close completely - there is a background process carrying on. It uses negligible CPU and Disk, and around 520 MB of memory. This seems to prevent me from reopening MoneyDance.
If this continues it is a dealbreaker, as it makes the program unusable if I cannot rely on it to do something.
I also cannot get it to accept a balancing item whereby somehow in the import process, despite me having whole numbers of shares, it has left -0.0054 shares in one Investment Account. If I try to buy those in, it won't let me. It just keeps changing whatever transaction type I key into "Xfr", but leaving the new entry open at the bottom of the screen without entering it.
Another strange thing. I have Quicken open too, and the Manual in my pdf reader, and have been looking for proper security codes to get stock prices in from Yahoo FInance. If I hover my mouse over the MoneyDance tab on my Taskbar, I often see popups from within MD that I have already dealt with. I cannot show them on the full screen, and don't know if it is a MoneyDance issue, or if it is something to do with how Windows 10 remembers a snapshot of the program. I have never come across anything like it before. Screen shots don't work as the slide out disappears, so I took a photo! Sorry it has attached twice and I cannot delete the attachments from the edit window!
11 Posted by JimRB on 06 Jun, 2016 05:22 PM
This behaviour of not being able to delete an entry and then having closed MoneyDance, not being able to reopen it, is continuing.
12 Posted by JimRB on 01 Jul, 2016 06:37 PM
Now it is getting silly. I have just typed in a batch of receipts to my credit card. CTRL+N then type up and press enter. Now I have realised that NONE of them have been recorded.
I previously deleted a record - I got the confirmation pop up, but it didn't disappear immediately.
I can move between my accounts in Moneydance, but I cannot close the program.
15 minutes wait to see if it will close - not by File / Quit, nor the big red X top right, nor by right clicking onthe task bar and choosing close.
Task Manager again and force close. I have had to do this before.
What is happening? Is there a setting somewhere I need to use? is it a bug that needs to be fixed?
I am using Windows 10, build 10586.420.
MoneyDance 2015.7 1358
I can reopen MoneyDance, and then it will close properly. It seems to be related to deleting entries.
13 Posted by JimRB on 25 Jul, 2016 05:49 PM
Today, MoneyDance will not let me remove recent history items from stock prices.
I can click the Remove button and they disappear, but as soon as I close the pop up they return. If I reopen the history of that stock, everything I've deleted has returned.
PLEASE tell me how to deal with this.
THis is all becasue of the price import which is a real pain to set up as pence or pounds. Some of my stocks from Quicken need me to key 0.01 for the price multiplier, some of them need 1.0. I am slowly going through all of the stocks to try and make sense of my portfolio, and this weekend I didn't have anything else on except upgrading a PC to Windows 10. Both are proving a frustration.
Have you any answers on the previous questions?
System closed this discussion on 24 Oct, 2016 05:50 PM.