Fran, The date shouldn't matter but having them date ordered can help when sorting out any problems (easier to locate in the data file). David Carlson's reason for suggesting importing in small batches initially are twofold.
1. The importer has a Bayesian matcher which will automatically match existing transactions in your record ( perhaps not too much of a problem) to avoid duplicates (matches on information mainly in the description field). It also automatically matches the transfer accounts on the second split of the transaction if it can. The training information for this is the import process itself and the account assignements you make in the importer. Corrections you make after import in the account register will not be included in the training data. With QIF these,may be specified. If GnuCash has to assign the transfer account (I can't remember if the accounts for both splits are specified in QIF files) this will eventually speed up the importing. If the accounts are specified in the QIF there is a matching step in which the accounts specified in the import data are matched to the imported accounts and that mapping is stored for use on subsequent imports. 2. If a relatively small import doesn't work out, you can manually delete the transactions and start again much more easily. A strategy which can help with this is to exit and restart GnuCash between each import batch. This will force the creation of a backup file and log file in the directory your GnuCash data file is located (it is also agood practice to locate each data file you may have in its own directory/folder). In this case if your data was OK up to the last import, you can go back to the last backup data file, rename the current data file as old, rename the backup file as your data file and then repeat the import (after identifying any problems and fixing them) without having to delete all the transactions. Deleting transactions can only be done one by one and can get very tedious. If your import affects several registers , which I think it can with QIF imports it can be fun locating them all to delete. If a transfer account is not specified during input Gnucash will normally assign an account named Imbalance as the transfer account. This serves the same purpose as the "Un-allocated Expenditures" or "Sort Later" or "No Tax Impact Purchases" although you can still do the latter if it makes your task easier. Check the Imbalance account after importing though. It should have a 0 balance and no transactions to it and any transactions which end up in it will need correcting. Good luck David Cousens ----- David Cousens -- Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
