Hi Folks,
I have recently designed a spreadsheet to read the accounts list I get from
QuickBooks, map the QuickBooks columns to GnuCash columns, and output a CSV for
import. It works quite well. What I have learned is that account import is a
rigid and brittle process; it will not accept much variability from the format
of the same data as exported from GnuCash. As nearly as I can tell, it
completely ignores the column headers, if it is told that they are there, and
it cannot handle "tab separated values". None of this is a huge problem, since
I can accommodate this rigidity. And, "forewarned is fore-armed", therefore I
will simply assume that other imports are also going to be rigid, in spite of
the rather elegant column mapper for transactions. "Transactions" looks like
it's going to be dead simple.
I am preparing to import "Customers and Vendors", "Bills and Invoices", and, of
course, "Transactions". It is not clear how some of the QBK columns map to the
GNC columns, although a lot of them are pretty self-evident. My imports are
quite automatic, so I could easily "Guess and Check", since the cycles are
pretty painless. For "Accounts", I was able to create some bogus accounts and
see how they were represented on "export", which made it easy to map QBK
columns to GNC columns. I don't seem to have that export option for any of the
contact categories or trade account (A/R, A/P) categories, so I'm flying blind.
Which raises the question, is there a place where the GNC columns are
enumerated and described? I have looked at the various import procedures and I
was able to gather what I believe is a comprehensive list of the GNC columns,
but I would feel more secure if I could see these in a manual somewhere, with
descriptions. Maybe there is even a QBK to GNC "cheat sheet" somewhere ...
I also have a question about the referential integrity of the GNC data. For
example, transactions usually have a "who", which would be a customer, vendor,
or employee, in GNC parlance, ignoring that there are other relationships which
don't fit these three, like Family, Gift recipients, Government, Partners,
Benefactors/Patrons ... It there a "database" link that verifies that the "who"
exists before the transaction is committed? What happens to historical data if
one of these changes their name? Can I produce a report on a given vendor or
customer that would work like a statement? Can I be sure that it includes all
the transactions, meaning there is nothing sitting out in the periphery with a
slightly misspelled "who"? Apparently Customer and Vendor reports center around
trade accounts (A/R, A/P), and it is not yet clear to me what that means.
These questions are best answered with reference to the documentation. I'm sure
the answers already exist somewhere.
Remember, I am a confused Quickbooks refugee, and I have been held captive
there for thirty years, so I am looking to understand GNC in terms of
Quickbooks. Be gentle.
Thanks for the help,
--
Chris.
V:916.799.9461
F:916.974.0428
A: Because we read from top to bottom, left to right.
Q: > Why should I start my reply below the quoted text?
_______________________________________________
gnucash-user mailing list
[email protected]
To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
-----
Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
