Understanding the generic import transaction manager

[Paul A.]

I've managed to import the entire history of my Discover card (in OFX format)
and get the Generic Import Transaction Manager window. But how do I make
use of it? And what is the meaning of a checkmark in the A column?

Most transactions have a checkmark in the R column and are shown in green; I
assume that means that the transaction has been reconciled. Of the others,
some are in red and some in yellow. The yellow ones have an indication
"UNBALANCED" and a checkmark in the A column. The red ones have an
indication "Do not import" and no checkmark in the A column.

I tried changing a couple of checkmarks and then clicking OK. The result
was very unpleasant; the same transaction kept getting inserted into the
account register over and over. I assume there's a bug causing that
behavior, but how can I get around it?

I assume that neither the yellow ones or the red ones have matching
transactions in the account register, but what is the difference? If a
transaction is unbalanced, what's the right way to fix it? It seems that
the only options in this window are to insert or remove checkmarks. And
what happens to transactions that are in the account register but not in the
import file?
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[David Reiser]

Post by Paul A.
I've managed to import the entire history of my Discover card (in OFX format)
and get the Generic Import Transaction Manager window. But how do I make
use of it? And what is the meaning of a checkmark in the A column?
Most transactions have a checkmark in the R column and are shown in green; I
assume that means that the transaction has been reconciled. Of the others,
some are in red and some in yellow. The yellow ones have an indication
"UNBALANCED" and a checkmark in the A column. The red ones have an
indication "Do not import" and no checkmark in the A column.
I tried changing a couple of checkmarks and then clicking OK. The result
was very unpleasant; the same transaction kept getting inserted into the
account register over and over. I assume there's a bug causing that
behavior, but how can I get around it?
I assume that neither the yellow ones or the red ones have matching
transactions in the account register, but what is the difference? If a
transaction is unbalanced, what's the right way to fix it? It seems that
the only options in this window are to insert or remove checkmarks. And
what happens to transactions that are in the account register but not in the
import file?

I'd say the first thing is definitely do not have the entire history in a single file. gnucash will learn which accounts various transactions go. But it can only apply what it learns the next time you import another file. Do 10 or 20 transactions, then do another 10 or 20. If you think most of your recurring payees are covered, then you could turn gnucash loose on a big import. It will save you a whole lot of time picking accounts for the "A" transactions.

A is Add. R is really Clear (not reconcile). And a red transaction means gnucash will ignore that transaction when it finally gets to finishing the import.

Double click on the right side of a yellow transaction and you can select an account into which that transaction should go. You can only select one target account split per transaction (with the second split being associated with the account linked to the ofx source). After the import is completed, you can go back and edit transactions that require more than 2 splits. If you don't assign an account for the required split, gnucash will throw the transaction in "Imbalance-CCC" where CCC is symbol for the currency associated with the transaction (which it knows because you have to assign one to the account associated with the ofx source).
--
David Reiser
***@earthlink.net




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[Paul A.]

On what basis does Gnucash decide that a particular transaction should be red
rather than yellow?
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[David Reiser]

Post by Paul A.
On what basis does Gnucash decide that a particular transaction should be red
rather than yellow?

I don't know all the logic involved, but if there are no possible matches, then the matcher will propose to Add the transaction. If other similar transactions have been imported in the past, an Add transaction will be colored green and the target account will be the same as past similar transactions. If the matcher doesn't have any proposed target account, it will mark the Add column and color the transaction yellow to call attention to the fact that you need to pick the second split account.

Some of the red transactions have possible matches in the data file, but the quality of the match is not good enough to merit an "R" choice. Usually that means the date match is not as good as gnucash wants for the little bar graph that gets displayed to be in the green region. You can manually switch a red transaction to either Add or Reconcile. If you switch it to R, you can see how close to green the bar graph is and decide if you want to take a chance that the non-green bar graph isn't really a problem. Sometimes making that choice will end up ignoring imported transactions -- especially if two transactions in the import file get matched to the same existing transaction in the file. Only one imported transaction will get matched, the other possible match will be ignored.

The matcher does have some annoying limitations.

Dave
--
David Reiser
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[Paul A.]

I've succeeded in importing and mostly reconciling a medium-size file.
Interestingly, for most of the red transactions, adding them in found the
correct match. But I'm still unclear as to how much automation is possible
for split transactions. Is there any better way to finish them off than by
comparing them to the actual bank statement?

Also, is there a way to select and process a transaction in the generic
import window using the keyboard, i.e., is there a keyboard equivalent to
clicking one of the check boxes or double-clicking the line?

And finally, is there any documentation available on all this? The 2.0
manual isn't very helpful on this subject.
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