Hi Arthur/GNUCash users, "p.s. I did learn the Bayesian matching was causing problems with my transaction imports to gnu cash. Since switching that off they're trouble free."
Interesting! https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Bayes & https://gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-manual//set-prefs.html describe the Bayes algorithm & how Bayesian matching works in GNUCash. Just to make sure that the dynamic that you are noticing is not a bug: What operating system are you using? What version of GnuCash are you using? The current version is 5.10 - https://www.gnucash.org/download.phtml --- Thanks, Brad - https://www.facebook.com/brad.morrison.12327/ & https://norcal.social/@BradMorrison On 2025-01-19 18:44, arthur brogard via gnucash-user wrote: > Thanks for this. > So it looks like I'm doing it the most mechanically efficient way I can. Good > to know. > I'm not well organised with it though. I haphazardly reconcile and update > transactions at the moment. While I am learning. And going about setting up > this second set of books for the business. > p.s. I did learn the Bayesian matching was causing problems with my > transaction imports to gnu cash. Since switching that off they're trouble > free. > > Good to have your help, thankyou. > :) > ab > > On Monday 20 January 2025 at 09:53:40 am ACDT, David Cousens > <davidcousen...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Arthur, > If your bank has OFX/QFX export of the transactions this is usually the most > reliable way of importing bank records into GnuCash as it is a fairly well > defined standard protocol. CSV often takes a bit of work to do it relaibly > as the protocol is less strictly defined. > I used to diligently enter transactions from receipts while I was running a > business but now that I am retired and I no longer have a check book and I > get most receipts from most stores by email or sms in any case and most > EFTPOSand credit card transactions appear in my account almost immediately, > there was little advantage for me in doing this, so I just import the Bank > records periodically and like Ken keep a close eye out for any unexpected > changes in the account balances at the bank > You may want to do reconciliations more frequently while getting up to speed > on using Gnucash. Most banks issue statements monthly so there is little > point in doing them more frequently than that. My bank has a facility to > provide me with a statement at a specific date (for which they charge me > extra) beyond the monthly cycle, but I would only use that where I have > detected a discrepancy and i haven't had one for more than 5 years now. > Whether you can use the aqbanking DirectConnectOFX interface will depend upon > on whether your bank makes that interface available. Most banks in Australia > don't for example ( they place stricter security requirements for software > to have direct connections which open source software generally cannot meet) > but I gather many US and European banks do. > GnuCash has a lot of features to help improve the import of data mainly in > matching imported transactions to existing transactions and automatically > assigning the correct transfer account to the second entry of imported > transactions. This is a statistical Bayesian matching and is "trained" by > the account assignments you make in the import matching window of the import > process. The training only occurs if you assign the accounts in this process > and then complete the import and does not reflect any changes to the account > assignments made after completion of the import process. Once this is > trained and working well, the import process is generally a lot quicker. I > might have to manually assign 6-8 transactions a month on import (usually out > of ~100 transactions imported) although it does pay to check that the import > matcher has assigned the correct account to each transactions Allowing it to > import to an incorrect account trains it to do the wrong thing. > You currently are replying only to my direct email and not to the mailing > list "gnucash-user@gnucash.org". If there is no "reply all,"or "reply to > list" in the yahoo mail client ( it may be there but hidden), just add that > email address to the "To" line in your reply. I have forwarded your email > which came directly to me to the list. > David Cousens > On Sun, 2025-01-19 at 22:32 +0000, arthur brogard wrote: > Thank you for that. > > Very pertinent and important observations you make. > At this early stage of my involvement with gnu cash I'm still unsure if my > usage of it is optimal: am I doing things the easiest/best way? > The 'mechanics' of it, you might say. > Seems to me I do a lot of work just to get my transactions out of the bank > and into gnu cash and reconcile. > Seems to me I've heard of direct bank to gnu cash connection perhaps? > Or even without that it could well be that I'm doing things a wrong way round > and I'd love to know if so. > :) > ab > p.s. am I doing this right? I'm just using 'reply' on my Yahoo mail client. > I don't see where I can do the suggested 'reply list' or 'reply all' > > On Monday 20 January 2025 at 08:33:43 am ACDT, David Cousens > <davidcousen...@gmail.com> wrote: > > There is no best reconciliation strategy. An appropriate strategy > depends on exactly what you are using GnuCash for. > > A business with a high number of transactions will have a need for > relatively frequent reconciliation to detect errors, uncashed checks, > etc. and to satisfy any internal and external reportingand audit > requirements. In the case of personal finances, the frequency of > reconciliation required likely depends on the complexity of your > personal finances. > > Like Ken most of my transactions are cashless these days, and being > retired a lot fewer than they were when I was working and running a > business. Then monthly reconciliations proved to be both necessary and > useful. Now I reconcile usually quarterly or even semi-annually. Like > Ken I check my accounts usually on a daily basis for major > discrepancies in the balances and for the automatically direct debited > transactions that some websites sign you up for on the pretence of > paying for a one-off (I do try to avoid them) and obvious bank errors, > but my bank has a pretty good error rate (haven't found one in the past > 5 years). One factor that may influence timing would be a bank's > policies with regard to how long you may have to dispute errors and > relevant regulatory legislation that constrains application of such > policies so it is worth checking up on what those policies may be. > > On updating I prefer to stay up to date with the latest version of > GnuCash. Most Linux distributions are often well behind the most recent > version. If you lag behind, particularly across the major version > boundaries updating can become a little bit more complex. There are > very rarely any major problems with the core functionality of Gnucash > in updates. The developers have done a very good job of making updates > as painless as possible with procedures to update data files built into > the update where necessary changes are made to the data file > structure. > > I build GnuCash from the stable source tarballs on release. I did a > little bit of minor work on some code areas in the past so building > from scratch does not faze me but some users may find it more daunting, > mainly in having all the necessary dependency versions and development > headers available. > > David Cousens > > On Sat, 2025-01-18 at 21:06 +0000, arthur brogard via gnucash-user > wrote: > >> i just keep personal books for the family. >> my update and reconcile procedure works but is a bit tedious. I >> can't think of any better way and I doubt there is one but i thought >> it might be good to ask. >> At sort of almost random times I decide to update the books. So I >> download from CBA transactions from the bank accounts. >> then I put them in a spreadsheet. in date order. >> then I inspect and compare with a transaction report from gnu cash - >> one for each account - and identify transactions not yet in gnu cash. >> delete all but those from the spreadsheet. >> sort on description. >> attach a fourth column for target account. >> import to gnu cash. >> that's the update >> balances should agree. that's the reconcile. >> all that downloading, spreadsheeting, sorting blah, blah..... any >> better way or that's just it? >> >> _______________________________________________ >> gnucash-user mailing list >> gnucash-user@gnucash.org >> 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. > > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > 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. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org 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. 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