Byron - 1 - The short answer is no. Reconciliation has no effect on matcher. Only previously encountered transactions and its disposition is memorialized for next time. The matcher is also imprecise because multiple variables are involved so it getting 100% right is very remote in a bulk import. Matcher may minimize how much labor of clicks you will have to do, but you will still have to review each and every transactions in the matcher validation window after the import to make sure that it makes it to correct second leg of the transaction. BTW, there was a very good insight few weeks back as to how matcher works so if you are interested in in-depth details then search the archives of the list.
2 - Once you export into QIF file from Quicken, open up the file in your favorite text editor and look for 'CR' string on a line by itself. There should be one for each transaction that is reconciled. Remove that line in its entirety from the entire file so when importing those transactions it won't overwrite reconciled setting in gnucash. Do make sure you also set 'Not cleared' preference flag setting underneath 'Default transaction status' text in 'Edit' --> 'Preferences' --> 'Import' setting page before importing. 3 - You can create the top most accounts manually and then let the gnucash create other account during import. You can always rename, move, consolidate and re-parent account somewhere else so don’t get too much hung up on getting tree set up correctly; in gnucash it is way-way easier to move all transactions from an account. Create the critical accounts manually so you know where they are and be able to specify them during import match validation to assign if matcher didn't match them correctly. Worse case is move Quicken on left half of the screen and gnucash on the right half of the screen. Then use cut-&-paste facility of the MS Windows to copy name of the critical account from left half to right half. The key, though, to remember here is that *categories in Quicken* will end up being same named *accounts in gnucash* when importing. Anything other than pre-created accounts for Quicken transfers, you will end up telling the importer to create those categories into account in the import matcher. By pre-creating your critical accounts, and importing small number of repeated transactions, it will train the matcher to match bulk of it as possible and improve itself. However, the ones that are not matched properly, you still will have to guide the matcher to the proper ones from the pre-created accounts. Whatever you do, do *not* import more than one accounts at a time. The reason is that once you import the large account (which creates all necessary account in gnucash), the majority of the transactions from the smaller account should be nothing but second leg against the larger account that were already imported, so matcher should be able to do better job matching -- and the ones it doesn't you can guide it to tell it what the match should be for next time while minimizing how much you do so manually. Essentially goal is breaking import into three camps to get transactions into gnucash intact in any which way you can: one large camp that you will import as-is; second camp is you will manually tweak to match; and third camp is to chip at the second camp by letting matcher do the work by breaking up imports in batches and training. I vaguely recall that you can train the matcher without importing transactions by doing all the steps of the import except the last step of the actual import and canceling it. But I am not too sure of it at this point, though. HTH -----Original Message----- From: Byron Bray <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2026 8:42 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [GNC] Banking Account - Imported QIF data and Opening Balances Kalpesh, Thanks for those observations; they add some welcome perspective … and, of course, stimulate more ideas and questions. 1 - I didn’t realize that transfers might be the a source of problems; I assumed that all transactions for a given account would be imported and that the matcher would match them up when the corresponding accounts (with transfers to/from) were imported. I’ve only read about the matcher, so far, and have concentrated on only one bank account (the business account; the most critical), so your perspective is most helpful. Is there any benefit to importing the accounts with transfers between them at the same time and then reconciling? Would that mitigate this behavior? 2 - I did not know that QIF files could be edited with a text editor; silly man that I am (and with a good deal of database programming background that involved text-file parsing and processing) somehow it never occurred to me to crack one open and look. I would very much appreciate any advice that you would care to offer. I’ve been going through the “Previous Statements” window in Quicken and un-reconciling month by month but that is tedious and there are quite a few accounts to process and import. My Quicken file contains all of my financial activity going back a good 25 years but I only want to move records for the last 7 to 10 years into Quicken (basically audit-proofing myself). 3 - With regard to account tree creation, I had come to the same conclusion; again, tedious but probably necessary. I tried exporting just “accounts” in the Quicken export window but the accounts in GnuCash were empty after importing. I’ll keep tinkering with it. You suggested choosing a date after which transactions were of current importance and importing from there, leaving Quicken in place for consultation of older data. I will do that, using the 7-10 year timeframe suggested above. My versions of Quicken is, of course, 32-bit but the OS version on my new machine is 64-bit only; hence the need for the move to GnuCash in the first place. But I can keep my older machine around to house the 32-bit version for historical queries. I may well follow your path by constructing the account tree manually and then, as you, Liz and others have suggested, importing a few months at a time, saving a version of the GnuCash file each time. The part should be easy as the MacOS’ Time Machine does saves on hourly, daily, weekly and monthly bases. Again, Kalpesh, thanks for that information and insight and many thanks to all of you who have offered so much good information and advice. I very much appreciate it. - Byron ================ > On Mar 3, 2026, at 2:44 PM, Kalpesh Patel <[email protected]> wrote: > > Byron: > > You are correct in what you stated below. > > Couple of additional suggestions ... > > 1- If there are transfers in Quicken (say between bank account to a bank > account) then those are the types of transactions that are likely to error > during import. When I imported almost 3 decades of transactions in thousands, > transfers of these type where the most pain (besides the brokerage accounts). > > 2 - Assuming you are importing QIF format from Quicken to GNUCASH, you can > hand edit the QIF file before importing to remove the reconcile flag with > any editor's search and replace operation. QIF files are in plain text. Let > me know if you need these details on what to remove. > > 3 - You may have to create the Quicken Account in GNUCASH manually if the > import of just the account tree from Quicken is not working. > > By any chance are you using year end copies for your Quicken books? Sounds > like no. > > The other suggestion I can make is that if the prior transactions in Quicken > are not that important than you can start afresh with closing balance of > Quicken as the Opening balance of GNUCASH and go forward from there on. You > can keep Quicken around to consult for old transactions if need be. This only > can be done if it is 2017 or prior version, though, as Quicken really insist > on you paying them their due homage after that version. You can do year end > copies and then start a fresh for the following year in GnuCash. > > Reconciling imported transactions is multi-month effort and even then it is > trial-and-error basis. I am still doing clean up now-and-then from when I > imported back in 2020, and I had few transaction that would refuse to import > so had to hunt in the QIF file using plain text editor. Nonetheless, it is > best conquered in pieces as GNUCASH isn't designed to be able to import > everything correctly in one fell swoop. It is not because GNUCASH is bad but > it because QIF format is imprecise so it has to be helped to clarify things. > As I stated earlier, I ultimately ended up importing in batches few months of > transactions from one account at a time after creating the account tree > first. As others have mentioned, when you are at the right place -- the > balances are correct, and it reconciles correctly -- make a backup of the > file before moving onto the next batch of import so that you don’t have to > start from scratch. > > HTH. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Byron Bray <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, March 02, 2026 8:10 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [GNC] Banking Account - Imported QIF data and Opening Balances > > > Kalpesh, > > Thank you! It is not too late. I had just finished un-reconciling the main > account (my business account) in a copy of my QIF file, going back to 2020. > >> 1) It allows you to review in small batches to make sure that import is >> correct and reconcile them before importing next batch > > I was just about to try that but will heed your advice and do a few months at > a time. > >> 2) It also helps trains the matcher algorithm and lesson the effort if there >> are any re-import of the same transactions. > > I was unaware of the Bayesian matcher algorithm but some research has been > enlightening; thanks for mentioning that. > >> Are you importing multiple accounts at a time or one account at a time? If >> you are doing multiple account at a time then you want to start first with >> bringing just the account tree and then starting with importing largest >> account first moving down to smaller ones for matcher to match them up as >> the second leg that might be in the largest account for transfers. > > > Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was unaware of (and had wondered about) > GnuCash’s ability to handle the many account transfers in my data. I had > tried to export just the account structure from Quicken, but found that that > did not produce any result whatever. Unless GnuCash can match them in > subsequent imports automatically, I expect that I would need to: > 1) Import the business account transactions and their associated accounts and > then > 2) Manually construct any additional accounts in gnu cash, and then > 3) Use the matching phase of the import process to match the quicken account > transfer to the appropriate gnu cash account. > > Please correct me if I am wrong in any particular. > > Many thanks, > > - Byron > > ===================== > >> On Mar 2, 2026, at 1:39 PM, Kalpesh Patel <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> I am not sure if this is too late or not but recommendation is to import >> limited se of transactions at a time (perhaps 1 to 3 months at a time >> depending on number of transactions) for few reasons: >> >> 1) It allows you to review in small batches to make sure that import is >> correct and reconcile them before importing next batch which can help you >> flag down import error which is going to be in the non-reconciled >> transactions. It is a lot easier to flag down an errant import entry in a >> small set of transactions then all in one fell swoop. >> >> 2) It also helps trains the matcher algorithm and lesson the effort if there >> are any re-import of the same transactions. >> >> Are you importing multiple accounts at a time or one account at a time? If >> you are doing multiple account at a time then you want to start first with >> bringing just the account tree and then starting with importing largest >> account first moving down to smaller ones for matcher to match them up as >> the second leg that might be in the largest account for transfers. Keep in >> mind that in Quicken Categories are Accounts in GNUCash so you have to have >> them setup before importing if you have transfers in Quicken, and are likely >> to error when you bring them over. >> >> Worth case scenario is to reconcile month by month which will help narrow >> down where the transactions might have been imported incorrectly. You can >> always reconcile same set of time periods in GNUCash without any adverse >> impact. >> >> HTH to get your account reconciled. >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Byron Bray <[email protected]> >> Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2026 8:46 PM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: [GNC] Banking Account - Imported QIF data and Opening Balances >> >> Friends, >> >> I need some guidance as to the proper setup and handing of banking accounts >> (at least) in GnuCash. I have spent the better part of two days, read dozens >> of postings to the GnuCash lists and watched dozens of videos, trying to >> resolve the issue I am seeing but, bright as I like to think I am, I am >> clearly missing something; it is my hope that you can help me. >> >> I am trying to shift my accounting data from Quicken to GnuCash. My >> operating environment: >> Computer: Mac Pro (2019) >> OS Version: MacOS 15 (Sequoia) >> GnuCash version: Version: 5.14 Build ID: 5.14+(2025-12-20) >> >> I imported a Quicken QIF bank account, after making sure that the account >> was accurately reconciled for the period of the import. Having completed the >> import, the Reconciliation window reported a Starting Balance, Reconciled >> Balance and Difference of almost $1,000. I had read that the way to overcome >> this was to simply enter an opening balance transaction in Equities and >> reconcile the first month, entering the accurate Ending Balance and >> performing the reconciliation; subsequent months should, I read, display the >> correct information. >> >> I created an “Opening Balance” transaction to take place on the last day of >> the month prior to the imported data, entering the balance as of that date >> and linking it to “Equities:Opening Balances”. I entered the Reconcile >> window, set it for that previous month, made sure the “Ending Balance” was >> correct and checked the box for that “Opening Balance” transaction. The >> “Finish” button was disabled because it didn’t take into effect the >> erroneous ≈$1,000 Starting Balance. >> >> Then, I created a balancing transaction and dated it the month before the >> first transaction in the imported data and attempted to reconcile that >> month. This time it DID enable the Finish button and completed the >> reconcile. When I opened the Reconcile window for the following month (the >> first imported month), the window for the following month reported that the >> Starting Balance, the Ending Balance, the Reconciled Balance and the >> Difference were all $0.00 … which was just what one would expect. The only >> problem is that the running balance for the entire account, as shown in the >> register, is almost $1,000 less than the actual balance. >> >> I’m hopeful that you know a better solution than this but at this point, the >> only way I can see to arrive at a ledger whose balance and reconciliation >> data are accurate is to go back to Quicken, un-reconcile all of the >> thousands of transactions in this account, export the data, import it into >> GnuCash and then reconcile them all again. I fervently hope that there is a >> better solution than this. >> >> Any advice you can give me would be gratefully received and carefully >> considered. Whether you can suggest a solution or not, I want to thank you, >> in advance, for your time and energy. >> > > > _______________________________________________ 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.
