Daniel, Have you read the first few chapters of the guide which will help with understanding how GnuCash works. The section headed "The Basics" (https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-guide/index.html)> is an introduction to the conceptual basis. Unllike many programs GnuCash's operation is upfront double entry accounting and actions are generally initiated from the account registers.
There is also the Help Manual which is more gui oriented rather than process oriented (https://www.gnucash.org/docs/v3/C/gnucash-help/help.html). Importing can be interesting. AT present the documentation on the importer is being upgraded but this is not yet complete in the current documentation. It is likely you end up with Imbalance entries on input because the records you are inputting do not specify the second account for a transaction. There are at least two accounts associated with each transaction (and sometimes more - see the basis section above if you are not familiar with this). If you have exported the transactions from Aplos from a single account at a time then the source account will generally be the account you have exported from and this may or may not be a field in the exported data. I don't know how Aplos functions and whether it uses categories like Quicken but if it does then the category for an expense or income item will usually become the account name of an expense, income, asset(for transfers) or liability (loans and credit cards) account in Gnucash. This should be specified in another field of the output data and it is this field which is not being imported correctly. Your export format will either have an amount column or separate columns for Debits and Credits. On importing these have to be matched with the Deposit or Withdrawal column headers if multicolumn. If importing an Asset account and you have a single amount column if +ve numbers are debits to the account and negative numbers credit you would normally match the GnuCash Deposits header to that column. It is usually better to experiment with a small file of 10-20 lines first and sort out the settings that work before trying to import all your back data. GnuCash can stroe those settings in the import setup dialog so you can resue them. One reason for this is that GnuCash has an automatic process for matching the second or transfer account in imported data. This is a window called the Import Matcher which comes up immediately after you hit the button to import. If the imported data does not contain the second/transfer account in a field or if it is the first lot of data you import GnuCash does not have an association between the account names/categories in the imported data and the internal GnuCash account names which you may or may not have created at this stage. Unmatched rows will have a gold background and will have the Imbalance account specified in the Info column if this is the case. Double click on the row to open a dialog to assign an appropriate transfer account. If you do not have a suitable transfer account created there is a new account button which will allow you to create one. It is probably better to think out at least a basic set of expense and income accounts before starting if you can. If the background to a row is green and the A checkbox is checked GnuCash will have matched the imported information to an existing account. You will need to check that this match is correct. If the U+R checkbox is checked and the background is green then an existing record in GnuCash has been matched double clicking on the row in this case opens a dialog to examine that match and allow you to accept or reject it. If the R box is check and the background is green it has been matched to an existing transaction and will not be imported. Anything with a red background will need action as it neither matches an existing transaction or is valid to be imported. You can alter GnuCash's decision by changing the checkedcheckbox to A if you want to import the data. The other problem you will encounter is that if you import your checking account and then later a credit card account payments from your checking account to the credit card account are generally imported in both data sets and you can end up with duplicates. GnuCash handles this by searching for existing transactions matching the imported data as above. In this case you don't change the decision be GnuCash to not import the data. The easiest way to get rid of the transactions you have already imported incorrectly is to open a new file and save it over the same filename. If you have setup a Chart of Accounts already this will also clear that. In that case use File->Export->Account Tree to CSV to export the account tree before overwriting the file and then reimport it using File->Import->Import Accounts from CSV (not necessary if you are using an account setup created during the new file setup process and have not added to it). If you still have access to the previous program consider whether you are not better off just starting from the current date using GnuCash. It is also possible to import back data later when you are more familiar with GnuCash's operations if absolutely necessary. When I did this, I did it six months at a time and adjusted the opening Balances and dates on them as I worked backwards and reconciled the major asset accounts against statements once I had the data in. David Cousens ----- David Cousens -- Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org 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.