Mac Quicken 2007 importing a qif file

Posted by John on November 1, 2008, 11:44 am

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I'd like to start importing a qif file to a
Cash account (still allowed). I looked at the
format, cooked up the file below, but when I
import it I am able to select it, click on
"Open" and a progress bar opens for a millisecond
and goes away, and that's it. I look in the Cash
account file, nothing has been added. Nor anywhere
else as far as I can tell. I suspect I don't have
the format down yet. Anyone see what I'm doing wrong?

[I modeled it after a sample qif export I made, and
definitions I found on the web. I did notice that
the export only used ^M line delimiters and not
<CR><LF> as my text editor uses, but I don't think
this is the problem].

Thanks!

!Account
NCash Account
D
X
^
!Type:Cash
D10/12/08
PFoodtown
MMemo 1 goes here
T-1.00
A
A
A
A
A
A
LGroceries
^
D10/12/08
PPayee 2
MGasoline
T-2.00
A
A
A
A
A
A
LAuto:Fuel
^
D10/12/08
PNY Times, WSJ, tea
MMemo 3 goes here
T-3.00
A
A
A
A
A
A
LWAWA
^

Posted by John Pollard on November 1, 2008, 12:10 pm

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John wrote:

> I'd like to start importing a qif file to a

> Cash account (still allowed). I looked at the

> format, cooked up the file below, but when I

> import it I am able to select it, click on

> "Open" and a progress bar opens for a millisecond

> and goes away, and that's it. I look in the Cash

> account file, nothing has been added. Nor anywhere

> else as far as I can tell. I suspect I don't have

> the format down yet. Anyone see what I'm doing wrong?

> [I modeled it after a sample qif export I made, and

> definitions I found on the web. I did notice that

> the export only used ^M line delimiters and not

> <CR><LF> as my text editor uses, but I don't think

> this is the problem].

> Thanks!

> !Account

> NCash Account

> D

> X

> ^

> !Type:Cash

> D10/12/08

> PFoodtown

> MMemo 1 goes here

> T-1.00

> A

> LGroceries

> ^

> D10/12/08

> PPayee 2

> MGasoline

> T-2.00

> A

> LAuto:Fuel

> ^

> D10/12/08

> PNY Times, WSJ, tea

> MMemo 3 goes here

> T-3.00

> A

> LWAWA

> ^

I copied your qif data and pasted it into a notepad file, and
saved the data as a file with a "qif" extension.

Opened Quicken (Q2008 Premier for Windows), created a cash
account named "Cash Account", and successfully imported your qif
data (answered "yes" when asked to allow Quicken to create new
categories for those named in your data but not in my Quicken
file). Three transactions were imported into "Cash Account".

So I don't see any problem with the data; must be something
else, either relating to Quicken for the Mac, or your specific
setup.

[Maybe it's the odd combination of the Wall Street Journal with
the New York Times. :) ]

--

John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
Please reply to newsgroup

Posted by John Pollard on November 1, 2008, 12:19 pm

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John wrote:

> I'd like to start importing a qif file to a

> Cash account (still allowed). I looked at the

> format, cooked up the file below, but when I

> import it I am able to select it, click on

> "Open" and a progress bar opens for a millisecond

> and goes away, and that's it. I look in the Cash

> account file, nothing has been added. Nor anywhere

> else as far as I can tell. I suspect I don't have

> the format down yet. Anyone see what I'm doing wrong?

> [I modeled it after a sample qif export I made, and

> definitions I found on the web. I did notice that

> the export only used ^M line delimiters and not

> <CR><LF> as my text editor uses, but I don't think

> this is the problem].

> Thanks!

> !Account

> NCash Account

> D

> X

> ^

> !Type:Cash

> D10/12/08

> PFoodtown

> MMemo 1 goes here

> T-1.00

> A

> LGroceries

> ^

> D10/12/08

> PPayee 2

> MGasoline

> T-2.00

> A

> LAuto:Fuel

> ^

> D10/12/08

> PNY Times, WSJ, tea

> MMemo 3 goes here

> T-3.00

> A

> LWAWA

> ^

A couple of additional observations.

In Q for Windows, a QIF file export has CR/LF characters at the
end of each line. If Q for the Mac uses different delimiters,
you probably won't be able to import unless you use the same
delimiters.

In that vein; what happens if you try to import transactions you
have exported? Setup a test where the only difference between
two import attempts is that one uses an exported qif file, and
the other uses a qif file you "cooked up".

Also, I seem to recall that Q for the Mac expects different date
formats in QIF files than Q for Windows. I think that explains
why the 3 transactions I successfully imported into Q for
Windows have dates in 1908, and not 2008. But you might double
check that Q for the Mac is expecting dates formatted as you
have in your test data.

--

John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
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Posted by John on November 1, 2008, 12:51 pm

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John Pollard wrote:

> A couple of additional observations.

> In Q for Windows, a QIF file export has CR/LF characters at the

> end of each line. If Q for the Mac uses different delimiters,

> you probably won't be able to import unless you use the same

> delimiters.

This may be it. I'll try it out tonight when I have some time.
I'm not actually sure how to control what delimiter is used.
The text editing programs I use seem to use <CR><LF> but when
I opened the exported qif file with emacs, I saw only ^M's.
I used emacs to create my test file from scratch, and it apparently
uses <CR><LF>'s. Eventually I'll use shell script programming or
Fortran (maybe C which as I recall uses only ^M line delimiters
in file writes) to write the qif file from a Palm Pilot moved
data file. (I have all that working, I just need to know how to
write a qif file to track the cash expenses I key in to a Palm
Pilot).

> In that vein; what happens if you try to import transactions you

> have exported? Setup a test where the only difference between

> two import attempts is that one uses an exported qif file, and

> the other uses a qif file you "cooked up".

> Also, I seem to recall that Q for the Mac expects different date

> formats in QIF files than Q for Windows. I think that explains

> why the 3 transactions I successfully imported into Q for

> Windows have dates in 1908, and not 2008. But you might double

> check that Q for the Mac is expecting dates formatted as you

> have in your test data.

I used the format I saw in the export. Odd, but highly possible,
that the Mac version can't read what it writes. I guess I'll find
out tonight when I have time to debug.

No, I haven't tried to import a sample export yet. Tonight. i didn't
think I'd need to debug it at this level. ;-)

Another question that I can experiment with when I get it working,
but would like to know up front: can I leave the six "A" (address)
lines out since they aren't used? Can any of the optional fields
be left out of the syntax, or does that break things? (my first
try didn't have them. My second try did. Both failed).

Thanks for the quick reply!

John

Posted by John Pollard on November 1, 2008, 1:19 pm

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John wrote:

> Another question that I can experiment with when I get it

> working,

> but would like to know up front: can I leave the six "A"

> (address)

> lines out since they aren't used? Can any of the optional

> fields

> be left out of the syntax, or does that break things? (my

> first

> try didn't have them. My second try did. Both failed).

You can omit practically everything; definitely the address
lines. I successfully imported a transaction with only a date
and amount. And I imported another transaction with no amount.

--

John Pollard
First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com
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