"Merging" Two quicken files

Posted by ellengibson70 on February 5, 2007, 10:15 pm

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Before upgrading to Quicken 2007, I need to merge two Quicken files.
I have the instructions to match the Cateogry Lists so that they are
identical as being the first step. My original categories were
created from a much older version of Quicken and my husband's were
created from a combination of categories in Quicken Premier 2004 (the
version we now have) and converting data from Money. Ny files have a
"mileage" category which Quicken says is automatically created and
can't be deleted when you enter your first trip. However, I never
entered any trip and don't have the "Business" tool in my version. My
husband doesn't have these categories. My question is does it matter
if these categories (which have no data) are in one and not the other,
will that prevent me from being able to merge the two files into one?
All the information I read about the mileage categories indicates it's
part of the "Business" portion of Quicken Home and Business, but I
don't have that version. Should I go ahead and "manually" create the
"mileage" categories in my husband's files and match the exact wording
including a dash that's in front of the category, e.g., "-
MileageBus"? Thanks for any assistance.

Posted by John Pollard on February 5, 2007, 11:01 pm

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ellengibson70@hotmail.com wrote:

> Before upgrading to Quicken 2007, I need to merge two

> Quicken files. I have the instructions to match the

> Cateogry Lists so that they are identical as being the

> first step. My original categories were created from a

> much older version of Quicken and my husband's were

> created from a combination of categories in Quicken

> Premier 2004 (the version we now have) and converting

> data from Money. Ny files have a "mileage" category

> which Quicken says is automatically created and can't be

> deleted when you enter your first trip. However, I never

> entered any trip and don't have the "Business" tool in my

> version. My husband doesn't have these categories. My

> question is does it matter if these categories (which

> have no data) are in one and not the other, will that

> prevent me from being able to merge the two files into

> one?

Since there are no transactions using the mileage category, it
doesn't matter if it exists in one file but not the other.

> All the information I read about the mileage

> categories indicates it's part of the "Business" portion

> of Quicken Home and Business, but I don't have that

> version. Should I go ahead and "manually" create the

> "mileage" categories in my husband's files and match the

> exact wording including a dash that's in front of the

> category, e.g., "- MileageBus"?

Not necessary, Quicken will create a new category if one exists
in the qif file but not in the file being imported to.

Actually though, I think I would head in the opposite direction.

Since neither of you use the mileage category, I'd think you
would be happier if you ended up without that category in your
final file. And exporting to a qif file will give you the
opportunity to get rid of that category, since you can delete it
from the qif file so it won't be imported into your final file.

If you open the exported qif file that contains your categories
in Notepad, near the end of the category records you should find
something like this:

N_MileageBus
DBusiness Mileage
T
R1320
E
^

I think "_MileageBus" is the first mileage category and
"_MileageUnreimBus" is the last mileage category. You should be
able to delete all the _Mileage... category records at once.

Delete each record starting with the one with the "N" in column
one (the one with the category name) through the one with the
caret ("^"). Do that for each "_Mileage..." category in the
file, then Save the file. (Don't worry if the records between
the first and last for a category look different than what I
posted, or if there are more records between the first and last
than my example; just delete everything from the one with the
"N" in the first postition to the one with the "^" in the first
postition ... for each category you don't want.)

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

Posted by ellengibson70 on February 6, 2007, 1:59 pm

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Thanks, John, I'll give this a try.

Ellen

> ellengibso...@hotmail.com wrote:

> > Before upgrading to Quicken 2007, I need to merge two

> > Quicken files. I have the instructions to match the

> > Cateogry Lists so that they are identical as being the

> > first step. My original categories were created from a

> > much older version of Quicken and my husband's were

> > created from a combination of categories in Quicken

> > Premier 2004 (the version we now have) and converting

> > data from Money. Ny files have a "mileage" category

> > which Quicken says is automatically created and can't be

> > deleted when you enter your first trip. However, I never

> > entered any trip and don't have the "Business" tool in my

> > version. My husband doesn't have these categories. My

> > question is does it matter if these categories (which

> > have no data) are in one and not the other, will that

> > prevent me from being able to merge the two files into

> > one?

> Since there are no transactions using the mileage category, it

> doesn't matter if it exists in one file but not the other.

> > All the information I read about the mileage

> > categories indicates it's part of the "Business" portion

> > of Quicken Home and Business, but I don't have that

> > version. Should I go ahead and "manually" create the

> > "mileage" categories in my husband's files and match the

> > exact wording including a dash that's in front of the

> > category, e.g., "- MileageBus"?

> Not necessary, Quicken will create a new category if one exists

> in the qif file but not in the file being imported to.

> Actually though, I think I would head in the opposite direction.

> Since neither of you use the mileage category, I'd think you

> would be happier if you ended up without that category in your

> final file. And exporting to a qif file will give you the

> opportunity to get rid of that category, since you can delete it

> from the qif file so it won't be imported into your final file.

> If you open the exported qif file that contains your categories

> in Notepad, near the end of the category records you should find

> something like this:

> N_MileageBus

> DBusiness Mileage

> T

> R1320

> E

> ^

> I think "_MileageBus" is the first mileage category and

> "_MileageUnreimBus" is the last mileage category. You should be

> able to delete all the _Mileage... category records at once.

> Delete each record starting with the one with the "N" in column

> one (the one with the category name) through the one with the

> caret ("^"). Do that for each "_Mileage..." category in the

> file, then Save the file. (Don't worry if the records between

> the first and last for a category look different than what I

> posted, or if there are more records between the first and last

> than my example; just delete everything from the one with the

> "N" in the first postition to the one with the "^" in the first

> postition ... for each category you don't want.)

> --

> John Pollard

> First initial underscore Last name at mchsi dot com

> Please reply to newsgroup- Hide quoted text -

> - Show quoted text -