Importing transactions to be recorded in both 'bank checking' and 'a particular expense' account

Question

I have been recording and analyzing transactions for several years using a spreadsheet. In effect, I have been using a variation of a single entry book-keeping system. I wish to import the data into GNUCash.

In GNUCash, I have:

1. created a new entity,
2. created account names including 'Assets:Current Assets:Checking Account' and 'Expenses:Auto:Gas'

In the spreadsheet program, I have created a CSV file with columns for: date, description, withdrawal, and Account. In the column for Account, all row entries contain names that are identical to those used in in my GNUCash file.

When I try and import the file, the 'Match Import and GnuCash accounts' tab asks me to manually match the account name in the CSV file (that GNUCash now calls Accountid) with an 'Account Name' within GNUCash. With many years of transactions to go through, I would like to avoid this manual step, if possible.

Should it be possible to achieve this end? If so, how?

Thank you in anticipation.

Answer 1

As you have already found, GnuCash requires you to link each Account ID (from your import file) with an Account Name in GnuCash.

The good news is that you only need to do this once for each Account ID - GnuCash remembers the links that you made in previous imports and automatically applies them to similar transactions in future imports. In your second, third and subsequent import processes, GnuCash will present, for your review, a screen summarising the translations that it is going to apply. If everything looks OK, you simply have to press "Next" to move on to the next step of the import process. Of course, if your import data file contains any transactions with a completely new Account ID, you will have to explicitly set up the linkages for those ones - but only for the new Account IDs.

I suggest that you start by importing only small data files - say 10 or 20 transactions with a range of Account IDs. Because GnuCash learns the linkages for those transactions, your second import file will be a lot easier to process than the first.