|
Starting the program
On the Main Menu, click the Tools tab then click Import QIF files BS419
Screen BS419S01 will appear
Screenshot
In this section
About this program
This program allows you to:
- Import files from Quicken
- transfer an entire database from Quicken to Bank Genie with the intention of not using Quicken for this database again.
The Quicken database is unaffected by this process
so the two databases can, if necessary, be used in parallel for an overlap period.
Important note: These instructions have been tested on Quicken 2000 but it is expected that with minor variations they will work on other versions
Acknowledgements
The instructions on this page were written by Barry Landy.
Barry was the technical advisor in the creation of the Import QIF Files Program and carried out numerous tests in each stage of the development. A wide range of his Quicken
accounts were tested to ensure all known data record types could be successfully imported to Bank Genie Pro.
Preparation of the Quicken database
- Make sure that all the Quicken accounts are completely reconciled
To reconcile bank accounts open the account to the register display then use the current bank
statement to reconcile up to the last date in that statement. Any remaining transactions will be correctly handled as Un-Reconciled by Bank Genie.
If no bank
statement is to hand, note the final total in the register then click the reconcile button in the register header. Enter the noted total in the ending balance field, and click
reconcile.
Then click all presented transactions. In this case all transactions will be treated as Bank Genie as reconciled, which may be wrong, so the first approach is
better.
For cash accounts (which are often not reconciled in Quicken as there is no standard
mechanism, click in the Update Balance
button in the header then specify the displayed final
total and all items will be reconciled.
- Transactions which are later than the last statement may (and probably should) be left unreconciled (and Bank Genie will deal correctly with them)
- Make sure that all transactions have valid categories or subcategories.
To search for uncategorised items - which are easy to accumulate by mistake - click on
Reports (in the toolbar) - Other in the pull down and then Transactions. In the Custom date pull down click Earliest to date
and then (on the bottom line) Customise.
In ACCOUNTS click Mark All
In INCLUDE click Clear All and then click on Not categorised
If there are any uncategorised items they will be displayed and a category needs to be assigned to each one.
- Foreign Currency accounts
If you have any foreign currency accounts Bank Genie will deal correctly with transfers between these and the main currency provided there
are no splits in the transfer.
Check all transfers to or from foreign currency accounts and if there are any splits temporarily replace by a single transaction (taking
careful note of the details of course so that they can be recreated later).
Exporting the data from Quicken
- With the database open in Quicken, click on the File pulldown, then click on File Operations, and finally on Export
(the short-cut sequence is alt-F, F, E).
The QIF export screen opens.
- Export the account names and categories
In the File box type a suitable name (eg C:accounts.qif), or use Findfile to browse.
If writing to a folder (recommended) the folder must already have been created.
In the Include in export section unclick transactions and click Accounts list
and Category list. The name of the account in the Quicken account box does not matter.
Then click on OK and the data will be copied to a QIF file.
- Select a Starting Date
This may be the same as the opening date of the account, but it may be much more recent.
Once chosen, make sure that all items which appear on the
first statement are included in the chosen date range (because of delays in cheque handling both by people and by banks the date on the cheque and the date it appears on a
statement may be very different).
Make sure that all cheques written earlier than the starting date appear in statements before the starting date.
If such a cheque
appears on a later statement it is probably easiest to alter its date to be later than the starting date so as to ensure it is included in the export.
- Export all the accounts
For each account enter the Export Screen (as above
- alt-F,F,E), select one account, set the name of the QIF file (it is strongly recommended that this is EXACTLY the name of the account followed by .QIF in the same folder as the accounts list).
Ensure the Transactions button is the only one selected, set the starting date (it will default to the first date in the file) then click OK.
- When all those are done, leave Quicken.
Importing these files into Bank Genie
- Create a new database (use the program Create a new database - BS496); to
avoid confusion this ought to have the same name as the Quicken database. Set up any necessary permissions if database security is wanted, using the programs Set Password Protection - BS424 and Working with Security Names BS414
- In the TOOLS tab on the Main Menu item, start the Import QIF Files program.
Screenshot
- Click the Get a QIF file
button and browse to the account list exported above. (double click on the file name or click OK). Bank Genie will verify the file and create a button with the caption
Categories.
Click on that button and a dialog box should appear saying the scan was successful and how many categories were created.
Click OK.
More buttons are shown.
If the file contains Categories, opposite the Categories button are Import and Show categories
Screenshot
If you wish to check that everything looks right, click Show Categories
When happy click Import
and the categories will be added to the database.
Click OK and the Import button vanishes.
The second created button is Classes
- in case use has been made of the Quicken class feature. Import these in the same way as Categories.
When successful a third button is created with the caption
Accounts.
Click on that to import accounts in the same way as the earlier imports.
- Click Get a QIF file again which will still be pointing at the accounts QIF file.
Pick the first account (alphabetically) and open it. Bank Genie will scan for categories, classes
and accounts as above and will find none, and will then show a button
Transactions.
If a warning that the date format could not be determined is shown click on the appropriate format e.g. mm/dd/yy for UK accounts.
Then select the account and click Transactions.
Screen BS419S02 appears.
Screenshot
All the transactions are displayed. This staging screen allows you to
choose options to deal with the transactions to be imported.
The options are described in the page for Screen BS419S02
e.g.
When importing the first account choose whether to have the transactions split month by month and reconciled or whether to leave them unsplit and reconcile later, using the
standard method in Bank Genie after imports are finished.
Screenshot
Check that you are doing the right thing and then click Import all transactions
- A check box then shows asking if there are more QIF files to import; click yes except on the last one.
If No is clicked by accident, just enter the QIF import program again from the menu.
- Do this for every account, making sure you import into the correct Bank Account in Bank Genie.
- Bank Genie will not allow you to import transactions into an account which already has transactions without asking your permission first.
This feature may be useful if the
Quicken data is split into more than one dataset (Quicken has some limits on size) in which case more than one file will be imported to one account.
In this case we
advise completing the first import (including FIXing (see below)); backing up the resulting Bank Genie dataset, and then importing the second set of files, following the
description above.
For every account which already has transactions a warning will appear and you will be asked if you wish to bypass the warnings. Check that you are
doing the right thing and select Bypass warnings
- When all accounts have been imported, exit the import program.
Foreign Currencies
The currency of imported Bank accounts cannot be determined in an import from Quicken.
Bank Genie sets the imported Bank Accounts to GBP by default.
You then use the program My Bank Accounts - BS403 to set the currency for each of your Bank Accounts.
Bank Genie allows you to manage any number of accounts and any number of currencies.
Exploring the Imported Data
You may now use Bank Genie to examine the results of the imports.
Use the program Manage Transactions - BS421 to view and if necessary edit your transactions.
Use the program Transaction Analyser - BS408 to view your transactions, execute queries and produce reports based on a wide range of user selectable parameters.
YOUR WORK IS NOT DONE.....
Broken Transfers.
Assuming
that your quicken database had Transfers the source and destination of each transfer will not be matched up.
It is impossible for Bank Genie to match Transfers until all
transactions from all Accounts have been imported.
During import, transfers are recognised and will have been given the special category BROKEN TRANSFER
When all accounts have been imported, use the program Broken Transfers - BS422 to match (Fix) the broken transfers
On the Main Menu, click the Tools tab and start the program Broken Transfers.
The program will:
- show you a list of credits and debits
- attempt to automatically pair them up.
- show you a a list of matching pairs.
Click the Fix button at the bottom.
Broken Transfer transactions which can be fixed automatically should now be fixed.
The list of debits, credits and matched pairs will be refreshed.
If some matching pairs are displayed, click the Fix
button again. Repeat until the program reports that 0 Transactions were fixed
The remaining transactions can be fixed
manually, using the Manually Match feature in the Broken Transfers program.
See Manually matching Broken Transfers
The Import process is
now complete and you should examine the database to see if it appears to be correct.
Reconciliation
The transactions will now need to be split into appropriate groups to match the statements using the reconciliation process.
Use the program Manage Transactions - BS421 to reconcile and organise your Accounts into Statements
And then in the reconciliation para something like "if not already split month by month and reconciled" and also "
You may wish to set month names in the
reconciled statements; if so go to SETUP/My Bank Accounts and click "allow statement numbers to be edited"
Standing Orders, Direct Debits and regular payments
Standing
orders, Direct Debits (and other types of repeating transactions) do not get transferred and will need to be recreated in the Bank Genie environment.
Use the program Direct Debits and Standing Orders - BS423 to set up these regular payments.
Screens (leading to screenshots) for program BS419
- BS419S01 - The initial screen - This page
- BS419S02 - Transactions found in your QIF file - Staged and ready for Import
- BS419S03 - View an individual transaction - prior to Import
- BS419S04 - Options screen - How Import should deal with an Opening Balance transaction
- BS419S06 - Confirmation screen ZAPPing data
- BS419S07 - Confirmation screen - Allow bypass
|
