Trouble importing QIF file

Alan Williams

Hello,
I am using Quicken for Windows on a Windows 10 platform. I regularly upload cash transactions from a mobile app that I can set to export in QIF. I have been doing this for nearly 7 years. I have recently run into a peculiar problem.
I export the data from the mobile app. When I attempt to import the QIF, it imports the majority of the transactions, but ignores one of the income accounts. The account name is identical. But it does not import those transactions.
I have verified the QIF export does contain the data, so I know that it's there. I just don't know why it isn't importing it.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Sherlock

If you haven't already you may want to review: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7150750/faq-how-to-import-qif-files-into-non-cash-accounts-post-q2004

Alan Williams

Thanks Sherlock for the information. I did try it as explained in that thread and it did not solve my issue.

It is a cash account and for some reason it is not importing transactions that were income. I will do some more testing to see if it is all income accounts or just one. Hopefully by narrowing it down I will be able to find a solution.

Alan Williams

So I am continuing my attempt to find a solution.

What I have done in the application that I export from is that I isolated a transaction that I am having the issue with. When the transaction does not have an account listed but still shows as income, then it correctly imports it into Quicken. Once I put the income account into that field, it no longer imports it.

The account names are identical in the application and in Quicken.

I also confirmed that once I removed the account name from the transaction in the application and exported and imported, it works again.

So for some reason, there is a problem with that account name. Any suggestions?

Alan Williams

More testing has revealed that it has something to do with it being an income account that was not created by Quicken as a default.

When the account type on Quicken's side is listed as an Income account, it does not import the transaction. If I use of the default account names, then it does import.

I don't want to use the default one as that doesn't categorize my accounting like I want it to. I also don't want to identify an income account as an expense account within Quicken just to solve this. It is perplexing for sure.

Are there any experts out there that know what might be happening with this account? And what might be causing it not to import transactions that use a self created income account?

Chris_QPW

You keep talking about "account" and "Income account", but it sounds more like you are talking about categories.

If you can post a one transaction QIF file text that works, and one that doesn't (feel free change change the names of anything you consider personal). I will see what I can do to reproduce the problem and make suggestions.

Alan Williams

@Chris_QPW my apologies. Yes, I am talking about categories. I am happy to post a QIF file, however I don't see where to attach it or upload it to my message. Could you please tell me how to do that?

The problem appears to be with the Quicken side of things. When the category is listed as Income, it does not import. When the category is changed to an expense, it does import.

Chris_QPW

EDIT sorry for the multiple posting, just trying to get the formatting to behave and not put in extra blank lines.  Note that the adding of the account for it to go into was needed to push it into a non cash account in Quicken versions before Quicken Subscription.

Since QIF files a text I was saying just post them here in the comment.  That is the reason for making sure there is nothing personal in them.

Also what version of Quicken are you using?
What account type are you importing this transaction into?


And just for reference all of these work for me (Quicken Subscription):

C*

D01/18/2021

NN/A

PDeposit

LInterest Inc

T269.37

^

OR

!Account

NCash Account

TBank

^

!Type:Bank

C*

D01/18/2021

NN/A

PDeposit

LInterest Inc

T269.37

^

Same works in a checking account.

Alan Williams

@Chris_QPW Thank you for your response and continued help. I'm using version R30.21 build 27.1.30.21.

The account that I am attempting to import into is a cash account.

Here is a copy of the text from the QIF that I am trying to import.

!Account
NCrowns - Xxxx
TCash
^
!Type:Cash
D01/21/2021
T300.00
LLang Income
PMxxxx Jxxx
MEnglish lesson
^

The category I am using is Lang Income. It is a category that I added as I want to track this separately from the default categories. But it only imports this transaction if the category within Quicken is changed to expense.

Chris_QPW

Well the mystery deepens since I can't reproduce this.
What I did is just put your text above in a QIF file and double click on it (it seems that Quicken Inc has fixed the long broken association with QIF files.  )

This in turn created the account and the category and imported the transaction.
And I also tried importing it through the menus.  All worked fine.



About the only thing I can suggest is trying varying it. As in create a new category and trying it.  Trying a different account. Try importing into a checking account instead of a cash account.  Trying a different data file.

Alan Williams

@Chris_QPW I have done some more testing and here is what I have learned.
If I create a new file in Quicken and create a new income category, I am able to import transactions that use it without a problem. If I reinstate a backup, I am unable to import those transactions. If I export a QIF file and import that QIF file into a new file, I am able to import into transactions for that income category. If I export a QXF file and import that QXF file into a new file, I am able to import transactions for that income category.
So what this tells me is there is something wrong with my main QDATA file. It appears that when I export everything by either QIF or QXF, something does not go quite right as my balances are not all correct. What options do I have to minimize the work to get a new file going? Are there ways to move the data over step by step in order to minimize any issues?
Thank you again for any help or insight you can offer. I do not see a way to resolve the issue within my file. And I did a Validate and Repair again just to make sure that wasn't an issue.

Chris_QPW

Well as for creating a new data file, for QXF the only way that is for work is if you don't have any investment accounts.
As for QIF the big problem I ran into was that Quicken doesn't properly handle transfers so they have to be changed to regular categories as I suggest here:
http://www.quicknperlwiz.com/changetransfers.html

Note the moderators are constantly archiving links in this forum and have archived the one that I refer to at the end of that web page, so you won't be able to refer to it.

I'm going to flag this comment and maybe they will unarchive it.  But maybe I will just remove the link from the web page even though it has valuable insight in it.

Alan Williams

@Chris_QPW So could I do a QXF for everything but my investment accounts? And then a QIF for those? I tried it hastily today as I was doing the testing. But I seem to recall that I had more accounts that needed work to fix using the QXF than when I did the QIF.

Chris_QPW

Given that the export for QIF is either one account or all accounts, I would be inclined to just do all my accounts by QIF, but it is up to you.

Alan Williams

The issue has been solved. It entailed recreating my QDATA file. I used the information from @Chris_QPW found in the links in his signature. The problem seems to have been something corrupt in my QDATA file and the once recreating the data in the new file, I was able to import these QIF files with transactions to the income category in question.
Thank you to all who helped me troubleshoot the problem and find a workable solution.