There is no completely automatic way to convert a Dollars and $ense data file over to Quicken. Some D&$ things have no counterpart in Quicken (descriptors, flags on transactions, arbitrary letters for the “cleared” field, for example). The QIF format has some deficiencies that make it impossible to represent some things that Quicken can handle internally (account transfers that are cleared in both [or many] accounts involved in the transfer). But DandStoQIF2, as ugly as its human interface is, will let you transfer most of your D&$ historical data over without too much trouble.
[Maybe if Dollars and $ense 6.0 had come out six months earlier this program wouldn’t have happened. But no looking back now.]
This is distributed as “ThankYouWare.” If helps you, send appreciative mail to the authors. This is supplied “as is.” If you don’t like how it works, you have the source.
History:
The original version of this program was written by Scott Pendleton (CompuServe ID 70070,334, InterNet sep@netcom.com) in October 1993.
Version 2 was done by David Willcox (InterNet willcox@urbana.mcd.mot.com) in January, 1994. This version introduced the account map file, the ability to generate multiple .QIF files from a single input report, the ability to suppress duplicate transactions, and appending flags to the descriptions.
Ownership notice:
Copyright 1993 by Scott Pendleton
Copyright 1994 by David A. Willcox
All rights reserved.
This software is provide "as is." Use at your own risk.
This software may be distributed free of charge, as long as this
notice is included. No fee may be charged beyond connection
charges for downloading from a bulletin board or on-line service,
unless express permission is obtained from the authors.
How to convert your data:
The following steps tell how to convert your historical D&$ data to Quicken. I’m assuming here that you are only converting over the two years of data in your current D&$ file, but the procedure can trivially be extended to go back to previous years, too.
(1) Create a Quicken data file to accept your data. You should have a Quicken account (Bank, Cash, Liability, Credit Card, Asset) for each of your D&$ Asset or Liability accounts. (Obviously, you can have more.) You should also set up categories, but you can let the conversion process create them and then fix them up manually later. You need to enter the starting balance by hand, using the starting balance from your D&$ file from the beginning of the current 2-year period.
A caveat: None of the Quicken accounts that you transfer D&$ data into can be investment accounts. Quicken doesn’t like importing DandStoQIF2’s output into investment accounts at all.
(2) Create an account map file, using your favorite spreadsheet or word processor. The account map file is a TEXT file, each line describing a D&$ account. Each line has four tab-separated fields as follows:
(a) The name of the D&$ account, without the account number.
(b) The name of the corresponding Quicken account or category. If it is an account, it needs to be in square brackets, e.g. “[Checking]”. If it is a category, then no square brackets, e.g. “Food:Groceries”.
(c) An optional “priority” for the account. More on this later, but generally accounts that have check numbers should have higher values than those that don’t. This is only useful for Quicken accounts, not categories.
(d) If this is a Quicken account (not category), the type of account: Bank, CCard, Cash, Oth A, or Oth L.
(3) In Dollars and $ense, create a detailed Transaction Report. Use as “funding accounts” all D&$ accounts that correspond to Quicken accounts (as opposed to categories). Export this report to a file.
Note: I have a fairly large data file, and I had some trouble with Quicken quitting when I imported the data. It MIGHT be a good idea to transfer transactions one year at a time to keep the size down.
Also note: If you have transactions between D&$ accounts that correspond to Quicken categories (a transfer between two expense accounts, or directly from an income to an expense), this conversion process can’t handle it. (Quicken can’t handle it. Quicken transactions must use an account.)
(4) Now it’s time to run “DandStoQIF2.” You probably want to create an empty folder holding just the application and the exported transaction file created in step (3). Start up the application. It has a very unMaclike interface. It will start out by asking three yes/no questions:
Try to suppress duplicate transactions? (y/n)
If you have a D&$ transaction that is a transfer between two accounts (a check paying a credit card bill, for example), that transaction will appear in both accounts’ statements. If you answer “n” to this question, DandStoQIF2 will create transactions in the QIF files for both accounts, and you’ll end up with duplicate transactions in your Quicken file. You’ll have to track down and clean out the duplicates manually.
If you answer “y” to this question, DandStoQIF2 tries to eliminate the duplicates. It uses the account weights from the account map files. If a given transaction involves several different funding accounts, DandStoQIF2 will only generate a QIF entry for the account with the highest weight. If there are two with the highest weight, the account that is alphabetically earlier is used. (For this reason, it is a good idea to give accounts with check numbers the highest weights. Otherwise, check numbers will be lost.)
Post dup transactions to @Dummy if cleared? (y/n)
This is asked only if you respond “y” to the previous question. There is a deficiency in the Quicken QIF format. A QIF file records transactions between a single Quicken account and categories and/or other accounts. If a transaction is a transfer between this account and another, and that transaction has been cleared in the other account, then there is no way to represent this in the QIF file. For example, if you write a check to pay your credit card bill, then that transaction should eventually be cleared in your checking account register (when you get the check back from our bank) and in the credit card register (when you get next month’s statement). In the QIF file for your checking account, there is no way to represent that it has cleared in your credit card statement.
This feature attempts to get around this problem. If you answered “y” to the question about suppressing duplicate transactions, then a transfer (the check paying your credit card bill, for example) will only be recorded once. This means that any “cleared” status will be lost in the second account. If you answer “y” to this second question, and cleared status would be lost, then a transaction is generated in the second account’s QIF file. It is posted to category “@Dummy”, and is cleared. This makes it easier to fix up the cleared status.
Include flag in description as <FLG>? (y/n)
The D&$ concept of flags does not exist in Quicken. If you use flags in D&$, they will be lost in the conversion to Quicken. Unless, that is, you answer “y” to this question. If you do, DandStoQIF2 will add the flag, if any, to the description in < >.
After the yes/no questions, DandStoQIF2 asks:
Name of the acct map file (or Return):
Enter the name of the account map TEXT file created in step (2) above. If you decided to live dangerously :-) and skip the account map file, just type Return.
And now, finally, DandStoQIF2 asks:
File Name or Return?
Enter the name of the transaction report exported from D&$ in step (3). DandStoQIF2 tells you about each QIF file as it creates it; the names are in the form [name].QIF, where “name” is the name of a Quicken account. You need to hit Return to acknowledge each one.
When the input file has been read, you’ll get the “File Name or Return” prompt again. This gives you an opportunity to process several exported transaction reports in one run. Hit Return if you are done, or the name of another input file.
(5) Now, you need to import the transactions into Quicken. Open your Quicken data file. For each of your accounts, open the register and then use “Import...” to read the QIF file.
A caveat: I had some problems with Quicken quitting after importing lots of transactions. I found that it helped to quit and then restart Quicken after every few accounts.
(6) You’ll need to do some manual cleanup of the file. If there are cleared transactions posted to @Dummy, you’ll need to find them, clear the correct transactions, and delete the @Dummy transactions. You should check the final balances of your Quicken accounts against the balances in your D&$ accounts.
