Importing Data From Your Financial Institution or Another Financial Software Application
Moneyspire allows you to import
transactions from your online banking service and/or another financial software application so that you don't have to
manually input them. Please note that this feature is different from Direct Connect (which allows you to connect directly to your financial institution from inside Moneyspire); Click here to learn more about the Direct Connect feature.
To Import Transactions From Your Financial Institution
- Login to your online banking website.
- Download
your transaction information to a 'OFX', 'QFX', 'QIF' or 'CSV' file. Most
banks support
these formats, please consult your financial institution's customer service department
for
assistance if you are having difficulty downloading the file. Some
banks may label OFX/QFX files as "Quicken" or "Microsoft Money" instead. And some banks may label CSV files as Excel instead.
- In Moneyspire, open the account you want to import the transactions to, and then select the File->Import OFX/QFX, File->Import QIF or File->Import CSV menu option depending on what type of file you have downloaded.
- Then select the file you just downloaded from your financial institution and follow the onscreen instructions.
*Whenever
possible, it is recommended that you download your data exclusively in
the OFX/QFX format, because it is a more modern format than QIF is.
However, using QIF is just fine if that is the only format your
bank supports.
*When
you first import data from your financial institution, you will most likely have an
incorrect balance because your financial institution usually does not include your
entire transaction history from the past. To fix this, edit the account
(from the Tools->Accounts menu option) and set the Initial Balance field to the
difference between your account's actual balance and the balance
that is reported in the program. This will then update your account's
balance to the accurate value.To Import Transactions From Another Financial Software Application
- Launch the other financial software.
- Export your desired data to a QIF file(s) or CSV file(s) (usually via the File->Export menu).
- In Moneyspire, select the File->Import QIF or File->Import CSV menu option, depending on what kind of file you are importing.
- Then select the file you just exported from the other financial software application and follow the onscreen instructions.
*For
best results when importing QIF data from another financial software application, instruct the financial software application to export all data
possible (i.e. all your accounts, categories, etc.) to a single QIF
file, if possible.
*QIF import results
will vary depending on the quality of the exported QIF file from your
financial software application. If you are having difficulties, please contact us
and we will do our best to assist you.Important Notes
- When Moneyspire begins importing the QIF or CSV file transactions, it will
display one of your transactions and ask you to choose the correct date
for it. The reason this happens is because different banks (and/or financial software) may
use different date formats, so you have to tell Moneyspire
what the actual date is for the displayed transaction. You are
only asked this question one time per account, and most of the time it is very easy
to answer.
- When
you import transactions from your online banking service, the
categories will be blank because it is more than likely that your
transactions will be uncategorized. Because of this, Moneyspire will allow you to specify Import Filters during the import
process, which allows you to automatically specify categories by using
keywords (in addition to specifying payees). For example, you can
configure it to set the category to "Automobile:Fuel" and to set
the payee to "Chevron" if a transaction contains the text
"Chevron" or "Gas".
- Some
financial software applications will export all your accounts to a single QIF file,
while others may export only a single account to a single QIF file. So
depending on your financial software application, you may have to do multiple
exports/imports to transfer all your data to Moneyspire. In
addition, some financial software applications do not export specific account
information, so you may have to manually add your accounts before
importing transactions to them. *If
your financial software application does not export multiple accounts to a single
QIF file, for best results you should manually add your account
structure before performing an import.
- Some
financial software applications do not export category details (such as whether the
category is an expense or income category). In this case, Moneyspire will default all the imported categories to expense.
Because of this, you should go through your category list after the
import process and set the appropriate income categories if needed.
- Since
QIF files do not store currency information, all imported accounts will
default to the local currency. If you have any foreign accounts, you
will have to edit them and set the appropriate currencies after the
import process is completed. In addition, since QIF files do not
contain rate information, any transfers between foreign accounts will
not be imported correctly; The result of the import will be that
you will be left with two transactions for each foreign account
transfer, and the transactions will be without exchange rates. To
remedy the situation, you will have to delete the duplicate
transactions, and then edit the remaining transactions and set the
appropriate rates.
Troubleshooting
1) If
you are receiving the error message "Error opening QIF file" when
trying to import a QIF file from a CD, try copying the QIF file to
your hard drive and importing it from there instead.