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I gave up early on with importing bank statements. Instead I just manually create each gnucash entry for each transaction on my online bank statement. If the fi

I gave up early on with importing bank statements. Instead I just manually create each gnucash entry for each transaction on my online bank statement. If the final gnucash account balance matches my actual bank balance then I know I did it correctly. If it does not balance, I persist in finding the mistyped entry. This method relies on balancing to the cent each time, since I use my actual bank balance as the target. It is indeed tedious at first, however I find that 1) manually entering transactions helps me spot problem payments quickly (comprimised credit card, overcharges on direct debits etc.) and 2) the predictive auto-complete feature speeds entries up over time, as most entries are assigned to either a a)groceries, b)eating-out or c)bills expense account. You just press 'Tab' when the correct suggestion pops-up after entring the first few letter, and the line entry gets auto-filled. I still usually need to change the numerical value, but the correct expense account and transaction detail are prepopulated correctly most of the time. Overall I would recommend giving it another chance.

ycombinete 4y ago
If you don’t mind my asking, how many transactions go through your account a month?
- hevsuit 4y ago
  Roughly 100 transactions per month I would say. On average 2 card based transactions per day --> 60 transactions per month. Then bills, incidentals and direct debits make up the remaining 40.
Karrot_Kream 4y ago
I use hledger and while I also use my actual bank balances as targets (and often I do get obsessive, to the point of chasing down cents), I think it would be impossible for me to do it without importing my bank statements. It's not the transactions themselves that I find tedious, it's all the ways I split them. My partner and I split many transactions together and we often travel with friends so I charge friends over Zelle/Venmo for transactions we had while out. Importing transactions from my banks makes it significantly easier to reconcile all of these, especially when I'm on a vacation. Ease of writing importers was a huge driving factor when I switched to hledger from GNUCash. It's amazing discipline that you enter these manually. I remember that GNUCash has decent autocomplete which certainly helps. I don't think I'd be able to keep up with my finances myself if I had to input it all myself. I personally have anywhere from 50-100 transactions a month.

ycombinete 4y ago

If you don’t mind my asking, how many transactions go through your account a month?

hevsuit 4y ago
Roughly 100 transactions per month I would say. On average 2 card based transactions per day --> 60 transactions per month. Then bills, incidentals and direct debits make up the remaining 40.

Karrot_Kream 4y ago

I use hledger and while I also use my actual bank balances as targets (and often I do get obsessive, to the point of chasing down cents), I think it would be impossible for me to do it without importing my bank statements. It's not the transactions themselves that I find tedious, it's all the ways I split them. My partner and I split many transactions together and we often travel with friends so I charge friends over Zelle/Venmo for transactions we had while out. Importing transactions from my banks makes it significantly easier to reconcile all of these, especially when I'm on a vacation. Ease of writing importers was a huge driving factor when I switched to hledger from GNUCash. It's amazing discipline that you enter these manually. I remember that GNUCash has decent autocomplete which certainly helps. I don't think I'd be able to keep up with my finances myself if I had to input it all myself. I personally have anywhere from 50-100 transactions a month.