Formal/Informal Label Equivalence and Importing CSV
The use of the formal accounting or the informal labels in the GNuCash registers can some times lead to some confusion for some users when importing data when combined with the use in statements supplied by a bank which will generally be reversed from the usage within GnuCash for a user's accounts. The following table is intended to give new users of the CSV importer some assistance when trying to match the importer's column headers to match the data labels in the imported data and sign conventions where debit/credit amounts are represented by signed integers. This description is of common usage by organisations like banks however there is no guarantee that their exported data will necessarily conform.
| GnuCash Internal Labels | External (Bank Record) Labels | Assigned Importer Column Header | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Account Type | Formal | Informal | Effect on Account Balance | Formal | Informal | Sign | |
| Asset | Debit(Dr) | Deposit | Increase | Credit | Deposit | + | Deposit |
| Credit(Cr) | Withdrawal | Decrease | Debit | Withdrawal | - | ||
| Liability | Credit(Cr) | Increase | Increase | Debit | Charge | + | Withdrawal? |
| Debit(Dr) | Decrease | Decrease | Credit | Payment | - | ||
The assignment of column headers is indicative only. This has not been fully tested in GnuCash for the above assumptions at this stage. The best procedure is to import a small file of one or two records (edited form your main import file using one of the column header Deposit/withdrawal. If this does not give the correct transactions on import, delete the imported records from that file and try the other header. WHen you have a successful header assignment, import the full file.
You may also encounter import files with two columns of unsigned amount data. Again if uncertain import an edited data file with 1-2 records and assign both headers. If those transactions are incorrect on import, delete them, swap the headers and reimport the test file. WHne you have a correct import then import your full file.
