Time for action - changing the account to import into

Let us say that the first time you imported your bank statement you selected Savings Account by mistake instead of Checking Account. We are going to walk you through the steps to recover from the selection of this wrong account. Though this is a risky process, this is the only way of starting over:

  1. Make a backup of your accounts file.
  2. Create a new account and call it Temp Savings Account.
  3. Select the account that you are erroneously directing your OFX data to, namely Savings Account. Right click and select Delete Account.
  4. GnuCash will pop the Delete Account confirmation dialog, as shown in the following screenshot, and will give you the option of moving all transactions into another account. Check Move to and select Temp Savings Account from the drop-down list:
    Time for action - changing the account to import into
  5. Next click Delete. Verify that Savings Account has been deleted and all transactions that were earlier in that account have been transferred to Temp Savings Account.
  6. Rename Temp Savings Account back to Savings Account.

What just happened?

Of course, as the proverb goes ""Prevention is better than cure". It is better to try to keep a bad thing from happening than it is to fix the bad thing once it has happened. However, there are times, especially while learning something new, when you may get yourself into a bad situation like this. If that happens, it is good to know that there is a way out, although a somewhat risky one.

Note

However, please note that if you do use this work around, any saved report that referred to the original Savings Account will error out. You may have to recreate those reports.

Pop quiz - changing the account to import into

  1. To change the account to import into, which account should you delete?

    a. The account that you want to import into.

    b. The account that you previously selected as the account to import into by mistake.

    c. The Imbalance-USD account.

    d. The temporary account.

Have a go hero - recovering using the backup file

Assume that the deletion process went wrong and you ended up losing transactions. Reopen the backup file that you created to recover all the transactions.

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