Moving from MS Money to Moneydance

Before beginning, note that Microsoft Money will not export an account you have closed in Microsoft Money to a QIF file. Re-open any closed accounts that you want to export before exporting from Microsoft Money.

In MS Money open the file that you want to export.

1. Select File->Export.

2. Click Loose QIF, then click OK.

3. In the File Name box, type a name for the account that you want to export. Give the files descriptive names so that you don't get confused later. Investement accounts will require two files, one for the investment transactions and one for the cash transactions. That's because MSMoney treats them as two separate accounts internally. Loan accounts cannot be exported. That's okay. You'll work around that limitation later.

4. When prompted to select the account type you want to export, click Regular or Investment for the account being exported, then click OK.

5. In the Account List box, click the account that you want to export, then click Continue.

6. When Money is finished exporting the account, click OK.

   You must repeat the steps above for each account you want to export.

7. Create the accounts in Moneydance before you begin importing the files. This is an important step. Make sure you name the accounts with the exact spelling used in MSMoney. You'll need to create two accounts in Moneydance for each investment account. One will be of type of "Investement" and the other will be "Bank". The bank account will contain the cash transactions from the investment from MSMoney. This is just a temporary account used for correctly importing the data. You will combine the transactions and delete this account later. Go ahead and create your loan accounts in Moneydance as well. Remember to use exact spelling or everything will get screwed up.

8. Import the QIF files. Make sure you import each QIF file into the corresponding account in Moneydance you created in step 7

9. a) Select File -> Import in Moneydance and select your QIF file for importing.

   b) The "Import QIF File" window will be displayed. From this window set the "File Source:" to "From Another Program".

   c) From the "Import To:" option Select "Existing Account" and select the Moneydance account that you want to import the data into.

   Remember to select the "Bank" account when importing the cash portion of the investment accounts. If you make a mistake (like importing into the wrong account) you'll probably need to start over so be extra careful. That's why you should give the qif files descriptive names in step 3. If done correctly, every account will get populated with the correct transactions, even the loan accounts. There should not be any of those "Imported Account" accounts or categories. If there are, then you've made a mistake.

10. Move all transactions from the temporary "Bank" accounts you created for place holders for the cash portion of the investment accounts from MSMoney into the one and only corresponding investment account in Moneydance. To move transactions, select them in the "Bank" account by selecting the first transaction and then using shift-click to select the last transaction. Then right click on the select transactions and select "Batch Change" -> Account and specify the investment account as the destination. Delete the temporary place holder account in Moneydance. Moneydance will contain the cash transactions in the root of the investment account.

11. Edit the loan accounts in Moneydance. When you click Done, Moneydance will ask if you want to transfer the loan balance to another account. Select Yes and choose the account that received the loan proceeds. This may be a checking account if it was an unsecured loan or it may be an asset account if there was an asset that was acquired. You may need to modify the transaction later to account for closing costs, etc.

12. Organise your accounts and categories the way you want. The Find and Replace extension can be very useful for changing the categories of a lot of transactions at once.  You can install it in Moneydance by going to Extensions -> Manage extensions, then scrolling down and clicking the Install button next to the Find and Replace extension. Here is the link:

    http://www.mennesoft.com/findandreplace/index.html

13. You may need to make a few balancing entries in some of the accounts to get things balanced correctly. That's because MS Money is not a double-entry system and so things aren't required to balance there.

14. Relax and feel good!