This is not necessarily so. Banks frequently change their software and products without announcement. Since both you, @nktech1135, and @Hiflyer seem to be experiencing problems in 2018 that you did not experience in 2017, it is entirely possible that your banks adopted new statement formats at the beginning of the year.
I admit that doesn’t mean there isn’t a bug. But your circumstances do not prove there is. And you two are the only ones reporting this particular problem so far as I know. Unfortunately, import problems are extremely difficult to diagnose at long distance, because I don’t have your import files. Even if I did, I don’t have your business files. So it is most unlikely any of my test companies would match your setups. Consequently, I cannot simulate your problem.
The best advice I can offer is to use a text editor to examine the minute structure of a 2017 statement file from your bank versus a 2018 file. Understand that Manager expects absolutely exact matches in date and number formats. (That expectation has been tightened in recent months to correct other problems, corresponding to the interval between your successful and unsuccessful imports.) So just having a file with the right extension doesn’t guarantee compatibility. Unfortunately, some of the standards accommodate variations in format, too. And some banks do not follow them correctly.
Have you been following the testing being done by the user.
They have the same downloaded bank statement file, lets call it xyz.
File xyz can be correctly loaded into Manager 17.??.??
File xyz can’t be loaded into Manager 18.??.??
The only thing that has changed is the version of Manager, so unsure how that is a bank issue.
There is a common thread in the comments, they all have had working downloads until they updated Manger.
1 - It’s a new problem. Some Manager versions ago it was working fine.
2 - I only noticed this after an update
3 - I tried importing a file that worked a month ago before i updated to a 2018 version
4 - I tested 2017 QFX files which imported into 17.12.64 but have failed to import into 18.3.4
5 - I downgraded to the final 17 version of Manager and tried the imports on a test business and they worked as expected. Next i upgraded to the current Manager version and tried the imports again and got the same error that was posted in this thread multiple times already.
All of these situations seem to have developed over the past month after doing a Manager update.
Whilst if its a bug or not is hard to say but something has rattled the importing bank statement process for some users as they now receive error messages which they previously didn’t receive, but only after doing a Manager update.
What @tut is saying makes sense to a point.
However, it doesn’t explain why i can import a file from this year into a 2017 version of manager and not into a 2018 version. It also doesn’t explain why i can’t import last years files into the current version. In theory, if the only thing that changed was the bank’s format i should still be able to import saved files from last year. I can’t.
It’s true that the bank may have changed the format of the files, or even that they don’t follow the data layout conventions. However, i don’t have enough info on what changed in manager’s restrictions to even know what i should be looking for as far as data errors go. Can someone tell me what manager wants in the file so i have an idea of what i should be looking for?
I’ll be perfectly happy to do file edits to try and make it work but i need to know what the format should be so i can match it.
The following edited statement is exactly the points that aren’t being more widely understood.
"However, it doesn’t explain why a 2018 bank statement file which can be imported into a 2017 version of Manager successfully but can’t be imported into the current version of Manager without getting an error message.
Nor does it explain why the same 2017 bank statement file which was successfully imported into a 2017 version of Manager can’t also be imported into the current version of Manager without getting an error message."
Yes, I have, although there have been two users describing problems and sometimes seeming to respond to or reference each other. So until @nktech1135’s most recent posts, the situation wasn’t as clear as it is now. Further, both posters began with quite limited information and added more as the discussion developed and more testing was done.
One thing I was trying to point out is that changes had been made to Manager specifically around issues of bank formats. Those changes were only announced as improvements to handling date ambiguities, so I don’t know in detail what they were.
What I evidently failed to convey well enough was my thought that there may have been irregularities or non-complying aspects of the earlier imports that slipped through the older version of Manager. Since Manager’s changes, those same irregularities might not slip through. This could happen whether or not the bank changed formats. I hope that is clearer.
The other factor that concerns me is that only two users have reported this problem. So it is difficult to determine if it is a bug, especially since it cannot be tested by other forum users/moderators. If this was actually a bug, I believe we would be seeing a deluge of complaints on the forum.
OK, I think we’re finally getting somewhere.
It would be very helpful to know what the changes were so we can either edit our file to match or contact tech support at the bank to see if they can help.
Any possibility that we can get more details on that?
These changes were to resolve date conflicts when only one day of data was selected for download, this was a Manager date interruption issue and nothing to do specifically with issues around Bank formats per se.
It is interesting to note that these user issues have arisen around and since the correction to those date handling irregularities - hence they have only occurred after Manager updates.
So there is a potential correlation based on the user comments.
No, creating excuse speculation doesn’t assist the user to resolve their issue - there inability to use Manager in a way in which they previously could.
As previously stated “something has rattled the importing bank statement process for some users as they now receive error messages which they previously didn’t receive, but only after doing a Manager update.”.
That rattle could be the 18.1.66 update which has had an inadvertent consequence for some.
@nktech1135, I suspect that there is nothing to edit, the error message could relate to how Manager is reading the file parameters rather then the data itself.
I wasn’t making an excuse, @Brucanna. The speculation was that something could have been changed in Manager to resolve one issue that resulted in things that slipped through previously no longer did. (And early in the discussion, before further detail was furnished, it was possible to consider format changes from banks might have been responsible. That possibility seems to have been eliminated now.)
I was quite clear that I don’t know the specific changes made to the program, since they were vaguely described when released. That also means we can’t tell whether this is a bug, because none of us knows exactly how the program works in this respect.
If it is any help at all in figuring out the problem, I have reverted version of manager to 17.12.64. All files imported. This statement is only to confirm nktech1135 comment on the further testing also allowed my system to import all of the offending QFX files.
I do not know if it helps any, but my Bank Credit card QFX file imported just fine into the later versions as I noted earlier but the same Bank Checking Account QFX was the ones that did not import.
Your finding about credit card but not bank statements importing could very well help, @Hiflyer. Can you open both statements with a text editor and look for any differences in formatting or fields?
This could be exceptionally valuable because they come from the same institution, if I understand you correctly.
Be aware that these files sometimes look very strange. Blank lines, preceding or following spaces, and so forth can be important. It might also help to look up the QFX file standard on the internet to compare what you received to what is supposed to be there.
I have very carefully, reviewed both files. As far as I can tell both files follow the general standard. the headers thru the first 10 lines are exactly the same as confirmed by JEDIT jdiff program. The 10th line is a blank line in both files. All xml groupings appear opened and closed correctly. The only difference I can find in the 2 files (other than numbers and what xml groups and parameters appear) is that in the parameter for checks there is a # sign as “#1030” to indicate the number on the check. Other that they appear to be valid to me. Also there are no spaces after the last displayable charcter before the cr/lf as is standard in windows nor spaces at the beginning of the line (verified in GEANY). There are no tab or other special characters in either file. There are the 3 characters .&; in the text after the xml parameter name and there are . In a couple xml parameter names in the check files (i.e. <INTU.BID>xxxxx and <INTU.USERID>yyyyyyy. I have looked at the general standard for QFX and did not find any differences. I did not find the standard extension for Quicken.
as you can imagine this was not easy (not a complaint on my part) as the 2 files have different information and use different xml groupings as one is savings and the other is credit card.
I did some more testing this morning, I took a QFX that failed to import and deleted all check entries from the file. that left 2 other types of transactions (one debit and one credit). This modified file imported just fine. I then added back one of the checks into the QFX and it failed to import. below is the check entry that caused the failure. Maybe you can see something here that is causing the failure? I also in a different test, I removed the # sign from all of the check <MEMO> statements and it still failed to import.
The work arounds offered here are in Desktop edition. I tried to move from cloud to desktop. Desktop edition will not import my cloud backup. it gives me an invalid file format message. I’m running out of time to file my 2017 US income taxes. I can only access my US banks using the QIF format. My Chinese bank does not offer the QIF format common to North American Quicken personal finance users. All of my Asian business flows through this bank.
This issue is totally unrelated to importing bank statements. Importing a backup file to switch between editions is done with the Add Business button. See this Guide: Manager Guides. Note that the desktop edition must be the very latest version, because the cloud edition is always up to date. You cannot import or use a business accounting file created by a newer version on an older version.
This difference between formats offered by banks does not matter. You can import a statement from a US bank in one format and a Chinese bank in another format. Also note that none of the discussion in the past 26 days has been about QIF files. So it may all be irrelevant to your situation.
We haven’t heard from you since February 11th. Back then, you posted a screen shot from an OFX file. Originally, your question had to do with QBO and QFX files. But since we didn’t hear from you after February 11th, it seemed your problem had been resolved. With all the various file types, it’s hard to understand what your problem is or whether it’s related to the recent discussion.
I become unresponsive when an ego inflated computer programmer lays a guilt trip on me to cover up his incompetence. We run our decades old spreadsheet accounting system in parallel with Manager. If you are dissatisfied with our computer programming skills, we can simply eliminate Manager from our business.
I’m not a computer programmer and never wrote a bit of code for Manager. I’m a user, like you, who happens to be one of the forum moderators. I was pointing out that the discussion in this topic has shifted from the types of files you mentioned earlier to completely different ones. So information in later posts had the potential to lead you astray.
Further, you raised two completely new issues that had not been discussed previously in the topic. I offered information I hoped could be helpful.
I have no opinion about your programming skills and have never mentioned them. You are, of course, free to ignore anyone’s advice or opinions and to use whatever accounting tools you choose.
I would suggest that this problem is a deliberate attempt by Intuit to take back business from you and many other independent accounting services. My Chinese bank recently sent me an offer to sign up for quick and easy account access using Quickbooks. Not going to happen. We will go back to spread sheets before caving in to Intuit.
I apologize for misinterpreting your participation in this forum. I have an ongoing prejudice against computer programmers. I have had some of them banned from entering major petrochem plants where I had built the hardware.