zerosleeps

Since 2010

Beancount

Well I’ve done it. I’ve converted my personal financial transactions to Beancount plain-text accounting format.

Before I dumped my old MacBook I exported everything from Banktivity to a QIF file. Boy what a pain that file format is to work with. I tried parsing it using Python a few different times, but I eventually resorted to just using Sublime Text and some regular expressions. It’s one of those one-off tasks so there was no point sweating over anything more robust or reusable.

Interestingly, during about my 3rd attempt at scripting the conversion, I installed a trial version of the latest release of Banktivity to see if maybe chucking money at the problem was in fact the best solution. First thing it asked for? The credentials for an online Banktivity account. I couldn’t see any way around the creation of an online account, so that made my easy decision every easier. You blew it, IGG Software.