Converting to US Quicken from UK Quicken

HELP!

I returned to the US from 10 years in the UK with the Brit version of Quicken 98 and with 10 years of historical data!

INTUIT has gone to great lengths to tell me there is absolutely no way to convert the UK data to a format that can be used by ANY US version of Quicken.

One or two suggestions on Quicken Forums allude to the possibility of buying a pre-2005 version of US Quicken (from eBay, for example), converting UK Quicken data to the format used by that pre-2005 version, and then upgrading/converting to Quicken 2006. If all it would take would be to buy a dirt-cheap version of Quicken off of eBay, I wouldn't mind. However, the INTUIT people say that won't work.

Does anyone have an idea as to whether/how I can convert my UK Quicken data to a format that can be used by the US version?

My only alternative might be to contact the Microsoft people, and determine whether they have a file conversion solution similar to the way they try and wean people from WORDPERFECT to MS WORD. However, I'd rather "sticken with Quicken" :)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions! :)

Reply to
Henry Shillet
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The suggestions about using an intermediate US version of Quicken were for purposes of allowing easier importing of QIF files, which you would export from Quicken UK, import to pre-Q2005,US, then "convert" the older US version to Q2006. There is definitely no direct conversion from Quicken UK to Quicken US. (I suspect the process could be accomplished using Q2006, but having the intermediate version of Quicken might make it easier).

I don't know why the general process would not work, but I wouldn't venture a guess as to what any differences in UK and US versions would do to the results. There might be currency considerations, tax considerations .... Knowing nothing about the UK version, and knowing some of the dificulties of QIF file export/import, I would be hesitant to say I was sure you would like the result.

[And QIF files have never been able to handle things like scheduled transactions, planner data, loan amortization schedules, saved reports, and quite a few other features I have now forgotten.]

On the other hand, the cost of the intermediate version of Quicken should be cheap enough to make it worth your while to make the effort and see for yourself.

To get a handle on using QIF files to move data from one Quicken file to another, I suggest you read the FAQ at the MSN Quicken Users Group on "merging" Quicken files. Though you will not be doing any "merging", the faq will still give you a wealth of info on the export/import process ... which I believe you should undertake much as if you were planning to merge files.

Reply to
John Pollard

I moved from the UK to Canada a couple of years ago, and recall I encountered a similar problem. Thankfully, I didn't have a lot of data and was able to export each account individually from Quicken UK and import them into Quicken Canada. You'd still manually have to deal with inter-account transfers, which is a pain.

Reply to
KDP001

Thanks, KDP001...I have quite a few of those transfers, so I'm not sure it's going to be practical to export each account individually and THEN deal with the transfers.

In message , KDP001 writes

Reply to
Henry Shillet

Thanks very much for the advice, John.

How much of the migration from UK Quicken to pre-2005 US Quicken is manual in nature? In other words, is it an account-by-account procedure? Are inter-account transfers handled well? Should I read that FAQ on merging QUICKEN files before interrogating you? Am I asking too many questions? :)

Reply to
Henry Shillet

In US versions of Quicken, I believe checking the option "Special handling for transfers" will overcome all, or most, of the problems with transfers from/to accounts imported in separate qif files.

Reply to
John Pollard

If you want to get it as right as possible.

See my other reply in this thread.

Probably. :)

No.

Reply to
John Pollard

John,

Sorry for the long delay, but I just managed to get a copy of Quicken (US) 2004 off of eBay!

I have 2 questions, one about the exporting of my file (yes, I've read the MERGE FILES document) and one about running Quicken (US) 2004 alongside Quicken (UK) 1998:

1a) When exporting from Quicken UK, is it a question of doing the following for each account in my list of accounts: devising the name of the file to which to export, selecting the account to export, requesting that Transactions, Accounts List, Category List and Memorized Transactions be included in the export?

1b) When I'm finished, should I then have one export file for each account in my list of accounts? Do I then perform as many imports as there are export files?

2) As I would want to test the results of my export, I would need to have Quicken (US) 2004 run ALONGSIDE Quicken (UK) 1998. I would not want US Quicken to attempt to convert data from UK Quicken while I'm installing the former. Is it at all difficult to install US Quicken so that it can run independently of UK Quicken (and vice versa)?

Thanx in advance, Henry

Reply to
Henry Shillet

You should do the Accounts, Categories, Memorized transactions separately from the account transactions.

Plus at least one other file with the Account, Category, Memoirzed transactions lists. Import that file first; then the account transaction files. (I have forgotten some of the details at the moment; but it could be that you would want the Memorized transactions in a separate file and would want to import that after everything else. I think there are some special instructions for the Memorized transactions in the faq.)

I can't remember enough about my brief period using Q2004 to say exactly what it will do. But in my experience, Quicken offers you the option to convert data files ... you can turn down the offer, then initiate a File > New > New File to get started.

Reply to
John Pollard

John,

Thanks for the super-prompt reply :)

Not surprisingly, I have follow-up questions:

1) EXPORTING/IMPORTING: Do you mean that: a) for every account in my list, I perform 2 exports, one for the Transactions and the other for the Accounts, Categories and Memorized Transactions OR b) for every account in my list, I export only the Transactions, and then I export (to one file, which is then the first to be imported) all the Accounts, Categories and Memorized Transactions. If this is the correct option, which is the 'from' account that I should select from which to export all Accounts, Categories and Memorized Transactions?

2) INSTALLING QUICKEN 2004 So I can install Q2004, and it will allow me to BOTH bypass converting an existing file AND install in a different folder without affecting any settings for the original (UK) Quicken?

Thank you for setting the dial to 'retarded' while dealing with my simian questions :)

Henry

Reply to
Henry Shillet

Yes, 1b. It doesn't matter what account you elect to export from when you export the Lists; you should not check the Transactions box, so no transactions should get exported.

I believe this to be the case. But you will naturally have a backup so even if Quicken doesn't ask and even if it doesn't recognize that the file is from a different country version (so knowing not to attempt a conversion), you will not lose any data.

Not necessarily. Intuit has long recommended against having two versions installed at the same time; you can do it, but there are ramifications. I can't tell you all of them, but a couple that come to mind are: the Most Recently Used file list is shared between versions ... if you are not careful, you can tell Quicken to open the wrong file (opening a file for a different version that can't be converted might cause corruption). Also, in US versions, most of the planning features are only operable in the version most recently installed.

Understand, I know nothing about non-US versions, to say nothing of not knowing much about Q2004. But I have run with multiple US versions of Quicken and not had any serious problems.

Reply to
John Pollard

Thank you very much, John. I'll report back once I've tested the suggestions! :)

Reply to
Henry Shillet

I haven't experienced that problem. Quicken 2004 UK picks up my UK data file while Quicken 2006 US picks up my new US data file.

My experience is that if you accidently try to open your Q2004 UK data file in Q2006 US then Q2006 will pick up that you're trying to open up an international data file and display a "Quicken US isn't able to open or convert data files created in international versions of Quicken."

Reply to
DiamondEagle

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