[moneydance] Starting with MoneyDance - need advanced import options for data from MS Money

[Dave]

Hi,
I just downloaded MoneyDance yesterday.

I have existing data in a CSV format file that the text importer cannot
handle. It contains a column I want to use for tags in MoneyDance (which
derives from the Classification feature in MS Money). It also contains colon
separated parent:child categories. I want to import the entire file  (which
contains all my MS Money data for all 58 accounts) into MoneyDance.

My CSV file column headings are:
Check number
Date
Payee
Status
Account
Memo
Category (in Parent:Child format)
Tag (MS Money Classification)
Amount

(I could split Parent:Child  categories into two columns if needed.)

How can I get all this data into MoneyDance?

I would be willing to either create an XML file from my CSV file or use the
python extension. My impression is that using python will be easier.  (I
don't know the python language, but I'd be willing to learn it for this
task. I don't know XSLT either, for that matter, but I can learn that too.)

One other option I'm wondering about is modifying the existing text
importer. (I do know Java.)

Finally, I suppose I could also consider QIF importing -- will the
MoneyDance handle Microsoft's "loose QIF" that includes the Classifications
and category names longer than 15 chars? (Even if it will, it seems that
doing 58 accounts one-by-one will be so tedious that I'd rather spend my
time learning python!)

Any advice is appreciated. (BTW, I'm using the tags to separate the
accounting for several personally owned corporations that are separate
taxable entities. I'm assuming MoneyDance will let me generate separate
reports using tags the way MS Money did with classifications.)

Regards,
Dave