The "Files" Tab

The first thing to do is load all your files. Click "Select File", pick your file, then set the account, currency, radix, and date fields, then click "Load File". The Currency field defaults to the GnuCash default currency (set in the International tab of the Preferences dialog). Try autodetecting radix, date format, and account name first. The radix and date formats will stay on "Autodetect" if the autodetector is not 100 percent sure of the right answer; in that case, you will have to make a manual selection. You probably know what the correct radix format is; if you're in the US or the UK, it's definitely "decimal". Almost every QIF file I have seen in the US is m/d/y for the date format, so try that if auto-detect doesn't work.

To go back to a file that you have previously loaded, select its name in the file list on the left. If you change settings for a previously-loaded file, click "Load File" again to reload it with new settings. Don't forget to turn off "Auto" on the QIF Account entry if you manually enter it.

If there's no Opening Balance record in the file, the account name is guessed from the file name: any .qif extension is removed, and all dashes and underscores are changed to spaces. If you want to save yourself manually re-entering the name, save the file with a name that will get guessed correctly (i.e. save the account "My Bank Account" as My-Bank-Account.qif or My_Bank_Account.qif).