What you're saying makes sense. But in order to make it clearer for
myself, I'm going to have to make a separate category for Finance Charges
for each credit card account, because the budget lumps it all together.
Again, thanks for the help.


On Sun, 1 Aug 2004 16:38:14 -0600, Dick Watson
<littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote:

- quote -



--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/

OK. Now we are narrowing it down now. See if this explanation gets you
there.

I think this is working as intended. The "Debt" section in the Budget
Planner is just its way of showing cash that is not available for other
expenses since it's servicing debt--stuff in DRP or Loan Payments. The entry
under "Other Expenses" is recognizing that some of your money is going to
pay the credit card interest each month. Sure enough. This should stick out
at you and say: "Aha! This is an expense you can completely eliminate by
getting ahead of the credit card company!"

I don't think it should balance out to be ($90). DRP and BP are telling you
that you have ($10) getting spent on the interest and ($110) that is tied up
servicing debt, and not available for other discretionary spending. This is
as it should be, it seems to me. That reflects not leaving the interest
sitting on the credit card account to accrue interest.

"Tony Agent" <tonyagentXXX[at]hotxxxmail.com> wrote in message
newspsb2rbojdo03n0c[at]thlap70...
- quote -

OK. Payments and finance charges are showing up as expenses in my
budget. There's a line under "Other Expenses" for "Bank Charges: Interest
Paid" (where I categorize my finance charges), and a line under "Debt" for
"Debt Reduction Planner". The credit card register works fine, both
manually and downloading transactions. The only place where it looks
weird is my budget, which is in turn throwing off my cash flow forecast.

As an example, let's say my finance charges add up to $10 each month
(HA!), and in my debt planner, I setup payments of $100 per month. If
these are the only expenses in my budget, my total expenses show as $110.
It should somehow balance out to be -$90, correct?

The DRP is managing my scheduled payments, although since I just set it up
today, there haven't been any managed by it.

Thanks for all of your help.

On Sun, 1 Aug 2004 15:54:45 -0600, Dick Watson
<littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote:

- quote -



--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/

Well, let's reset. You said "both the finance charges and payments are
showing up as expenses." Let's start there.

WHERE are they showing up as expenses? Are we talking about the transactions
in the credit card account register? (What's DRP or Budget Planner got to do
with that?) If the payments are showing up as an expense, how are those
transactions categorized?

Does a payment, entered from downloaded transaction data, increase the "You
Owe:" balance shown at the bottom of the credit card account register? Is
that balance shown in (red) or black? Is the account beginning balance in
account details a positive number or a negative number?

Is DRP managing the scheduled payments in Bills & Deposits? When you
download the payment transactions, are you matching them up with these bill
entries or just skipping the scheduled bill entry and going directly to the
downloaded transaction data?

Finally, did you have all of this working fine with manually entered
transactions before you started downloading transaction data?

"Tony Agent" <tonyagentXXX[at]hotxxxmail.com> wrote in message
newspsb2d3wymo03n0c[at]thlap70...
- quote -

They are setup as accounts. I think it's the debt reduction planner
that's making things funky.


On Sun, 1 Aug 2004 11:28:08 -0600, Dick Watson
<littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote:

- quote -



--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/

The payment should not be an expense. They should show up as transfers from
a cash account (cash, say, Checking, balance goes down--liability balance
goes down). But this is only true if the credit card is setup in Money as an
Account, not just a payee. Is it an Account in Money?

"Tony Agent" <tonyagentXXX[at]hotxxxmail.com> wrote in message
newspsb2atweuo03n0c[at]thlap70...
- quote -

Good afternoon, all. I have credit cards setup in $, and they download
transactions. I categorize the finance charges as "Bank Charges: Interest
Paid". I recently set up both a Debt Reduction Planner and a Budget. The
problem is, both the finance charges and payments are showing up as
expenses. Shouldn't there be some sort of balancing? Shouldn't the debt
reduction payments show up as income or some type of transfer? How can I
set this up properly? Thank you.