Okay, used a combination of the two suggestions and got it to balance.
I found one transaction from June where I tried to do a starting
balance adjustment (having had this problem before). All others
matched up. I then balanced using Cal's method. I cancelled automatic
download and will just download one statement at a time like I do with
my other accounts from now on. Thanks for your help!


Cal Learner-- MVP wrote:
- quote -

Okay, used a combination of the two suggestions and got it to balance.
I found one transaction from June where I tried to do a starting
balance adjustment (having had this problem before). All others
matched up. I then balanced using Cal's method. I cancelled automatic
download and will just download one statement at a time like I do with
my other accounts from now on. Thanks for your help!


Cal Learner-- MVP wrote:
- quote -

In microsoft.public.money, stacey wrote:

- quote -


If you wish to start fresh and declare an account balanced, you can
mark all entries balanced. Select to show only unreconciled
transactions. Sort by date, and go to the oldest transaction.
Hold down Cntl+Shift+M and let auto-repeat work thru the
transactions until none are left showing. Then balance making the
starting and ending balance match the known balance. Choose the
balance date to be the day after your last transaction. This is
not the normal procedure. It starts you with an amnesty for former
balancing.

Thereafter, follow the normal procedure.

IF you really want to make it right, there's only one admittedly tedious
way:

1) Quit downloading transactions into it until you get it sorted out.

2) Print out a transaction report for the account from inception to date for
all transactions.

3) Get out all of your paper statements. starting with the first one that
you tracked transactions for in Money.

4) Confirm that the STARTING BALANCE from that statement is the ACCOUNT
BEGINNING BALANCE in the account details.

5) One-by-one, match up every transaction from the statements and every
transaction from your printout of the Money account. The rare times I've had
to do this, it pretty much takes two passes and two colored highliters. Go
down the report. Pick the first transaction. Make sure it's on a statement
for the same amount. Highlight both green. Repeat until done. Any not
highlighted on the reports are suspect of being in Money when they shouldn't
be--either that or they're pending for the next statement. Resolve these
cases. Go down the statements. Pick the first transaction. Make sure it's on
the report for the same amount. Highlight both yellow. Repeat until done.
Any not highlighted on the statements are suspect of not being in Money when
they should be. Resolve these cases.

6) Mark everything that you've accounted for in both places as Reconciled.

7) View just the unreconciled transactions. The running balance before the
first unreconciled entry should match the balance on your last statement.

The only other way to start fresh without losing the individual transactions
and without, as you note, hosing expense reporting and so forth, is to
change the account beginning balance to force the final balance you want. If
you do this without understanding what's screwing up in the first place,
you'll end up right back where you started.

IF you go to all of the trouble to sort it out, I would STRONGLY recommend
disassociating this account from a financial institution--to prevent more
downloads--and putting your transactions in by hand for a full
billing/balance cycle. See if that works out. Then don't look back.

"stacey" <swfeken[at]yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1103163787.831806.299270[at]f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

Sorry, it was a long post. To my knowledge that did not happen.
Regardless, is there a way to "start fresh" without losing the
individual transactions?

I'm not sure I followed all of this--it's been a LONG day--but this much is
certain: IF ANY transaction that was not reconciled last month is marked
with an R BEFORE you go to balance for this month, you WILL have problems.

"stacey" <swfeken[at]yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1103160710.169371.98190[at]f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

Okay. I have searched and read every related post here to try and
solve this problem. I've managed to figure out or get around all of my
other problems without posting by reading and following suggestions on
this group (transfers between accounts, accounting for down payments on
house purchase, etc) and balancing credit card accounts except for one
(American Express). I download statements, and want to track
individual charges to categorize my expenses. I have started over
several times but can't get it to balance. Every transaction is
reconciled and has been accounted for by hand, so I can't use the trick
to auto balance with cntl. shift m. I read that I shouldn't let it
auto balance several months ago, so I turned that off.

I pay it off every month. I started with the ending balance from the
December statement a year ago. I then downloaded transactions from the
next month and put in the new amount owed. Upon trying to balance, it
gives me the "money's starting balance does not match...". I fight
with it every month, have even tried auto adjusting but then of course
it tells me I owe the outstanding balance. I've even tried
unreconciling every single transaction by hand and starting over fresh
with that original statement. No luck. Since I want to track our
expenses and don't want to start over fresh (since I can't change both
the starting balance and start date in account details, just the
balance), I am at wits end.

My other credit card accounts I can get to balance using the same
theory and starting point. However, with this one, even though I see
the balance decreasing in the far left column when I pay it off every
month, it will never balance and somehow I owe $3000. I would just not
bother to balance at all and only use it to categorize expenses but it
affects everything else in Money that I would like to use features for
(debt, budget, lifetime planners, etc.).

Is this an anomaly with American Express? Please help! This is so
frustrating and I'm ready to give in! If I thought upgrading would
help I would have done it but I read similar posts with 2004/2005
users. Let me know if you need more detail or a specific scenario.
and yes, I've tried repairing the file...