I infer that you posted because there is still some flexibility to your
commitment to revert to your old program. If not, you are wasting everyone's
time by posting, so I'll assume the better case.

You also don't specify the Money version you are using. For the balance of
this answer, I'll assume M04 or older or M05 in Advanced * modes.

I can't solve all of your issues and it seems likely that lots of them come
from differences based on what you are used to. That will be true for
anything you change to ever. If you aren't willing to spend some effort
adapting your habits and methods to a new tool that you will have to learn a
little about, then you will have to stay on MoneyCounts indefinitely or
write your own replacement your way.

There is an MSKB entry on how to create a reconciliation report, though many
users feel that the balance screens do enough to obviate the need. See
http://umpmfaq.info/faqdb.php?q=133. If such a report is key to your use,
then Money isn't for you.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by posting transactions to "account"
Miscellaneous Expense. Money uses "Accounts" to represent real-world
accounts like Checking, Savings, Discover, Fidelity Brokerage, Pocket Change
and so forth. Money uses Categories and Subcategories to represent Income
and Expense "accounts" (in traditional double entry parlance) like Wages &
Salary:Gross Taxable, Foodining Out, and Miscellaneous:Supplies. The
Category list is utterly malleable. add or delete anything you want that
works for you.

I can create a new Money file with basic accounts and transactions in it in
less than 10 minutes--but I know how Money works. Your setup and adaptation
time is probably extended because you are familiar with something else and
are knowingly or unknowingly trying to make Money work like your old tool.
Have you looked at the Money help videos? The Money sample data file? The
unofficial FAQ? There are lots of resources, but at best the transition will
not be without learning and effort.

There is nothing I can do for you on the free-forming of data entry into the
check number field. I'm not sure of the benefit you cite since I haven't
kept a paper register in a decade.

What "tweaking" are you having to do in scheduled transactions to get them
entered in the register? I have a number of them that I enter every month
without any tweaking. Again, this may be a problem of understanding how to
setup a scheduled transaction in Money. Obviously, transactions that recur
but with slight differences--like the amount of a monthly long distance
phone bill--will have to be "tweaked". No way around that. (I'd love to know
how your old tool got around that problem.) Some transactions that occur
frequently and irregularly are better handled by Money's autocomplete
feature. I'm thinking of things like buying gasoline on random dates in
random amounts.

BTW, if you paid anywhere near $50 for Money, you paid too much.

"SusanT" <SusanT[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:34D32434-3465-416A-B9BC-2BB47D667003[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

I've finally decided to move from my old MoneyCounts program that wasn't
supposed to work after 12/31/1999 (and it did) to Money. Now I'm finding all
the neat features of a little mom-and-pop type of program that cost less than
$50 are not to be found in a upscale more costly program!

1. No paper reconciliation reports of any kind
2. I find it very difficult to create accounts that make any accounting
sense. I'm having to post a lot of transaction to "Miscellaneous Expense,"
which shouldn't even be an option according to all the accounting I've ever
learned.
3. MoneyCounts took about 10 minutes to set up and start going through.
I've been working on Money for 2 weeks, and still struggle through what
should be simple transactions.
4. MoneyCounts allowed you to append check numbers (100A, 100B, etc.) so
that non-check transactions in the program would follor your paper register.
Not so in Money -- anything appended to the check number gets sorted in its
own way; no transaction number entries are all grouped together, rather than
displayed in the order they were entered.
5. "Memorized" transactions in MoneyCounts WERE memorized, not something
you had to continually tweak in order to get them in.

Thank goodness it's still early in the year! I'm headed back to MoneyCounts
9.0!