Frankly, I'm baffled why the bank would post the transactions as they do.
I'd expect the interest transaction to post separately but, treating the
LOC. as a revolving account, simply post the payment in toto. That would
follow the process I've seen most commonly done and allow proper association
of the checking and LOC transactions.

"Justin Thyme" <jit[at]aol.com> wrote in message
news:uq9WTQ6DFHA.2220[at]TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Thanks for everyone's input, very much appriciated.

For the moment I have set up a "Cash In-Transit" Account.
I transfer the full amount to CIT account, and from the CIT account I
transfer the Principal and the Intrest amounts using two special transfers.

I see that the bank first lists the charge, then the downloaded credits
(intrest and principle) are matching my transfers.

for example:

The amount due for the month is 100.00
20.00 is due towards intrest.

Description Charge Credit
------------ ------- ------
BankName 20.00

The next Download

Description Charge Credit
------------ ------- ------
Principal 80.00
Interest 20.00

Both the above transaction match to the ones that I've transfered from the
CIT account.
That's it so far.

Thanks for your help,
Best Regards.

P.S
The catagory for this downloaded transaction is "Bank Charges : Interest
Paid"


Then

"Mark Horn" <mark[at]hornclan.com> wrote in message
news:slrnd0hdru.1c1.mark[at]home.hornclan.com...
- quote -

On 2005-02-08, Dick Watson <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote:
- quote -

Thank you M05. Justin, for what it's worth, this is a new *feature*
of M05. In M04 and prior, you could tell the software to skip
any of the accounts from your FI.

IIRC he said his checking account and the LOC were at the same FI.
When I tested M05, I had a problem of a duplicate joint account
showing up. I simply marked one of them as closed. This didn't
prevent downloads, but it did prevent me accepting any of the
transactions in the acocunts and it did prevent the account from
showing up on *some* reports (although not all).

I was under the impression that the subject account was a revolving
line--like a CC--not an amortized loan. I don't know how amortized loans
download, but it's certainly my impression that CCs post an interest expense
transaction. Correct me if I'm wrong. (If I understand the OP correctly, the
wrinkle here is putting the interest in a split with the payment/credit. In
the context of a revolving debt, that seems goofy to me.)

BTW, if the OP is downloading transactions, skipping this one account is not
an option unless it's the only account at that FI.

"Mark Horn" <mark[at]hornclan.com> wrote in message
news:slrnd0gda5.df9.mark[at]home.hornclan.com...
- quote -

On 2005-02-08, Dick Watson <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote:
- quote -

This is true. My method does not accurately track interest.
Frankly, I don't understand why the bank would post an interest
transaction in the LOC at all. It should simply post the amount of
principle applied to the loan - just like every other loan account.

In this particular case, I would *NOT* download this account.
It seems really dumb of the bank to give the extra interest
transaction. The easiest solution is to ignore the screwy data
provided by the bank.

Transfer enables both halves of the transaction to "share" it--the link
between the accounts is an intrinsic part of the transaction itself.
Transfer is net worth neutral, by definition. The alternatives may not be,
unless you enforce it yourself.

I would not recommend Mark's method (categorizing in the memos) because it
compromises your accounting data in order to enable the download matching.
This, to me, is the tail of downloading wagging the dog of personal
financial management. You cannot get a true picture of your interest
expenses unless you get this expense recoded against the correct category.

There is one alternative that *might* work (I haven't tested it):

Enter in the Line of Credit Account:

Date: 02/10/05
Pay to: My LoC Creditor
Category: Split
Amount: 90.00

Split 1: Transfer: My Checking
Amount: 100.00

Split 2: Interest Expense: Other Interest
Amount: -10.00

This will equal a $90 credit--so it should match the downloaded payment less
interest split--and a $10 interest expense, recorded in the account that
accrued it.

Scheduling this is complicated because everything ends up reading, well,
backwards: It's a Deposit, not a Payment. Payee is the creditor. Deposit to
is also the creditor. The amount is just the net, not the total payment. The
interest expense is entered as a negative--a negative deposit reduces the
deposit. The transfer amount is the entire amount of the check you send.

"Justin Thyme" <jit[at]aol.com> wrote in message
news:eu5oFsWDFHA.624[at]TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
- quote -

This has been a educative discussion, I like this news group.
The procedures looks like it will solve the matching problem.
What do I lose exactly by not using the "Special Transfer" catagory?

Thanks all,



"Mark Horn" <mark[at]hornclan.com> wrote in message
news:slrnd0eukd.8hg.mark[at]home.hornclan.com...
- quote -

On 2005-02-07, Chris Cowles <NoSpam[at]For.me> wrote:
- quote -

It doesn't. You'd have to track that by creating a custom report
that tracked against the split description. You'd have to make the
split description unique enough so that it's easy to track. Maybe:
"Acct XYZ LOC Interest"

I was going to suggest that, too. The problem with it is there's no record
of an interest expense. How does that get recorded in the interest category?
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL


"Mark Horn" <mark[at]hornclan.com> wrote in message
news:slrnd0dr62.5bh.mark[at]home.hornclan.com...
- quote -

On 2005-02-06, Justin Thyme <jit[at]aol.com> wrote:
- quote -

Could you set up the original transaction in your checking account like
this instead:

Date: 02/10/05
Pay to: My Bank
Category: Split
Amount: 100.00

Split 1: Transfer: My Bank Line of Credit
Description: Interest Payment
Amount: 10.00

Split 2: Transfer: My Bank Line of Credit
Description: Principal
Amount: 90.00

This *should* result in a single transaction in your checking account
which will match the single downloaded transaction. And result in
two transactions in your LOC which will match the two downloaded
transactions.

- quote -

I don't understand this statement. It sounds like you're saying
that you tried what I suggested. But what do you mean by "alter
the original transfer"?

Full Disclosure: I think Dick would probably categorize me in the
"true believer" camp.

In microsoft.public.money, Justin Thyme wrote:

- quote -

You would be referring to method 2.

I think you could use Expense for both ends. In the loan account,
expect a warning that you are using an expense category for an
income (it would be a negative expense). If you decided to use an
income category in both cases, that would work too. You would get
the warning at the checking account side. By doing it this way, the
expense and negative expense would cancel out in reports.

- quote -

Hello,

Would those catagories be Expense or Income?

Thanks

"Cal Learner-- MVP" <via_newsgroup[at]please.tnx> wrote in message
news:invc01l0vmtec6j82ep3hm7viajc3kvsti[at]4ax.com...
- quote -

Ok, here goes..

I have Two accounts at the same bank, Checking & LOC Both accounts are setup
for download, I have a bill due to the LOC account 100.00

Checking

Date: 02/10/05
Pay to: My Bank
Category: Transfer: My Bank Line of Credit
Amount: 100.00

This gets added to my LOC account in the credit column.

Date: 02/10/05
From: My Bank
Category: Transfer : My Bank
Amount 100.00

After I download from my bank;

The transaction in the checking account matches to the Transfer to the LOC
account.
The transaction in the LOC account shows the following two entries in the
credit column:

From: Intrest Payment
Catagory : (blank field)
Amount : 10.00

From: Principal
Category: (blank field)
Amount : 90.00

There in lies the problem. The checking matches but because the payment to
the bank downloads two transactions and not one aggregate the LOC download
does not match any entry.
I tried to split the transfer but that seems to alter the original transfer.

There it is.



"Chris Cowles" <NoSpam[at]For.me> wrote in message
news:OzWVKOJDFHA.3368[at]TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

- quote -

That may be true for the account in question but not necessarily true as a
general statement. I'm one of the True Believers Dick refers to.

Money has a means of matching a single downloaded transaction to multiple
existing transactions. I've never used that option and don't know if it
applies here.

If you could post a few lines describing the transactions that appear in
each account, and how they got there, it might make it more clear.

Something like:

LOC
2/10/05 LOC bank $90 principal payment (not split)
2/10/05 LOC bank $10 interest expense (not split)

Checking
2/10/05 LOC bank $100 LOC payment (split?)


"Justin Thyme" <jit[at]aol.com> wrote in message
news:%23WwYnMIDFHA.3540[at]TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
- quote -

In microsoft.public.money, Justin Thyme wrote:

- quote -

Two ways:

1. Create a suspense account.
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/featur...onaryResults.a...
I have one I call In Transit, and I called it a "cash or other"
account. Change each of the downloaded transactions into transfer
to/from that account. That account will normally have a zero balance
except while funds are in transit.

2. Do not use transfers or the pre-defined "SPECIAL Credit Card
Payment". Instead create categories for the purpose. You can
customize reports to include or exclude those categories as
appropriate.

Answers below.

"Justin Thyme" <jit[at]aol.com> wrote in message
news:%23WwYnMIDFHA.3540[at]TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
- quote -

I've always thought this was self-evident. Others swear by the downloaded
data.

- quote -

Bill scheduled in Checking, amount $10, splits:
$9 Transfer:[line of credit acct]
$1 Interest:Other Interest

- quote -

Loan accounts only work for fixed payment amortizing loans like mortgages
and car loans. Revolving loans do not work at all well treated as Money Loan
Accounts.

- quote -

It doesn't have to be first. The point is that the total of the payment
includes a component that reduces the balance (Transfer) and a component
that is a new expense (Interest).

- quote -

Hello Dick, thanks for the reply.

I am slowly comming to the conclusion that the download is more work then
it's worth. Seems ok for basic information but it gets rather tedious, when
I have anything outside of one thing happening with a transaction.

So let's see if I understand you,

For example:
My credit account is owed a total of $10.00

I would setup a bill and split the transactions
$9.00 Principle, $1.00 interest

The $9.00 would reduce the Principal, the other part would increase the
Intrest account, added together they equal the 10.00 payment.

Is this correct?

Another question:

The amount of money taken from the credit account was used to purchase
equipment.

The money was transferd from the Credit account to the primary account where
it was used to purchase the equipment.

Q: Should I have created a "Loan" account for this equipment. Then split the
priciple amount of the payment against this Loan or what?

Thanks in advance,





So, If I understand correctly,

The first post is the amount of the money paid into the Credit account.




"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:O8nEU%23HDFHA.3504[at]TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
- quote -

I shouldn't have said neither way allows the amount to match the download.
The split payment (transfer+interest expense in one transaction) won't match
the combined amount downloaded in the credit account. If you use a separate
interest transaction in the credit card account, the payment download will
match--but the split will cause confusion and not match with the separately,
manually entered interest transaction.

"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:O8nEU%23HDFHA.3504[at]TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Ignoring the downloaded transaction for a moment, there are basically two
ways to represent what's going on: You can enter two transactions or split
the payment transfer. The two transactions is a separate transaction that
adds the interest to the balance as an expense item and another that
transfers the whole amount of the payment. The latter is created by using a
bill (assuming you use transaction forms and this is why you are asking and
say you see no way to split the transfer) instead of a transfer. The bill
would be split into two components: the first is a transfer of the principal
paid to the credit account. (Yes, a bill can have a transfer component and
the opposite--with transfer transaction forms and scheduled transfer
transactions in M02 and beyond--is not allowed. This is just a user
interface thing. The underlying transaction with those two parts is
perfectly OK.) The second part of the split is an expense entry for the
interest. Thus, the amount of the total transaction in your checking account
matches what you sent and the amount of the transfer into the credit account
is just the principal reduction.

Given the downloaded transaction, it will be a little harder since neither
way allows the amount to match. Since this is just another example of why I
don't download transaction data and don't recommend others do so, I'll let
some of the True Believers chime in here to tell you how to get around this
with the downloaded transaction data.

"Justin Thyme" <jit[at]aol.com> wrote in message
news:OwHY0nHDFHA.3688[at]TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Hello,

I have a Line of Credit Account.
When I make a payment from my checking on this account I use the special
account (which is a transfer) how ever, when the downloaded the Line of
credit information arrives I see that the bank splits this payment into
Interest and Principal. This amount equals the amount of my the transfer I
made from my checking

The problem is matching these amounts to the transfer I've made from my
checking. I see no way to "split" the transfer into the correct catagoies.

Any one have another way?
Thanks