First of all, I would like to say thank you for all your input. I have
FINALLY figured out what my problem is and have gotten rid of all those nasty
Account Adjustments.

When I download the transactions that have cleared from the bank, in the
cleared column, I get an E (for electronic download) in the register…that
automatically changes to a C when I go to balance the account and I wasn’t
changing that back to say E so that I could MARK it cleared on my own to make
sure everything was checked off.

I didn't know that was an issue, so I never bothered with it and didn't
think about it being the problem.

So now when I go to balance, all the things that said E in the register, I
have to make say E again in the balance screen. I know it seems like a
double step, but I want to know what's cleared as it has cleared, so I'll
just take the extra step and be happy with it.

Thanks again for all your help.



"Cal Learner-- MVP" wrote:

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In microsoft.public.money, MandaGrl wrote:

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Those items should not be marked as having cleared.

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I would say that having multiple adjustments is a problem. If you
use the normal methods, items that do not show up on your bank
statement should stay unreconciled until they do show up there.

On the other hand, any original adjustment should be marked
reconciled so that it is included in the opening balance when you
balance.

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I do.

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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.

You could also make a copy of your file and work with the copy to
try different things out.

"Cal Learner-- MVP" wrote:

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Thank you for that input...much more than I have found elsewhere. I
don't think I have had to change my beginning balance except for the first
time I used it and this last time. Hmmm. But the rest of the time, I did
have to change the ending balance to reflect my statement ending balance.

No, I am not seeing any duplicates, and on the off chance I do, I see it
pretty immediately and delete it; it almost always says "match" when I
download from the bank. And for marking things cleared/reconciled, no, if
it's not already cleared the bank, I don't bother with it when I am trying to
balance the account. The only reason I wondered, was for items that I marked
on one day, but didn't clear until another statement; and if that was somehow
causing the problems.

I don't see a problem anywhere...I have looked over it again and again. Of
course, I am no accountant, and maybe that's the problem. But I can't go
through deleting the only thing I see as a problem, the adjustments. If I
delete all (or even most) the account adjustments, then it would tell me that
I have much more money than we actually do; all the major (a few hundred
dollars each) adjustments have been withdrawals, the two smaller ones ($150
and $50) were the only deposit adjustments made. Yes, this is a monthly
problem.

Should, instead, I reconcile the items from the register its self rather
than the "balance account" option?

Geez, maybe I'll just balance this all out on paper one of these days and
then put it all back in Money and go from there. Not looking forward to it,
but I guess that's what I'll have to do if I can't get this to work out.

Thanks again for your help!

In microsoft.public.money, MandaGrl wrote:

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You can date the transaction as you wish. But when you balance to
your statement, you don't mark the uncleared transactions. For ease
in comparing your statements, you might want to change the dates. It
should not be necessary normally.

On the overlapping date thing, I assume you are not seeing duplicate
transactions. Check for that.

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I would look to the Balance column, and find the last date that you
think that column is correct. Look for the discrepancy that follows.

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No, you should not be changing the beginning balance. The beginning
balance is the sum of all of the reconciled transactions. It should
correspond to the balance that existed the last time you balanced.
So if it doesn't, why not? Are there old unreconciled transactions
there? You can look for those by changing the view to only show
unreconciled transactions.

If you are making compensating transactions, perhaps you need to
void all of those but one. I can see doing that once, but it should
not be a continuing thing.

"Cal Learner-- MVP" wrote:

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Well, I have continued to use the program, because I like being able to keep
track of future bills; however, I am still having a problem with the account
balance. At this point, nothing is unreconciled except things that haven't
cleared. Today I reconciled my April statement (which runs from 15 April
through 14 May), and there was a debit (I think? Withdrawal, anyway) for
$382.29, which means that as things stand, it leaves us overdrawn by $412.92
(not including overdraft charges on both ends if this actually happens)!
That is not acceptable, and I know that we have the money to cover everything
that's outstanding...thus even further confusing the issue.

Could this simply be because of the charges say on, 13 April (that I
actually enter on that date) that cleared on 16 April throwing the whole
thing off? There is an adjustment every month, but I know I don't miss
anything, I download almost every day the transactions, and I overlap the
dates on purpose to make sure I don't miss anything. Should I change the
dates to when the item clears the bank instead of the transaction date?
Would that help?

This started in December (when I first started using Money 2001) after we
moved; that month there was a withdrawal adjustment of over $500, but that
was easy to justify because of when I started using it; but now the only
explanation I have is that things that are purchased, bills paid, etc.,
overlap statements and cause this problem.

Any ideas? Could this be my problem, and how should/can I fix it? I really
like using the program, but I can't continue to use it if I can't make sure
that my balance is as accurate as possible, and right now it isn't. Also,
when I balance the account, am I supposed to change the beginning balance AND
ending balance if necessary to reflect what my statement shows? I know
that's a silly question, but maybe I am doing it wrong to start with.

Thanks!

In microsoft.public.money, MandaGrl wrote:

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If you were to show only unreconciled entries in the register,
perhaps you would find an older-dated entry that is not reconciled.


If you know the numbers are right, and you want to declare the
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 may
get you over the hump.

I have a problem reconciling money to my paper statement. The statement and
what I have in money are identical -- I have confirmed the opening balance in
Money and the ending balance in Money according to my bank statements. I
have double checked the numbers, both balances and entries. When I attempt
to reconcile the account, I can never get it to match with the -0- I am
looking for, even though everything is accounted for.

The program suggests an account adjustment, but then that throws off the
ending balance! I wouldn't be a big deal if it didn't suggest that the
balance was off by more than $100. According to what I have entered into
Money and what the bank statement says, it matches; but according to the
reconcile feature, the numbers don't match. Any ideas would be most helpful!