If I understand you correctly, Money will do exactly what you want if you
are willing to adjust your methods a little. I use Money 2002 and recommend
it over later versions.

All you appear to need is 2 bank accounts, checking and savings, and 18-20
categories to duplicate what you are doing with the spreadsheet. You can
set this up in about 5 minutes. And by using Money, your data entry and
other work will be much easier than a spreadsheet.

If you decide to use Money, you would deposit your paycheck into your
checking account and assign a category when you pay a bill instead of
subdividing the paycheck into categories in advance as you are now doing.
You can also transfer money from your checking account to your savings
account and Money will handle that perfectly. You can then create a simple
budget which lists your 18-20 categories and Money will create a report that
shows how much of your budgeted amount you have used so far for each
category and as a whole. Thus you will have the same information that your
present spreadsheet provides but with Money you will have far less work and
far more flexibility to create other more informative reports.

As to paying bills, tracking a portfolio etc, simply ignore those extra
features if you don't need them. I would suggest looking at the cash flow
statement and scheduled bills and deposits and the various reports however.
You will probably find other areas of Money that will be helpful now or in
the future.



Regards,

Bill Wood
Fountain Hills, AZ


"Norman D Gutter" <Norman D Gutter[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:0696D5E5-F0AB-4BE4-90CC-AD1E2A7319C0[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

In principle, you could coerce Money to work this way--without regard to the
extra features it has like stock portfolio or net worth. In practice, most
people who try to downgrade Money to cookie jar budgeting find it doesn't
work well. It's designed around a more sophisticated model where accounts
reflect, generally, real world accounts, income and expenses are categorized
as they occur, and budgets are tracked against these categories, not cookie
jar artifices.

"Norman D Gutter" <Norman D Gutter[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:0696D5E5-F0AB-4BE4-90CC-AD1E2A7319C0[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

Well, create a Cash account, and enter spending transactions for that
account, specifying appropriate expense category for each transaction. Then
you will be able to budget your spending for each category and track if you
are or not within the budgeted limits.

--
Dmitry Korolyov [d__k[at]removethispart.mail.ru]
MVP: Windows Server - Directory Services


"Norman D Gutter" <Norman D Gutter[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:0696D5E5-F0AB-4BE4-90CC-AD1E2A7319C0[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

I want to use for a single, simple purpose, but I can't figure out how to. I
am currently using a spreadsheet to subdivide my income into "cash" funds
within my checking/savings account; categories such as giving; housing;
utilities; insurance; auto repairs; new auto savings; education; etc. When I
deposit a paycheck, I subdivide it into these 18 or 20 funds. Then, when I
pay a bill, I subtract the amount from the appropriate fund, always keeping a
positive cash balance.

I can go on forever doing this by spreadsheet, but it is really a database
function, and I'd rather do it in a database program (which I assume Money
is).

Is there any way to get Money to do this simple task? I don't want to pay
bills from Money; I don't want to track a stock portfolio or net worth. I
just want to manage my money while paying bills the old-fashioned way. I
have three computers, with Money 2002, Money 2003, and one purchased last
month for which I haven't checked the Money version installed.

Thanks in advance,
NDG