That helps explain a lot.

Intuitively you have found one of the reasons that MEss is evil and should
not be used. It lacks one of the most fundamental capabilities for managing
finances--the ability to recognize that not all movement of money is income
or expense.

See http://umpmfaq.info/faqdb.php?q=188.

Deluxe regularly sells for less than $30. Money Plus (Money 2008 by its new
marketing moniker) is just out. From the relatively sophisticated kinds of
questions you've been asking, I think you would be wise to consider the
investment in an upgrade.

"Trevsmith" <Trevsmith[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AA5140D0-7BEC-4240-BFB4-3414159EE563[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

Sorry I'm on Money essentials the latest version (came with a new Laptop). I
dont have a heading 'Specials'.

Cheers

"Dick Watson" wrote:

- quote -

In microsoft.public.money, Trevsmith wrote:

- quote -

You don't want to use that category. I suggest you delete that
category.

When Dick says "Transfer" he means the one at the bottom under the
SPECIAL heading.

You can change it in Account Settings. (It's somewhere in there--I can't
tell you exactly where as I'm at a machine without Money.) But there is very
little to be gained in doing so. Maybe it will help Debt Reduction Planner
give better results if you use it.

"Trevsmith" <Trevsmith[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6E9D16EF-381B-4A54-9582-C0321F2BE7E4[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

Maybe. Some comments inline. Comments assume you are using Advanced Register
if using M05-M+ and are not using MEss or M+Ess.

"Trevsmith" <Trevsmith[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2FCA84AF-DB66-485A-AED8-ECA227407500[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

This sounds like one problem. It sounds like you are downloading two
separate transactions and storing them that way. The better bet is to change
the first into a Transfer : [name of other account] and then match the
second to the half in [other account] created when you entered the first as
a Transfer. Then Money will understand these as one Transfer not as one
Expense it can't really explain and another Income it can't really explain.

- quote -

This sounds like a second issue. Normally Money recognizes Incemo from
salary from scheduled Paycheck deposits. Do you have a scheduled Paycheck
deposit? Is it setup as a Paycheck (all of the income and expenses itemized)
or just as a net deposit (the amount that goes tot he bank not how that gets
figured from your gross salary)?

- quote -

"Credit Card Payments/Transfer" is evil. You should delete it from your
Categories. "Not an expense" is just as evil and 3x as stupid. You should
delete it from your Categories. Please confirm you are using Advanced
Register and not using Money Essentials (MEss) or M+Ess. If not, lots of
this discussion is null and void. If so, then you want to use Transfer:[name
of other account] or Credit Card Payment:[name of other account]. See
http://umpmfaq.info/faqdb.php?q=167 for more info on "Credit Card
Payments/Transfer".

Dick,

sorry again to wittle on, but I have another question with regards to the
Credit Card account I have. Can I change the interest rate for the Card if I
need to, I dont mean its an initial rate as I've seen that but it does change
from time to time. How can I then go into the account settings to change the
% rate?

"Dick Watson" wrote:

- quote -

Sorry I wasn't very clear, I understand that Income - Expenses = Savings, but
I manually transfer between my account but it shows on my electronic
statement as an expense, however on the budget manager, it shows as an
expense in my chequing account and as an earning in my saving account,
however my acctual salary does not show up on my budget manager.
It therefore tells me I'm spending more than I earn which is so far from the
true situation.

Secondly what do I list my transfer as in the second line of the transaction
(which category) i.e. 'Credit Card Payment/Transfer', 'Not an expense' etc.
If I had 'transfer to saving/other account' then Money would know that it was
not leaving my Accounts and is therefore not expenditure!!

I hope that's a little clearer.

Sorry if I've confused you even further.

"Dick Watson" wrote:

- quote -

I'm not fully sure I understand your questions, but let me give you some
high level theory.

Money Advanced Budget is trying to view your financial situation in total.
It's trying to tell you if your expenses are within your income.

If expenses are less than income, then the difference IS savings. Since
Income - Expenses = Savings, then budgeting is all about whether you will
have an savings and separately budgeting "Savings" as a category is
unnecessary.

If you transfer money from one account to the other, it's neither Income nor
Expense. It didn't make you richer or poorer. Therefore it is not relevant
to answering the question are your expenses within your income. So, Money
Advanced Budget generally ignores Transfer as they have no impact on the
answer to the question.

"Trevsmith" <Trevsmith[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0CA1B2BA-CCC1-414D-89CB-908E719FD02D[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

Hey Dick,

Another new user here, Can I add to the catagories as there is not one for
savings and I transfer (TV) between my bank accounts i.e from my checking
account to my savings. The TV from my checking then comes up as an
expenditure and in my savings account as an income. I've played with the
payee manager but that it just symantics/text type problem.

Another question would be why does my salary not show in the budget manager
as an income even though the transaction is listed as "wages/salary" (I've
also tried it as Income interest and Net Pay). I have placed it as an income
item in the budget setup.

Apologies if this is a little foreign to you but I'm English using a US
product (came with my new laptop).



"Dick Watson" wrote:

- quote -

They are convinced that the S&S Budget is better and most users prefer it or
even the Essential budget. They have many problems in the Advanced Budget
that are hard to fix. They tend not to fix hard problems--they just
de-feature them.

"Matt D" <MattD[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
newsD9906C7-0E90-4D55-9F11-C3308365239E[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

Thanks for the tip - I was able to make it work. I've noticed that a lot of
other people seem to be upset about it not being a "standard" feature. Maybe
Money will pay attention & replace it next edition.
--
Matt


"Dick Watson" wrote:

- quote -

Search M07 help for "Create a new Advanced Budget". It will tell you how to
get there from here.

"Matt D" <MattD[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:608D9416-3323-467F-B06F-54BF26B317E5[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

Thanks for the tips. I figured out that by copying and pasting the memo to
the Payee line, I get what I want. As long as I don't let things pile up,
it's no big deal.

Another question (I'll also post this to the general board): Is there any
way to use the advanced budget that apparently existed on earlier versions of
Money? The two options on V07 are pretty much worthless for what I'm trying
to do, and Help description of the Advanced Budget seems to be exactly what
I'm looking for. However, it says it is no longer available on V07. Any
ideas?

Thanks--
Matt


"Mark Horn" wrote:

- quote -

Unfortunately, the answer is probably not. There is something called
the "payee rules manager". And that will let you manipulate the "Pay
to" field in a predictable way. Unfortunately, if all of your debit
card transactions from your bank show up as "Visa Debit Card", the
payee rules manager isn't going to work. In the payee rules manager,
you can tell it to translate something like "Target Store 7273665"
to "Target". But you can only tell it to translate the original to
one thing not multiple different things. So there's no way to get
"Visa Debit Card" to more than one thing. And there's no way to
tell it to look in the "memo" field to find the right translation.

The problem is really with your financial institution (FI).
They're filling out the fields and Money has no choice but to take
their word for it.

Of course, I'd get into the habit of inspecting every single
transaction that you download from your FI. At a minimum, you should
ensure that the category is correct. Money's guesses are frequently
very wrong. You might also get into the habit of verifying that the
amount is correct. Sometimes the FI makes mistakes. Sometimes the
merchant makes mistakes. Once you start doing all that, it's not
much more work to rearrange the payto and memo fields to be the
way you want them when you use your debit card.

Good luck.

On 2007-01-04, Matt D <MattD[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
- quote -

Novice user here, so please bear with me.
When I download my bank accout info, the payee name usually ends up in the
memo location, while the 'Payee Name' Block usually shows Visa Debit card or
similar. Is there a way to a) configure the download to put the merchant in
the payee block and leave the memo blank? or b) subdivide the memo block to
allow additional description of the purchase?

ex. Instead of downloading as "Visa Debit Card"
Catagory:"Gas"
Memo: "BP Oil"

Can it be downloaded as "BP Oil"
Cat: "Gas"
Memo: blank

Thanks--
Matt