My theory on this is to normalize the Payee names to the retest extent
possible. When I think I might want to know additional data, I use the memo
or, for case like the vacation example you cite, I use classification. (My
classification1 is set to Class and I use ones like Vacation:Hawaii 2004,
Automobile:CR-V, Wireless Phone808) 555-1212, Web Hosting:umpmfaq.info,
Whoick, etc.) I find that doing it this way makes it easier to get at data
with finds and reports and external data mining (via MoneyLink and similar)
than having a bunch of mangled Payee names.

Periodically, I have even taken my data and mined all of the Payee names and
created a unique sorted list and gone looking for variations that might have
crept in. (E.g., Noodles & Co. vs. Noodles and Company.) When I find these,
I resolve them.

<keshasan[at]gmail.com> wrote in message
news:b25f51d4-97e4-4e7e-985d-4c466b023608[at]m34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
I guess it wasn't clear that the value in having the additional
information was to readily identify in which locality the Raceway gas
station was. So, in a broad sense, it would remind me that I was on
vacation or I was running an errand in a locality which I rarely
frequent or it was one on the way to work and hence was a routine fill-
up.

On Feb 8, 1:24*am, "Chris Cowles" <spam_mag...[at]remove-me-
bellsouth.net> wrote:
- quote -

I guess it wasn't clear that the value in having the additional
information was to readily identify in which locality the Raceway gas
station was. So, in a broad sense, it would remind me that I was on
vacation or I was running an errand in a locality which I rarely
frequent or it was one on the way to work and hence was a routine fill-
up.

I stuggled with this too, and perhaps I'm just accustomed to having
the information there but will eventually adapt to seeing only the
merchants' names.

Sanjay

In microsoft.public.money, keshasan[at]gmail.com wrote:

- quote -

Tools-> Settings-> OnlineServiceSettings-> ShowStandardizedPayeeNames
will cause you to match an existing payee that differ only by a
numbers or punctuation. Click MoreDetails to the right of the
setting for more information.

Then go to Go to
Banking-> AccountTools-> Categories&Payees-> Payees
(better yet, click Shortcuts at the top and add Payees as a
shortcut to make navigation like this shorter).
Using the Move button at the bottom, Move each appropriate Payee to
one called Raceway. Then when the next 1 or 2 entries come in during
download, change them to Raceway also. Money should catch on.


- quote -

I prefer fewer.

<keshasan[at]gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c038a9d5-f541-4c04-9b8d-4f0d01f0c653[at]e25g2000prg.googlegroups.com...

- quote -

Unless you're inferring other information from the location of the
store, how does having or not having that detail alter your financial
decisions? What's the point of maintaining the distinction?
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

I think most people prefer to reduce the number of Payees as much as
possible. I don't download transaction data, so I can control Payees to an
even greater degree because not all of my Payees must be in the explicit
list. I have maybe forty or fifty in the list. In over fifteen years of
collecting data now, I have something like 1,400 different payees total.

<keshasan[at]gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c038a9d5-f541-4c04-9b8d-4f0d01f0c653[at]e25g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

What is the best way to handle payee names and their variations?

For example, I charge all of my gasoline purchases and typically fill-
up at Raceway gas stations. After downloading the transactions each
Raceway gas station appears with its own payee name, such as:
Raceway 0001 Woodbridge
Racewy 123 Edison
..... and so on

I kind of like having this informatiion in the transaction register,
but each one is a separate payee. At the same time I'd also like to
group all of them under a single payee named Raceway.

I started to use the automatic mapping of alternate payee names such
as those above to the single payee named Raceway but doing so changes
the payee names to just Raceway. In this example, I lose the location
information (Woodbridge and Edison).

I'm not sure which is preferable, having a single payee name for
Raceway or a multitude of them.

Please advise.

Thanks,

Sanjay