Glad I could help. Thanks for the feedback.

"Howie" <nothere[at]this.time> wrote in message
news:dln6vvc20tulhpjnoe89hqi3png7c9psau[at]4ax.com...
- quote -

"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> mused:

See comments inline.
:"Howie" <nothere[at]this.time> wrote in message
news:rc76vv4enfc69ra9l3335mih38elm0ndlt[at]4ax.com...
- quote -

The problem here is that your cash flow isn't reflecting the (projected)
expenses against the card.
If I did not have a couple of bills which are automatically drawn from
- quote -

from a cash account to a liability account. The expenses you charged to the
credit card are the debits. As noted above, the problem is that your cash
flow is not accounting for the expenses that get charged to your card over
time. There is one way to make this work for you. Once you have a budget in
Budget Planner, you can set the account preference for categories to the
card you typically use for these expenses and then in Customize Cash Flow,
train the cash flow forecast graph to show the budgeted amounts. Then the
credit cards should show a balance moving from low to high (by projecting
budgeted expenses paid for with the card and then dropping (by recognizing
the scheduled transfers.) Since I find all of the dinking around with Budget
Planner relatively painful and ineffective and since I abhor Moneys notion
that all scheduled transactions are, by definition, in budget. I don't do
this. I just set my recurring transfers to the card to an average value I
consider appropriate and don't display the credit card accounts in the cash
flow. One reason this makes sense, if you think about it, is that the notion
of "cash flow" as regards a credit account is kind of a contradiction in
terms anyway. It's not cash and it's not yours.
:
Dick,

Thanks for your insightful reply. As I was reading (and attempting to
digest!) your final paragraph I concluded it was too much trouble to
attempt to tweak Money such that it would report what I felt was
actually representative of my true "cash flow" situation. I laughed
when I then read further to your final few sentences and realized you
had reached the same conclusion and I completely agree with your final
sentence and believe it captures the essence of my objection.

Best regards,

--Howie

See comments inline.

"Howie" <nothere[at]this.time> wrote in message
news:rc76vv4enfc69ra9l3335mih38elm0ndlt[at]4ax.com...
- quote -

No it's not. It's exactly what is happening from a cash flow perspective.
The problem here is that your cash flow isn't reflecting the (projected)
expenses against the card.

- quote -

The credit card bills are not "debits." They reflect a need to move money
from a cash account to a liability account. The expenses you charged to the
credit card are the debits. As noted above, the problem is that your cash
flow is not accounting for the expenses that get charged to your card over
time. There is one way to make this work for you. Once you have a budget in
Budget Planner, you can set the account preference for categories to the
card you typically use for these expenses and then in Customize Cash Flow,
train the cash flow forecast graph to show the budgeted amounts. Then the
credit cards should show a balance moving from low to high (by projecting
budgeted expenses paid for with the card and then dropping (by recognizing
the scheduled transfers.) Since I find all of the dinking around with Budget
Planner relatively painful and ineffective and since I abhor Moneys notion
that all scheduled transactions are, by definition, in budget. I don't do
this. I just set my recurring transfers to the card to an average value I
consider appropriate and don't display the credit card accounts in the cash
flow. One reason this makes sense, if you think about it, is that the notion
of "cash flow" as regards a credit account is kind of a contradiction in
terms anyway. It's not cash and it's not yours.

Using M04 Deluxe, is there any way, when viewing "multiple accounts"
from within the "Forecasting Your Cash Flow" screen, to modify the
behavior of crediting and debiting the same forecasted credit card
payment to simply debiting?

I have two estimated monthly credit card payments in my "bills and
deposits" list. When the actual statement arrives, I modify this
amount and pay from my checking account. When I use the cash flow
analysis tool, and select only my checking account, things are
accounted for correctly in that the estimated amounts (or the updated,
actual current amount for the present month) are displayed as a debit
from my checking account balance. However, when I introduce the
credit card accounts into the cash flow analysis, the cash flow is
skewed upward as, for some reason, the debit which is accurately
portrayed, is offset by a corresponding credit to my cash flow. This
is nonsensical from a cash flow perspective, especially since I pay
off those credit cards monthly (and have indicated that in the
respective cards' account setup).

If I did not have a couple of bills which are automatically drawn from
these credit cards, I would simply use just the checking account and
forget about it.

What I would like is to view my checking account as is (including the
future credit card payments displayed as only debits) and include the
bills, attached to these credit cards, to be shown as debits (as they
should) in my cash flow analysis. This is not currently possible (at
least with how I have things structured!) as the total amount of the
estimated (or actual) CC payment is credited toward my overall cash
flow when these accounts are selected.

Any expert advice/input on how to overcome?

Thanks,

Howie

--Howie