This is a big problem for me, too. Question - I have not
used Quicken, but if Quicken does have the ability to use
sub-accounts and Money does not, why use Money over
Quicken? Does Quicken fall short in other areas?

Create an expense account called accrued auto expenses.
Each month, create an expense entry from your checking account into the accrued auto expenses.
This will have the effect of under reporting your checking account balance.
After 10 months, you will have "expensed" $400.00 (10 x 40) of accrued expenses.
When you get your invoice for an actual auto expense (say $300.00) - expense this item from your checking account into another account called actual auto expenses. Split the transaction and transfer $300 from the accrued expense back into your checking account. This will leave $100 in accrued and $300 in actual expenses. You checking account balance will be understated by the amount remaining in the accrual account - $100

Very Messy - I don't enjoy having an asset account that does not reflect reality...

Just a thought -

"mak" <levack[at]hotmail.comNO_SPAM_ALLOWED> wrote in message newsa7m70tiqp97mla24qrqnhcg7ggfh4nep6[at]4ax.com...
Unfortunately I believe you can't. I played around with it on a second
Money file and it seems you just can't do that. You can see the effect
using Cash Flow but of course it just indicates them as Transfers and you
would be unable to distinguish separate specific item transfers. The
reason it's not in the budget is that it's not an expense per se, and
though it's a transfer, Money's budget module simply lumps all transfers
into one Transfer category rather than allowing you to have the option of
showing each as a separate line item in budget. The Budget Module is
flawed and there are a tonne of postings regarding its inflexibilities.
Like I said, the method I put out is not perfect but at least it's a work
around of sorts. The Budget to me is a whole other ballgame.

On Sun, 11 Apr 2004 16:57:44 -0700, "Brian"
<anonymous[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

- quote -

Unfortunately I believe you can't. I played around with it on a second
Money file and it seems you just can't do that. You can see the effect
using Cash Flow but of course it just indicates them as Transfers and you
would be unable to distinguish separate specific item transfers. The
reason it's not in the budget is that it's not an expense per se, and
though it's a transfer, Money's budget module simply lumps all transfers
into one Transfer category rather than allowing you to have the option of
showing each as a separate line item in budget. The Budget Module is
flawed and there are a tonne of postings regarding its inflexibilities.
Like I said, the method I put out is not perfect but at least it's a work
around of sorts. The Budget to me is a whole other ballgame.

On Sun, 11 Apr 2004 16:57:44 -0700, "Brian"
<anonymous[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

- quote -

I also have had the same issue that Michael has with
Money not being able to do the "cookie jar" method into
savings and Mark's answer is very good one and I have
tried it before. But, how can you get that method to
work inside a budget. For example, I would like to
budget $40 a month for automotive maintainence. I want
to transfer that money from checking into savings to be
used later. And then, when I need it, I'll transfer it
back into checking and write the check. All I want to
see in my budget (catagorized as "car maintenance") is
$40 per month being spent (but actually being transferred
into my savings account). Any suggestions?

Thank you,
Brian
- quote -

Thanks, that sounds like it will do exactly what I'm
looking for!

- quote -

On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 20:05:43 -0700, "Michael" <tschepsit[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -


Well fooling around with Money one can come up with ways to do so
creatively. One way is to do the following if you have a chequing and
savings account and use the savings account as a depository for future
expenditures and use Classifications to specify goals.

I have a No Fee Bank Account, and an Interest First Savings Account so if I
were to create a savings goal I would:

In the Chequing Account create a transfer transaction such as:

Payee: Interest First Savings Account
Category: Transfer Sub-Category: Interest First Savings Account
Class: Future Goals Sub-Class: Furniture

By customizing a Transactions by Category Report (and saving it as a
Favourite), simply narrow the scope down to specific Classes and that'll
help you keep track of the amounts you have saved.

When the purchase is forthcoming, simply do a reversal from the savings
account to chequing (or whatever account you choose) and do a subsequent
transaction for the actual expense.

It's not perfect but manageable. One may have to adjust the budget
accordingly.

I've read the unofficial FAQ and I understand that there
is no provision made for subaccounts or "cookie jar"
accounting (see http://umpmfaq.info/faqdb.php?q=113).
I'm not satisfied with the workarounds presented on that
page. Has anyone found a more creative way to designate
money for specific purposes within an account?

I typically put money into savings or investment accounts
on a regular basis with multiple specific purposes in
mind (car, vacation, etc.), but once some of that money
has been removed for one purpose only, the ratios on the
balance are no longer the same as the ratios on the
periodic deposits. It's still possible to go back and
figure out exactly how much money is there for each
purpose, but it's time-consuming.

I guess my frustration stems from my use of a single
account to save for multiple purposes. I would expect
this to be relatively easy to keep track of on the
computer.