Home → General Questions →

Confirm Downloaded Data - keeps pre-filling a transaction categorisation from 15 years ago!

• Edit

JimRB

24 Jun, 2022 09:35 AM

I download my Bank transactions by OFX and open that file in MoneyDance. I use the inbuilt system to click on items with a blue dot, match or confirm the categorisation, and then reconcile the account. All as per the Knowledge Base.

BUT, for my monthly credit card debit, MoneyDance always PRE-FILLS the transaction with a category I have not used for 15 years. There was only ever one transaction between these accounts with that category, and it was a credit not a debit on 6 Nov 2006! Not only that, but the description was different. There is no logical explanation for this to be offered, when the matching transaction exists.

Yes, the match offered is what I created when I balanced by credit card statement and input the entry to clear it, but that isn't really the point. Why is MoneyDance pre-filling what it does?

1. 1 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 24 Jun, 2022 09:44 AM

   

   try changing File/Preferences/Network: 'Only match downloaded transactions.... to 5 days' for example

   • Edit

2. Support Staff 2 Posted by Maddy on 24 Jun, 2022 09:56 AM

   

   Hi Jim,

   I can see you’ve received a reply from one of our knowledgeable Moneydance customers and it appears you’ve been given the information you need.

   For further details, please refer to this article of the Knowledge Base.

   Thank you

   --
   Maddy, Infinite Kind Support

   • Edit

3. 3 Posted by tgilbert666 on 25 Jun, 2022 09:22 AM

   

   I'm a fellow user. My guess is that your credit card download is blank for category and MD is filling the category that you have setup as the default category for the account. (Tools | Accounts | [Select account] | Edit. Examine the "Default Category".)

   If this does not help, can you paste a sample of the OFX file for the credit card account (you can open it in a text editor) and show what category information is being ignored/substituted? Alternatively, you can examine for yourself whether the OFX files fundamentally differ in content between the accounts behaving as you expect and the anomaly. MD can only work with the data that is presented to it.

   • Edit

4. 4 Posted by JimRB on 25 Jun, 2022 02:18 PM

   

   Sorry I have not explained fully.

   I am in the UK, so bank downloads are not automatic. Maddy your link does not apply. This is the page I was referring to - I used its title in my post.

   @tgilbert666: In MD, the default category is "AAAAAA", a category I set up when I moved to MD years ago, purely to allow easy checking that I had properly categorised transactions. I have checked that it is this for both the current and credit card accounts.

   @Stuart: The matching is set to 21 days. I've experimented with shorter and longer, but they cause different problems.

   I enter credit card transactions by hand as I pay them, and manually balance to the monthly statement - the card provider has no download capability. Each month in MoneyDance, I have a transfer from current to credit card.

   My Bank current account offers OFX, which I have used since the days of Quicken in 1999. That has no categories.

   This is the OFX
   

   <STMTTRN>
   <TRNTYPE>DIRECTDEBIT</TRNTYPE>
   <DTPOSTED>20220617</DTPOSTED>
   <TRNAMT>-XXX.XX</TRNAMT>
   <FITID>202206170005</FITID>
   <NAME>SAINSBURYS BANK PL</NAME>
   </STMTTRN>
   

   When I download the OFX from my Bank, and open the file, it imports the transactions to MD and correctly into my current account. When I select the downloaded transaction that relates to the transfer to clear my credit card, that transaction is ALWAYS offered with a category of "Executor Of DHB" - an account I only used for 2 years up to July 2008 while sorting out my Dad's estate. It is the 33rd category in the list. It has never been used for a debit from my current account. It was used ONCE in November 2006 for a credit transaction, and the description was "Sainsburys Bank" which is different.

   What I have just today realised is that I can set that category as Inactive, which I have now done in the hope that it will help next month.

   This is a mockup (using the example from the Knowledgebase) of what it looks like when I click on the line with the blue dot (sadly I didn't do a screenshot of the real thing prior to changing it):

   • 20220625_example_moneydance_confirm_downloaded_data.jpg 26.5 KB
   • Edit

5. System closed this discussion on 24 Sep, 2022 02:20 PM.