tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:/discussions/switching-from-another-personal-finance-program/18419-switching-from-microsoft-moneyInfinite Kind: Discussion 2021-06-05T13:20:26Ztag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/490492772021-02-22T14:59:18Z2021-02-22T14:59:18ZSWITCHING FROM MICROSOFT MONEY<div><p>I am not support staff, just a user.<br>
Hi John</p>
<p>I transferred my MS Money data to Moneydance back in 2016.</p>
<p>Yes Moneydance will be able to handle all your data, but as MS Money only exports one account at a time, unlike some other programs, you will have your work cut-out.</p>
<p>Try it out for yourself.</p>
<p>The downloaded version of Moneydance is a full working version with the only limit being a maximum of 100 manually entered transactions, with no time limit. Imported files from other financial programs and your bank have no limit on imports, provided that you do not confirm them. If you decided to purchase you are sent a key by email that unlocks the 100-manual transaction limit. If after testing with this free trial version you purchase and change your mind see the 90 day money back guaranty at <a href="https://infinitekind.com/refunds">https://infinitekind.com/refunds</a></p>
<p>For the future Moneydance never sunsets the version it releases. So, you don’t have to upgrade. If you won’t to upgrade the next version is free (say 2017 to 2019) and from then on you get a 50% discount. All upgrades within a version are free.</p>
<p>Make sure you are running this build of Moneydance <a href="https://infinitekind.com/preview">https://infinitekind.com/preview</a></p>
<p>Unfortunately, the support article at <a href="https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/kb/importing-data-from-other-programs/importing-from-microsoft-money">https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/kb/importing-data-from-other-pro...</a> is a little out of date, so I put together the following set of notes. The support article can help when importing investment accounts as they are not covered in detail below.</p>
<p>You need to use your old program to export your data in a QIF file type, one QIF file for each account, including any closed account that have transfers to any open accounts, re-open these accounts if necessary. If you are exporting from MS Money you should use loose as the QIF export format</p>
<p>Open one of the QIF files in a text editor. You are looking for the date format used in the file e.g. D25/03'2019 Day Month Year or D5/ 17'19 or D05/31/2017 Month Day Year etc. You will need this information later. If you get this wrong it will be apparent as the dates in Moneydance will be all over the place and you will need to start again creating a new data set.</p>
<p>QIF files were never meant for transferring data from one program to another, but it’s all that is available, you will need to spend time cleaning thing up when import is complete.</p>
<p>When you first start Moneydance it opens in the Welcome window click on “Create a new account set”. If you have opened Moneydance before create a new data set under FILE (MONEYDANCE on Mac) – NEW.<br>
Select “Create New File” (Data Set) and click NEXT. Type in an Account Set Name (Data Set) and click NEXT. Change Primary Currency (base currency), if required. File Type, leave at “Standard Account set”, click FINISH.<br>
In the Side Br (list on left) under BANK deleted the two default Bank accounts, highlighting them in turn and using ACCOUNT – DELETE ACCOUNT.</p>
<p>NOTE: If you have accounts with currencies that are not in your base currency (foreign currencies) perform the steps under NOTE 1 before importing your QIF file as follows.</p>
<p>Select one of your QIF account files, the one with the most transfers to other accounts.<br>
1. If in step 3 you don’t see the name of the account you are importing click CANCEL and setup the account. ACCOUNT – NEW ACCOUNT - select account type – NEXT – Enter the name of the account exactly as it appears in your old program under “Account Name” – OK.<br>
2. Drag and dropped the QIF file into the Side Bar (list on left).<br>
3. Wait for the Analyzing data window to close. This may happen so fast you don’t even see the window or nothing may appear to happen until the Import window opens.</p>
<p>IMPORTANT Checked all listed accounts are of the correct type and currency and changed if required. Find the name of the account you are importing in the list and highlight it.<br>
4. The “Date Format” should be set to the date format used in the QIF file not the date format you want to use in Moneydance. Select the correct Decimal Character. Do not tick “File was downloaded”.<br>
5. Click Import and wait, the process can take some time. Again, nothing may appear to be happening until the process is complete, indicated by the Merging data window closing.</p>
<p>Some or all of the accounts maybe hidden in the Side Bar, list on left. To make accounts visible click the “+” at the bottom of the Side Bar, then Advanced, then OK.</p>
<p>Account that have transfer within the QIF file you imported will be automatically created. Don’t worry that their balances are incorrect, as you import the other QIF account files thing will sort themselves out.</p>
<p>Repeat the process steps 1 to 5 for each QIF account file.</p>
<p>Some QIF files don’t include initial account balances. If you think this is the case you can add initial balance to affected accounts as follows.<br>
Highlighting an account, then click ACCOUNT – EDIT ACCOUNT and add an Initial Balance.</p>
<p>For investment accounts QIF file don’t always carry security prices other than buy sell prices, so investment account balances maybe wrong until you update with current security prices.</p>
<p>Bills (Reminder) are not included in QIF files.</p>
<p>Any accounts that are inactive (closed) should be made inactive by highlighting the account in the side bar and clicking ACCOUNT – EDIT ACCOUNT and ticking the inactive box. To remove them from the side bar right, click and select REMOVE FROM SIDE BAR.</p>
<p>You can also click the “+” button at the bottom of the Side Bar, click Advance then use the Advance window to determine which items are visible in the Side Bar.</p>
<p>Now the real work starts to check balances and tidy thing up. This is especially true of investment accounts as not all action types are supported. But worth it in the end.</p>
<p>Note 1: This section only applies if you have accounts with currencies that are not in your base currency. For these currencies ensure “Show on summary page” box is ticked under TOOLS – CURRENCIES – highlight subject currency and double click – EDIT.</p>
<p>Note: QIF file do not contain exchange rates. To overcome this QIF file shortcoming the Currency/Security History window must have current and dated exchange rates filled in which cover the date range of transactions in non-base currency account. As well as manually adding exchange rates you can import CSV exchange rate files downloaded from sites on the web. Use IMPORT button in the Currency/Security History window. If you have investment account their balances will probably be incorrect. This is due to the fact that the currency set in the security history windows will be in the Moneydance base currency. You can change to the correct security currency and provided exchange rates exist the values will be converted. As you do this re-calculation occurs, but I think the results should to be correct. No guarantees the section will work correctly.</p>
<p>For information on how to use Moneydance see <a href="https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/kb">https://infinitekind.tenderapp.com/kb</a></p>
<p>Hope this helps</p></div>derekkent23tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/490492772021-02-24T12:25:04Z2021-02-24T12:25:06ZSWITCHING FROM MICROSOFT MONEY<div><p>I replied to this post several days ago but cannot find my comments online.</p>
<p>I really appreciate all the trouble you have gone to to tell me how to do this. I think my conclusion is that it is just too difficult. I am prepared to spend a day doing this but not a week. From the information you have provided I think it will take me about a week to do and there is no guarantee at the end that it will work. Would you think it would take this long?</p></div>mailtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/490492772021-02-24T12:55:29Z2021-02-24T12:55:29ZSWITCHING FROM MICROSOFT MONEY<div><p>I am not support staff, just a user.<br>
Hi John</p>
<p>Given that you talk about 200 files of which 107 are active and 50 active investment files each consist of a file with investment transactions and another with cash transactions then it’s not a trivial task to transfer the data to Moneydance. Most financial software programs allow you to exports all your accounts to a single QIF file, but not MS Money. Having to export/import each account takes time, its not difficult but is repetitive. Importing Bank, Credit accounts into Moneydance usually gives good results. Investment account can be more challenging and not all relevant data for securities is exported by MS Money. That were I spent most of my time when I moved from MS Money. Was it worth it, well yes, but that a decision you need to make for yourself. How long will it take? How long is a peace of string. It will probably take more than a few days.</p>
<p>If you do decided o try then there has been some changes in the last couple of days had you need to be aware of.</p>
<p>Hope this helps</p></div>derekkent23tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/490492772021-03-03T09:50:38Z2021-03-03T09:50:38ZSWITCHING FROM MICROSOFT MONEY<div><p>I have started the process but cannot import investment accounts.</p>
<p>The instructions state:<br>
You'll need to create two accounts in Moneydance for each investment account. One will be of type "Investement" and the other will be "Bank". The bank account will contain the cash transactions from the investment from MSMoney. This is just a temporary account used for correctly importing the data. You will combine the transactions and delete this account later.</p>
<p>I therefore created two accounts: Selftrade (an investment account) and Selftrade cash (a bank account). I imported the date into the qif account from MS Money into Selftrade (the investment account). However when I try to import the data into Selftrade Cash the list of accounts shown only includes investment accounts. It does not show Selftrade cash. So I am stuck. How do I proceed please? Grateful for any assistance. John</p></div>mailtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/490492772021-03-03T15:20:53Z2021-03-03T15:20:53ZSWITCHING FROM MICROSOFT MONEY<div><p>I am not support staff, just a user.<br>
Hi John</p>
<p>When I was using MS Money I selected the option not to track cash transaction in a investment account so when moving to Moneydance did not have this issue.</p>
<p>My first thought is maybe the problem is you should have named the bank account you set up in Moneydance just “Selftrade” not “Selftrade Cash” assuming the investment account in MS Money was Selftrade. Thus in Moneydance you start with two Selftrade accounts in Moneydance, one Investment and one Bank.</p></div>derekkent23tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/490492772021-03-03T17:33:09Z2021-03-03T17:33:09ZSWITCHING FROM MICROSOFT MONEY<div><p>thank you Derek<br>
Re transferring investment accounts. I think I have the answer – but it has taken me 3 days to work out. First you have to export the cash file for the investment account as well as the investment account from Money. I did not realise you could do that. Secondly and most importantly when importing the file you have to place the cursor over one of the bank accounts on the summary page otherwise it only list the investment accounts. And don’t create the account – as the instructions state – as the account has already been created. Instead you click on the plus sign and “add” the account.</p>
<p>The portfolio seems only to show the investments by accounts. Most of my investments are spread across several family accounts so it is the consolidated figure I need to see. Is this possible in Moneydance? If this is not possible then Moneydance is no use to me.</p>
<p>Several of the bank accounts have been accurately transcribed but my main bank account appears to have a large number of mistakes in it going back nearly 20 years. The opening balance is correct. I have not copied all the accounts across yet. I am just doing a trial on 13 accounts. Is it best to copy all the closed accounts across (having opened them first in Money) in case the missing transactions are in those accounts? I have 200 accounts, 107 being live. Rather a lot I know.</p>
<p>John</p></div>mailtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/490492772021-03-03T18:32:01Z2021-03-03T18:32:01ZSWITCHING FROM MICROSOFT MONEY<div><p>I am not support staff, just a user.<br>
Hi John</p>
<p>The bit about “Instead you click on the plus sign and “add” the account.” was covered in my first post.<br>
“Some or all of the accounts maybe hidden in the Side Bar, list on left. To make accounts visible click the “+” at the bottom of the Side Bar, then Advanced, then OK.” You could try the Net Worth report rather than the Portfolio Report. If that not what your looking for provide more detail on what your hopping for.<br>
If any of the accounts not yet imported into Moneydance have transactions to/from accounts you have imported then these accounts want have correct balances as unimported transactions will throw thing out. The only old closed account that you don’t need to import are those without transfers to your open accounts now in Moneydance.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p></div>derekkent23tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/490492772021-03-03T21:09:22Z2021-03-03T21:09:22ZSWITCHING FROM MICROSOFT MONEY<div><p>Derek, I very much appreciate your advice.</p>
<p>I need the portfolio view to show:</p>
<ul>
<li>a list of the total holdings (across all account) of the shares and funds I hold in alphabetical order. If I hold the same share in 4 different accounts I need to monitor the total holdings – not look in 4 different accounts and then add them up on a calculator.</li>
<li>On a daily and weekly basis I wish to see the price changes in percentage terms sorted in order of percentage (so I can just monitor the greatest falls and rises)</li>
<li>The view needs to show Symbol, market value, quantity, cost, realised gain, unrealised gain, price, dividend yield and preferably percentage gains over various periods eg 3 months, one year, 3 years and total gain.</li>
<li>Holdings by accounts showing market value, quantity, and unrealised gain.</li>
</ul>
<p>My main bank account will have transfers to almost all the closed accounts. So from what you are saying I need to transfer across all 200 accounts.</p>
<p>John</p></div>mailtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/490492772021-03-03T22:43:32Z2021-03-03T22:43:32ZSWITCHING FROM MICROSOFT MONEY<div><p>I am not support staff, just a user.<br>
Hi John</p>
<p>One of the great things about Moneydance is that the Moneydance developer supports knowledgeable users to develop what are called Extensions to add to the Extensions developed by Moneydance itself. Stuart a Moneydance user has developed an Extension called Extra Data. Within this Extension is a feature that may get close to the things you are looking at called Stockglance2020,<br>
This can be found on his site at <a href="https://yogi1967.github.io/MoneydancePythonScripts/">https://yogi1967.github.io/MoneydancePythonScripts/</a></p>
<p>You will see two downloads for the extension Extra Data, one has been signed by Infinite Kind (Moneydance) the other is at a later build waiting to be submitted or waiting to be signed by Infinite Kind. Try this extension.</p>
<p>If you have imported an account into Moneydance and it has missing transfers to/from another account that has not been imported then the account balance can’t be correct, Moneydance would only have part of the story.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p></div>derekkent23tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/490492772021-03-06T12:11:29Z2021-03-06T12:11:29ZSWITCHING FROM MICROSOFT MONEY<div><p>Thank you for all your advice Derek. However due to difficulty of switching my large file and now the problems of mastering these extensions I will stick with Money. Shame. I would have preferred a programme where support was available. John</p></div>mailtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/490492772021-03-06T13:17:50Z2021-03-06T13:17:50ZSWITCHING FROM MICROSOFT MONEY<div><p>I am not support staff, just a user.<br>
Hi John</p>
<p>Can I suggest don’t abandon Moneydance altogether. Perhaps pick a date, say the first of this month and set up your accounts that are open at that time. Add an opening balance for each account for that date. Add the transactions from that date. This way you will get a feel for Moneydance. Run this in parallel with MS Money.</p>
<p>Extensions are there to add features, you just add the ones you need, they are your friends.</p>
<p>By perusing Moneydance if something happens to MS Money as an unsupported software you are not left high and dry.</p>
<p>Have Fun, Stay Safe.</p></div>derekkent23