tags in reports on transfer transactions
I'm trying to convert from using Quicken for 20+ years to using MD. I've run into yet another problem. Sigh. :( I knew it was going to be hard but it seems I've been thwarted at every turn. Anyway ...
I use a lot of transactions that transfer money from one account to others. For example, let's say I transfer money from my checking to my savings account and I put a tag on it of Available. If I run a report (for example, income and expense, transactions, etc.) in my Savings account and try to filter it by tags, those transactions don't show up. It appears that if I want to filter by tags, I have to run the report on the account where the transaction originated (more correctly, whichever side of the transaction I entered the tags). Is this the expected behavior or is it a bug? Is there a way around this, short of changing all of my transactions to put the tags on it once they arrive in the "destination" account?
If this is the expected behavior then can I submit this as a change request?
If it is a bug, can someone please work on it? ;)
I do notice that in the Savings account (the account that I transferred into) the tags have [ ] brackets around the tags so apparently MD views them at least somewhat differently. It seems to me that if the tags are visible in the account that it was transferred into, then you should be able to filter on them in reports.
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1 Posted by Ben Spencer on 21 Jun, 2015 04:52 PM
Hi Zip
There is no easy way around this. Tags in Moneydance are only really associated with one side of a transaction, the side that you enter the tag on. I think the primary reason for this is to do with summing for reports. If the tag were on both sides of a transfer and I ran a report asking for all transactions with a particular tag the total of the report would be zero as both sides would be included and they would cancel each other out. I have spoken with the developers on this topic a number of times over the years and they are not inclined to change the way this works. I am sorry it does not meet your needs.
Ben Spencer
Infinite Kind Support
2 Posted by zip on 21 Jun, 2015 05:42 PM
Ugh!! The fact about potential problems in summing in reports seems
like a silly reason to do it like that. Kind of like throwing the baby
out with the bath water to me IMHO. It's the same issue if you run
reports that show the accounts on both sides of a transfer. I can see
where that would be a problem but it seems like there are ways around
that. One solution would be to either make summing on reports you can
filter by tags to not be possible (like do it only on the transaction or
transfer reports, etc. ) or put a warning or make it an option or
whatever. It's only a problem on reports where you are doing the report
on multiple accounts, right? Y'all limit what we can do in reports in
many other facets (like not being able to choose only reconciled
transactions, or not choosing categories and accounts in the same
report, etc.) so IMHO I don't see how this is different. Sigh. I
realize that I alone am apparently not going to change the developers
mind on this but maybe if enough people continue to tell them about this
they will eventually change this. I'm not holding my breath though. :(
So, moving on ... do you have any suggestions on how to accomplish what
I'm trying to do? This is already my second attempt at trying to find a
solution in MD. I really do feel like the program is working against me
with everything I try to do. :(
I need to have a way to mark the funds from a transfer transaction as
available (or partially available) or not over time. Since they are
transfers I can't use a category because MD uses Category and Accounts
interchangeably for whatever reason. To me accounts and Categories are
two totally separate things but that's a different problem/complaint.
Categories is what I tried originally. I had to move to tags because of
that.
So, any ideas?
Thanks, as usual, for your help.
Michelle
3 Posted by Ben Spencer on 21 Jun, 2015 05:46 PM
I am not entirely sure what you are trying to achieve. I think what you want to do is run a report that shows you what finds in an account are available. I think in such a case you can use tags you just have to be sure to tag the transaction in the account that the funds are moving to.
Ben Spencer
Infinite Kind Support
4 Posted by zip on 22 Jun, 2015 02:26 PM
That is essentially what I want to do. We have kind of a "slush"
account where things like rebates, bonuses, money we get as gifts, etc.
goes. It gets used over time and sometimes not all as one chunk
(meaning a $500 bonus might get used over multiple transactions). The
main problem with adding the tags from the other side is that everything
in our accounting system originates from our checking account. We use
envelope banking (where you have different "categories" that you save
for like car maintenance, vacation, etc.) so we have a bunch of virtual
savings accounts that we transfer money out of checking, into those
virtual savings account. Our checking account is the central point.
Everything comes into and out of that. In other words, we don't spend
money out of our savings account or deposit directly into our savings
account. It all goes through our checking account first and gets
transferred. So, in order to do what you are suggesting, I have to
remember that after I enter it into the checking account, I have to then
go into the destination account and add all the tags there. It sounds
easy but after 20+ years of doing it the other way, it's likely I will
forget and make a mess of my setup so I was looking to avoid that if
possible. I would also need to go back and change all of my automated
transactions to go the other way. It's doable I guess, just likely to
be painful so I was looking for alternatives.
5 Posted by Tom Freeman on 24 Jun, 2015 09:12 PM
You can try using the memo field and then a transaction filter report edited for the memo field.
What i think you are trying to do is create a manner to identify unexpected cash inflows that you have set aside and isolate them from your long term savings. if this is correct you should be able to use the memo field to "available" run a transaction filter report for your savings account edited with the memo toggled and "available" in that field. You should see a report with the transfers in and out with that memo.
Tom Freeman
Infinite Kind Support
System closed this discussion on 19 Mar, 2016 04:56 AM.