tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:/discussions/switching-from-another-personal-finance-program/85-accounts-vs-categoriesInfinite Kind: Discussion 2018-10-18T14:02:47Ztag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/366051432015-04-17T07:17:18Z2015-04-17T07:17:19ZAccounts vs Categories<div><p>Why are accounts and categories chameleons of each other?!?! It
seems depending on whether you do a search from "Summary," or look
at an account (such as a bank account or a credit card account, NOT
a category), or run a report, whether categories or accounts are
shown in the "Category" column is always changing. I've made the
terrible mistake of using Batch Convert > Categories instead of
Batch Convert > Account to, um, change the CATEGORIES for a
bunch of transactions. Now, when I do a "Summary" search for a
Payee, those particular transactions show an account under the
Category column, instead of a category like all the other
transactions. And it seems impossible to simply change it to the
category I want - I seem to be going in circles with the "Other
Side." Is there any explanation, anywhere, of why Accounts and
Categories are one and the same in Moneydance?...</p></div>Willtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/366051432015-04-17T09:42:40Z2015-04-17T09:42:40ZAccounts vs Categories<div><p>Moneydance has borrowed some concepts from double entry
accounting, this is not unusual some other Personal financial
software packages do likewise.</p>
<p>In double entry accounting there is always two sides to every
transaction so for every debit there must be a credit and visa
versa. So for example if you credit an account with some funds
another account must be debited for those same funds.</p>
<p>Now for personal financial management this is something of an
overkill. but by using this concept it can adapt it to being able
to categorize your transactions and thus allow for reporting by
these categories for example which is far more useful to the
individual.</p>
<p>Thus you may for example buy some fuel with a credit card, this
transaction in itself tells MD very little, but by categorizing it
as fuel you can use it in reports.</p>
<p>Thus each category is somewhat like an account in that it
represents the double entry for each transaction but it does not
appear in account lists as they are not meant to be treated as
accounts, a category can have transaction from any number of
different accounts.</p>
<p>In general it is recommended to always approach transactions
from the account side, if you approach it from the category side
you need to be absolutely certain of what you are planning to do.
It is dangerous enough that you should ensure you have a good
backup before you start changing too much from the category
side.</p></div>dwgtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/366051432015-04-17T23:55:17Z2015-04-17T23:55:18ZAccounts vs Categories<div><p>Hi, thanks for your response! I've been trying to overhaul a
Quicken 2007 file (re-catorgizing pretty much everything in it) and
I got frustrated with the inexplicable downgrade that is Quicken
Essentials and its inability to provide meaningful reports, which
brought me to Moneydance. Moneydance seems far more capable in the
reporting department, but its user interface, data entry
capabilities, and particularly its re-catorgization capabilities
have been a nightmare, maybe because of the double entry
"overkill." So now I'm back to Essentials, thinking I'll run simple
reports to extract information, and then use Excel to do all of the
analysis. Thanks again!</p></div>Will