General Preferences

To access your General preferences, choose File > Preferences > General.
(On a Mac, choose Moneydance > Preferences > General).

In this window, you can customize the general settings that relate to your data file and accounts.
 

• Show Full Account Paths
  If unchecked the category “Bills: Electricity” will appear as "Electricity".

• Register Follows Recorded Transactions
  When enabled, the register will scroll to new transactions as they are entered.

• Use VAT/GST
  When enabled, Moneydance will automatically split any transactions that have associated VAT/GST rates into two categories, one to reflect the purchase cost and one for the VAT/GST.
  This is detailed further in this article.

• Case Sensitive Auto-Completion
  When enabled, Moneydance will only match previous transactions that begin with the exact text that has been typed in the Description field.

• Auto-Insert Decimal Points
  When enabled, values such as '1234' will be interpreted as '12.34', always putting two digits after the decimal point.

• Auto-create New Transactions
  After entering a transaction, a new transaction entry window will automatically open.

• Separate Tax Dates for Transactions
  This allows two dates to be entered for each transaction -
  one for your records and one that can be used for taxes.

• Show All Accounts in Popup
  If left unchecked, income/expense categories and accounts with the “Hide on Summary Page” option checked will not be available in the account list at the top left of the Moneydance window.
  Inactive accounts are never visible in this pop-up.

• Beep when Transactions Change
  When enabled, Moneydance makes a cash register sound when a transaction is entered or changes are applied.
   

• Show Selection Details
  This will amend the placements of the transaction panels you see in Moneydance (on the right of your account register when selecting an unconfirmed transaction, or a transaction that includes an attachment). By default, this is set as 'In Main Window'.
  It can be changed to 'In separate popup'. This opens the panel in a new window separate from the account register.

• Side Bar Balance Type
  Amend this field to change the balance that's displayed for your accounts in the side bar -

  • Balance - The total of all transactions, regardless of date or cleared/uncleared status.
    
  • Current Balance - The total of all transactions up to and including today's date.
    
  • Cleared Balance - The total of all transactions you have marked as "cleared.”

• Date Format
  Choose between several date formats.

• Decimal Character
  Choose between a decimal point or a decimal comma.

• Locale
  Select your locale to alter the language and spelling in Moneydance.
  Some locales will also amend the week start day.

• Fiscal Year Start
  Set a fiscal year with a start other than January 1st.

• First Day of Week
  Change the week start day. The default is Sunday, but any other day can be selected.
  This setting is available in Moneydance 2024.3 and newer versions.
  Using older versions of Moneydance, the week start day is determined by the Locale that's selected.

• Check for Updates
  Choose which types of updates you're notified about. Or remove the update notifications -

  • Don't check for Updates
    You will not be notified when a new version of Moneydance is available.
    
  • Stable Updates Only
    You'll be notified when a new version is available on our main download page.
    
  • Preview/Beta Updates
    You'll be notified when a new preview version is available on our preview download page.
    You can view a list of changes in the preview version in the changelog here.