tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:/discussions/budgeting/1395-question-about-transactionsInfinite Kind: Discussion 2018-02-14T22:10:24Ztag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/440487362017-11-15T21:37:27Z2017-11-15T21:37:58Zquestion about transactions<div><p>It sounds like you are trying to use categories to pre-allocate where money is to be spent sort of like an envelop budgeting system.</p>
<p>This not a function categories can perform, they are there to either record the source of Money received or what it is spent on, they record the information that is used to generate Income and expense reports.</p>
<p>When you enter a deposit and say categorize it as groceries you are telling the software to deposit this much money into my bank account and the money is coming from Groceries, where as the money is more likely to be coming from something like wages or salary.</p>
<p>The actual sign of a category is not simply determined by a + or - sign. The fundamental nature of a category is determined by its definition i.e. whether it is defined as an Income category or an expense category, so in the normal course of events both look to be positive but because of their definition they are handle differently in reports and appear in different sections.</p>
<p>The software i built upon the fundamental definitions of double entry accounting, the basic premise of which is that for every credit there must be a corresponding and equal debit.</p>
<p>You deposit money into a bank account (credit) it takes it from somewhere else (debit) and in this example that is groceries</p>
<p>I hope this helps to clarify what you are seeing.</p></div>dwgtag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/440487362017-11-15T21:53:20Z2017-11-15T21:53:21Zquestion about transactions<div><p>It does, but can I make it work like a budget envelope system? That is what I'm used to. I wish to deposit money into accounts each week, then withdraw when bills are due. Is Moneydance capable of doing this?</p></div>Susan E.tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/440487362017-11-15T22:01:40Z2017-11-15T22:01:40Zquestion about transactions<div><p>Moneydance can do it to a degree. Some users developed a method using a parent account along with sub-accounts to hold the monies for specific purposes but with the parent account reflecting the total balance of your account. Alas I do not have a pointer to these discussions hopefully another user will post it.</p></div>dwg