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Duplicated Account Transfer Transactions When Using Downloaded Transactions

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ardie.eltoo

Nov 27, 2022 @ 02:20 AM

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking for a solution to the following situation:

I've downloaded and/or input all the transactions in each of my accounts (checking, savings, credit card, etc.). Now I want to link each of the account transfers using the correct bank account in the Category field. When I do so I now have the transfer transaction duplicated in the receiving account because it was already in there from the download/input process. This duplication obviously throws the account balances off.
I could of course simply delete the transaction which existed natively in the account and this might work fine in some instances. It would cause problems if I ever needed to re-import the transactions from that time period, but I could obviously just go back and delete them again.
The main problem with this, however, is that many of the payment dates (especially for e-transfers and cc payments) do not coincide with the receipt date which often can be offset by several days from the payment date. This obviously also presents problems when trying to reconcile the accounts, especially at the end of a cycle.

Are there any suggestions for how to link the two transactions together in the credited account (the "other side" of the transaction from the debited account and the natively existing transaction in the credited account)? The merge function would be great here (which is only available for downloaded transactions and cannot be undone) or maybe a new "link transactions" feature perhaps?

Appreciate any thoughts or suggestions on this. Until then, I'll stick with using dummy categories and tags.

Thanks,
Russell

1. 1 Posted by dwg on Nov 27, 2022 @ 03:16 AM

   

   When you import transactions you need to go through the confirmation process to assign categories, merge with existing manually entered transactions etc. This is the only stage that you can do this during.

   After the event i.e. once a transaction has been confirmed, it is not possible to somehow link transactions in two accounts, they are totally independent, if you change a category of a transaction in one account to be another account, rather than a category, a new transaction will be created in the other account, this is expected behaviour, and a merge is not possible because this is considered to be a manual entry.

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2. 2 Posted by ardie.eltoo on Dec 01, 2022 @ 01:09 AM

   

   So basically what you're saying is you have to get it right the first time and there's no way to really amend it later on.
   In other words, if I want to use the accounts as categories (so I don't bloat my income and expenses) and I want to import/download transactions from my banking institution I need to do one of the following:
   1. Before confirming transactions go through and categorize them all; then go and confirm so I can merge the duplicate transfer transactions.
   OR
   2. Delete the native transaction that has now been duplicated by using the account as a category (this is so the account balances can stay reconciled).

   But what about those e-transfers I did where we transferred it one day and accepted it on a different day or the credit card payments which were made on one day but weren't registered in the credit card until a couple of days later? How would you recommend dealing with those?

   I'm just really trying to find a way to use the great features you have in the software in a way that keeps everything reconciled and on schedule with the dates shown in the statements from the individual accounts and also doesn't bloat my represented income in my budget or register unnecessary/inaccurate expenses. And maybe there is a way to do that without creating a link between existing transactions, but I just haven't found a way yet.

   Am I explaining this well enough? Maybe I haven't explained the situation clearly . . .

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3. Support Staff 3 Posted by Ethan on Dec 05, 2022 @ 03:01 AM

   

   Hello,

   Moneydance should be able to work the way you're describing.

   One of the possible missing bits of information is that the merge option would only appear for another transaction that has already been confirmed. For example, if you're trying to confirm a payment from your checking to your credit card, you'd first have to confirm one of those transactions with the correct account in the category field. Then when you're confirming the other account, that transaction should appear as an option to merge with the 'other side' on the other account. So your balances will be off, but only temporarily while you're confirming.

   The other possibility for a transaction like this not appearing as a merge option is that the date range for transaction matching (in Preferences -> Network) is set too narrow. Usually seven days is plenty to take into account most bank transfers, but you may need to increase that if there's a large delay between your accounts.

   Ethan
   Infinite Kind Support

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4. 4 Posted by ardie.eltoo on Dec 09, 2022 @ 03:02 AM

   

   Hi Ethan,

   Thanks for the clarification. I didn't know about the date range before. This is helpful.

   This obviously works for the case where the transactions are downloaded and can be merged - though I am concerned that the dates don't match my statements when they get merged (i.e. the receiving account now has a different date than what my statement has). What about when the transactions are manually entered, for example when the banking institution has a limit on the number/time frame of the transactions that can be downloaded? Are you suggesting that in order to use this feature the solution is simply to omit or delete the extra transaction that cannot be merged? I'm no developer of budgeting software, but it seems you would want to keep things looking the same as the bank statements so people don't get too confused by things being out of sync with the statements. I suppose it may not be all that confusing necessarily, but if you don't see things coming in on the right date it could be. And for a couple of days your balances wouldn't match either.

   Does it make sense what my concern is? I may not be stating it clearly enough.

   Thanks,
   Russell

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5. System closed this discussion on Mar 10, 2023 @ 03:10 AM.