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mark

22 Jan, 2026 06:41 PM

Hi, has anyone had any success using Microsoft Power Automate Desktop to do a sequence?
I am trying to automate something I do regularly;
Moneydance will be the active window
it then needs to select
Tools
Graphs and Reports
then a window will appear
then select the report "Transactions - Moneydance"
then the icon "Generate"
then a window opens
then click the icon "Save"
that gives a sub menu and select "Tab Delimited"
then a save as window appears and need to save the file as "c:\myfilename.csv"
that brings a window up to "confirm save as" which you need to select "yes"
then close that window with the "X" in the right hand corner
then close that window with the "X" in the right hand corner
then select Excel that will already be open with the file "Moneydance from a folder - v2.xlsx"
then select the tab "moneydance"
then refresh the table "TableMd"
that is all

but I ma struggling with all the options in PAD as Moneydance seems to drop the commands if you use Ctrl+Shift+G for the report, then if you use alt key it doesn't recognise anything for that menu option for reports, it doesn't recognise {DOWN} and so on.

Any advice would be great, thank you

1. 1 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 24 Jan, 2026 11:20 AM

   

   Perhaps you can try a python script to run a show url command which runs the report?

   If and when I get time I’ll take a look.

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2. 2 Posted by mark on 24 Jan, 2026 02:44 PM

   

   Thanks Stuart.

   I was getting to the same train of thought and found a Python script to try but I can't find the Python extension anywhere. Are you able to direct me where to find the .mxt file please?

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3. 3 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 24 Jan, 2026 03:01 PM

   

   You don't need an extension.. You have to run Moneydance, Menu, Window, Developer console

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4. 4 Posted by mark on 24 Jan, 2026 03:33 PM

   

   Excellent, thank you.

   That is working, I haven't used Python before so have used CoPilot to write a script and it has worked, nearly, it is adding;
   "stat, dtentered, chk, memo, acctid, 0.obj_type, tags, 0.id, td, dt, 0.desc, 0.tags, 0.acctid, 0.pamt, 0.samt, obj_type, id, ts, desc ?" in the report

   I am trying to do an export of memorised report that in MD is;
   all transactions
   the Category box is ticked with all categories
   the "Show memos" box is ticked
   the "Show Splits" box is ticked
   the "Include Sub-Accounts" is ticked
   the "Print in Landscape" is ticked

   Any suggestions?

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5. 5 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 24 Jan, 2026 03:47 PM

   

   Yes - use the extract_data extension, extract account registers - or extract investment registers... To CSV.... can be fully automated..

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6. 6 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 24 Jan, 2026 05:43 PM

   

   OR - try this script

   from com.moneydance.apps.md.controller import URLUtil
   from com.infinitekind.moneydance.model import ReportSpec
   from com.infinitekind.moneydance.model.ReportSpec import ReportGenerator as RepGen
   
   # list possible reports
   for v in RepGen.values(): print v, v.getShortID()
   
   # specify the income expense report
   url=URLUtil.getMoneydanceURL(URLUtil.MD_SHOWREPORT)
   url+=":"+RepGen.INCEXP_T.getShortID()
   
   moneydance.showURL(url)
   
   # note: you can also do
   #moneydance.getUI().showReports()
   

   for a basic way.....

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7. 7 Posted by mark on 24 Jan, 2026 06:46 PM

   

   Oh wow, I ran that script and it worked, thank you.

   I have an existing report in;
   Memorised Reports" called
   "Transactions - Moneydance"
   firstly, how do I find the short name that MD would recognise for that script?
    
   Ultimately that creates a report of all the transactions I need, I then Generate the report, then "Save" and save it as "Tab Delimited" and choose a location to save it and overwrite an existing report with that same filename but a .csv extension then I have to close the report and then close the reports window to get back to MD - I am just trying to automate that process so that from a single click I can extract that report and the output be in the the desired location/format.

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8. 8 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 24 Jan, 2026 09:40 PM

   

   When the script runs it lists all the short ids. Can you not see that?

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9. 9 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 25 Jan, 2026 12:48 AM

   

   It might be txnrpt or searchrpt
   Note. This does not run a memorised report. It runs the last used settings in the standard report for this type. There isn’t currently a way to run a memorised version like this. I’d have to think about a script to do it.

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10. 10 Posted by mark on 25 Jan, 2026 10:26 AM

    

    Ah, Sorry, I see now, yes the snippet screen fills with the report names, very clever, I had missed it initially as the MD report window jumped up hence distracting me!

    Yes I can run that snippet now and replace with the different codes but as you say, it doesn't handle the Memorised one.

    I have a spreadsheet that amalgamates my MD data, historic Quicken data and some other things from where I can then do Pivot Charts and Filters etc and see these from our mobile apps and allows us to search more than MD does whilst we are away from the desktop. So all I was trying to do was to reduce the time of running the report and refreshing Excel. I tried Power Automate but it seems because MD doesn't have keyboard strokes for all the steps needed and the way it handles Java that Power Automate is strugglng to do what is needed so I thought at least if I could use Python to squirt the data into Excel on demand that might save a bit of time, but not sure it can do that either.

    The process I am trying to achieve is;
    Tools
    Graphs and Reports
    then select the report "Transactions - Moneydance"
    "Generate"
    "Save"
    "Tab Delimited"
    save as "C:\Users\.........\Transactions - Moneydance.csv"
    "confirm save as"
    close that window
    then close the next window
    select Excel
    select the tab "moneydance and quicken"
    refresh the table "TableMdAndQu"

    If you have any suggestions that would be marvellous but in the meantime thank you very much for your help so far.

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11. 11 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 25 Jan, 2026 11:29 AM

    

    Did you look at extension extraction data as suggested?

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12. 12 Posted by mark on 25 Jan, 2026 11:57 AM

    

    I did thank you and found it very good. But unless I am missing something it doesn't seem to solve what I am trying to do because as I see it, the report can run either on open, close or change?
    I wouldn't want it updating every change as that would be a lot of processing, on open wouldn't help and on close, whilst I can see how that benefits some, for me I only do this output when I am sat with my laptop and wanting to manipulate data in Excel, often that means I ma finding things I have stored in MD that I need to change to a better way, then export again, update Excel and then look for the next thing I need to change, so I wouldn't want to be closing MD each time to trigger.

    If there were a simple Ctrl+ key sequence for the Memorised Transaction then that would be a help and also Power Automate would should be able to cope and then carry on doing the Excel bits too.

    I have just sent you 3 beers if you live in West Yorkshire, England like me, or 1 beer if you live in a city like London!!!

    Thank you for your help.

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13. 13 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 25 Jan, 2026 12:14 PM

    

    Email me:
    …

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14. 14 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 25 Jan, 2026 12:20 PM

    

    Out of interest. What happens if in developer console you run this code

    moneydance.showURL("moneydance:fmodule:extract_data:autoextract:noquit")
    

    Does that trigger the auto extract to run?

    Tip. Look at help/show console to see what it’s doing and any errors.

    You will need to setup the extract data first and tell it which extract is enabled for auto extract.

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15. 15 Posted by mark on 25 Jan, 2026 12:25 PM

    

    I configured auto extract but it told me none exists.

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16. 16 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 25 Jan, 2026 12:33 PM

    

    I just tried it and

    url="moneydance:fmodule:extract_data:autoextract:noquit"
    moneydance.showURL(url)
    

    works fine

    You have to launch the extension, set the extract folder, then go into one extract option, then enable auto extract, then actually run the extract on that screen to save the settings.. Then this should work..

    Also, you can run from the menu - see screenshot.

    If it's not working, send me help/show console output after trying....

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17. 17 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 26 Jan, 2026 08:29 AM

    

    OK, try this:

    from com.moneydance.apps.md.controller import URLUtil
    from com.infinitekind.moneydance.model import ReportSpec
    from com.infinitekind.moneydance.model.ReportSpec import ReportGenerator as RepGen
    from com.moneydance.apps.md.view.gui import GraphReportGenerator
    
    reportName="_Net Worth"
    type=ReportSpec.Type.TEXT # or ReportSpec.Type.GRAPH
    popup=True # try False for a different way
    
    book=moneydance.getCurrentAccountBook()
    
    # list possible reports
    #for v in RepGen.values(): print v, v.getShortID()
    
    print "---"
    foundRep = None
    for rep in book.getMemorizedItems().getAllMemorizedItems():
      if rep.getReportType() != type: continue
      print rep.getReportGenerator(), rep, rep.getReportParameters()
      if rep.getName() != reportName: continue
      foundRep = rep
    print "---"
    
    if not foundRep:
     print "Did not find memorised report!"
     ABORT
    
    print "found:", foundRep.getName(), foundRep, foundRep.getClass()
    
    if popup:
     GraphReportGenerator.showReport(foundRep, moneydance.getUI())
    else:
     moneydance.getUI().showReport(foundRep, None)
    

    change the line reportName="_Net Worth" to the exact name of your memorised report.. You can also change popup=True to popup=False for an alternative popup

    let me know?

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18. 18 Posted by mark on 26 Jan, 2026 08:54 PM

    

    That worked, thank you.
    It loaded that report. So I presume the train of thought is that when I know I want to run this report several times I can open the developer window, paste in the snippet and run it with 1 click rather than the several clicks to get there normally?

    Is there any way to assign a hot key?

    Also, is there any way to extend that to the saving it as a tab delimited file?

    And thank you very much, very helpful so far :-)

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19. 19 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 27 Jan, 2026 07:42 PM

    

    Yes
    No
    Maybe - if I get free time I’ll ponder.

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20. 20 Posted by mark on 30 Jan, 2026 01:00 AM

    

    Hi Stuart

    I hope you can assist again.

    I previously used Quicken for years and now have been using Moneydance for many years and built a spreadsheet to converge the data so I can view everything in one. Hence the other day for me asking about having a method of extracting the particular report and sucking it into Excel. The other day I started a big part of converging the data in my Quicken extract to change historic Categories and adding tags to replicate those in Moneydance. Also changing the Categories and tags within Moneydance to streamline things.

    Where the problem has started is that it is very difficult to batch change Categories/tags in split transactions so I turned to CoPilot and it helped build some scripts to do it and it all worked really well. Until... after closing Moneydance and then next time reopening there was a new Bank Account with the name "Restored" followed by a long set of characters that represented a transaction and it had changed the Categories/tags of a good chunk of the changed transactions to an account with that name, so all the original information was lost.

    I managed to restore a previous backup but the strange thing is that the sync to dropbox wouldn't work, even when restoring and unchecking remember previous sync details. When you go to the sync menu it shows the Sync method and Encryption method but not the dropbox bit and when you select Dropbox Connection it hangs, eventually asks for the passphrase but it is missing the bit that is normally there about the dropbox details. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling but now folders like fmodules are missing. Something strange seems to have happened.

    Any ideas? I can include the scripts if that would help.

    ​Regards
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21. 21 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 30 Jan, 2026 11:07 AM

    

    Mark, this is a complex technical set of questions.. You have my email. Email me the 'scripts' you were using...

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