Custom Balances Extension: Questions and Answers
Stuart Beesley has developed some amazing extensions (Toolbox!) for Moneydance, but I feel one needs a bit more attention and usage - Custom Balances.
It's on my top right on my summary page. To put it simply, it allows you to create balances to view, on your summary page.
But it's much more powerful than that.
It's basically a custom report generator. You can create your own reports to view, and flip through them with the group id filter (i.e. a group id identifies a specific report you made)
It's basically a custom view into multiple reports. You just add another group id (i.e. "CustomView") and you can see important lines from multiple reports you created.
It's basically a warning window - you can place in hidden rows that trigger if a problem value is found (i.e. too low, too high, etc) and it will suddenly show up, and even blink if necessary.
You can change colors, show title bars, separation lines, etc.
You can do ratios, percentages, and so on. You can show categories by timeline - i.e. how much did I spend on gas THIS MONTH, or THIS YEAR?
It's uber powerful.
That said, anything uber powerful might elicit "how do I do this or that" questions. So far, these questions have shown up in "strange places" or in threads with a totally different title. As Stuart's main tester for Custom Balances, I can certainly answer such questions, and Stuart will probably check in as well. We would also entertain suggestions for improvement, but we both think CB is fairly mature at this point.
So, feel free to ask about Custom Balances here. It's a FANTASTIC extension (IMNSHO - in my not so humble opinion)
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31 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 25 Oct, 2023 04:39 PM
.. I think you and I are saying the same thing..
32 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 25 Oct, 2023 04:43 PM
OK, I have added more options in the list so you can select negative between options - e.g. -DAYS, -WEEKS, -MONTHS, -YEARS.
Can you test/confirm this fixes your issue?
Latest PREVIEW on my site:
https://yogi1967.github.io/MoneydancePythonScripts/
33 Posted by avp2 on 25 Oct, 2023 04:47 PM
That does it. Issue fixed. Thanks Stuart.
34 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 25 Oct, 2023 05:01 PM
👍
35 Posted by he on 25 Oct, 2023 08:07 PM
I am just starting to appreciate all that the Custom Balances extension can do. One question: Is it possible to change the color of a particular line (or row)? Thank you.
36 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 25 Oct, 2023 08:41 PM
Yup. Refer the help guide and look for the row formatting html codes section.
CMD-I on Mac
37 Posted by he on 25 Oct, 2023 09:56 PM
Thank you for your prompt reply and for the useful information.
To the uninitiated, it is possible to combine formatting codes. For example, to create a row in blue and bold font, use the following code: <#cbl><#fvbo>
Thanks again.
38 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 25 Oct, 2023 10:12 PM
👍
39 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 26 Oct, 2023 07:38 AM
@avp2 - New version uploaded to my site. Tweaked / fixed the XXX between calculation (it was out by one day)...
40 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 27 Oct, 2023 01:58 PM
@avp2 - please grab latest version of PREVIEW from my site. The core calculation routines that calculate the difference between DAYS/WEEKS/MONTHS/YEARS have been changed to provide a precise and accurate difference (rather than estimates using predefined averages). So the result will be more precise..
41 Posted by avp2 on 27 Oct, 2023 03:03 PM
The latest update did make a small amount of difference in my Income and Expense average per day for year to date values - about 0.3% each. The number of transactions in each calc is probably 1 - 2 thousand. The number of days stayed the same between this and the last version (300).
BTW, I checked the number of days calculated by the version two back, which was supposed to be off by one day, against two different on-line calculators and it matched both - 298, I think.
42 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 27 Oct, 2023 03:22 PM
Well, for number of days, both versions should return the same result.. It will only be the WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS that would be different.
NOTE: MD's predefined 'last 1/30/365' date ranges are wrong and all include an extra day. This will be fixed in build 4057.
43 Posted by dtd on 28 Oct, 2023 02:24 AM
5047... ;)
44 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 28 Oct, 2023 09:38 AM
Latest PREVIEW as of today... I have fixed the issue where MD returns an extra day in the last1/30/365 date range options.. Will be backwards compatible even after IK fix the core code....
45 Posted by avp2 on 10 Nov, 2023 09:49 PM
It appears that a "math" referenced row can not be a row that has itself a math referenced row - throughs a "uor invalid" error.
What I have is row 1, 2 & 3 where row 3 is a balance multiplied (via average) by X1, row 2 is a balance minus row 3 and the total multiplied by (via average) X2 and row 1 is a balance minus 2. Row 1 throughs the error. Row 2 and 3 work.
I did not see anything in the latest Readme indicating this could not be done. If it is not a bug, it would be handy to be able to do - essentially a chaining of calculations.
46 Posted by dtd on 11 Nov, 2023 12:43 AM
You are correct. It is not a bug. Stuart designed the uor row concept at my request (specifically for % of net worth calcs, but I do more now). When I asked if you could chain uors, he said no. Too hard to do, and he did cite quite a few reasons.
47 Posted by dtd on 11 Nov, 2023 12:51 AM
3 works because it doesn't use a uor (it uses average by)
2 works because it uses a uor of 3, as well as using average by
1 fails because it tries to use a uor of 2 (which uses a uor of 3)
(but you know that, I'm just reciting to be sure I understood... i was examining what you had to see if you could somehow adjust the math calcs....)
48 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 11 Nov, 2023 02:51 AM
It was a design decision. With one uor, there is nothing hard to do apart from use maths on two calculated rows. With more than one, you have to perform circular maths.
49 Posted by avp2 on 11 Nov, 2023 05:12 PM
Maybe Stuart will put multi-row math on a wish list. It would be nice.
50 Posted by avp2 on 11 Nov, 2023 05:51 PM
Would using row evaluation precedence (rows could use the results of already evaluated rows containing even row math’s) make the coding more doable.
51 Posted by dtd on 11 Nov, 2023 08:40 PM
Stuart and I are discussing this from a coding/do-ability perspective, as your last message suggests. (I'm also I/T)
Stuart said he'd been waiting for someone other than me to ask for this, and he is considering it....
52 Posted by avp2 on 11 Nov, 2023 09:10 PM
As we say in the West, cool.
53 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 12 Nov, 2023 03:37 AM
@avp2 - OK, latest PREVIEW (1038) on my site allows UOR chaining.. Please can you have play and verify it's working OK? Thanks
54 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 12 Nov, 2023 03:37 AM
https://yogi1967.github.io/MoneydancePythonScripts/
55 Posted by dtd on 12 Nov, 2023 04:39 AM
Ok! This new change seems to work for me (UOR chaining) and Stuart still recognizes the snake swallowing its tail (i.e. circular uor references).
But it does bring up a new issue that Stuart and I are debating, and which has come up before, and which we are trying to resolve in the simplest way possible.
Stuart asks the questions in the next message.
56 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 12 Nov, 2023 11:02 AM
The questions are:
1/ should the adj/by adjustment happen at the end after UOR maths (like it does now) or before UOR maths? Personally I think it should happen before UOR, dtd thinks not.
2/ do we need a sign flip feature. If we do, is this flip, or abs(+) / abs(-)? And then again before of after uor maths? Personally I think it should happen before UOR, dtd thinks not.
3/ if we do point 2, then does that eliminate the negative avg/by day/weeks/years feature?
Or is it good enough now and just stop making changes?
57 Posted by avp2 on 12 Nov, 2023 05:43 PM
So v1038 worked “out of the box” on the script I had using UOR that had a UOR.
As to the questions:
I think it works good enough now as is. The “averaging” line might be made clearer by rewording and moving the sign flipping function out of the “averaging” line (to a separate flip switch) - IMO, probably not worth the effort at this time.
Not sure about the “before/after” part of question 2. If asking whether sign should be flipped before, or after, the line’s other math is done, I say after - as it seems to be now. I regard the sign flipping as a display scale factor and don’t see it valuable for anything more than allowing a display reading to match its title wording.
58 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 12 Nov, 2023 06:05 PM
Great on the UOR chaining.. I'm taking that as 'done'.
As for the other points.. Little interest it seems, so no more changes for now...
59 Posted by dtd on 12 Nov, 2023 06:07 PM
After sleeping on it, I go with as long as multiple uors work, it's good enough now and no need to mess with it further. you can already flip/make+ already, just within the average/-DAYS area.
So I vote to declare victory.
I'll get into some of my detail thoughts with Stuart separately.
60 Posted by he on 13 Nov, 2023 12:02 AM
Is it possible for upcoming reminders to be included in the Custom Balances extension? Specifically, I'm looking for a future-looking account balance that calculates that balance by subtracting the sum of future reminders for a given period in the future.
For example, I'd like to know what an account balance will be at the end of this month (the future period) after subtracting the sum of all reminder transactions between now and the end of the month.