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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241 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 17 Jan, 2024 12:36 PM
@he. Have you tried Moneyforesight for reminders?
242 Posted by he on 17 Jan, 2024 03:35 PM
I believe you're referring to either th Balance Predictor or Foresight Forecast which can be added to the Summary Page? If so, I use both but each has its limitations:
a) They're graphs only which doesn't give me the currency precision I need. (Balance predictor graph is in $1000 increments along the y-axis, too imprecise to be practical for my needs.)
b) I just can't wrap my mind around entering a number and period for the future period. For example, a common future period I frequently use is 'asof end of month' or 'as of end of quarter'. Neither of these apps makes it easy. Instead, I have to calculate how many days (or weeks) till the end of the month (or quarter) and enter it accordingly. It's just too cumbersome to use. I know there's a better way to handle future dates -- CB has demonstrated that in spades -- but having to pull out a calculator each time I need to enter a future date doesn't work for me.
243 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 17 Jan, 2024 06:45 PM
All, I have ’tweaked” CB PREVIEW so that the internal engine can handle it if user enters and divides by whole numbers in formulas and so that you get the expected decimal result (rather than truncation)….
Previously 11/2 would equal 5 instead of 5.5 when entering manual formulas (for example)...
Ditto fixes for the sum, min, max, abs functions too..
Latest on my site…: https://yogi1967.github.io/MoneydancePythonScripts/
Would be grateful for people to load, confirm no existing numbers have changed etc and that formulas seem OK......
If you used cost basis or gains, would also be pleased to hear that nothing changed there either..?
Thanks...!!
244 Posted by dick on 17 Jan, 2024 08:03 PM
My existing numbers work in build 1047.
Thanks for all your great work. Really appreciate it.
Dick
245 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 17 Jan, 2024 08:25 PM
@dick 👍 have you tried formulas? Interested to hear what formulas people are using?
246 Posted by dick on 17 Jan, 2024 10:03 PM
I converted everything to formulas and it worked perfect.
Dick
247 Posted by he on 19 Jan, 2024 01:40 AM
I just got around to installing the latest version. I can confirm that all is working as intended on my end. All rows, subtotals, and my ever-important Reminder rows are identical to the previous version. Two thumbs up.
248 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 19 Jan, 2024 07:52 AM
@he 👍 thx
249 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 21 Jan, 2024 10:43 PM
All, FYI - PREVIEW has been updated on my site.. Slightly improved GUI config screen, and also improved size/handling/scrolling when on smaller screens. I'm interested to hear back from people that this version looks OK to them with no issues (on the GUI) arising... Thanks
https://yogi1967.github.io/MoneydancePythonScripts/
250 Posted by he on 22 Jan, 2024 12:32 AM
I just installed latest version and can confirm no changes in any of my rows, all amounts exactly as they should be, when compared to the previous version.
251 Posted by dtd on 03 Feb, 2024 10:17 PM
CB Version 1047 has been official on MD for a bit now, the major issue is that 1038 is still listed as the release. If you want the latest official release, go to manage extensions/installed/Remove Custom Balances, then go to Manage Extensions/Available/Install Custom Balances.
Should be no issues, but going to CB/Options/Backup Config before doing this is never a bad idea.
252 Posted by dtd on 03 Feb, 2024 10:22 PM
If you got a preview 1047 recently, almost nothing has changed, so the above is very optional as well.
253 Posted by he on 03 Feb, 2024 10:30 PM
Can confirm that by following @dtd's instructions, 1047 updated flawlessly. And I did back up my configuration before proceeding.
254 Posted by dtd on 02 Mar, 2024 05:53 AM
Now that 1047 has been out for a month - any thoughts or comments?
255 Posted by dtd on 22 Mar, 2024 09:32 PM
Well, it's been long enough that I'm at least looking to an information document update (Stuart's been doing it by himself, but I tend to edit)
Is everything clear in the new documentation? Anything you think should be added? And what do you think about the new version 1047?
256 Posted by he on 22 Mar, 2024 11:26 PM
As far as I can tell, everything is working as it should. Admittedly, I haven't read the documentation cover to cover, but I find the extension itself easier than ever to use without it and is currently serving all my needs.
System closed this discussion on 21 Jun, 2024 11:30 PM.
dtd re-opened this discussion on 02 Sep, 2024 09:38 PM
257 Posted by dtd on 02 Sep, 2024 09:38 PM
Reopening due to current interest. Current version is 1054.
258 Posted by avp2 on 03 Sep, 2024 12:41 AM
I am not having any problems using the extension. I now have 14 rows working fine.
259 Posted by dtd on 03 Sep, 2024 01:21 AM
Great to hear - I have about 150 rows, but that's because I create entire "groupid" tables, like "Percent of Stock Portfolio" for all my stocks.
260 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 03 Sep, 2024 09:21 PM
I still use the one row that I wrote this extension for… to net my bank and credit cards balances to zero… 😉
… and I admit… 9 more (very useful) rows… making 10…. I love my net worth deltas between years rows(s)….
261 Posted by he on 03 Sep, 2024 10:13 PM
It would be nice to have a repository of the different ways CB can be used, so we can learn from each other if you will.
262 Posted by dtd on 03 Sep, 2024 11:56 PM
The documentation describes pretty much everything you can do, with a few examples, but the reason there are so many options is because your imagination is really whatever you decide you'd like.
That said, some people can imagine things and describe them, which might trigger other thoughts by other people.
One thing to get people started - I have 150 rows, because I've created 2-3 custom reports - like % of net worth for all my stocks/bonds/home etc. - a custom report can be given a specific GroupID, and thus I make it visible on demand (or when I have to add a new stock), otherwise you just see the non-report area.
Stuart just described a "net worth delta by years" concept as well.
Again, it's basically whatever you imagine you want...
263 Posted by dtd on 04 Sep, 2024 04:07 AM
If I get a few yeses, I could probably do a "Custom Balance Tip of the Week or so" - but I wouldn't necessarily know what people want (versus what I want) - it would mostly be a "create this row/table" if these balances would mean something to you.
264 Posted by avp2 on 15 Sep, 2024 03:45 PM
I just found another feature I could use. I would like to be able to disable a row based on whether its balance is one of the "auto hide" selectors, <=X, >=X, etc, so that only positive balances, for instance, would be used in other rows that use this row for calculations. I suppose that just passing a zero value to using rows would work as well as totally ignoring the disabled row. For UI, I would suggest with the addition of another check box in the "hide" line that does the disable so that a user could choose to only hide or disable or both. BTW, a disable currently seems to be carried out by selecting "always" hide, but not for any other hide selectors - that should probably be made consistent (no disable on hide or disable on all hides) whether the disable function I am requesting is added or not. The purpose is to allow me to include some taxing register balances based on the balance amount - as can occur for Capital Gain estimating.
265 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 15 Sep, 2024 03:59 PM
That was a loooong paragraph; so I haven’t read it properly, only glanced at it.
My cursory look makes me think you want to ability to return the value when + but zero when - (or something like that).
It probably needs some pondering. I’ll probably wait for my analyst to jump in here 😉
Off the cuff, I was wondering if a formula would work? Or even whether a new formula could be added. Eg valueWhenPos() or something?
It strikes me that using hide is not quite right, as you want the value when x but zero when ‘hidden’.
Hmmmm
266 Posted by avp2 on 15 Sep, 2024 09:34 PM
What I want to do is make a row’s value zero, or ignored by other rows that might use it in their math calc’s, if it meets one of the auto hide conditions.
An extra formula could work and might be a more general purpose way to do that, I suggested the hide UI/function because it already does the “ignore” logic if you check “always” and the math operation part has <=X, where X can be zero.
I have not used any formulas yet, but looked to see if there was something I could use and did not find it.
267 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 15 Sep, 2024 09:45 PM
Trouble is that the disabled rows are not zero. They are disabled and cannot be used in other rows.
268 Posted by avp2 on 15 Sep, 2024 11:07 PM
Seems like that would be Ok for most situations.
Unless there were some way to set the value of a row to a specific non-zero value upon occurrence of one of the hide limit checks, a zero or disable (meaning value is not available for use in another row’s calculation) seem functionally the same with current row calculation operators.
269 Posted by dtd on 15 Sep, 2024 11:09 PM
I will read this soon, but I agree with Stuart, use a term other than disabled... maybe I'll try to come up with such a term.
As for formulas, it would help if you redescribed your desire using those, as they are more than 0/1 (i.e. use don't use) --- for example,
say you want a*(b+c) or a*b/c. and that c was the one you wanted to turn "on and off" (i.e. disable or "zero") -- would it become a*(b) and a*b. or a*(b+0) and a*b/0 (woops!)
or to continue - how about a*b+ c/d would that parse to a*b +0/d. or would it be a*b+[undefined]/d ?
btw, this is the same thing that is currently done with the non-formula part, just on a more complex level...
So, I think actual examples of what you want to do - more than
"The purpose is to allow me to include some taxing register balances based on the balance amount - as can occur for Capital Gain estimating."
That almost sounds like you want a table and select from that table based on value from a different row (i.e. tax rate based on income) - and I think that could be done, but I don't want to scratch my head on it till I know that's what you mean and are wanting to use the hide/show part to do so. And if something different, I won't have to scratch my head twice... ;)
270 Posted by avp2 on 16 Sep, 2024 02:37 PM
What I want to do is check a row (say r1) value that is added to another row (say r2) value only if r1’s value is zero or positive. If negative r1’s value should simply not be added to r2’s value or a zero should be added to r2’s value.
This could be done by having some kind of formula function that would set the added row’s value to zero if negative. It could also be done if the currently available “hide” function selection operators simply “disabled” the row as is done when you set/check the “always” selection operator - other selection operators do not “disable” the row.
I would agree that the term disable could be better, but that is what shows in the line evaluation message when you select “always” so why I used it.
I also agree that using some kind of new formula function might be more general purpose, maybe “set row value to Y if it’s value is <, <=, >, >=, = X". Either way would work for me.