Still extremely, extremely frustrated with how poorly Moneydance matches imported transactions
I just went through a reconciling exercise that was so bad, I felt compelled to post.
I'm running Moneydance 2010r3 (751). The way I work is, on a monthly basis, I download transactions from my credit card and then categorize them so I can keep track of expenses for budgeting purposes.
A number of months ago, I purchased some clothes at a store called 'Sams of Livingston." Fast-forward to today: Because I shop frequently in the town of Livingston, many of my credit card transactions have the word "Livingston" somewhere in the transaction data. It seems that when Moneydance matches transactions, it erroneously tries to rename ANY transaction that has 'Livingston' in it to be 'Sams of Livingston'.
Case in point: here's a screenshot I compiled of three different
times this happened. For all three screenshots, I held down the
Alt-key so you can see the original transaction and what Moneydance
tried to match it to.
In the first transaction, I made a purchase at Menzel's Violins. Moneydance tried to rename it and re-categorize it to Sam's Livingston, even though the transactions had nothing else in common.
In the second transaction, I ate lunch at Subway in Livingston, and again Moneydance tried to tried to rename it and re-categorize it to Sam's
In the third transaction, I made a purchase at Kids at Heard, and yet again the same thing happened.
I could go on with examples, but I'm sure you get the point. And, the problem is not just happening with Sams; I have started getting similar problems with other stores in other towns.
Why is this happening? This is really driving me crazy as it's requiring way too much work to simply download and categorize credit card transactions. Is there anything I can do to stop this? Will this be fixed in the long term?
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1 Posted by Ben Spencer on 21 Jun, 2010 07:06 PM
Hi Larry
Do you have "Automatically merge downloaded transactions" turned on. The option is under File->Preferences->Network. If you do not want Moneydance to try an automatically categorize and merge download transactions you can turn this off by unchecking it. If you do this when you download transactions they will be given the default category for the account and when you click on them you can explicitly select which if any of the matches Moneydance finds.
Moneydance compares the description and memo fields of the incoming transactions to the already accepted transactions in your register for the auto categorization process. As you point out the problem is caused by the fact that most of your transactions contain the text "LIVINGSTON NJ". Having 12 characters in both the memo and the description in sequence being identical to the incoming transaction is a significant match. It is unfortunate that your credit card company does this with all transactions. It means that many of your transactions have a lot in common which makes the matching process less accurate. In your first example I imagine that you have not got a previous entry in your register for "MENZEL VIOLINS LIVINGSTON NJ" and the closest match that Moneydance can find is the "SAMS LIVINGSTON NJ" If you revert this match and categorize it manually to the category you want, the next time you buy something from "MENZEL VIOLINS LIVINGSTON NJ" it will be correctly categorized. As you fill your register with transactions that you have categorized your self the auto categorization will improve as there will be better matches available.
You may find that you get much better results if you go through the accepted transactions that are in your register and remove the "LIVINGSTON NJ" component from the description and memo fields.
Sincerely
Ben Spencer
2 Posted by LarryCL on 21 Jun, 2010 07:30 PM
Hello Ben. Thank you for your quick response. Let me answer your questions in turn:
Do you have "Automatically merge downloaded transactions" turned on. The option is under File->Preferences->Network.
Yes, I do have this on, and I'm pretty sure I want this on. If I turn it off, wouldn't it be the case that Moneydance would not categorize ANY transactions? That's not what I want at all. For example, I purchase all my groceries at one local supermarket. Right now, Moneydance automatically categorizes any transactions from that store as 'Groceries'. If I turn this setting off, wouldn't I have to manually do the categorization on each and every transaction? That's not what I want at all.
It is unfortunate that your credit card company does this with all transactions
It's Captal One Bank, by the way. I may be the first to be reporting this but I'm sure I won't be the last as this is a very large bank.
As you fill your register with transactions that you have categorized your self the auto categorization will improve as there will be better matches available.
I understand that this will get better for specific stores, but what you're telling me is that pretty much any purchase I make at a new merchant in Livingston is going to get auto-categorized as "Sam's". That's really not acceptable.
You may find that you get much better results if you go through the accepted transactions that are in your register and remove the "LIVINGSTON NJ" component from the description and memo fields.
Again, this is really not an acceptable solution. Moneydance is supposed to me making things easier for me, not making work for me.
Again, thank you for your response; I do appreciate it. I would love to see the matching algorithm take into account how this particular credit card works.
3 Posted by LarryCL on 22 Jun, 2010 04:33 PM
Another thought:
In this posting from April 10 http://help.infinitekind.com/discussions/problems/1023-transaction-... , a user posted about the opposite problem: Moneydance was not matching broadly enough and he could never get his transactions to autocategorize.
On May 13, Angie posted that Moneydance had been updated and the matching algorithm was changed. Is it possible that the algorithm is now too broad in how it matches?
4 Posted by Owen Jones on 23 Jun, 2010 10:09 PM
I have the same problem. I have a set of transactions every month with the same first 9 characters that should go to different categories - MD invariably gets confused and miscategorises them, so I need to be very careful not to accept the wrong ones. I am using the latest build 751.
Everyone will have different requirements for matching, and I expect it is pretty much impossible to come up with a generic algorithm that will cover all possibilities. I have two suggestions:
1. Have customisable matching, including regular expressions so people can do anything they like if they really want to
2. NEVER change the description on a match - I can't see any benefit to this and it can get very confusing
Regards
5 Posted by ls on 24 Jun, 2010 08:21 PM
I see the Moneydance staff is having a discussion around matching transactions, so I'd like to weigh in with a related question/request -
I download OFX transactions for my checking account, and match them manually using MD's suggestions. This process has gotten easier as more transactions have been matched, but one glaring problem arose today. I had numerous checks in this import, which come in from my institution as "CHECK" and the check number, but nothing else. This batch of checks were all written about 4 weeks ago, and I'd printed them from MD so all the data was already in the register (including correct check numbers and amounts).
But when I went to match the newly imported transactions, MD didn't offer me a match with existing register entries, even though the check # and amount were identical. How can that be? I tried changing the dates on the existing entries to be closer to the date on the imported transactions, and MD DID find them. So it was apparently the date disparity that was causing the issue. But with checks, 4 weeks is not an uncommon time lapse between writing and depositing. And manually changing all that data is not ok. Any fix to this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
6 Posted by Earl on 24 Jun, 2010 08:55 PM
I know this won't solve your matching problems, but have you ever thought that it might not be the greatest idea to have an open internet pipeline to your banking accounts? For personal use, manual entry should actually take less time and provide better data management than constantly relying on everything to be done automatically. It might be of interest that dedicated investment financial software routinely costs over $1000.00 and carries large yearly licensing fees. Even then, it must be tailored to communicate efficiently with only a handful of institutions. Just some food for thought.
7 Posted by Owen Jones on 25 Jun, 2010 04:22 PM
I'm afraid I have far too many transactions to enter them all manually. Automation is essential to make this practical at all - I'd never use a program like MD without it. Since there is SSL security in place and I keep my password secure I'm not too worried about this personally.
8 Posted by jsfrederick on 25 Jun, 2010 05:44 PM
Larry,
You DON'T want auto categorization on . That is the main problem you are having. When Auto categorization is off, you select the "new" transactions and are allowed to "manually" match them and categorize them. I've never allowed transactions to be automatically categorized, either in Quicken or Moneydance. I prefer to review each transaction and make sure they match my requirements.
Turn off auto categorize and see of that works for you.
9 Posted by LarryCL on 25 Jun, 2010 06:19 PM
jsfrederick,
I'll give it a try. My thinking had always been that I DO want auto categorization; for example, I buy all my groceries at one supermarket. I don't want to have to set the category to 'groceries' for each and every transaction with that supermarket; I want Moneydance to set it for me. Similarly, I want it to set the category to be 'automobile fuel' for every purchase I make at the local gas station.
If I turn off auto categorize, will it still set the categories for these common purchases?
10 Posted by jsfrederick on 25 Jun, 2010 06:38 PM
Until Sean fixes/changes/updates (or whatever you want to call it) the Matching algorithm, you'll have to turn off auto cat unless you want to keep having the same problem.
Yes, as you categorize and accept transactions, MD will get "better" at matching. When I select a new transaction that says Costco Gas, the lower screen shows me the transaction with the different categories that it thinks work. I select the category that is Transportation: Auto Fuel and accept it. Once I have enough data in there, I might try auto cat and see how that works.
11 Posted by LarryCL on 25 Jun, 2010 10:25 PM
jsfrederick, I'll give it a try.
To Ben and all the Moneydance people et al: I've got to tell you, the way this works is really poorly documented and you really need to fix the documentation and/or the terminology. Here's what it says in the latest documentation http://moneydance.com/userguide2010 :
Tip: Moneydance attempts to recognize and auto-categorize transactions with similar payees and amounts, so once you have manually assigned a category to a transaction or changed it's description you can expect Moneydance to suggest the same category and/or description for similar transactions. To have Moneydance automatically merge matching transactions go to Moneydance → Preferences → Network and check the “Automatically Merge Downloaded Transactions” option.
Re-read the first sentence of this tip: Does it mean Moneydance will always attempt to recognize and auto-categorize transactions? Or does it mean you need to turn on "Automatically Merge Downloaded Transactions" to have it autocategorize? What's the difference between auto-categorizing and automatically merging? Are they the same thing or are they different?
This is really, really confusing. I've re-read it four or five times and I still cannot understand what happens when this setting is on versus what happens when it is off.
IMHO, I'm a pretty smart guy (I have a masters degree in engineering, have worked in IT for over 20 years, and have been using personal finance software such as Quicken and MS Money since they were DOS programs). I think I have a good sense of how I would expect the software to work. However, in this case I am just completely confused by the documentation as compared to how Moneydance is actually working.
12 Posted by LarryCL on 25 Jun, 2010 11:33 PM
Ok, I just went through a session with "Automatically Merge Downloaded Transactions" set off.
Yes, it solve the problem that I originally posted about, but it causes the pendulum to swing entirely in the opposite direction. As I had suspected / worried about, turning this off forces me to manually categorize each-and-every transaction.
For example, as I wrote earlier, I buy all my groceries at one local supermarket. I would expect that Moneydance be able to automatically categorize transactions from this store as "groceries". With this setting off, I needed to manually select the groceries category for each purchase. Doing this for each and every transaction is a huge pain in the rear. I don't consider this acceptable - Moneydance is supposed to be saving me effort, not making more work for me.
I feel like I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. With this setting on, I get the problems I reported. With it off, it's far too much manual work.
I don't think this is asking too much or asking to eat my cake and have it too. I hate to say this, but I used Quicken and MS Money for many years, and they seemed to have this algorithm tuned correctly. I never had matching problems with either of those programs like I have with Moneydance. That being said, I don't want to go back to one of those programs either so I am hoping that the Moneydance developers can somehow make this work correctly.
13 Posted by ls on 26 Jun, 2010 12:17 AM
Maybe Sean or someone else could weigh in here so we know they're following this thread? I added a specific query about check number matching that I think is pretty fundamental.
Larry: I've been using MD for years now, and while the transaction-handling changed pretty radically in MD 2010, I think that on the whole it works pretty well, as I've experienced it so far. Once you have gone through a couple cycles (or maybe even one) of categorizing certain recurring transactions, the next time you do the 'manual' matching it will most likely offer to categorize those transactions in the correct category. It does 'learn' to recognize repeat payments to recurring vendors. My bank got sold to another bank recently, and now my OFX files are not very well constructed as far as data goes, but MD still manages to categorize correctly most of the time.
14 Posted by Owen Jones on 26 Jun, 2010 10:47 AM
Personally I very much want MD to auto-categorise, the more automation the better. The problem I see is twofold:
15 Posted by ls on 26 Jun, 2010 12:47 PM
I want to update my own issue with the probable solution... reading another thread I found reference to a Preferences>Network setting that controls the # of days backward that the matching algorithm will search. I'm not sure what the 'default' setting is, but mine was set to 21 days. I increased it to 45 and that should solve my problem. Anyone know what the default is???
16 Posted by Carol on 28 Jun, 2010 12:31 AM
I was very happy with the way Moneydance handled matching before It was changed in the latest releases. Like Larry C, I find it maddening that matching would change the "Description" field in a transaction downloaded from my credit card company. I have "Automatically Merge Downloaded Transactions" permanently turned off.
I find the list of transactions presented for matching at the bottom of the screen distracting, in-the-way, leading to errors, and wish I could dismantle it. Some of the selections presented are in no way related to the current transaction. Why would I ever want to use that list to change the Description field for valid data downloaded from a financial institution? Older versions of MD used to autofill the Category based on the Description field upon tabbing into the Category field. It was very logical to me and I would like to return to that environment.
Can we expect to see these issues resolved in the future? If not, is it possible to revert to an earlier release of MD?
17 Posted by Angie Rauscher on 20 Jul, 2010 05:57 PM
We are working on improving our matching functions in Moneydance 2010. I have pointed our developer to this thread and created feature tickets logging these issues.
It is possible to revert to Moneydance 2008, it is not suggested that users revert to earlier builds of Moneydance 2010. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance,
Angie Rauscher
Moneydance Support
18 Posted by Peter on 28 Jul, 2010 08:29 PM
I run Moneydance 2010 build 751 on a Windows machine in my office and one on a Mac at home. I have started using 'Automatically merge downloaded transactions' under Network settings. Strange though is that when I download ofx files on the Windows version, it matches very satisfactorily. However, when I download ofx files on my Mac, it refuses to match at all despite the fact that the option to 'Automatically merge..' is ticked. If I download using QIF files it does automatically match but then I do not get all the account bal info etc in the totals box at the bottom etc. So using ofx is preferable as overall it is easier. Can you help or am I missing something? Seems like a bug. Overall I think 2010 is great!
19 Posted by Earl on 28 Jul, 2010 10:10 PM
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter"
<[email blocked]>
To: <[email blocked]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 1:31 PM
Subject: Re: Still extremely, extremely frustrated with how poorly
Moneydance matches imported transactions [Problems]
20 Posted by pvajko on 01 Aug, 2010 01:26 PM
Just wanted emphasize to point several other users made:
My main concern is that the matching (automatic or not) also changes the description. I'm happy with the manual selection from the list MD gives me, but please, please, please, do not change the description. It does not make any sense for me. MD is able to find out that my 'PURCHASE - SUNOCO' goes to the 'Auto:Gas' category, fine, but when I accept this, it changes the description to 'PURCHASE - SHELL OIL'.
This is extremely frustrating.
21 Posted by Damon Gill on 03 Aug, 2010 03:24 PM
I have to say I agree with the issues raised in this thread. It now takes me longer to categorise items than it did in the previous version; it's more complex and less accurate.
As a result of this I am now looking to revert back to that prior version, given that the suggestions in that one were 90% correct and only took one click to categorise.
22 Posted by Owen Jones on 25 Jan, 2011 08:36 AM
I just downloaded the latest 755 build and was disappointed to find that it STILL changes the description when it finds a match. Please, please take this off or set it as optional. As many others have complained this behaviour is illogical, confusing, unnecessary and very frustrating.
23 Posted by Tiffany on 13 Feb, 2011 06:29 AM
Please help me. I've downloaded all my transactions (I had the merge preference off). Now I have to manually type in the category for ALL of them. Is there a feature where you can type in the category for one vendor and it will apply it to the same transactions from that vendor. Please tell me there's a way or else this software isn't worth it.
24 Posted by james f on 14 Feb, 2011 11:02 AM
I haven't had any problems matching transaction. I manually merge my downloaded transactions. Of course, there must already be a transaction posted in the register.
I register all transactions on the same day of purchase.
Nor have I had any problems with the correct category being chosen.
The merge process might give me several options to choose from. I scroll through all possible choices until I come to the correct one.
25 Posted by -Kevin N. on 14 Feb, 2011 01:47 PM
Hi Tiffany,
There are several ways to accomplish this. The easiest is to use 'Batch Change' to add a 'Category' to the transactions.
Always make sure that you have a recent backup of your data file before using 'Batch Change'.
It is a powerful tool. If a mistake is made using Batch Change with multiple txns selected, things can get messy in a hurry.
For this example we'll use your Checking Account. Access your Checking Account register, then from the Menu bar, click on 'Edit' then 'Find...'. Type the vendor's name. Check the results, all of the transactions for that vendor should now be displayed.
Select (highlight) the first txn in the register, hold down Ctrl-A (Cmd-A for Mac). All txns should now be highlighted. Right click any one of the txns and from the context menu, choose 'Batch Change' then 'Category'. Finally, select the desired 'Category' from the drop-down list. Click OK.
Go to File > Preferences > Network tab, put a check mark next to 'Automatically Merge Downloaded Transactions'
HTH -Kevin N.
26 Posted by -Kevin N. on 14 Feb, 2011 02:03 PM
Hi James,
Like yourself, I find the matching process pretty painless. Once Moneydance is given time to 'Learn' prior entries, those choices are readily available to match and merge.
There's talk of a new & improved matching process in the next major release but I'm not 100% sure it's needed.
-Kevin N.
27 Posted by james f on 14 Feb, 2011 03:48 PM
I'm using
Moneydance 2010r3 (746)
OS: Mac OS X 10.5.8 ppc
Java: 1.5.0_26 (Apple Inc.)
with no problems.
I agree with you. I don't quite feel that the matching process needs to be touched.
I just confirmed it, Auto Merge is, in fact, turned off.
28 Posted by pvajko on 14 Feb, 2011 04:15 PM
Looks like not everybody is frustrated.
For others like me, the fact that Moneydance kept overwriting the transaction description when matching (instead only to change the category) was so frustrating that I switched to Quicken.
29 Posted by james f on 14 Feb, 2011 11:17 PM
Manual Matching never changed the description I already had in the register. Nor does it overwrite the category already in place.
30 Posted by agedeboer on 15 Feb, 2011 12:31 AM
After receiving some of the latest posts in this discussion I feel compelled to answer: the matching process is definitely not up to scratch and has to be changed.
That it does work for some people is fine, but if you go through the issues that have posted before then you'll understand that these still exist and make MoneyDance barely usable for other users. Hence people start looking for other solutions, like Quicken.
I recognize both issues mentioned before:
1. the 'Categorize' methods should not touch my 'Description'! It just doesn't make sense and it confuses the hell out of me and my records.
2. if I have transactions incurred at three different shops in three different locations but named 'Wishbone', it will constantly try to replace, merge or change the description of these transactions, even though the descriptions are really not identical - it drives me mad!
So please MoneyDance, when can we see an update that:
1. doesn't touch the description anymore on a categorize action
2. makes the matching process cleverer or more customizable
?
Otherwise I too feel the need to find a different piece of software. But I would reluctantly do so because there are many things about MoneyDance that I really like!