Infinite Kind: Discussion

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-08-10T23:14:52Z

To provide more information, when running the "Budget to Actual" report, we have run into three different situations at the category level.
(1) For some categories, we have a budget loaded into Moneydance, but the category is not appearing in the report or the budget and actuals = 0 (depending on how the report is run) (2) For other categories, the budget is appearing properly, but the actual total is not summing properly based on the detail data. I can't even figure out where the total actual calculation is coming from... It cannot be based on the detail transactions within that category within that time period! The math just does not work! (3) and for some categories, the budget and the actuals are working properly.

How can one report have three different results within it?

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-08-13T00:03:23Z

Hi Jason

I have not been able to reproduce the problems you are describing with the budget report. Do you think you could take a few screen shots. One of the report, one of the Budget manager tool showing how the budgets has been set up and perhaps on of an example expense account register to demonstrate the problem. Press the print screen key on your keyboard to take a screenshot.

Sincerely
Ben Spencer
Moneydance Support

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-08-13T01:43:10Z

I have been investigating a bit since I posted that message. I have corrected the problem with issue (1), although I'm not sure why it worked. I deleted the specific amounts in the budget that were not showing up in the budget report, and then re-entered the exact same amounts for the same category and the report then picked them up. Any idea why this worked, or what could have been wrong? For issue (2), where the actuals in the budget to actual report are not correct, I am attaching three screen shots for examples. You can see the actual amount in the category "charity" for the budget to actual report shows $25, while in the income and expense report it shows $60. It also shows the detail of $60 in the register. It appears it is excluding 2 of the 3 transactions. This seems to be the situation with other categories as well - some transactions are not being picked up by the budget report. I can identify the exact transactions that are exclude by changing the date of the budget report to just before, and then just after a transaction and seeing if the amount changes. There are a handful of accounts that this occurs in, but I cannot figure out a pattern. Also, I can't drill down on the actual expenses in the budget report. Is this functionality supposed to work? It would have made it much easier to research if I could drill down to the activity in the register.

This is very concerning because I do not know what other reports may be wrong. I'm not sure what data I can rely on. So far I have only noticed this budget report problem, but if this report is not working, there could be others. I'm hoping you can figure out what is causing this.

I have one other issue I encountered, although I am more concerned with the one above. I have some items in the budget that are identified as expenses, but some months have negative amounts in them (on purpose). The budget report does not seem to understand this and treats them as positive amounts. Why does it do this?

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-08-13T20:09:42Z

I believe I understand where the problem is coming from. Select Tools->Budget manager and edit the budget. Look at the budget line item for "charity". What do you have set as the start date for this line item. It you want this budget line item to be for the entire year you need to set the start date to 1/1/2010. I suspect it is set to 7/1/2010 or something similar. If this is the case that would explain why some transactions are being excluded from this budget when the report is run.

Sincerely
Ben Spencer
Moneydance Support

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-08-13T23:55:13Z

Thanks Ben. I entered $0 in my budget for 1/1/10 - 12/31/10 for all categories that were not showing up correctly and they now appear as the right amounts. I'm not sure I understand why this would make a difference, but it worked.

Could you also comment on my other questions in my previous post (ability to drill down in the budget report and is there a way to have the budget report understand negative amounts in the budget)?

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-08-23T19:06:19Z

Jason,

I can certainly see why it would be great to be able to navigate directly from the budget report to the register of those transactions, and I have created a ticket for this issue. The ticket is attached to this discussion. By posting in this discussion your interest in the ticket has been registered. This is equivalent to voting for it.

Could you confirm for me that you are using build 751? I haven't been able to reproduce the negative budget issues, my budget seems to be dealing fine with negative income and similar issues. Do let me know so we can look into this further if necessary.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance,

Angie Rauscher
Moneydance Support

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-08-24T02:04:54Z

I assume I am using 751- when I click on "About Moneydance" it says 2010r3 (751). In the item I am having the issue, some months are positive expenses and some months are negative expenses. Maybe the issue only occurs if you have both in separate months? I am attaching screenshots of the budget info and then how it shows in the budget report. Look at the category "Dependent Care Withholdings". It is treating the negative $1,540 as a positive and adding it to the 4 months of $385 to total $3,080 for the year. Hopefully that helps.

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-08-24T16:00:43Z

Hi Jason

I am still not able to reproduce the problem you are describing. I have created a simple example file containing one budget with on expense line item. When I enter both negative and positive expense the total amount is displayed correctly in the budget reports.

I have attached the example .md file to this discussion.

Do you think you could create a similar simple example file. Perhaps modifying the one I have attached to demonstrate the problem.

Ben Spencer
Moneydance Support

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-08-28T14:45:29Z

In your example, you are entering positive and negative amounts in the ACTUAL activity. My problem is when you enter a negative amount in one month in the BUDGET and a positive amount in another month. The Budget report treats both of these as positive amounts and adds them together. Refer to my screen shots I attached in a previous posting to see the exact situation.

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-08-28T16:48:41Z

Jason,

Thanks for bearing with us, I understand what's happening now, and it appears this is a bug in how Moneydance deals with negative line items in the budget manager. The short work-around is that you should ALWAYS have a positive or 0 line item occurring before a negative line item for a particular category. For example, if I want to have a negative item in the "Childcare Expenses" category on January 15, I need to have a positive or $0 entry on January 14 or before. I've registered a bug ticket for this issue, and will point our developer toward this case. Again, thank you for your detailed explanation and screenshots. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance,

Angie Rauscher
Moneydance Support

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-08-29T17:49:34Z

I tried what you suggested Angie and the budget manager is still treating the negative amount as a positive. I tried a couple of different ways to enter a positive or zero amount before the negative amount, but nothing worked. Do you expect this to be addressed soon, or does it usually take a while?

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-09-14T19:00:01Z

Jason,

It will likely take a bit for this issue to get addressed, and the bug tickets are attached to this thread. When we have updates on this issue we will post on this thread and you will automatically receive the update.

Thank you for bearing with us as we work to solve this issue, and for your assistance in diagnosing it.

Angie Rauscher
Moneydance Support

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-10-30T16:14:47Z

Angie,

I would also like to be able to enter positive expenses (refunds etc) into the budget. Please advise when this bug is fixed.

Thanks,
Lindsay

report doesn't tie out to activity

2010-10-30T20:24:31Z

Crazy idea: aren't "positive expenses" really "income"? Why not set up an income category called "Refunds."

I don't budget refunds but when I have one I like to tie it back to the item I originally bought. So what I do is select the original expense category and enter the refund as a payment (for credit card) or deposit (for bank acct) with a note that it is a refund for X item. That way I get an accurate total for the category.