Matching downloaded transactions in MD 2010
When MD 2010 thinks a downloaded transaction is a match it doesn't give me a way to override. I tried each of the selections it offered and none of them let me include the new downloaded transaction as a new transaction (it finds the earlier dated transaction and doesn't even show the new transaction date). This, of course, throws my balances off tremendously and now my accounts are out of balance as they are missing transactions.
Thanks.
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181 Posted by Shawn Willden on 25 Jan, 2010 08:17 PM
Randy: Indeed they were. My apologies; I was looking at the wrong post.
182 Posted by eddieb on 25 Jan, 2010 08:34 PM
David -
Sorry i wasn't clear enough in my explanation of the workaround and the actual problem here. Just trying to help and wasn't trying to downplay your problem as being no big deal. I think I know where our disconnect is.
When I said the annoying autofill had nothing to do with the issue, I didn't mean to say it was a non-issue. It definitely is an issue and an annoyance, even for me. What I should have said is that the autofill behavior is not a function of downloading and accepting transactions, but rather, it's a function of how autofill works. It doesn't matter whether or not a transaction was downloaded before you try to change it. Or even whether or not it's an investment transaction. This autofill behavior holds true for EVERY transaction in the system. Now you may not care about any of that and just want it fixed and I get that.
But the reason I made that point was because even if the bug you are talking about is fixed, your main discomfort with this whole thing appears to be the autofill thing. That will still exist even after fixing the change before accept problem. In fact, Build 738 fixes the change before accept problem. I just tried it. And the steps involved to accomplish the task are the same steps involved in the workaround I mentioned. They're just in a different order. Like I said before, the effort for the workaround was/is no different. But the autofill issue is still a problem which is my whole point here. Although it rears it's ugly head during the download and accept process, it's a different issue and thus wouldn't be addressed even if the change and accept problem is addressed. Build 738 proves that.
But based on how autofill works, I don't see how this problem can be rectified without turning the whole thing upside down and creating new more annoying problems elsewhere. I just started using MD after 22 years with Quicken. Quicken has been using autofill and downloading transactions for at least 15 of those years and this autofill issue has always been and is STILL a problem with that product as well. I'm not saying it can't be "fixed', but I can't think of a reasonable way to do it. I would suggest writing up a Trac ticket and suggesting a method in the Trac ticket or hope Sean the developer can come up with something. I could definitely be wrong, but I just don't see how this issue can be corrected.
183 Posted by sgodfrey2000 on 25 Jan, 2010 10:24 PM
Just downloaded MD2010 beta.
Comments:
UI with Blue Dot is wearing me down. Still like MD2008 UI better.
Downloading transactions:
Presentation much improved
If I pick a suggestion for a transaction, why does it not use the Memo too? Or why not let me type the memo I want? This even happens if it finds a match and lists Merge. MD 2010 needs to honor all user entered items, Payee wording, amount, category, tags, and memo.
This is show stopper since it will require editing every downloaded transaction. So it could be 3 MD actions per transaction:
- original entry - download match - Editing after acceptance
Downloaded transactions are still scattered throughout the register. This is very bad IU. They need to be in a single grouping. I thought this was going to be addressed somehow. If it is, then please share something so I can check this out. Right now this is as bad as it has always been under MD2010. I know I can click on "Unconfirmed" but then all the existing transaction go away. With the MD2008 presentation, I could scroll through all existing transaction while the downloaded transaction were still visible. Can not accomplish this under MD2010. This just make reconciling downloaded transaction a real bear!! What was even nicer under MD2008, I could use the search. Then scroll the existing transaction to be right above the downloaded transaction for easy comparison. Now the downloaded transaction scrolls off the screen!
Major issue with Reconcile.
Have downloaded transactions but did not accept them all into the register.
Under MD2008 only transaction with Possible Match show up in Reconcile lists. Under MD2010 all transactions are listed. What is more, all non-accepted transaction show up twice.
I'm stopping here and await the next major beta to proceed again.
184 Posted by jwc on 25 Jan, 2010 10:46 PM
Just so the folks at MD know,
There may be a lot more people watching this issue than are commenting.
I know that I for one decided to stop commenting while waiting for the new version. But after reading the comment from sgodfrey I've decided to wait some more. It's still a major issue for me too.
Just saying, the fact that people aren't commenting doesn't mean they've stopped paying attention to the issue.
185 Posted by Randy on 25 Jan, 2010 11:08 PM
@sgodfrey2000,
From what I am seeing, it does use the memo that comes in from the bank. You can edit it in the top window and put anything you want. The middle line that shows Original date, and description, and memo is for reference only, it is not editable.
The Uncleared filter will show all your unconfirmed transactions and any manual entered ones. Granted, they will be intermingled, but that is what the blue circle you love so much is for :)
If you have the incoming transaction in the bottom window, and have "uncleared" or "all" filter on top window, you can search in the search window while the bottom window stays put.
You have a good point about the transaction you are working on scrolling off the screen of the top window. Unless the "uncleared" filter and / or the search function can narrow things so that you only have one screen of data to work with in the top window, it is possible that the transaction you are working on will scroll off the screen while you are looking through the register for another transaction to match it to. Not good.
186 Posted by Jerry Clement on 25 Jan, 2010 11:18 PM
DITTO.
187 Posted by byron5353 on 25 Jan, 2010 11:32 PM
I am one of those "lurkers." I did not realize that the MD 2010 was still beta when I was prompted to update. Fortunately, I did my monthly download of reconciliation of credit cards and bank statements with 2008 because when I used 2010 nothing was matching. I did not realize that once I saved in 2010 I would be stuck. I know I can export to 2008 but have decided I will stay the course for now. My next round of reconciliation is due and I will post my comments as an end-user. It is a good program and I know that one way or other the developer will come to a solution.
188 Posted by Angie Rauscher on 26 Jan, 2010 12:08 AM
Hi everyone,
I don't have any further updates at the moment, I just wanted to assure our users that we recognize the seriousness of this issue for many users. We have been and continue to follow this thread and related threads closely. I will direct Sean to the comments on the new build.
Thank you all for your input and patience.
Angie Rauscher
Moneydance Support
189 Posted by Randy on 26 Jan, 2010 12:11 AM
@sgodfrey2000, I looked a little more and found what you are talking about related to searching.
If you have a transaction selected in the bottom window (with choices) and you try to do a search in the top window (for possible other matches), the bottom window does disappear as soon as you do the search.
It seems that this new build works well when it guesses right about possible merges. But if it doesn't spot a possible merge that you know is there, the process to find and correct the manual one isn't very good (if you have a lot of uncleared transactions), since there are plenty of times that they both won't be on the screen at the same time.
So, the two windows are not as "independent" of each other as I first thought.
Not good......
I guess I will go back to my 2 screen workaround.............
190 Posted by eddieb on 26 Jan, 2010 12:17 AM
The capability to search in the register and then match any downloaded transaction to one searched for and located in the register would be an incredibly helpful addition to the matching process. Most items I have come up in the bottom window with the merge option and that works well. But if I have to match against a transaction that MD doesn't automatically suggest for merge, that can make things cumbersome. I believe this type of flexibility would also help/solve several other issues as well.
191 Posted by sgodfrey2000 on 26 Jan, 2010 01:36 AM
Randy,
The way I look at this issue (others may differ and that's okay) is that we are dealing with 2 sets of data.
1 set are the transactions of record. These have been either entered by me or accepted by me from downloads into the register.
The second set of data are pending transactions. These are either downloaded transactions not yet part of the register or maybe even a receipt in my kitchen or online orders.
During the reconciliation (or acceptance) process once I tell MD to download, I need to match all downloaded transactions against either a transaction in the register or a receipt (physical, online, etc). Anything I can not match needs to STAND OUT. I need to account for this. Today I do this by searching and scrolling through existing transactions in the register. While keeping the downloaded transaction in question at the top of the download list. That is how it stands out. If I walk away and come back, I can easily find it. It could be a missing receipt, a transaction of the same name but I fat fingered the amount, etc. But to me, I need the control over what is in the register versus what is not. This then drives the views of the 2 sets of data.
I would ask MD development how difficult would it be for a Preference Option which would control the display of the downloaded transactions? Display them as MD2010 does currently. Intermixed with existing accepted register transactions. Or group them together in a separate pane or window where they will stand out.
192 Posted by Gray Maddry on 26 Jan, 2010 04:05 AM
738 is much better than 735, but there are still problems with the match/autofill.
I combine autofill and matching as I can't tell the difference when working with downloaded transactions. There is still a problem with changing a incorrect match. I have a weekly ATM withdrawal. For one week I didn't commit the reminder. The "match" had an wrong description and I didn't see a way to change. MD wanted to match previous transaction that had already been downloaded. I solved it for this time by going to reminders and committing the transaction and then gong back to the matching. This time MD had a match.
Restating the problem, Downloading a non matching transaction. How do you accept it when there is no correct match while changing the default category?
The gray high lighting is still very hard to read in WinXP.
193 Posted by Randy on 26 Jan, 2010 12:29 PM
Gray, BEFORE pressing the accept button, if you go and commit the reminders, then come back and select the downloaded transaction, a new "Merge" choice should be available to merge with the committed reminder. Then you can accept the Merge and the two become one, and you should retain the description of the reminder. The amount of the reminder and the amount of the downloaded transaction have to be equal.
At least that works for me (most of the time).
Yeah, I agree, the color scheme needs a little work.
194 Posted by Gray Maddry on 26 Jan, 2010 01:35 PM
I guess I wasn't clear. I did as you described and a new and correct merge was there. But what if the new transaction was really new, how do you accept without merging?
195 Posted by Randy on 26 Jan, 2010 02:04 PM
Gray, if you are talking about "unmerging" a couple of transactions that were auto-merged incorrectly, that would be the "revert" choice (if their is one in the accept window). If you choose revert and press the Accept button, that will pull them back apart and leave you with 2 transactions: the one that just downloaded, and the manual one it incorrectly auto-merged to. It then accepts the downloaded one.
196 Posted by Randy on 26 Jan, 2010 02:06 PM
Gray, also, if you have an entirely new transaction, you should have one or more "categorize" choices. Just pick the best one and hit the Accept button. If even the best one is not totally right, you can edit it after it is accepted.
197 Posted by avp2 on 26 Jan, 2010 03:50 PM
I have now done one "download and match" session with the 738 build. So far, I like the new matching window better than any previous. I have not quite gotten the meaning of all the match "labels" yet; seems a better term for "categorize" for instance could be found. On my 10.4.11 mac, the color scheme for the matches is pretty bad (shading is almost opaque); seems the ability to adjust this in preferences would be nice.
I can live with the new matching function now though; I think it will need some time to "sink in" and get used to before it can be fairly critiqued.
Personally, I would really like to see the developer's attention shift a bit towards improving the reporting, graphing and homepage functions. The homepage, especially, is one of the best parts of MD, but could stand more user configuration flexibility - like allowing user specified top-level parents and any type account to be a a child of any other kind (this would essentially allow the homepage to be a user-custom summary report).
198 Posted by Angie Rauscher on 30 Jan, 2010 09:08 PM
Hi everyone,
Build 739 is just days away, and we have also released the change log for build 738 (finally). I apologize for the delay. You can find the change log here.
I'll post again when 739 is out.
Angie Rauscher
Moneydance Support
199 Posted by Angie Rauscher on 06 Feb, 2010 04:30 AM
We've jumped right past 739 and have released build 740. You can download the update here.
Let me know how it goes, and thank you all for your patience.
Angie Rauscher
Moneydance Support
200 Posted by Gray Maddry on 06 Feb, 2010 05:07 AM
As I posted to the mailing list, I found a problem in that the qif association with MD doesn't seem to be working. With a credit card account, I have to download a QIF file. Download opens the popup to choose to open with MD or save as a file.I select open with MD.. Spinning mouse cursor, then nothing. No pop up asking for an account and no new transactions. If I download the QIF and save to a file. I can import with no problem.
As for matching: Matching does seem to work better. I still can't read the grayed (matched) transaction in the register. I still have to do two clicks to accept a matched transaction, one to select merged, second to accept. Why not high-lite the merged one so I can just a accept.
When there is no match I still have to have two clicks to select categorize and second click to accept. If there is no category match, then I have to accept and then update the category or switch out of matching update the transaction, save and then accept the new modified original.
But that I can live the extra clicks.
201 Posted by cookie87 on 09 Feb, 2010 03:00 AM
Just a comment: I just upgraded to r2 build 740 and the download/match process is SIGNIFICANTLY better, at least for my Chase checking account, which is where I had the most issues. Thanks for staying focused on this.
202 Posted by Angie Rauscher on 10 Feb, 2010 12:27 AM
Gray,
Is this new with build 740? Do let me know.
Thanks for you help in resolving this,
Angie Rauscher
Moneydance Support
203 Posted by gmaddry on 10 Feb, 2010 06:36 PM
Ignoring the association download is new for 740.
204 Posted by byron5353 on 11 Feb, 2010 06:23 AM
I am just an end user who found matching to be a problem with an earlier build of MD 2010. So, I waited and by the time I had to download transactions from my banks I had 3 credit card statements and one fairly long bank statement to reconcile. Once I got used to the new terminology and layout the process seemed about as easy as with MD 2008. The only problem I found was if I had an "incoming check" which I did not already have in the ledger, any changes I made to the memo would revert to "incoming check" once I accepted it. Oh, also it did not autofill the category. Still, matching was quite good, and this was the big problem I had with earlier build. So, I am happy overall and look forward to a few more tweaks to essentially get it back to the features I had before.
205 Posted by Angie Rauscher on 12 Feb, 2010 01:23 AM
Gray- I haven't been able to re-create the QIF issue yet. Would you be willing to post this issue as a new thread, and include the bank(s) you are downloading from, your OS, and the version of Java you are running? Thanks for your help in resolving this sticky issue.
Byron- Thanks for your input, we appreciate hearing the things that work well, as well as those that don't, from our users.
Angie
Moneydance Support
206 Posted by Gray Maddry on 12 Feb, 2010 04:08 AM
Over the weekend I will be updating the account again. If I have a problem I
will open a new thread. Or should I open a trac item?
-----Original Message-----
From: Angie Rauscher
[mailto:[email blocked]]
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 8:24 PM
To: [email blocked]
Subject: Re: Matching downloaded transactions in MD 2010 [Problems]
207 Posted by Gray Maddry on 15 Feb, 2010 01:05 AM
QIF import this time worked as it should. I have no idea why it wasn't
working before.
Merging new transactions into the registry is still a pain. You have to
accept the transaction with the default category and then change it.
-----Original Message-----
From: Angie Rauscher
[mailto:[email blocked]]
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 8:24 PM
To: [email blocked]
Subject: Re: Matching downloaded transactions in MD 2010 [Problems]
208 Posted by Angie Rauscher on 16 Feb, 2010 04:35 PM
Gray,
I am glad the QIF import worked. We are still working on tweaking the download/import process.
Angie
Moneydance Support
209 Posted by tonyblunt on 19 Feb, 2010 06:53 PM
While it has had some rough edges, I must admit I am beginning to like the transaction merging process, it is now quick and gets most of the matches correctly. My main issue now is when it does not find the match (often when the match was entered long ago) - it would be helpful to be able to select the matching transaction.
(Far more critical to me is the broken budgeting report....)
210 Posted by avp2 on 19 Feb, 2010 07:41 PM
I will second Tony's comment and add that being able to set the colors by user preference in the matching bottom panel plus adjust the height of the pane on the fly (maybe slide the divider up/down like in a typical email program) would be nice too.