Categories not automatically assigned in MD2010
I have just upgraded from MD2008 to MS2010. Now when I import transactions MD is not autocompleting the Category based on prior entries which means I have to complete each transaction.
I had no problems with this in MD2008.
Do I have to change any settings to have the category autocompleted based on history ?
I am using Mac OSX version 10.6.2
Thanks
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1 Posted by Gray Maddry on 29 Dec, 2009 05:02 AM
With MD 2010(735) under WinXP I am seeing the same problem. Unless there is a transaction merge even though there is a match of description, the Category is the default one not the category from the description match.
2 Posted by Sean MacDonald on 29 Dec, 2009 07:15 PM
I'm having a similar issue.
This morning when I opened Moneydance (2010) it informed me that an update was available. After I updated, I reopened the application and when I downloaded the new transactions, all of them defaulted to ATM Withdraws, instead of using the category history as it always has. It even didn't mate transactions that were pending with the ones that cleared the bank for the same amounts, causing duplicate entries.
3 Posted by Sean MacDonald on 30 Dec, 2009 11:54 AM
I downloaded transactions again this morning and they still did not use the historical pre-assigned categories and did not match up like transactions including exact same dollar amounts. Instead, everything was added as if it were a new transaction.
Everything was working in both 2008 and 2010 before the below build.
My build information is: Moneydance 2010r2 (735)
OS: OSX 10.6.2
4 Posted by bosie88 on 30 Dec, 2009 04:36 PM
I started having the same category matching problem described here after downloading the latest Moneydance 2010 build (735). The original build of MD2010 was matching categories correctly to previously downloaded entries. Can anyone post a link to where I can download the previous build of Moneydance 2010 to use until this issue is resolved? I would prefer not to go back to MD2008 if at all possible. Thank you.
5 Posted by ppinocci on 02 Jan, 2010 02:03 AM
Has anyone opened a bug for this yet, I couldn't find one. I also notice nobody from Moneydance has commented on this yet. I'm having the same problem, no Categories are getting assigned for downloaded or imported transactions, even when the Description matches completely existing transactions. I too think this started when I accepted the update to build 735. I've been trial testing Moneydance for about a week, so I started with version 2010, I think build 732, and recall SOME categories getting assigned prior to installing build 735 a few days ago. I do notice a change was made in Build 734 concerning this. Could this have caused it? Anyone know what the new "bumped up (way up)" threshold is? Is ANYONE seeing ANY downloaded/imported transactions getting assigned Categories using Build 735?
Build 734 20091227-0112:
6 Posted by cyclocrossing on 03 Jan, 2010 12:52 AM
Any word on a fix for this would be great, I fell behind importing transactions over the holidays, and no matching categories is a real pain!
7 Posted by Gray Maddry on 03 Jan, 2010 01:34 AM
Nobody seems to have entered a bug track for this so I will.
8 Posted by Gray Maddry on 03 Jan, 2010 01:37 AM
Just when to try to open a ticket and got this error:TICKET_CREATE privileges are required to perform this operation.
So I guess I won't enter a ticket.
9 Posted by Gray Maddry on 03 Jan, 2010 03:11 AM
Ticket is 2471.
After the error, I got an email to confirm my email and then I was able to enter the ticket.
As I put in the bug report, the problem with category seem to happen with qif imports.
10 Posted by Noname on 03 Jan, 2010 03:20 AM
People who would like to see this problem addressed should go to trac system and vote for it.
11 Posted by David on 06 Jan, 2010 06:24 PM
I am experiencing this issue as well with 735. It makes MD2010 horrible to use as entering each imported transaction takes far longer than it needs to. The whole workflow seems to have been broken - the old MD import process was so easy and one of the main reasons for using the software.
12 Posted by sollner on 24 Jan, 2010 08:37 PM
The main reason I use MD is to keep track of credit card charges. Not having this feature is reason to switch to something else, though I'm hoping MD fixes this problem very soon.
13 Posted by ppinocci on 24 Jan, 2010 09:12 PM
Me too. And I don't understand why nobody from MD has commented or answered any of the posts in this issue, or in the ticket that was opened for it, to at least confirm or deny that it is a bug or problem in the first place. It sure doesn't give me much confidence to make this my personal finance software.
14 Posted by ert on 29 Jan, 2010 09:31 PM
Agreed, this is really really problematic. Beyond transactions not matching categories, in my QIFs the categories are speficified right in the QIF file. That seems to be above and beyond what it mentioned in bug #2471, but I voted on it, anyway.
That is to say, MD is ignoring both my transaction history and what the import file is directing it to do. I have a transaction in my QIF file like this one:
D11/09/2009
T-40.14
PSprint
NE-pay
LTelephone:Cellular
MRef #:XXXXXXXXX
^
...but the "Telephone:Cellular" is completely ignored. Used to work in past versions, never had a problem with it.
15 Posted by Ben Spencer on 30 Jan, 2010 08:35 PM
Wow I hadn't realized this thread had rescived so much attention. There have been a couple of other threads on this topic lately, I am sorry i have not responded to all of them.
Ert Dredge, it is my understanding that banks do not provided category information in transactions downloaded in qif format. Is the file you are referring to downloaded from your bank or exported from another application?
With regard to auto categorization of imported transactions while the user interface has changed in MD2010 the auto categorization function is the same as that in MD2008. That is it searches for transactions that already exist in the register that had their description applied by an online service. If there is a match a "CATEGORIZE" option is is offered in the accept interface at the bottom of the register. If you are in agreement with the categorization select it and click the accept button. The interface has been made a little clearer in build 738. see the attached screenshot of a transaction being offered with the categorize option in 738. You can download 738 from here:
http://moneydance.com/trac/wiki/Moneydance2010Beta
The distinction between transactions that have had their description set by the bank or another online service and those that have been hand entered or imported form another application is an important one. The current build (738) only offer auto categorization based on transaction that had their description set by an online service. This was also true in MD2008. The next release of Moneydance will change this, offering auto categorization based on all transactions in the register.
Sincerely
Ben Spencer
16 Posted by ppinocci on 30 Jan, 2010 09:54 PM
Ben, Thanks for responding. But your screenshot does not match what I, and I assume the others, are seeing with version 735. And I just downloaded 738, and it is doing the same thing, although the interface is a little different. For me, and I think the others, the Category column is blank for every transaction imported or downloaded, and we must select one of the suggested categories, and then accept. I have attached a portion of a screenshot (sorry, I'm paranoid about posting complete screenshots of my financial info). But you can see how the Category column is blank. Imagine downloading 50-100 credit card transaction each month, and having to select one of the suggestions each time before accepting. This behavior started with build 735. Prior to build 735, the Category column would default to the most recent category assigned to that Description, and all we'd have to do is Accept, then Accept the next, then Accept the next, etc... It was really fast and easy. If I had the jar file that I had before build 735 (I think it was 732), I could install it and test for sure. But I overwrote that build when I downloaded and installed the 735 jar. Hopefully others who have posted can confirm and even post their own screenshots.
17 Posted by ppinocci on 30 Jan, 2010 10:50 PM
Oh, I see why Category column is blank for me and yours has ATM Withdrawal as the default. You must have ATM Withdrawal as the Default Category for that account. But I have decided not to have a Default Category. So it's working the same for you as it is for me. And I see one of the other discussions you were referring to, the one with the Subject: MD is not automatically categorizing my downloaded transactions. I echo the sentiments of people like Adam H and philip.downs in that discussion. It's a matter of usability. And I swear it worked like I and they want in an earlier build of 2010, before 735.
18 Posted by David Williams on 31 Jan, 2010 07:24 AM
Paul is right - it did work. I have an old version of MD2008 on an old laptop and I checked that auto-categoriation works on manually entered categories. I really don't know what Ben means when he says that MD2008 was the same as MD2010 as that clearly is not the case.
Also, the old layout was much better, and the latest one in the screenshot looks like it comes from another application. The look and feel of MD2010 is very messy - if you want to see what a cross-platform financial application should look, see YNAB3. MD still should win on better functionality but it is now pretty much unusable to me.
19 Posted by FatRaiderFan on 31 Jan, 2010 12:48 PM
Please add Delete option and default categories for downloaded transactions.
Ben thanks for your post on the 30th. Paul's comments are very good. I noticed this issue immediately and it has been an irritant to me ever since I upgraded to the latest build. I download transactions from my credit card issuer every few days using .qfx files. Before, I could see the transactions in a list with categories matching the category used for that payee. I could choose Accept or Delete. The latest build only allows me to Accept. If I choose, I can click on the little arrows to open a drop down list with Similar Payee and the Category. I have to click that Similar Payee and then click Accept. This is what I do 99% of the time. Three clicks instead of 1 per transaction. Also, at statement download time, I get all of the transactions for the month, so there are dozens, including many duplicates. I used to be able to Accept the last few, which I did not previously have, and then click the Delete button repeatedly on any of the transactions that I already had. Now I must scroll through the register locating groups of Blue Dot transactions. Click the first one, Press Delete Key, Click Yes. This requires even more effort than three clicks when before it was one click.
Please add a Delete option and default categories for downloaded transactions.
20 Posted by ppinocci on 31 Jan, 2010 04:06 PM
I figured it out! In build 732 they added a checkbox in Preferences -> Network to "Automatically Merge Downloaded Transactions". If you check that box, it will work like it did in 2008 and in earlier versions of 2010, meaning it will automatically assign the Category. But with that option unchecked it only assigns the default category, or none if you don't have a default category. All I can say is this is why you need to have user documentation or help available prior to an upgrade. I had wondered what that option did, but since it didn't say anything about Categories, only about merging, I didn't think it had anything to do with it. But apparently it does. Attached is another screenshot of the same Jerrys Subs transaction I downloaded with build 738, but this time after checking the box to "Automatically Merge Downloaded Transactions".
Build 732 20091223-2256:
21 Posted by Ben Spencer on 31 Jan, 2010 04:31 PM
David
I just ran the same experiment on MD2008 and the results show that MD2008 build 640 does not include descriptions that were not entered by an on line service as a categorize option (this was called "Repeat Payee" in MD2008). See the first 2 screen shots, the transaction in the register is hand entered and has the same description "BANK" as the first transaction in the import list. It is not offered as a "Repeat Payee" it is only offered as a match or a no match. I accept the transaction from the import list and manually set it category after a few more transactions I then get to the another transaction in the import list with the description "BANK". This time I am offered a "repeat payee" as the default option because there is a transaction in the register with a matching description that came from an online source. see screenshot 3.
Sincerely
Ben Spencer
22 Posted by ert on 31 Jan, 2010 04:32 PM
Ben Spencer said:
My bill payment processor, Paytrust.com (owned by Intuit), allows you to set a category every time you enter a new company when setting up your bill pay. When you later download those transactions as a QIF, the categories are already there in the file.
23 Posted by Ben Spencer on 31 Jan, 2010 04:37 PM
Sorry I forgot to add the screenshots for the response to david above
24 Posted by David Williams on 31 Jan, 2010 06:31 PM
Ben, as Paul has helpfully highlighted, the 'repeat payee' comes with a repeat category. Your example shows this.
25 Posted by mobileme4 on 01 Feb, 2010 05:10 PM
I would like to point out another difference between MD 2008 and 2010: Even though I can get a downloaded transaction to potentially match prior repeat transactions before I accept it, I cannot edit the transaction as I did in MD 2008.
For instance, I receive regular reimbursements from a company I contract with. In MD 2008, I would download the transaction, then just change the memo field to reflect the month received, then accept the transaction.
I don't see a way to change the memo field, or any other field, with MD 2010.
Is there a workaround?
26 Posted by Angie Rauscher on 01 Mar, 2010 03:53 PM
Scott,
You can change any field in a transaction by double-clicking on it and editing the fields. If you are not using the most recent version (2010r2 build 743), please update to that version. You can download the update here. This update has resolved a few key issues our users have been experiencing, and has greatly improved transaction importing and matching. Please let me know if your issue persists and we will look into other solutions.
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance,
Angie Rauscher
Moneydance Support
Angie Rauscher closed this discussion on 01 Mar, 2010 03:53 PM.