Merge Categories Capability Request
It would be very helpful to have a function to merge categories. I can think of many situations where this would be useful.
My current usage model is that I am transferring data from Quicken (where I have been for >20 years) to MoneyDance. This has generated numerous needs for merging near-duplicate categories that were imported.
I see that there are dozens of knowledge base messages on this topic so I am sure it would be appreciated by others. It can't be difficult to code.
On a related note, it would be helpful to add a column to the categories list for the # of transactions that use that particular category. This would help identify categories that could be deleted (or merged).
Thanks for the consideration.
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1 Posted by dwg on 10 Jul, 2024 12:59 AM
The capability to do this already exists, it just that it takes a few steps.
You can do this as follows.
Before you start, take a backup of your data, this is a significant restructure and a mistake almost always results in the need to restore from Backup, mistakes are something you can rarely recover from when doing this.
Decide which of the categories you are going to keep, even if you plan on renaming it, that is easy to do, in due course. I would generally keep the category that has the most transactions it in.
You now need to open a transaction register for one of the categories you want to amalgamate with the one you are keeping. To do this use the menu item Tools → Categories.
Select the category you want to move the transactions from, Right click and select "Open in New Window" The result is a transaction register, now be careful here this is a category transaction register not the Account transaction register you are used to dealing with, yes they look the same but there are implications in changing things in this sort of register (Note about making sure you have a backup).
Select all transaction in this register, generally you can do this by selecting a transaction then using the keyboard shortcut <Ctrl>-A (<Cmd>-A on Mac).
Now right click on the transactions and Select Batch Change. Select to Change the ACCOUNT (yes that is Account – this is one of the differences when using category registers) In the window that comes up scroll and select the category that you want these transactions to be part of i.e. the Category you are going to be keeping.
Repeat the above process for any other categories.
If you wish to rename the category, from the category window select the category and choose the Edit button, in the dialog that comes up you can change the category name, and also change where it sits in the category structure (parent) if desired.
You should now have some empty categories these can be deleted.
2 Posted by Moirty on 27 Jul, 2024 05:41 AM
The "capability" you describe is really just a work-around. The multiple steps could easily result in an unexpected error. At a minimum it is slow and inefficient. The request stands: It would be nice to have a built-in ability to merge categories.