Reconciling

Troy Ohlhausen's Avatar

Troy Ohlhausen

20 Aug, 2010 07:34 PM

I found the reconciliation feature to be cumbersome after I imported my data from iBank. I could not reconcile the current statement until I had reconciled all transactions as the import did not show reconciled transactions from iBank. I would recommend a start date for the statement so that the reconciliation could happen for that specific time period of the bank statement.

  1. 1 Posted by Ben Spencer on 20 Aug, 2010 08:10 PM

    Ben Spencer's Avatar

    Hi Troy

    I think this is a reasonable suggestion and it would be a significant departure from the way reconciliation currently works in Moneydance.

    Allowing the user to enter their own start data would also mean that they would have to enter their own beginning statement balance. Currently the beginning statement balance is a calculated field which is the initial balance on the account plus the sum of all cleared transactions. I am not certain what it would mean to have a "cleared balance" for an account where the user entered their own beginning balance and there were a number of transactions before that date that were not marked as cleared. I could see this becoming very confusing.

    The value of having the "beginning statement balance" aka "cleared balance" being a calculated field is that as you clear transactions in the past your cleared balance changes. If the user can set a start date and a cleared balance for an arbitrary point in time what would happen when transactions are subsequently cleared before that date?

    Never the less I have created a suggestion ticket for this feature and attached it to this discussion. The point I am trying to make is that this feature cannot be implemented in isolation. It would require a considerable modification to the entire reconciliation system. And at this point I am not completely certain what that considerable modification would look like of if it would be superior.

    Sincerely
    Ben Spencer

  2. 2 Posted by Troy Ohlhausen on 20 Aug, 2010 08:37 PM

    Troy Ohlhausen's Avatar

    Ben,

    The beginning statement balance would simply be the beginning statement balance found on your banks statement. I understand that this might cause a major modification, however, it would really help a new user that has just imported a QIF file balance for the upcoming month without the need to reconcile past transactions. Once the first reconciliation happens, the next statement could be reconciled using the calculated field. The need to reconcile all past transactions would then be eliminated.

    Since I have already went back to the beginning and reconciled, this feature will not help me, however, a modification would help future customers.

    Thank you for your response.

    Troy W Ohlhausen
    Executive Director
    NCTAT & ETF
    (916) 354-2122 x 203

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Ben Spencer [mailto:[email blocked]]
    Sent: Friday, August 20, 2010 1:12 PM
    To: [email blocked]
    Subject: Re: Reconciling [Suggestions]

  3. 3 Posted by Ben Spencer on 20 Aug, 2010 08:44 PM

    Ben Spencer's Avatar

    Hi Troy

    I believe I understand you reasons for the suggestion. Typically importing a QIF file fomr another program does not remove the cleared status on transactions. When you imported the QIF file did you set the source option to "from another program" on the QIF import window? If you did not Moneydance will default to treating the file as it it came from a bank download and will set the transactions to uncleared. It might also be that the QIF file generated by iBank did not have the cleared status set in the file on the transactions.

    Ben

  4. 4 Posted by gerd on 25 Aug, 2010 03:09 AM

    gerd's Avatar

    I would want a better reconciliation as well. In MS Money the beginning balance and date is taken from the previous reconcilation. I normally enter the ending balance and date from my bank statement then check off all the transactions i have on my statements. A running balance would show me any difference I run into during the reconciliation. If not difference is found I finish the reconciliation. If I have differences MD should allow me to save the current screen and allow to finish it at a later date. This would allow me to check for the differences and correct them. Going back into the reconciliation would "remember" everything I had done previously but would use any updated/deleted/created transactions I have done in the meantime which would probably bring the reconciliation differenct to zero.

  5. 5 Posted by Angie Rauscher on 25 Aug, 2010 04:54 AM

    Angie Rauscher's Avatar

    Gerd,

    Thank you for these suggestions. As a clarification, it is possible to "pause" the reconciliation process as you suggest by clicking the "Finish Later" button. If you click Finish Later these transactions you marked to Reconcile (Clear) will stay marked as Reconciling and display an orange diamond in your account register. There is also a "Difference" field in the reconcile window which lets you know if/when you have hit the reconciliation target. I do see how telling Moneydance to only show transactions before the statement ending date could be very useful to some of our users, and have linked that ticket to your case suggesting this feature.

    You can find more details about how Moneydance deals with reconciliation in the Moneydance 2010 user guide, which is located here. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance,

    Angie Rauscher
    Moneydance Support

  6. System closed this discussion on 31 Mar, 2015 03:31 PM.

  7. System closed this discussion on 19 Mar, 2016 04:54 AM.

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