Archive - Moneydance 2017 - Customizing and Preferences

This is an archived document. Please refer to the more recent knowledge base articles on this page

Setting Your Preferences -

Selecting the Moneydance → Preferences menu (or File → Preferences on Windows and Linux) brings up the preferences window.

Preferences fall into six tabs: General, Network, Check Printing, Printing, Backups and Summary.

General

• Show Full Account Paths If unchecked the account path “Bills: Electricity” appears as "Electricity."
• Register Follows Recorded Transactions Register will scroll to new transactions as they are entered.
• Use VAT/GST Tells Moneydance to automatically split any transactions that have associated VAT/GST rates into two categories, one to reflect the purchase cost and one for the VAT/GST.
• Case Sensitive Auto-Completion Only match previous transactions that begin with the exact text that has been typed in the Description field.
• Auto-Insert Decimal Point When checked, values such as "1234" will be interpreted as "12.34", always putting two digits after the decimal point.
• Auto-create New Transactions After entering a transaction a new transaction entry window will open.
• Separate Tax Date for Transactions Allows two dates to be entered for each transaction, one for your records and one that can be used for taxes.
• Show All Accounts in Pop-up If left unchecked, accounts with the “Hide on Summary Page (if balance is zero)” option checked and income/expense categories will not be in the pop-up list available at upper left the Moneydance window. Inactive accounts are never visible in the pop-up.
• Beep When Transactions Change Makes a cash-register sound when a transaction is entered.

• Theme Choose between pre-set themes or customize your own.
• Show Selection Details Set as 'In Main Window' by default, can be changed to 'In seperate popup'
• Side Bar Balance Type Choose between Current Balance, Balance, and Cleared Balance. See Chapter 4 for more information on balance options.
• Date Format Choose between several date formats.
• Decimal Character Choose decimal or comma.
• Locale Select your locale to alter language and spelling.
• Fiscal Year Start Set a fiscal year with a start other than January 1.
• Font Size Select a font size for the Moneydance display. Font sizes for printing are set in the Printing tab.

Network

• Automatically Download Transactions in Background Initiates transaction download for all Direct Connect enabled accounts upon program start.
• Automatically Merge Downloaded Transactions Automatically merges and categorizes transactions downloaded through direct connections, or imported from your bank's website.
• Mark Transactions as Cleared When Confirmed Marks transactions as cleared when they are confirmed. Only applies to downloaded and imported transactions, and does not apply to transactions in Investment Accounts.
• Use Bank Dates for Merged Transactions When this box is checked and the date on a manually entered transaction is different from the date of downloaded transaction it is being merged with, for example when a check is written on December 4 and cashed on December 8, the bank’s date replaces the manually entered date. When this box is not checked the manually entered date will remain.
• Use Proxy - for those who use a Proxy to connect to the internet. If you think you need to use proxy settings, contact your network administrator.
• Observe Online Payment Date Restrictions If checked, Moneydance will re-set the date given to initiate a new payment forward by the number of days your bank needs for processing. If you initiate a payment for a date earlier than your bank says it can be processed, Moneydance will send you an error message.
• Only match downloaded transactions when they are at most X days apart If checked, the program will only offer matches which have dates in the stated range.

Check Printing

In this window you can customize the check type and format. This setting is data file specific, so if you have two different types of checks you will need to re-set these options each time you change check type.

Printing

In this window you can choose the settings to be used when printing reports, checks, or transactions from account registers.

Backups

In this window you can choose the maximum number of backup files to be stored, and select the backup location.

Summary

The Moneydance Summary can be viewed by clicking on the Summary button in the Side Bar. The Summary is divided into a left and right columns.

Within the Preferences window, the "Available Items" box shows which additional information can be added to your Summary.

Below this are two boxes showing the information displayed on the right and left sides of your Summary. It’s also possible to place items in only one column to have a Summary with a single (wide) column.

Encrypting Your Data -

Moneydance can password protect your data file for additional security. To encrypt your data file, click File → Passwords.

If you lose or forget your password we cannot retrieve your data. Choose your password and hint carefully.

If you would like Moneydance to remember your passwords for Direct Connect enabled accounts, select the “Store Online Passwords in File” option. After enabling this, you'll need to enter your login credentials once more before they're stored.

The Sidebar -

The Moneydance sidebar is located on the left side of the Moneydance program window, and can make it easier to see and access information you use frequently. By default, all your accounts will appear in the Side Bar.

Accounts are grouped by type. To expand or collapse a group of accounts, click the small arrow to the left of the heading.

To add or remove items from the sidebar, click the + button at the bottom, then the “Advanced” button. You can also remove an item from the sidebar by right clicking (or ctrl+clicking on a Mac) on the item in the sidebar and selecting “Remove from Sidebar”

Removing an item (account, category, graph, budget, report, etc) from the sidebar DOES NOT delete or affect the functioning of that item.

Turn off the Side Bar by selecting the “Hide Side Bar” option on the View menu.

Open in a new window by double-clicking or CTRL+Click (or right-click on a 2 button mouse)

Re-size by dragging the right edge of the sidebar, or using the “grab-bars” at the bottom right of the sidebar