Clearing Asset Transactions
In my checking account I "transfer" money into Asset accounts. The money actually stays in my checking account but the dollar amount is not included in the "current balance" amount.
When I go to reconcile my checking account, all of the asset
transactions show up as uncleared.
Today I went into all of my asset transactions that have been entered into my checking account an manual marked them as cleared in hopes that this would prevent the asset transactions from showing up when I reconcile my checking account. For the most part this worked fine.
The only issue is that now when I go to reconcile my checking account my beginning statement balance is not correct. Is there a way for me to update the beginning statement balance amount?
Is there another way I can marked these asset transactions as cleared without affecting the beginning statement balance amount in my checking account?
Thanks,
Brad
2 Posted by bgshower on 26 May, 2010 09:52 PM
Any thoughts on this one?
3 Posted by bgshower on 16 Jun, 2010 11:23 AM
Can someone reply to this?
Support Staff 4 Posted by Ben Spencer on 16 Jun, 2010 01:25 PM
Hi
I am sorry I have not responded sooner. I am afraid I do not understand what you are doing or trying to achieve.
When you say "I 'transfer' money into Asset accounts. The money actually stays in my checking account". Your checking account in Moneydance is supposed to be a reflection of your checking account at the bank. If you are entering transactions into moneydance that do not actually happen at the bank you are going to have discrepancies in reconciliation in the reconciliation of that account with the bank and the balances are not going to be in agreement.
If you are going to make transfers in moneydance that are not actually happening then you are not going to be able to easily use the reconciliation tool. The balances of you checking account and its list of transactions -by definition- is not going to be in agreement with your banks checking account.
What is the goal of creating these abstract transfers to asset accounts? Perhaps there is a better way to achieve your goal.
Ben Spencer
Moneydance Support
5 Posted by bgshower on 16 Jun, 2010 02:39 PM
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the response. In the end, the goal of these transactions is an attempt to mimic the "Savings Goal" functionality in Quicken. Basically I am just putting money aside for something I know I am going to need to pay in the future. Car insurance is a good example. I know every 6 months I am going to have to pay $600 for insurance. So I transfer $100 each month into a "Car Insurance" asset account, the money never leaves my checking account but it does not show up in the checking account balance. When my car insurance bill comes due, I pay it from my checking account and then transfer the money I saved the previous 6 months from my car insurance asset account back into my checking account. The main reason I do this is to help soften the blow when my car insurance bill is due. I don't know about you, but if I see money in my checking account I tend to spend it. :)
I am sure I am not using the Asset functionality as it was designed to be used but it serves it's purpose very well... with the exception of when I reconcile my checking account.
Is there a different way to achieve the same goal?
Thanks in advance for you assistance,
Brad
Support Staff 6 Posted by Ben Spencer on 16 Jun, 2010 03:04 PM
Hi Brad
Thanks for clarify the situation.
I experimented with this for a while and I am afraid I have not been able to find a solution that allows reconciliation to happen smoothly if funds are transferred out of an account. The best I could come up with was to create two sub accounts of the checking account one for available funds and one for reserved funds. This at least continued to show the total value of checking even when funds were transferred to sub accounts, which I think is slightly superior to transferring to an asset account. See attached screenshot. However reconciling with sub accounts set up this way really doesn't work.
I am afraid I don't have a solution for you.
Sincerely
Ben Spencer
7 Posted by lindasno1 on 13 Jan, 2011 08:48 PM
I have the same problem! Any new solutions since last post in 2010?
Support Staff 8 Posted by Ben Spencer on 14 Jan, 2011 10:15 PM
I believe that my last post was overly negative with regard to reconciliation with sub accounts. You can certainly use sub accounts to set aside savings. There is an option when you select Account->Reconcile to "include sub accounts" or not.
Sincerely
Ben Spencer
Moneydance Support
9 Posted by lindasno1 on 22 Jan, 2011 04:36 PM
Thank you, Ben. I can't find anyplace that says "include sub accounts" or not when I go to reconcile but I appreciate your response. I'll figure something out :)
10 Posted by jbnyt on 22 Jan, 2011 05:29 PM
I believe what Ben is suggesting is that rather than starting the reconcile function from the sub-account itself, go up to the parent account and start the reconcile from there. Using Ben's example where the parent account is Checking and the two sub-accounts are Available Funds and Reserved Funds, you would access the reconcile function after selecting the Checking account. Once you do that a box will pop up and offer you the "include sub-accounts" option.