deleting categories
Paul Symchych
via web
I have set up what amounts to a second account ["chase 2012"]
that lists only the current year's transactions.
Looking to re-arrange and delete some categories, I get a message
that deleting a category will delete previously entered
transactions. For eg. I have a category of 'Medical insurance' as a
separate category and also 'Medical' as a top line category with
sub-categories of 'doctor'; insurance; etc. This mess is a holdover
from importing into Moneydance. from quicken. I'd like to clean
duplicated categories up and use the categories in a hierarchal
fashion.
Will deleting one or the other delete the entries for my calendar
year 2011 account? Or, are categories specific to the the named
account? I don't want to lose the ability to generate reports from
2011 accurately.
Support Staff 2 Posted by Ben Spencer on 22 Jan, 2012 04:54 PM
Yes deleting a category will delete any transactions that are using that category. You should make sure that there are no transactions in a category before you delete it.
I recommend using the free find and replace extension to move transactions out of unused categories. You can install it by selecting Extensions->Manage Extensions...
Ben Spencer
Moneydance Support
3 Posted by Paul Symchych on 24 Jan, 2012 02:08 PM
OK I got the find and replace extension. A problem is being able to figure out which I am replacing. The hierarchal 'Medical/insurance' and the separate category of 'Medical Insurance' appear on the lists as 'Medical:insurance' with no indication of which is the sub-category. i.e. I can't tell which is hierarchal and which is a sole category.
Suggestion: can you not change the software so that a sub-category is indicated by a slash? Or maybe have the list displayed in it's hierarchal form rather than a straight top to bottom list?
Support Staff 4 Posted by Jessica Little on 27 Jan, 2012 04:42 PM
Hi Paul,
The category 'Medical:insurance' is the hierarchical one. The colon in the name indicates this. The non-hierarchical category would just have a space instead of a colon.
Jessica Little
Moneydance Support
5 Posted by Paul Symchych on 27 Jan, 2012 05:07 PM
Hi Jessica:
Yes and no.
While the distinction is visible as hierarchal subheadings in
Moneydance when I look at categories, in 'find and replace' they all
look the same. i.e. 'medical' and 'insurance' separated by a colon
but not subheaded.
There is a complication in that the two words in the redundant
'medical insurance' as a non-hierarchal category are also separated by
a colon. I can't remember if that is default or if I did that when I
transfered from Quicken. Thus they look the same if listed vertically
without being subheaded.
My next reaction is to print out all of 2011's transactions so I have
hard copy; edit categories, hope I don't whack too many of last year's
transactions and start fresh for 2012. A bit of a bother.
It might be simpler if deleting a category did only that and left the
transaction with no category.
thanks
6 Posted by Fred Dalzell on 27 Jan, 2012 05:13 PM
Paul - I think you could temporarily rename one of the accounts so when you look at it in Find and Replace, the names will be different.
Fred
7 Posted by Paul Symchych on 27 Jan, 2012 05:44 PM
Fred:
I am not sure how that would change things.
I have two named accounts. One is 'Chase 2011' and the other 'Chase
2012'. this is really the same bank account but I just wanted to
separate the years.
In order to tidy up the list and get rid of duplicate categories for
this year's transactions I suspect that this will delete some of the
transactions in last year's accounts. That is unless the category
list is unique to each account. I don't know that but it would sure
make it easier if it was that way.
Starting fresh for this year would then be easy.
p.
Support Staff 8 Posted by Jon Hoover on 27 Jan, 2012 05:59 PM
Paul,
It seems you have several options. You could go to Tools -> Categories and find the problematically named categories and select Edit and rename them and proceed with find and replace.
Another option is to go to file->archive and archive all your 2011 transactions, at this point you should be able to delete unused categories.
Also, the category list is not unique to each account.
Please let me know if this addresses your problem.
Sincerely,
Jon Hoover, Moneydance Support
9 Posted by Paul Symchych on 27 Jan, 2012 06:20 PM
I just printed out last year's transactions as insurance.
This has raised two unrelated questions:
-many have the letter 'i' in the description and others also have a
blue dot. Meaning ??.
-split transactions don't print as splits, only the total amount. Did
I miss something?
With complete respect for the delete key I am pondering my options.
Best guess is to edit the categories and see what disappears. I can
rekey this year's entries quickly and if there are gaps in 2010's so
be it.
p.
Support Staff 10 Posted by Jon Hoover on 27 Jan, 2012 06:45 PM
Hi Paul,
I think you may understand how Moneydance handles your data. It is not a database style application where in some sense the program and your data are intertwined. Instead your data is stored in a specific file ending with the extension .md. You can see the name of the current one in the title bar of your window. You can go to this file (usually in your home folder) and make a zillion copies of it as a back up. Alternatively, while its open you could go to File->Save As. This will make a new copy of it and you will give it a new name. Feel free to change the new copy as the original will be unaffected.
The 'i' indicates that it was imported from a file you downloaded from you bank. The blue dot indicates that you downloaded this file but have not yet confirmed that it is correct. Some people want to double check the data they download and/or merge it with data about that transaction they manually entered.
Unfortunately you can't currently print splits when you print from register.
Please let us know if you have any more questions.
Sincerely,
Jon Hoover, Moneydance Support