Reconciled transactions don't seem truly reconciled
Does there come a point when a cleared transaction is truly "locked in" to the account where it was entered? I set up CDs to transfer back into my checking account when I close them (at the bank). However, Moneydance seems unable to allow me to close/delete the CD account, as doing so also delete the checking account side of the transaction - even if both sides of the transaction have been "cleared" This seems a limitation for transferring funds. Am I doing something wrong - this seemed quite simple with Microsoft Money, and, I believe, Quicken
2 Posted by james f on 15 Jun, 2012 09:25 AM
Question: With MS Money, did you have to enter the transfer transaction on both the checking account side as well as on the CD side? Or, did you just have to enter the transfer transaction on one side and it automatically entered on the other side?
With Moneydance, a transfer transaction forever links the two accounts. Changing one side will always effect the other sides account ledger balance. That's double entry bookkeeping practices.
So that the CD account no longer appears in your list of accounts on your Home Page after it has closed out and the balance is zero, just do following:
1. Open the CD account within Moneydance.
2. Select Account > Edit Account
3. You ought to see an option "Hode on Home Page (If Balance is Zero)
4. Place a check mark next to it.
5. You ought to see an option below the first one that says "Inactive".
6. Place a check mark next to that.
3 Posted by eric.klanderman on 15 Jun, 2012 02:46 PM
In Microsoft Money a transaction of that kind was called a category called
"Transfer" with a subcategory being the account for where the funds were to
arrive, or be taken from. It is my clear recollection that such
transactions would remain as valid in any remaining account should one of
the accounts involved be closed/deleted. I also recall a feature of most
databases that seems to apply in this case, about data that is entered into
a field being updated, or not, depending on rules established for that
field.
I have come to like Moneydance a lot, but I still am often frustrated about
some of the things that it seems to do so badly.
4 Posted by Allan B on 15 Jun, 2012 08:05 PM
Eric, I'm not sure why you would ever want to delete an account.
Just for illustration: suppose you set up your CD during 2009 and closed it early in 2010. As of Dec. 31, 2009, it existed; that's a fact.
If you ever asked MD to produce a net worth report as of Dec. 31, 2009, the CD should be included. If it wasn't, the report would be simply wrong.
Similarly, if you asked for a report on transactions for a period that included 2009, it should include a transfer of funds to the CD. That's also a fact; it happened.
As James said, you can make the CD disappear from your home page because its balance is now zero. So why do you need to do anything else?
5 Posted by eric.klanderman on 15 Jun, 2012 11:03 PM
From "Investopedia" (I've no idea of their provenance, but this definition seems rational -
Definition of 'Closed Account'
In the simplest sense, any account that has been closed out or otherwise terminated, either by the customer or the custodian. From an accounting perspective, closed accounts can also mean an account that is made ready for the new year by closing out the previous year's amount. A legal definition of this term denotes a statement of debits and credits between parties that cannot be altered.
Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/closed-account.asp#ixzz1xuBbKoZL
I think the key concept that is conveyed here is that a closed account cannot be altered. MD seems to ignore this concept. I grant that those transactions happened, and perhaps "account deletion" is horribly inelegant - but a transaction that occurred in a closed CD, the outcome of which was a transfer to another account, should not be allowed to "pop up" as a new transaction.
6 Posted by Allan B on 16 Jun, 2012 08:26 AM
"Closing an account" in the banking sense is totally different from "closing" in the accounting sense. But I don't think it's relevant to this topic.
Staying with my example, if there was a balance on the account at the end of 2009, any MD report as of that date must show that balance, so the data must be retained. If it didn't, it would be incomplete and therefore wrong: I really think it's as simple as that.
If you eliminate old data just because the account is "closed" – no matter what that means – then MD will not be a reliable record of previous transactions. I hope the developers won't go in that direction.
Support Staff 7 Posted by Ben Spencer on 16 Jun, 2012 02:53 PM
Moneydance does not support closing an account in the sense that once closed an account cannot be altered.
Moneydance does support marking an account as inactive. This will remove an account from the various displays and lists in the program in order to remove old clutter. However an inactive account still exists and if you delete it or modify transaction in it you will affect the balances of other account.
In short don't delete old accounts or old transactions. Moneydance is a double entry book keeping system that needs to maintain entries on both sides of transfers for the system to balance.
Sincerely
Ben Spencer
Moneydance Support