This is an extremely clear and helpful explanation. (I've been having similar difficulties to the original poster).
The fact that you have to write it up as you did, and the fact that I have now printed it to have next to my computers, seems to indicate a difficulty that some people have with the program. I love MoneyWell and think it is by far the best solution I've found for money managing--UNTIL something goes a little out of whack and then (for me) it's really, really hard to understand how to make fixes. I would love to see some of these paths spelled out for us dummies within the software; safeguards that might keep us from fouling things up in the first place. ds On Mar 27, 2009, at 10:58 PM, The Watkinson Family wrote: > Kevin and Daniel, > > One thing that I didn't like about the export and import is that the > export and import functions aren't fully reversible (at least not > when I did this a few months ago since Jan 1). > > It may be pretty obscure, but I had been using Alt + Enter in order > to use multiple lines in my memos. If I remember right, any data > that wasn't on the first line was lost. I think that I also had > problems with splits, but I could be remembering incorrectly. > > Anyway, Daniel, when starting a new, I would leave the Initial Cash > Flow at 0. Then, I would assign each of my accounts' Starting > Balances to an Income bucket. This will ensure that you don't have > any more money in your buckets than you actually have in your > account. I'll expand on your illustration on how I might setup your > accounts. > > Personal Checking $500 > Credit Card $0 > Business Checking $500 > Cash $0 > --------------------------- > Personal Savings $500 > > The "---------------------" above is actually an account name. I > named it that way in my document to serve as a divider between two > different types of accounts. The accounts above the line are my > "cash accounts." They are accounts from which I would put money > into envelopes and spend money from envelopes if I were using an > envelope system. The accounts below the line include savings, > investments, loans, etc. These are both assets and liabilities that > I'd like to track, but that I do not use for cash flow. The money > in Personal Savings, or a Mortgage, or a car loan or Retirement > Account would not be used to fund my groceries bucket. These types > of accounts I put below the dashed line. > > Now, when assigning the starting balance for any account above the > line, I assign it to an income bucket. If you do that in this case, > you'll have $1000 in the Income bucket. On the other hand, for any > account below the line, you do not assign the Starting Balance to an > Income bucket. > > Now, observe the following rules: > Whenever you spend money or deposit money from/into an account above > the line, you assign the transfer to a bucket (again, this is just > like spending money from your envelopes). > Whenever you spend money or deposit money directly from/into an > account below the line, you do not assign the transfer to a bucket. > When you transfer money between accounts and you do not cross the > dashed line, you do not assign the transfer to a bucket (this is > just moving around). > When you cross the dashed line with a transfer, assign the transfer > on the account on the side of the dashed line to a bucket. Two > examples offered below: > Assume you are investing money in your Savings account from your > Personal Checking account. This is treated as an "expense," even > though the money remains yours. It's as if you took money from your > Savings envelope and walked down to the bank and put it in a Savings > account. You would need to deduct the money from the envelope. A > transfer has two sides--the withdrawal side and the transfer side. > You can toggle between them in MoneyWell with the "Show Matching" > button. In this scenario, you would assign the transfer that's in > the account above the line to a bucket--in other words, assign the > withdrawal from Personal Checking to the expense bucket "Savings." > This will decrease the bucket amount as we decrease the amount we > have in Personal Checking. > Now, assume you are moving money from Savings to your Personal > Checking account so that you can pay for Emergency Car Repairs. > This is as if you went to the bank and withdrew money from Savings > to put into your Emergency envelope. Again, following the general > rule above, you'll assign the transaction that's in the account > above the line to a bucket. In this case, the transaction in > Personal Checking is a deposit. We'll assign that deposit to your > Emergency bucket, thus increasing the bucket as we increase the > amount in Checking. > > If you setup MoneyWell the way I suggested above, and your account > balances are in fact accurate, and you assign the Start Date > correctly, and follow the four rules above (which, hopefully, are > fairly intuitive if you understand the types of accounts above and > below the line), the total money you have in your cash accounts will > always equal the total money in your buckets. > > Please let me know if something doesn't make sense. > > Grace to you, > Blair Watkinson > > On Mar 26, 2009, at 4:20 PM, Kevin Hoctor wrote: > >> >> On Mar 26, 2009, at 1:07 PM, Daniel wrote: >> >>> Thanks to Lance,Blair, Trish, and Kevin for your responses. I tried >>> Trish's approach with the transfers. It helped, but then created a >>> new negative balance in my credit card account (which really is >>> 0). I >>> appreciate Lance's comments but they really don't apply as I never >>> use >>> the download feature (I did once, but found that I wanted to go >>> through each item anyway and check for duplicates and/or change the >>> name to a more friendly payee title; also, the downloads came in all >>> caps, which I didn't like, but that's just a stylistic thing and I'm >>> pretty sure MW has no control over that.) >>> >>> I tried editing the money flows, as Kevin suggested. However, >>> when I >>> deleted an item in one bucket it simply added that amount to my >>> salary >>> bucket, from which it originally came. >>> >>> To be honest, I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm really unclear how it is >>> even possible to have more money in buckets than in accounts. That >>> seems to be antithetical to the very core of MoneyWell. However, it >>> may just underscore the fact that understanding the intricacies of >>> finances has never been easy for me. That is why I love MoneyWell. >>> The simplicity and the power of the application makes for a great >>> tool >>> for me. >>> >>> So now I am just wondering about starting over. If I did that I >>> would >>> like to start at Jan. 1 as I have 26 transactions in a bucket I use >>> for my business (a sole proprietary business), so I'd like to have >>> that for 2009 tax information. Is there a way that I can archive my >>> current data and start anew? >> >> >> Daniel, >> >> If you want to start over with money flows, just change your start >> date to April 1, 2009 and work from there forward. >> >> If that's not enough of a "do over" then use File > Export to export >> all your transactions (uncheck the filter option when it appears), >> create a new document (cancel the buckets and accounts panels) and >> import that back in. You'll have all your buckets and transactions >> without any money flows. >> >> Peace, >> >> Kevin Hoctor >> ke...@nothirst.com >> No Thirst Software LLC >> http://nothirst.com >> http://kevinhoctor.blogspot.com >> >> >> >> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "No Thirst Software User Forum" group. To post to this group, send email to no-thirst-software@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to no-thirst-software+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/no-thirst-software?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
