> Here's a simplified example to clarify what I'm talking about: > - I deposit a $1000 bonus check into my checking account, but mark it > as bucket optional so it doesn't affect my cash flow (and artificially > inflate my income graphs) > - At this point my checking account balance is larger than my bucket > balance as my buckets are not accounting for everything > - I transfer $600 of this bonus into a savings account to earn > interest > - A few months later I decide to transfer the remainder of my bonus to > savings but I mistakenly transfer $500 thinking that is what was left > - I now have a shortfall of $100 in my checking account relative to my > bucket balances but I don't know it > - I respect my bucket balances yet I manage to drain my checking > account and get an overdraft fee > - I go back and try to figure out where I went wrong, but since the > daily balance reported by MoneyWell never matched my bank statements > to begin with, I have no "sync" points I can start out to see where I > started diverging.
Lance, While I do agree that there is little additional utility in the cleared flag, I think that your example is a little artificial. By depositing a bonus check and not assigning it to a bucket, you are creating for yourself a problem. If you want to remain synchronized you have to obey certain rules: 1) Setup MoneyWell correctly by ensuring that cash available in buckets equals cash available in accounts 2) Appropriately assign all transactions to buckets 3) Appropriately assign all transfers to buckets If you break any of the rules, then you cannot count on buckets to keep you out of trouble. If you obey the rules, then you know that when you go out and spend money and you spend less than you have in one of your buckets, you are guaranteed to have the cash available. However, these rules do not help you in knowing where the money is, and it is still possible to overdraft your account without violating the rules or creating artificial scenarios. If you have a relatively simple setup that just involves a checking account, then it would be relatively difficult to overdraft the checking account, since at all times the total money in the checking account equals the total money in buckets. However, add in a credit card, a savings account like Druzyne suggested earlier, a few cash accounts and the money that is available to you in buckets is scattered across several accounts. In this case, it is still true that you have the money available when you spend from a bucket, but now when you spend, you have to be somewhat aware of your account balances. Some banks allow you to overdraft from one account to another. If this is your case, you can spend freely knowing that there is a pipe running between your accounts, and when you overdraft one, the money comes from another. This is why it is important to track Open transactions. If you write a check at Church and one at the Grocery store, how can you possibly know that the money is available in your checking account? The buckets tell you that the money is available, but it is possible that the money is in your Savings account, not your Checking. Consider this: Bucket total $1000 Checking $500 Savings $800 Credit Card ($300) In this case, your cash available equals your bucket total. You could spend whatever you wanted to up to your bucket total and have the money available. You write a $100 check at church, and a $300 check at the grocery store. If you don't take note of these transactions as Open, and if MoneyWell didn't account for them in your checking account balance, you wouldn't know that you would overdraft your account when you pay your credit card bill when these checks eventually post. My opinion on the Cleared flag? First, I do not download transactions (this currently is the primary use of the Cleared flag-mark transactions as downloaded)--for me, it creates a mess and I have had to spend more time fixing the transactions than I would have if I had just entered them manually. Therefore, I flag transactions as Cleared after they have posted to the account. In this way, I differentiate between Open and Cleared transactions. Open transactions are primarily checks or other transactions I have made but there is a delay in posting I think that a "Cleared" total at the bottom of the page would be more useful than an Open+Cleared+Reconciled total (Reconciled Transactions are by definition also Cleared). This way, I can write a check and see that my checking balance has been appropriately reduced in the top left, but also verify that my account matches what my bank is reporting on a daily basis. MoneyWell is used in a variety of ways by different people. I still reconcile my accounts once a month, so sometimes I let small errors go until the statement comes--it's easier than trying to sift through $1.00 pre-approval charges or where I have entered $2.16 when it should have been $2.61, mostly because there aren't any good tools in MoneyWell for me to exclude Open transactions when I'm trying to track down an error. Others just reconcile the transactions as soon as the bank posts them. As you said, the reconciled total is useful here because you can use it compare your daily balances. If there were a Cleared total, I think this would allow others who reconciled on a monthly basis do the same (in fact I don't think that you would really need both--some users would prefer a reconciled total if they reconcile daily, others would prefer a cleared total, if the reconcile once a month). Blair --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/no-thirst-software?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
