[moneydance] moneydance-info Digest, Vol 58, Issue 11

[Steve Lessard]

See my replies inline....

-SteveL


On May 15, 2008, at 9:00 AM, moneydance-info-request at moneydance.com  
wrote:

> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 16:42:56 +0400
> From: "Mark Fergusson" <mark at thefergussons.com>
> Subject: [moneydance] Moneydance Trial/Thinking of purchasing
> To: <moneydance-info at moneydance.com>
> Message-ID: <20080515131914.B7474C780E0 at krakow.moneydance.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hi All,
>
>
>
> I'm in the process of evaluating so need some assistance with a few  
> things
> before I purchase.
>
>
>
> 1. How is support with moneydance? (I sent an email but haven't had a
> response).

I haven't written to support in a while and I've only ever written to  
them a few times.  I always had great success with Moneydance's  
support.  But the truth is that many people send their support  
questions to this DL, though its more geared for discussions than one  
on one support.  You will find that the lead software developer and  
owner of Moneydance often replies to messages on this DL.  for me  
that beats the pants off of any regular email support any day.



> 2. After importing - regarding the Categories - not sure if it's a  
> trial
> version restriction but I can't select multiple transactions,  
> select the
> category, then "Record". It seems I have to add then do a bulk  
> category
> change after (?). Not sure I'm missing something.

I can't help you here.  I have no idea.


> 3. Is there anyway you can define pattern matching so transactions are
> categorized automatically? Transaction categorization is one of my  
> main
> objectives - I'm not convinced that the "Transaction Match" is the  
> fastest -
> seems like to much manual work. It would be nice to define a rule  
> and from
> then on all transactions that match that rule are categorized  
> automatically.

What kind of pattern are you talking about?  Moneydance has a couple  
kinds of pattern matching built in.  One is pretty much just an auto- 
fill feature.  If your payee has the same name then MD will auto-fill  
the rest of the transaction.  The other type of pattern matching is a  
feature of downloading transactions from your bank.  I'm not sure how  
it matches, but it will recognize some kind of pattern and suggest  
that it be entered under a certain category.


> 4. Can someone please clarify exactly what the objective of  
> "Reconcile" is?
> I looked at the Wiki explanation but still not sure. Same applies  
> to credit
> cards. Really don't understand what the overall objective of this  
> is. A
> simple example would help me.

Have you ever balanced your checkbook?  Back before computers made  
everything easy we all had to balance our checkbook using a pencil,  
erasure, calculator (or more led and paper,) a bottle of asprin and  
an afternoon of the kids at grandma's house.  The bank even gave you  
a nice little form on the back of your statement to help you make  
sense of it all.  I recall one bank of mine even gave instructions on  
how to balance my checking account.  Have you really never heard of  
that?  Or do you just know it by another name?


> 5. What account type does a mortgage go under? Don't really see  
> that it has
> much capability around this, but then don't know the product.

I have my mortgage setup as a Loan account.  A Loan account tracks  
data such as points, interest rate, escrow payment, principal, etc.   
All kinds of stuff.  I can't find any shortcomings there.


> 6. Also, what about mortgages that are in different countries? Any  
> comments
> on ability to handle this?

I only use Moneydance with US currency, but I know it support  
multiple currencies, even within one account.  I guess someone with  
more international experience will have to help you out.


> I'd appreciate comments on any of the above to help me with a  
> decision.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Mark
>