[moneydance] help with setup

[David Emme]

I've never used MS Money, and I converted to Moneydance from Quicken  
several years ago, when the conversion process and its results may  
have been somewhat different from what you're seeing. So what follows  
may or may not apply to your problem. That said...


On Sep 29, 2008, at 1:54 PM, Martha wrote:

> By the way, when I tried deleting those accounts that shouldn't be  
> there, it
> naturally adjusted the balance in my checking account, so then it's  
> off. How
> do I fix these problems? I need to get things set up correctly or I'll
> always be off. I'm new to double entry accounting so I've no clue  
> how to fix
> this problem. I understand the concept of double entry accounting,  
> I think.
> I'm just not sure how to correct the initial setup error.

In Moneydance (and double-entry bookkeeping generally, as best I  
understand) money cannot appear from nowhere or disappear into the  
void. For example, in Quicken I could "receive" N shares of XYZ stock  
(as in getting it as a gift, cost-free to me, or importing it from a  
prior money program) and the stock (and its value) appeared "out of  
nowhere". In Moneydance, you can't do that: every transaction has to  
have two "sides" - where the funds came from and where they went. So  
when converting from Quicken, Moneydance had to "invent" the "other  
sides" of some of these transactions, and at that time (several years  
ago), it "invented" new accounts/categories in which to place those  
"other sides".

Since I didn't want all of those invented accounts/categories, I  
created a single "fictitious" account (I called mine "Black Hole")  
into which I moved all of those transaction "other sides" created by  
the conversion process, then deleted all of the other "invented"  
accounts. Now I just ignore "Black Hole" in reports and such, and I'm  
a happy camper.

>
> I thought about just starting all over but it won't let me delete  
> the root
> account.

You can start over by just creating a new Moneydance file from scratch.

HTH,
-Dave

-- 
For the moment, however, I am most interested in those creatures who  
have taken things as they found them and then found out how to find  
them good.
    - Joseph Wood Krutch

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