[moneydance] help with setup

[Martha]

Dave,
I don't know how I did it but I got all those accounts that were off to go
to zero without affecting my checking account balance. Woohoo! However, I
tried deleting them and it messed things up. I'll just leave them at zero
for now. So things look good. I don't know how it will affect reports
though. My main concern at this point is having the proper balance on my
actual accounts though. And being able to refer back to old transactions.

During setup I could have zero accounts not show up in the window. I didn't
check that option though. Does anyone know if I can go back and check that
option now? I can't seem to figure it out.

I know these sound like silly questions, I just feel so over my head with
this program. I keep waiting for it to be intuitive like it claims to be.
Many thanks to those who are leaving comments.

~Martha



On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 5:22 PM, David Emme <demme at pobox.com> wrote:

> 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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