[moneydance] Major data error after archiving transactions

[David Carlson]

Rob Lund wrote:
> I asked this question a couple years ago too, Steve.  As I understood  
> the reply then, the investment accounts would get screwed up if their  
> transactions are removed.  I doubt I'm explaining it well at all!
>
> ROB LUND // "I solder the body electric"
> WEB INFO //  ElectroLund.com // AIM // Yahoo // Facebook
>
>   
>> Until recently my Moneydance file contained all of my transactions  
>> all the way back to 1992.  I recently archived all of the old  
>> transactions through 12/31/2006.  After doing this I noticed that  
>> only bank account transactions are archived.  Investment account  
>> transactions are not archived.  Now the balance in my investment  
>> account is wrong because it doesn't contain the deposit transactions  
>> that came from those archived bank transactions.  Another way to put  
>> this is Moneydance did a partial archive of the investment account's  
>> transactions and now my data is all screwed up.
>>
>> What can be done to fix this?  Please help!!!
>>
>> -SteveL
>>     
>
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>   
First, I hope that you had a backup to go back to. 
Second, the archive function is not described as a way to shrink the 
active file, but as a way to create a file with no transactions after a 
set date.  There is no guarantee that investment accounts will stay in 
balance.  It is stated that if old transactions are selected to be 
removed, the starting balance for each account is updated to reflect the 
amount of the deleted transactions.  There is an option to keep 
unreconciled transactions if you wish.

I have not used the archive function yet, so I cannot speak from 
experience, but I suspect that if you used a companion cash account with 
each investment account, the cash account would stay in balance and the 
security account would either still have a zero balance or could easily 
be corrected to a zero balance without affecting rate of return 
calculations.  Obviously, dividend and interest transactions would have 
to originate in the security account, and, if cash is involved, it 
should be transferred to the cash account.

Moneydance cannot summarily remove old transactions from investment 
accounts, because it cannot identify which transactions are linked to 
which investment 'lots' or 'positions' or when those 'lots' or 
'positions' have been closed.  It just isn't that sophisticated.  For 
most people, there aren't very many transactions involved.

As far as file size is concerned, my data file is larger than 18 Meg, 
and it still runs fairly well on my four year old computer.  That would 
only be a concern to people who have a very old computer that they have 
not yet retired.

Dave