Some questions/comments/suggestions [Warning! Very wordy!]
Adam
while, and so I recently downloaded a whole slew (for slew = 13,
apparently) of budgeting and accounting apps, shareware and freeware,
to try out. Moneywell is wining rather handily.
So, though I'm going to poke at it for a little longer, I'm pretty
sure at this point I'm going to buy it. But I do have a few questions/
concerns going forward.
My first issue is that, in addition to using MoneyWell to plan my
future finances, I'd also like to use it to review my past finances. I
have several years of old bank statements I could input, however, I
don't want to start with the oldest one and not be able to actually
use Moneywell for budgeting until I've finished entering my old
transactions. I'd much rather enter in my current balance as the
starting balance and use MoneyWell as intended, then, when I find
time, import/input my prior statements without messing up the
transactions already in place.
The best way I can see to do this is to start by entering my current
balance as my starting balance, and then, when I want to import my old
statements, do them in reverse order, and manually change my 'starting
balance' amount and date one month back each time. Am I correct, will
this work? Or will I somehow invalidate my 'normal' entries by doing
this?
Second, I find the frequency/timing options in the spending plan to be
incredibly confusing. After watching the tutorials, reading the help
and browsing these forums, I'm still not sure how timings and
frequencies are related to each other. In particular, I can't figure
out why the frequency options sub-divide with a rich variety of
options, from annually to daily, while timing divides the month into
two atomic chunks: the event either happens in the first half of the
month, the second half of the month, or both. It's entirely possible
that this is something that everyone who has ever made a budget (by
any method) already understands; this is my first attempt at paying
more than cursory attention to the state of my finances.
Third, I would really like to be able to hide some of the panes
sometimes. MoneyWell's single-window interface is very nice, but it is
not particularly compact. Usually this isn't a problem, but if I'm
trying to view my bank statement (in a PDF, say) and MoneyWell side-by-
side for reconciling, for example, I have to shrink the MoneyWell
window, mangling the center pane, which is definitely the most
important while reconciling. If I could just hide the buckets and
details sidebars, this would be a lot easier. This is on a 17-inch G5
iMac at 1440x900, by the way.
Fourth, about how long do I have before I will no longer be able to
get updates to MoneyWell without first updating to Leopard?
I hope I'm not coming across as overly harsh here. This is how I treat
software I like enough that I want to make it better rather than find
something else to use.
As an aside, kudos on doing a transaction-limited rather than time-
limited demo. Many of the other demos I've tried have expired at this
point, and since I can't go back to them any longer to refresh my
memory on what I liked about them, they're pretty much out of the
running.
(For reference, I looked at Buddi, Budget, Cashbox, Cashcow,
Checkbook, Economix, Fotora Fresh Finance, iCash, mini$, Money,
MoneyWell, My Checkbook, Quicken 2006. I think. Some of them I deleted
very quickly since they wouldn't import my bank records.)
Kevin Hoctor
> I've been meaning to start taking better care of my finances for a
> while, and so I recently downloaded a whole slew (for slew = 13,
> apparently) of budgeting and accounting apps, shareware and freeware,
> to try out. Moneywell is wining rather handily.
>
Hello Adam,
I don't think *I* even tried 13 apps before creating MoneyWell. I'm
impressed.
> So, though I'm going to poke at it for a little longer, I'm pretty
> sure at this point I'm going to buy it. But I do have a few questions/
> concerns going forward.
>
> My first issue is that, in addition to using MoneyWell to plan my
> future finances, I'd also like to use it to review my past finances. I
> have several years of old bank statements I could input, however, I
> don't want to start with the oldest one and not be able to actually
> use Moneywell for budgeting until I've finished entering my old
> transactions. I'd much rather enter in my current balance as the
> starting balance and use MoneyWell as intended, then, when I find
> time, import/input my prior statements without messing up the
> transactions already in place.
>
> The best way I can see to do this is to start by entering my current
> balance as my starting balance, and then, when I want to import my old
> statements, do them in reverse order, and manually change my 'starting
> balance' amount and date one month back each time. Am I correct, will
> this work? Or will I somehow invalidate my 'normal' entries by doing
> this?
>
This is a very logical way to do it. Just don't lose your starting
balance in the process. You'll have to keep changing the date on that
transaction to keep it prior to the imported transactions.
> Second, I find the frequency/timing options in the spending plan to be
> incredibly confusing. After watching the tutorials, reading the help
> and browsing these forums, I'm still not sure how timings and
> frequencies are related to each other. In particular, I can't figure
> out why the frequency options sub-divide with a rich variety of
> options, from annually to daily, while timing divides the month into
> two atomic chunks: the event either happens in the first half of the
> month, the second half of the month, or both. It's entirely possible
> that this is something that everyone who has ever made a budget (by
> any method) already understands; this is my first attempt at paying
> more than cursory attention to the state of my finances.
>
Yeah, this is needing some more work. The goal was to give you control
over when money allocates. For example, I have two very large bills
and I can't pay them both off in the same half of the month. One is
set to First Half and the other is Second Half but both are highest
priority. This keeps MoneyWell from filling both of these at the same
time. If you set something to All Month, then MoneyWell will allocate
half the planned amount in the first half of the month and fill the
rest in the second half.
This will get more visual and refined.
> Third, I would really like to be able to hide some of the panes
> sometimes. MoneyWell's single-window interface is very nice, but it is
> not particularly compact. Usually this isn't a problem, but if I'm
> trying to view my bank statement (in a PDF, say) and MoneyWell side-
> by-
> side for reconciling, for example, I have to shrink the MoneyWell
> window, mangling the center pane, which is definitely the most
> important while reconciling. If I could just hide the buckets and
> details sidebars, this would be a lot easier. This is on a 17-inch G5
> iMac at 1440x900, by the way.
>
I agree. The 2.0 release will have different ways to view the main
window and give you more control over this.
> Fourth, about how long do I have before I will no longer be able to
> get updates to MoneyWell without first updating to Leopard?
>
There will be at least one more Tiger release (1.4 probably late July)
and bug patches after that. The 2.0 release will require Leopard (no
time frame yet). I highly recommend Leopard. It has improved the
performance on all the Macs in this house, even a G4 eMac. The only
box still on Tiger is my old 500 Mhz. Titanium PowerBook.
> I hope I'm not coming across as overly harsh here. This is how I treat
> software I like enough that I want to make it better rather than find
> something else to use.
>
Not at all. I think you're spot on with all your comments and I will
use them to improve MoneyWell. Keep them coming!
> As an aside, kudos on doing a transaction-limited rather than time-
> limited demo. Many of the other demos I've tried have expired at this
> point, and since I can't go back to them any longer to refresh my
> memory on what I liked about them, they're pretty much out of the
> running.
>
Thank you. I had the same problem when I was trying out new products
because I tend to take a long time to make some decisions. It was
aggravating for me so I wanted to do the trial differently in MoneyWell.
> (For reference, I looked at Buddi, Budget, Cashbox, Cashcow,
> Checkbook, Economix, Fotora Fresh Finance, iCash, mini$, Money,
> MoneyWell, My Checkbook, Quicken 2006. I think. Some of them I deleted
> very quickly since they wouldn't import my bank records.)
Excellent list. Let me know if you have more questions.
Peace,
Kevin Hoctor
ke...@nothirst.com
No Thirst Software LLC
http://nothirst.com
http://kevinhoctor.blogspot.com
Danno Sullivan
services Yodlee or Mint? I like the way they automatically collect
transactions from multiple accounts, and automatically categorize
(almost always correctly for me).
My thought is to let Yodlee do it's aggregation magic then move all
the transactions, already categorized, into MoneyWell for day-to-day
budgeting.
The first hurdle I've his is that Yodlee seems to export only to CSV
which MoneyWell doesn't recognize.
I'd be curious to hear if anyone else has tried something like this?
Thanks!
Kevin Hoctor
Hi Danno,
I can't answer your question, but my plan is to have the 1.4 release
of MoneyWell automate this process as well as these services. We'll
see if I hit that mark in a couple of months. ;)
Adam
expenses such as rent, electricity, combined utilities, and internet
access. For convenience (and because the apartment complex would
prefer not to receive multiple checks a month), my SO pays these in
total, and then I write her a check my half the amount. Is it likely
to be worth my while to keep track of (my half of) these expenses
individually, and if so, is a split transaction the correct way to
handle it?
Also, if I decide later I don't like my bucket setup (for instance, if
I decide that I'd rather my health insurance premium be filed as a
health expense rather than an insurance expense), is it pretty easy to
re-arrange these things?
Blair Watkinson
On May 10, 2008, at 3:34 PM, Adam wrote:
>
> I do have another question, actually. Every month we have a number of
> expenses such as rent, electricity, combined utilities, and internet
> access. For convenience (and because the apartment complex would
> prefer not to receive multiple checks a month), my SO pays these in
> total, and then I write her a check my half the amount. Is it likely
> to be worth my while to keep track of (my half of) these expenses
> individually, and if so, is a split transaction the correct way to
> handle it?
Unless you had a particular reason to track part of the breakdown of
these expenses, it may not be worth the trouble to track them
individually. If you don't receive tax deductions, you don't need to
keep them separate for that purpose. If you don't need to spend
effort to "control" a certain aspect of your utilities, then you
wouldn't need to split them up for that either.... I personally
separate my utilities between Electricity & Gas, Cell Phone, and
Water. But it's because I want to track individual usage and help
continue to bring overall expenses down.
However, if you chose to track these you would do it as a split
transaction. Enter a check, split the amount, and assign the
appropriate portion to each bucket.
> Also, if I decide later I don't like my bucket setup (for instance, if
> I decide that I'd rather my health insurance premium be filed as a
> health expense rather than an insurance expense), is it pretty easy to
> re-arrange these things?
As far as making changes down the road, it's very easy to change
bucket names, but it's not so easy to go backwards and move stuff from
one bucket to another. And it's easy to change your spending plan and
start assigning a transaction that use to be a Health expense to the
Insurance bucket. However, the way each bucket rolls over from one
month to the next, changing a transaction's assignment from one bucket
to another will effect what MoneyWell reports as you having available
to spend right now.
For instance, imagine the following scenario;
You have two expense buckets, Health and and Insurance, the buckets
have $200 available to spend each
You have been assigning your $100 health insurance premium to the
Health bucket for the last 8 months.
Now, you change your mind, and you decide that you really want those
expenses in Insurance...
After you reassign each of your transactions, you'll be overspent in
Insurance by $600 ($200-$800) and you'll have $1000 to spend in Health.
You could create a manual money flow to realign your buckets, simply
drag your Health bucket on top of your Insurance bucket, and assign
$800 in the window that pops up, and you'll be back to $200 in each
bucket just like before, but now your insurance premiums are Insurance
expenses.
This example is relatively easy, and if you only wanted to change one
type of transaction, it wouldn't be difficult, especially if you took
note of the initial bucket amounts before you started. However, if
you were making a lot of these changes, you could really create some
strange looking buckets. More importantly, beyond aesthetics, I don't
really know what the value would be, unless you needed to rearrange
some things to create a report (perhaps??) for your accountant.
Hope this is helpful,
Blair
Danno Sullivan
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