Spurious Transactions that I can't remove

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Alan Wall

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Nov 1, 2023, 9:10:58 AM11/1/23
to Microsoft Money
I hope someone can help.
I have sunset UK version of Money (Original File started over 20years ago). Windows 11

About a month ago I had a hang-up when the program first loaded. I restarted and all appeared OK. There was a warning from Money (and still is) that the accounts summary page does not add up  but registers were still correct. Unfortunately  I didn' notice anything else at the time.  About 3 weeks later I noticed that there were spurious entries in the reports and cash flow predictions, which does affect my use. The spurious entries are all derived from my repeat transactions or "bills" page, so they exist in reports on specific dates for up to a year ahead as had been scheduled in "bills".

As I have already said, the registers are fine. But if I go to reports or cash flow prediction the false extra entries are included. For instance, today, a lot of utilities were paid. Each transaction now appears on reports twice, but registers (my current account ) once.
I have tried to delete the spurious ones within reports, but they won't. I have tried to edit them within reports, but (unlike the real ones), the amount, date, account are grayed out and cannot be edited, although other boxes  (eg Payto, category) can be changed.
I have tried  to use repair options (quick and standard) a few times, without success.

My additional problem is that because it was nearly a month before I realized it was serious, I have no recent backup.The last uncorupted one I now have was July.  OK I can improve backup policy in future, but its too late now.

Alan    

Tom Roberts

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Nov 1, 2023, 11:51:44 PM11/1/23
to Alan Wall, Microsoft Money
It sounds like you are only dealing with bank accounts and not investment accounts. Thus, one option is to rebuild your file from either (1) the last backup, or (2) using a copy of your current mny file. The main difference between method 1 and 2 is how far back you have to extract transactions from your current mny file. For method 2 you delete all transactions only as far back as the start date of the problem.  
You then extract transactions from all accounts into Excel, create a qif (use xl2qif or a similar APP) for each extracted account and import. You may have to manually adjust the transfers between accounts. 
Method 1 being more conservative would seem to be more certain.
Personally, I have never done this so you carry the risk of being the first.


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Bill & Michelle Becker

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Nov 2, 2023, 10:24:57 AM11/2/23
to Tom Roberts, Alan Wall, Microsoft Money
Alan,

Before you go to the trouble of rebuilding your Money file, I think it would be a good experiment to reinstall Money.  If you are using US Money Sunset, be sure to do the replacement of mnyob99.dll with the patched version after you do the reinstall.  In fact, if you haven't done that replacement and are running USMoney Sunset, try the replacement without a reinstall as a possible solution.

Let us know which version of Money you are running and how you make out with the replacement and/or reinstall.  If you need help with any of this, post back.

Bill Becker

Bob Smiley

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Nov 2, 2023, 2:20:45 PM11/2/23
to Microsoft Money
Since you have Money 2005 UK, you should do all three of the following steps:
Do a File Repair / Quick, then do a File Repair / Standard (type 2), followed by another File Repair / Quick. on the new file.

You may also have some Bill corruption. If the repair options don't work, Money 2005 UK does not have the special Bills Repair option available in Money Plus, so I hope that is not the problem.

Bob

Alan Wall

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Nov 3, 2023, 7:36:41 AM11/3/23
to Bob Smiley, Microsoft Money
Have tried the triple repair, but no change.
Alan

Alan Wall

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Nov 8, 2023, 5:51:00 AM11/8/23
to Microsoft Money
I have found a solution to removing the spurious entries. Its not instanteous, but it will be a lot less tedious than rebuilding accounts from last uncorrupted backup. I document here, in case it happens to someone else.
As already stated, the spurious entries appear in reports, cash flows, but not in the registers. They have come from the recurring transactions or "bills" part of Money after a crash during startup. They appear in savings, checking accounts and cash part of investment accounts. The report enries will not delete, nor can I edit edit amount, date and account.
 1) The key to this method was realising that when I do a download from an online account Money offers the spurious entries to match with the download as well as "real" ones. If you select and accept the spurious ones as the match (not the real one) then Money converts the spurious into a "real" one which appears as normal in the register (eg my current account).
2) This can then be edited normally. I then end up with two real entries in the register but I simply have to delete the unreconciled one.  
3) The only issues are a) that some of the spurious entries are annual subscriptions and would only be downloaded for matching in 11 months time (the reports will be in error till then) and b) some spurious entries will not be downloaded  for match because the subscriptions get cancelled or there is a payment holiday for some reason.
4) However, when downloading and matching the online account , I can select any spare online account entry, unmatch it from its correct match and match it any of the unmatched spurious entries in the list. I then accept it and Money converts the spurious to a real one which matches the date and amount to downlaoad in the register. It means that I then have to do some careful editing in the register to make everything add up. This means deleting the "converted" spurious entry in the register and then manually reconciling the entry that was originally matched by Money. The result is that one less spurious entry. 
5) I have cleared one savings account of spurious entries  and it no longer has a warning from Money when I open it. The savings account total in accounts summary page matches the register account. I still have 9 spurious entries in the current account (down from over 20). They total up to exactly account for the error on the account page as compared to real total in the register.  I am confident the method works.  I just have to wait until I have 9 new transactions downloaded in my account, but that will only take 2/3 weeks not 11 months. I could encourage my wife to spend some money on the account and generate some transactions quickly, but I am too tight for that!
Best wishes
Alan  

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