Money 2006 Transaction Matching-Ugh!

[Glenn B.]

This prompted me to add my .02...
---
From Daniel Billingsley:
a) The abysmal stupid retarded moronic semi-worthless transaction matching
when you download transactions from a bank, whereby it matches a $24.89
transaction you entered to "Farmer Jack" on 2/10/2006 to a downloaded $24.62
transaction to "Amoco" on 3/05/2006? I can't count the number of hours of
wasted unmatching this kind of stupidity, and I've *NEVER* found that I had
just entered a transaction wrong in these cases.
---
I have to agree with you. With the transaction matching, I can't figure out
what it uses to match downloaded bank transactions with-the amount OR the
payee.
the preferred payee listing should help SOME, but like me(and probably MANY
others), Wal-Mart is a store I shop at the most often for groceries,
household, etc.
Many times, the match amounts are different and the payee doesn't even LOOK
the same or use the same letters in its name. That one is hard to figure out
why!

My payee list was recently cleaned up and my bank download this morning
matched(or mis-matched) over 1/2 my entries and even attempted to match to a
reconciled transaction.

At least MS Money makes it easy to identify it when (mis)matched so we can
match it to something else or just make it a stand-alone altogether.

My vote would be for matching to look for amounts first and payees second.
That would greatly reduce the time attempting to rematch things.

MS MVPS-Anything we can be doing to assist this process when entering stuff?

Glenn B.
"Returning Money User"

[Cal Learner-- MVP]

In microsoft.public.money, Glenn B. wrote:

>Anything we can be doing to assist this process when entering stuff?

Here is something that may help:
Tools->Settings->OnlineServiceSetting check
ShowStandardizedPayeeNamesForWhichANameIsNotFound. Try clicking
MoreDetails to the right of that selection for a description of
what it should do.

If your have Payees such as "Tenth Bank $12.34 05/05/05", change at
least one of these to "Tenth Bank". That way there will be a payee
that matches except for numbers and punctuation.

Also, you can change the payee for such transactions with a
Tools->FindAndReplace simple search, and change them all to the
same payee.

Also click on GoToPayeeRulesManager. Your downloaded transactions
may come with some generic term where the Payee should be.
Excluded Payee Names identifies words and phrases that should be
ignored from the payee field (e.g., check, deposit). Add words
that are generically added by your bank. Unfortunately there are
no wildcards, so check 334, check 335, and check 336 will each be
treated as potential new payee names. Set
Tools->Options/Settings->OnlineServices->ShowStandardizedPayeeNames
to combine payees that differ only by a number. This may work
better after you have combined payees from previous downloads.

Also, you may want to cut
Tools->Settings->OnlineServiceSettings->MatchTransactionsWithA___DayRange
to maybe 10 days.

[Glenn B.]

These look good. I've made the changes and will report back soon on how it
works.

Thanks, Cal!

Glenn B.
"Returning Money User"

"Cal Learner-- MVP" <via_ne...@please.tnx> wrote in message
news:mv74v19vh2bnfmua0...@4ax.com...

[Daniel Billingsley]

I don't see how any of that is going to help my situation. It sounds like
it will help it get more positive hits, but that's not the problem from my
experience. The problem is that it makes all kinds of false positives.

The situation for me is always:
a) There's a transaction I've entered in Money that hasn't cleared the bank
yet
b) There's a transaction in the bank download I have not entered in Money
c) It matches the two of them for no logical reason other than they're both
"left over", which is completely asinine.

The fact that MS hasn't fixed this tells me that the 2006 upgrade is just
another marketing scam. I've upgraded Money twice in the past and noticed
absolutely no new features I'd use on a regular basis. They spend the
development resources basically putting a new skin on the same 15-year-old
functionality instead of improving it. Fool me once....

"Glenn B." <gbolt...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:BVIIf.76745$_D1.11017@trnddc03...

[Glenn B.]

Cal,

The changes you suggested have AMAZINGLY reduced transaction matching
errors by 99%. :)

I mostly click "Accept" now. :)

Daniel-Have you made the changes that Cal suggested?

[Mark]

How can I set up Payee Rules Manger to choose the correct payee when my bank
ofx puts the payee information in the Memo field? The ofx payee name is
always some generic bank term and never has payee information. In the example
below the merchant's address "2655 TELEGRAPH AVE." in the Memo field uniquely
identifies the mapping to the correct payee. I tried entering this as a name
variant in the Payee Rules Manager but it did not work. Does the Payee Rules
Manager look in the Memo field for payee names? Perhaps I need to check to
see if "WITHDRAW" is in the exclude list.

<TRNTYPE>DEBIT
<DTPOSTED>20060224000000[-5:EST]
<TRNAMT>-16.86
<FITID>9400

<NAME>WITHDRAW
<MEMO>POS 0223 1927 124223 2655 TELEGRAPH AVE. BERKELEY CASTR

[Chris Cowles]

"Mark" <Ma...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:944D9FBC-96A0-4B41...@microsoft.com...

> How can I set up Payee Rules Manger to choose the correct payee when my
> bank
> ofx puts the payee information in the Memo field?

You cannot, to my knowledge.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

[Casey Walters]

I have the same issues with Microsoft Money 2006 Premium. When I view the
transaction at my bank's website it shows general numbers, then a space then
the payee info. Quicken 2006 Deluxe was able to correctly take this
information and enter it into the Payee field, then I could easily, use the
Quicken Rename Manager to update my transactions, however my Money won't do
this, it just shows the garbage info at the beginning.

Bank Example:
DBT 6573309644 02/28/2006 ALBERTSONS

Qucken w/ renaming shows downloaded as:
Albertson's

Money w/ renaming shows downloaded as:
DBT 6573309644

As you can see, this is not helpful, so each time I have to log into my bank
just to see where the transaction took place.

If anyone has any suggestions how this can be corrected in Money, please let
me know at justice_...@yahoo.com. It would be most appreciated!
--
Casey

[Cal Learner-- MVP]

In microsoft.public.money, Casey Walters wrote:

>I have the same issues with Microsoft Money 2006 Premium. When I view the
>transaction at my bank's website it shows general numbers, then a space then
>the payee info. Quicken 2006 Deluxe was able to correctly take this
>information and enter it into the Payee field, then I could easily, use the
>Quicken Rename Manager to update my transactions, however my Money won't do
>this, it just shows the garbage info at the beginning.
>
>Bank Example:
>DBT 6573309644 02/28/2006 ALBERTSONS
>
>Qucken w/ renaming shows downloaded as:
>Albertson's
>
>Money w/ renaming shows downloaded as:
>DBT 6573309644
>
>As you can see, this is not helpful, so each time I have to log into my bank
>just to see where the transaction took place.

If your bank is sending the info, have you looked at the info that
your bank sends? I don't know your bank.

[Casey Walters]

I use American Bank of Texas, a supported bank by Money 2006 Premium. I
would like to say that except for the issue with renaming, I absolutely love
this software. The flip side is that I just bought Quicken 2006 which has NO
problems with the renaming issues. Below is an exact copy/paste from my bank:

Date Description
Withdrawal
03/09/06 POS DEB 1058 03/09/06 00234807 CNS LOWE'S 031166 23.92

Unfortunately, when Money downloads the above from my bank, this is what
shows up:

Date Description
Withdrawal
03/09/06 POS DEB 1058 03/09/06 00234807
23.92

As you can see, it leaves the VERY vital portion for the renaming rules,
which in Money I have set up so that it recognizes what shows on the bank's
site (CNS LOWE'S) and changes it show in Money (Lowe's).

But since Money doesn't seem to download this vital info, I still have to go
to the bank's website, look at the date and amount, and see that it is Lowe's
(in this example) and alter the register in Money.

If there is ANY way this is a resolvable issue I would be VERY VERY happy.
I've used Quicken for years and I thought I would try Money (since my parents
have always used Money). I love everything else other than the above issue,
and if there could be a resolution, I would definitetly use Money from now
on, but if not, I would have to go back to Quicken. :(

Any help you can provide would be most appreciated. :)
--
Casey

[Cal Learner-- MVP]

In microsoft.public.money, Casey Walters wrote:

Your bank is handled by a third party which gets the data from the
bank's website. So they should do as you describe. If you bought
Money 2006, I suggest you contact Microsoft support. They might have
some effect and get the company (either Yodlee or CashEdge) to
modify their algorithm. If it is the trial, free support is not
available.

These two things should help to get the transactions to not match to
a wrong Payee, but I don't think they are going to help match to the
RIGHT payee:

Tools->Settings->OnlineServiceSetting check
ShowStandardizedPayeeNamesForWhichANameIsNotFound. Try clicking
MoreDetails to the right of that selection for a description of
what it should do.

Also click on GoToPayeeRulesManager. Your downloaded transactions

may come with some generic term where the Payee should be.
Excluded Payee Names identifies words and phrases that should be
ignored from the payee field (e.g., check, deposit). Add words

that are generically added by your bank. In your case, that would
be "POS DEB".

I also suggest
Tools->Settings->OnlineServices->AddADescriptionToTheMemoField in
case that gives you some info that you can use to know which payee
it is.

[rsercely]

I have, in some ways, a simpler question.

Where does Microsoft document how the payee rule manager work?

I believe someone posted in this thread, that regular expression wildcard
matching is not supported. Fine. Does Mictrosoft ever say this?

Sorry I am a techie -- if I can get any info at all as to how a feature
works, I can usually use it. The lack of documentation in money is killing me.

Like - I can't figure a way to "search" the user guide. Is there a pdf file
someplace, so I can search it.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

[Dick Watson]

Money isn't designed for techies.

"rsercely" <rser...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:12FDAD77-3DD0-478C...@microsoft.com...

[B@discussions.microsoft.com Paul B]

Cal -

I can understand name matching inconsistencies when the payee name rules
aren't setup optimally.

But, if I've got a transaction in my MS Money with an amount of $12.34, and
MS Money downloads a transaction from my bank with the amount $12.35, is
there *any* way I can tell MS that it should NOT automatically match those
two transactions?

I've never seen an incorrect amount come from my bank, so I don't want any
'fudging' done by MS Money when matching transactions. If the amounts don't
match - then they are different transactions - even if the payee names are
identical (it's quite possible I've paid the same payee two different times
with two different amounts).

I'm looking for an exact match on the amount to take precedence over
'similar' names - *only* if the amounts are *identical* should the payee name
matching algorithm kick-in.

Is this possible? I can't imagine that I'm the only one who thinks this is
a problem.

Thanks for your help,

- Paul

[Cal Learner-- MVP]

In microsoft.public.money, Paul B <Paul B...@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:

>
>But, if I've got a transaction in my MS Money with an amount of $12.34, and
>MS Money downloads a transaction from my bank with the amount $12.35, is
>there *any* way I can tell MS that it should NOT automatically match those
>two transactions?

You can have Money not automatically accept transactions. You can
change matching before accepting.

Since I assume you are defining automatic matching in some way that
that is not sufficient for you, no.