Balancing in Reverse

Hi All,

Is there any way to balance a credit card account starting now and going
backward in time. I have an account that goes back to 1997 that I never
balanced because I had the account before I ever used Money, and when I
started it was too painful to go back and do it retroactively. But now
it's getting frustrating not to be able to balance. I'd like to balance
starting now, and then go back a month at a time when I feel like it,
but I can't see any way to do this because balancing seems like a
forward-in-time process. Does anyone have any ideas on this? TIA.

Cheers,
Josh

Dick
Tue Feb 22 21:21:59 CST 2005

See http://umpmfaq.info/faqdb.php?q=107.

"Joshua Frank" <jfrank@archimetrics.remove-tinned-meat.com> wrote in message
news:%23mcHyQSGFHA.2824@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Is there any way to balance a credit card account starting now and going
> backward in time. I have an account that goes back to 1997 that I never
> balanced because I had the account before I ever used Money, and when I
> started it was too painful to go back and do it retroactively. But now
> it's getting frustrating not to be able to balance. I'd like to balance
> starting now, and then go back a month at a time when I feel like it, but
> I can't see any way to do this because balancing seems like a
> forward-in-time process. Does anyone have any ideas on this? TIA.

Joshua
Wed Feb 23 11:35:11 CST 2005

That's a good start, thanks, but can I roll back in time. Let's say I
start balancing now, but then I want to go back and enter January's
statement, and then later go back and enter December's, and so on. I
wouldn't want to wipe out the later balancing in order to do the
earlier. Is this possible?


Dick Watson wrote:
> See http://umpmfaq.info/faqdb.php?q=107.
>
> "Joshua Frank" <jfrank@archimetrics.remove-tinned-meat.com> wrote in message
> news:%23mcHyQSGFHA.2824@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>
>>Is there any way to balance a credit card account starting now and going
>>backward in time. I have an account that goes back to 1997 that I never
>>balanced because I had the account before I ever used Money, and when I
>>started it was too painful to go back and do it retroactively. But now
>>it's getting frustrating not to be able to balance. I'd like to balance
>>starting now, and then go back a month at a time when I feel like it, but
>>I can't see any way to do this because balancing seems like a
>>forward-in-time process. Does anyone have any ideas on this? TIA.
>
>
>

Dick
Wed Feb 23 12:29:47 CST 2005

Are you saying you don't have old transactions entered and you want to enter
them into a balanced account? (Balanced means that from the beginning
account balance in Money through all of the reconciled transactions agrees
with the bank.)

It can be done: Take an old statement balance. Subtract the ending balance
from the beginning balance. Add/subtract that amount into the Money account
beginning balance. Enter the transactions. The last balance in the register
should be back to what it was before the cycle.

OTOH, are you asking if you can "balance" the account for just the
activities on the December statement, regardless of prior activities to that
one? That's a LOT harder. You have no basis for the beginning balance. Money
also won't readily support it since Money defines balancing as reconciling
EVERY cleared but unreconciled transaction to get to an ending balance.

"Joshua Frank" <jfrank@archimetrics.remove-tinned-meat.com> wrote in message
news:%23sybT4cGFHA.2748@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> That's a good start, thanks, but can I roll back in time. Let's say I
> start balancing now, but then I want to go back and enter January's
> statement, and then later go back and enter December's, and so on. I
> wouldn't want to wipe out the later balancing in order to do the
> earlier. Is this possible?

via_newsgroup
Wed Feb 23 12:53:05 CST 2005

In microsoft.public.money, Dick Watson wrote:

>Are you saying you don't have old transactions entered and you want to enter
>them into a balanced account? (Balanced means that from the beginning
>account balance in Money through all of the reconciled transactions agrees
>with the bank.)
>
>It can be done: Take an old statement balance. Subtract the ending balance
>from the beginning balance. Add/subtract that amount into the Money account
>beginning balance. Enter the transactions. The last balance in the register
>should be back to what it was before the cycle.

I think if Joshua were to replace the account Starting Balance with
an initial transaction in the register, it would be easier for him
to make the changes. Each time he wants to add a month, he would
void that initial transaction, and add a Reconciled pre-dated
transaction to match the starting balance from the statement to be
added. Then he would add the transactions for a month and balance.


>
>OTOH, are you asking if you can "balance" the account for just the
>activities on the December statement, regardless of prior activities to that
>one? That's a LOT harder. You have no basis for the beginning balance. Money
>also won't readily support it since Money defines balancing as reconciling
>EVERY cleared but unreconciled transaction to get to an ending balance.
>
>"Joshua Frank" <jfrank@archimetrics.remove-tinned-meat.com> wrote in message
>news:%23sybT4cGFHA.2748@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> That's a good start, thanks, but can I roll back in time. Let's say I
>> start balancing now, but then I want to go back and enter January's
>> statement, and then later go back and enter December's, and so on. I
>> wouldn't want to wipe out the later balancing in order to do the
>> earlier. Is this possible?
>

Dick
Wed Feb 23 13:23:37 CST 2005

That's probably a great technique: set the Account beginning balance to $0
and start with a transaction that deposits (or withdraws if overdrawn) the
statement beginning balance for the statement you want to begin with.

"Cal Learner-- MVP" <via_newsgroup@please.tnx> wrote in message
news:a0kp11h5aplgjs03n2ihidsoshjqcrqrqq@4ax.com...
> In microsoft.public.money, Dick Watson wrote:
>
> >Are you saying you don't have old transactions entered and you want to
enter
> >them into a balanced account? (Balanced means that from the beginning
> >account balance in Money through all of the reconciled transactions
agrees
> >with the bank.)
> >
> >It can be done: Take an old statement balance. Subtract the ending
balance
> >from the beginning balance. Add/subtract that amount into the Money
account
> >beginning balance. Enter the transactions. The last balance in the
register
> >should be back to what it was before the cycle.
>
> I think if Joshua were to replace the account Starting Balance with
> an initial transaction in the register, it would be easier for him
> to make the changes. Each time he wants to add a month, he would
> void that initial transaction, and add a Reconciled pre-dated
> transaction to match the starting balance from the statement to be
> added. Then he would add the transactions for a month and balance.
>
>
> >
> >OTOH, are you asking if you can "balance" the account for just the
> >activities on the December statement, regardless of prior activities to
that
> >one? That's a LOT harder. You have no basis for the beginning balance.
Money
> >also won't readily support it since Money defines balancing as
reconciling
> >EVERY cleared but unreconciled transaction to get to an ending balance.
> >
> >"Joshua Frank" <jfrank@archimetrics.remove-tinned-meat.com> wrote in
message
> >news:%23sybT4cGFHA.2748@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> >> That's a good start, thanks, but can I roll back in time. Let's say I
> >> start balancing now, but then I want to go back and enter January's
> >> statement, and then later go back and enter December's, and so on. I
> >> wouldn't want to wipe out the later balancing in order to do the
> >> earlier. Is this possible?
> >
>

A
Wed Feb 23 13:59:22 CST 2005

Thats what I did - once I was certain that most of the transactions
were entered. I started at the oldest date and reconciled forward. I
did have to adjust an opening balance in many cases. Depending on how
good you data is, you could reconcile quarterly or some other time
period where you have a good balance from the Bank.

Joshua
Thu Feb 24 09:09:36 CST 2005

Thanks for all the tips. I'll give it a try and see what works best.
A J Gladson wrote:
> Thats what I did - once I was certain that most of the transactions
> were entered. I started at the oldest date and reconciled forward. I
> did have to adjust an opening balance in many cases. Depending on how
> good you data is, you could reconcile quarterly or some other time
> period where you have a good balance from the Bank.
>