Bills charged to credit cards?

I have most of my bills being charged to my credit card (so as to get
my 1% cash back) and I pay off the balance each month. I have the card
included in my Debt Reduction planner to schedule payments for me.

How do I get Money 2006 to work with this? If I change my bills to say
they're being paid from the credit card, when I look at the cash flow
forecast for that account I see the balance increasing from the bills
but I don't see Money showing monthly payments. As a result my
checking account's cash flow forecast is very skewed since it doesn't
reflect the credit card payments to cover the bills.

Is there any way to make this work? Right now I have all my bills
still pointing to my checking account and then when I actually enter
the bill in the register I change the account to my credit card. This
way my checking account's cash flow forecast is still accurate but it's
a little annoying having to do this.

Thanks!
-Anand

Dick
Sun Apr 16 07:57:41 CDT 2006

Schedule the bills to get paid from the credit card. Schedule a Transfer to
the credit card from your checking in the amount of your projection of what
you will send to the credit card each month. When you get a better feel for
what you will send the credit card next month, edit the occurrence in "Bills
Summary" (why they changed this from the more comprehensive "Bills &
Deposits" remains a mystery). When you get the bill, enter the transaction
for the final amount you plan on paying. I've been running this way for
years. I tried to do this with DRP once and never got results I liked.

<athakur@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1145164168.667788.81030@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com...
>I have most of my bills being charged to my credit card (so as to get
> my 1% cash back) and I pay off the balance each month. I have the card
> included in my Debt Reduction planner to schedule payments for me.
>
> How do I get Money 2006 to work with this? If I change my bills to say
> they're being paid from the credit card, when I look at the cash flow
> forecast for that account I see the balance increasing from the bills
> but I don't see Money showing monthly payments. As a result my
> checking account's cash flow forecast is very skewed since it doesn't
> reflect the credit card payments to cover the bills.
>
> Is there any way to make this work? Right now I have all my bills
> still pointing to my checking account and then when I actually enter
> the bill in the register I change the account to my credit card. This
> way my checking account's cash flow forecast is still accurate but it's
> a little annoying having to do this.
>
> Thanks!
> -Anand
>

Derrick
Sun Apr 16 08:10:09 CDT 2006

Try this approach (it works for me). I am assuming only two accounts
("checking" and "credit card"):
- schedule your bills for whatever account they're deducted from
(checking or credit card).
- forget using the debt planner to manage credit card (or any credit
cards paid in full).
- enter a transfer from checking to credit card on the credit card due
date in the amount of the existing credit card balance. Update the
amount as items hit the credit card. When you reconcile your credit
card statement (and thus know that month's payoff amount), enter a new
transfer for next month's payment. Rinse. Repeat.

This accomplishes several things, but most importantly:
- no more manual labor over which account to record a bill.
- your checking account cash flow is now more accurate. In the case of
the credit card, the only thing that affects your checking account cash
flow is the monthly transfer from checking to credit card, and not the
individual charges billed to the credit card.

Good luck,
Derrick

athakur@gmail.com wrote:
> I have most of my bills being charged to my credit card (so as to get
> my 1% cash back) and I pay off the balance each month. I have the card
> included in my Debt Reduction planner to schedule payments for me.
>
> How do I get Money 2006 to work with this? If I change my bills to say
> they're being paid from the credit card, when I look at the cash flow
> forecast for that account I see the balance increasing from the bills
> but I don't see Money showing monthly payments. As a result my
> checking account's cash flow forecast is very skewed since it doesn't
> reflect the credit card payments to cover the bills.
>
> Is there any way to make this work? Right now I have all my bills
> still pointing to my checking account and then when I actually enter
> the bill in the register I change the account to my credit card. This
> way my checking account's cash flow forecast is still accurate but it's
> a little annoying having to do this.
>
> Thanks!
> -Anand
>