Classification: initial balance

I have Money 2002. I am a property manager and use "Properties" as a
classification. This being a new year, I need to set up balances for each
property I manage. For example, from the same bank account, I need to set up
Money so that Property 1234 starts the year with $1000, while Property 5678
starts with $1500, etc. Any idea how to do that?

Steve
Sat Jan 12 23:09:48 CST 2008

=?Utf-8?B?S2VsZWxlbGE=?= <Kelelela@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote on
12 Jan 2008 in group microsoft.public.money:

> I have Money 2002. I am a property manager and use "Properties" as a
> classification. This being a new year, I need to set up balances for
> each property I manage. For example, from the same bank account, I
> need to set up Money so that Property 1234 starts the year with
> $1000, while Property 5678 starts with $1500, etc. Any idea how to do
> that?

If this is a variation on the "envelope" school of budgeting where you
have one checking account, but pretend that it's a bunch of subaccounts
for things like rent, groceries, and clothing, then Money doesn't do
what you want. I don't know of a consumer-level package that has
subaccounts. The envelope method only works if you use real envelopes
with real cash inside.

If you really want to do that, use Excel to keep track of the money.

If I was gonna track expenses for multiple properties, I would:
* Upgrade to Money for small business. You might as well get the latest
version. It's a tax deduction.
* Set up categories for the types of expenses and incomes that I want to
track. Things that come to mind are: Income:Rent, Income:Deposit,
Income:Reimbursement for Damage, Maintenance:Lawn, Maintenance:HVAC,
Maintenance:Furnishings. Make sure these are all marked as business
expenses so they show up on tax reports. (Note: "xxx:yyy" means "xxx" is
the category and "yyy" is the subcategory.)
* Use the Class field to track to which property the transaction
applies.
* Develop a set of custom reports showing expeneses broken down by both
category and class.
* Run the reports every time I entered an expense.

--
Steve B.
New Life Home Improvement

Chris
Sat Jan 12 23:42:46 CST 2008

"Steve" <respond@online.newsgroup> wrote in message
news:Xns9A23EBA1A7517184365720018436572@207.46.248.16...

<snip>
> If I was gonna track expenses for multiple properties, I would:
> ...
> * Set up categories for the types of expenses and incomes that I
> want to
> track. Things that come to mind are: ... Income:Deposit

If you're trying to emulate Generally Accepted Accounting Principles,
deposits are not income. They should be transferred to a liability
account, because you expect to pay them back. At the point where you
keep some of it because the tenant left and you charged damages, the
part you keep becomes income.

I'm not sure if the IRS treats it that way, though. They may also
treat it as income in the year received, and treat returned deposits
as reductions of income in the year it's paid back.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

Kelelela
Sat Jan 12 23:54:01 CST 2008

Thanks Steve for your quick reply.
I have money 2002 Deluxe & Business. I already do all you recommend I do - I
have been using this program since 2002. I should have said that I am a
property manager for a condo association where all my clients are owners of
the properties. So when Mr. A sends me $500, I enter it as an income under
property name "Mr A's". Same with expenses. But the file was getting too big
so I am starting a new one. I have a checking account in which I deposit all
my clients expense money. So I set up a checking account in Money with a
total balance of say, $20,000. Mr. A's balance is $400, Mr. B's is $250, Mr.
C's is $1500, etc. How can I tell Money about this? Sure hope I'm making
sense to you here...

"Steve" wrote:

> =?Utf-8?B?S2VsZWxlbGE=?= <Kelelela@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote on
> 12 Jan 2008 in group microsoft.public.money:
>
> > I have Money 2002. I am a property manager and use "Properties" as a
> > classification. This being a new year, I need to set up balances for
> > each property I manage. For example, from the same bank account, I
> > need to set up Money so that Property 1234 starts the year with
> > $1000, while Property 5678 starts with $1500, etc. Any idea how to do
> > that?
>
> If this is a variation on the "envelope" school of budgeting where you
> have one checking account, but pretend that it's a bunch of subaccounts
> for things like rent, groceries, and clothing, then Money doesn't do
> what you want. I don't know of a consumer-level package that has
> subaccounts. The envelope method only works if you use real envelopes
> with real cash inside.
>
> If you really want to do that, use Excel to keep track of the money.
>
> If I was gonna track expenses for multiple properties, I would:
> * Upgrade to Money for small business. You might as well get the latest
> version. It's a tax deduction.
> * Set up categories for the types of expenses and incomes that I want to
> track. Things that come to mind are: Income:Rent, Income:Deposit,
> Income:Reimbursement for Damage, Maintenance:Lawn, Maintenance:HVAC,
> Maintenance:Furnishings. Make sure these are all marked as business
> expenses so they show up on tax reports. (Note: "xxx:yyy" means "xxx" is
> the category and "yyy" is the subcategory.)
> * Use the Class field to track to which property the transaction
> applies.
> * Develop a set of custom reports showing expeneses broken down by both
> category and class.
> * Run the reports every time I entered an expense.
>
> --
> Steve B.
> New Life Home Improvement
>

Taylor
Mon Jan 14 09:10:21 CST 2008


"Kelelela" <Kelelela@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0CCD45E4-DC27-44B9-8DB6-F89063CDD282@microsoft.com...
> Thanks Steve for your quick reply.
> I have money 2002 Deluxe & Business. I already do all you recommend I do -
> I
> have been using this program since 2002. I should have said that I am a
> property manager for a condo association where all my clients are owners
> of
> the properties. So when Mr. A sends me $500, I enter it as an income under
> property name "Mr A's". Same with expenses. But the file was getting too
> big
> so I am starting a new one. I have a checking account in which I deposit
> all
> my clients expense money. So I set up a checking account in Money with a
> total balance of say, $20,000. Mr. A's balance is $400, Mr. B's is $250,
> Mr.
> C's is $1500, etc. How can I tell Money about this? Sure hope I'm making
> sense to you here...
>

<edited>

Categorize the opening deposit in the checking account with the customers'
balances using the "split" button.