Incorrect balance

I used to automatically download statements from my bank.
How come that the balance in my account, and the one in
Money are not the same (there is quite a bit of
difference), and what should I do to correct this.

Thank you for your help

Sandra

Dick
Sun Oct 05 11:58:50 CDT 2003

There are **way too many** possible reasons for this for us to be able to
help much. First, the bank balance reflects what has cleared them. The Money
balance reflects what's entered into Money which does not necessarily match
what's cleared the bank in the best case. Worse, adding in the wild card of
downloaded data can readily result in duplicate and missing transactions.

The only way to resolve this is the same way we all used to do this before
we got this neat tool called downloaded transaction data: line up your
records and the banks records back to a point where you both agreed what the
balance was and then work forward looking to see why your records disagree
with theirs. Both Money and the banks are very good at arithmetic. If either
says a column of numbers adds up to something, then this is a pretty sure
bet to be right. What's at issue is whether the column of numbers has the
right numbers in it to begin with.

Perhaps you should get in balance and then discontinue using downloaded
transaction data for a while until you can get to the point that you can
maintain the Money account data without the confusion that the downloaded
transactions can add?

"Sandra Bonny" <sadbon@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:21cf301c38b5f$6e2183b0$a601280a@phx.gbl...
> I used to automatically download statements from my bank.
> How come that the balance in my account, and the one in
> Money are not the same (there is quite a bit of
> difference), and what should I do to correct this.

Sandra
Sun Oct 05 12:30:57 CDT 2003

Thank you for your help -- but it looks like a serious
bug to me. How come that if I only download (never enter
manual data), I can end up with substantial differences
in balance.

>-----Original Message-----
>There are **way too many** possible reasons for this for
us to be able to
>help much. First, the bank balance reflects what has
cleared them. The Money
>balance reflects what's entered into Money which does
not necessarily match
>what's cleared the bank in the best case. Worse, adding
in the wild card of
>downloaded data can readily result in duplicate and
missing transactions.
>
>The only way to resolve this is the same way we all used
to do this before
>we got this neat tool called downloaded transaction
data: line up your
>records and the banks records back to a point where you
both agreed what the
>balance was and then work forward looking to see why
your records disagree
>with theirs. Both Money and the banks are very good at
arithmetic. If either
>says a column of numbers adds up to something, then this
is a pretty sure
>bet to be right. What's at issue is whether the column
of numbers has the
>right numbers in it to begin with.
>
>Perhaps you should get in balance and then discontinue
using downloaded
>transaction data for a while until you can get to the
point that you can
>maintain the Money account data without the confusion
that the downloaded
>transactions can add?
>
>"Sandra Bonny" <sadbon@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:21cf301c38b5f$6e2183b0$a601280a@phx.gbl...
>> I used to automatically download statements from my
bank.
>> How come that the balance in my account, and the one in
>> Money are not the same (there is quite a bit of
>> difference), and what should I do to correct this.
>
>
>.
>

Dick
Sun Oct 05 13:59:23 CDT 2003

Again, way too many possibilities for us to be able to tell you why this is
happening. YOU will have to look at the transactions to see whether there
are duplicates or missing transactions or even different numbers on the
Money account register side. And you **have** entered manual data. You set
the account beginning balance. (How'd you figure out what that number should
have been?) See previous advice re. downloaded transaction data. If you do
not know how a Money account works by hand, you are never going to be
equipped to unscrew the messes that downloaded transaction data can make.

Besides, if you take your bank's word for everything--you're downloading all
of their data and are expecting that there cannot be any problems--why not
just balance your Money account and set it equal to the bank's value? Once
you've accepted that their view is right, by definition, why worry further?

I've never had a problem balancing that wasn't traceable to my own bad data
entry in ten years+ of using Money. As noted previously, the Money balance
is an incredibly reliable reflection of the beginning balance plus all
transactions in the account register (save an issue for different views in
M01 and file corruption problems). Any general bugs in Money computing a
balance would be widely reported here. All that's left is that the data
being used to compute the balances is not the same between your Money
account register and the bank's database.

One other thing perhaps we should clarify: why do you think you have
differences in balance? Where are you looking in Money to determine its
balance? What view are you using? Was it ever right? What's happened since?

"Sandra Bonny" <sadbon@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:116401c38b66$6fb761c0$a001280a@phx.gbl...
> Thank you for your help -- but it looks like a serious
> bug to me. How come that if I only download (never enter
> manual data), I can end up with substantial differences
> in balance.

via_newsgroup
Sun Oct 05 16:40:54 CDT 2003

In microsoft.public.money, Sandra Bonny wrote:

>Thank you for your help -- but it looks like a serious
>bug to me. How come that if I only download (never enter
>manual data), I can end up with substantial differences
>in balance.

A missing transaction or a duplicated transaction comes to mind.