MS Money 2006 frustrations (reports and dloading bank information)

So I've just recently installed the full retail version of MSMoney 2006
premium that's been sitting on my shelf for a year and I have a few problems
that appear so basic in nature that I wonder if everyone else is having the
same problems (and if so, why in the world would anyone actually use this
product).

OK, issue #1:
MS Money provides this real nifty 'Spending by Category' report on the home
page. Any CREDITS to any of the categories don't show. Example #1: I
purchased a product, charged it to my credit card, then returned it a few
days later. The report shows my SPENDING the money, but doesn't account for
the credit for the return EVEN THOUGH the credit shows in the credit card
ledger and both the purchase and the return are posted to the same spending
category. Example #2: I was recently overcharged for a hotel stay out of
town. The front desk at the hotel corrected the problem right there at the
front desk. Since they had already overcharged my credit card before the
billing error was detected, they simply issued a credit for the difference.
Simple. The report in MS Money ONLY shows the (over)charge and NOT the
corresponding credit even though both entries appear on the same credit card
ledger, same date, same category (one a charge, one a credit). Example #3: I
use the "Credit Card Payments/Transfers" category for all on-line credit card
payments. Each time I make a payment, a charge(debit) for that payment
appears in my checking account ledger and a credit appears in the credit card
ledger (just as it should). Both these entries are posted to the same
"Credit Card Payments/Transfers" category. The report ONLY shows the charge
hitting my checking account and NOT the credits appearing in the credit card
ledger.
This seems to me like a real basic problem that would negatively affect
every single MS Money user out there. Am I totally missing the boat here?
For the life of me, I can't imagine a product being THAT bad.

Problem #2:
Anyone else out there use Washington Mutual for their checking accounts?
Can you download trasactions reliably into MSMoney? Lord knows I can't. I'm
trying to download transactions into MSMoney directly FROM MSMoney's
synchronize 'feature'. It works for all my credit cards (100%), and works
very rarely for my WAMU accounts. Sometimes I have to go into account
settings and re-enter my passwords and it will work (once or twice). Usually
it just doesn't work. If it NEVER worked, I'd say I'm doing something wrong.
But it works about 20% of the time, so I'm reasonably assured that it's
configured correctly. When it won't synchronize, I go to the www.wamu.com
website and log-in just to make sure that the WAMU site is indeed working.
Same conclusions as above here, Am I missing something here. Or is the
product really THAT bad?

Any input would be most appreciated.
Dean Waters
Vancouver, Washington

Cal
Sun Jan 28 15:20:28 CST 2007

In microsoft.public.money, Dean Waters <Dean
Waters@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>OK, issue #1:
>MS Money provides this real nifty 'Spending by Category' report on the home
>page. Any CREDITS to any of the categories don't show. Example #1: I
>purchased a product, charged it to my credit card, then returned it a few
>days later. The report shows my SPENDING the money, but doesn't account for
>the credit for the return EVEN THOUGH the credit shows in the credit card
>ledger and both the purchase and the return are posted to the same spending
>category. Example #2: I was recently overcharged for a hotel stay out of
>town. The front desk at the hotel corrected the problem right there at the
>front desk. Since they had already overcharged my credit card before the
>billing error was detected, they simply issued a credit for the difference.
>Simple. The report in MS Money ONLY shows the (over)charge and NOT the
>corresponding credit even though both entries appear on the same credit card
>ledger, same date, same category (one a charge, one a credit). Example #3: I
>use the "Credit Card Payments/Transfers" category for all on-line credit card
>payments. Each time I make a payment, a charge(debit) for that payment
>appears in my checking account ledger and a credit appears in the credit card
>ledger (just as it should). Both these entries are posted to the same
>"Credit Card Payments/Transfers" category. The report ONLY shows the charge
>hitting my checking account and NOT the credits appearing in the credit card
>ledger.

For returns entered with a negative expense category, on the report,
select Customize:Details->Type:All Types

AbruceN
Sun Jan 28 22:52:00 CST 2007

I have downloading into Money 2006 from my wamu checking account all last
year. I can't do it from within Money, wamu isn't set up for that. Have to
log onto your account on the internet. Once your looking at your accounts
there should be a download choice. It will download, open it if it doesn't do
it automaticly, money will incorporate the info.

"Dean Waters" wrote:

> So I've just recently installed the full retail version of MSMoney 2006
> premium that's been sitting on my shelf for a year and I have a few problems
> that appear so basic in nature that I wonder if everyone else is having the
> same problems (and if so, why in the world would anyone actually use this
> product).
>
> OK, issue #1:
> MS Money provides this real nifty 'Spending by Category' report on the home
> page. Any CREDITS to any of the categories don't show. Example #1: I
> purchased a product, charged it to my credit card, then returned it a few
> days later. The report shows my SPENDING the money, but doesn't account for
> the credit for the return EVEN THOUGH the credit shows in the credit card
> ledger and both the purchase and the return are posted to the same spending
> category. Example #2: I was recently overcharged for a hotel stay out of
> town. The front desk at the hotel corrected the problem right there at the
> front desk. Since they had already overcharged my credit card before the
> billing error was detected, they simply issued a credit for the difference.
> Simple. The report in MS Money ONLY shows the (over)charge and NOT the
> corresponding credit even though both entries appear on the same credit card
> ledger, same date, same category (one a charge, one a credit). Example #3: I
> use the "Credit Card Payments/Transfers" category for all on-line credit card
> payments. Each time I make a payment, a charge(debit) for that payment
> appears in my checking account ledger and a credit appears in the credit card
> ledger (just as it should). Both these entries are posted to the same
> "Credit Card Payments/Transfers" category. The report ONLY shows the charge
> hitting my checking account and NOT the credits appearing in the credit card
> ledger.
> This seems to me like a real basic problem that would negatively affect
> every single MS Money user out there. Am I totally missing the boat here?
> For the life of me, I can't imagine a product being THAT bad.
>
> Problem #2:
> Anyone else out there use Washington Mutual for their checking accounts?
> Can you download trasactions reliably into MSMoney? Lord knows I can't. I'm
> trying to download transactions into MSMoney directly FROM MSMoney's
> synchronize 'feature'. It works for all my credit cards (100%), and works
> very rarely for my WAMU accounts. Sometimes I have to go into account
> settings and re-enter my passwords and it will work (once or twice). Usually
> it just doesn't work. If it NEVER worked, I'd say I'm doing something wrong.
> But it works about 20% of the time, so I'm reasonably assured that it's
> configured correctly. When it won't synchronize, I go to the www.wamu.com
> website and log-in just to make sure that the WAMU site is indeed working.
> Same conclusions as above here, Am I missing something here. Or is the
> product really THAT bad?
>
> Any input would be most appreciated.
> Dean Waters
> Vancouver, Washington

DeanWaters
Mon Jan 29 00:55:00 CST 2007

Cal, you're a genius. Thank you. I kept going into "Change Report Settings"
to actually CHANGE the SETTINGS of the REPORT to include all detials. But
that would have been WAY too obvious......
Thanks, your advice worked perfectly.
Dean

"Cal Learner-- MVP" wrote:

> In microsoft.public.money, Dean Waters <Dean
> Waters@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >OK, issue #1:
> >MS Money provides this real nifty 'Spending by Category' report on the home
> >page. Any CREDITS to any of the categories don't show. Example #1: I
> >purchased a product, charged it to my credit card, then returned it a few
> >days later. The report shows my SPENDING the money, but doesn't account for
> >the credit for the return EVEN THOUGH the credit shows in the credit card
> >ledger and both the purchase and the return are posted to the same spending
> >category. Example #2: I was recently overcharged for a hotel stay out of
> >town. The front desk at the hotel corrected the problem right there at the
> >front desk. Since they had already overcharged my credit card before the
> >billing error was detected, they simply issued a credit for the difference.
> >Simple. The report in MS Money ONLY shows the (over)charge and NOT the
> >corresponding credit even though both entries appear on the same credit card
> >ledger, same date, same category (one a charge, one a credit). Example #3: I
> >use the "Credit Card Payments/Transfers" category for all on-line credit card
> >payments. Each time I make a payment, a charge(debit) for that payment
> >appears in my checking account ledger and a credit appears in the credit card
> >ledger (just as it should). Both these entries are posted to the same
> >"Credit Card Payments/Transfers" category. The report ONLY shows the charge
> >hitting my checking account and NOT the credits appearing in the credit card
> >ledger.
>
> For returns entered with a negative expense category, on the report,
> select Customize:Details->Type:All Types
>
>