Re: 'Transfer' vs 'Payment' by Michael
Michael
Fri Apr 14 20:01:19 CDT 2006
The better that you tie the expense to the date incurred and specific
category, the better that your budgets, forecasts and reports will be.
If you simply make a payment to credit card on a date, you can budget for
it, but you really don't have the details to let you know where your money
goes. Money will work as hard as you do on the details.
You transfer to accounts and pay payees, two separate groups. Only accounts
appear in transfer dropdown. Only payees appear in payment dropdown. It
might get confusing if you have, for example, a payee and account named
Credit Card A. Though it looks the same, it is not.
"RLSorensen" <RLSorensen@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7F0180AA-9577-4BFE-BDC2-DA73BD505AD9@microsoft.com...
> OK, I follow all that. It even makes sense! [hehehe].... BUT...
>
> Is there an impact in other areas of Money i.e. budgets, tracking by
> category, etc. that I should be considering when I use a 'transfer' as
> opposed to a 'payment'??
>
> Also: I'm still not clear why only certain accounts show up at times when
> I
> try to do a transfer or payment and not the whole set. Any got some
> insight
> on this??
>
> Rick
>
> "Michael J. Blazin" wrote:
>
>> Payment is when you send money to entity not maintained as an account in
>> Money. If you maintain your credit card account in Money, then the cash
>> you
>> use to "pay the bill" is really a transfer to that account. If you don't
>> track that account, then the cash going out is a payment.
>>
>> The more comprehensive your account list (credit cards, investment
>> accounts,
>> loans) the greater number of transactions that are really transfers. The
>> accounts let you track the occurence of the expense separately from the
>> payment for it. The plane ticket appears on the date it hit your credit
>> card vs. the date you paid the monthly bill. It makes your
>> reporting/budgeting more accurate. You also avoid having to use multiple
>> categories on the payment. The expense category gets tracked as it hits
>> the
>> account.
>>
>> Since accounts mean more work, everyone has different thresholds of when
>> accounts make sense. Though you could set up an account for electric
>> bills,
>> book expense when you get bill, and transfer cash to pay them, most
>> people
>> just treat it as a payment to the utility.
>>
>> Transfer/payment is a very powerful feature of Money and can allow you,
>> if
>> desired, to closely match a formal double entry bookeeping system.
>>
>> "RLSorensen" <RLSorensen@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:8941F9DC-5459-4223-82AD-4B291C0C46BD@microsoft.com...
>> > I'm new to Money and trying to sort things out here. Can someone please
>> > explain the difference(s) between a 'transfer' and a 'payment'?
>> >
>> > I'm also a bit frustrated trying to understand why I get different
>> > choices
>> > at different times - when I think i should be doing a 'transfer'
>> > [moving
>> > $$
>> > from one account to another] and the target account isn't in the list.
>> > What
>> > am I missing here?
>>
>>
>>