unofficial microsoft.public.money FAQ and A
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Q) If downloaded data is so much trouble, why even use Money? Or, why use Money if you have type in all of the transaction data?
A) Many recent posters in the newsgroup seem to view downloading transaction data as the only value-add Money provides or as fundamental to any use of the product. This is unfortunate. Perhaps they don't understand that transaction data actually can be entered by hand?
IF all you use Money for is to keep a register, THEN it seems true that downloading data will save a lot of labor--assuming it goes trouble free and the downloading never fails and your payees always match and so on. But if all you use Money for is to keep a register that matches, by definition, the data you download from your bank--or your bank's website if Yodlee is involved, what's the point? Why not just log into your bank's web site, look at the data, and press on? What value did Money really add?
IF, on the other hand, you use Money to manage a budget, forecast cash flow, track asset value, manage investments, track asset values, track property/job/vehicle/vacation/etc. costs, estimate taxes and so forth, THEN a) the quality and consistency of transaction data matters and dependence on downloaded data may not be entirely compatible with this objective, and b) the amount of time and effort spent doing manual transaction entry is a small fraction of total time spent using Money at worst and is no more and maybe less than the time spent keeping the download thing working and making up for all of the things it can't do at best or screws up at worst. Examples of things the best downloaded data just can't do are split a paycheck deposit into its constituent parts, classify transactions for vehicle or property or similar, or enter the splits for things like an expense at the grocery being part Food:Groceries, part Miscellaneous:Supplies, and part Transfer:Pocket Change. As for the "at worst" side of transaction download, just read the newsgroup for a week. Many weeks more than half the posts or more have something to do with problems with downloaded transaction data. Imagine if half of the posts in the Word newsgroup had to do with typing text into the thing.
Some posters even say thing like "[if you don't download data,] what's the purpose of using Money instead of, say, Excel? [Excel] actually may be a [better] solution considering all the Money limitations with transaction reconciliation, online updates, and so on." This suggests in some circular way that downloaded transaction data is the singular way to make Money work and the limitations with downloaded transaction data reduce Money to the level of Excel in terms of solving the problems at hand. It's like saying if the heated seat in the car isn't working well, just walk instead.
The problems with downloaded transaction data are just that. There is NO function in Money (e.g., manage a budget, forecast cash flow, track asset value, manage investments, track asset values, track property/job/vehicle/vacation/etc costs, estimate taxes) that is one iota easier, or better, or more capable, or enabled uniquely by downloaded transaction data except for downloading transaction data itself. In fact, all of those other functions are TRANSPARENT to how the transaction data actually gets there. Worse, many of them are only as good as the data they process. If you enter the data, you get it right; if you let your bank and Yodlee manage this data, you get what you get.
Maybe what we really need is two Money product lines: Money View, an AOL-like web-only service. Make it just M05 Essential *. The user of this product just wants a passive approach that provides value by aggregating data ala Yodlee, delivering relevant info--aka targeted ads, and sparing effort and typing. The second, Money Management, is the traditional Money product where the users are actually expecting to put some effort into the whole thing and wants to use the data to perform analysis and planning and so forth. Sadly, the first user seems to be the Money "target market."
Please see this disclaimer if you are using Money 2005 or this comment if you are using Money 2006.
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| How to do things in Money: Downloaded transaction data Q) I imported a statement to the wrong account. Now Money wants to keep repeating this mistake. How do I undo this? |
How to do things in Money: Downloaded transaction data Q) Money says my PIN for getting my account activity must be six digits. It’s four and works fine on their web site. What gives? |
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Last update: 10 December 2006 |
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