lewis@beva.bev.lbl.gov (Steve Lewis) (01/09/89)
Recent articles mentioned end of year coping with Dollars and Sense. I have just attempted my first end of year with MacMoney. All of last years transactions become unavailable in the sense that a new set of files is created. How does one gracefully reconcile accounts across the few months it takes for all checks and credit cards to clear? (The old stuff is available by closing the current year and reopening the old year, but the reconcile feature would be useless without the new data from the current year.) I feel foolish resorted to paper and pencil, just like I did before using the product. Even humble Electric Checkbook let you bridge the year end, then delete old transactions! -- Steve
ph@cci632.UUCP (Pete Hoch) (01/10/89)
In article lewis@beva.bev.lbl.gov (Steve Lewis) writes: > Recent articles mentioned end of year coping with Dollars and Sense. I > have just attempted my first end of year with MacMoney. All of last years > transactions become unavailable in the sense that a new set of files is > created. How does one gracefully reconcile accounts across the few months > it takes for all checks and credit cards to clear? There may be a better way but this is what I did last year. I kept the old file set and ran reconcile against it when the checks cleared. However this would not ballance because some things have hapened that are not recorded last year. I think I then took the amount of mismatch and wroter it down. Then I finnished the reconcile in the current year. Again there is a mismatch but they should be the same. When all of last years transactions finaly cleared I made an adjustment somewhere and reconcile worked fine for the rest of thins yerar. It is a little messy but it beat ballancing the thing by hand. Pete Hoch
schase@pollux.usc.edu (Scott Chase) (01/10/89)
In article <1664@helios.ee.lbl.gov> lewis@bevsun.bev.lbl.gov (Steve Lewis) writes: >Recent articles mentioned end of year coping with Dollars and Sense. I >have just attempted my first end of year with MacMoney. All of last years >transactions become unavailable in the sense that a new set of files is >created. How does one gracefully reconcile accounts across the few months >it takes for all checks and credit cards to clear? (The old stuff is >available by closing the current year and reopening the old year, but >the reconcile feature would be useless without the new data from the current >year.) I feel foolish resorted to paper and pencil, just like I did >before using the product. Even humble Electric Checkbook let you bridge the >year end, then delete old transactions! > >-- Steve On pages 150-151 of the 3.0 manual (which you should have gotten as a free upgrade if you are a registerd user) two different methods of reconciling across fiscal years are shown. Unfortunately, they are not very elegant and consist of printing out a report of all unreconciled transactions before closing out the year. When reconciling in the new year, use the copy of the transaction report and check off any of last year's transactions that have cleared since the end of the year. The amount still not cleared should equal the amount by which the current year reconciliation is out of balance. This may sound confusing and messy, but it really isn't bad unless you have a lot of uncleared transactions at the end of the year. Scott ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott Chase schase@pollux.usc.edu iak8sct@oac.ucla.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
cosmos@druhi.ATT.COM (Ronald A. Guest) (01/10/89)
Unfortunately, you are correct. The MacMoney suggests ways of dealing with the old year's outstanding transactions. But, it ultimately results in the need to use a little paper and pencil. I use a method slightly different than the ones suggested in the manual. You can get by without paper, it occurs to me, if you keep the old year accessible. The method would be: 1) Update transactions in the prior year. 2) Use the custom report feature to get a list of all oustanding transactions on each account (bank, credit card). This tells you the total $ of all outstanding transactions. 3) Update transactions in the current year and then do a reconcile. The amount you differ from the bank should be equal to the amount obtained in #2. I think this would work, and not require any paper and pencil. I may even try it! Ronald A. Guest, Supervisor cosmos@druhi.ATT.COM or att!druhi!cosmos AT&T Bell Laboratories <--- but these are my thoughts, not theirs 12110 N. Pecos St. Denver, Colorado 80234 (303) 538-4896
ph@cci632.UUCP (Pete Hoch) (01/13/89)
In article <3823@druhi.ATT.COM>, cosmos@druhi.ATT.COM (Ronald A. Guest) writes: > > 1) Update transactions in the prior year. > 2) Use the custom report feature to get a list of all oustanding > transactions on each account (bank, credit card). This tells you the total > $ of all outstanding transactions. > 3) Update transactions in the current year and then do a reconcile. The > amount you differ from the bank should be equal to the amount obtained in #2. > > I think this would work, and not require any paper and pencil. I may even > try it! > > Ronald A. Guest, Supervisor cosmos@druhi.ATT.COM or att!druhi!cosmos I did try it and it worked great! The key is step #2. Use the Custom Transaction Activity report and select one bank account or credit card at a time. Then on the second dialog select the reconcile check box and the Not Cleared radio button. This will give you a single report of all outstanding transactions and a Total! Either memorize, write down, or print out this report. Then go on to step three and you are done. I recomend useing this report periodicaly anyway. I just found out when I did this that a check I wrote in July foe $120. Hasn't cleared yet. No wonder I haven't bounced any checks this fall. :-) Pete Hoch