[moneydance] Do online transactions expire if not downloaded?

[Fuzzy Fox]

Eldar Yuzbashev <eldarx at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I normally do not enter the transactions manually into Moneydance but
> rely instead on the downloads.  It seems to me that some on this list
> do not think it's a prudent way of tracking the money.  I'd like to
> hear the arguments both for and against this method.

There are two schools of thought on this subject:

1.  The bank cannot be trusted.  Only data I enter manually can be
    trusted.

If you think this way, you save all your receipts and enter them into
Moneydance manually.  This means that you set categories yourself, and you
use Moneydance's auto-matching to help you quickly enter data and categories,
which it tends to do rather well.

Then, you either download transactions and match them to what you've
entered, and any unmatched transactions are greeted with suspicion, and
only grudgingly accepted after consulting your own records.  When the
monthly statement arrives in the mail, you go through it line by line
using Moneydance's Reconcile feature, and make sure the balances match. 
Moneydance also does this rather well.

When the balances match, you remark at how the bank failed to make any
mistakes this month, and then move on to the next.


2.  Banks don't make mistakes.  People make mistakes.  I am a person,
    so I sometimes make mistakes.  I need the computer to help me keep
    track of things.

If you think this way, then you hate entering data by hand, and you
would rather have the computer do all the work.  You may or may not save
your receipts.  You typically download your transactions on a short
schedule, say once a week or so.  Each time you download, you look over
the transactions and reconcile them with your memory of what happened
during the previous week.  If none of the transactions look wrong to
you, you enter them into Moneydance, and you depend on Moneydance to
enter sensible Payee and Category information.  At this time it seems
that Monedyance does a less than reasonable job with this.

When your statement arrives at the end of the month, you don't bother
comparing it to anything, because that would be a duplication of effort.
You already compared against reality when you performed each of your
downloads during the previous month, so there is no need to do it again.
You would rather that Moneydance just adds things up and figures out how
to make the numbers match.  At this time I am unsure just how good a job
Moneydance does with this.


People who are members of each school of thought above, seem to have
trouble understanding the feelings and needs of those in the other
school of thought.  I'm of the opinion that both methods are valid
methods of tracking money, and one only needs to choose a methodology
that allows one to keep track of one's money, and that fits one's
personality.

-- 
 Fuzzy Fox <fox at foxtaur.com>
  "Why a man would want a wife is a big mystery to some people.
   Why a man would want two wives is a bigamystery."