[moneydance] still working on setting up my MD accounts and have a few questions

[Bryan Dunne]

On 7/5/07, moneydance-info-request at moneydance.com
<moneydance-info-request at moneydance.com> wrote:
> 1. Is a CD an asset, investment, or bank account? Where do you enter
> the interest rate for such an account?

None of the above.  A CD is a security.  First, create an investment
account.  Then, add a new security to the investment account.  One of
the entries on the security will be APR.

> 2. If I want to have an expense for my savings (ie. I would put $X.XX
> in from every paycheck or month) and I would want it to show up in my
> budget, be deducted from my income and be credited to my savings
> account. How can I accomplish this?

You can set up a reminder each month for the transaction in
Moneydance.  There is even an auto-commit option so it will be
automatically recorded (Otherwise, it will appear in your reminders
list until to manually commit it each month).

> 3. Do I need to mark all of my main accounts (checking, savings,
> investments, loans, etc.) as children of the root account? What
> happens if I don't?

Yes.

> 4. I have a student loan I have been working on paying off. When I
> set it up, is the principal, the total outstanding, or just the
> principal? If just the principal, how does MD know how much interest
> has accrued before July 1st? Which type of account is the 'interest
> account' field for? What is an "Escrow Account", and is it applicable
> here?

Unless you want to enter your past financial history, I would just
enter the remaining principal as the principal.

Assuming you are using the standard account set, the interest category
would be "Bank Charge: Interest Paid".

Cheers,
AstroBryGuy