Transaction Basics
A "transaction" is, in simple terms, any change in the balances of your accounts, plus all the information about how much was spent or received and where the money went or came from. Transactions can be between a real account and an expense or income category, or between two real accounts. It’s technically possible to move money between expense and income accounts directly, but that’s usually somewhat meaningless.
You can record a transaction in any transaction register; with the exception of Investment and Loan account transactions, they all have the same format, and contain the following fields.
1. Date: the date on which the transaction occurs.
2. Tax Date: the date of the transaction for tax purposes, if different from the normal transaction date.
3. Check#: This field can be used to record the check number of an actual paper check, or the means of purchase if other than a check; this field can contain:
a) A Number corresponding to your real-world check number for the check this transaction will represent.
b) "CkCrd" to represent a purchase made using a checkCard or other electronic transaction.
c) "Dep" to represent deposits made to the account.
d) "Trn" to represent a transfer directly from another real-world bank account, such as your Savings account (but not an Income/Expense category).
e) "ATM" to represent a non-deposit, bank-related transaction, such as an ATM withdrawal, ATM usage fee or other bank fee.
f) "{Print}" must be selected if you intend to print the details of this transaction as a check using our Check Printing feature. Make sure you see this section for important information on including Addresses on checks.
g) "Next Check#" tells Moneydance to find your most recent transaction with a number value as its Check# entry.
4. Description: The "main information" about who and what is involved in this transaction: the person or entity who receives or gives the funds. Usually something along the lines of "January Paycheck," "Credit Card Payment" or "Hot Dogs at Bob's Bar and Grill."
5. Memo: Any additional information; the exact dividing line between Description and Memo is mainly one of personal taste or financial institution download format.
6. Category: The income category for deposits or other balance increases, or the expense category for payments, withdrawals or other balance decreases, or another account. This category or account will be on the "other side" of this transaction. Select another non-category account when transferring funds between two accounts, i.e. a transfer from savings to checking. Otherwise, you will typically choose an income category when the increase value of the transaction is not zero, and an expense category when the decrease value of the transaction is not zero.
7. Tags: Any tags you wish to assign to this transaction. Tags are explained here.
8. C: This column shows the cleared status of the transaction; a blank space here indicates the transaction is uncleared, a diamond indicates it is cleared but unreconciled, and a green checkmark means the transaction is cleared and reconciled. You can toggle between these three settings by clicking multiple times in this box while a transaction is open for editing. Reconciling is explained in more detail here.
9. Decrease: A value in this field will represent funds removed from this account and added to the account specified in the category field (#6) described above. This will *decrease* the Balance of this account.
10. Increase: A value in this field will represent funds added to this account and removed from the account specified in the category field. This will *increase* the balance of this account.
11. Rate: This field is used to specify the exchange rate for inter-currency transactions; if the account or category chosen in the category field (#6 above) does not have the same currency as the account in which the transaction is being recorded, you must specify the Rate of exchange at the time of the transaction
12. Balance: The current balance of the account after a given transaction. This number will exactly equal the starting balance, plus all increases and minus all decreases up to this transaction. This field is always non-editable!
In addition to these fields, the transaction editor has a drop-down menu (a small gear icon with a down arrow beside it) and three buttons:
1. Drop-down menu:
a) Memorize: This allows you to create a reminder trans
b) Show Other Side: Opens a mini-register where you can view the transactions and balance of the account which you’ve selected in the Category field of this transaction. The transaction which is the mirror of the one you’ve selected originally will be highlighted, showing an increase equal to the original’s decrease or vice versa.
c) Split... : Opens the split transaction dialog, which allows you to enter multiple sub-transactions for the same single transaction, with different amounts, categories, descriptions and cleared-status settings. This is useful for dividing your mortgage payment into payments toward interest and payments toward principal, for example, or dividing your paycheck into net income and income tax.
2. Cancel: Restore the current transaction to its pre-edited state, or if this is a new transaction, close the new transaction editor and not commit the transaction.
3. Delete: Remove the current transaction from the account register. This updates the balance of this account and does the same to the account at the "other side" of the transaction (as described above).
4. Record: This commits any changes you’ve made to the transaction, updating the balance and the stored information for this transaction. If this is a new transaction, clicking Record adds the new transaction to your account register. As you may have guessed, this also incidentally creates a new mirror transaction on the “other side” – the account or category specified in the Category field of this transaction.