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Posts Tagged ‘personal finance current events’

I must admit that I am a software junkie. I like a good software works as it should and it does the job with minimal effort on my part. When I started using a computer at home, was one of the first things I was looking for software that would manage my finances and allow me to follow, what I spend. It is important to me because even though I do not much else to keep the finances, I need all the help I can get. I started using Microsoft Money, and while I was in fact the way it is operated, it had disadvantages. The most important of these is very intrusive advertising, and the fact that Microsoft Money (get that year) would not be very good money to open a file that was open, even just once a year, the next version money. I see that this is the case every once in a while, if the change in file format for some reason, but it does every year is a little higher. The next program I used was AceMoney and I used it until I converted from Windows XP, Linux almost two years ago.

When I started with Linux, I knew that I could use AceMoney on my Linux system, as long as I installed Wine to run Windows applications on Linux, but I do not do it. I moved us a program that is designed to run on Linux itself was. After some research online, I decided to make available the benefits of a free trial version of Moneydance, an open source, cross-platform personal finance manager for Windows, Linux and Mac OS. It took a little messing around with the software before I had the way it does things has been used, but after I did, I have no problem purchasing the full version for $ 29.99. I think it is worth the price.

As with any software, there are advantages and disadvantages of the use. Everyone likes it differently and that any personal financial manager does things his own way there, at least a little. One of the most important things I do not like about Moneydance is not, as Mepis installed on my system. In fact, I think it was in me to get used to doing things in Linux to do it, it’s not really a complaint. Once installed, Moneydance is relatively easy to use. It can open the page and there are a variety of products you showed up there. You can see from the screenshot below is my rather simple. I have no stocks or bonds, but you can view the share price, if you want. Just add an investment account, then add the stock in your portfolio to this account.

One of the things I like about the way the development of the site, the memories of transaction, both the list and calendar. It is very easy to say what I elements through, or even come late. It is also very simple, new memories by adding the link above. The great thing about alerts is that they use for transactions, or just a general reminder. Transactions can be structured to be automatically entered or simply to remind the user to enter the manually.Overall, the home page of Moneydance is very useful and can be modified to add or remove items you can do or do not need or want. As you can see, show my current account, and my two credit card accounts on the left. This allows me to see with a quick look at what I have in my accounts.

As with any personal finance manger, is the largest heart program or enroll in its register. This is where most of the work in the program is over and that’s where I spend the most time to enter transactions and reconcile with my bank account. It is in the register, to learn that I do things a little differently than I did, was used. For example, there is no keyboard shortcut to select a transaction authorized or reconciled. You can do this by right mouse button on the operation and choose the menu and if it does the job, I do find it a bit awkward. However, there is another way to do this, it works very well and getting used to, I find it much easier to reach out to reconcile the register with my bank statement online.

You can see in the screenshot to the right there is a link at the top of the Actions tab on the left of the screen. By clicking on it goes down a menu with a reconciled campaign. The election, which opens a dialogue, the initial statement balances and asks me to put an end to the amount of the invoice, which is basically the goal of balance I need to give at the end. Before we get to this point, I have looked at my statement online and I took note of this issue. Once this is entered, Money Dance provides a small window, that all my operations, which are not removed or reconcile the lists. The window can be positioned directly on the tab of Firefox with my bank statement and there, I can mouse to mark the transactions cleared and see how my games register with the bank statement balance. I can see very quickly if there is an error in the register without ever I get the statement in the mail.

I found that with this small window to do my job is really accelerating, that transactions are correct and the bank statement online and my balance are properly registered. It saves me a lot of time and effort not having to alt + tab back and forth between windows. As I said, it took me a while to get used to things like that, but if I did, it made a lot of clearing transactions much easier and faster. I’m pretty set in my ways, but one thing I learned differently, and happy that I have to do.

Another feature that I find very useful the way Money Dance is my money file without any action on my part can backup is performed after initial installation. I do daily backups to a folder on a partition completely separate, and Moneydance will take care of the rest believe me you have backups of my bacon more than once, and saved, even though I’m not a hardware problem, it really came in handy when I installed SimplyMEPIS 8th It was a breeze to load my backup folder and all my data at hand. I found it important to keep backups and Moneydance offers a variety of options to choose from.

There is another thing I found a little different than most other personal finance programs I used, and it is treated the way Moneydance accounts and categories the same. I am not an accountant, but this is obviously, as the accounting software most commonly called for double-entry method, and while I do not understand completely, it actually combines all the various accounts. In KMyMoney and other personal finance manager, you can transfer from one account to another by making a show. In Moneydance, I had to choose the account in the category section of the transaction for the change to connect to both accounts. Once I have the distinction is a piece of cake.

As with most personal finance manager, remembers Moneydance transactions and automatically complete it for you. When I enter a transaction to Aldi to buy food, reminders, and until I say otherwise, all transactions for Aldi is in the “food” category entered. This is very handy, and I can set up a recurring transaction by right-clicking on the transaction line and tell Moneydance to “remember” the transaction. To do so very quickly and easily. I guess I could say that Moneydance very smart in the register and the method of processing transactions.

I could go on and on about the features of the program, but this is already more than I expected. Suffice it to say that I am happy with Moneydance. Yes, there are things I like to see would be changed. For example, the only way to hide recent transactions in the register must be checked, but I found that does not seem to record the number of transactions in order to slow the program, I am with life. It’s just a matter of personal preference in this regard. The documentation may also be a little more depth, but I have spent, how it works. If you are looking for an easy-to-use personal finance manager, I invite you to try to give Money Dance. I do not think you will be disappointed.