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Simply Money

Version 1.0

To start the program, just double-click on the Simply Money icon in this program group.  The Practice icon will start a practice session that you can follow along with in the manual.  Each of the special calculators also has a double-clickable icon or you can start any of the calculators from within the main program.

Dates after year 2000

Date fields in Simply Money are formatted according to the International Date Format settings in the Windows Control Panel.  The Century setting in this dialog determines whether the year is displayed as two or four digits.  If set to two digits, Simply Money assumes all dates are in the 1900's.  If you are using dates in the year 2000 or later, such as securities expiration dates, we recommend that you select the Century option in the Windows Control panel.  This will let you specify the year and century within Simply Money.

Your Password

Caution!  If you decide to password protect your finance group, it is imperative that you make a written note of your password, and keep it in a safe place.  If you forget your password, you will not be able to access your data.  Please note that the password is case sensitive.  That is, when Simply Money prompts you to enter your password you must type it exactly as it was originally entered including any upper or lower case characters.

Importing a QIF File

You can import QIF files created in other products such as Quicken and Microsoft Money.  Each QIF file should contain only one account.

Follow this procedure:

1.  Go into the other product and export data from one account into a QIF file.  Use the first eight characters of the account name as the file name, and add the .QIF extension.  Make sure the file name is different from the file names of other accounts you may be exporting at the same time.

Limit the file to a year's worth of data.  If you want to export data for another year from the same account, make a new file for a different time period after you finish importing this file into Simply Money.

2.  Print out all transactions in the account.  If you are exporting more than one account, generate an account list.

3.  Repeat steps 1 and 2 for every account you want to import into Simply Money, then exit the other product.

4.  Activate Simply Money, and create a new finance group for the imported data (see Chapter 5 of the  Simply Money User Guide).

5.  Create a Simply Money account for each account you are importing from the other product (see Chapter 5 of the  Simply Money User Guide).  Use the exact same name for the account as in the other product.  Be sure to pick the correct account type (checking, savings, and so on), and indicate whether the account is tax-related.

If you are importing only transactions within a specified date range, your account may need a starting balance so it can match the current statement balance after the import.  If you know that starting balance, enter it.  If not, you can enter it later.  If you are importing all the transactions in an account, you may not need a starting balance.

6.  Pull down the File menu and select Import.  The Import Browse dialog box appears (see page 9-59 in the  Simply Money User Guide).

7.  Select a QIF file to import, then click OK.  The Import from File dialog box appears.

8. In the Import to area, enter the name of the account to receive the imported data.

9. If necessary, click to change one of the following options.  In most cases you should not change these options.

Match other side of transfers.  This option lets you control whether to post duplicate transfer transactions between accounts.  Transfer transactions are, for example, payments from a checking account to a credit card account.  When this option is turned off, all transactions from a QIF file go into your finance group.  Suppose you import a checking account used to pay credit card bills.  All checking transactions go into the checking account, and all checking transactions that are also transfers go into the credit card account.  If you import the credit card account too, the same transfers are recorded again in both accounts, so you have duplicate transactions.

When this option is turned on (the default), Simply Money ignores duplicate transactions.   Transfers to the same payee, for the same amount, and on the same day are not added to the finance group.

Automatically create referenced accounts.  This option lets you control whether to automatically create accounts referenced in the imported transactions.  Since this option creates checking accounts without prompting you, use it only if all your accounts are checking accounts.

When this option is turned off (the default), Simply Money displays a dialog box asking if you would like to create an account.  If you click OK, the Account Setup-Add dialog box appears.  It lets you specify account name, type, address, icon, starting balance, whether the account is tax-free, and whether to hide the button.

10. Click on OK to begin importing the file.

If the QIF file contains an account or category that is not in the current finance group, the Simply Money Import box appears.  It lets you indicate whether to create a new account or category.  You can also specify the category type (Expense, Asset, Income, Liability).  Due to limitations of the QIF export format, this information is necessary since it is not included in the file.

To cancel the import, click Cancel.  To use the Miscellaneous category instead of creating a new category, click Skip.  To have Simply Money automatically create the categories in the QIF file rather than display this dialog, click Automatically create categories.  Please note that Simply Money uses its best guess as to which type of category to automatically create.  This may not be the correct category type for your purpose.  If so, you should manually select the category type.

11.  Repeat steps 6 through 10 for each account being imported.

12. Compare the registers printed in the other product to the transactions imported into Simply Money.  Starting balances may need to be adjusted.  You may also want to generate the missing and duplicate check number reports, because they can help you find any missing or duplicate transactions.

13. If you wish, hide any buttons you will not use very often.

Solving Common Import Problems

Duplicate transactions.  When you import several accounts, fund transfers between those accounts may be repeated.  To prevent these duplicate transactions, be sure to choose "Match other side of transfers" when you import (see step 9).

Duplicate buttons.  Because of the nature of QIF data, several buttons with slightly different spellings may be created for one payee.  To merge them, follow the procedure explained in "Merging a Payee Group into One Button" on page 6-59 of the  Simply Money User Guide.

All accounts are imported as checking accounts.  If you choose to automatically create Simply Money accounts from accounts in a QIF file (see step 9), those accounts are imported as checking accounts.

For example, suppose you added an account for your Discover card in step 5, but accidentally mispelled it as Discovr.  If you choose to create accounts automatically in step 9, and the QIF file contains transactions for the Discover account, Simply Money creates a checking account called Discover, even though it is really a credit card account.

If you are importing other types of accounts besides checking, make sure the option "Automatically create referenced accounts" is turned off (step 9).

Incorrect balance.  If you entered no starting balance in your Simply Money account (step 5), and import all account transactions, the ending balance in your account will probably match the balance in Quicken.  If you import just a few transactions, however, the ending balance may not be current because too little data was entered to create the same running total as in the other product.  To fix the balance, open the register for the account and add or adjust the starting balance.  (See "Using an Account Register" on 6-8 of the  Simply Money User Guide.)

To add a starting balance, enter it as a Special (see "Types of Specials" on 5-18 of the  Simply Money User Guide).  In the register, type "s" in the Pay To/Deposit From column, choose "Special" in the browser box that appears, then choose "Starting Balance" in the same browser.  Click OK.  Enter the starting amount in the Deposit column, and change the date.

To adjust the starting balance, simply change the amount already in the Deposit column at the beginning of the register.

Enjoy  Simply Money!