Reconcilliation Interest Oddity

[Jaywalker]

I just completed reconciling my checkbook and while it appeared to complete accurately, it left an odd line trasaction for the Bank Paid interest (to me) line in the checkbook. Version 2.65.

First, the bank paid interest line is out of date order, while the date order is commanded. It reads Jan 25 accurately, but it sits inaccurately below a Feb 8 entry.

Second, the balance amount on this paid interest line is wildly inaccurate. As an example, let's say the line above it it is $600.37, a number whch is also reflected in the "Running Balance" total. The bank paid interest to me is $0.04. The balance at the right of the line is $320, instead of the running balance.

It may be of interest to know that prior to this reconcilliation, I had to revert to a saved database and restart the reconcile process.

Also, I closed the instance of the "$320" as mentioned above, and it is now the saved version, and re-opened with the same error.

While I'm sure this is a bug that you'll address, I'd like to know how to address this error, please, before I get more deeply into it.

Thanks.

[mthadm]

Is this a one time thing or it happened before also?

We would need steps to reproduce before we can confirm it as an issue and give a fix ETA

[Jaywalker]

One time - this time.

Steps are pretty standard. Reconcile>display unreconciled>sort deposits and credits>mark reconciled. Then I check the work to see that the totals in the "difference" equals statement totals, and it did.

Followed the same approach for Withdrawals/Debits, but I completed this stage with a large difference error. (Later determined I'd entered the total withdrawals instead of closing statement amount.) Totals were off - I clicked reconcile to see what would happen and got a message box that confused me with "Cancel" and "Fix" (something like that, anyway). I clicked "fix," believing it would let me find and correct my errors, but instead it automatically added the total error difference as a balancing amount. (Very bad idea, I think, without detailed warning.) At that point I realized I was past saving this effort and decided to restore a backup.

Opened the latest backup (today's, I'd done one after entering checks) by unzipping into a folder. Used MyMoney to open that backup without closing current, wrong, effort. I had to prompt it by clicking "accounts," I think, in order to show the checkbook register. The restored account appeared without my previous reconciliation actions. Re-entered Reconciliation as before, but this time with the right data, followed the same steps and balanced to the penny, as I always do.

When I completed, I noticed on the checking account view that my interest received from the bank was on the wrong line for its date (Date Order selected) and had a wrong running total associated with it, though it did not appear to affect the running total at the top of the page. So, the last line of the check register view has a different total that then running view at the top of the page, and the register line has an illogical number, with hundreds/thousands of dollars different values than the pennies it represents.

It looks something like this:

Code: Select all

check no. 500,  date 8 Feb, Merchant Name, check amt $100, balance $600
 -------------,  date 25 Jan, Bank Int Rec'd, deposit amt $0.04, balance $320


[mthadm]

thanks for the steps, we will give it a try

[Jaywalker]

I figured it out - it's a bug, but not as big a bug as I'd feared.

When the checkbook register is "Sorted by Date," it works fine and accurately. When it's "Sorted by Entry Order," the $0.04 Interest Earned goes down to the final line in the register. That might be okay if the running balance on that line showed a $0.04 effect, but it doesn't - it brings down the balance from what it was at the date it was entered. Thus, it shows the effect of a $0.04 deposit on 25 January, not the effect of $0.04 added to the line above it in entry Order. I can work around it by using the Date sort until it's fixed.

Edited to add: Now I found "Follow Register Sorting" in the Options, so it appears not to be a bug - just complicated. Thanks.

[mthadm]

We will try to reproduce and will fix it,

Thanks for the steps

[Jaywalker]

If I may, it's just unnecessarily compicated, caused by the ability to use "Options/Calculate running balance/Always by date." That caused the original "fault" I found, as reported in the original post. The balance was accurate for that date, it was just on the wrong line, grouped by the date I entered it, but added to the balance many days before that. I suggest you at least change the default to Options/Calculate running balance/Follow Register sorting, and maybe even eliminate the other option, otherwise the running balance can always be wrong.

[mthadm]

We find that balance calculation tends to confuse people endlessly, this is by far our most requested information (the close second is how to resize windows on mac) We actually wrote a wiki article explaining the balances http://wiki.mthbuilt.com/Account_balances_explained

The bug is caused by incorrect position of the interest transaction in the account time-series data, we will have it fixed