Splasm Software Discussions

I have Check Book Pro which I think is superb. Couple of queries though:

1) I have entries going back 4 years and would like to create a new clean 'book' on 1 April by saving the accounts on that date as a separate P LIST. I then plan to delete any redundant accounts. I'd also like to delete any transactions up to then. But won't that screw up account balances etc? Or do I have to note down the account balances of each one, delete all transactions and then edit the account with a new 'opening balance'? I know I could use folders and a hide reconciled view but I do find the folders a bit of a cumbersome way to view an account, I'd rather just click on it than have to switch about between the accounts I have and select the current year etc. In fact, the folders on CBP seem to just list the years and provide a quick reference to JUST those years. If you have show 'both' enabled under the search box (for reconciled/unreconciled) clicking on the account does show every transaction for 4 years. List is just too long for me now.

2) I noticed a couple of scheduled entries got missed. It seemed to be entries scheduled for 31st of month and they haven't been done when month had 28 or 30 days (or something like that). I think there was a problem mentioned with something similar where users select 'use preceding Friday' but I can't recall if that was the case here. Hasn't happened in a while. I'll double check next time it does.

PS: Any news on the iPhone ap?

1.) There is a difference between Smart Folders and regular Folders. Think of Smart Folders as a sort of saved search, that shows the results of that search in a folder. The entries that show up in that folder have not been moved and are just referenced so they do not help in your issue of cleaning out your account. It sounds like you would rather be using regular Folders to organize your entries.

Regular Folders on the other hand actually contain the entry. If you create a Folder titled 'Archive' and drag entries to it, they are moved from your regular account window and placed into the 'Archive' Folder. If you do searches or view your entries by clicking on your account in the accounts drawer, you will no longer see those entries that were moved to your Folder. If you want to search for items in a Folder, you can click on the all accounts section and search there, or click on the actual folder to search within it.

In your case, I would just create an 'Archive' or 'Backup' folder for each account, and drag all your old entries to these folders. This way, if you ever need to look back and search for something, you can within the folder or from the All Accounts section. This will also serve to keep your balances correct and clean out your entry tab at the same time.

2.) Let us know what your exact schedule settings were and which date it missed, and we will look into it.

We are still testing CheckBook 2.2 which contains all the database changes necessary for syncing with the iPhone app. Once we are happy with testing, we will release CheckBook 2.2 and get back to finishing up the iPhone app itself.

Let us know if the above tips and suggestions help you get organized in the way you were looking for. If there is something missing or a concern we did not address, let us know with a reply. Thanks for the questions!

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Randy Knoble
Splasm Software
www.Splasm.com

Thanks, I'll try that. What about the 8 closed accounts I want to delete? I suppose take a back up of the whole thing now entitled archive full or whatever, then delete the accounts?? Again, will I get balance problems?

I know when I delete an entry and it's linked to another account it asks "do you want to keep the linked entry". Will I get that happen 500 or so times or will straight account deletion just take it down and assume you need the linked entries in other accounts?

Great news with the iPhone ap. Just hope they get IOS 4.3 out quick as 4.2.1 screwed my battery life!!! Need everything turned off to save battery, so it's much use. And as a stand alone phone there are far better out there.

If you are removing entire accounts, your All Accounts balance will change and will no longer include those balances in its total. If those balances are closed loans or accounts with a zero balance, it shouldn't affect your All Accounts balance. If you want the Account Balances included in your All Accounts total and still remove the accounts, you could add up the balances of the accounts you wish to remove, then create 1 new account with the starting balance that has the total of the 8 accounts you wish to remove. You can leave that 1 new account with the adjustment balance to make up for having the 8 accounts removed.

Removing Accounts will not affect the balances of other individual accounts. If you have linked entries in accounts you want to keep that have its partner entry in an account you are about to remove, you can keep the one side of the linked entry and still remove the other account.

Make sure you make a backup of all your accounts before making major changes, so you can get back to where you started if something doesn't go as you expect.

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Randy Knoble
Splasm Software
www.Splasm.com

Hi. Thanks for help and the prompt response. All the accounts are at zero balance so shouldn't be a problem then. It's just when I choose 'delete account' that I wondered if I'd get hit with multiple 'Do you want to keep the other account entry' messages but I'm assuming that only happens if you delete a transaction from WITHIN an account rather than the whole account itself?

If you delete an account with linked entries, you will be asked once if you want to keep the other end of linked entries in other accounts. You want to keep the linked entries in other accounts if you want your balances to remain the same.

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Randy Knoble
Splasm Software
www.Splasm.com

Could you tell me how to handle this scenario.... Over the past several years I've opened and closed many accounts (i.e.: new 6 month CD eventually closing where I moved the $$ into several existing accounts). So basically I have a host of accounts like this as well as closed accounts from a Bank I no longer use. So... right now I have probably 10 of these accounts which have a balance of zero but I can't really delete because it would mess up my balances since many times I would close an account and distribute the assets into several accounts. Initially I thought maybe your "folder" option would allow me to take all these accounts and dump them into a folder called "Closed accounts". Unfortunately they are folders that exist within an account so this would do me no good. My account list is getting unmanageable even with pushing all these accounts to the bottom and renaming them with a "_CLOSED_ACCOUNT" prefix. Any help would be appreciated. Love your software!

Andy

You can remove an account without it affecting the other side of that delete account's transfers. If you are worried about the outcome, I would make a backup of your account file via the File menu, then proceed to remove the accounts you no longer want to track and watch your balances to see that they do not change. If something is altered in a way you do not expect, you can always restore your backup before you made the changes. Let us know how it goes.

_________________
Randy Knoble
Splasm Software
www.Splasm.com