Forum for MasterSoft Money?

[Scylla]

I recently installed MasterSoft Money 4.11 on my Axim. Imports from Quicken are a little quirky, and their help documentation is, well, not really there! One page of help on the PPC, and they offer an outdated PDF file from their now defunct desktop version, claiming it has some useful info in it for the new PPC version.

Is anyone using this version? If so I'd like to ask some questions about QIF imports from Quicken and duped entries. Also, "Optimize Database" - it really changed a lot of my data. What is it supposed to do?

Does anyone know of a user forum out there for MasterSoft Money?

***[BTW, I meant to post this in the "Axim Software Forum"; not sure how it ended up here. Moderator, can you move this? Thanks!]***

Thanks in advance,

[AximJoe]

I'm too have problems with the import from Microsoft Money 2004. I haven't tried for a while but I tried about 3 times and my balances were always incorrect.

[Scylla]

I wrote their support and their response was, and I quote

"We feel you would be better off with Pocket Quicken. Was our product purchased within the last 30 days ?"

Needlees to say, this surprised me! I wrote back to see why they would respond like that, and we exchanged a number of e-mails.

Basically, MasterSoft money is designed as a stand-alone program, not intended to get internet downloads like Quicken or MS Money. (Even says that on their website - I didn't read it closely). It's for storing your financial transactions manually on your PPC. It does support QIF imports, but the support guy told me that QIF files are notoriously tricky, and it's difficult to pass the data accurately from the PC to the PPC. Apparently it would take a complete reprogramming effort to make it compatible with Quicken, and since Quicken has just introduced their own Pocket PC version, it wouldn't be easy to compete with them.

Pocket Quicken is designed just for passing all your account info between your PC and PPC. But...there's no evaluation download available, and it sells for $40.

I really don't want to try to do all my financial planning and tracking on my Axim when I'm out and about. Hard enough to do it on my PC when I have the time and a quiet space!

I really just wanted to have a snapshot of my accounts with me. Also, if you're like me, when you use an ATM machine to withdraw cash, or use your debit card for a purchase, you don't always remember to keep the receipt and log it in your checkbook or in Quicken. Then when you download Quicken accounts, you're surprised at these debits! You don't always remember when you took that $50 out. And if you're really trying to stick to a budget in Quicken, you're supposed to track your cash purchases. Don't know about you, but I can never remember what cash I spent where at the end of the week or month, when I'm trying to reconcile my budget on Quicken.

So just export one account at a time in QIF format. And make sure that you're only exporting "Transactions". Uncheck all other boxes. Set up an account with the same exact name in MasterSoft money. Then find the QIF file you exported on your PC, open ActiveSync's Explorer window, and copy the QIF file from your PC to the "My Documents" folder on your Axim. From MasterSoft, select the option to Import a QIF file and select the account name you created that matches the account name you exported. Then click to start the import. When it's done, go to that account's register and compare it to your PC's version (in Quicken). If you had manually created an "Opening Balance" entry for that account in Quicken, you'll have to do the same in Mastersoft, since that's not a real transaction. Also, there may be some other adjustments that you created in Quicken to balance your account. Again, you'll have to do the same in MasterSoft.

Then repeat this for all accounts you want to track in MasterSoft Money. If you only have a checking and savings account to track, it should be a piece of cake! Of course if that's all you're tracking, you probably woudn't be using Quicken! When you get ancient like me, you end up with too many accounts period!

Some of my accounts came through perfect; some needed a few entries to be recreated. Investment accounts (like 401ks) had to most problems. "Splits" don't come through on the QIF well at all. So I just left them out. I only placed my primary, most active accounts on the Axim. The ones I may need to refer to day to day.

If you're looking for a perfect "mirror" of what's in Quicken on your PC, you'll have to fork out the $40 and buy Pocket Quicken.

If you just want to track daily transactions for your most active accounts, use MasterSoft money.

Sorry for the length of the post. I'm in a rambling mood!

Post back any questions or IM me, and I'll help out if I can.