Creating Accounts#

There are two ways to setup accounts.  You can add accounts manually using the following context menu item available in the accounts panel:

Once an account exists you can import data using the File/Import menu or using the Import Csv... menu available here.

The New Account dialog contains the following information.  You can also get back to this dialog by right clicking on the account and selecting Properties :

Most of these fields are optional, except Name, and Account Number.  Name is the name of the account you would like to use, doesn't have to match your bank account name.

Account number is the number that uniquely identifies this account.

Online Account Id :  is used to match downloaded transactions, so needs to be correct.  Sometimes these can be a bit tricky - for example Fidelity removes the "-" connector.  So if you want to use the Online Banking feature you should "Add" the account that way to be sure the account number is correct.  See also Account Aliases.

The Description is entirely optional.

The Account Type combo shows

image

The Tax Status combo allows you to specify if the account is Taxable, Tax Deferred or Tax Free. This impacts how taxable gains are computed in the Networth and Investment Portfolio.  For example, create a Tax Deferred 401k account or a Tax Free Roth IRA account.

The Opening Balance is the amount that you need to enter in order to start balancing the account, so whatever month you want start from, grab the ending balance from your previous bank statement.

The Online Account field is how you connect your account to Online Banking

The Currency is optional and is only needed if you plan to have multiple accounts with different currencies. See Currencies.

The Web Site is a URL link to the website for your bank or credit card and the ">>" button will bring this up in your web browser.

The Aliases are the strings you want to match this account with when downloading OFX or QFX transactions from your bank, see Account Aliases.

The Reconcile Warning field helps you remember to balance your accounts before your bank removes the online statements.  See Balancing Accounts.

The Closed checkbox simply removes the account from the default view to cleanup the list of accounts.  Keeping these around can help with transfers from accounts that are still open.  Closing an account does not remove any data.  You can hide and show closed accounts using this "Display Closed Accounts" command on the Accounts Panel context menu:

You probably never need to delete any data.  15 years of transactions for a single family is about 15 megabytes.  So with the size of hard drives these days, you can easily store all your transactions for life, including Attachments.  Of course, I would then recommend the SQL Lite database which will be able to handle bigger databases than the XML file formats.

The Last Download date can be used to reset the Online Account synchronization date.