Michael Pitra's dashboard

A comment on the update "Upcoming: moneyGuru 1.6" in Hardcoded Software:

Ah, the budgeted column wasn't enabled by default (when simply upgrading moneyGuru). This column is very informative - good idea to show it there! – Michael Pitra, on August 26, 2009 17:15

Michael Pitra replied on August 21, 2009 07:34 to the update "Upcoming: moneyGuru 1.6" in Hardcoded Software:

I immediately downloaded the preview after your announcement and looked at the changes. Seems to be ok from what I have seen up to now.
The budget targets now create a scheduled Transaction on the last day of month showing the remaining amount from the budgeted value, this looks quite nice in my opinion. I'm looking forward to seeing the budget view soon.
Thanks for your great work, Virgil!

A comment on the update "Upcoming: moneyGuru 1.6" in Hardcoded Software:

So have a nice vacation then - I'm looking forward to trying out the first preview build! – Michael Pitra, on June 14, 2009 10:43

A comment on the idea "Enhancement of CSV import feature" in Hardcoded Software:

I'm 100% of the same opinion - I also wondered why they did it in this strange way. And I see your concern about the dual selectable "amount" column. I would'nt allow it either in my own software.
The next question would be: what if the CSV out of a sudden allowed amounts in both increase and decrease columns (would not make sense, but why not)? The only solution would be to import the transaction twice, even if there were numerical columns, which could have been treated in a mathematical way.
However, your first suggestion, importing twice is not very user-friendly (and even relies on two import profiles). – Michael Pitra, on June 04, 2009 12:13

A comment on the idea "Enhancement of CSV import feature" in Hardcoded Software:

Taken as example from another bank, there I can customize my CSV so that I define which columns it should contain - but I don't know if they allow separate columns for increase and decrease, since their default behaviour is just one amount column. – Michael Pitra, on June 04, 2009 08:58

Michael Pitra replied on June 04, 2009 08:56 to the idea "Enhancement of CSV import feature" in Hardcoded Software:

In my case it's another bank - Bank Austria (part of the UniCredit Group). So maybe there are some other banks out there that do this...
I therefore would consider all companies from the UniCredit Group, like the Hypovereinsbank, but that's just a wild guess, and I don't know if they ever merged their IT departments or strategies.

Michael Pitra shared an idea in Hardcoded Software on June 03, 2009 19:31:

Enhancement of CSV import feature

Today I tried to import a CSV from a different bank and found out that I was not able to import it correctly, because the bank had an interesting CSV format:
One seperate column for account increase and one seperate columns for account decrease.
Trying to import it with the CSV import feature did not work because the "amount" data could only be applied to one column. In this case I would have needed "amount" selectable for both the increase and the decrease column.
What I found strange was that in the CSV the amounts from the increase column were positive, the amounts from the decrease column were all negative. So my suggestion would work here (allowing to select "amount" for multiple columns).
Any idea how to achieve the import of this unusual CSV file?

Michael Pitra replied on June 02, 2009 12:24 to the update "Upcoming: moneyGuru 1.6" in Hardcoded Software:

The new budgeting system sounds a good improvement. I'm awaiting the first preview builds to play with and will give feedback.
Thanks for the good work, Virgil.

Michael Pitra started following the idea "Auto-Save and Backup Data" in Hardcoded Software.

Michael Pitra replied on May 03, 2009 07:16 to the problem "When filtering in account view, the sum disappears" in Hardcoded Software:

Hm, blame me, but I never noticed this switch of the active view. When I look at it more closely, I recognize it, but the views bar is maybe a bit too high to get notified in an ambient way.

Michael Pitra replied on May 03, 2009 07:09 to the problem "Filter in Transaction view not working correctly" in Hardcoded Software:

The point is, when I use a filter in a way it is meant here, then I would expect that it filters out all appropriate lines, even in these split transactions.
Ok, I'm not able to disable the "To" column in transaction view, so I always have the chance to see the comma-separated list of expense accounts and therefore know that there might be other expense accounts affected, but in my opinion, the filter then works not correctly.

Additionally, I'm typically list-oriented and would look at all transactions, then wondering why there is such a high value in a transaction, after a while I'd realize that this came from a split transaction (because the "To" column would be out of my visual focus when looking for amounts only).

Michael Pitra replied on May 01, 2009 11:46 to the question "Account view to feature accumulated accounts (taken from account group)" in Hardcoded Software:

The filter in the transaction view works good enough - but a sum would be useful here, like the one in account view.

Michael Pitra reported a problem in Hardcoded Software on May 01, 2009 11:44:

When filtering in account view, the sum disappears

You implemented the increase / decrease sum in account view. This sum disappears when filtering - the line is simply replaced by "showing x out of y". In my opinion, the sum should stay there, reflecting the sum of the filtered transactions.

Additionally, a sum in the transaction view would be useful as well (but this is not a must).

Michael Pitra reported a problem in Hardcoded Software on May 01, 2009 11:40:

Filter in Transaction view not working correctly

When entering a multi expense account transaction (for example: payed 30 EUR in a shop, where 25 EUR go to expense account "food" and 5 EUR go to "books") and filtering for "food" or "books" will always bring the full amount of 30 EUR. In my opinion, when filtering for "food" only 25 EUR should be displayed, when filtering for "books" only 5 EUR.
Do you agree with this?

Michael Pitra replied on April 16, 2009 20:21 to the question "Account view to feature accumulated accounts (taken from account group)" in Hardcoded Software:

A tagging system seems to be an interesting thought - I'll think about it and will add comments, if you don't mind.

Michael Pitra reported a problem in Hardcoded Software on April 14, 2009 18:25:

Unable to import transactions with future date

Isn't it possible to import transactions (CSV) with a future date? After selecting the appropriate lines the import wizard does not show them, when they have a future date.
My bank indeed exports some transactions that have a future date (valuta).

A comment on the update "Upcoming: moneyGuru 1.5" in Hardcoded Software:

Do you have a detailed changelog? This would be very interesting. – Michael Pitra, on April 10, 2009 17:21

Michael Pitra shared an idea in Hardcoded Software on March 25, 2009 06:53:

Column sums in account view

I think it would be interesting if I see the sums of both the Increase and Expense columns in the account view. Why? Regarding a cash expense account (not an asset) I want to know how much money came in regarding the viewed timeframe and how much left my cash.
When I look on expense accounts where there are no increase transactions, the sum would just be the value from the profit & loss view, but with increase transactions this isn't achieved easily.
Did you get my point? Maybe a balance column like there is one in the account view for assets would be interesting as well, to track some wrong-dated transactions (cash balance can not get below zero), but this is rather an unnecessary feature.

Michael Pitra replied on March 22, 2009 16:44 to the problem "Default chosen timeframe after open document" in Hardcoded Software:

Ah ok - I'm looking forward to see this implemented. Thanks for your quick response!

Michael Pitra replied on March 18, 2009 06:46 to the question "Not fully understanding monthly budget feature" in Hardcoded Software:

I have an additional suggestion regarding the monthly budget feature (since I would miss this): the best way to set monthly budgets is to allow several targets, as it is in the split transaction dialog for several expense accounts. So it would be possible to have several assets and expense accounts like "Cash" that act as budgeting targets.