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Duplicate Category Merging and Replacing
Right now in Moneydance there can exist multiple expense/income categories with the same name. For example, I can create multiple expense categories named REBATE. Or, within a category there can be multiple sub-categories with the same name. This can easily result when importing data from other software packages; e.g., MS Money.
However, there does not appear to be any way to "merge" the duplicates. I can certainly delete the multiple copies. But, doing so will purge the category information from those transactions that used it.
It would be nice to be able to (a) prevent the creation of multiple categories and (b) allow merging of one category into another; e.g., renaming REBATES to REFUNDS will alert the user that REFUNDS already exists and that those transactions with REBATES will be updated to REFUNDS.
Somewhat related to this thread: http://getsatisfaction.com/theinfinit...
However, there does not appear to be any way to "merge" the duplicates. I can certainly delete the multiple copies. But, doing so will purge the category information from those transactions that used it.
It would be nice to be able to (a) prevent the creation of multiple categories and (b) allow merging of one category into another; e.g., renaming REBATES to REFUNDS will alert the user that REFUNDS already exists and that those transactions with REBATES will be updated to REFUNDS.
Somewhat related to this thread: http://getsatisfaction.com/theinfinit...
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Inappropriate?The problem is worse than you think. It is possible to batch merge categories. For example, I have two categories labeled ABC. I use the edit category window to create a new category called ABCmerge. Then I double-click on the first ABC category. This pops up a window listing all transactions with that category. You can select them all and right-click to show a pop-up menu with a Batch Change choice. Select category and scroll down to ABCmerge. However, when you do this you get a warning about changing the "amount" of reconciled transactions. If you ignore the warning, YOUR ACCOUNTS GET SCREWED UP. Moneydance does not know how to change categories on both sides of every transaction. (I have double-entry bookkeeping!)
Bottom line: Category merging is theoretically possible, but fixing the screwed up transactions will take too much time. The only safe way is to manually change both sides of each transaction. I think the best way to work around the duplicate category problem is to make one the parent and the other the child. That will keep them together on most reports.
