Author Topic: Question to Bank Genie users.... (Read 9379 times)

ideasguy · « **on:** October 24, 2010, 06:08:53 PM »

The new edition of Bank Genie is nearing completion.

I'd very much appreciate your feedback on one feature in Bank Genie which appears to be unique.
You enter a) a Transaction date and b) a Bank Date for each transaction.

The question is - do you find this feature useful?

jgrahamf · « **Reply #1 on:** October 24, 2010, 06:24:56 PM »

Dear Genie
I find that the entry for 'transaction date' is the only one I make use of and I have set the 'effective date' to automatically record the same as the transaction date.
regards
Graham Flannigan

Bill · « **Reply #2 on:** October 24, 2010, 07:21:22 PM »

Hi George,

I have only ever used the transaction date and don't find the need to use the other.

Hope this helps

Bill

ideasguy · « **Reply #3 on:** October 24, 2010, 07:43:58 PM »

Thanks Graham and Bill for your prompt replies.

The Bank Date is used in the calculations in the Net Worth program.
You can use that to advantage in that program.
If you keep the dates identical then all is well, of course.

The Bank date has more relevance in the new edition of Bank Genie.

I'm now working on a Profit & Loss program.
The current dilemma is the overlap of year ends.
As we have discussed, BG allows you to enter both a transaction date, and a Bank date.
Lets say 2009-2010 Year end is (e.g.) 31st March 2010
I enter a transaction with transaction date 28th March 2010 (The "cheque" date in BG)
Lets say it takes a few days to register in my account, finally showing up in my statement as 2nd April 2010 (the Bank Date in BG)
Does that transaction go into 2009-2010, or 2010-2011 tax year?
Ive now developed the P&L program to extract and display a list of "marginals" - transactions whose Transaction Date and Bank Date straddle a) the beginning and b) the end or the P&L year
The software then allows the user to decide which P&L year to link them to.

Thats the background to my reason for starting this topic on the forum.

johnmanley · « **Reply #4 on:** October 24, 2010, 09:21:26 PM »

Now you knew I would muck things up! What if you have a different start / end to the year. In France the tax year is 1 January to 31 December but as I pay tax in the UK (as well) I have to work in 2 differing financial years for tax returns. Also when transferring money from the UK to France the french bank takes it out of my UK account on (say) day 1 but does not credit it to my French account for several days - anything up to day 5. They actually got it wrong last month and credited my account the day they took it out of the UK account! So it might be useful to allow 2 different dates for debit / credit which Quicken did not do.

Not on P&L but Quicken asks what the exchange rate is when I transfer from Sterling to euros to enable the correct debit and credit to the relevant account. Whoops I had forgotten to mention that before.

John

ideasguy · « **Reply #5 on:** October 24, 2010, 10:11:05 PM »

Good man John and welcome to the forum.
Shall I tell the others you are my technical adviser on fine wines?

I can forsee a new topic starting somewhere on the forum

Some very good discussion points in that posting John.
Lets deal with the the easy one - easy because BG3 (Bank Genie 3, your edition) already does this.

Quote

Also when transferring money from the UK to France the French bank takes it out of my UK account on (say) day 1 but does not credit it to my French account for several days - anything up to day 5.

This is a classic example of using the Transaction Dates and Bank dates - the subject of this topic

In Bank Genie 3, Start by adding a Debit transaction in your UK bank account
Enter the same date in both the Transaction date and the Effective date fields.
Edit the Transaction element and select the TRANSFER expense code.
Then select the French bank to receive the transfer.
When added, BG3 will create a Debit in your UK bank and a matching Credit in the French account.
Proceed to edit the other (French bank) side of the transaction.
(The transaction date will be the same as entered in the UK bank)
You can now change the effective date to a date 5 days later than the transaction date (or whatever number of days your French Bank confiscates the money for)

Incidentally, Bank Genie Pro has been developed to handle transfers with more "sophistication".
e.g. you can toggle between both sides of the Transfer transaction, and edit as required.
You can get a glimpse by looking at the User Guide (very much a work in progress, I hasten to add)
http://www.bankgenie.net/UserGuide/

barryl · « **Reply #6 on:** October 25, 2010, 11:54:16 AM »

Hi! I am the consultant to this BG Pro project and initially raised this question.

My view is that except in really unusual circumstances entering different transaction dates and bank dates is just too much trouble. They will normally differ by a few days but that hardly ever matters. Occasionally it could be useful, for example when someone forgets to bank a cheque for 3 months, but I would prefer this to be a hidden facility.

I dont know which version of Q John uses. On mine the exchange rates are preset in a table just like in BG, and I update them from time to time (and correct the actual amount when reconciling of course).

ideasguy · « **Reply #7 on:** October 25, 2010, 12:19:48 PM »

Thanks Barry and a special thank you for your advice and guidance on the BG Pro project.
The import of QIF files (with Q data) to Bank Genie Pro would not have been possible without your specifications, advice, patience! numerous sample files and testing repeatedly as the program was developed. Thats only one module used as an example to illustrate how your specifications were used to shape the new BG Pro.

On a lighter note, Ive observed in correspondence that Q users are rather set in their (Q) ways

I suspect that I might have had "notification" if Q had the Transaction date+ Bank Date feature and Bank Genie did not

As mentioned above, the new P&L program in the new edition of Bank Genie Pro will be able to give informative information in relation to marginal transactions which span the year end dates, so the "two date" feature will be more relevant.

Ive invited a few other BG3 users to view this topic and hopefully contribute. Unfortunately only a small proportion of BG users have registered on the forum so the decisions will be based on a small sample of users.

peter1925 · « **Reply #8 on:** October 25, 2010, 06:59:04 PM »

I'm not a user of Bank Genie but my view is that accounting has to be reconciled with the Bank in order to know that the totals are correct. To have 2 different dates of the transaction is not necessary as long as we are consistant. At the end of tax year perhaps some of the checks didn't get to the bank and they have to be considered. P/L statement is also part of it. As for which date to use for the transaction it is much easier to use the bank date only.
Here is more on RECOCILIATION:

Home > Library > Business & Finance > Accounting DictionaryTerm used when settling

differences contained in the Bank Statement and the cash account in the books of the bank's

customer. Rarely do the ending balances agree. To reflect the reconciling items, a bank

reconciliation is required. Once completed, the adjusted bank balance must prove to the

adjusted book balance. When it does, it indicates that both records are correct. Journal

entries are then prepared to update the records and to arrive at an ending balance in the

cash account that agrees with the ending balance in the bank statement.

The bank balance is adjusted for items reflected on the books that are not on the statement.

They include Outstanding Checks, Deposits in Transit, and bank errors in charging or

crediting the company's account.

The book balance is adjusted for items shown on the bank statement that are not reflected on

the books. They include bank charges, not-sufficient funds checks, collections made by bank

on the customer's behalf (e.g., collected notes receivable), interest earned, and errors on

the books

ideasguy · « **Reply #9 on:** October 25, 2010, 07:34:20 PM »

Thank you for that information Peter.
Its been a while since you have posted and since we have a number of new members since then, heres a link to your website by way of introduction.
http://www.scn.org/earth/garden/
Another reminder is that I had the pleasure of visiting your wonderful garden way back in 2003.
Heres the prelude to that visit

http://www.ideasgenie.co.uk/boothphotos-4.html
I hope you and Carol are well!

I know you have a very impressive business background, so its very nice to have your contribution to this project.
Interesting to note that you choose the Bank date as the important date to use for the transaction.
In money management software, that is fine if you are entering the data after the transaction registers in your account.
However, the main purpose of using Bank Genie is to be on top of your accounts with all the very latest transactions entered.
If you add a new transaction (say a check/cheque written today) then you don't know what the Bank date will be.
That was my consideration when designing the system, hence the two date feature. With BG, you can enter the actual transaction date (it will not change) and enter an anticipated Bank Date (which could well change). This can be edited to the exact date when the transaction is registered on your account.
RE:

Quote

At the end of tax year perhaps some of the checks didn't get to the bank and they have to be considered

Indeed! Thats the flexibility I am now providing in this new P&L report program.
Perhaps you will have time to download it and give it a road test. It would be very interesting to have your comments on how it works for you with US bank accounts.

peter1925 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 27, 2010, 10:34:40 PM »

George,
It has been a long time since I was using accounting software and I know very little about
it, but I do believe that it must be a huge task to develop it. At that time it was still MS
DOS operating system and it took Microsoft 20 years before they came up with accounting
package. If you haven't seen it before it might be worthwhile to take a look at it:

"Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2009" (161.45 MB) and it is FREE for download.

I haven't seen it, but they can't afford to put out complete junk.

Best regards,...Peter

ideasguy · « **Reply #11 on:** October 27, 2010, 11:58:39 PM »

My P&L is not intended to compete with anything like that Peter.
Mind you, its a very useful tool. I have it all working now, ready for finalising the design of the reporting.
As hinted in other topic, Ive re-developed and now have it able to manipulate the data and generate multi P&L reports which may have different year end dates.

3fren · « **Reply #12 on:** October 30, 2010, 12:08:55 PM »

Sorry guys, I am a bit slow

What is this Bank Genie for

I understand about keeping my bank balances, though it is insignificant amount
I do not have an investment portfolio;
I understand about keeping our company accounts;
How and when do I use Bank Genie ?

Thanks George, for the unintiated

ideasguy · « **Reply #13 on:** February 01, 2013, 10:24:52 AM »

I was searching for a topic I posted some time ago and found this one. I noticed that I must have missed the previous posting by Jessie (3fren)

RE:

Quote

I understand about keeping my bank balances,

That, in a very few words, explains the purpose of Bank Genie precisely:D
Most people nowadays keep a very watchful eye on their expenditure and investments.
Bank Genie allows you to to do that by setting up your Bank Accounts and recording all transactions.

Going back to the subject of this posting, I personally continue to use both the Transaction Data and Bank date entries.
Its an essential feature for me to reconcile my Business account.
Payment from a shopping cart item today is processed into my Merchant account tomorrow, but doesnt show up on my Business account for a few days.
Ive done some analysis recently. A credit card payment takes 4 business days to clear.
In this day and age of faster payments, this is appalling!
If payment is on a Monday, it will be in my account in 4 days.
If payment is on a Tuesday, it takes 6 days (like the Father Ted excuse, the money rests in "somebodys" account over the weekend and other Bank Holiday dates).
If American Express, it can take up to 8 days

The reconciliation difficulties?
My business bank lumps the items into one figure shown on my Bank Statement.
Due to the difference in clearance dates by the Credit Card Providers, the sum of my sales for any given day may not equate to the figures on my Bank Statement.
I can reconcile my statement much easier using the double date feature in Bank Genie.

My Sales Order Processing software (which I may make commercially available soon) adds a payment transaction automatically in my Bank Genie accounts. It adds on the estimated Bank Date to the Transaction date (based on Day of order so can be 4 to 6 days). You can do this manually.
When the Business bank Statement arrives I then use the Lodgement Dates feature in Bank Genie. I group the items for a Bank Date into a "lodgement".
Bank Genie summarises the individual items in the lodgement, and with luck it equates to the single line entry on my Bank Account.

I'd like to hear from others who find these features useful in Bank Genie.

AnthonyM · « **Reply #14 on:** February 01, 2013, 02:45:45 PM »

I only use the transaction date this enables me to know what funds I have available. It doesn't really matter when the transaction is actually cleared on the account. The fact that Bank Genie only shows uncleared items on the transaction screen means that as long as statements are regularly reconciled all outstanding transactions are clearly shown even if they are from sometime ago. I would therefore be quite happy if the bank date was removed from the software.

Are there major changes in Bank Genie Pro 5? Have you got any details/screenshots that you could post to the forum?

ideasguy · « **Reply #15 on:** February 01, 2013, 03:52:37 PM »

Some do, some don't.
Anyone who doesn't need to use both Transaction date and Bank Dates can simply switch that feature off in preferences.
It is discussed and explained in this topic:-
http://www.flowergenie.co.uk/ideas/forum/index.php/topic,1729.0.html

The new edition mentioned at the beginning of this old topic referred to Bank Genie 4, released quite some time ago.

I'll be making an announcement on the forum when a new version is released

AnthonyM · « **Reply #16 on:** February 01, 2013, 04:42:53 PM »

OK sorry I didn't look at the date the original message was posted

ideasguy · « **Reply #17 on:** February 01, 2013, 07:31:09 PM »

No need to apologise. I should be doing that Anthony - I revived a very old posting

roiphil · « **Reply #18 on:** February 04, 2013, 12:21:39 PM »

old posting but good

Quote

My Sales Order Processing software (which I may make commercially available soon)

please do

phil

barryl · « **Reply #19 on:** February 17, 2013, 11:36:41 AM »

and me too : transaction date only.

ideasguy · « **Reply #20 on:** February 17, 2013, 12:22:30 PM »

That feature is used by others.
I need it, and other non-foum members have emailed tio say they also need it.

Anyone who doesn't need to use both Transaction date and Bank Dates can simply switch that feature off in preferences.
It is discussed and explained in this topic:-
http://www.flowergenie.co.uk/ideas/forum/index.php/topic,1729.0.html