Author Topic: Standing Orders and Direct Debits (Read 13151 times)

Roger · « **on:** July 31, 2012, 10:17:51 AM »

I have not found a quick way to see when direct debits are due - particularly annual subscriptions etc. which can be quite hefty!
In Quicken, the next payment date was shown in the direct debit summary screen.
Would it be possible to include a column showing the next due date in screen BS423SO1? This would provide extremely useful information at a glance.

ideasguy · « **Reply #1 on:** July 31, 2012, 07:12:23 PM »

Hi Roger

Try using the program Transactions>Process Standing Orders-BS429.

When you start the program, it shows all Standing Orders which are due to todays date.
Now click on the Date Picker (it has the caption - Show due to this date).
Change it from todays date (the default) to a date in the future as required, then click the Refresh button.
The Standing Orders which are due to the date you enter are listed, and the projected transactions dates are shown.
Does that help?

Roger · « **Reply #2 on:** August 01, 2012, 11:31:23 AM »

Hi George,
Well it sort of works but is a bit fiddly! I have quite a lot of monthly debits and some big annual ones. If I can't remember when the annual ones are due, I can follow your instructions and set the date for 12 months ahead but I then have to scroll down through lots of monthly debits to find the annuals at the bottom. Not a mega problem but a Next Payment Date column on BS423, say in between Frequency and Payment, would be an elegant solution to getting a quick cash flow forecast!

ideasguy · « **Reply #3 on:** August 01, 2012, 12:18:17 PM »

Yes Roger, I can see where looking for an annual payment would perhaps need a bit of scrolling.
I'll look at BS423 and see if I can work that extra column in.
Watch this space

Davepacey · « **Reply #4 on:** May 27, 2013, 03:39:41 PM »

I would also Like to see this implemented and note that it has not been done yet. I realise that the next transaction date is seen on BS429s01 but it would be very useful to see it on BS423s01.

Regards,

Davepacey

ideasguy · « **Reply #5 on:** May 27, 2013, 11:52:43 PM »

Hi David
Personally, I would not find that feature useful, as I process all my Standing Orders/Regular payments about 6 weeks ahead.
I then use the Exclude button to push forward planning transactions into Statement 999997.

I will provide the feature for you folk in the next Version of Bank Genie, so lets work out the specifications.

Simple:
Ignore what is already processed in advance.
Based on today's date, provide a "Display Order" control to allow your list of Standing Orders, starting today (or tomorrow?), to be displayed in due date order, showing the Due date and amount.
Is that OK?

Davepacey · « **Reply #6 on:** May 28, 2013, 07:47:24 PM »

George, That would work for me :-)

Dave P

LeeStoddart · « **Reply #7 on:** May 28, 2013, 11:55:13 PM »

George - I'd modify your proposal slightly...

Ignore what is already processed in advance.
Provide a "Display Order" control to allow your list of Standing Orders to be displayed in due date order, showing the Account, reference, next Due date and amount.

I have specifically ignored your reference to "today's date" as some unposted standing orders my be overdue to be processed.

ideasguy · « **Reply #8 on:** May 29, 2013, 09:14:35 AM »

Thanks for your input Dave and Lee.

Gets messy the more I think about providing this in BS423 (its more natural in BS429 - and I will add an option there to allow the list to be sorted by date)
Heres another attempt to arrive at a specification for BS423.
Referring to this screenshot:
http://www.bankgenie.net/UserGuide/bs423s01.gif
The only extra column required is Next Due Date.
I would propose to show an extra STATUS column :-

Overdue
Due (if today)
Processed
Pending (or blank?)

To avoid an extra column, which causes viewing difficulties for some users, I could break the listing into groups with a divider and Status indicator between each group.

LeeStoddart · « **Reply #9 on:** May 29, 2013, 09:24:43 PM »

Quote from: ideasguy on May 29, 2013, 09:14:35 AM

Heres another attempt to arrive at a specification for BS423.
Referring to this screenshot:
http://www.bankgenie.net/UserGuide/bs423s01.gif
The only extra column required is Next Due Date.
I would propose to show an extra STATUS column :-
Overdue
Due (if today)
Processed
Pending (or blank?)

I'm unclear about the need for STATUS column - Processed would have no point - if I start the program today with a (say) monthly DD due on 1st June and process it then run this enquiry again it should show up as next due on 1st July. It shouldn't show as "1st June processed"

It should be possible to see the list in "next due date" sequence.
It should also be possible to see SO/DD for all accounts, not just a single account.

ideasguy · « **Reply #10 on:** May 30, 2013, 09:46:17 AM »

Quite a different specification.

I'd like others to comment on this please, based on this example:-
Monthly Payment XX due 1st of the month.
Today's date (say) 15th of May
You have already processed XX for 1st June

a) With Status Column
Show Next due date as 1st June.
Status column will show Processed.

b) Lee's suggestion - No Status Column..
Show Next Due Date as 1st July (the next UNPROCESSED Due date.)

roiphil · « **Reply #11 on:** May 30, 2013, 12:38:23 PM »

As i process mine a couple of months in advance i reckon i will opt for option A as i would like to see where i have processed upto

Quote

a) With Status Column
Show Next due date as 1st June.
Status column will show Processed

barryl · « **Reply #12 on:** May 30, 2013, 01:31:08 PM »

Looking at BS423S01, I think

1) payments column could be narrower (most of the time it says N/A)
2) repeating column could be narrower (it only has Yes or No, so maximum 3 columns, and could even be Y or N)
3) ZZ will very rarely be present and could be in column "repeating" instead (repeating irrelevant if suspended)

That will give room for an extra column

I think one extra column would do called "next due date" (first unprocessed date is better but too long).

ideasguy · « **Reply #13 on:** May 31, 2013, 11:47:04 PM »

You have to remember that the width (number of characters) of the Column Header must be considered.
Sometimes the data in the column can be wider than the Column header - e.g. the Description column.
When the reverse is true, I need to pick as short a Column header as possible, yet being clear to the user.
Thus:
In the case of 1:-
The column header is Payments (8 characters) and the data in that column (being less than 8 characters) has the luxury of being able to be centralised under that column header.
In the case of 2:-
the column header is Repeating (9 characters) and the data in that column again has the luxury of being able to be centralised under that column header - nothing would be gained by changing Yes to Y etc.
3) I think ZZ having a dedicated column is best.

I'm warming more to Lee's suggestion Phil (See b) above)
In that case, yes Barry, one extra column it is.
Insert it just after Amount? (More debate

)

Incidentally - does anyone use the Processing buttons in BS423 (as opposed to using BS429).
Tip: If you right click on a Standing Order, you can choose to Process this item
Its more flexible than BS429 in that you can process historically and reprocess S/O's if necessary.

LeeStoddart · « **Reply #14 on:** June 01, 2013, 11:38:36 AM »

Quote from: ideasguy on May 31, 2013, 11:47:04 PM

Incidentally - does anyone use the Processing buttons in BS423 (as opposed to using BS429).

I don't - I use BS429 to process DD and SO

ContraOboe · « **Reply #15 on:** June 01, 2013, 03:27:16 PM »

Quote from: ideasguy on May 31, 2013, 11:47:04 PM

Incidentally - does anyone use the Processing buttons in BS423 (as opposed to using BS429).
Tip: If you right click on a Standing Order, you can choose to Process this item
Its more flexible than BS429 in that you can process historically and reprocess S/O's if necessary.

I only use the Processing buttons in BS423. I had never even looked at BS429 before today!

ideasguy · « **Reply #16 on:** June 01, 2013, 05:47:00 PM »

There have been many revelations in this topic Colin:D
BS429 was only introduced in Bank Genie 4. In older versions, all processing was done in BS423.
Barry "persuaded" me to develop BS429 so that Standing Orders could be run on start up.
Perhaps that's another TIP

You can set a checkbox option in Preferences to have BS429 to run each time you start Bank Genie, showing you what Standing Orders are due so they can be processed easily on startup.

AnthonyM · « **Reply #17 on:** June 01, 2013, 08:25:16 PM »

I've always used BS429 processing payments and credits at start-up. However, I've now started processing all Direct Debits and Standing Orders, etc.vance so I'm now using BS423.

ContraOboe · « **Reply #18 on:** June 01, 2013, 09:37:25 PM »

Quote from: ideasguy on June 01, 2013, 05:47:00 PM

Barry "persuaded" me to develop BS429 so that Standing Orders could be run on start up.
Perhaps that's another TIP You can set a checkbox option in Preferences to have BS429 to run each time you start Bank Genie

Oh I think I remember something about that now as Quicken used to have the feature and when I changed to BGP I decided not to use it. I like to decide when to add payments to my database.

roiphil · « **Reply #19 on:** June 05, 2013, 11:20:03 PM »

Quote from: ideasguy on May 31, 2013, 11:47:04 PM

I'm warming more to Lee's suggestion Phil (See b) above)

sorry got called away by the glorious weather

b is good what ever you think best george

barryl · « **Reply #20 on:** June 06, 2013, 10:34:21 PM »

I dont either - I almost always rely on the automatic processing on opening the dataset.

WRT George's reply to my previous: actually you break the rule about the column needing to be as wide as the header: the 3rd column is headed Cd and not Code to make it 2 chars and not 4. On that basis "payment" could be "payt" "repeating" -> "repeat" which will save a little width (assuming width is important which it apparently is)

ideasguy · « **Reply #21 on:** June 07, 2013, 09:53:50 AM »

Quite correct, Barry. If a good shorter word is meaningful then that can be used.
I'm taking a break this week to work in the garden. This could be summer (like a short lived perennial) so have to make the most of it.

Phil · « **Reply #22 on:** June 09, 2013, 04:34:02 PM »

When, due to a need to replace my laptop, I had to get to grips with Windows 8 I found it very worrying that Microsoft Money would no longer work - it is some time since Microsoft ceased support for Money but it has been OK through several versions of Windows - until Windows 8 !. I checked on the Internet and am very pleased (after using Bank Genie for some time) that I discovered this excellent piece of software. The particular feature of initial interest was the ability to import the Money Data - this worked without a hitch and I have therefore retained all of my historical data. As

George knows the one area that was of slight concern was the Standing Orders and Direct Debits in that I had to re-enter all of those items but once that was achieved all was well. I have also suggested that an ability to have "splits" in the Standing Orders would be useful but, as I was advised this is easily overcome by using copy and paste of a previous similar transaction. As for the current round of discussion on showing next transaction date - yes I agree it will be very useful but I also have found that the "forward entry" of several weeks of Standing Orders is - for me - a very satisfactory way of "seeing what is coming" and the ability to exclude such transactions makes reconciliation no problem.

barryl · « **Reply #23 on:** June 09, 2013, 09:04:41 PM »

I totally agree that remaking all the standing orders is a pain but unfortunately neither Quicken nor MS Money export the information into an output file so BG cannot import it. (I just had to do the same task - recreating 20-30 standing orders).

Roger · « **Reply #24 on:** June 18, 2013, 07:51:58 PM »

I've been abroad for a while and missed all the discussions re my original suggestion. Looks like this is about to happen - I would certainly be happy with a 'next due date column'.

I only process my Debits from BS429