Standing Orders/Direct Debits and the planner

[Mileoakman]

Hi,

I've been using Bank Genie now for about 6 months or so and really like its functionality. Like many on here I have moved from MS Money and found the transfer and setting up in Bank genie very easy.

I have a couple of queries regarding Standing Orders.

On BS423501 (Prog version 7), the amounts showing against individual Standing Orders/DD are the original amounts when the SO/DD was set up and doesn't seem to change when the amount are altered. For instance I have a car loan showing of £183 a month but this was changed to £186 in August last year when I changed the car. The correct amount is debited each month when I process the Standing orders/DD but BS423501 still shows the previous amount. There are a number of similar changes for other DD's which are the same.

The other query relates to BS423509. This is the annual planner but doesn't seem to reflect the actual amounts that will be paid over the year. For instance I have a DD set up for my Council Tax payment. The last payment is the 23rd January and this was processed fine and running February DD's it doesn't appear which is correct. However when looking at the Planner the monthly amount is shown for all 12 months up to and including December when it should only show January as I will set up the DD again when my next payment restarts in April. The screen mentions double clicking on an entry in the planner but this does nothing so its not amendable.

I am quite happy to admit, as a relative new comer to your program, I might not be understanding and misinterpreting what and how the DD/Standing Orders are supposed to show. Any light you could throw on this for me would be appreciated.

Apart from this minor query I am more than happy with how it works and the ease of recording transactions so thank you again.

[ideasguy]

Hi Mike

RE: Question 1.
Are you referring to the use of the Change Pending feature:
[url][http://www.bankgenie.net/UserGuide-BankGenie6/bs423s02-rates.gif/url]

RE: Question 2:
Yes, I have some more work to do on the Planner feature.
It was a "starter" but can be quite complex - e.g. Planner by month, Planner by Wee/BiWek, Planner by "Pay Day" increments (variable).
I look forward to getting time to work some more on it and I'll be asking members here for their suggestions.

[Mileoakman]

Thanks for the reply.

Forget question 1. That was down to me not understanding how it worked but I do now. Sorry.

With regard to question 2 I understand that you have still work to do so its not a problem, more an observation. There are 2 examples I can think of where the planner gives wrong information. The first is with regard to my Council Tax bill which I pay monthly but only from April to January, so I get February and March off. After the January payment went through correctly I suspended my Council Tax bill and plan to restart it for April with a different amount when I know what it is. Running my DD's for February shows that it has been correctly ignored and presumably will I until I un-suspend it. However if you look at the DD Planner it still shows as if the same payment is being made in February and March and the Year total shows 12 payments when it is actually only 10. It therefore overstates the cost of my Council Tax.

The second example is if you cancel a standing order/DD during the year. I recently cancelled a monthly subscription which I no longer have. If I cancel the DD in say June, cancelling it removes all entries in the planner including those already paid and it looks like it never existed and I've paid nothing, (although its dealt quite properly of course in my bank or credit card accounts where I've paid 6 instalments).

As I say, knowing that this is still a work in progress, I understand that this has still to be sorted out. Not knowing this my original query was that I thought I was doing something wrong and wondered if I should be doing something different.

I still very much enjoy using your programs, however, which fully meets my needs and I remain a very satisfied customer.

Regards,

Dick Coppard