OFFLINE intro

May 9, 2010 at 11:28 am · Filed under Microsoft Money ·Tagged , , , ,

If you agree with me that Microsoft Money is the BEST personal (and small business) financial management software package available, then you’ve come to the right place for improving Money’s OFFLINE capabilities.

  • Even though Microsoft has elected to divorce the program from the MSN Money servers as of January 31st, 2011 (which did much more than just grab statement downloads, including independent stock and fund quotes for ALL of your investments, passing through third-party web-scrapes of your data, supporting Online banking, investment news, tax and exchange rates, LiveID password authentication, etc.), they have made available a **FREE**  legal copy (the SUNSET edition) of the latest updated  OFFLINE  version of  Microsoft Money Plus Deluxe that you can download, even if you’ve never used Money before!

  • Now by installing Python and downloading Bobby’s PocketSense script package that runs on Python, you will be able to essentially mimic those Online functions that Microsoft will no longer be providing.

  • For those that only need to update quotes (no Account Statement updates) and don’t wish to install Python scripting, Hung Le had written a Java app a year ago that has been recently updated and the link in the original Blog page has been updated with this new version.

  • I have developed Ameridan’s addon package to PocketSense that allows you to run these scripts (and review your Online investment data) from within your Money program.
Make sure you check out the Look Up Your OFX Settings Blogpage with links to all of the sources of OFX settings that I am aware of.

IMPORTANT!! (Courtesy of Cal Learner)

People using LiveID (Passport) in Microsoft Money should turn that off by logging in offline.   You may have to do this to accomplish that:

Disconnect from the Internet. If using Money Plus, change the date on your computer to a date in January, such as 2011 Jan 15.   Start Money, and log in offline.    Remove your LiveID.   Do not attempt to change your LiveID.

To remove the Live ID, go to File-PasswordManager, and choose to remove your LiveID.   To remove or add a conventional password, also see File->PasswordManager.

If you get a warning that you cannot remove the LiveID, turn off Tools->Settings->ReceiveAccountUpdatesFromMsnMoneyMyAccounts if you set that, even if you leave on Live ID to work with Ultrasoft Money.

SITE NAVIGATION IMPROVEMENTS:
I’ve recently optimized the Blog widget settings to make navigating within this Blog as easy as possible. I hope you find it a little easier to find things – I pledge to continue doing my best to keep it up-to-date as a resource of helpful material for Microsoft Money users as well.

-ameridan

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Version 3 of my PocketSense webpage addon that incorporates Cal’s auto-OK script

November 19, 2011 at 11:07 am · Filed under Microsoft Money

Version 3 is now available! No batch file needed.

Version 3 of ameridan's OFFLINE webpage addon to Money

Although I developed this webpage (click image to enlarge it) to invoke from within Microsoft Money, I find it most convenient to click on a shortcut to the webpage from my desktop instead.   I know I haven’t posted anything on this blog for a while, but that is primarily because PocketSense is working so well for me in supplying OFX updates to my Sunset edition of Microsoft Money.   The main reason I am posting an updated version of my webpage is to accomodate Cal’s python script Popdown2.py (originally submitted by George -  thank you George!) that automatically OKs the import and error messages that appear while the OFX files are processed by Money. You will not need to locate and download this python script file, as it is included in the download package for the webpage addon. NOTE: If Cal updates this file (he mentioned working on Popdown3.py), save it as Popdown2.py to keep the links working. Also, you do not need to use or modify any batch files with this webpage (nor can batch files be invoked from a webpage).

If you would like to be able to run your Offline update scripts (PocketSense) from within your Microsoft Money program while also viewing the new quotes.htm file that is produced everytime you update your quotes, I’m sharing the new page (along with easy installation instructions) that I’ve developed for just this purpose. Since the Money GUI is really just a customized browser, this is probably the only way modules can be added to the program without hacking into the source code. I would also like to point out that everytime the quotes are updated throughout the day, the quotes.htm page is updated, even though the newer values are ignored within the Money program. And this page will also show Last Closing Price as well as Percent change in price since the last closing price! Thanks Robert!

To greatly simplify installation (it was confusing if your PC setup didn’t happen to be setup just so), I’ve created 4 different versions of the webpage for you (2 for WinXP and 2 for WinVista and Win7) and you’ll simply use the one that works properly. :)

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Erroneous Yahoo! quotes / making QFX files work with Money / UK, French & Int’l English Money 2005 1105 updates

July 28, 2011 at 11:36 am · Filed under Microsoft Money ·Tagged , , , ,

Over the last several weeks, some of the quotes from Yahoo! Finance (where PocketSense, hleOfxQuotes and TFB’s script get the quotes from) have been erroneous and we were all hoping they would just get “fixed”. It turns out a reader of TFB’s (The Finance Buff) Blog found the appropriate help link to notify Yahoo! of the issue and it was fixed soon after it was submitted. I’m posting that link here with a tag, so that next time it might be accessed sooner by one of us for a quicker resolve. See the first comment below for suggested wording.

Some other recent developments:

1. Some banks such as Bank of America and Chase no longer offer Microsoft Money OFX downloads on their website, but they DO offer Intuit Quicken Web Connect (QFX) files (or some other similar wording) and those work just as well, but you may not realize you have that option. I’ve exerpted the solution from another one of my Blog pages (read that blog page if you want to learn what’s different between OFX and QFX) here to reveal how to make QFX files work for you…

If you download QFX files from your financial institution’s website (that is the default choice on Bank of America’s Mastercard website now) , you can Save and then import them directly into Money [File->Import->Downloaded Statement...], but you may have to click on type: ALL FILES to see the file. You can skip the Save step and have the file import on it’s own by following the registry addition below.

Cal Learner has developed this registry fix that you could run, so that QFX files will behave just like OFX and will import into Money automatically:

Here is a 2-step way to create that registry file:

1. Open a new Notepad file, and paste the following lines between the ===delimiter lines=== below into the file.

==================begin QFX2OFX.reg========

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.qfx]
“Content Type”=”text/qfx”
@=”ofx.Document”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.qfx\ofx.Document]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.qfx\ofx.Document\ShellNew]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type\application/x-qfx]
“Extension”=”.qfx”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type\text/qfx]
“Extension”=”.qfx”

================end QFX2OFX.reg==========

2. Save the file as “QFX2OFX.reg” and Run.

2. Although the Money servers are OFFLINE for most purposes, they are still supplying quotes for some users that are using older versions of Money and/or still have time left on their subscription. Who knows for how much longer though.

3. As of today, Microsoft has finally made available the full 1105 version of UK Money 2005, and it can be downloaded here which will allow new installations to be able to read your UK Money data files. The file can be used to do a full UK Money 2005 (level 1105) install. You do not have to install a previous version and then upgrade.

4. [added 7/29/2011] Microsoft has also made available the full 1105 version of International English Money 2005, and it can be downloaded here which will allow new installations to be able to read your International English (aka ROW) Money data files. The file can be used to do a full International English Money 2005 (level 1105) install. You do not have to install a previous version and then upgrade.

5. [added 8/1/2011] Microsoft has also made available the full 1105 version of French Money 2005, and it can be downloaded here which will allow new installations to be able to read your French Money data files. The file can be used to do a full French Money 2005 (level 1105) install. You do not have to install a previous version and then upgrade.

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Home Inventory Worksheet & Important Records Organizer

February 20, 2011 at 1:56 pm · Filed under Microsoft Money ·Tagged

Rather than create a Blog post regarding the Home Inventory feature in Money, I created a Reference page on the subject instead. This feature, along with the Important Documents Organizer, is kind of hidden within Money and yet could prove to be very valuable should you ever experience a catastrophe involving your home, but because it isn’t really related to the replacement of online updates to financial data, I am dedicating only one paragraph of Blog real estate to it.  :)

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Version 2 of my Money Webpage addin is now available

February 17, 2011 at 5:55 pm · Filed under Microsoft Money ·Tagged ,

Version 2 is now available!

click for larger image
Version 2 of ameridan’s OFFLINE webpage addon to Money

If you would like to be able to run your Offline update scripts (PocketSense) from within your Microsoft Money program while also viewing the new quotes.htm file that is produced  everytime you update your quotes, I’m sharing the new page (along with easy installation instructions) that I’ve developed for just this purpose. Since the Money GUI is really just a customized browser, this is probably the only way modules can be added to the program without hacking into the source code.     I would also like to point out that everytime the quotes are updated throughout the day, the quotes.htm page is updated, even though the newer values are ignored within the Money program.     And this page will also show Last Closing Price as well as Percent change in price since the last closing price!  Thanks Robert!

To greatly simplify installation (it was confusing if your PC setup didn’t happen to be setup just so), I’ve created  4  different versions of the webpage for you (2 for WinXP and 2 for WinVista and Win7) and you’ll simply use the one that works properly.  :)

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SUNRIISE – Could a new International Java version of Money be far off?

February 13, 2011 at 1:08 pm · Filed under Microsoft Money ·Tagged ,

UPDATE: Hung Le has a new build available as of 3/22/2011 that he is calling SUNRIISE available at http://sunriise.sourceforge.net/

Just download one file and open up a renamed copy of your Money file (just to be safe), and explore your Money database.

Hung Le has developed another Java app that will output the contents of your encrypted MNY data file into plain text format, which then allows you to not only archive your data, but perform other post-processing tasks like creating additional customized reports yourself using external tools or adding your own data that currently is not part of the database that would be accessible via an external program.

In theory, this could someday lead to the way for a new program that could simulate or supplement Microsoft Money  using your existing data file.   I find this to be pretty exciting, but this isn’t yet for normal users – it’s mentioned here more for the programmer types that wish to push this further. Since the Ultrasoft Money program for Windows Mobile platform (and the Palm platform) interface so well with the Money data file already, the combined efforts could also lead the way into taking Money into the next generation.

:) I think I know what Hung has in mind for now though :)

Since there are fields / columns / data that are no longer updated with the OFFLINE feeds like they were with the Online updates, I’ll bet he wants to see if he can expose them and process the data extraneously with his Java app such that after the new data is written into the database, Money will then, in fact, display the missing data! Ingenious, I think, and if this isn’t what he has in mind, then let this trigger that train of thought.:)

Go to Hung’s Readme.txt  file in his MSISAM folder for more details.

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Preauthorization charges in Discover OFX downloads

January 16, 2011 at 10:21 am · Filed under Microsoft Money ·Tagged

I just read a comment from Anonymous (in the PocketSense Blog) regarding the appearance of $0.00 debits in his Discover downloads and wondering whether the scrubber could remove those.   My download interval for Discover transactions is 7 days, so if I delete those transactions in Money, they’ll predictably reappear the following day, so I’ve learned to wait about a week to delete those charges to “clean things up”.  

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UK Banks & OFX downloads

January 9, 2011 at 6:48 pm · Filed under Microsoft Money ·Tagged , , ,

Money and UK Banks

Availability of OFX connection is quite common in the US, but seems to be very rare in Europe, even for business accounts and since there seems to be many questions regarding downloading UK Bank data, I thought I would start this thread that I’d be happy to keep up-to-date with feedback from my Blog readers.

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2010 in review for Microsoft Money Offline Blog

January 2, 2011 at 9:51 am · Filed under Microsoft Money

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads  Wow!

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Java apps (not Python) to update quotes into Money

December 25, 2010 at 2:02 pm · Filed under Microsoft Money ·Tagged ,

For those that only need to update quotes (no Account Statement updates) and don’t wish to install Python scripting, Hung Le had written a Java app a year ago.   It has recently been updated (thank you Mike V. for debugging) and the link in the original  Blog page  has been updated with the new version that Mike V. has tested.   [NOTE] Keep in mind though that the Yahoo interface is a “work around” intended solely for tracking things that aren’t held in an OFX-enabled account.  If your investments are held in accounts for which you have an OFX download option, that is the prefered method. 

Thank you Hung Le for updating the app!

-ameridan

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PocketSense appVER upgrade

December 24, 2010 at 12:53 pm · Filed under Microsoft Money ·Tagged ,

 From Quicken’s site, I found the following:   On April 30, of each year, Quicken discontinues its support for any of its versions more than 2 years old. As of April 30, 2011, Quicken will no longer support Quicken 2008,  which implies that we may have to upgrade the default in PocketSense at that time since Quicken forces financial institutions to promote Quicken upgrades by not allowing “obsolete” versions to communicate with their servers.  

I’ve observed that Moneydance is already using version 1900 (Quicken 2011), rather than version 1700 (Quicken 2008) that we’ve been using, so I’m hoping some of you will help test this prior to my requesting that Bobby incorporate this into his next version of PocketSense.

[Update 12/26/2010 - Turns out that the default Quicken version is 1800, so the change isn't so imminent.  I've manually changed the setting to 1900 in site_cfg.py and everything seems to be fine :) ]

For further clarification on appVER, see my Blogpage on the subject.

-ameridan

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