Bank Connect

MMEX4Desktop, incl. Windows, macOS (10.10 or newer), and Most Unix variants using the GTK+ toolkit

Moderator: Renato

Post Reply
frankieorabona
Senior MMEX User
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:15 am
Are you a spam bot?: No
Location: Italia

Bank Connect

Post by frankieorabona »

I used to use Money Manager EX until a few years ago, and I was very enthusiastic about it...then unfortunately problems with the Android app forced me to abandon it.
I switched to another paid platform, which still has less functionality than MMEX... however it has functionality that I now find indispensable. The ability to link all my accounts on that APP. Virtually every transaction is recorded automatically and it saves so much time than to be there updating all the accounts manually.
I would like to understand if this functionality has been implemented in MMEX as well?
MartinArmstrong
MVP MMEX User
Posts: 300
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:24 am
Are you a spam bot?: No

Re: Bank Connect

Post by MartinArmstrong »

I would like to understand if this functionality has been implemented in MMEX as well?
MMEX does not have the capability to link directly to bank accounts.

There has been some discussion about it here https://github.com/moneymanagerex/money ... ssues/3672 but it is not an easy task to implement and is not a high priority feature compared to other work that is ongoing.

Are you aware that you can download transaction data from your bank in CSV or QIF format and import them into MMEX, which saves a lot of time compared to purely manual entry of transactions, however it is not as convenient as automatically linking to the bank account.

There is a trade-off between the greater functionality of MMEX compared to some other applications vs. specific features, such as bank account linking, that the other applications may have.
frankieorabona
Senior MMEX User
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:15 am
Are you a spam bot?: No
Location: Italia

Re: Bank Connect

Post by frankieorabona »

MartinArmstrong wrote: Wed Jan 04, 2023 8:31 am Are you aware that you can download transaction data from your bank in CSV or QIF format and import them into MMEX, which saves a lot of time compared to purely manual entry of transactions, however it is not as convenient as automatically linking to the bank account.
hmmm...very interesting. Ihave never experienced this feature. But I think not all bank accounts provide QIF or CSV files (che come immagino dovrei cercare di generare io, partendo dal file excel). For example in my bank accounts there is no possibility except precisely (only for some) downloading the excel file. I will try to ask them directly....
MartinArmstrong
MVP MMEX User
Posts: 300
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:24 am
Are you a spam bot?: No

Re: Bank Connect

Post by MartinArmstrong »

When a bank says download in Excel format, it generally means that it produces a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file, which can be opened in Excel.

Just try it and see what is in the file. Open it with Notepad or similar to view the contents.
frankieorabona
Senior MMEX User
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:15 am
Are you a spam bot?: No
Location: Italia

Re: Bank Connect

Post by frankieorabona »

it comes out as an .XLS file and not a CSV file
The structure is this:
SharedScreenshot.jpg
SharedScreenshot.jpg (112.37 KiB) Viewed 1740 times


I guess even if I wanted to reconstruct it the .CSV file must follow standards....
Also because the structure of this bank is like that... another bank puts the description after the date and then the positive and negative amounts (in one column and not with entry/exit column)
MartinArmstrong
MVP MMEX User
Posts: 300
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:24 am
Are you a spam bot?: No

Re: Bank Connect

Post by MartinArmstrong »

frankieorabona wrote: Wed Jan 04, 2023 5:09 pm it comes out as an .XLS file and not a CSV file
OK. That's not a problem. You just open the .XLS in Excel then save it as a .CSV for import into MMEX.
The structure is this:
I guess even if I wanted to reconstruct it the .CSV file must follow standards....

Don't guess. Have a play with MMEX Import. It's quite flexible as it allows you to define a template for each bank specifying the order of fields. And you can specify how many rows to skip if, like your file, there are header lines.
Import.png
Import.png (92.63 KiB) Viewed 1729 times
Also because the structure of this bank is like that... another bank puts the description after the date and then the positive and negative amounts (in one column and not with entry/exit column)
This can be handled as well. You just use the Amount field instead of Deposit and Withdrawal and specify that positive values are deposits.
frankieorabona
Senior MMEX User
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:15 am
Are you a spam bot?: No
Location: Italia

Re: Bank Connect

Post by frankieorabona »

First, thank you for your patience and punctuality in your answers.
Is there a guide that explains how to import .CSV files? (Although the screenshot is very intuitive, maybe I'm missing some small thing).
I tried but it can't import anything (it tells me 0 rows to import), always giving me errors.
MartinArmstrong
MVP MMEX User
Posts: 300
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:24 am
Are you a spam bot?: No

Re: Bank Connect

Post by MartinArmstrong »

If you are happy to send me your .XLS file then I can provide step by step guidance on the correct Import set-up for you.

I will delete the file as soon as we are done.

If you are not OK with sending the whole file, then you could delete most of rows but leave a few transactions of each type. Please leave any header rows and any rows that the bank adds after the transactions in the file.

martin
@
tactilis .co .uk
frankieorabona
Senior MMEX User
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:15 am
Are you a spam bot?: No
Location: Italia

Re: Bank Connect

Post by frankieorabona »

you've got mail...


EDIT:
Finally I was able to set it up. It was simply a decoding problem...I used to leave UTF-8, put default and now everything works!

Wonderful!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
MartinArmstrong
MVP MMEX User
Posts: 300
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:24 am
Are you a spam bot?: No

Re: Bank Connect

Post by MartinArmstrong »

frankieorabona wrote: Thu Jan 05, 2023 7:12 pm now everything works!
That's good to hear. Make sure you save the set-up for each bank account as a named template (at the top of the Import dialog) so that you can reselect it next time you do an import.

I noticed in the files you sent me that the transactions go back to 2021. I presume that once you have these imported into MMEX you will just do periodic imports (monthly, for example) for the latest transactions.

Something that I find useful to do is to set the transaction colour on the Import dialog. By doing this, you can see exactly which transactions have just been imported. Once you are happy with the transactions and you have marked them as Reconciled you can remove the colour by click/shift-click to select a range of transactions and then pressing CTRL+0.

Note that CTRL+1 to CTRL+7 are the shortcuts to set transaction colours.

Keep exploring MMEX. A lot of new features have been added or improved since you used it a few years ago.


Given that all is now working for you, I'll delete the files you sent me.
Post Reply