Error in Balances

[Eddietheone]

Can you point me towards where I can find the Status Option as I cannot see it.

Click on the Status column header to sort by that column (note the arrow which shows whether the sort is ascending/descending).

Sort.png

This will group all the transactions of each Status together and allow you to scroll to find any that aren't Reconciled.
Don't forget to return to sort by Date afterwards.


Alternatively, you can choose to display only the non-Reconciled transactions by filtering:

Filter.png

Thanks Martin found now. I had that column set too narrow so the word was not visible. So no wonder I couldn't see it. I do in fact scroll to check that the "R" is there when checking my reconciled status etc. Cheers Edward

[Eddietheone]

OK now to clarify hopefully I do not use any filters at all. View all transactions is selected always. I am not sorting the entries in any order at all ever.

I just enter the items as required and reconcile them when they are recorded by my bank etc. It has worked fine like that up to this year. Suddenly I was looking for odd amounts because they did not balance.

So I have now edited all the accounts so the balances of the reconciled amounts now agree with the various financial institutions and will keep a close eye on this going forward. The strange balances back in various accounts will stay as they are for now. If there is a problem it will arise again as I am not changing the way I am using the program.

Just for everyones information the account that changed the balance by 1000.00 is now right. I deleted it and re-entered it and it changed the balance by 100.00 this time. I deleted it and entered it again and it changed it by 10.00 and a final delete and re-entry changed it to what it should have been (-1.00 ) finally.

I do transfer payments from accounts to other accounts and I do wonder if that is where the issue is.

If anyone knows of anything I could be doing wrong I would appreciate any help as I do like this prog and would be dissapointed to have to bin it but it is going to be under careful scrutiny now as I feel it is suspect and I will post back here with updates. Thank you everyone for your help I am very grateful for your assistance. Cheers Edward

[MartinArmstrong]

I am not sorting the entries in any order at all ever.

The transaction list is always sorted. You click on the column header to change what it is sorted by.

As you have been advised when you had this problem before, and again this time, you need to ensure the transactions are sorted by Date.

See the arrow next to the Date in the column header and the informative text just above.

Sort.png (69.21 KiB) Viewed 7682 times

It has worked fine like that up to this year. Suddenly I was looking for odd amounts because they did not balance.

You will have accidentally clicked on a different column heading so that the transactions were sorted by something other than Date. It's exactly as happened when you reported this problem previously in June 2020. As you can see below, that time you had accidentally sorted by the Number column (see the arrow).

Edward sort.png (102.45 KiB) Viewed 7682 times

I .. will keep a close eye on this going forward.

Great. Just make sure your transactions are sorted by Date.

I am not changing the way I am using the program.

There's no need to. Just keep the transactions sorted by Date.

I do transfer payments from accounts to other accounts and I do wonder if that is where the issue is.

No. It's not that.

If anyone knows of anything I could be doing wrong I would appreciate any help

You are accidentally clicking on the header and sorting by another column and not noticing.
Keep the transactions sorted by Date.

as I do like this prog and would be disappointed to have to bin it but it is going to be under careful scrutiny now as I feel it is suspect

Honestly, MMEX is working correctly. Just make sure the transactions are sorted by Date.

I hope that's clear now.

[Eddietheone]

My first update on this saga since really really keeping an eye on things as promised.

I have archived off some old records to thin the database a bit just in case they were causing some of the errors.

All of the accounts now seem to be working as they should be (02/07/23) except for one. This account has a reconciled balance of 3339.06 at the top and an account balance of 195.60 which is not correct. The difference is shown as 3534.66 which is correct relating to the first two numbers.
The balance in the Balance column is correct at 220.17 matching my bank statement.

I have been back over the previous entries in this account and there are no typos or wrong entries that could account for this so it remains a mystery.

I am tempted to delete this account completely and then recover the entries from the deleted folder to see if it then displays correctly or not. Not sure if it is a good idea but if I do then results in the next update.

The reconciled balances etc are matching the balance columns in the other accounts as they should where entries are reconciled.
OK thats it for the moment. Cheers Edward

[MartinArmstrong]

All of the accounts now seem to be working as they should be (02/07/23) except for one. This account has a reconciled balance of 3339.06 at the top and an account balance of 195.60 which is not correct. The difference is shown as 3534.66 which is correct relating to the first two numbers.
The balance in the Balance column is correct at 220.17 matching my bank statement.

Could you please post a screenshot of the incorrect account showing the balances at the top plus a couple of transactions.

[Renato]

From my point of view, an alternative would be to rename the file mmexini.db3 to mmexini.db3x
start MMEX, select the xxx.mmb and then set up the master data again.

[MartinArmstrong]

From my point of view, an alternative would be to rename the file mmexini.db3 to mmexini.db3x
start MMEX, select the xxx.mmb and then set up the master data again.

Yes, that's a possible course of action. However, it doesn't help us get to the root of the problem, if that is within MMEX itself.

Even if @Eddietheone decides to do that, I'd appreciate first seeing a screenshot of the incorrect account showing the balances at the top plus a couple of transactions.

[Renato]

It would be even easier if we were provided with the .mmb and the .db3 file. This would surely allow us to find the error.
You can send me such files to the address mmex-reg@bluewin.ch, of course I guarantee the necessary confidentiality.

[Renato]

Question: is there a loan account, could that be the difference?

[Eddietheone]

Update no 2

Well all is now well it seems with the program. In preparation for deleting the account I mentioned in the first update I checked the deleted section and decided to clear that completely before I proceded.

I did that and returned to the account I was going to clear and lo and behold all the figures were now correct. All the odd subtractions that were wrong were gone as well. So clearly something in the deleted column was causing some effect(s) in the other columns, I wish I had scrolled through the entire deleted column before I deleted it as it might have given me a chance to see what the issue was.

So from that I conclude that there must be something in the program that allows something to happen that shouldn't happen at least in the deleted column. From memory that deleted column could not have been very long as the only things I would have deleted would have been things that didn't happen ie purchases that did not arrive for example and there were few of them. So annoyed that I did not just scroll through that list.

But on the bright side it is all now working fine. I will be watching it like a hawk from now on though and any further weird things happening I will pick them up straight away I hope. As I said before I quite like the prog and don't really want to move but I do not at this moment trust it as I should and I hope that time will repair that trust with no more weird entries and I will post back here if that happens.

Many thanks again to everyone for their imput. It is nice to know others are there to try and help with issues. Cheers Edward

[MartinArmstrong]

Note for other readers: Each time that Edward uses the word "column" in the above, he does not actually mean 'column'.

Eg:

"in the deleted column" => 'in the Deleted Transactions view'

"in the other columns" => 'in the account transaction lists'

@Eddietheone, I thought at first you were talking about columns (e.g Payee, Category, Deposit, Withdrawal ... columns), but after reading it a few times I realised that's not what you meant.


I still want to get to the bottom of what is happening, so could you say which version of MMEX you are using please? What does it say on the Version line when you click Help | About?

[Eddietheone]

Hi Renato

Thanks for the reply I am on 1.6.1.( Windows 10 ). I think there is an update that I have not downloaded yet but I will get round to it eventually. I did wonder a few posts back if I was on a slightly different page to some other remarks. Not to worry though.

I cannot get that deleted file back. I did look even though the box stated it was permanent just in case but it is gone so I do not know how I can help understanding what was going on there. I will of course when I delete anything in the future check all the accounts very carefully. Cheers Edward

[MartinArmstrong]

I am on 1.6.1.( Windows 10 ). I think there is an update that I have not downloaded yet but I will get round to it eventually.

Arrgh!

There have been three releases of MMEX since the old version you are using and there have been dozens of bug fixes made.

The current version is 1.6.4.

Please update now Edward. Click Help | Check for Updates

Updating is really quick.
Attempting to investigate problems in what turns out to be an old version of MMEX takes a lot of time.

[Eddietheone]

My latest update on the error saga. So far watching like a hawk the only errors so far are two typos which were easily corrected.

What I am now doing is the following to try and repeat the error. Mostly all the things I delete are transactions that get entered in twice by mistake.
So I have started a process of deliberatly entering things in twice and deleting one to built up a deleted list hoping that the balances in one account start to act weird like they did before.

I am doing it across all the bank accounts and the credit card accounts for about a month or so on different dates. I am not doing it in the savings accounts yet as they basically are static with just a few entries mostly interest payments. There have been one or two transfers but I do not remember any errors that were deleted. They will be included in the next series of tests if this current test shows nothing.

If anyone else is trying to replicate the error I had my system is as follows.
HP W10 laptop.
MMX is 2 bank accounts, 2 credit card accounts and three saving accounts.

[Eddietheone]

I have today tried to update my program to 1.6.4.

The first thing was I got a message from Windows telling me that the file was from an untrusted source recomending I go no further.
I ignored that as I seem to remember that from other updates.

Next after clicking on the exe file I got this message a few seconds later which I have never seen before.
Error opening file C\\progfiles\moneymanagerEX\bin\libcurldll.

Is this significant please as with my current suspicion of MMX I am reluctant to ignore messages I do not understand. I do understand this is indicating a file and its position on the drive but not why it cannot open it,

Cheers Edward

[MartinArmstrong]

Next after clicking on the exe file I got this message a few seconds later which I have never seen before.
Error opening file C\\progfiles\moneymanagerEX\bin\libcurldll.

Which .exe file are you clicking on? Or do you mean that you ran MMEX from the Start menu as normal?

libcurl.dll is a component in C:\Program Files\Money Manager EX\bin that is needed by MMEX.

I suggest you simply download again from https://moneymanagerex.org/ and re-install. Please report if you get the same problem.

The first thing was I got a message from Windows telling me that the file was from an untrusted source

This is Windows Defender being overcautious. As you did, you can ignore this message and 'Run Anyway'.

[Eddietheone]

Many thanks for the replies here. Not too sure quite how I will manage anything now as I can not now open mmx at all. Clicking the icon now just brings up a succesion of error messages when clicking ok in the error message box.

I seem to remember something like this a while back and it took me ages to get the program to run again so I will be back here again when I have got things back to normal.

I sort of got a bad feeling when that message appeared when trying to update my version. I clicked abort but something has now corrupted my excisting copy. I did tell it not to delete my excisting copy while doing the update but hey ho maybe Friday I will have some time to "have a go at fixing it" so see you all later and thanks again for all the help here.

Cheers Edward

[Eddietheone]

Just to update I have managed to restore my program OK. I have just downloaded it again and when I inslalled it everything worked as it should which is a great relief to say the least. So I shall continue with my process of checking and keeping a weather eye on it. Cheers Edward

[Eddietheone]

Update

Hi all
So far I have completed a process of entering transactions and deleting them ad hoc and nothing strange has happened to the balances and entries as it did at the start of this saga which is good news really.

But I realized I only did it on the expenses column and used whole numbers. So my plan now is to repeat the whole thing using decimals and income and expenses columns. I will update this when that is complete hopefully by year end. So far the only errors have been occasional typos ( one of .05 which took some finding, 3 & 8 look very similar with the wrong glasses on don't they)

Cheers Edward