Error in Balances

[Eddietheone]

Hi All

I have an account I use to track my Paypal/Ebay purchases.

I transfer payments from another account to pay these items as they are due.

Today I noticed just by chance that there appear to be an error somewhere. Currently I have one item bought from ebay and is awaiting payment of 39.99.

The balance at the bottom of the transaction page is correct as it shows -39.99.

However my reconciled balance is 53.97 and the difference is -93.96.
I have been back through the account and there are no missed items that have not been reconciled or any other errors I can see.

The other accounts all are working correctly with the various balences as they should be so can anyone shed any light on what the error is please?

Cheers Edward

[Renato]

Probably there are one or more transactions that are not verified.
I sort the transactions by clicking on Status and find the transaction more easily.
Another possibility would be that there are transactions in the future. Is the display option set ?

[MartinArmstrong]

By "Is the display option set", Renato means this View menu setting, which is also available under Options:

Future 1.png (113.63 KiB) Viewed 7158 times

Future 2.png (110.65 KiB) Viewed 7158 times

[Eddietheone]

Probably there are one or more transactions that are not verified.
I sort the transactions by clicking on Status and find the transaction more easily.
Another possibility would be that there are transactions in the future. Is the display option set ?

Thanks for your reply. I checked everything is reconciled except for the one item yet to be paid. I assume you mean reconciled for verified.
Can you point me towards where I can find the Status Option as I cannot see it.

Cheers Edward

[Eddietheone]

By "Is the display option set", Renato means this View menu setting, which is also available under Options:

Future 1.png


Future 2.png

Thanks for your reply and the very clear graphics.

I have checked this option but it made no difference at all.

Cheers Edward

[Eddietheone]

Hi again OK there seems to be a fundamental flaw in this entire program.

After playing around with the program and trying to find out what is wrong I discovered the following in another one of the accounts

Withdrawal Deposit Balance

Gift 110.00 210.35
Gift 40.00 170.35
Gift 1.00 1170.35

So a 1.00 test transfer that I sent from my bank to a new account just to check it was all good gave me a balance of 1170.35 instead of 169.35.
It looks like it just added the 1.00 in front of the 170.35 and made it 1,000 more than it should have.

I have uncovered more of these errors so the program is completely unreliable and explains why I have been getting conflicting balances in various accounts this year, basically it cannot add or subtract properly. It is all over the place. another balance of 233.73 with 55.00 added to it is displayed as 258.73 instead of 288.73 so 30.00 disapeared. Another balance of 203.73 with 95.00 deducted from it became 1631.35.

So I guess it looks like I need to find a program that actually works properly now unless someone knows what is going on here. Cheers Edward

[Eddietheone]

Sorry I carefully spaced the example out but posting it ignored my spacing but you can see it.

[MartinArmstrong]

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 (112.25 KiB) Viewed 7158 times

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 (186.16 KiB) Viewed 7158 times

[Renato]

You have had the same problem before:
viewtopic.php?p=20241#p20241

[MartinArmstrong]

Don't forget to return to sort by Date afterwards.

So what column did you have the transactions sorted by?

As Renato has pointed out, you've been around this loop before.

Always sort the transactions by Date. It's exactly like your bank statement which is sorted by Date. That's the only way that the Balance figures will appear correct. If you sort the transactions out of order (or hide some of them by filtering), then it's obvious that adjacent balance figures cannot follow the additions/subtractions of the deposit/withdrawal amount in the out of order transactions.

[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 7691 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 7691 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