microsoft money user guide

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Microsoft®

Managing your finances with Microsoft Money (UK Edition)

PUBLISHED BYMicrosoft CorporationOne Microsoft WayRedmond, Washington 98052-6399

The example companies, organisations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein arefictitious. No association with any real company, organisation, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, place, or event isintended or should be inferred.

© 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.Microsoft, MSN, the MSN logo, Windows, and the Windows logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporationin the United States and/or other countries.

Intuit® and Quicken® are registered trademarks and/or registered service marks of Intuit, Inc., or one of its subsidiaries, in the UnitedStates and in other countries.

To find out more about howMoney has online (Internet

based) and offline (diskbased) features ...

see page 11

“Generatereports to learn

more about yourfinances ..."

see page 20

! Getting started with Microsoft Money 9

Exploring Money ......................................................................................... 10Browsing the Internet Within Money ......................................................... 12Essential and Advanced Modes in Money ................................................... 13Installing Money ......................................................................................... 14Protect Your Money File .............................................................................. 15Helping You Get Started With Money ......................................................... 16Creating a Bank Account in Money ............................................................. 18Managing Your Bills With Money's Help .................................................... 19Generating Reports to Learn More About Your Finances ............................ 20Money’s Other Key Features ........................................................................ 21Where to Get Help in Money ...................................................................... 23Backing up Your Money files ....................................................................... 24Restoring Your Money File From a Backup .................................................. 25

Contents

CONTENTS 3

Part A

4 MANAGING YOUR FINANCES WITH MONEY

How do I open a Money filefrom a previous version?

see page 32

“How do I trackthe money

coming in andthe moneygoing out ?"

see page 44

@ Learning more about Money 29Being Prepared! ............................................................................................ 30Opening a Money File From a Previous Version .......................................... 32Creating and Saving a Money File ............................................................... 33Converting a Quicken File to Use in Money ................................................ 34How Quicken Elements Convert In Money ................................................. 36Money’s Account Register ........................................................................... 38Getting Comfortable With the Account Register ........................................ 40Setting Up a Credit Card Account in Money ............................................... 42Tracking Your Finances with Money Categories ......................................... 44Categorising Your Income and Expenses .................................................... 46Protecting Your Money File ......................................................................... 48Reconciling Your Money Accounts .............................................................. 50Archiving Your Money File .......................................................................... 52

# Day-to-Day Tasks With Money 55Using Money to Record Deposits ................................................................. 56Transferring Money Between Accounts ........................................................ 57Create Recurring Transactions ..................................................................... 58Paying Recurring Bills .................................................................................. 59Using the Payslip Wizard ............................................................................. 60

$ Using Money to Explore Internet Financial Services 63Using Money with the Internet ................................................................... 64Configuring Money to Connect to the Internet ......................................... 66Setting Up Your Money Accounts to Use Online ......................................... 67Background Banking with Money ............................................................... 68Downloading a Bank Statement to Money From Your Bank's Web Site ..... 69Online Updates & Favourites ........................................................................ 71

ContentsPart B

How do I set up Money to useit online with my bank?

see page 67

% Generating Financial Reports 73Money Reports Explained............................................................................. 74Finding Your Way Around the Reports Home Page ...................................... 76Generating Reports to Learn More About Your Finances ............................. 77Changing the Look of Your Reports ............................................................. 78Printing and Formatting Reports ................................................................ 80Your Monthly Report ................................................................................... 82Adding a Report to the Favourites List ........................................................ 83

^ Financial Planning With Money's Help 85Creating a Money Budget That’s Right for You ........................................... 86Creating a New Budget ................................................................................. 87The Budget Summary Home Page ............................................................... 88Maintaining Your Cash Flow ...................................................................... 89Using the Lifetime Planner .......................................................................... 90Reducing Your Debt Using The Debt Reduction Planner ............................ 92Taking Control With the Credit Centre ...................................................... 94Managing Your Taxes ................................................................................... 95Making a Will with Money’s Help ............................................................... 96Creating an Inventory ................................................................................. 98

& Helping you Save and Invest 101The Investing Tools ..................................................................................... 102Creating Investment Accounts and Adding Investments .......................... 104Tracking Your Investments in Money ........................................................ 106Updating Your Share Prices ........................................................................ 107Linking Money to MSN Money .................................................................. 108Accessing the Enhanced Portfolio Manager on MSN Money .................... 109Your Savings Centre .................................................................................... 110Tracking a Savings Plan ............................................................................... 112Choosing a Savings Plan ............................................................................. 113Estimating the Value of a Savings Plan ....................................................... 114

Index 117

CONTENTS 5

Which mode, Essential orAdvanced, is best for me in

the Reports centre?see page 74

“...let theMoney Budgetassistant help

you create abudget that’sright for your

needs ..."see page 86

Important Records -- Needto know where to find them?

Let Money help ...see page 99

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IN THIS SECTION

Exploring Money

Installing Money

Protect Your Money File

Helping You Get Startedin Money

Creating a Bank Accountin Money

Managing Your Billswith Money's Help

Generating Reports toLearn More About YourFinances

Money’s Other KeyFeatures

Where to Get Helpin Money

Backing up YourMoney Files

Restoring Your MoneyFile From a Backup

GettingStartedWithMoney

icrosoft Money is a Personal Finance Manager (PFM)that helps you track and manage all of your personal

finances. Whether it's your bank accounts, mortgage,investments or transactions involving your house and car,Money can help you manage the finances for them andmuch more.

You can use Money to plan your bills, manage your cashflow and produce reports so you can see where your money iscoming from and going to. In addition, Money has a numberof planner tools to help you plan a strategy to get out of debt,budget for the future and forecast your long-termfinancial plan.

Finally, Microsoft Money can not only download the latestinvestment and currency information from MSN Money, theprogram is also closely integrated with MSN Money so you canfind that financial service you're after such as a mortgage,credit card or insurance.

MSN Money also provides within Money a variety offinancial tools and calculators, such as calculating stamp dutyor planning a wedding. Note that to take advantage of thefeatures in MSN Money, your computer will need to connectto the Internet. Please note that the availability of some onlinefeatures is governed by the Internet Based Services Policy.Full details of which can be found at:

http://money.msn.com/Money/2005/GBR/IBSP.asp

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GETTING STARTED USER GUIDE 9


Exploring Money

This top navigation bar contains links to Money centres. Click a link to acentre and related links will be displayed in the navigation bar below.

The links in this lower navigation bar are related to the item selected in the upper navigation bar.When you click a different option in the top bar, the links in this lower navigation bar will change to suit.Clicking a number of the links will also open a drop-down menu with options for the selected centre.

Click this button todisplay Money’s help.

Money’s Help menu contains many useful links toinformation to help you get more from Money.

Internet address box. Use this box to enter the address for a Web page.

Click to see the optionsfor Online updates.

Click to display a dialog forcustomising the button bar.

Click Back to replace thecurrent page with thelocation last viewed.

The Left pane in eachcentre contains links tofeatures for that centre.


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Offline and Online FeaturesThe features within Money centres can be divided intothree categories, those that are offline (on your PC),those that are online (on MSN Money) or a combinationof both.

Take the navigation bar pictured below for example.This has links to centres such as Accounts, Bills, Reportsand Budget where you will find further links to offlinefeatures stored within the program on your computer.

There are, however, other centres like My Money,Banking, Mortgages, Insurance and Students that arefully Online centres and will require you to have anInternet connection to take advantage of the featuresthey provide. Selecting these centres whilst offline (notconnected to the Internet) will display a page that givesyou a description of what you will find within that centreshould you want to go online.

Finally, Money also has centres that contain bothonline and offline features. Centres such as Home,Investing and Planning for example.

This navigation bar has links to centres in Money which canbe online, offline or a combination of the two. The link tothe reports centre here does not require you to be online.


Browsing the InternetWithin Money

Money also lets you browse the Web. Simply go onlinewith Money and it will display the Web page withinMoney or if preferred, in an external browser. See ‘Tools/Settings/Browser settings’ to select the preferred browser.

By using Money as your Web browser, it’s easy tomove between features in Money and the Internet. MSNMoney on the Internet for example, has financial plan-ning tools as well as the latest news, calculators, articles,best buys and lots more. If you're viewing a Web site(such as MSN Money) using Money and you want to lookat something else in Money, like your investments, sim-ply select the place in Money and it will replace the Webpage onscreen.

Then, to return to the Web, click the Back button inthe upper-left of the screen to return to the page you lastvisited. Going to a Web page for which there is not a linkin Money is also easy to do using the Internet addressbox. Simply enter the address (URL) of the Web site andclick the Go button . You can now browse the Web sitewithin Money.

Click Back to replace the current page with the location last viewed.

Click Forward to replace the current Web page with the Web page orMoney location that follows in the order they were originally viewed.

Enter the address (URL) of the Website to display it within Money.

Click to display the Web site listedin the box to the left.

Clicking this halts the download ofthe current Web page.

Clicking this button refreshes thecurrent Web page.

The Web page is displayed withinMoney’s normal work place.



Essential and AdvancedModes in Money

Some of the features in Microsoft Money have twomodes. These are:

◆ EssentialEssentialEssentialEssentialEssential: This mode provides a simplified set offunctions for a selected feature. This is ideal for thosestarting out with Money or for those who do not re-quire full functionality.

◆ AAAAAdvdvdvdvdvanced:anced:anced:anced:anced: This mode provides a more advancedlevel of functionality for a selected feature making itsuitable for experienced users who want to get themost from Money’s powerful features.

You will see these modes in the Reports and Budgetcentres as well as an Account Register. With the Reportsand Budget centres, if this is the first time you have usedthem, the default mode will be Essential. With anAccount Register, the default mode for 2-way (back-ground) online banking is Essential. For 1-way (Web)online banking or accounts that are administered offline,Money will operate in Advanced mode.

Switching ModesTo switch between the settings, do the following:

◆ BudgeBudgeBudgeBudgeBudgettttt::::: Go to the ‘Budget Planner’ in the Planningcentre and in the left pane, choose the ‘ChangeBudget Settings’ option. An option for choosingwhich mode you want to work in is also availablewithin the Budget assistant (wizard).

◆ RRRRReporeporeporeporeports:ts:ts:ts:ts: Go to the Reports home page and in the leftpane, choose the ‘Change Report Settings’ option.

◆ AAAAAccounts:ccounts:ccounts:ccounts:ccounts: Display the account register and in the leftpane, click ‘Change Account Settings’ and on the pagethat is displayed under the heading ‘Register Detail’,is a link for switching between modes. Note: Essentialrelies on all information being automatically providedby your bank, so this mode is only available withbanks that offer 2-way background banking.

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InstallingMoneyGetting started with Moneyis easy when you followthe simple installationinstructions.

Installation

! Insert the Microsoft MoneyCD into your computer’sCD-ROM drive.

@ The ‘Welcome to MoneySetup’ wizard appearsonscreen.

# If you want to change wherethe files will be stored onyour computer, there is anoption on the bottom leftof your screen.

$ When you are ready tocontinue, read the End UserLicense and if you agree withthe conditions, click‘I Accept’.

% The files will now beinstalled. When the Setupwizard is finished, a newscreen will appear. ClickFinish and the set up wizardwill close.

^ You can now start Money forthe first time and begin toset up your accounts.

Upgrading? If you areupgrading from a previousversion which is currentlyinstalled on the samecomputer, during theinstallation a prompt willappear onscreen asking ifyou want to remove thatversion. If you click Yes, theolder version of theMoney software will beremoved but the data filecontaining your financialinformation will remain onthe computer's hard disk. Ifyou click No, the olderversion will be left on thecomputer and the newversion installed. Please notethat the older version ofMoney will not be able toopen the Money file fromthe later version.

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Protect Your Money File

You can help make your Money file more secure byprotecting it with a Microsoft .NET Passport or apassword. When you start Money for the first time,consider these options carefully and also be sure that ifyou add a Passport or Password, that you keep a record ofthem in a safe place because if you misplace your Moneyfile password or Passport password, you could lose accessto all the data in your Money file.

Once Money has created or upgraded your Moneyfile, you will be asked how you want to protect it usingeither a Passport or Password. Note that if you chooseneither, then the information in your Money file is lesssecure but you can protect your file later using the ‘Pass-word Manager’ option on the File menu in Money.

Microsoft .Net PassportsIf you choose to use a Passport to protect your Moneyfile, you will also be able to take advantage of additionalservices, such as the synchronisation of your investmentaccounts to MSN Money.

A Passport is also more forgiving than a Passwordshould you forget what that Passport’s password is. Sim-ply go to the .NET Passport Web site and follow theprompts which will try to help you remember it. Thisoption is not available for Password protected files.

The first time you log in using a Passport, you mustbe connected to the Internet (online). After this firststep, you can sign in to Money without being onlinealthough do remember that some features within Moneywill not be available if you are not connected to theInternet.

Choosing How You Sign into MoneyIf at any time you want to change how you sign in toMoney, you can by opening the File menu and selectingthe ‘Password Manager’ option. This displays a wizardwhich will help you either set up a new Passport, use anexisting Passport, assist you if you forget your Passport’spassword or create a new Password. Simply read the texton-screen, choose the option you feel best suits you andfollow the prompts.

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Helping You Get StartedWith Money

Upon starting Money for the first time, you will beguided through a series of steps to perform twomain tasks:

i PrPrPrPrProooootecting ytecting ytecting ytecting ytecting your Moneour Moneour Moneour Moneour Money Fy Fy Fy Fy File:ile:ile:ile:ile: First you will be askedhow you want to protect your Money file by selectinga method of signing in to Money. The options are aMicrosoft .NET Passport, Password or no method ofsigning in (ie, no protection for that Money file).

ii SeSeSeSeSetting up ytting up ytting up ytting up ytting up your main accounts and bills:our main accounts and bills:our main accounts and bills:our main accounts and bills:our main accounts and bills: TheMoney assistant is a wizard that helps you get up andrunning quickly and easily by asking you about yourmain bank accounts and giving you the option ofsetting up some bills. To save time, please don’t tryand enter all your accounts and bills here – just themain ones you use all the time. Other accounts canbe added later.

Upgrading? When you are upgrading from a previous version ofMoney, and your file is protected by a Passport or Pass-word, you will be asked to enter one of these during thesteps required to convert the Money file for use with thecurrent version of Money.

Setting up Accounts and Bills Before starting Money for the first time, if you have anInternet connection please connect to the Internet soMoney can automatically download information it re-quires during the setting up process.

When you create an account for example, Moneyneeds to go online to download the latest list of banksthat support Money. If you are online, this will happenautomatically.

If you are offline however, you will be asked to either'Connect to the Internet' or 'Stay Offline'. If you goonline and choose 'Connect to the Internet', the list ofbanks will be downloaded and displayed in Money.


If you instead choose to 'Stay offline', you cancontinue without choosing a bank name. To set up youraccounts and bills in Money, follow the prompts on yourscreen and when finished, click the Next button toproceed to the following page. For example, to beginwith, you will be asked what type of account you want tocreate.

Click a radio button for the type of account requiredand click Next to continue. To return to a previous stepto change a selection made, click the Previous buttonwhere available.

Once you have finished setting up the first account,you will come to the Congratulations screen where youcan choose to perform other tasks such as create anotheraccount, create bills or set up a budget. When you'reready, click the Finish button to close the MoneyAssistant and display the Money Home page.

Note: You will also see the Money Assistant whenyou create a new Money file (File menu, New, NewFile option).


Tips for Getting up and RunningIf you are new to Money, try this strategy to getacquainted with your new personal finance manager:

1. Install Money.

2. After starting Money for the first time, enter detailsfor one or two of your main banks and perhaps oneor two credit card accounts.

3. Click Finish to display the Money Home page anddisplay the account register for the accounts createdso far. To do this, click Account List in the Left paneand then click the name of the account.

4. You can now update the account from an onlineor paper based bank statement.

5. Where you can see regular bills in an accountregister, right-click on one and then choose the‘Make Recurring’ option.

6. Now start exploring Money by going to the variouscentres. Click the ‘More’ button for the Account Listin the Left pane and from the menu, click‘Categories and Payees’ or click ‘Reports’ on theupper navigation bar to display the Reports centre.

7. Once you have explored the features in Money,try adding more accounts.

8. Finally, plan for the future by going to thePlanning centre.

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Creatinga BankAccountin MoneyMoney lets you create manydifferent types of accountsto help you manage yourpersonal finances. In thistutorial, you will see howquick and easy it is to createan account.

Creating a bankaccount

! Start by connecting to theInternet if your computeris not already online. Moneywill need to go online(Internet) to download thelatest list of UK banksand the services thatthey support.

@ Open the File menu and clickthe ‘New Account’ option onthe New submenu.

# For this tutorial, ensure theBanking radio button isselected (by clicking it) andthen click Next.

$ Money will now go onlineto download a list of banks.When Money has displayedthe list, click the name ofyour bank and thenclick Next.

% If your bank name is notlisted, choose the 'Myfinancial institution isn'tlisted' link and thenclick Next.

^ The steps from hereon willvary depending on the optionselected above. Follow theprompts on-screen tocomplete this tutorial.

Editing the bank details.Click the Account Listheading (left pane) and onthe page that is displayed,click the name of theaccount. The AccountRegister is displayed. Goto the left pane and click the‘Change Account Settings’details link and on the pagethat appears, you canchange the accountnumbers, account type andmuch more.

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ManagingYour BillsWithMoney'sHelpDo you have a bill to enterbut are not sure where toenter it? One off bills canbe entered in an accountregister and for recurringbills, there is the ‘BillsSummary’ page in Money.

Entering one-off bills

! Go to the Money Home pageand click the Account Listheading in the left pane. Inthe list displayed, click thename of the account the billis to be added to.

@ Click the ‘Withdrawal tab’.If this tab is not visible, tickthe ‘Show Transaction Forms’check box by clicking it.

# In the ‘Pay to’ box, enter thename of the person/businessyou are paying.

$ Now continue enteringdetails in the other boxes.For example, if it is a cheque,enter the cheque number intothe ‘Number’ box.

% To help you can keep track ofyour spending using Moneyreports, select a category andif appropriate, subcategoryfor the bill.

^ If this is a recurring bill, youcan mark it as such by tick-ing the ‘Make recurring’ checkbox. The ‘Create a recurringbill’ page will be displayedafter you click the Enterbutton.

Recurring Bills To tellMoney a bill is a recurringone, right-click it and choose'Make Recurring'. This willtake you to the ‘Create arecurring bill’ page withmost of the details alreadyentered for you. You can alsoadd recurring bills by goingto the ‘Bills Summary’ Homepage by clicking the ‘Paybills’ heading in the Leftpane of an account register.Enter details of recurringbills by clicking the ‘New’button and selecting theBill option from thepop-up menu.

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GeneratingReports toLearn MoreAbout YourFinancesMoney's reports let you tocheck the health of yourfinances. You can view mostinformation as a report orchart and then print, exportor email it. You can alsocustomise reports to viewthe information that mostinterests you. For example,you can generate a reportshowing the balances of allyour accounts, or you cancustomise it to only showthe balance on selectedMoney accounts.

Generating a report

! Click Reports on the uppernavigation bar to display theReports centre.

@ On the Reports home page,click the type of report youwant to generate. The report/chart will be displayed.

# To select the date range forthe contents of the report,click the ‘Date Range’ drop-down list and select from aseries of predefined periodsor create a custom one.Note: this option is notavailable for all reports.

$ To change the type of chartused for the report, go to theleft pane and click the‘Change view’ option andfrom the submenu, selectthe type of chart you require.

% In ‘Advanced’ mode for Re-ports, you can change thelook of the report and thecontent included within it,by selecting the ‘Customise’option in the left pane. Note:To switch to the Advancedmode, go to the ReportsHome page and click ‘Changereport settings’ in the leftpane. Follow the promptson-screen.

Exporting Reports. Toexport a report so that theinformation can be used inMicrosoft Excel, display thereport and click the Exportto Microsoft Excel link in theleft pane. Give the file aname, click OK and the filewill be opened in MicrosoftExcel (if available).

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Money's Other KeyFeatures

Money has many key features and over the next twopages are details on three functions that are worth ex-ploring to help you learn more about how you can makeMoney work for you.

Whether it’s planning a debt reduction strategy orgetting the latest financial information about the pen-sion you need for later in life, Money has the right toolsto help you get more from your money.

Using Money to Help Manage YourDebts and Plan for a LifetimeAheadPlanning your financial future may sound complicatedbut Money makes it easy thanks to its planning features.Whether it’s creating a budget, forecasting your cashflow, or creating a plan to reduce your debt, Money hasmany features to help you.

To explore these features, click the Planning link onthe navigation bar pictured on the right and then selectthe related options you require on the navigation barbelow it.

Click ‘Planning Tools’ for example and the drop-down menu contains links to a number of tools such asthe Lifetime Planner, Debt Reduction Planner, FinancialEvent Modeller, Credit Centre, Savings Centre and theWill Maker Worksheet.

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Click Planning and then take a look atthe many features for that centre tolearn more about how Money can helpyou manage your money both now andin the future.

The lower navigation bar for the Planning centre containsa drop-down menu with links to powerful features like theLifetime Planner and Debt Reduction Planner.

Managing Your Investments WithMSN MoneyMaking your money work for you has never been easierthanks to Money and its integration with the online UKMSN Money.

With investing tools that not only help you learnhow to get more from your money but also let you trackinvestments, managing your investments with Moneyhas never been easier. To explore these features further,click the ‘Investing’ link on the navigation bar.

Go Online for the Latest MoneyUpdates and InformationSearching for a mortgage or credit card? Or perhaps youwant to update Money with the latest financial informa-tion available from banks and other financial institu-tions. Money brings you the latest MSN Money toolsthat will help you learn more about Pensions, Mort-gages, Company Cars, Tax and much more.

To explore these financial tools, ensure yourcomputer is connected to the Internet and click therequired link such as Mortgages in the upper navigationbar. Now explore how these features can help you nowand inthe future.



Where to Get Help inMoney

The help in Money is provided in two ways, online(Internet) and program based (offline). By having thehelp Internet based (online), Microsoft is able to providethe most complete, up-to-date help information for thisversion of Money.

Online HelpThe majority of help files for Money are now online.To view these, connect to the Internet if you are notalready online and click the ‘Show Help Pane’ button onthe Money desktop or open the ‘Help’ menu and clickthe ‘Microsoft Money Help’ option. The help topics willbe displayed in a separate pane to Money. Please notethat there may be a small delay as the list of topics isdisplayed depending on the speed of your Internetconnection.

Offline HelpThere are a small number of offline help articles to helpyou get started. While offline, to display this help, clickthe ‘Show Help Pane’ button on the Money desktop oropen the Help menu and click the ‘Microsoft MoneyHelp’ option. The help topics will be displayed in aseparate window to Money.

Money SupportYou can find additional help by visiting the MSN MoneyWeb site where you will find information relevant toMoney users like details about the services offered by UKbanks and articles to help you get the most out ofMoney. To learn more, go to the 'My Money' centre andthen select 'Microsoft Money'.

To visit the Money Support Centre where you canfind technical articles and support information, openthe Help menu and click the ‘Money Online Support’option. Note: You will need to be connected to theInternet to do this.

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A RECOMMENDED BACKUP STRATEGYOption Description

Daily Back up daily to your computer’s harddisk. This creates a file with theextension ’.mbf’.

Weekly/Monthly Back up to an external media. Swapbetween at least two disks, CD’s ortapes and keep one of them off-site.Partially verify the file by copying itto your hard disk.

Quarterly Copy the Money file ('.mny') toexternal media. To verify, copy it backfrom that external media to anotherpart of your hard disk and double-clickit to open it into Money.

Backing UpYour MoneyFilesYou now know how long ittakes to enter your financialdetails, so why risk losingthem when all you have todo is back up your data regu-larly? Don’t wait, back upnow and play safe in caseyour Money file is affectedby viruses, fire, theft orhardware faults.

You should have mul-tiple backups on removablestorage (such as CD or floppydisk), ideally held at anotherlocation.

Backing up to floppydisk

! Open the File menu andclick ‘Back Up’. The Backupdialogue appears.

@ Ensure the ‘Back up to floppydisk’ radio button is selected.

# Place a blank floppy disk inyour computer’s floppydisk drive.

$ Click OK. The ‘Back Up toFloppy disk’ dialogue ap-pears. Click ‘Back Up Now’.

% Money will now compressyour Money file and save itto one or more floppy disks.This creates a file with theextension ‘.mbf’.

^ It is recommended that yourepeat this process to a sec-ond floppy disk (or otherremoveable type of media)and place the second backupin a new location away fromyour computer.

File too big for a floppydisk? If your file is too bigfor floppy disk, then clickthe ‘Backup to hard disk’option in step 2 and select aremovable external storagedevice such as a USB cardreader or hard disk. If youhave a CD Writer, you canalso copy ‘.mbf’ back up filesto a CD for safe keeping.

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RestoringYour MoneyFile From aBackupIf you accidentally deleteyour Money file or your filebecomes corrupt, you canuse the ‘Restore Backup’function to get up and run-ning again.

Please note that youshould only restore a backupmade with the same versionof Money.

Restore from a backup

! Open the File menu andclick ‘Restore Backup’.

@ Click the ‘Restore frombackup’ radio button.

# Then click Next.

$ You now have three options.Click the appropriate radiobutton and click Restore.

% If you selected to restorefrom the default backup(the file you last backed up),a dialogue will appear for youto choose a location andname for your new file. ClickRestore and the file will becreated and opened inMoney.

^ If you asked Money to searchyour hard drive, it will locatethe appropriate files andthen present a list of filesyou can restore from. Pleasenote that this may take awhile depending on the num-ber and size of hard drives onyour computer. If however,you select the ‘Let me browsefor a different backup file’option, Money will displaya dialog for you choose thefile. To finish the task,choose the location andfilename and click Restore.

What happens when yourestore? When you use theRestore function you arecopying and converting abackup file (‘.mbf’) to aMoney file (‘.mny’).

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IN THIS SECTION

Being Prepared!

Opening a Money File

Creating and Saving aMoney File

Convert a Quicken File

How Quicken ElementsConvert in Money

The Account Register

Setting Up a Credit CardAccount

Tracking Your FinancesWith Categories

Categorising YourIncome and Expenses

Protecting YourMoney File

Reconciling Your MoneyAccounts

Archiving YourMoney File

Learningmore aboutMoney

ow that you are up and running with Money,in this part of the Money User Guide you can

learn even more about the powerful features that will helpyou manage your personal finances. In this chapter, youcan learn about creating and saving a Money file, how touse the Account Register, tracking your finances using‘categories’ and much more. Money is available in twopackages ...

◆ Money: Money lets you define and work towardsfinancial priorities from your Home page. Some ofthe key features include tracking your bank accounts,the Reports centre where you can see where yourmoney is coming from and where it is going and theCredit Centre.

◆ Financial Suite: The Financial Suite contains all thegreat features in the standard version of Money butalso comes with a printed User Guide (this manual)and Digita TaxSaver 2004. TaxSaver 2004 helps youcalculate and file your tax return for the 2003/2004tax year based on details from Microsoft Money plusany other information you enter.

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LEARNING MORE ABOUT MONEY 29

Being Prepared!

When you sit down to start working with Money on aday-to-day basis, it may appear to be a daunting taskhaving to remember all the documents you’re likely toneed, as well as any possible problems that may lay aheadin getting everything to balance. But with Money it’squite easy and only needs to be done once! Here are sometips to help get you started with Money.

DocumentsRemember... having all the information you need closeat hand may seem like a lot of work, but if you spend alittle time now, it will save a lot of time later! Start byputting all your bills, receipts and other papers in traysnear your computer where you use Money. Some of thedocuments you will need are:

◆ Cheque books, debit card and cash withdrawal slips.These are important so that you know what with-drawals (cheques and so on) have not been accountedfor in the starting balances for the accounts inMoney.

◆ The last two or three statements for each account thatyou want to set up and keep track of in Money.

◆ Deposit details. Statements, paying-in book, bankpaying-in slips and other documents listing deposits.

◆ Details of your bills such as your mortgage, loans andso on. The dates when they come out of your accountif on standing order or direct debit.

◆ Investments. For these, you will need details of buys,sells, dividends and share splits.

◆ Payslip details. If you want to track the different partsof your payslip (Gross pay, Tax paid, National Insur-ance deducted, and so on), you should also have yourlatest payslip(s) to hand.

◆ Loans. For entering details about loans, you will needLoan Agreements.

Opening Date and BalancesWhen you create an account in Money, you will needto enter an opening balance. Here are some tips:

◆ Base the amount on either the opening balance ofthe account when it was first opened, or the openingbalance of a previous statement.

◆ Enter all transactions (deposits, bills, transfers andso on) from that date onwards so that your Moneyaccounts will balance with your statements.

◆ When entering details of your accounts, check backto see which bills you have paid that have not yetcome out of your account. For example cheques,direct debits that have recently been set up but notstarted, payments on debit cards that have also notyet been debited and so on.


Choosing a DateHow far back in time the date is will depend on a numberof things. A popular choice for those using Money is tostart with a statement from two to three months ago.Here are some other points in brief:

◆ How much time do you have to enter the informa-tion? The more transactions an account has, thelonger it will take.

◆ Try and have all your bank accounts in Money startfrom approximately the same date. This is especiallyimportant if you transfer funds between accounts.

◆ As a guide, try to leave it two or three working daysafter using a debit card/cheque so transactions notincluded in your starting balance are kept to a mini-mum.

Something else to consider when choosing your openingdate for an account in Money is the statement downloadservice offered by your bank.

If the bank insists on including the transactions forthe last 90 days, but you only started entering transac-tions 30 days ago, Money will add the excess transactions(60 days) and adjust your opening balance appropriately.So choose a date that matches the period of yourdownloadable bank statement.

Tracking Your FinancesAfter entering information from your last two or threestatements, go to the Reports centre and confirm that thePayee names, Categories and Subcategories that you haveused are sufficient to give you the right level of feedbackabout your finances.

To track and budget bills efficiently, ensure you cat-egorise related bills.

Credit Card AccountsWhen creating credit card accounts, it's generally betterto start with the opening balance of the statement that isrelated to your recently opened (in Money) bank ac-count.

For example, if the opening date of your bankaccount in Money is the 1st April, and from that accountis a payment going to the credit card company on the 5thApril for a statement received on the 24th March, thenyour credit card account in Money needs to be basedupon that 24th March statement.

You would then ensure that the opening balance ofthe credit account in Money balances with the openingbalance for the credit card's statement and then enter allcredits and debits from that point onwards.


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Opening aMoney FileFrom aPreviousVersionOpening a Money file froma previous version is easywhen you follow thesesimple instructions. Do notehowever, that you can onlyhave one Money file open atany one time.

Open Money files

! Open the File menu and clickOpen to display the ‘OpenFile’ dialogue box. Note:The look of this type ofdialogue box can vary de-pending on the version ofWindows you are using.

@ Click the file you want toopen in the dialogue boxso it is highlighted andclick Open.

# A screen appears with infor-mation about converting yourMoney file. Read the informa-tion and click Next.

$ The file will now beconverted.

% When you have finishedanswering the questions,a Congratulations screen willappear. From here you canchoose to set up otheraccounts, enter details ofsome bills or click Finishto display the MoneyHome page.

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Protected Files If the fileis protected with aMicrosoft.NET Passport orPassword, you will need toenter these prior to the filebeing converted.

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Creating and savinga new Money file

! Open the File menu andselect ‘New File’ from theNew submenu. The ‘CreateNew Microsoft Money File’dialogue is displayed.

@ Type a name for the file inthe ‘File name’ box.

# Click OK to close the dialogueand have Money create a newmoney file for you. Yourcurrent file will be saved.

$ The Money Setup Assistantappears. Click Next.

% Select an item from theoptions presented onscreenfor protecting yourMoney file.

^ Continue to follow theprompts on-screen whichwill help you to set up anaccount. Please note thatMoney will need to connectto the Internet to downloada list of banks and theservices they offer withMoney.

& After setting up the first ac-count, you will come to theCongratulations page. Fromhere you can choose to setup other accounts, enterdetails of some bills or clickFinish to display the MoneyHome page.

Creatingand Savinga Money FileIf you need to create a newMoney file, you can bysimply following thestep-by-step instructionson this page.

Linking accounts. If youneed to link accounts such asthose for you and yourspouse, then the accountsneed to be in the same file.

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New Files. You do not needto create a new file to create anew account. New Moneyfiles however are useful forkeeping your different typesof accounts separate, or forcreating files for yourchildren or a charity youhelp to run. You can also usea new file to experiment withvarious Money tools withoutit affecting your accounts.

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Convertinga QuickenFile to Usein MoneyConverting your Quickenfile (Quicken 98 and later)to a Money file is asimple process.

Important: your Quickenfiles will remain unchangedby the conversion process.

Converting Quickenfiles to use in Money

! Open the File menu and click‘Convert Quicken File’. TheConvert Quicken File dialogueis opened. Note: The look ofthis type of dialogue canvary depending on theversion of Windows youare using.

@ Click the Quicken file youwant to convert so it ishighlighted.

# Click Convert. Money savesyour current file and thendisplays a screen withinformation about theconversion.

$ Click Next to display theConverter wizard for Quicken.

% Follow the instructions,taking time to read eachscreen carefully. Click Next toproceed to the next screen.

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^ After the conversion,a Summary dialogue box isdisplayed. Read it and if youwant to save the information,click ‘Save Summary’.

& To continue with the conver-sion process, click Finish toclose this dialogue.

* You will next be asked howyou want to protect yourMoney file. Read theinformation on-screen andselect the appropriateoptions.

( When you have finishedanswering the questions,a Congratulations screenwill appear. From here youcan choose to set up otheraccounts, enter details ofsome bills or click Finishto display the MoneyHome page.

Differences in accountbalances? If you change anaccount in Quicken, andthen import the file intoMoney before Quickenrecalculates the accountvalue, the Money andQuicken balances may differ.If you want to confirmMoney’s balance, openQuicken and then theregister for the account inquestion. Now update theaccount balance. Thebalances in Money andQuicken should match.

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How Quicken ElementsConvert In Money

THE QUICKEN CONVERSION IN DETAILQuicQuicQuicQuicQuickkkkken Elementen Elementen Elementen Elementen Element HoHoHoHoHow it conw it conw it conw it conw it convvvvvererererertststststs

Categories Unlike Quicken, Money only supports one level of subcategories. If you have a transaction categorised in Quicken as‘Recreation:Camping:Equipment’, after conversion it will be categorised in Money as ‘Recreation:Camping-Equipment’.While in Quicken you might have subcategories of the subcategory ‘Camping’ called ‘Equipment’ and ‘Permits’. In Moneythey would just be two subcategories; “Camping-Equipment” and “Camping-Permits”.

Transaction With Transaction Groups, Money does not import scheduled transactions assigned to Quicken Transaction groups.However, it is easy to add those transactions to Money’s Accounts & Bills list after conversion. Simply right-clickthe transaction in the Account Register and click ‘Add to Bills & Deposits’.

Budgets If you use multiple budgets in Quicken, Money imports the most recently used budget from your file as the activebudget even if you have a budget with more recent dates. Other budgets are imported as archived budgets.

Passwords Money imports the password for a Quicken file, but not the password for a transaction.

Memorised Money does not import memorised charts and reports, but you can recreate them in Money and save them as Favourites.

SuperCategories Supercategories are not imported. Other categories and subcategories are imported as described above.

Investment If a Quicken Investment Account has a Linked Current Account, it will be converted into the Cash Transactions sectionof the Investment Account in Money. If a Quicken Investment Account doesn’t have a linked Current Account, Moneywill create a Cash Transactions section.

Lots If specific lots are identified for an investment transaction, Money copies the lot-handling information and assigns thecriteria to ‘custom’. If a significant amount of data in Quicken is inconsistent, or if you do not specify particular lotsfor a transaction, Money assigns lots using the First In, First Out method. Lot information is only converted for shares,managed funds, and bonds.

Charts

Groups


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Short sells Whenever the number of shares in a Quicken file is negative, Money automatically converts the ‘sell’ transaction intothe following transactions:◆ If necessary, a ‘sell’ transaction is created to record the sale of any remaining shares in that account. The lot-

handling criteria for this transaction is set to ‘First In’, ‘First Out’.◆ A short sell transaction is then created for the remaining number of shares.Whenever the number of shares in a Quicken file is negative, Money automatically converts the ‘buy’ transaction intothe following transactions:◆ A ‘cover short’ transaction is created for any number of shares up to and including the current balance of ‘short sell’

positions. Money also converts any lot-handling data in Quicken, as described above.◆ If necessary, a ‘buy’ transaction is then created for the remaining number of shares.Any short activities in Quicken that are not sell transactions will not be converted to Money. Also, in Money, you canonly sell short-sell shares, bonds and managed funds. If any other investment type is shortened in your Quicken file,it will not be converted to Money.

Investment If you did not track investments in Quicken and you want to start tracking them in Money, it is a good idea to assigncategories to your investment transactions. Use the ‘Investment Categories’ dialogue box to set up the way Moneyautomatically categorises specific types of investment transactions. Click Settings on the Tools menu, click the‘Investment Settings’ link on the page that is displayed and finally, click the ‘Investments Categories’ button.Enter the categories and subcategories you want to use for each kind of investment transaction.

Class List Money and Quicken implement classes differently, which means you may end up with versions of the same class. Afterconversion, you may want to check for duplicates and delete the extras, or go to Money’s Categories and Payees pageand turn off classifications.

Debt Reduction Money does not convert any information from a Quicken Debt Reduction Plan. Use the Debt Reduction Planner to setup a debt reduction plan in Money.

VAT Accounts Note: Money does not require a dedicated VAT account, so therefore Quicken's VAT Accounts are not converted.

Business Please note that Money cannot convert Quicken business files or accounts.

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Money’s Account Register

The Account Register is one of the places within Moneywhere you will be spending time entering details ofincome and expenditure (called transactions). Becausethe Account Register has some very powerful features, tryreading the following to learn how you can take care ofyour finances more effectively.

Keeping Track of Your CashThere are a number of ways in which you can keep trackof how you spend your cash. The simplest way is to entercash withdrawals into the appropriate Account Registerand simply assign categories to what you are using thecash for. An example being ‘Cash Withdrawal’ for miscel-laneous cash use or the Car & Petrol/Diesel categoriesand subcategories for when buying fuel for your car .

Or, if you want to take an even more detailed ap-proach, start by creating a Cash Account in Money. Thenwhen you take cash from an account at your bank, openMoney and transfer the amount of money from the ac-count you withdrew the cash from (such as your CurrentAccount in Money) to the Cash Account in Money.

To record details of how the cash was spent, enter thedetails of each purchase into the cash account as a sepa-rate transaction (Withdrawals), ensuring you categoriseeach transaction so you can track where you spent yourcash later.

The VAT BoxOn the Transaction Form for an Account Register, is a boxcalled VAT. Here are some important points to knowabout using the VAT box.

◆ You must first enable VAT entries. Click Settings onthe Tools menu, then on the page that appears, clickCategories. Tick the ‘Enable support for Value AddedTax (VAT)’ check box.

◆ You must also tick the ‘VAT enabled’ box on the‘Change Account Settings’ page for that account.To see this page, display the Account Register for theappropriate account and click ‘Change AccountSettings’ in the Left Pane.

◆ For the VAT box to be active for a specific transaction,the category selected for the transaction must be VATenabled as well. Click Accounts and on the relatednavigation bar, click Account Tools. On the drop-down, click ‘Categories & Payees’. Double-click a cat-egory and enter a VAT rate.

◆ Warning: If you create a transaction and then lateractivate VAT for a specific category linked to thattransaction, you must re-enter the amount (in theAmount box) for Money to calculate the VAT. This isbecause Money lets you override a VAT amount ifrequired for situations where not all items for theamount entered have incurred VAT.


Tracking Cheques and DepositsMoney lets you keep track of how you spend your moneyin many ways using reports from the Reports Gallery.You may however, want to track a very specific item ofexpenditure and Money lets you do that, using the ‘Findand Replace’ wizard (Tools menu).

Click ‘Advanced Search’, then click Next. Now clickthe Category tab. Click ‘Clear All’ and then click the cat-egory of spending (so the box is ticked) you want a re-port on. This might be the ‘Cash Withdrawal’ categoryto learn how much cash you have withdrawn thismonth. Click Next and the wizard will tell you what youhave spent in total. There is a ‘Create Report’ button foryou to generate a report to print or view onscreen.

Cash Back?If you use your debit card to buy groceries (or otheritems) as well as get cash back on your debit card, youneed to know how your bank will handle this transac-tion, especially if you download online statements fromyour bank.

If the bank records it as a single transaction likeMoney does, you won't have a problem reconciling ormatching it to online statements downloaded from thebank. If however, they record the transaction as twotransactions (groceries and cash back), then you need toenter the groceries and cash back as separate transactionsin Money in order to reconcile it with your online bankaccount statement(s).


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If you wanted to know what you have spent over aspecific period, then before you create the report, clickBack, then click the Dates tab and choose the period.

If you want a report on cheques you have written,click the Details tab for the ‘Find and Replace’ wizard.By entering a range of cheque numbers to report on(as well as ensuring the other criteria on the other tabs iscorrect), you can have Money tell you about chequesentered, totals, what the money was spent on, and alsowhether there are any cheque numbers missing whichneed to be tracked down.

‘Find and Replace’ is a very powerful tool for creatingcustom reports to see details about your income andspending.

The Account Register

! Click ‘Accounts’ on the uppernavigation bar.

@ On the page that appears,click the name of the accountfor which you want todisplay details.

# The Account Register inadvanced mode will bedisplayed. To enter your firsttransaction, click the ‘Showtransaction forms’ check boxso it is ticked. Now click anappropriate tab such asDeposit and enter the details.

$ To change the waytransactions are displayed inthe Account Register, clickthe ‘Change register view’ boxto open a drop-down list. Tosort the transactions bypayee, you would click ‘Sortby Payee’ from the ‘Sort by’submenu.

% Click a link in the left paneto perform a new task (suchas ‘Pay bills’).

GettingComfortableWith theAccountRegisterA Money ‘Account Register’looks a little like your bankstatement with a list of thetransactions and balancesfor a selected account.The Account Register iswhere you enter newtransactions such asdeposits, transfers andwithdrawals. You can alsodownload details oftransactions from yourbank and have them insertedautomatically in theappropriate register.


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^ The ‘Ending balance’ of youraccount is displayed here.

& Pictured here is part of theregister known as‘Transaction Forms’. You canturn it off by clearing thetick from the ‘Showtransaction forms’ check box.To enter details directly intothe Account Register, double-click a rowin the grid.

* In the ‘Pay to’ box (With-drawal tab), if you enter thename of a previous payee,and right-click that payee’sname, a menu is displayedwith previous amounts paidto this payee (bill).

( The Split button lets youdetail items that need to beassigned to multiple catego-ries for a single transaction.An example would be petrol,sweets, drinks and so onbought at a petrol stationusing a single payment.

_ To track your income andspending, assign categoriesto transactions. You can thengenerate reports to help yousee where your money iscoming from and where itis going.

Transactions. The termtransaction is used todescribe an item that affectsthe balance of an account.Making a deposit is atransaction as is enteringa withdrawal.

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Transaction Forms. To turnthis off, clear the tick fromthe ‘Show transactionsforms’ check box.

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Setting Up aCredit CardAccount inMoneyAlthough you may receivecredit card bills in the post,they are not like other billsfor services (such as phoneor electricity bills). Creditcards are similar to loans.Your charges, after all, areshort-term loans made toyou by the credit card com-pany and Money enablesyou to track your credit cardtransactions. As a guide, tryto create an account for eachcard you hold.

Creating a credit cardaccount

! Make sure you have detailsfor your credit card accountto hand.

@ Click ‘Accounts’ on the uppernavigation bar and from thelower navigation bar, click‘Account Tools’. On the drop-down menu, click ‘AccountSetup’.

# The ‘Choose an account type’page is displayed. Pleasenote that for this step,Money will need to connectto the Internet to downloada list of banks. Click ‘CreditCard’ and then Next.

$ On the ‘Select a FinancialInstitution’ page, Money willdownload the latest list ofbanks. Select your bank andClick Next.

% A wizard will be displayedwith a series of questions.Continue to work througheach step answeringquestions about yourcredit card.

^ When you get to the end ofthe questions for this wizard,click Finish.

Tracking account details.If you want, you can simplytrack your monthly balance,or you can have more controlover your account bytracking individualpurchases you make, or thecredit limit for your card andso on. Click ‘Change accountsettings’ in the account’sregister. Then select theappropriate options for the‘Account tracking’ sectionon that page.

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Opening Balance. Whenyou are asked by the wizardto enter how much you oweon this credit card, look atyour latest credit cardstatement for the previousbalance and enter thatfigure. Then when you enterinto Money the credit cardtransactions, your Moneyaccount will balance withthe credit card statement.

TIP & To enter details oftransactions, click Accountson the upper navigation barand then click the name ofthe account to display thataccount’s register.

* If the 'Show transactionforms' check box is ticked,you will see three options(tabs) on the TransactionsForms pane:

◆ Charge tab - Use this toenter purchases made onthe credit card.

◆ Credit tab - Use this toenter a credit when youhave returned an item orbeen overcharged.

◆ Transfer tab - Use this toenter details of a transferfrom the credit cardaccount to anotheraccount, such as whentransferring your balanceto another credit card.

( Money will also keep you up-to-date with your credit limitand what you owe.

Making a payment. Whenyou pay your credit card bill,record it in Money byopening the account registerfrom which the money isbeing paid (such as yourcurrent account).Click the Transfer tab andselect a credit card accountfrom the ‘CommonTransfers’ menu or anaccount from the ‘To’ list.Enter the amount and click‘Enter’ to place thetransaction in the register.When you display theregister for the appropriatecredit card account, theamount you owe will havebeen adjusted.

TIPFREQUENT FLYER MILES

Subject Description

What is it? Frequent Flyer Miles lets you track airmiles and the loyalty points you can geton a number of credit cards, store cards,mobile phones, and so on. You can haveone Frequent Flyer Miles account (AirMiles) linked to several credit cardaccounts and also add miles earned fromother sources, such as your mobile phonebills. You can also have several FrequentFlyer Miles accounts, with one trackingAir Miles and another tracking pointsfrom a store loyalty card scheme.To create a Frequent Flyer Miles account,go to the Account List and click ‘Add afrequent flyer plan’ (Left Pane). Followthe onscreen instructions.


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Tracking Your Financeswith Money Categories

A key strategy in managing personal finances is knowingwhere your money is coming from and going to eachmonth. To track this in Money, you can use what areknown as ‘categories’. These are listed on the ‘Set upyour categories’ page. To display this, open the ‘AccountTools’ drop-down menu from the lower navigation barand click ‘Categories and Payees’.

Money comes with a number of pre-defined expenseand income categories. If you prefer, you can create yourown categories to assign to spending and income specificto your personal finances. These can then be trackedwithin Money.

The Benefits of Using CategoriesAssigning a category to every transaction puts usefulinformation at your fingertips. Using categories canhelp you:

◆ See where your money is going. Creating a report orchart by category can help you to see where the bulkof your earnings is coming from and what it is beingspent on. This information lets you decide whether,and where, you may want to make adjustments.

◆ Create a realistic budget. It’s easy to create areasonable budget when you can see exactly whereyour money is going. And comparing your actualfigures to the budgeted ones will let you knowprecisely how you’re doing.

◆ Plan for your financial future. By using thetransactions you’ve already entered, plus informationabout your household, Money can help you toplan ahead.

Business UseLet's say your job entails window cleaning and landscapegardening. In order to gauge which of these two jobs isbringing in the most income, first you would need to cre-ate two new categories for these jobs.

Once these categories have been set up (this will onlytake a minute or two), when you come in from a day’swork, you can sit down with Money and make a depositusing the Account Register for the account the money isto be deposited into.

When you create the deposit, you can split it be-tween the two categories of work the money was derived


from. Because you have already created the new catego-ries, much of this work is simply point and click.

As you have assigned the income to appropriate cat-egories, when you generate reports such as ‘Income andSpending’ in the Reports gallery (Advanced mode), youcan see which of the categories is generating the mostincome. If you divide each main category into subcat-egories, Money will display even more detail on yourearnings.

Category Groups When you create a new category using the ‘NewCategory’ wizard, or when you use a category for the firsttime , Money will ask you ‘What group does thiscategory fall under?’

Money uses category groups to present you withinformation about your finances. If for example, youcreated an expense category called ‘Internet Provider’,you may like to assign that to the ‘Bills’ category group.

Or, if you prefer, perhaps choose another categorygroup you feel is more appropriate to the way you use theInternet (such as ‘Computer Expenses’).


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CategorisingYourIncome andExpensesWhen you create a newtransaction (deposit or itemof expenditure) in anAccount Register, one of theoptions you have is to assignthat transaction to acategory and, if required,subcategory.

Creating newcategories in Money

! Click Accounts and open the‘Account Tools’ drop-downmenu. Click ‘Categories& Payees’.

@ Click New to display the ‘NewCategory’ wizard which willask you some questions.

# Select the appropriate op-tions, clicking Next to gofrom one screen to another.On the final screen, clickFinish to add your categoryto the list.

Adding subcategories.To add a subcategory, clickthe category on the ‘Set upyour categories’ page andclick New. Click the ‘Add asubcategory to an existingcategory?’ option andanswer the questionsonscreen, clicking Next to gofrom one screen to another.

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Assigning a transactionto a category

! On the upper navigation bar,click Accounts.

@ Now click an account name(such as a bank account) todisplay the account registeryou want to create a transac-tion for.


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Transfers betweenaccounts. The transfers ofmoney between accounts,such as from a Currentaccount to a Credit Cardaccount, cannot be assignedto a category.

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Multiple items andcategories for a singletransaction. If there aremultiple items for a singletransaction, you can chooseto use the Split transactionfunction where each itemcan be assigned to differentcategories. For example, ifyou buy petrol along withsome drinks and sweets andyou want to create detailedreports that accurately showhow you spent your money,use the Split function torecord details for allthese items.

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# Click a tab such as With-drawal or Deposit. Note: Tabnames vary depending on theselected account.

$ Click the Category box andthe list of categories will bedisplayed. Many categorieswill have subcategories aswell. You may for examplehave a category called‘Household’ and then anothersubcategory called ‘Furnish-ings’. When adding details ofsome new furniture you havepurchased, you would scrolldown until you saw the‘Household: Furnishings’category.

% If a predefined category doesnot exist for yourtransaction, type a name foryour category and the ‘NewCategory’ wizard will appearto help you create acustomised category.

^ To complete the task ofentering details of a depositor expense, continue to enterthe appropriate details intothe other boxes for thistransaction and click ‘Enter’to place the transaction inthe account register.

Don’t overdo thecategories! Only use asmany categories andsubcategories as you needto generate the informationyou want from Money.

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ProtectingYour MoneyFileYou can help make yourMoney file more secure byprotecting it with aMicrosoft® .NET Passport or,if you prefer, a Money filepassword. Ensure if you adda Passport or Password toyour Money file that youkeep a record of them in asafe place because if you mis-place your Money file pass-word or Passport password,you could lose access to allthe data in your Money file.A Passport is more forgivingthan a password should youforget what that Passport’spassword is. Simply go to the.NET Passport web site andfollow the prompts whichwill try and help you remem-ber it. This option is notavailable for Password pro-tected files.

Create a password foryour Money file

! This option is for those thatdo not have an Internet con-nection. Open the File menuand click ‘Password Manager’.

@ The ‘Manage Your Password’wizard appears. Click the ‘Iwant to use a Money Pass-word’ radio button.Click Next.

# Carefully enter your passwordinto the ‘New Password’ boxand repeat that step in the‘Confirm new password’ box.

$ Click Next to continue.

% The final ‘Congratulations’screen appears. Click Done tofinish. The wizard will closeand your Money file is nowprotected.


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Adding a passport

! If you have an Internetconnection, you can protectyour file using a Microsoft.NET Passport.

@ Open the File menu andclick ‘Password Manager’.The ‘Manage Your Password’wizard appears.

# Click the ‘I want to use aPassport’ option andthen Next.

$ On the next screen, select theappropriate option byclicking one of the two radiobuttons and then click Next.

% The steps from hereon willvary depending on whatchoice you made in step 4.

For example, if you chose instep 4 the ‘I want to use anexisting Passport’ and clickedNext, a screen will appearwhere you enter your emailaddress and password beforeclicking the ‘Sign In’ button.

^ Continue to follow the stepsuntil you get to the Con-gratulations screen whereyou click Done to closethe wizard.

Want to remove yourpassword? Open the Filemenu and click ‘PasswordManager’. The ‘Manage YourPassword’ wizard appears.Click the ‘I want to changeor remove my Moneypassword' option and clickNext. Now click the Removebutton. Select the 'I want toremove my Moneypassword', click Next and onthe final screen, clickDone to finish. The wizardis closed.

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Want to remove orchange your Microsoft.NET Passport? Open theFile menu and click‘Password Manager’. The‘Manage Your Password’wizard appears. Click theRemove button and on thenext screen, confirm thisaction by clicking the 'I wantto remove my Passport frommy Money file' option. ClickNext and then the Donebutton on the final screen toclose the wizard.

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Balancing the books

! Make sure you have theappropriate accountstatement to hand.

@ Click Accounts on the uppernavigation bar and then onthe page that appears, clickthe name of the account forwhich you want to reconcile.

# In the Left Pane, click‘Balance this account’. TheBalance Wizard is displayed.Click Next.

$ In the ‘Statement date’ box,enter the date for your endbalance shown on yourstatement.

% In the ‘Starting balance’ and‘Ending balance’ boxes, typethe appropriate amountsshown on your accountstatement.

^ Enter any service charges orinterest earned/chargedduring this balance periodinto the appropriate boxes.Click Next.

What is reconciling?Reconciling an account iswhen you make sure that thetransactions on your bankstatements balance with theappropriate transactionsin Money.

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ReconcilingYour MoneyAccountsEver wondered whether theinformation in Moneymatches that on your state-ments? You should, becausereconciling the numbers inMoney with those on yourbank statements is vital toyour financial well-being.


Sorting transactions inthe register. To change theway transactions in theregister are sorted, click the‘Change register view’ drop-down list and click the ‘Sortby’ option. From thesubmenu, click the requireditem for sorting thetransactions in the register.

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& Compare the transactions onyour statement with those inMoney's account register.

* For each transaction in theaccount register that matchesone on your statement, clickthe box in the ‘C’ column tomark it as cleared with a tick.

◆ If a transaction wasentered incorrectly in theaccount register, double-click the field that isincorrect and type in thecorrection.

◆ If any transactions shownon your statement aren'tin the Money accountregister, and are valid,click New, enter thetransaction details andthen click the box in the‘C’ column to mark itas cleared.

( In the Left Pane, click Next,and then follow theinstructions on the screen.

_ When your account isbalanced, Money may displaythis screen.

From cleared toreconciled transactions.When you successfully finishbalancing your account, anan R (for reconciled) willreplace the ticks for all thetransactions that you havecleared in the C column.

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The steps to a balancedaccount. The questions thewizard displays for helpingyou balance your accountcan vary depending onwhether the amounts youenter match those in Money.

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ArchivingYour MoneyFileIn the File menu is an optioncalled Archive. Choosingthis does two things. Firstly,it makes a complete copy ofthe Money file you haveopen and saves it to disk.Secondly, after saving acomplete copy of yourMoney file, it then deletestransactions in selectedaccounts up to aspecified date.

How to archive yourMoney file

! Open the File menuand click Archive.

@ The Archive dialogue boxappears. Start by readingthe information in thisdialogue box.

# Then enter a date by typingit or if you prefer, byselecting one from the drop-down calendar. Anytransactions dated before thedate you select will beremoved from selectedaccounts in the Money fileyou have open, but not fromthe archive you createdon disk.

$ Click OK and a dialogue boxappears. Type a name for thearchive file in the ‘File name’box. Click OK to save the fileand close the dialogue box.

Note: The look of thisdialogue box can varydepending on the version ofWindows you are using.

Why you need to use theArchive feature? As youuse Money year after year,the accounts will fill up.When you want to removetransactions up to a certaindate, simply use the Archivefeature to do this. One of thebenefits is that it speeds upthe generating of reports.

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% Next to appear is a dialoguebox listing a number ofaccounts that can bearchived. Simply tick theaccounts you want archivedby clicking the tick boxesnext to the account name.

^ Then click OK. When youdo this, two things happen.First, Money saves all theinformation in the openMoney file to a Money fileon disk. This is your‘archived’ file.

Secondly, transactionsin the selected accounts(see step 5) will be removedfrom the open Money file upto the date you specifiedin step 3.


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IN THIS SECTION

Using Money to RecordDeposits

Transferring Moneybetween Accounts

Create RecurringTransactions

Paying Recurring Bills

Using the Payslip Wizard

Day-to-DayTasks WithMoney

his section walks you through some of the mostcommon tasks you need to do in Money on a

day-to-day basis. Tasks such as entering deposits into aspecific account in Money so you can keep track of moneycoming into your accounts. Or how to itemise items that goto make up a deposit using the Split function in an AccountRegister.

This section also demonstrates how to set up recurringtransactions like transfers that happen each month or billsdue at regular times whether it be once a month, once aquarter or once a year. Speaking of bills, you will also finddetails in this section on paying recurring bills as well asusing the Payslip wizard to record details of your wages.

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DAY-TO-DAY TASKS WITH MONEY 55

UsingMoney toRecordDepositsAfter you deposit moneyinto a bank or investmentaccount, use Money to keeptrack of it by entering thedetails into the appropriateAccount Register.

Recording details of adeposit

! Click ‘Account List’ in theHome page’s left pane.

@ On the ‘Account List’ pagethat appears, click the nameof the account to which youwant to add a deposit.

# Click the Deposit tab on the‘Transaction Forms’ pane. Ifthis is hidden from view, tickthe ‘Show transaction forms’check box.

$ In the ‘From’ box, enterdetails of who the deposit isfrom. Previous entries will belisted on a drop-down menu.

% Enter the date or choose itfrom the drop-down calendar.

^ Select a category so you cankeep track of the type ofdeposits made into youraccounts. If the deposit islinked to your salary, use thePayslip wizard which is underthe ‘Special’ heading.

& Use the Memo box to recorduseful information aboutthe deposit.

* When finished, click Enter.

Split button. If there aremultiple items on thepaying-in slip that arerecorded by your bank as asingle transaction, and youwant to keep track of all theitems (postal orders and soon), then use the Splitfunction.

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Split Deposits. If you haveseveral items to deposit thatwill clear at different times,use one deposit slip for eachtype of deposit to makereconciling (balancing) theaccount easier when you getyour bank statement.

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TransferringMoneyBetweenAccountsTransferring money betweenaccounts in Money, liketransfers to pay a credit card,is easy when you followthese simple step-by-stepinstructions.

Transferring money

! Click Accounts on the uppernavigation bar to display theAccount List page.

@ Click the account you want tomake the transfer from. Thiswill display the AccountRegister for that account.

# Click the Transfer tab.

$ Choose the account themoney is being transferredfrom using the ‘From’ box.

% Choose the account themoney is being transferredto using the ‘To’ box.

^ In the ‘Pay To’ box below,enter the name of the personthe account belongs to,generally your own name.

& Continue to fill in therequired details like theamount you want to transfer.If the transfer is a recurringone, tick the ‘Make Recurring’check box.

* Click Enter to place detailsof the transfer into theappropriate accounts.Note: If you ticked the ‘MakeRecurring’ check box, the‘Create a recurring transfer’page will be displayed.

Make Recurring checkbox. If you have recurringtransfers, click the ‘Makerecurring’ check box so it isticked and after you click theEnter button, the ‘Create arecurring transfer’ page willbe displayed.

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What next? After you haveentered details of thetransfer, wait until thetransfer has been applied byyour bank. Then select thetransaction in the Register,click the Options menu andclick then ‘Mark As’. Finally,from the submenu thatappears, click Cleared.

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Tracking recurringtransactions. If you want totrack and report on recurringdeposits and bills, ensureyou assign them to theappropriate categories.

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CreateRecurringTransactions

A new recurring bill

! Click ‘Bill Summary’ in theleft pane of the Home page.The ‘Bill Summary’ page isdisplayed.

@ Click the New button andselect Bill from the menu.If this was a deposit ortransfer, you would selectthe appropriate option.

# Now work through theoptions on the ‘Createa recurring bill’ page.

$ When finished, click OK.

Enter details for anexisting recurring bill

! Go to the account registerwhich is used to pay this bill.

@ In the register, find detailsof the bill among thetransactions listed.

# Right-click the bill and fromthe menu, click 'Makerecurring'.

$ Check the details which havebeen entered automaticallyfor you, make any changesrequired and when finished,click OK.


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#Having to remember when arecurring bill or deposit is dueis a thing of the past withMoney. Now you can enterdetails of recurring deposits,transfers, bills and otherregular transactions and thenask Money to remind youwhen they are due.

ForthcomingTransactions. The MoneyHome page has a box whichlists forthcoming bills anddeposits. If the ‘Bills &Deposits’ box is not presenton your Money Home page,click the ‘Customise contentor layout’ link on the homepage and add the ‘Bills &Deposits’ box now.

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PayingRecurringBills��

Paying bills

! Click Bills on the uppernavigation bar in Money.

@ The ‘Bills Summary’ page isdisplayed containing a listof bills and deposits.

# Click the bill that you wantto enter into an AccountRegister as having been paid.The bill will become high-lighted.

$ To pay the bill, click the‘Enter into Register’ buttonunder the list of bills anddeposits list.

% If paying by cheque, enter acheque number into theappropriate box. When all thedetails are entered, click‘Record Payment’. Thetransaction will now appearin your Account Register forthe appropriate account.


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Forthcoming Bills. TheMoney Home page has a boxwhich lists forthcoming billsand deposits.

If the ‘Bills & Deposits’ box isnot present on your MoneyHome page, click the‘Customise content orlayout’ link on the homepage and add the ‘Bills &Deposits’ box now.

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Using thePayslipWizardIf you want to track yourPayslip deductions (IncomeTax, National Insurance andso on), you can by using thePayslip wizard in theAccount Register.

Entering your payslipdetails in Money

! Ensure you have your payslip.

@ Click ‘Account List’ in the leftpane of the Home page andon the ‘Account List’ page,click the name of the accountinto which your salary ispaid.

# Click the Deposit tab. Fromthe Category drop-down list,click ‘Payslip’ to display the‘New Payslip’ wizard.

$ The wizard will now present aseries of questions. Click theappropriate radio button andclick Next to continue.

% The last window the wizarddisplays is one where youcan enter details of yoursalary from your payslip.Click each tab and enter theappropriate amounts.When finished, click Done.

^ The wizard will now close andyou will be returned to thetransaction form in theAccount Register where youcan enter any other requireddetails. Click the Enterbutton on the ‘TransactionForms’ pane when finished.Details of your payslip will beplaced into the register.

Deductions before Taxtab. These are deductionsbefore tax is calculatedon your remaining salary.An example of this wouldbe a deduction for yourOccupational PensionScheme.

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Deductions after Tax tab.These are deductions aftertax where the amount isdeducted from your netsalary (after tax). Exampleswould be Company SocialClub Membership orChild Care.

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Fluctuating payslips? Ifyour salary varies and youhave set it up as a recurringdeposit (by selecting the‘Make Recurring’ check boxon transaction forms), youcan ensure the correct figureis entered into your registerusing options on the BillsSummary page. Start bysimply using an estimatedfigure when creating thescheduled deposit. Then,when you have been paid,correct the estimatedamount by clicking ‘Enterinto register’ button (BillsSummary page) and thenadjust the figure in theAmount box on the ‘Recordthis deposit in your AccountRegister’ dialogue box.

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Scheduling your salaryto be entered intoMoney automatically

! Ensure you have your payslip.

@ Click ‘Account List’ in the leftpane on the Home page. Clickthe name of the account intowhich your salary is paid.

# Click the Deposit tab. Fromthe Category drop-down list,click ‘Payslip’ to display the‘New Payslip’ wizard.

$ Answer the questions for thePayslip wizard. After thewizard has finished, click the‘Make recurring’ check box onthe transaction form in theAccount Register so it isticked.

% Click Enter and a page, ‘Createa recurring deposit’, will bedisplayed where you canenter further information.

^ On this page, click the‘Automatically entertransaction ...:’ box so itis ticked.

& Click OK to finish.


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IN THIS SECTION

Using Money with theInternet

Configuring Money toConnect to the Internet

Setting Up your MoneyAccounts to Use Online

Background Bankingwith Money

Downloading a BankStatement to MoneyFrom Your Bank’sWeb Site

Online Updates &Favourites

UsingMoneyto ExploreInternetFinancialServices

oney lets everyone connected to the Internetmake the most of the services on offer. Whether

it’s downloading a bank statement to make enteringinformation into Money quick and simple, or getting thelatest financial news, Money will revolutionise the way youbank online. All you need is an Internet connection!

How the Internet Can Help YouPut simply, there are several ways Money can help youonline. Like working with your bank. These services varyfrom bank to bank and the services available to you inMoney will depend on those provided by your bank.

Another way to use Money on the Internet is to browsethe Web for financial information. MSN Moneyon the Internet for example, has financial planning toolsas well as the latest money news, calculators, referencearticles and lots more. MSN Money also has timely articlesfrom leading financial journalists to help keep youinformed.

Please note that the availability of some onlinefeatures is governed by the Internet Based Services Policy.Full details of which can be found at:


M4

USING MONEY TO EXPLORE INTERNET FINANCIAL SERVICES 63


Using Money with theInternet

The Internet is an international network of computersthat contains a nearly infinite amount of information.You can work, learn, shop, communicate with others, orjust have fun, all from the comfort of your home. On theInternet, you can:

◆ Get up-to-date information fast: No waiting for nor-mal business hours to find what you need.

◆ View Web pages all over the world: Using Money'sbuilt-in Web browser, you can view documents andWeb pages on computers all over the world by typingthe Web address (sometimes called a URL) that identi-fies the location of the computer.

For example, http://www.microsoft.com/uk/ is theaddress for the Microsoft Web site. There are Internetlinks in many places in Money including your MoneyHome page.

◆ Conduct common financial transactions: Downloadonline statements from your bank or broker to yourcomputer, pay bills online with banks that support it,download the latest market quotes, and much more.

◆ Read investment news and financial tips: You can useMSN Money to get late-breaking investment news,share symbols and financial tips. There are also news,articles and tools relating to mortgages, pensions, taxand borrowing. Money will also use MSN Money toget the latest UK and international share prices.

Getting Connected!To connect to the Internet, you will need to have a dial-up modem or broadband connected to the computerMoney is installed on.

You will also need to sign up to an ISP. An ISP is anInternet Service Provider that provides the gateway tothe Internet for you. This gateway will typically be aphone number you dial using your modem so you canaccess the Internet or a broadband connection.

If your computer is already configured to connect tothe Internet via your ISP, Money will use that configura-tion from the settings for your browser such as MicrosoftInternet Explorer. If you do not have an Internet con-nection, then you will need to configure either Moneyor Windows to connect to the Internet.

The Advantages of DownloadingAccount StatementsOne of the most common ways that you can combineusing Money and the Internet is to download accountstatements from your bank. There are a number of rea-sons for doing this:

◆ It saves time. Once you process your downloadedstatement, Money can automatically update yourappropriate account register(s) with thatinformation, saving you from entering everytransaction by hand.


http://www.microsoft.com/uk/

◆ It's accurate. Downloading statements helps youkeep your Money file consistent with your bank'srecords.

◆ It's timely. It lets you know which transactions havecleared the bank as soon as they clear. And you canenter unknown transactions (such as interest ac-crued, finance charges, and bank fees) without hav-ing to wait for a paper statement.

◆ It double-checks your entries. For transactionsyou've entered manually, Money automaticallymatches them with the downloaded transactions andlets you correct any discrepancies.

◆ Get an account balance at any time, day or night.

Before you can do all this though, you will need tocontact your bank about their online banking services.Once registered, you will receive security details such as aUser ID and Password.

What you get varies from bank to bank. With somebanks, Money connects directly to the bank, sends an IDand Password for you and then issues instructions onyour behalf for the tasks you want to perform such asdownloading a statement, paying a bill and so on.

With other banks you need to go to their Web site todownload statements. When provided by the bank,Money contains details of the Web services available.

Exploring MSN Money and theWeb from within MoneyAnother area to explore on the Internet using Money isMSN Money where you will find financial planning toolsas well as up-to-date news and reference articles. You caneven search for a particular financial product, such as amortgage, that suits your financial needs.

Using Money as your Web browser makes it easy tomove between Money and the Web. If you're viewing aWeb site (such as MSN Money) using Money and youwant to look at something else in Money, like your in-vestments, simply select the place in Money and it willbe displayed instead of the Web page. Note: YourInternet connection will not be closed.

Going to a Web page for which there is not a link inMoney is also simple using the Internet address box inMoney. Simply enter the address (URL) of the Web siteand you can then browse the Web within Money or, ifyou prefer, using an external browser. Money’s internalbrowser lets you perform tasks such as filling in forms,downloading information, viewing pictures and videoand printing Web pages.


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ConfiguringMoney toConnect tothe InternetMoney uses MicrosoftInternet Explorer settings toconnect to the Internet, sothe manner in which Moneyconnects to the Internet willdepend on the way InternetExplorer is configured. Youmay, for example, need totell Internet Explorer toconnect to the Internet or itmay do that automaticallydepending on how yourWindows ‘dial upconnection’ (Start menu/Settings/Network and Dial-Up Connections) isconfigured.

Connect to the Internet

! If your computer is notconfigured to connect tothe Internet, you have twooptions. You will needto either:

◆ Connect to the Internetusing the ISP details pro-vided with Windows, suchas MSN. If this is thecase, go to step 2.

◆ Contact an ISP and ob-tain from them the neces-sary software (usuallyprovided on CD) requiredto connect to theInternet.

@ In Money, click ‘Settings’ onthe Tools menu. On the pagethat is displayed, click the‘Browser settings’ link.

# Click the ‘ConnectionSettings’ button.

$ Now click the Setup buttonon the dialog that appears.

% The Internet Connection wiz-ard appears onscreen. Readthe text on each of thescreens and click Next tocontinue. Depending on yourversion of Windows and howit was set up, details of someISPs in your area may beprovided.


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Setting Upyour MoneyAccounts toUse OnlineIf you have an existing ac-count in Money that youwant to use online andMoney knows about yourbank and the services it pro-vides, Money will guide youthrough the steps needed foryou to enable the account touse online.

Setting up accountsto use for background(2-way) banking

! Start by connecting to theInternet if you are not al-ready online. Be sure to haveready any pin numbers andpasswords you will need.

@ On the Money Home page,click ‘Manage online services’in the left pane (Account Listgroup). The ‘Manage OnlineServices’ page is displayed.

# Locate the name of theaccount on the page youwant to enable for onlineservices in the 'FinancialInstitutions that are notset up for background onlineservices' section.

$ Click the link for the bank inthe ‘To Do’ column. Moneywill now ask you to confirmthe name of the bank.

% Now follow the onscreen in-structions. These will varydepending on the servicesoffered by your bank. Con-tinue to follow the on-screenprompts until the setup iscomplete.

WHICH ACCOUNTS ARE SETUP?SubjectSubjectSubjectSubjectSubject DescrDescrDescrDescrDescriptioniptioniptioniptioniption

Account Setup To see which accounts in Money areset up for online services, click‘Manage Online Services’ in the leftpane on the Money Home page. TheOnline Services Manager will tell youabout financial institutions that arenot set up for background onlineservices but can be. It will also showyou financial institutions that are setup for online services and financialinstitutions that have no onlineservices.

Advanced and EssentialModes for Two WayBanking. If the account youare enabling for backgroundonline services has notransactions it in and youthen enable it for onlineservices, Money will switch itfrom Advanced to Essentialmode. If you prefer theAdvanced mode, you canrevert to it by clicking the‘Change account settings’link in the left pane of theAccount Register and thenselecting the appropriateoption in the ‘RegisterDetail’ section of the page.Note: A VAT enabled accountmust be in Advanced mode.

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BackgroundBankingwith MoneyA background bankingaccount in Money is onewhere Money connects di-rectly to the bank via theInternet, sends an ID andPassword for you and thenissues instructions on yourbehalf for the tasks you wantto perform such as down-loading a statement, payinga bill and so on.

Setting up a newbackground bankingaccount

! Click Accounts and then click‘Add a new account’ in theleft pane. Select the Bankingoption and click Next

@ A list of banks will bedisplayed. Select yours fromthe list and click Next tocontinue.

# Money will now downloaddetails from your bank. Ifyour bank supports back-ground banking, you will bepresented with several op-tions. Select the appropriateone that enables you to signin and use Money with yourbank. Click Next.

$ Enter the required details forsigning in, click Next andthen select the appropriateoptions on the ‘Choose Ac-count Update Settings’screen. Click Next.

% Money will now connect toyour bank, download detailsfor your accounts and eitheradd the accounts to theaccount list or ask you tomatch the accounts toexisting ones in Money.A new background accountadded to Money willdisplayed in Essential mode.

Automatic updates fromyour bank. Money willautomatically downloadtransactions from your bankprovided your account inMoney is protected withMicrosoft .NET Passport.Money will also give you theoption of storing yourpassword(s) for this onlinebank. Note: If your file is notprotected with a Passport,Money will not allow you tostore your passwords andtherefore will notautomatically downloadupdates for that account.

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Downloadinga BankStatement toMoney FromYour Bank’sWeb SiteIf your bank provides state-ments that can be down-loaded to your computer,Money will either ‘capture’the statement automaticallyor allow you to import it af-ter it is saved to disk. You canthen create a new accountfor this statement, or if anaccount already exists, rec-oncile the transactions withthat account in Money.

Downloading onlinebank statements

! Click Accounts and then clickthe name of the account youwant an online statement for.

@ Click ‘Connect to bank’ in theLeft pane and then click the‘Go to (bank name) Web site’in the submenu.

# The bank’s website will bedisplayed in Money. Enter therequired sign in details ifrequired.

$ Display your statement andchoose the appropriate op-tion for exporting it. Moneysupports many statementformats. This includes filesthat the bank’s Web site maycall Money statements.Supported formats are OFXand QIF with OFX being thepreferred option and QIF theleast preferred.

% The first time you import astatement with an accountnot already matched to anaccount in Money, you will beasked to link the bankaccount with an account inMoney. Ensure you choosethe correct one as Money willdownload transactions to thisaccount from then on. ClickNext and then OK on the‘Import summary’ dialog.

Important! The first timeyou download a statementcontaining transactions foraccounts not alreadyassigned to equivalentaccounts in Money, you willbe asked to assign one ormore of these bank accountsto account(s) in Money.Please ensure you match theaccount on the bankstatement with the correctaccount in Money.

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^ Money displays the ‘You havestatement(s) to read’ page.Click the statement you wantto process.

& The items on your statementwill now appear in the appro-priate account register.

* The transactions can bechanged by first clicking theentry in the register. Twobuttons will appear, Acceptand Change. To edit thetransaction, such as assign itto a category, click it twiceand make your changes. Or ifpreferred, you can clickAccept.

( The items from the onlinestatement left to review inthe account, will be noted inthe left pane.

WORKING WITH ONLINE STATEMENTSSubjectSubjectSubjectSubjectSubject DescrDescrDescrDescrDescriptioniptioniptioniptioniption

Cleared Column In the Cleared Column, ‘C’ in theAccount Register, you will see an ‘E’for items added or matched totransactions on an Online Statement.These will change to an ‘R’(for Reconciled) when you balanceyour account.

Import Statement If you have saved your online bankstatement to disk, you can processit by choosing Import from the Filemenu in Money.

Be Prepared. When youconnect to your bank’s Website, you will need sign-indetails such as a password, orPIN number, to access yourstatements. To save time,ensure you have them readybefore starting this tutorial.

TIP

Download often to savetime. To save time editingtransactions in your onlinestatement, downloadstatements often so youdon’t have lots oftransactions to processall at once.

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Cheques. Cleared chequesmay just be represented by anumber on the onlinestatement, so it’s useful tohave your cheque stubshandy. Then you can enterdetails about each cheque,helping you to track whatthe outgoing amounts wereused for.

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OnlineUpdates &FavouritesWith banks Web siteschanging rapidly, Moneymakes it simple to keep trackof their addresses. Manyother tasks in Money suchas updating financialinformation can beautomated so that you havethe latest share prices and soon. Money also lets you addlinks to your favourite Websites so getting to where youwant to go online is quickand simple.

Adding Links to YourFavourite Web SitesWithin Money, you can addlinks to your favourite Websites by displaying the Website in Money and thenclicking the 'Add tofavourites' option on theFavourites menu.

TIP

Manually updating abank’s Web site URL

! Click ‘Account List’ on theMoney Home page’s left pane.

@ From the ‘Account List’ pagethat is displayed, click theaccount you want toupdate to display thataccount's register.

# In the left pane, click‘Change account settings’.

$ In the General Informationsection is a link ‘Updatecontact information for thisbank’. Click this now.

% In the left pane, click ‘Updateadvanced Web settings’ andin the dialog box thatappears, change theappropriate details.

^ When you have finished,click ‘OK’

INTERNET UPDATESSubjectSubjectSubjectSubjectSubject DescrDescrDescrDescrDescriptioniptioniptioniptioniption

Share prices & Choose ‘Update Now’ and you canchoose to download share prices andMoney updates.

Customise Updates If Money is able to connect direct toyour bank (two-way banking) andyour file is protected using aMicrosoft® .NET Passport, choose‘Customise Updates’ and you canchoose how often Money retrievesyour updates.

Money Updates


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IN THIS SECTION

Money ReportsExplained

Finding Your WayAround the ReportsHome Page

Generating Reports toLearn More About YourFinances

Changing the Look ofYour Reports

Printing and FormattingReports

Your Monthly Report

Adding a Report to theFavourites List

GeneratingFinancialReports

icrosoft Money lets you do much more than justenter transactions. When you need to know

where your money is coming from, and where it’s going to,the Money Reports centre has lots of different types ofreports for you to choose from. The reports are listed inboxes on the Reports home page.

To help you further, the reports you use the most canbe added to a favourites category. The Reports centre inMicrosoft Money has two modes. These are:

◆ Essential:Essential:Essential:Essential:Essential: This mode provides a simplified set offunctions with only essential reports listed on the ReportsHome page.

◆ AAAAAdvdvdvdvdvanced:anced:anced:anced:anced: This mode provides a more advancedlevel of functionality which includes access to a morecomprehensive list of reports.

Charts and GraphsMany of the reports in Money can be presented in anumber of ways, from a text-based report to a bar, pie orline chart. You can also customise many reports, fromchoosing the period the report is based on, to the levelof information displayed.

So when you need to know how you’re doingfinancially, go to the Money Reports centre and takea look at your options.

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GENERATING FINANCIAL REPORTS 73

Money Reports Explained

One of the most important principles to remember aboutreports is that in order for Money to generate them, youneed to categorise transactions (deposits, withdrawals,etc) as you enter them. Money can then track those trans-actions and produce many different types of reports.

So before you head for the Reports home page, ifyou’re new to Money, make sure you assign transactionsto an appropriate category. What you are doing when youassign a transaction to a category is telling Money howyou’re earning your money and what you’re spending iton, enabling Money to look at all the different transac-tions and present a report on how you earn and spendyour money.

The Money ReportsWhen you visit the Reports home page, the types ofreports listed will depend on whether you are in Essentialor Advanced mode. To change between these two modes,click the ‘Change report settings’ option in the left paneof the Reports Home page.

◆ EssentialEssentialEssentialEssentialEssential: In the essential mode, you will see a list oflinks to the most commonly used reports. These in-clude reports on your Spending by Category, Spend-ing by Payee, Credit Card debt and a link to the indexfor the available Monthly reports. You will also findon the Reports Home page (in Essential mode) ‘mini’versions of the Spending by Category, and Spendingby Payee reports. To display any of these reports, justclick their name on the Reports Home page.


Click a report name to have Money generate that re-port and display it on-screen. Please note that re-ports in essential mode cannot be customised otherthan setting the period (dates) the report is for.

The Reports home page (Essential Mode) willalso display mini versions of the ‘Spending byCategory’, and ‘Spending by Payee’ reports.

Click to change from Essential mode to Advanced mode.

Monthly ReportsClick the name of an available Monthly report and youwill see on-screen a summary of your financial situationprepared at the end of every month. A link to the latestcompleted Monthly report is on your Money Home pagein the left pane. The Monthly report lets you compareyour spending for the last two months, see your Networth, investments, potential problems that may belooming and much more.

My FavouritesIf there is a report that you use regularly, save it as afavourite and you can access it quickly from your‘Favourite Reports’ drop-down menu on the Reportsnavigation bar and you will also find it listed in the‘Favourite Reports’ submenu on the Favourites menu.

You Choose!If you find the report you are using does not display theinformation in the way you want, try choosing anotherreport or go to advanced mode and customise an existingreport to create a new one specifically for your needs.As you can see, Money is bound to have a report that suitsyour needs!


55555◆ AAAAAdvdvdvdvdvancedancedancedancedanced: In advanced mode, you will see acomprehensive list of links to various types of reports.These types include Income and Expenses, Assets andLiabilities, Tax Reports, Investment Reports,Comparison Reports, available Monthly reports andyour Favourite Reports.

All the reports are listed in separate boxes for eachtype and the reports generated can be customisedwhere necessary. This includes being able to changethe name of the report, the type of chart and style offonts (typefaces) used, which accounts are includedand much more. To display any of these reports, justclick their name on the Reports Home page.

The mode you are in is displayed here.

Finding Your Way Aroundthe Reports Home Page

Click a report name once and the selected report will begenerated and replace the Reports home page on-screen.

Click Reports to display the Reports Home page.

Reports are listed in these boxes on the Homepage. The type of reports you see will depend onwhat mode you are in, Essential or Advanced.

This tells you which mode youare in, Essential or Advanced.

The Left pane. Related links canbe found here.


Use this link to change the mode youare in. There are two modes to

choose from, Essential or Advanced.

This is the reports navigation bar which isdisplayed when you click Reports on the

navigation bar above.

Click to open a drop-down menu listing your favourite reports.


55555GeneratingReports toLearn MoreAbout YourFinancesMoney's reports let youcheck the health of yourfinances. You can view mostinformation as a report orchart and then print, exportor email it. You can alsocustomise reports to viewthe information that mostinterests you. For example,you can generate a reportshowing the balances of allyour accounts, or you cancustomise it only to showthe balance on selectedMoney accounts.

Generating a report

! Click Reports on the uppernavigation bar to displaythe Reports centre.

@ On the Reports home page,click the type of report youwant to generate. The report/chart will be displayed.

# To select the date range forthe contents of the report,click the ‘Date Range’ drop-down list and select from aseries of predefined periodsor create a custom one.Note: this option is notavailable for all reports.

$ To change the type of chartfor the report displayedon-screen, go to the leftpane and click the ‘Changeview’ option and from thesubmenu, select the typeof chart you require.

% In ‘Advanced’ mode for Re-ports, you can change thelook of the report and thecontent in it, by selectingthe ‘Customise’ option in theleft pane. Note: To switch tothe Advanced mode, go tothe Reports Home page andclick ‘Change report settings’in the left pane. Follow theprompts on-screen.

Exporting Reports. Toexport a report so that theinformation can be used inMicrosoft Excel, display thereport and click the Exportto Microsoft Excel link in theleft pane. Give the file aname, click OK and the filewill be opened in MicrosoftExcel (if available).

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Selecting the amount ofdetail in your reports

! Ensure you are in Advancedmode and click the name ofthe report on the ReportsHome page.

@ Click the Customise linkin the left pane.

# Click the Account tab andtick the accounts you wantincluded in the report.

$ Click the Category tab andtick the categories you wantto include in the report.

% Continue to click the othertabs such as Details and takethe time required to becomefamiliar with the options youhave for customising reports.

^ If you are not happy withyour selections and want tostart from scratch, then clickReset. Note this button willbe ‘greyed’ if no changeshave been made.

& When you have finishedselecting your options,click OK.

Changingthe Look ofYourReportsAfter generating a report inAdvanced mode, you willfind in the left pane a linkcalled Customise that allowsyou to change the level ofdetail included in your re-ports as well as the look ofthem. Do note however, thatyou cannot customise orchange the look of theMonthly reports and thatthe available options forchanging reports varies de-pending on the selectedtype of report.


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! Ensure you are in Advancedmode and click the name ofthe report on the ReportsHome page. Click the Custom-ise link in the left pane.

@ If you would like your reportto have a specific title, typeone here.

# Click the ‘Rows & Columns’tab and choose how you wantthe information displayed asa report (not a chart).

$ Click the Chart tab andselect from the availableoptions for that report.Note: Many options maybe inactive (grey).

% When finished, click OK.Money now saves yourcustomised format for thisreport automatically. Whenyou view the report or chartin the future, it will containyour up-to-date information.

Chart Options. The optionsavailable to customise thecharts for reports willdepend on the type ofreport selected.

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Applying changes whileyou work. Choose anoption and click Apply. Thechange will be applied to thereport so that you can see ifthat is what you want. Whenyou’re happy with the lookof the report, click OK.

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Formatting a report(changing columnwidth and font)

! Money lets you choose asuitable font (typeface)for your report. Start byselecting the report andclicking Customise (Advancedmode).

@ Click the Fonts tabs onthe ‘Customise Report’dialogue box.

# Click the font in the ‘Font:’list. A sample of the fontstyle is displayed to the rightof the ‘Size’ box.

$ Select a size for the text fromthose available in the ‘Size’list box or type in a size.

% Select the attributes for thecolumn width. You canchoose from fixed widthcolumns or have Moneyautomatically choose thewidth depending on the font,size of text and width oftext.

^ Click OK.

Can I print my chart incolour? If you have a colourprinter, Money prints yourreports and charts in colourautomatically. If you don'thave a colour printer oryou've set the option foryour printer to print chartsin black and white only,Money prints your reportsand charts in shades of grey.

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Printing andFormattingReportsBefore printing your report,you may want to look at theoptions for choosing thefonts used as well asselecting the column width.You will also need to checkthat you are printing on theright size paper for yourprinter. If you are printingthe charts in colour, checkthat the settings for yourprinter are correct.


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Printing your Moneyreport or chart

! On the File menu, click ‘PrintSetup’ and then ‘Report andChart Setup’.

@ Check the options are correctfor your printer and the sizeof paper in the printer.Click OK.

# Go to the Reports Home pageand click the report you wantto print.

$ Right-click the report.Highlight the Print item andclick or...

% ... click the ‘Print this report’link in the left pane.

^ Choose the page range(option not present for allreports) and the number ofcopies you want. Also selectthe print quality.

& Click OK.

Orientation of yourpaper. When you choosethe options for Print Setup,you might like first toexperiment with theorientation of the paper(Portrait or Landscape). Theone you choose may dependon the layout of the report,the fonts you use or the wayyou want to present thereports in a binder.

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Exporting Reports. Toexport a report so that theinformation can be used inanother application such asMicrosoft Excel, right-click areport and click ‘Export toExcel’. Give the file a nameand click OK.

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YourMonthlyReportThe Monthly Report is asummary of your financialsituation prepared by Moneyat the end of each month.The Monthly Report in-cludes the following sectionsfor Spending, Net Worth,Expert Assistant, Invest-ments, Potential Problemsand Next Month that in-cludes a cashflow forecast.

Displaying and usingyour Monthly report

! Click ‘Monthly Reports’ onthe reports navigation barand select a monthly report.

@ To view a long report, eitheruse the scroll bar on theright of the screen ...

# ... or click a section headingin the Left pane.

$ On the page are links tofurther information. Clicka link to view the relatedinformation.

% To print the report, right-click it and select Print.

^ To change the options forthe information in differentsections of the report (likethe type of chart used),right-click and then selectthe required option from thepop-up menu.

Note: The options will varydepending on the section ofthe report you right-click.


Accessing monthlyreports on the ReportsHome page? In advancedmode, you will see a list ofavailable reports for thedifferent months in theMonthly Reports box on theReports Home page.

In Essential mode,click the Monthly Reportslink (Reports box) and a pagewill be displayed with theavailable monthly reports.

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Adding aReport totheFavouritesListMoney lets you createshortcuts to your favouritereports on the ‘FavouriteReports’ menu on the lowernavigation bar. This meansyou can create a new reportbased on an existing onethat has been customisedand then create a link to it.When you next generate afavourite report using thislink, it will use thecustomised settings withup-to-date (new)information.

Adding a report to‘Favourites’

! Go to the Reports Home pageand click the report youwant to add to theFavourites menu.

@ If required, customisethe report. It isrecommended this isdone in Advanced mode.

# When the report appearsonscreen, right-click thereport and from the pop-upmenu, click ‘Add toFavourites’.

$ In the ‘Add to Favourites’dialogue box, type a namefor your favourite report intothe ‘Report name’ box. Youcan if you prefer, choose anexisting name from the drop-down list.

% Click OK to close the dialoguebox and save the report.

^ To display a favourite report,open the ‘Favourite Reports’drop-down and click thereports name. Or, open theFavourites menu, click the‘Favourite Reports’ optionand click the required reporton the submenu.

Renaming a favouritereport. Open the ‘FavouriteReports’ drop-down menuand click ‘OrganiseFavourites’. Select the reportyou want to rename andclick Rename at the bottomof your screen. Type a newname and click OK.

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IN THIS SECTION

Creating a MoneyBudget That’s Right forYou

Creating a New Budget

The Budget SummaryHome Page

Maintaining Your CashFlow

Using the LifetimePlanner

Reducing Your DebtUsing the DebtReduction Planner

Taking Control With theCredit Centre

Managing Your Taxes

Making a Will withMoney’s Help

Creating an Inventory

FinancialPlanningWithMoney’sHelp

lanning your financial future may soundcomplicated but Money makes it easy thanks to

its planning features. Whether it’s creating a budget,forecasting your cash flow, creating a plan to reduce yourdebt, or taking control of your credit, Money has thefollowing features to help you:

◆ LifLifLifLifLifeeeeetime Plannertime Plannertime Plannertime Plannertime Planner: Plan for your lifetime ahead!Money’s Lifetime Planner can help you accomplishyour goals such as buying a house, paying for yourchildren’s education and more.

◆ BudgeBudgeBudgeBudgeBudget Plannert Plannert Plannert Plannert Planner::::: When you want to create a budgetthat is easy to stick to, go to the Budget Planner andcreate a budget where you can plan for your expensesand goals and then still have cash for yourself.

◆ Debt RDebt RDebt RDebt RDebt Reduction Plannereduction Plannereduction Plannereduction Plannereduction Planner::::: Try using the DebtReduction Planner which encourages you to pay offyour highest-interest debt first and then follow thatby paying the minimum monthly payment on allother debts. That way, you’ll have more money leftover to enjoy life!

◆ CrCrCrCrCredit Centredit Centredit Centredit Centredit Centre:e:e:e:e: Use the Credit Centre to see asummary of your debt accounts and learn aboutcredit management. You can also try simple what-ifscenarios.

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FINANCIAL PLANNING WITH MONEY’S HELP 85


Creating a Money BudgetThat’s Right for you

By budgeting wisely, you can pay your bills and yourdebts; put something aside for your goals; and cover mis-cellaneous expenses throughout the year. To help you,Microsoft Money lets you create a budget which is fullyintegrated with other parts of the program.

All you have to do is tell Money how much you earn,what your bills are and how much you want to save. It’sthat simple! To do this, you can choose from two typesof budgets, Essential (simple and quick) or Advancedwhich is more detailed and requires more time.

Which Budget is Right For You?To ensure you get the most from your budgets, choose theright budget for your needs. And don’t panic if you’re notsure which one is best because you can switch from essen-tial to advanced at any time.

Essential BudgeEssential BudgeEssential BudgeEssential BudgeEssential Budgets:ts:ts:ts:ts: With an Essential Budget inMoney, you can track all your monthly expenses or if youprefer, only the most used categories such as how muchyou spend on clothes or dining out. An Essential Budgetis quick and easy to set up and allows you to:

◆ See how much you're spending in the budget catego-ries you select as favourites.

◆ Create a simple budget for regular expenses.

◆ Compare your income to expenses.

◆ Compare actual monthly spending to your budget.

AAAAAdvdvdvdvdvanced Budgeanced Budgeanced Budgeanced Budgeanced Budgets:ts:ts:ts:ts: The Advanced Budget modeprovides you with functions to enter more detail aboutyour budget as well as the ability to plan long term.So while the Advanced Budget will a take little longer toset up and manage, they will also provide a morein-depth analysis of where your money is going to andcoming from. With an Advanced Budget, you can:

◆ Create a detailed budget with expenses broken downinto categories and sub-categories.

◆ Create and access multiple budgets.

◆ Track irregular or one-off expenses.

◆ Allocate funds towards your savings goals.

◆ Reallocate funds from one budget categoryto another.

The Budget AssistantIf you are new to Money, creating a new Money file, ordid not set up a budget in a previous version of Money,when you go to the Budget centre for the first time, youwill be guided through the setup process by the Budgetassistant. This is explained on the opposite page.

BUDGET ASSISTANT NOTESSubject Description

‘Enter Income’ page Enter the income that you want toinclude in your budget. Note thatMoney doesn’t automatically includerecurring income you’ve set upin accounts.

Budget Categories Select the categories that you wouldlike to monitor. Note that many of theboxes here will be populated if youhave already set up some bills andassigned them to categories.

Enter Expenses page Enter the expense limits that youwant to set for your budget withthe categories selected on theprevious page.

Favourite categories This allows you to choose up to threecategories from those selected on the‘Select budget categories’ page totrack closely. Note the links on theleft pane that let you go back toanother page in the assistant.

Creating aNew BudgetCreating a new budget inMicrosoft Money can be aseasy as a few clicks of themouse button with theBudget assistant.

Creating your firstbudget in Money

! On the Money Home page’sleft pane, click BudgetSummary.

@ The ‘Welcome to Budget’ pageis displayed. Start byclicking Next.

# You have two choices.'Track all monthly expenses'(a detailed budget) or 'Trackmonthly spending only in myfavourite categories' (simplebudget). You can onlyselect one.

$ Click Next and enter detailsfor your budget. Continue tofollow the on-screen promptsand after clicking the Finishbutton, you will see the‘Budget Summary’ page.

% Before going too far, decideon whether you want to usethe essential or advancedmode. Not sure which oneyou are in? See the topright-hand corner of yourscreen and the current modeis displayed.

^ To switch modes, go to the‘Other Tasks’ group in the leftpane and click the ‘ChangeBudget Settings’ link. Readthe information onscreen andchoose your budget mode.

Multiple Budgets. Whenyou are in advanced mode,you can create multiplebudgets by clicking the‘Create new budget’ linkon the Budget Summary’sleft pane.

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Budget Assistant Options.If you choose 'Track allmonthly expenses', you willbe asked for details on yourincome, the categories youwant in your budget, theexpenses and finally yourfavourite categories to trackclosely. If you choose 'TrackMonthly spending only inmy favourite categories' thenyou will only be asked toselect your three FavouriteCategories.

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The Budget SummaryHome Page

After creating a Budget, when you click ‘BudgetSummary’ on the Money Home page, the ‘BudgetSummary’ page is displayed. The example hereis in Advanced mode.

Click to open a drop-down where you canchoose the period for the budget.

Keep track of your spending for yourfavourite categories on this page.

This is a grid containing details of itemsin your budget. Advanced Mode only.

Click this link to change the mode you are in. There aretwo modes to choose from, Essential or Advanced.

Click one of these links to perform a common task.

Click this to display a page where you can choose whichaccounts that are set up in Money are included in your

budget. This is done by ticking the check boxes next to theaccount names.

Click to create a new budget. Clicking this link displaysthe 'Set up a budget' worksheet with pages for reviewingyour income, reviewing your expenses as well as setting

your spending limits, creating savings goals anddisplaying a budget summary for this new budget. This

link is only available in Advanced mode.

MaintainingYour CashFlowForecasting your cash flowwill help you to predict howmuch money you will havebased on your currentbalance and scheduled billsand deposits. By using the‘Forecast your cash flow’chart, you can allow for anyregular but unscheduledexpenses, such as groceries;ensure your balance doesn’tgo below a certain amount;and get an accurate forecastby scheduling all yourforthcoming paymentsand deposits.

Reviewing your cashflow in Money

! Click Accounts and on thelower navigation bar, clickthe ‘Account Tools’ drop-down. Click ‘Cash FlowReview’.

@ Select the account(s)included in the forecast fromthe Account drop-down.

# Open the ‘Time Period’drop-down menu and selectone of the available options.

$ As you select differentattributes, the graph hereis updated. Note: Right-clickthe chart and there arevarious options to changethe display.

% To edit transactions in theselected period, click anappropriate button. Click‘Add’ to add a transactionor ‘Edit’ to change a selectedtransaction; and ‘Delete’ toremove the transaction fromthe Cash Flow Forecast.

^ Click ‘Try cash flow scenarios’in the left pane to createcharts based on variouspredefined scenarios.


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Using theLifetimePlannerMoney's Lifetime Plannerhelps you accomplish yourlong-term goals. Thesemight include retirement,paying for your children togo to university or anothermajor event. Your lifetimeplan is automatically inte-grated with information youenter elsewhere in Money.For example, if you updateyour investment and otheraccounts in the Accountscentre, they're automaticallyupdated in the LifetimePlanner.

The Lifetime Planner

! Click the Planning option inthe main navigation bar andthen open the ‘PlanningTools’ drop-down. Click‘Lifetime Planner’.

@ Click ‘Get going on your plan’to display the first page. Thisis where you enterinformation about yourselfand other people who livewith you. When you havefinished, click Next.

# Now enter details about theincome for you or yourpartner and details of whatevents may effect your salaryin the future. Click Next tocontinue.

$ Continue to work througheach of the sections, readingthe guidance notes andclicking Next to continue.You can also go from sectionto section by clicking thesection heading in theLeft pane.

% When you get to the Resultssection (the Summary page),you will see a graph. To seea summary of how a figure isarrived at for a specific year,move the mouse pointer overthe graph and double-click ayear. A Details box appearswith a summary for theselected year.

When to review yourplan. Your lifetime planresults will be as useful asthey are up-to-date.Therefore, you should reviewyour plan every 3 months, orwhen something happensthat could affect yourfinancial picture, such aschanging your career oranother major event such ashaving children.

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^ Work through the Resultssection until you come to the‘Taking the Right Steps’ page.This is in the ‘Action Plan’section (click ‘Action Plan’ inthe Left pane). Now take thetime to read the guidancetext. You will also find anumber of tick boxes so thatMoney can tell you if it lookslike your money will run outbefore the plan ends or re-mind you to review your fi-nancial goals. There are alsolinks on the page to furtherdetails.

& You may also like to printyour plan and then discuss itwith your partner, financialadviser and so on. To printthe plan, click Print from theFile menu. You have thechoice of printing the wholeplan or a specific graph oranalysis.

* When you have reviewed yourplan, click Finish.

Financial Event Modeller.This feature takes theguesswork out of creating acredible lifetime plan. It letsyou test hypothetical lifeevents and compare thebottom line results to what'sin your actual plan. Ask theModeller questions like‘What if I don't work for afew years?’ ‘What if myliving expenses go up?’ If youlike the results, you canalways go into your actuallifetime plan and add theevent you just considered. Todisplay it, click ‘FinancialEvent Modeller’ on the‘Planning Tools’ drop-down.

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ReducingYour DebtUsing theDebtReductionPlannerBecause you have betterthings to do with your cashthan spend it on payingmore interest on your debtsthan you have to, why notpay a visit to the DebtReduction Planner? It mayhelp you become debt-freeby helping you create a planthat works for you.

Reducing your debt

! Click the Planner option inthe main navigation bar andthen open the Planning Toolsdrop-down. Click ‘DebtReduction Planner.

@ Click Continue on the DebtReduction Planner home pageto display a page where youcan tell Money which debtsyou want added to your debtreduction plan.

# Accounts such as those forloans and credit cards will belisted in the register. To haveMoney integrate your debtsinto the plan, select theappropriate account/debtand then click ‘Move Up’.This button will be ‘greyed’ ifno row is selected in the‘Debt Accounts Not in DebtPlan’ section of the grid.

$ To add a debt that is notlisted, click the ‘NewAccount’ button to create anaccount for that debt.

% When finished, click Next atthe bottom of Money’s screento display the ‘Define yourpayment plan’ page.

Changing debt accountdetails. If details about adebt account change such asthe interest rate, update thisinformation so that Moneycan correctly recalculate yourdebt reduction plan. Go tothe Debt Reduction Plannerand the ‘Include debtaccounts in your plan’ page.Click the account you wantto update and then click‘Edit Debt Info’. Enter yourchanges and click OK.

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^ This is where you definethe payment plan. Start byclicking the preferred optionfor ‘Base my plan on’ (seean example on theprevious page).

& If you are making a one-offextra payment, enter theamount here (previous page).

* Now experiment withdifferent settings and thetext on the bottom of thepage and in the Left pane,will reflect the selected at-tributes for your plan. Whenyou are happy with theselected attributes, clickNext.

( To see a different view of theplan, select an option fromthe View drop-down menu.Click Next to continue.

_ Time to take action to clearyour debt. To schedule apayment to clear the debt,tick the required box(es).Ticking a box will add ascheduled payment to the‘Bills Summary’ page so thatMoney knows how muchmoney to pay off from eachof the selected debts.

Q Click Finish.

How the Debt ReductionPlanner influences theinterest on your debt.When you enter a debt inyour debt reduction plan,Money assumes that intereststarts accruing immediately,so the minimum paymentreflects the interest that willaccrue until the paymentdate. If you have not enteredan interest payment becauseyou don't owe any interestduring the first month ofusing the debt reductionplan, the plan willautomatically adjust yourtotal balance on that debt.

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TakingControlWith theCreditCentreUse the Credit Centre to seea summary of your debtaccounts and learn aboutcredit management. You canalso try simple what-ifscenarios, as well as ordera credit report.

The Money Creditcentre! Click Planning and open the

‘Planning Tools’ drop-downmenu. Click ‘Credit Centre’.

@ Go to the ‘Your Credit Report’section in the Credit Centreto order a credit report fromExperian, the UK’s largestcredit reference agency.

# Learn how you can pay offthat debt quicker by tryingdifferent debt reductionscenarios using this toolin the Credit Centre.

$ Unsure how much a purchasewill cost you? Then scrolldown the page and use thistool to help you calculate thetrue cost of a purchase.

% Credit related accounts. Tosee a list of your accounts inMoney that are credit related,scroll down the page to thissection in the Credit Centre.

^ Not sure which credit card togo for? Then click here tocompare credit cards on MSNMoney. This task requires aconnection to the internet.

Want to know what thatcredit card or loan willreally cost you? Then useMoney’s ‘How much will thispurchase really cost’calculator by entering theappropriate figures like theinterest rate and monthlypayments and then clickCalculate. All will then berevealed in the text belowthe calculator button!

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ManagingYour TaxesTo help make completingyour tax return in Digita'sTaxSaver easier, a number ofcategories in Money areassigned to the appropriatetax forms and lines (boxes).To ensure you take fulladvantage of this, ensurethat transactions you createin an account register areassigned to these categoriesbefore exporting data fromMoney to import into DigitaTaxSaver.

Exporting tax detailsfrom Money! Open the Tools menu and

click Settings. On the pagethat is displayed, click the‘Tax Settings’ option andensure the Tax Year start dateis set correctly (6 April forthe UK).

@ Now open the File menuand click the 'Export toTaxSaver' option.

# Select 'Tax Year in Progress'or 'Completed Tax Year' asappropriate. If you’re goingto export to TaxSaver so youcan file your tax return,choose 'Completed Tax Year'.Click Continue.

$ On the next page are head-ings for the two main taxforms (SA100 & SA101) andunder each are the Tax Formlines along with their totals.Click Continue.

% In the left pane, click 'UseTaxSaver' (the default optionfor this page whendisplayed).

^ Now click the ‘Export yourTax information as a TXF datafile ...’ link and follow theprompts. The file, once savedto disk, can be imported intoDigita TaxSaver.


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Categories and Tax FormsTo see how categories aremapped to tax forms andform lines, go to theCategories and Payees pagein Money and double-clickthe name of a category suchas 'Taxes:Income Tax'.

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Making aWill withMoney’sHelpA Will is the legal documentin which you state how youwould like your assets to bedistributed when you die. Ifyou die intestate, (without alegal Will) your estate isdivided according to Englishlaw between family membersand any other people whomight have a valid claim toyour estate. This can havefinancial implications foryour loved ones. Even if youalready have a Will, you canuse the Will MakerWorksheet as a remindertool for updating your Will;as practice for re-draftingyour Will; or to help youunderstand more aboutyour Will.

Creating a Will

! Click Planning and open the‘Planning Tools’ drop-downmenu. Click Will MakerWorksheet. Now enter yourname and address (click the‘Address Setup’ button).

@ You can create two WillWorksheets. Click one inthe Left pane.

# To rename either of theworksheets, click theworksheet in the Left paneand click the Rename button.Type a name and click OK.

$ Click the Details radio buttonto create a Family Will.Information from theLifetime Planner will be en-tered here automatically. Youcan also enter or edit itmanually.

% Click the Executor and Guard-ian radio buttons to enterfurther details. You may forexample, wish to nominatea family friend as an executoror guardian in the event ofyour sole executor, guardianor beneficiary failing to out-live you.Renaming Wills. To

Rename a Will, select itfrom the Left pane and click‘Rename’ on the Welcomescreen.

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Only Suitable for Englandand Wales. This worksheetis only suitable for use inEngland and Wales.

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Providing for yourdependants. In Money'sLifetime Planner it has beenestimated that it can costmore than a £2,500 per yearand in some cases muchmore, to support an adultdependant whether they areelderly parents or mentallyimpaired relatives (thoughthis value will vary withevery circumstance). Youneed to make financialprovisions for any minorsthat will be cared for byguardians, to help ease theburden on the guardians.They must be able to copewith the financial andpractical aspects of lookingafter your children.

TIP ^ Click Gifts to enter details oflegacies (specific items/money) given to specificpeople/persons ororganisations. To start, clickNew and enter the details inthe boxes below before click-ing Enter. Note: Items listedin the Home Inventory willbe listed in the ‘Gift Descrip-tion’ drop-down list.

& Click Estate to enter detailsof how to distribute the re-mainder of your estate (afterdebts, tax, funeral expensesand legacies).

* Click Results and then readthe guidance text.

( Now enter a period here. Themaximum period allowable is6 months (182 days).

_ If you want to edit this Willin a word processing programsuch as Microsoft Word, click‘Edit this Will in a Wordprocessor’. Your wordprocessor will be started andthe Will opened within it.


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Creating anInventoryKeep track of yourpossessions with thisworksheet. If you ever haveto file an insurance claim,this list will come in handy.

Inventory worksheet

! Click the ‘Customise contentor layout’ link on the Homepage. Now click the ‘HomeInventory’ option from the‘Add content’ list box andclick the Add button. ClickDone and the Home Inven-tory box will be added to theMoney Home page.

@ Click the ‘Go to my home in-ventory’ link in the ‘HomeInventory’ box on the Homepage. On the page that isdisplayed (Home Inventory),click a category for the itemto be added from the Leftpane. If you select the ‘All’category, ensure you selectan ‘Asset Type’ when enteringdetails of the item.

# Click New to display the‘Inventory Details’dialogue box.

$ If you have a picture of theitem stored on your computer(BMP, JPG or GIF formats),click this and selectthe image.

% Choose a category for theitem from the ‘Asset Type’drop-down list. If you select‘Appliances’, the item beingadded will only appear in theinventory list when eitherthe ‘Appliances’ or ‘All’ itemin the Left pane is selected.


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Home inventory links? Tosee the links in Money forHome Inventory andImportant Records,customise the Money homepage so the ‘HomeInventory’ box is addedcomplete with a series oflinks for this feature.

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Asset accounts. Use assetaccounts for personalproperty or other items thatare costly. Generally, youwould create an assetaccount for items like cars,houses and so on.

TIP ^ Use the Location box toenter details about wherethe item is stored.

& In the ‘Current Value’ and'Replacement Value' boxes,enter the appropriate amountfor the item. If you need tocalculate the amount, whynot use Money’s pop-upcalculator!

* If the manufacturer has aWeb site, enter this into the‘Manufacturer Web Site’ box.When you next need to visitthe Web site, you can accessit from here by clicking the‘Go’ button.

( When you have finished,click Update and the detailswill be added or updated inthe Inventory list.

_ If you want to print only theitems of a specific type (suchas Appliances), select thecategory from the Left paneand click Print from the Filemenu. To print all the itemsin the Inventory List, clickAll and then click Print.

What am I worth? Toinclude the sum total of yourinventory list in your NetWorth report, go to theReports centre and click the‘Net Worth’ option in the‘Assets and Liablities’ group.Now click Customise in theleft pane and tick the‘Include my home inventoryin my net worth’ box.

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Important RecordsOrganiser. The ‘ImportantRecords Organiser’ in Moneylets you keep a record ofimportant information suchas ‘who’ to contact and‘where’ in the case of anemergency. To display the‘Important RecordsOrganiser’, go the MoneyHome page and click the'Organise important records’link in the ‘Home Inventory’box. If this is not available,click the ‘Customise contentor layout’ link on theHome page.

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IN THIS SECTION

The Investing Tools

Creating an InvestmentAccount and AddingInvestments

Tracking YourInvestments in Money

Updating YourShare Prices

Linking to MSN Money

Accessing the EnhancedPortfolio Manager onMSN Money

Your Savings Centre

Tracking a Savings Plan

Choosing a Savings Plan

Estimating the Value ofa Savings Plan

HelpingYou Saveand Invest

aking your money work for you has never beeneasier thanks to Microsoft Money. Its investing

and savings tools not only help you learn how to make yourmoney grow but also let you track investments and savings.

The Investing centre in Money lets you create and viewyour investment portfolio as well as track its performance.Market prices can be updated online or edited manually ifyou prefer. Even if you don't want to play the markets forreal, you can use Money to watch investments for the timewhen you do want to dive inand start a portfolio.

A 'Savings Account' is any account that you use forsaving rather than for day-to-day living expenses and withMoney’s Savings centre you can keep an key on theperformance of accounts such as ISAs, Bonds, or NationalSavings. The Savings centre is divided up into threesections; one to help track your savings plans, anotherfor estimating the value of a plan and a third to help youchoose a plan.

Please note that the availability of some onlinefeatures is governed by the Internet Based Services Policy.Full details of which can be found at:


M7

HELPING YOU SAVE AND INVEST 101


The Investing Tools

The Investing tools in Microsoft Money let you create andview your stock portfolio as well as track the performanceof your stocks or other shares. You can also update themarket prices of your investments with a few clicks of themouse button.

Money also lets you link your investment portfolio inMoney with your investment portfolio on MSN Money,enabling you to keep track of your investments whereever you are in the world.

Investing Your MoneyChoosing an investment is not always easy because themarket has expanded very quickly, particularly over thelast 20 years. Large and small investors are now facedwith a myriad of options so it is always useful to writedown your priorities with regard to how you want eitherto spend or save your money, both now and in the future.

It may not be possible to do everything you want to.For example, many people find there is little point tyingup money in long-term high-performing investments iftheir short-term needs are not met. So before investingyour money, it may be wise to make sure an emergencyfund (around three month’s income) is tuckedaway safely.


The Risk FactorThink carefully about the risk factor before choosingyour investment options. At one end of the scale, there isless risk to be taken when placing your money in depositaccounts offered by banks and building societies(Savings). At the other end, you can gamble a lot ofmoney on high risk ventures which offer nosafety net.

Most people tend to invest in balanced investmentssomewhere in between high and low risk ventures. If thissounds like your sort of action plan, you may like tospread your investments, which means having some low-risk, some middle-risk and some higher-risk investments.

This is fine provided you do not intend to realiseyour more volatile investments in the short term. Manypeople find it’s a good idea to set aside money for suit-able investments that will mature at the time theyneed them.

Tax PlanningWhen planning your investments, consider the taximplications but try not to let the tax position dominateyour decisions. Some investments enable you to defer taxuntil your taxation rate is reduced, such as at retirement.Other investments enable substantial amounts of moneyto be sheltered from tax. If in doubt, consult a profes-sional tax adviser.

Linking Money on Your PC withYour Portfolio on MSN Money (UK)

Keeping an eye on your investments has never beeneasier thanks to the improved integration between theMicrosoft Money software on your computer and MSNMoney on the Internet.

A few clicks of the mouse button is all that is neededto ensure Money keeps up-to-date with how yourinvestments are doing. The Portfolio Manager on UKMSN Money has also been enhanced making the addingof investments to your portfolio quicker and easierthan ever.

You can also use MSN Money to view share prices,see the latest market news or research stocks, fundsand ISAs.

Review RegularlyWith the tools provided by Money for keeping an eye oninvestments that interest you, it is wise to review yourinvestments regularly. What represents good value today,may be quite different in the future.

Tax legislation may change, interest rates fluctuate,and the economic fortunes of companies and marketswill alter, to say nothing of your own changing circum-stances. A good investment strategy will have a reviewbuilt into it at least once a year.

Portfolios, Accounts andInvestmentsTo use Money's Investment features successfully, youshould understand the difference between ‘Accounts’,‘Investments’ and ‘Portfolios’ in Money.

◆ AAAAAccounts:ccounts:ccounts:ccounts:ccounts: Creating an investment account is the firststep in entering your investments into Money. Youcan then add your individual investments to it.Generally, you'll create one investment account foreach brokerage statement you receive. One suchaccount may contain several investments.

◆ InInInInInvvvvvesesesesestment Ptment Ptment Ptment Ptment Pororororortftftftftfolios:olios:olios:olios:olios: A portfolio is an overall viewof all your investments.

◆ InInInInInvvvvvesesesesestments:tments:tments:tments:tments: These are specific stocks and shares,unit trusts, and investment trusts or employee shareoption grants. You only need to add an investmentto Money once. If for example, you had Microsoftshares in one account, they could be added toother accounts without having to add theinvestment again.


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Left pane’s links to investing tools. Click Portfolio Managerto display a list of your investments.

Connect to the Web to get market, share,fund and other information.

Click Investing to go to the Investing homepage pictured below. Note: the MSN Moneyhome page is displayed if you are online.

Creating an investmentaccount

! Ensure you have a statementfor this account to hand andclick Investing. Now openthe ‘Investing Tools’ menuand click ‘Portfolio Manager’.

@ In the left pane, click the‘Work with accounts’ link andfrom the submenu, click Addan account. This displays the‘Account’ wizard.

# Select the type of accountand click Next. The steps tocreating an investmentaccount from hereon will varydepending on the typeselected and whether you areonline or not. In thisexample, we have usedInvestment and are online.Click Next.

$ Now click the name of thefinancial institution or if it isnot listed, click the ‘MyFinancial Institution is notlisted’ link.

% The steps that follow, willvary depending on thefinancial institution selected.Follow the on-screen promptsto create an account.

^ Continue to answer theonscreen questions and whenready, click Finish.

CreatingInvestmentAccountsand AddingInvestments

With an investmentaccount, Money lets youtrack all of the stocks, funds,unit trusts, and otherinvestments in yourportfolio, as well as updateinvestment prices manuallyor by downloading themfrom the Internet. You canalso get up-to-dateinformation about yourinvestments or track thecash portion of yourportfolio with an associatedcash account.

Investments. When addinginvestments (like a share),you only need to do it onceand it can then be added toone or more investmentaccount/portfolios.

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#

Adding investments! To add investments, start by

returning to the PortfolioManager by opening the‘Investing Tools’ menu andclick ‘Portfolio Manager’.

@ In the left pane, click the‘Work with investments’ linkand from the submenu,click ‘Add an investment.’This displays the ‘NewInvestment’ wizard.

# Choose the account you wantto add the investment tofrom the drop-down list.

$ Click Next and follow theonscreen instructions.

% When you have finished, theinvestment will appear in thePortfolio Manager. To see thisinvestment in your accountregister, go to the left pane,click the ‘Work with accounts’link and from the submenu,click the name of the ac-count. This displays thataccounts register.

Associated Cash Accounts.It is quite common for aninvestment account inMoney to have an associated‘Cash’ account. This can beused for tracking moneyreceived (dividends and soon), money spent onbrokerage fees and buyingnew shares.

TIP

Symbols. A symbol for aninvestment (share) musthave at least three characters.If it only has two, it isgenerally followed by a fullstop such as ‘BS.’ and so on.

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WATCHING INVESTMENTSSubject Description

Investing To play the market without spending,add investments to the ‘Investmentsto Watch’ account. You can see howthe shares perform in the Portfolio.This will not alter your Net Worth orother accounts in Money.

ISA. If you want to track theintegral parts of an ISA (suchas shares), use an investmentaccount. If however, youprefer to just track the ISA asa whole, use a savingsaccount.

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@

$

% #

Tracking investments

! Click Investing, open the‘Investing Tools’ menu andclick ‘Portfolio Manager’.

@ To select a different view forthe register, click ‘ChangePortfolio View’ and clickthe required option fromthe menu.

# Right-click an investment inthe register and click ‘SeePrice History’ to display achart. Note: The options onthis pop-up menu varydepending on the itemselected in the register.

$ Use the scroll bar(if applicable) to reveal itemshidden from view.

% To select the type of figuresdisplayed in the ‘Status Bar’at the bottom of thePortfolio Manager, clickSettings onthe Tools menu.

^ Now click the ‘Investmentsettings’ link, and then the‘Portfolio Manager’ button.

& Click the ‘Status Bar’ tab andselect your options. Click OKto close the dialog and thenSave on the ‘Change yourinvestment settings’ page.

TrackingYourInvestmentsin MoneyTo track your investmentsin Money, you can use thePortfolio Manager inMoney’s Investing centre.Here you will see yourdifferent InvestmentAccounts listed and yourinvestments that have beenadded to those accounts.

Alerting you to pricehighs and lows. Whenalerts you have set up onMSN® Money, such as one totell you when a share pricedrops below a target price,are triggered, you can nowview them in the AlertsCentre in Money. Displaythis by clicking InvestingAlerts in the left pane of thePortfolio Manager.

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Updating share prices

! Click Investing, open the‘Investing Tools’ menu andclick ‘Portfolio Manager’.

@ Click the ‘Update Prices’ linkin the Portfolio Manager’s leftpane and start by clicking‘Pick Prices to Download’. Tickthe investments you wouldlike to download the latestshare prices for.

# Click ‘Update Prices now’ andMoney will go online to getthe latest prices. You willneed to connect to theInternet to do this.

$ You can update the pricesmanually by clicking ‘UpdatePrices Manually’.

% Select the investment youwant to update.

^ Type the amount in the‘Price:’ box. The currencysymbol for ‘Price:’ changes toreflect the currency used forthe selected investment.

& Click Update to add the priceto the list.

* Click Close to finish.

UpdatingYour SharePricesFinding the latest prices foryour investments byscouring the newspaper canbe a chore, but with Money,you can download the latestprices at the click of abutton. This can take just afew seconds so even if youjust want to watch someinvestments to get a feel forplaying the market, you canwith Money. Don’t have anInternet connection? Noproblem, you can updateyour share prices manuallyas well!


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*

^$

%

!

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#&


Linking your Money toMSN Money on the Web

! Your first task is to tellMoney you want to accessyour portfolio from anyInternet-connectedcomputer. To do this, start byopening the Tools menu andclick Settings.

@ On the Settings page, clickthe 'Access your Money dataon the Web' link. Thisdisplays an assistant to guideyou through the steps. Readthe help text on-screen andclick Next to continue.

# If Money finds investmentdata on MSN Money that be-longs to your Passport, thenMoney will give you two op-tions. Choose one and clickNext. On the final screen,click Finish.

$ Having set up the linkbetween Money on yourcomputer and MSN Money onthe Internet, you can nowfollow the progress of yourinvestments that you have inboth Money and MSN Money.That includes updatingMoney with any newinvestments added to yourportfolio on MSN Money. Oneway this can be performed isby selecting the 'Update Now'option within Money on yourPC.

LinkingMoney toMSN MoneyKeeping an eye on yourinvestments has never beeneasier thanks to theintegration between theMicrosoft Money softwareon your computer and MSNMoney on the Internet.

Breaking the LinkBetween Money and YourMSN Money Portfolio. Ifafter setting up a linkbetween your Investmentportfolio in Money and MSNMoney you want to breakthat link, you can by clickingthe 'Access your Money dataon the Web' option on theTools/Settings page. Doingthis means that Money willno longer update itself withinvestment details from yourMSN Money portfolioalthough updating shareprices will continue.

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77777Accessing the UK’s MSNMoney PortfolioManager on the Web

! Ensure the computer youare using is connected tothe Internet and then goto UK MSN Moneyhttp://money.msn.co.uk/using an external browserand not from within Money.

@ Click the ‘Investing’ optionon the top navigation barand then the ‘Portfolio’option on the Investingnavigation bar.

# You will now see two options,the Deluxe Portfolio Manager(using ActiveX technology) orthe Basic Portfolio Manager(HTML based). To use theenhanced Portfolio Manager,click the ‘Deluxe PortfolioManager’ option.

$ Now follow the on-screennotes on downloading theMSN Portfolio Manager. If youhave not already signed inwith your passport, you willnow be asked to do so.

% After signing in, you cannow start to use your MSNPortfolio Manager andremember that anyinvestments added to MSNMoney can be added to yourportfolio in Money with theclick of a button.

AccessingtheEnhancedPortfolioManager onMSN MoneyAdding investments to theUK's MSN Money is nowquicker and easier than everthanks to an enhanced MSNMoney Portfolio Managerthat brings you instantanalysis on your investmentsas well as access to your datafrom any computerconnected tothe Internet.

Adding your MSNInvestments to Money onyour PC. Ensure you havelinked Money to MSNMoney using the tutorial onthe opposite page. Then signin using your normalpassport before opening theTools menu and clicking‘Internet Updates’. Nowselect ‘Update Now’ andfollow the promptson-screen.

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http://money.msn.co.uk/

Your Savings Centre

In the Savings centre in Money you can viewand manage the details of all your savings plans(ISAs, National Savings and so on).

Your Savings centre also contains tools that let youadd or edit a savings plan; estimate the future value of asavings plan; choose a savings plan and go online to theInternet to compare your savings rates to the best in themarket with MSN Money.

There are also functions in the Left pane where youcan do the following:

◆ TTTTTrrrrracacacacack Yk Yk Yk Yk Your Plans:our Plans:our Plans:our Plans:our Plans: This is where you view and edit thedetails of all the savings plans you have set up. Fromhere you can also record payments into, andwithdrawals from Savings accounts, as well as set updetails of any regular payments that you are going tomake into them.

◆ EsEsEsEsEstimate Plan Vtimate Plan Vtimate Plan Vtimate Plan Vtimate Plan Value:alue:alue:alue:alue: Use this to produce a graph,showing an estimate of how much one of your savingsplans is likely to be worth on a specific date in thefuture, so you can see whether it will cover the cost ofa planned event for example.

◆ Choose a SaChoose a SaChoose a SaChoose a SaChoose a Savings Plan:vings Plan:vings Plan:vings Plan:vings Plan: Just what you need whenlooking to set up a plan, information about thedifferent types so you can choose which one is best foryou. This option is based on information that youenter about your circumstances, how much you wantto save and how long for.

Left pane with links to other functions.

Details of your savings accounts areentered here. To add a new or existingsavings account, click New Saving.


Personalised feedback based on information enteredfor the selected account.

Link to Money’s Saving’s centre.

Saving Your MoneyBy saving regularly, you may not change your standard ofliving now, but you may be able to make plans for later.However, savings should only be part of your overallfinancial strategy. Before committing to a savings plan,consider the following areas:

◆ Emergency funds:Emergency funds:Emergency funds:Emergency funds:Emergency funds: Many people find it useful to haveabout three months' expenditure money in the bankor building society to 'cushion' them in anemergency.

◆ LifLifLifLifLife assure assure assure assure assurance:ance:ance:ance:ance: If you have dependants (such aschildren or a partner who does not have an income),life assurance can provide some financial protectionin the case of your death.

◆ PPPPPension and rension and rension and rension and rension and reeeeetirtirtirtirtirement planning:ement planning:ement planning:ement planning:ement planning: Pension schemesrepresent one of the biggest tax breaks available, andcan give a much-needed boost to the state pension.The earlier you take out a pension, the more it will beworth when you retire. You may also considerfunding your long-term retirement plans throughISAs which can offer greater flexibility thanpension plans.

◆ Disability pension/CrDisability pension/CrDisability pension/CrDisability pension/CrDisability pension/Critical illness/Pitical illness/Pitical illness/Pitical illness/Pitical illness/Pererererermanentmanentmanentmanentmanenthealthealthealthealthealth insurh insurh insurh insurh insurance:ance:ance:ance:ance: These types of insurance aredesigned to support you financially if you areunable to work because of illness or an accident.

◆ RRRRRepaepaepaepaepaying debts:ying debts:ying debts:ying debts:ying debts: If you have outstanding loans,check that you are not paying more interest thanyou would receive from a savings plan.

Gaining Access to Your SavingsIf you need instant access to your money, you are likely tohave to pay for this with lower rates of growth (interest).Some banks and building societies offer a slightly higherreturn if you are willing to give notice of a month ormore, others may allow you one or two penalty-freewithdrawals without notice each year.

If you feel that six months is too long to wait for yourmoney, but find the higher rate attractive, remember youmay be able to give notice to withdraw every threemonths and then cancel it if you do not need the money.You may therefore be able to obtain a higher rate andeffectively have a maximum of three months to wait forsome of your savings. If you like this idea, you must makecertain you can cancel the notice without problems.

Savings Plans Supported by MoneyNew in this version of Money is the National Savings-Easy Access Savings Account.

Also included are Fixed-Rate Bonds, GuaranteedIncome Bonds, Guaranteed Growth Bonds, GuaranteedEquity Bonds, Endowment Policy, ISA, National Savings-Capital Bonds, National Savings-Children's BonusBonds, National Savings-First Option Bonds, NationalSavings-Fixed Interest Savings, National Savings-Index-linked Savings, National Savings-Income Bonds,National Savings-Investment Account, National Savings-Ordinary Account, National Savings-Pensioner's Bonds,National Savings-Premium Bonds and Bank/BuildingSociety Savings Account.


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Tracking a savings plan

! Go to the Savings centreby clicking Planning and then‘Savings Centre’ onthe ‘Planning Tools’drop-down menu.

@ To add an existing savingsplan to the list (such as asavings account), or createa new savings plan, click the‘New Saving’ button.

# The ‘New Savings Plan’ wizardwill now guide you throughadding a savings plan.

$ Click Finish to add the planto the list.

% You can now track the plan.Right-click a savings planand click ‘Go to History’ onthe pop-up menu to create achart for an account.

^ If you would like to set upcontributions, click the ‘Makea transaction’ link or ‘Set upa regular contribution’ link.These can be found under thelist box of accounts.

& Take note of the personalfeedback at the bottom ofyour screen.

Tracking aSavings PlanMoney lets you track manyof the different types ofsavings plan you may have.You can also use thisfunction to edit details ofeach savings plan. If youdo not have a plan yet butwould like to know moreabout which one maybe suitable, go to‘Choose a Plan’.

What will my savings planbe worth when itmatures? If you have asavings plan and want toknow what it is likely to beworth on a future date, useMoney’s ‘Estimate PlanValue’ function. If the plan isof a fixed duration, then getan idea of what it may beworth at maturity.Otherwise, if it is an open-ended plan, get an estimateof what it might be worth ona date of your choice. Youcan use the estimator to tryout ‘what if’ scenarios. Findout what combination ofcontributions and growth islikely to be required to returnthe sum that you want for aparticular date.

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^

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%!

@

#

&

Choose a savings plan

! Go to the Savings centreby clicking Planning and then‘Savings Centre’ onthe ‘Planning Tools’ drop-down menu.

@ Click ‘Choose a Plan’ fromthe Left pane.

# Read the guidance text onthe Welcome page for thisplanner.

$ Click ‘How much can yousave?’ and enter theappropriate details into theboxes on the worksheet.

% Now click ‘How do you wantto save?’ Click the radiobutton that best describeshow you want to save.

^ When finished, click theResults option and you willbe presented with a numberof savings plans that areappropriate to theinformation entered.

& If you’re unsure about whatthe name of a plan means,click on the name of the planto see a more detaileddescription.

Choosing aSavings PlanThere are many differenttypes of savings plansavailable, ranging from thegeneral purpose buildingsociety account, through toplans which are targeted atspecific groups of savers,such as pensioners. Moneyhas details of around 12different types of NationalSavings plan alone. Whenconsidering setting up asavings plan, there arenumerous factors that youshould always consider. Thiscan make the choice of planquite complicated. What isthe amount you intend tosave and will it be by meansof a lump sum, regularcontributions or both?What amount of risk areyou prepared to take withyour savings to get a higherrate of return? How long willyour notice of withdrawalbe? Are you saving for aparticular date, and if so,when?


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$ %

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Estimate plan value

! Go to the Savings centreby clicking Planning and then‘Savings Centre’ onthe ‘Planning Tools’ drop-down menu.

@ Click ‘Estimate Plan Value’.

# In the dialogue box thatappears, select a savingsplan and click OK.

$ Welcome radio button. Enteran ‘End date’ if you aresaving until a specific date.If you leave this blank,Money will estimate the valueover the coming five years.

% Click the ‘Contributions’ radiobutton to enter details ofhow much you will becontributing to the planover the selected period.

^ Enter how much you willcontribute to the plan andthe frequency of yourcontributions.

Estimatingthe Value ofa SavingsPlanUse Money’s ‘Estimate PlanValue’ function to get anidea of what a selected planmay be worth at maturity.If it is an open-ended plan,use this feature to find outwhat it might be worth on adate of your choice. You canuse this feature to try out‘what if’ scenarios by seeingwhat contributions andgrowth are likely to berequired to return the sumthat you want for aparticular date.


^$ %

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@&

& Continue to enter details andwhen finished, click the‘Growth Rate’ radio button.

* Enter a percentage for theexpected growth rate for yoursavings plan into this box.

( Click the ‘Results’ radio but-ton. This page will tell you inboth chart and text form,how your savings plan willperform over the period youhave selected.

_ To change the graph type,right-click the chart and clickthe appropriate option fromthe pop-up menu.

Q Hold the mouse pointer stillover the chart and detailsabout the plan at that timein the future will bedisplayed.

W To Print, click Print from theFile menu.

Choosing a differentsavings plan To estimatethe plan value of a differentsavings plan, click theWelcome tab and click‘Select Savings Plan’. Thenfrom the dialogue box thatappears, click the savingsplan you want an estimatefor and then click OK.

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_

(

IndexAaccessing your savings, 111account (balancing), 50account

cash, 38investing, 103new, 18

account register, 38, 40account set up (online), 67account statements (online) 64account transfers, 57adding a passport (.NET), 49advanced mode, 13

budgets, 86reports, 75

advanced search, 39advantages of using online

statements, 64alerts (shares), 106archiving your Money file, 52asset accounts, 99assigning a transaction to

category, 46assistant (set up), 16assistant (budget), 87associated cash accounts, 105automatic updates (bank), 68

Bback button, 10backing up your Money files, 24balance of your account, 41balancing your accounts, 50bank details (changing), 18banks Web site URL, 71being prepared, 30benefits using categories, 44bill summary page, 58bills (entering), 19bills (recurring), 58browsing the Internet within

Money, 12beginners (mode), 13budget assistant, 86budget categories, 87budget (creating), 87budget summary page, 88

Ccash back, 39cash flow, 89cash (tracking), 38categories, 44

tax forms, 95categorising income and

expenses, 46category groups, 45

INDEX 117

changing a bank's details, 18changing a passport, 49changing modes, 13charge tab, 43charts (reports), 20, 79cheques, 70cheques (tracking), 39choosing a savings plan, 110,

113choosing how you sign in to

Money, 15cleared column, 70connecting to the Internet, 66converting old Money files, 32converting Quicken files, 34, 36creating a bank account in

Money, 18creating a budget, 87creating a new Money file, 33creating a recurring transac-

tion, 58creating your investment

accounts, 104credit card accounts, 31

setting up, 42credit centre, 94credit tab, 43customise button bar, 10customise content or layout, 98customise reports, 20, 78

Ddate (choosing one for an

account), 31date range (reports), 20day-to-day tasks, 55debts (managing them), 21debt reduction planner, 92deductions, 60deposits (entering), 56deposits (tracking), 39Digita TaxSaver, 95documents, 30downloading a statement, 69

Eediting a banks details, 18enter expenses page (budget),

87enter income page (budget), 87enter into register, 59entering one-off bills, 19entering account details, 30entering deposits, 56enabling VAT box, 38essential mode, 13,

budgets, 86reports, 74

estimate plan value (savings),110, 114

expenses (categorising), 46exploring MSN Money, 65export to TaxSaver, 95exporting reports, 20, 77, 81

Ffavourite categories (budget), 87favourites (reports), 83favourites (Web sites), 71files (archiving), 52files (new Money), 33files (opening), 32files, (Quicken), 34, 36finances (tracking), 31, 44financial event modeller, 91find and replace wizard, 39forecasting cash flow, 89formatting a report, 80frequent flyer miles, 43

Ggenerating reports, 20, 77getting connected (Internet), 64getting started with Money, 16

Hhelp button, 10help menu, 10help (where to go for it), 23

Iimport statements, 70important records organiser, 99income (categorising), 46installing Money, 14Internet Address Box, 10Internet Based Services Policy, 9Internet (connecting), 66inventory, 98

investingaccounts, 104MSN Money, 103

investing tools, 102investments

adding, 105MSN Money, 109tracking, 106

ISA, 105ISP, 64itemising transactions, 47

Kkeeping track of your cash, 38key features, 21

Lleft pane, 10lifetime planner, 90linking accounts, 33linking Money to MSN Money,

103, 108

Mmake recurring, 58make recurring check box, 57making a payment (credit card),

43managing investments with

MSN, 22Microsoft .NET Passports, 15modes (essential and ad-

vanced), 13modes

account register, 67reports (advanced), 20, 74,

76

Money account register, 38Money file (new), 33Money files (opening), 32Money's location on your

computer, 14Money support, 23Money updates, 71monthly reports, 75, 82MSN Money, 65, 103, 108multiple budgets, 87multiple items for a single

transaction, 47my favourites (reports), 75, 83

N.NET Passports, 15, 49navigation bars, 10net worth, 99new account (creating), 18new budget, 87new categories, 46new Money file, 33new password, 48new recurring bill, 58

Ooffline and online features, 11offline help, 23one-off bills, 19online account statements, 69online accounts (setting up), 66online help, 23online services manager, 67online updates button, 10opening date and balances, 30opening balance for your credit

card, 43


Ppassport (Microsoft .NET), 49password manager, 15, 48passwords and passports, 15paying recurring bills, 59payments (credit card), 43payslip wizard, 60Personal Finance Manager, 9planners in Money

debt reduction, 92lifetime, 90

planning tools, 21plans (savings), 111portfolios, 103portfolio manager (MSN

Money), 109prepared (being), 30printing reports, 80protecting your Money file, 15,

48

QQuicken file (converting to

Money file), 34, 36

Rreconciling accounts, 50recurring bills, 19, 58recurring transactions, 58refresh page button, 12register (account), 38, 40removing a passport, 49reports

customising, 78formatting, 80monthly, 82my favourites, 83printing, 81

reports centre, 20, 74,modes, 74

reports (generating), 77reports home page, 76restoring your Money file, 25risk factor (investing), 102

Ssalary (entering), 60saving a Money file, 33saving your money, 111savings

accessing, 111plans, 111

savings centre, 110savings plan (choosing), 110,

113savings plan (tracking), 112scheduling your salary, 61selecting your preferred

browser, 12setting up accounts and bills, 16settings (tools menu), 66share price updates, 71, 107signing in to Money, 15split button, 41, 56split deposits, 56statements (downloading from

your bank), 64, 69statements (import), 70strategy for backing up, 24subcategories, 46symbols (share), 105

INDEX 119

Ttax planning (investing), 102taxes (managing), 95TaxSaver, 95tips for getting up and

running, 17track your plans (savings), 110tracking a savings plan, 112tracking account details, 42tracking your cash, 38tracking cheques, 39tracking investments, 106tracking recurring transac-

tions, 58tracking your finances, 31, 44transactions, 41transaction forms, 41transfer tab, 43transferring money between

accounts, 57two-way banking, 67, 68

Uupdating share prices, 107upgrading?, 14, 16

VVAT box, 38

WWeb site links (adding), 71will maker, 96

The manuscript for this book

was prepared in electronic form.

Text files were prepared using

Microsoft Word 2000. Pages were

composed in PageMaker 6.5 for

Windows with text in ITC Officina

Sans Book and text Stone Serif

ITC. Composed pages were

delivered to the printer as

electronic prepress files.

Cover LayoutLitho Studios

Book Content/LayoutDigita International

ProofreaderLionbridge Technologies

Author and IndexesLarry Hickmott