The Infinite Kind Blog

Apologies for the infrequent blog postings, but this one should be worth the wait. Moneydance 2008 is now into its public beta stage of release which means that we think it might be ready for general use and there’s only a few more small changes to be made before the full release.

The current version beta is build 602 and was uploaded to moneydance last night. This is the third bug-fix release of the beta series and included the following changes over build 601:

• GUI date-picker for all date fields
• Fixed bugs when editing transaction reminders
• Slightly fade the rest of the register when editing a transaction
• Fixed bug that bypassed normal shutdown process when closing the main window
• Switched back to the curly style thermometer graph zoomer and added some lickable enhancements
• Fix 'growing account popup' problem for vertical growth, at least
• Added helpful text to register quick-search field when empty

Build 601 included the following changes over 600:

• Fixed bug that prevented creation of new transaction reminders
• Fixed foreground color of main account popup
• Fixed calculation and display (in budget editor) of budget entries for non-categories. Budget entries for regular accounts (investment, bank, cc, loan, asset and liability) no longer apply to sub-accounts.
• Show appropriate increase/decrease labels in reminder transaction editor
• Fixed calculation of investment transaction total amount when there is a fee and the txn type is a SellXfr or a Short
• File saving now writes to a temporary file and then renames the temp file to the main file after writing has successfully completed. No more EOFException when (auto)file saving is interrupted by a crash.
• Fixed cmd-Y/ctrl-Y hotkey to synchronize tax dates and regular dates in transaction entry
• No longer add asterisk to title bar when there is unsaved data if we're on a mac
• Dimmed transaction register while editing a transaction
• Fixed bug that prevented online transaction ID for downloaded transaction from being attached to local transactions. This is what caused the little 'i' to not appear on transactions that were downloaded.
• Txn editor in register now fully closes (cancels) when the register is filtered
• Added java property ("moneydance.checknum_series_threshold") to allow people to tell MD to look a specified number of days backwards when finding the previous check number.
• Fixed bug that made already-matched transactions appear as default options when they should be low-possibility options.

Build 600 had too many changes to list, so I’ll use the time saved to go work on the documentation.

[update: I guess I should provide the download URL] moneydance.com/preview

Macworld has just published a review of Moneydance 2007. We’re very happy with the review and would like to thank Macworld for taking the time to do it. As one of the commenters to the article mention, Moneydance 2008 will be arriving soon, and it will address the “interface quirks” that were the only downside described in the article.

Please also note that we have never advertised with Macworld and the review was not solicited by us, so rest assured that the article is not biased in our favor in any way. I especially appreciate how the article mentions some of the less obvious features such as how every amount field in Moneydance can interpret math expressions.

Thanks Macworld!

A few minutes ago I updated Moneydance to 2007r5 (build 587) which includes a few minor improvements over 2007r4. The primary changes are:

Version 2007r5 (build 587) includes the following changes:

• Fees are now applied consistently to buy, sell, short, cover, buy+transfer and sell+transfer transactions
• Fixed register alignment issues on Mac OS X leopard and earlier releases
• Fixed low level error that prevented Moneydance from running on Mac OS X 10.2 and earlier

Many on the mailing list requested the first change, and I’m glad to finally make this public.

Please let us know if you have any issues with the update!

As of last Friday, release 4 of Moneydance 2007 is available to anyone who clicks the “check for updates” link on Moneydance’s main screen. This update includes a few very important bug fixes as well as support for Apple’s upcoming release of Mac OS X, Leopard.

We here at Moneydance HQ are eagerly awaiting getting our hands on the new Mac OS release and can guarantee that any unforeseen problems with upgrading to Leopard will be swiftly remedied.

I’ve also heard good things about Moneydance running on the latest version of Ubuntu Linux, 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon.”

I’ve just released the second update to Moneydance 2007. This update addresses the following issues:

• Moneydance now detects when OFX servers ignore payment requests
• No more invalid prices being entered into your security price history when recording non-reinvested dividend transactions
• Changed toolbar buttons to appear correctly on Mac OS X 10.5

You can get it by running Moneydance and clicking the “check for updates/extensions” link on the home page. I’ll have the download page updated soon with installers for all major platforms.

Much less has changed in this release compared to the 2007r2 update back in August. We’re working away on a lot of great improvements for Moneydance 2008!

As Forbes.com originally reported earlier this year, LaSalle (another bank that offered free OFX based Bill Pay) has been sold to Bank of America. ABN AMRO has been entertaining bids from Barclays for a potential merger for the majority of the year. A consortium of banks including the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis, and Banco Santander has set up a rival bid.

Regardless of which offer is accepted later this week, according to the International Herald Tribune, the sale of LaSalle to Bank of America has been confirmed.

"'LaSalle customers and commercial clients can now enjoy the benefits of the largest retail bank in the nation,' Kenneth Lewis, chief executive of Bank of America, said. LaSalle branches will begin to change to the Bank of America brand during the first quarter of next year."

Of course, this has implications other than the possible dissolution of ABN AMRO. It has been suggested that with the acquisition of LaSalle, and the also recent acquisition of US Trust, Bank of America may now standing dangerously close to the 10 percent threshold. And that could mean more hassle for Bank of America users, both old and new.