Rob, Yes, I do know about the Uncleared Transactions option on the Restrict menu and use it. I think that my problem is that since I have been using MT for about 5 months without using recurring transactions that I have developed a mind set that when I see a transaction listed in the register I know I have made payment arrangements for it either to tell my bank to make an electronic payment or have written a check for it. Also, since recurring transactions are based on the previous amount,, the January one for transactions recurring in February, and I have several bills that vary in the amount due I think setting the days in advance to a low number or 0 and then using the post recurring transaction may work best with my particular mind set, or coming up with my own item names for recurring transactions that I have not yet told the bank to pay. Maybe my mentioning calling them pending or not yet paid in a previous post caused confusion. Maybe something like no instructions sent or something would help clarify it. It could just end up that marking transactions that recur, but have different amounts due each month may not be for me. Margaret "ROB MEREDITH" wrote: I understand what you are saying, but I don't understand why you are not using the cleared versus uncleared state to track these transactions. When the credit card bill appears in your register on the 15th, it will not be cleared. You can wait until you pay it to clear it if you wish, thus, it acts as a reminder. You can view only uncleared transactions by using the Uncleared Transactions option on the Restrict or View menus, depending on your version of Money Talks. This way, you can get an idea of which transactions need attention. Rob Meredith >>> iluvtoread@xxxxxxx 02/09/07 05:22PM >>> Rob, Let's see if I can give you a couple of examples. I have a credit card which I told my bank to pay on January 22nd and is marked as recurring with an advanced date of 7 days. So, as I understand it, the item will appear on my register on February 15th, but I haven't even instructed my bank to pay it since I haven't received the bill yet. I'd like some way that of having the item in the register as a reminder that it will have to be paid, but that it hasn't yet been. I may have figured out a way that I can have my cake and eat it too. If I do a post next recurrence command and add something like "Not Yet Received" or something in the item field, it will be obvious rather than putting it in the memo field since I sometimes have that one hidden. Then, when I know the amount and have instructed my bank to pay it, I can edit it and change the not yet received in the item field to pay e bills and put in the correct amount of the bill. To take another example, my bank is supposed to pay my electric bill on February 14th the item in the register now and I keep having to tell myself that one is all set . I may still need to experiment with the advanced days or continue to keep the reminders in Microsoft Word as I was doing before I got the program. Does this help clarify it a bit ? Margaret "ROB MEREDITH" wrote: Margaret: I guess I don't fully understand your request. Recurring transactions always post cleared, so you always give final approval. You can move to the next uncleared transaction by pressing Ctrl+F10. Rob Meredith >>> iluvtoread@xxxxxxx 02/09/07 01:49PM >>> Steve, Thank you. I found out about the post recurring transaction command after I sent my post and that it would have perfectly solved my problem about how to handle a bill I wanted to pay before the item appeared in the register. I'm all set for now. I still think it would be a good idea if there could be some way of differentiating a transaction for which payment arrangement have been made such as online bill pay, but for which the item has not cleared as opposed to those which are in the register as reminders of items which have not yet been paid . Maybe Rob or someone from APH responded and my ISP didn't deliver the message or the idea is being evaluated. Thanks again for the good instructions. Margaret "Steve Zielinski" wrote: Margaret, When you set up a recurring transaction, all recurrences occur in the future, you cannot do it for a transaction in the past unless you choose a starting date in the past. For instance, if I set up a recurring auto-payment of a utility bill for the 9th of March, and every ninth afterthat, I first create a regular transaction on the ninth of February. After it is established, I highlight the transaction in my register, go to the Transaction menu, then choose the Recurring option and hit enter. You probably know the hot key for this is ctrl+r. If I wanted a January 9th transaction, I would have found a December 9th transaction to be the starting point in this example. Now after choosing a transaction on February 9, and selecting recurring, fil out the information for monthly recurrences. The first recurrence will then happen, on March 9, assuming you chose monthly as the frequency and chose "always post" amongst the Weekend Action radio buttons. Note also that while setting up your recurring transaction, you have the choice of how many days in advance you want money talks to post the recurring transaction. For instance, in this example, if I had said 14 days in this dialog, then money talks will post the transaction on February 23, 14 days ahead of March 9. The transaction would be dated, March 9, but it will appear in the register on February 23. If I has said zero, then money talks would have posted the transaction on March 9, giving me no advanced notice. You will now see the letter R in the status column of this transaction. Now save your register in order to save the setting up of the recurring transaction. Then open the register again, in order to test your handywork. To test a recurring transaction, find the recurring transaction you are interested in -- the one with the letter R in the status column. Choose "Post Next Recurrence" under the Transaction menu, or simply press alt+t, then the letter p. That particular transaction will then recur once, and you can examine it. You will hear the Projectd recurring transaction sound. Notice the letter R has now been moved from the transaction you were highlighting and has been moved to the recurring transaction the program generated. If you want to post the next recurring transaction after that, then make sure to highlight the one with the letter r and do the procedure again. After testing these transactions, make sure to not save the register so as to not permanently keep these tested future recurring transactions. If you find you need to make adjustments, re-open the register, and find the recurring transaction which is a problem. Do another ctrl+r on it and re-adjust your frequency, etc. Save the register, then re-open the register, to test again with the "post next occurance" command. If you have a number of recurring transactions you want to test at once, use the "Project Recurring" command under the Transaction menu. The quick key combination to get to this is alt+t, then J. You will be put in a dialog box asking for the date to which you want your transactions to project. Again the sound will occur, but this time, all your transactions which are recurring will be posted up to and including the date you provided, and they will also be shown in a restricted view. If you want to examine them in relationship to all other transactions in your register, press escape to open the view up. Again, you probably won't want to save this register in order to not make these changes permanent. Perhaps this is of some help. Steve ----- Original Message ----- From: "Margaret Thomas" <iluvtoread@xxxxxxx> To: <moneytalks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 3:31 PM Subject: [moneytalks] Problem with Recurring Transactions > Hi All, > > I'm still trying to get used to recurring transactions since Ij the transaction in my register, > only marked some as recurring at the beginning of the year and this > is > the first month they have reoccurred and I may be missing something. > > I was wondering what happened if I made payment arrangements for > transactions marked as recurring before the show in advance date > they > showed up in the register and found out today. I made payment > arrangements for 2 of these last night before they showed up on my > register today and had to delete 1 of each when I loaded MT today. > > One that cleared in January and which I do an online bill pay for > and arranged to be paid on Feb. 14 is showing both the January and > February transaction when I do an alt-or and hit enter on recurring > transactions to show recurring transactions. Even after I had > deleted > the 2 extra transactions, the register briefly continued to show a > negative balance when I had deleted the "duplicate transactions. > > I'll reread the documentation again, but I need to check on how > to > do projected transactions to see if I can save myself time with a > calculator. > > Margaret >