Editing a moneyGuru document

The Basics

There are a few keystrokes and clicks that work the same way for everything in moneyGuru. First, there is this set of 3 buttons at the bottom left corner:

The + button creates a new thing, the - button removes the selected thing and the "i" button shows info about the selected thing. The "thing" depends on the current view. In the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement, it is an account. In the Transactions and Account views, it is a transaction. Also, if you select more than one transaction and click on the "i" button, the Mass Edition panel will show up rather than the transaction details panel.

Of course, it's also possible to do the same thing with the keyboard. ⌘N creates a new thing, Delete or Backspace remove the selected thing and ⌘I shows info about the selected thing.

It's possible to edit things by double clicking on a cell that is editable (for example, the name cell of an account). It is also possible to start editing a thing by selecting it and pressing Return. The first editable cell will be in edit mode.

When in edit mode, Tab and Shift-Tab can be used to navigate editable cells. When there is no more editable cell in a row, edition ends. It's also possible to end edition by pressing Return again. You can cancel edition by pressing Escape. When doing so, everything you edited in the currently edited row will be reverted to its old value.

Accounts

Accounts are edited from the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement. When you create a new account, it will be created under the type of account that currently contains the selection. For example, if I have "Credit Card" selected and press ⌘N, a new liability will be created. New accounts are automatically created in edition mode. Type a new name then press Return to end edition.

You can also use drag & drop to change an account type or group (yeah, account group. use ⌘⇧N to create one).

Using Show Info on an account will bring the account edition panel shown above. From there, you can edit an account name, but also change its type, its currency and its account number. An account number is a numerical reference to an account. Use this if your accounting has account number (you know, 1000-1999 is for assets, 8000-8999 is for expenses, stuff like that). When an account has an account number, that number will be displayed along with the name in the Transaction and Account views. Moreover, you can type the number instead of the name to reference to that account (if you know the numbers by heart, it will make typing much faster).

Little aside note: Changing an account's currency does not change the currency of the transactions it contains.

Transactions

Transactions are edited from the Transactions and Account views. When creating a new transaction, the date of the previously selected transaction will be used as the new transaction's date (speaking of which, see the "Date Edition" section below). The Description, Payee and Account (From, To Transfer) columns are auto-completed. This means that as soon as you type something in them, moneyGuru will look in the other transactions and give you a completion proposition. You can cycle through the propositions with the up and down arrows. To accept a proposition, just tab out. You can also, of course, just continue to type.

It's possible to re-order a transaction within other transactions of the same date. To do so, you can use drag & drop, or you can use ⌘+ and ⌘-.

If you type the name of an account that doesn't exist in an Account column, this account will automatically be created as an income or expense account (depending on the amount of the transaction). Don't worry about typos creating tons of accounts that you'll have to clean up. If you fix a typo in a transaction, the automatically created account will automatically be removed.

Using Show Info on a single transaction brings the panel above up. With it, you can edit everything that you can edit from the Transactions and Account views, and additionally, you can create and edit transaction with more than 2 entries (commonly called a "Split Transaction") with the table at the bottom.

One thing to remember about this entry edition table is that it's constantly auto-balancing. Therefore, if you take a transaction and simply delete one of its entries, it will not disappear. It will instantly re-add an unassigned entry with the same amount. Changing the amount of an entry will also automatically add an unassigned entry with the amount difference. Therefore, if you want to add a split transaction like, for example, a roommate shared bill where you pay a 40$ bill (let's say internet) using direct banking transfer and your roommate gives you 20$ in cash, you would do the following:

Add a normal 2 way Checking --> Utilities transaction.
Show Info for the transaction.
Change the Utilities debit to 20$. This will create a 3rd unassigned row with a 20$ debit.
Change the 3rd row account to Cash.

Congratulations, you just made a 3 ways split transaction. This transaction correctly reflect reality where 40$ are out of your checking account, internet had a net cost of 20$ for you and you end up with 20 more dollars in your pocket.

Using Show Info with more than one transaction selected bring up the panel above. It allows you to perform mass edition. When you press on Save, all selected transactions will have the attributes that have the checkboxes next to them checked changed to the value of the field next to it.

Date Edition

Whenever a date is edited, it is edited using a special widget. This widget has 3 fields: day, month and year. Whenever an edition is initiated, it is always the day fields that starts out selected, whatever your date format is. You can navigate the fields with the left and right arrows. You can increment and decrement the currently selected field with the up and down arrows. You can of course type the date out. The widget automatically changes the selection when a date separator is typed or the maximum length of a field is reached. Here is a list of the rules that this widget follows, just to make it clear:

The display format is always your system's format.
The input format is always day --> month --> year.
Whatever your system date format is, you can type a date by padding your values with 0. For example, even if your date format is mm/dd/yy, you can enter the date "07/06/08" by typing "060708".
Whatever your system date format is, you can type a date by using separators. For example, even if your date format is yyyy-mm-dd, you can type "2008-07-06" by typing "6-7-08"

While editing a transaction or entry, if you set the date to something outside the current date range, you will get a or a showing up. This means that if your date range is "navigable" (Month, Quarter, Year), that date range will be adjusted when edition ends to continue to show the edited transaction. If your current date range is not "navigable" (Year to date, Running year, Custom), the transaction will disappear from the current view when edition ends.