Money Manager Exª is a free, easy-to-use personal finance software to manage your money. It primarily helps organize one's finances and keeps track of where, when and how the money goes and comes.
Think of Money Manager Ex (MMEX) as a computer checkbook which enables you to balance your accounts, organize, manage and generate reports for your finances.
It is also a great way to keep abreast of your financial worth.
The primary goal of MMEX is to simplify the process of tracking financial information without making it complex like some of the popular personal finance software packages.
The purpose of this manual is to give you some basic instructions for using MMEX. This insturction manual will evolve as the program evolves. So check the help system with each update and see what's new and how to better utilize MMEX.
- Always backup your .mmb database
file regularly
- If upgrading to a new version of MMEX, make sure you backup your .mmb
database file before doing so
Becoming organized
financially requires some amount of discipline. Financial management
becomes complicated because
there is no clear understanding of cash flow or an idea of income
against
expenses. Debt
is usually what results when expenses exceed income.
The first step towards better financial organization is keeping good
records.
Only when there is recognition of the expenses being made on a day to
day basis
will there be an understanding on how to cut back.
Did you realize you spent
600$ in buying DVD movies last year? How many times
did you watch them? Do you think now that the 600$ would have been
better spent
on the unexpected maintenance on the auto that came up yesterday? Of
course
there is no right or wrong answer to how you should spend your money.
After all,
it is you who earned that money and the right to spend it whichever way
you see
fit. But you can always make your money work harder for you. You want
better
"bang for your buck/lira/pound".
Here's where personal finance software comes in. They help you
slice/dice the
financial data to give you better insight into what is going on. Always
remember
the software can only be as good as the data it has to process. Garbage
In Garbage Out. But if you have started thinking of even using a
Personal finance
software you are well on your way to making every dollar
count.
Read on how to work with Money Manager Ex.
Money Manager Ex models the real financial world through concepts of transactions. A transactionis an financial event where money/services are exchanged. Such transactions could be making a payment towards a loan, buying a car, eating out at a restaurant and so on. Each transaction is associated with an account and a category.
An account is a record of what you either own or owe. For example, your checking account is a record of cash on deposit in the bank that is available for writing checks or for making ATM withdrawals or for making debit transactions using a debit card. A credit card account is a record of the money you owe to a credit card company for the use of the credit card. All transactions either increase or decrease the balance in one or more accounts.
A category is a record of where the money comes from or goes to. For example, salary is an income category for recording the money you earn from your job. Dining is an expense category you might use to record the cost of eating out. Categories make it possible to track how you earn and spend money.
To make MMEX work effectively, it is important to record all transactions made by you into the appropriate accounts. Even if you do not have the habit of carefully entering transactions, you should enter transactions when you get your monthly statement from your credit card company or bank.
Once you enter your transactions, MMEX can help provide some useful information to you. For example, it will tell you what the current balance on your accounts are. It will provide information on how much you are spending versus how much you are earning. All this knowledge would help you make better decisions.
To begin working with Money Manager, you should start by creating a new database file. All the transactions you record with MMEX are stored in a database file (file with an extension of .mmb) on your hard disk. This file contains all the components- accounts, categories, transactions that make up your financial status.
Although it is possible to
create more than one MMEX data file, it isn't
usually necessary. One file can hold all your transactions and
accounts. There
is no limit to the number of accounts or transactions that you can have
in your
database file. The only time it might make sense to have more than one
database
file is if you use MMEX to organize your personal finance and the
finances of
the small business firm you have. Or if you share the computer with
another
person and your maintain separate financial records from them.
To create a new database file, on the Menu, Select File->New Database. This will prompt you to specify the location of the .mmb file. Once you select the location a new database is created. You can now see the database name on the title bar which helps remind you which database file is open.
Tips:
1) Remember to make
backups of your .mmb.
2) The .mmb file is not encrypted. That
means anyone else having the proper know how can actually open the file
and read
the contents. So make sure that if you are storing any sensitive
financial
information it is properly guarded.
Right after you create a new
database file, the first thing to do is to
create a new account. Currently, MMEX supports two types of accounts.
One type of account is those that support
three kinds of transactions, withdrawal, deposit and transfers. This
account is
termed a "Checking"
account. These kinds of
accounts cover common bank accounts, checking accounts, savings
accounts, cash
accounts and credit card accounts. The other type of account is a "Investment"
account. This is a type of account which allows you to track stocks and
other investments you may own.
To properly setup accounts, you should have
balance information for the the accounts you want to add to MMEX. You
can get
this information from your most recent bank, investment and credit card
statements.
To create a new account, on
the Menu, Select Accounts->New Account. This
will bring up the create account dialog window. You can create a new
account by
filling in the details.
The required fields are the name of the account and the currency you
want to
use. The recommendation is to name your accounts uniquely and in
relation to the
real world account. Say for example you have an account with CitiBank,
you could
name your account "CitiBank".
The only type of account that is currently supported is checking
accounts.
To track additional information about this account, optionally you can enter your account details such as Account Number, Held At, Website, Contact info and Access Info. You can enter additional notes about the account in the notes field.
Most accounts have some kind
of balance in them, for example say in a credit
card account, you have a current balance of 2304.67$, you could put
that value
in the initial balance field. Going forward you only need to add
transactions
beyond that date when you had the balance.
Accounts have status associated with them which could "Open" or
"Closed". Closed accounts are just that. They are no longer active.
Setting this status is just a way to de clutter your view so that you
do not
have to see the closed accounts in your tree view navigation pane.
In addition you can set the currency that is associated with your
account. MMEX
comes with a default set of currencies which you can add to correspond
to your
countries currency settings.
You also can mark accounts as a 'Favorite Account'. This again is used to change the accounts that are visible in the navigation bar.
The other type of account that MMEX supports is an "Investment" Account. These accounts are store information on financial institutions where you hold any type of stock/bonds/mutual funds investments.
Once you have created an account, you can edit any of the account information fields by selecting the account name in the navigation pane and then right click to bring up the popup menu. Select "Edit Account" to bring up the account information dialog. Edit the information and then click "OK" to save the account information.
Once you have created a new
account, one can start entering transactions.
Select the account you want to enter transactions into by left clicking
the
account in the navigation tree. This opens the register of transactions
associated with this account. To create a new transaction, click the
"New" button to open up the transaction dialog. Enter the details
associated with this transactions. Select by selecting type of
transaction from
"Withdrawal", "Deposit" or "Transfer". Then select
the payee, category, the transaction date, number, any notes and then
the
transaction amount. Press "OK" button to save the transaction.
Here are some notes on the fields associated with the transaction
dialog.
Transaction Types:
Payee: Payee is to whom the money goes or comes from.
Category: Category selects
the kind of expense/income for the transaction.
Transaction Number: is a field to enter any kind of number associated with
the transaction like check number.
Transaction Status: Select from "Unreconciled", "Reconciled", "Void",
"Flag for Followup" status options. This marks the transaction into various states.
To edit an existing transaction, simply select the transaction and then click the edit button. You can also alternatively double-click the selected transaction to open the transaction dialog. Another alternative way is to press enter on the selection to open the transaction dialog. Make the changes and click ok to save the changes.
Transactions that are entered into MMEX are considered unreconciled. This means that they have not been verified with the statement from the financial institution. Once the statement comes or by viewing an online bank statement a transaction can be considered reconciled if the details of the transaction match that from the financial institution. Then the transaction can be marked as reconciled. By marking these transactions you can keep track whether the transactions you are entering match the actual transactions. In MMEX, reconciled and unreconciled transactions are shown by different icons.
Tip:To mark a transaction as reconciled, just select the transaction and hit the 'r' or 'R' key. To mark a transaction as unreconciled, just select the transaction and hit the 'u' or 'U' key.
Some transactions might have some issues that you want to follow up on. Mark these as with status of flag for followup. This is indicated in MMEX with a different icon.
Tip:
Payees indicate real world entities to whom payments/expenses are made or from whom deposits are received. You can manage Payees in MMEX by opening the Menu, Tools -> Organize Payees. Once the payee dialog opens you can add new payees, by typing the name into the text box and pressing the Add button. You can also select the payee in the list and edit the name or delete the payee. Note that you cannot delete payees which are being used by any transactions. Delete the transaction and or ensure no transactions use this payee and then you can delete the payee.
Categories indicate where the money is going or coming from. You can manage Categories in MMEX by opening the Menu, Tools -> Organize Categories. Once the category dialog opens, you can add new categories and subcategories, by typing the name into the text box and pressing the Add button. You can also select the category/subcategory in the list and edit the name or delete it. Note that you cannot delete categories which are being used by any transactions. Delete the transaction and or ensure no transactions use this category and then you can delete the categories.
MMEX can import from a wide
variety of formats. One of them is a fixed format CSV file. This file
format exactly matches the CSV format that MMEX can export. So it can
be useful to move data from one .mmb database file to another .mmb
database file. To easily see the format of the CSV file, you can try
exporting an account to a CSV file and then analysing the format
created.
The general format is as follows:
Date - Date of the transaction
(Displayed in the format specified in Options->DateFormat)
Payee - To whom the transaction
was made. In the case of a transfer transaction, this indicates the
name of the account from which the transfer was made or to the account
the transfer was made.
Transaction Type - This can
either be "Withdrawal" or "Deposit"
Amount - The transaction amount
as a positive value
Category - The category of the
transaction
SubCategory - The subcategory of
the transaction if any (otherwise blank)
Notes - Transaction Notes
Note that the transactions from a CSV file can only be imported into a
single MMEX account.
Quicken Interchange Format
(QIF) is an open specification for reading and writing financial data
to media (i.e. files). A QIF file typically has the following structure:
!Type:type identifier string
[single character line code]Literal String Data
...
^
[single character line code]Literal String Data
...
^
Each record ends with a ^ (caret).
See example QIF transaction
!Type:Bank Header
D6/ 1/94 Date
T-1,000.00 Amount
N1005 number
PBank Of Mortgage Payee
^ End of transaction
QIF is older than Open Financial Exchange (OFX). The inability to
reconcile imported transactions against the current account information
is one of the primary shortcomings of QIF. It is commonly supported by
financial institutions to supply downloadable information to account
holders.
MMEX can import transactions from specific types of QIF formats into an
account.
The types are the following: (You can find the type of QIF by opening
in a text editor)
!Type:Bank Bank account transactions
!Type:Cash Cash account transactions
!Type:CCard Credit card account transactions
Important Note (1): The date format option has to
match that of the date format in the QIF file, otherwise, date parsing
by MMEX will fail and will result in transactions having incorrect
dates.
Important Note (2): After importing from QIF, all
transactions
will have a "Follow Flag" as it its status.
You can mark all transactions with this flag using the bulk status
setting commands using the right click menu in the account view.
MMEX can also import from
CSV files that are exported from the Money Manager.NET program. This is
to primarily help users of that program migrate to using MMEX.
The general format is as follows:
Date - Date of the transaction
(Displayed in the format specified in Options->DateFormat)
Payee - To whom the transaction
was made. In the case of a transfer transaction, this indicates the
name of the account from which the transfer was made or to the account
the transfer was made.
Amount
- The transaction amount. If it is positive, it is considered a
deposit, if it is negative, it is a withdrawal.
Number - Transaction Number
Status - Transaction status
Category
- The category of the transaction. This is actually a compound string
of the type "Category:SubCategory"
Notes - Transaction Notes
Note that the transactions from a CSV file can only be imported into a
single MMEX account.
To alleviate the problem of
users having to preformat their bank transaction CSV files into
the fixed format MMEX requires, MMEX also allows users to import CSV
files where the order of fields is
completely freeform. To use this importer, select the account you want
to import into and then select
the order of fields in the CSV file by picking and choosing from the
list of possible fields.
MMEX will now import the CSV file using the format information
specified by the user.
MMEX can import from a wide variety of formats. One of them is a fixed
format CSV file. This file format exactly matches the CSV format that
MMEX can export. So it can be useful to move data from one .mmb
database file to another .mmb database file. To easily see the format
of the CSV file, you can try exporting an account to a CSV file and
then analysing the format created.
The CSV field options are as follows:
Date - Date of the transaction
(In the format specified in Options->DateFormat)
Payee - To whom the transaction
was made. In the case of a transfer transaction, this indicates the
name of the account from which the transfer was made or to the account
the transfer was made.
Amount (+/-) - The transaction
amount. If it is a positive value it is a deposit, negative value is a
withdrawal.
Category - The category of the
transaction
SubCategory - The subcategory of
the transaction
Notes - Transaction Notes
Number - Transaction Number
Withdrawal - An +ive amount that
is considered as a withdrawal. (Do not use if specifying Amount (+/-))
Deposit - An +ive amount that is
considered as a deposit. (Do not use if specifying Amount (+/-))
Don't Care - Ignore this field
Note that the transactions from a CSV file can only be imported into a
single MMEX account.
Important Note (1): The date format option has to
match that of the date format in the QIF file, otherwise, date parsing
by MMEX will fail and will result in transactions having incorrect
dates.
Important Note (2): After importing from QIF, all
transactions
will have a "Follow Flag" as it its status.
You can mark all transactions with this flag using the bulk status
setting commands using the right click menu in the account view.
MMEX can export to a fixed
format CSV file. This file format exactly matches the CSV format that
MMEX can import. So it can be useful to move data from one .mmb
database file to another .mmb database file. To easily see the format
of the CSV file, you can try exporting an account to a CSV file and
then analysing the format created.
The general format is as follows:
Date - Date of the transaction
(Displayed in the format specified in Options->DateFormat)
Payee - To whom the transaction
was made. In the case of a transfer transaction, this indicates the
name of the account from which the transfer was made or to the account
the transfer was made.
Transaction Type - This can
either be "Withdrawal" or "Deposit"
Amount - The transaction amount
as a positive value
Category - The category of the
transaction
SubCategory - The subcategory of
the transaction if any (otherwise blank)
Notes - Transaction Notes
Note that the transactions from an account can be exported to a single
CSV file.
Using MMEX it is possible to
track stocks/mutual funds investments.
- First create a new Investment account. To do this, select the new
account
option and in the 'Account Type' select 'Investment'.
- Then select the stocks option in the Tree view and click the "New
Stock
Investment" button. Fill in the details to add a new stock investment.
See more details.
To update the price of your stock holding, edit the saved stock
investment and
change the current stock price.
MMEX allows you to put reminders for recurring transactions. Do this via the Repeating Transactions tree item. The upcoming reminders for bills or deposits in the upcoming 2 weeks is displayed in the home page.
MMEX allows you to track fixed assets like cars, houses, land and others. Each asset can have its value appreciate by a certain rate per year, depreciate by a certain rate per year, or not change in value. The total assets are added to your total financial worth.
MMEX allows you to search for transactions that meet certain criteria. This can be done using the transaction filter option. The resulting list of transactions can be printed or saved as an HTML file.
MMEX allows you to setup a
budget for a year
and compare how you did versus
your budget. To setup a budget click on the 'Budgeting' tree node and
add a budget year. Once the year has been added, select the year and
edit the
amounts for each category. This becomes the budget for the
year.
Using the reports under 'Budgeting' it is possible to compare how you
spent the
money versus your actual budget.
MMEX allows a variety of reports. Select the appropriate report under the Reports node in the navigation tree. Some reports require some user input, some do not. Once you view a report, you can print the report using the print options in the menu.
MMEX supports printing of all reports that can be viewed. The print options are available under the menu, File->Print.
You can modify some runtime behavior
of MMEX by changing the options in the Options Dialog.
General->Currency
The base currency setting is used to
display the total of all accounts.
General->Date Format
The date format setting is used to
control how dates should be displayed and also how dates should be
parsed when importing QIF, CSV files.
General->CSV Limiter
This is used as the delimiting character when parsing CSV files. This
is useful to modify from the default ',' when dealing with currencies
that use ',' to denote decimal points in amounts.
General->Language
This is the language used by the MMEX GUI. MMEX might require a restart
before
all GUI elements have the new language.
View Options->Account Visible This
determines which accounts are seen in the Navigation tree.
View Options->Transactions Visible
This determines which transactions are seen in the Account
View.
Colors Allows the user to modify colors in MMEX
to suit his/her style.
Others-> Backup Database MMEX will make a
backup of the file before opening it. There will be only one backup
made and it will
be overwritten next time MMEX is opened. So if you want to keep a
certain backup permanently, you need to do a manual backup.
Others-> Stock Quote Link
For stock investments, given a URL, MMEX can show the page
automatically when the webpage button is clicked.
Specify the URL here. The default is for Google's finance.
Originally I developed a personal finance software called Money Manager. It was written in .NET and more of a learning excercise than serious software development. It grew far beyond the original design. The software was frozen and work began on a new version which had a similar user interface and features, but written in C++.
Usually Microsoft names their second version of their improved software APIs with an Ex extension as in doSomething() and doSomethingEx(). So I just followed the model and tacked on a 'Ex' to the end.