checkMoney Conduit

Conduits are needed if you want to exchange data between your desktop and handheld. checkMoney conduit is designed for four specific purposes:

1. To provide capability to import CSV or QIF formatted transactions into checkMoney. You may want to use import feature to import QIF formatted transactions from your bank, MS Money® or Intuit Quicken® or from any other financial institution. You may also want to import CSV formatted transactions from Excel or other third party applications. It is important that QIF file must be generated by the authenticated source.
2. To provide capability to export transactions from checkMoney in CSV or QIF format to your desktop. You may want to use the export feature to generate QIF files for MS Money or Intuit Quicken, and to generate CSV files for Excel and other applications
3. To provide capability to backup and restore. Backup makes a complete backup copy of your checkMoney data (accounts, transactions, categories) into your handheld, and restore allows you to restore the checkMoney data back into your handheld.
4. To provide capability to export payee and category reports from checkMoney to your desktop

Start the Palm Desktop application, and select “Custom” from its “HotSync” menu. Select checkMoney from the list of conduits. Each numbered box in the image below represents a checkMoney conduit option and have been explained below. You should check the conduit options carefully before doing the HotSync as the settings dictates the data flow of transactions between your desktop and handheld.

1. Default HotSync Action

If you do not select any other options, the conduit will perform this default operation in the next HotSync. Check “Set as default” option to make the current HotSync operation as the default.

2. Next HotSync Action

The conduit will perform this operation next time you ‘HotSync’. It is the option that you have just selected.

3. Do Nothing

Select this option if you want the conduit to “Do Nothing”.

4. Handheld to Desktop – Export transactions to your desktop

Select this option if you want to export checkMoney transactions to your desktop. In ‘Accounts’ screen, tap on the desired account, then use Tools menu and tap on ‘Exp to Money format’, ‘Exp to Quicken format’ or ‘Exp to CSV format’ option to prepare the account for export. You will see “|” symbol appear in front of the account. This marks the account for export. You can mark (select) multiple accounts therefore readying them for export in a single ‘Handheld to Desktop’ operation. After the export is complete, make sure to unmark the account in your handheld or deselect ‘Handheld to Desktop’ option in the conduit otherwise it will export the transactions again in your next HotSync.

41. Handheld to Desktop – Append transactions to the existing QIF or CSV file in your desktop

Select this option if you have previously exported checkMoney transactions to a desktop file, and want to append more transactions to that file. The conduit will read checkMoney transactions from the selected account and append, at the bottom, to the existing desktop file. The file must be present in the ‘Output Folder’ location, which by default, is c:\palm\yourusername\checkMoney, and the file name must be the same as the account’s name.

42. Handheld to Desktop – Create a new QIF or CSV file in your desktop

The conduit will read transactions from the selected checkMoney account and create a new desktop file in the ‘Output Folder’ location. The name of the file will be the same as the account’s name. For example, if you have an account ‘Checking’, the conduit will create ‘Checking.QIF’ or ‘Checking.CSV’. The conduit will overwrite transactions if the file already exists.

43. Handheld to Desktop – Provide directory location

This is the directory location of your desktop files. The default folder is c:\palm\yourusername\checkMoney

44. Handheld to Desktop – Export checkMoney reports to desktop

Select this option if you want to export the payee or category reports to your desktop. In the reports screen, select ‘Export this to PC’ checkbox to send the report(s) to your desktop. The conduit will create the report file in the ‘Reports’ sub-folder under the ‘Output Folder’ location, which by default, is c:\palm\yourusername\checkMoney, and the file name will be CategoryReport_yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm.csv for the category report and PayeeReport_yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm.csv for the payee reports, where the date and the time format will vary depending upon your hand held preferences.

5. Desktop to Handheld – Import transactions to checkMoney

Select this option if you want to import transactions from your desktop files (Microsoft Money, Intuit Quicken, Excel or from your Bank) to your checkMoney accounts. For this option to work, the name of the desktop file must match with the name of the checkMoney account. For example, if you have a desktop file ‘Checking.qif’, you must have the checkMoney account ‘Checking’ but checkMoney will create the account if it does not exist. After HotSync, make sure to deselect ‘Desktop to Handheld’ option from the conduit otherwise it will import the transactions again in your next HotSync. You can import multiple files in a single ‘Desktop to Handheld’ operation.

51. Desktop to Handheld – Append transactions to the existing checkMoney account

The conduit will read transactions from the desktop file and append to the matching checkMoney account. The conduit reads transactions from the file located in the ‘Install Files’ folder. For this option to work, the name of the desktop file must match with the name of the checkMoney account on your handheld but checkMoney will create the account if it does not exist.

52. Desktop to Handheld – Create new transactions to the existing checkMoney account

The conduit will read transactions from the desktop file and create new transactions to the matching checkMoney account. The conduit reads transactions from the file located in the ‘Install Files’ folder. The existing transactions, if any, in your checkMoney account will be erased and replaced by the transactions from the desktop file. For this option to work, the desktop file name must match with the name of the account on your handheld but checkMoney will create the account if it does not exist.

53. Desktop to Handheld – Provide directory location

This is the directory location of your desktop files. The default folder is c:\palm\yourusername\checkMoney. You can add as many files as you want. All the files will show here in the drop down list.

6. Backup all checkMoney data

You can backup your complete checkMoney data, including accounts, transactions and categories, to your desktop. The backup is stored in the c:\palm\yourusername\checkMoney\backup directory. You should perform the backup on a regular basis to safeguard the checkMoney data.  

7. Restore checkMoney data from the backup files

Select this option if you want to restore your checkMoney data from the desktop. Note that this operation will completely erase the existing checkMoney data and populate with the data from the backup file. You can select the backup file that you want to restore, from the drop down list.

71. Restore checkMoney data – list of available backup files

This is a list of all the backup files available (in the 'c:\palm\yourusername\checkMoney\backup' directory). You must select one from the list.  

8. Formats

Click on ‘Formats’ to select the date and the amount format that you want the conduit to use during the HotSync operation. The conduit will use the selected formats when creating desktop QIF/CSV files or when reading from them without impacting the date format in your checkMoney.

When you select ‘Exp to CSV format’ option, checkMoney conduit will export handheld transactions to your desktop as described in the ‘checkMoney Conduit’ section above. The date and the number format will depend on the type of ‘formats’ selected in the conduit. In the example below, the date format is mm/dd/yyyy.

Sample CSV format:

"checkMoney CSV Report on 07/02/2003"

"Personal Savings","71110094","Savings","$1,315.00","Std. Bank"

"01/08/2001","withdraw","Check","111","New Edison","-$52.00","","","**CHECK**","Bills:Electricity"

"02/02/2001","withdraw","Check","103","Smart Gas co.","-$48.00","","","**CHECK**","Bills:Gas/Oil"

"02/10/2003","withdraw","ATM","","Self","-$60.00","cleared","","**ATM**","Cash Withdrawal"

"01/15/2003","deposit","EFT","7061999","Smart Motor Inc.","$500.00","cleared","","**EFT**","Wages"

"02/20/2003","withdraw","Card","","Ci Bank","-$25.00","cleared","","**CARD**","Bills:Cable"

Sample Excel (CSV) report:

Here is the description of the CSV formatted file.

                First row – one occurrence

                Second row – one occurrence

                Third row onwards – repeated for each transaction

When you select ‘Exp to Money format’ or ‘Exp to Quicken format’ options, checkMoney conduit will export handheld transactions to your desktop as described in the ‘checkMoney Conduit’ section above. The date and the number format will depend on the type of ‘formats’ selected in the conduit. In the example below, the date format is mm/dd/yyyy.

   Sample QIF report:

!Type:Bank

D12/09/2002

T-40.00

N2110

PYMCA

LBills:Health Club

M**CARD**

C*

^

D12/12/2002

T-30.00

N137

Psmart Electric Co.

LBills:Electricity

M**CHECK**

^

D11/05/2002

T-80.00

N80118

PSelf

LCash Withdrawal

M**ATM**

^

D10/05/2001

T-1050.00

N5600012

PABC National Mortgage

L[mortgage] (indicates a transfer to account ‘mortgage’ as the amount is negative)

M**EFT**

^

D11/07/2001

T611.00

N

P

L[savings] (indicates a transfer from account ‘savings’ as the amount is positive)

M**EFT**

^

 QIF Format