There has been some talk of implementing bank accounts with Buddy. Here's how I would like to see bank and credit card accounts implemented.

First, back in the day there was a great app for the Nokia Communicators and Psion 5MX called RMRBank, It's still alive, you can find it here:

http://www.rmrsoft.com/epoc/bank.htm

There is a sister application for expenses called RMRExpenses. RMRBank was a PERFECT implementation of this sort of thing for a device with a keyboard and small screen. It's a shame the developer never rewrote the application for more recent devices.

Anyways, here are the functions I'd like to see implemented.

-- Creation and deletion of accounts that are either credit or debit. with a name and a description, with currencies, so account would be demarcated in specific currency as well. Ability to have CASH account as well, also with currency defined. Possibility of multiple CASH accounts in different currencies if required. When creating a debit/credit/cash account, an initial balance will have to be given with a date (could be in the past).

-- Ability to mark each expense, when entering expenses, as coming from a predefined debit/credit account, or to/from CASH.

-- Separate screen for examining credit/debit/cash accounts. Each will show a record of transactions, and have the ability to edit existing transactions and add transactions that are debit or credit, including transfers between accounts, including cash account, and deposits like salary, gifts, etc.

-- Ability to have recurring transactions by week (or other user-defined period) for salary, rent, bills, etc.

-- Each transaction will show date, budget category if there is one, description (optional), amount, currency, and whether transaction has been RECONCILED or not (this last is important).

-- From within debit/credit account screen ability to RECONCILE transactions between a given start and end date. This means checking off each transaction (usually against your bank/credit card statement). Reconciled and non-reconciled amounts can be shown in different colours and/or with a symbol in a column. (User can decide in options/preferences screen.) Cash accounts do not need to be reconciled and will not show this option.

-- Note that not all transactions associated with a given account will have a budget category. For example there will be transfers between accounts, salary, and miscellaneous debits/credits (you find or lose money in the street, for example). However, all expenses entered should have a budget category AND an account, either a debit/credit or cash. User should be allowed to enter an expense without a credit/debit/cash account associated with it, but a warning should be given alerting the user to the bad practice of doing this.

--This warning can be switched off in preferences. There will be some people who prefer to use the program without the added hassle of managing cash accounts, i.e. counting the cash in your pocket every couple of days and monitoring every single transaction, no matter how small. For them, it will be needed to enter some expenses without an associated account (e.g. cash transactions, basically).

-- At any time there should be the option to ARCHIVE the account, which means removing all the reconciled transactions into an archive file, and updating the opening balance of the account. ONLY reconciled transactions can be archived, with the exception of the cash accounts, which don't have reconciled transactions.

-- Ability to store archives in custom location.

-- An archive screen should be available showing all the archived periods for the different accounts. Ability to display archive periods for any account, but in read-only mode. Ability to un-archive by period with warning if user is about to unarchive a period that is further in the past than the last archived period.

-- Separate screen for defining/editing CURRENCIES. Here a base currency will be defined with non-base currencies defined in terms of the base currency and an exchange rate that can be updated manually at any time. Non-base currencies are used when entering transactions when travelling or other international transactions where the bank decides the exchange rate. It should be possible to create debit/credit accounts in non-base currencies (for those who have accounts in multiple currencies) although the default will be the base currency.

-- Note: I do NOT think it is important to include automatic updates of non-base currencies online, although this could be added as an option in a future version of the program. The reason is that it will be impossible to get the currency exactly right, i.e. so that it has the same exchange rate the bank uses for international transactions for your particular accounts, so anyway when reconciling transactions you will probably have to edit the amount slightly for each transaction for foreign transactions. In other words, currencies other than the base currencies will always be approximate.

-- Ability to generate graphical reports for individual accounts, and any group of accounts together, over each month, year, or any user-defined period. These reports will include both archived and unarchived transactions seamlessly.


I think that's it. It would be FANTASTIC if Buddy could be extended to include this functionality.