An import rule refuses to work

[CyberCrone]

I make extensive use of import rules and have never had any trouble with them. However, one type of transaction comes through from the bank as 'service station' and fills category in as Bank charge. I have tried many many times to create a rule that changes 'service station' to 'Shell' and category to 'Gasoline' but it refuses to work. I've even tried deleting the prior rules I have made for 'service station' and starting over - still nothing. I keep thinking I must have done something peculiar to cause this but can't see it. Has anyone else seen this, or something similar? Any suggestions?

[RLebeau]

AceMoney has a lot of built-in import rules that it uses in addition to user-defined rules. There does happen to be a default import rule for "service station" with a category of "Bank Charges:Service charge". I would expect AceMoney to give higher priority to user-defined rules, and if it is not then you should file a bug report with MechCAD Support about that. In the meantime, to edit the default rules, you can go into the "Languages" subfolder of your AceMoney installation (typically C:\Program Files\AceMoney), open the "importrules.dat" file in a text editor (however, the file uses bare LineFeed characters for line breaks, which Notepad does not handle). Each line consists of 3 tab-delimited strings - the text that is being searched for, the target payee name, and the target category. Remove/edit the line that starts with "service station".

FYI, I am working on a utilty application that provides a UI for editing many of AceMoney's hidden configuration items that are not in AceMoney's main UI. The "importrules.dat" file is one of those items that my app supports (that piece is already working, actually). I am hoping to have that app finished and released in the near future. Here are some screenshots from the current prototype:

AceMoney Config Editor - main window

mainwindow.png (29.01 KiB) Viewed 10231 times

AceMoney Config Editor - edit import rule

edit.png (21.26 KiB) Viewed 10231 times

[CyberCrone]

Whew! I'm glad it isn't me. This was making me crazy, trying to figure out why I couldn't fix this. Much as I like Ace Money, some things about it are totally bonkers, and this default rule is one of them. How does "Bank charges:service charge" have anything to do with "Service station"? Weird.

I'm quite grateful for this solution; thanks.

[CyberCrone]

...to edit the default rules, you can go into the "Languages" subfolder of your AceMoney installation (typically C:\Program Files\AceMoney), open the "importrules.dat" file in a text editor (however, the file uses bare LineFeed characters for line breaks, which Notepad does not handle). Each line consists of 3 tab-delimited strings - the text that is being searched for, the target payee name, and the target category. Remove/edit the line that starts with "service station".

I got it, but not without a glich. I opened the file in Notepad and was able to edit, but when I saved the file, I got a popup that said "Access denied" so I thought it wasn't saved, and was about to write to you to ask about another way to edit the file. But then I went into Ace Money and VOILA! The 'service station' entries were changed to 'Shell', which is the import rule I had set up and which hadn't worked before. So my edit worked despite the "Access denied" message, apparently it saved after all. So I came back to thank you again and to post this info in case someone else has the same issue. Just ignore the 'Access denied' message.

Ace Money is a puzzlement, to quote the King of Siam. The original creators did such a great job in so many ways and yet did some really dumb things. importrules.dat is one of them.

[RLebeau]

I opened the file in Notepad and was able to edit, but when I saved the file, I got a popup that said "Access denied" so I thought it wasn't saved.

The Program Files hierarchy is protected so non-admin users cannot write to it. You can run Notepad as an admin, though.

and was about to write to you to ask about another way to edit the file. But then I went into Ace Money and VOILA! The 'service station' entries were changed to 'Shell', which is the import rule I had set up and which hadn't worked before. So my edit worked despite the "Access denied" message, apparently it saved after all.

Odd indeed.

The original creators did such a great job in so many ways and yet did some really dumb things. importrules.dat is one of them.

There is nothing dumb about it. It is not AceMoney denying access, it is Windows. AceMoney predates UAC, afterall. And there is nothing wrong with putting AceMoney's private internal settings in a file in a folder that is private to AceMoney, either. If anything, it was smarter to put the default rules in a file than in the app itself. Makes future updates easier.

[CyberCrone]

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree. To me there is nothing smart about setting up import rules not editable by user in the normal way. There's a long list of rules in that file for merchants and services I will never ever use, and as you know, 'service station' is assigned a category as a bank service - for most people, perhaps all people, 'service station' means a gas station. You don't think that's dumb? I do. And to me, the whole idea of imposing a long list of import rules that may apply only to a few people, without an easy way to edit them, is flat-out DUMB. That said, otherwise I am an enthusiastic fan of Ace Money, think that for the most part it is intelligently designed, nothing better out there that I know of, so I'm not in any way trying to denigrate the program or its creators. All smart people do dumb things sometimes. Except me and thee, of course.

[RLebeau]

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree.

So be it.

To me there is nothing smart about setting up import rules not editable by user in the normal way.

They are just default rules. Like I said, AceMoney should be giving priority to user-defined rules first, then using the defaults as a fallback.

as you know, 'service station' is assigned a category as a bank service - for most people, perhaps all people, 'service station' means a gas station. You don't think that's dumb? I do.

I do not. For instance, I myself use a bank account to pay for gas. So on one hand, it is logical for the default catagoty to be a "Bank Change". On the other hand, I use an import rule that sets the category of a gas transaction to "Automobile:Gasoline", but that is just me.

And to me, the whole idea of imposing a long list of import rules that may apply only to a few people, without an easy way to edit them, is flat-out DUMB.

Well, that is where my app will come in to play. I made it primarily for editing OFX banks (that is the biggest feature that users often request edits to), but I threw in editing importrules.dat for good measure