'Detect Duplicates' doesn't work

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Nats
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 5:54 pm
Location: Pocklington East Yorkshire, UK

'Detect Duplicates' doesn't work

Post by Nats »

I have tried importing my transactions from the bank several times now and every time I have set 'Detect Duplicates' it hasnt worked properly. It seems to be mistaking cash machine withdrawals of the same amount as duplicates. For example if I import transactions with one showing a cash machine withdrawal of £10 and there is another cash machine withdrawal of £10 a couple of days earlier in AceMoney already it will not import the later one, even if the transaction is from a completely different cash machine.

I have tried it a few times now and was wondering why my transactions are never getting imported properly. If you increase the default timescale the situation gets even worse and AceMoney doesnt import loads of transactions it should be importing so your total never balances with the online statement total.

It looks like the problem is the Detect Duplicates facility isnt looking at the Transaction Payee field at all, just the transaction amount and date. All UK cash machine transactions have the date and cash machine code in the payee field so there is no reason for these transactions to be confused if the Detect Duplicates facility was working anywhere near sensibly.

This is really starting to make the import transactions a bloody nightmare. Because I cant use the Detect Duplicates now I have to check every transaction manually. Are you aware of this issue? Makes using the program pretty difficult and surely must be one of the biggest bugs in the program as it stands

Do you have any plans to fix it?
"It's life Jim but not as we know it"
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RLebeau
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Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 2:45 am
Location: California, USA
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Re: 'Detect Duplicates' doesn't work

Post by RLebeau »

Nats wrote:It looks like the problem is the Detect Duplicates facility isnt looking at the Transaction Payee field at all, just the transaction amount and date.
That is correct, and is documented behavior in the help file:
If detection of duplicates is enabled, AceMoney will not import a transaction from a file if there is an existing transaction in the account for the same amount of money with a date different by less than three dates (past or future). This rule works for the transactions without check numbers. If transaction has a check number then this period is 14 days.
...
The limits used for duplicate detection can be manually changed.
...
AceMoney does not take into account category and payee assigned to the transaction when it makes the decision.
Nats wrote:All UK cash machine transactions have the date and cash machine code in the payee field so there is no reason for these transactions to be confused if the Detect Duplicates facility was working anywhere near sensibly.
There is a lot of room for improvement in the way Import Rules and Duplicate Detection work. People have been asking and asking for an improved import system for a long time. Hopefully MechCad will actually implement it someday. That does not make AceMoney any less of a valuable app in general, though. If you are making LOTS of ATM withdrawls in a short amount of time can be frustrating, but if you are only making a small number of withdrawls in a small amount of time and downloading transactions frequently, then manually removing the duplicates is really not that bad once you get used to it, just a couple of keystrokes a day.
Remy Lebeau
Lebeau Software

User of AceMoney since 2004.
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Nats
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 5:54 pm
Location: Pocklington East Yorkshire, UK

Re: 'Detect Duplicates' doesn't work

Post by Nats »

RLebeau wrote:There is a lot of room for improvement in the way Import Rules and Duplicate Detection work. People have been asking and asking for an improved import system for a long time. Hopefully MechCad will actually implement it someday.
Yeah I mean how easy would it be to change duplicates detection to include the payee field?
"It's life Jim but not as we know it"
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