Skipped payments

[Pensioner]

Having recovered from the recent shower of updates from George - which I hope I have installed completely - there is one matter which I thought I'd raise.

When an overdue payment (SO or DD) is present it appears in the opening screen with an option to process.  However if "Skip" is clicked, while it goes away, it still re-appears the next time BG is started.  It would be useful for an option with Skip to update the next payment date to the next month, quarter or whatever at the same time, i.e. so that the payment is not made in this period at all, and thus the payment will not appear in the due payments screen until the next period.

Not sure if I have stated that clearly, but I hope you get the drift.

I could be handling it wrongly of course, but whatr I have done in one instance is go into the payment itself and manually changed the next payment date.

[ideasguy]

I assume you mean BS429, Richard?
RE:

However if "Skip" is clicked, while it goes away, it still reappears the next time BG is started

Yes, that is normal behaviour for the program.
It will continue to present itself until you process the NEXT occurrence of that S/O.
In that case you skip the unwanted one (again) and process the one that is due.
Having done that, the Skipped record will not appear again.

Matter of interest, can you explain why a skip would be necessary in a S/O?

[Pensioner]

Yes BS429

OK Maybe not a SO per se, but a regular payment set up as a SO.  For example my window cleaner comes once a month and I have a regular cheque payment for him but occasionally he skips a month (bad weather usually) so the payment has tbe skipped also.

Where is the "Next" command located?

[ideasguy]

The Next isn't a button Richard. It was used in my reply as part of a sentence.

Another tip.
You can Edit the pending S/O in BS429 and set the value to zero.
Process it.
Move it to 999997 in BS421.

Here's the BS429 rules:

• If you delete that processed transaction (in the same month) it will reappear for processing next time you use BS429
• if you delete the transaction after processing NEXT months S/O, it will NOT reappear for processing (there's that NEXT again ).
  i.e. "holes" (or missing S/O's) are allowed in BS429

Thus, in your Window Cleaner example (good for discussion) process as zero amount, delete it after you have processed the S/O for next time you pay your window cleaner.

Note:- BS423 allows missing S/O's to be processed to fill any "holes" if necessary.

[barryl]

Just as a parallel, in Quicken the equivalent skip function omits a payment.

I think "dont process now" is fine as a definition of skip but what is being requested is a new "OMIT" button which does what this thread is asking and results in a one month holiday from payment.

[LeeStoddart]

I had a similar case this month.  I have a bank account which pays a bonus, provided there is enough activity on the account.  Usually I have sufficeint activity so the bonus is set up as a recurring credit ( just like a DD or SO).  But in May I didn't meet the criteria so the June Reward didn't happen.

When I checked my bank statement I found that the criteria were not met so I deleted the (already entered) June bonus credit.  Now each time I start BG I have an outstanding DD to process - I have processed it again and then updated it to a zero value, and excluded it to the 999997 statement and I am still being told that June's entry needs to be made.

I think the fundamental "problem" or "feature" is that BG doesn't have a "next due date" held on the transaction, It is calculated based on looking for the highest dated transaction for the particular two character code and then working out the next date from then.

[ideasguy]

Permanent solution:
The "Skip this month" feature requires a database structure change.
I will add that feature in the next version of Bank Genie.

Recommended workaround in the meantime (as discussed above):
I will make a program update to allow Bank Genie to recognise a zero amount as "processed".
I've done some testing with the demo database and can see a couple of things I can do within the current database structure and deliver this to you in a simple program update.
(After Fathers day )

[ideasguy]

The program Process Standing Orders - BS429 has been updated to allow the Recommended Workaround and is now released.
See this topic:
http://www.flowergenie.co.uk/ideas/forum/index.php/topic,1996.0.html
The Group download includes BS429 at version 9 (or higher)