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All right, so you found the transaction that you entered incorrectly. What do you do now? If you are staring at the transaction in an account register, either double-click it or click it and then click the Edit button on the transaction form. Then go right into the transaction form, fix the mistake in whatever text box or drop-down list it is located in, and click the Enter button. If you found the error by way of the Tools -> Find and Replace command, double-click the transaction in the Search Results list. When the Edit Transaction dialog box appears, repair the transaction and click OK. Suppose, however, that an error was made in numerous places. You misspelled a payee’s name. You categorized several transactions incorrectly. In that case, display the errant transactions in the Find and Replace dialog box. Then follow these steps to fix the transactions en masse:

1. Click the Replace button in the Find and Replace dialog box.

2. On the Replace drop-down list, choose which part of the transactions needs repairing. You can change payee names, category assignments, memo text, or transaction numbers.

3. In the With text box, either type a new entry or choose one from the drop-down list. If you chose Payee or Category on the Replace drop-down list, a list of payees or categories is made available on the With drop-down list.

4. Select the check boxes next to transactions you want to edit, or select the Replace All the Transactions Found radio button to edit all the transactions in the list.

5. Click the Next button. A “last chance” dialog box appears and lists all the transactions that will be altered. If you’re prudent, look through the list one last time. If you’re daring and reckless, click the Finish button right away. You can click the Back button if you get cold feet.

6. Click the Finish button.

Voiding and deleting transactions

To strike a transaction from an account register, either delete or void it. What’s the difference? A deleted transaction is erased permanently from your financial records. It may as well have never happened. But a voided transaction stays in the account register, where **VOID** clearly shows that you entered the transaction but voided it later on. What’s more, a voided transaction can be “unvoided.” Void a transaction when you want to keep a record of having made it. For example, if you start writing check number 511 but accidentally enter the wrong payee name, void the check instead of deleting it. That way, the account register records what happened to check number 511 and you know that the check wasn’t lost or stolen. Likewise, if you stop payment on a check, void it (and explain on the Memo line why you stopped payment). History records what happened to voided transactions, but deleted transactions are lost forever in the prehistoric murk.

Voiding a transaction

Follow these steps to void a transaction:

1. Select the transaction in the register.

2. Choose Edit -> Mark As -> Void. You can also right-click a transaction and choose Mark As -> Void or press Ctrl+V to void it. After a transaction has been voided, **VOID** appears in the balance column of the register, and R (for Reconciled) appears in the C (for Cleared) column to show that the transaction has cleared.

To unvoid a transaction, click it in the register and choose Edit -> Mark As -> Void all over again (or right-click and choose Mark As -> Void). Because voided transactions are reconciled automatically, a dialog box asks whether you’re dead sure that you want to change this reconciled transaction. Normally, you click No in this dialog box, because changing a reconciled transaction throws your record and the bank’s out of sync. In the case of voiding, however, click the Yes button to make the change. All you’re trying to do here is reverse a mistake you made.

Deleting a transaction

Follow these steps to delete a transaction:

1. Select the transaction in the register.

2. Choose Edit -> Delete, or right-click and choose Delete from the shortcut menu, or press Ctrl+D. Sorry, you can’t delete a transaction by pressing the Del key.

3. Click Yes when Money asks whether you really want to go through with it. If you try to delete a transaction that is marked as cleared in the register (R appears in the C column), Money warns you that deleting the transaction could upset your account balance and put the account out of sync with bank records. Clicking the No in the dialog box to keep the transaction from being deleted is recommended. Very likely, the transaction was cleared because it appeared on bank records, so it should appear on your records as well. Investigate the matter before deleting the transaction.

Categorizing Your Spending and Income

You’ve probably withdrawn money from an ATM machine, noticed the dwindling account balance, and asked yourself, “Where did the money go?” Or perhaps you balanced a checking account and scratched your head, asking, “Why did I write so many checks?” Money can help you find out. By assigning each transaction to a category, you can discover a great deal about your spending habits and sources of income. You can generate a report or graph and find out how much you spent on clothing and dining and office supplies. You can find out how much you earned in interest income and how much you earned from different clients. You can even find out how much you are allowed to deduct for income tax purposes. This article explains how to categorize transactions in account registers. You figure out how to choose categories and how to create meaningful categories that work for you. You also explore how to recategorize transactions. You may still have to write the same number of checks, but at least you’ll have a better idea why.

Looking at the Ways to Categorize Income and Spending

Money offers four ways to categorize a financial transaction. What are the four ways? You can categorize a transaction by category, subcategory, classification, and tax-related status.

By category

By assigning transactions to categories, you can create neat-looking charts that give you the big picture on your spending. You’ll see where all your money is spent and where the money comes from.

By subcategory

Divide a category into subcategories when you want to closely examine spending or income. After you have used Money for a while, try running a report like this one to show how much it costs to drive your car for one year.

By classification

Most people don’t need to bother with classifications, but they can be useful for tracking things such as rental properties. As the owner or manager of an apartment building or office building, you need to know precisely how much income the property generates and how much it costs to maintain. The only way to track income and costs, which fall into lots of different expense and income categories and subcategories, is to create a classification.

By tax-related status

By giving a category tax-related status, you can tell Money to include categories and subcategories in tax reports. An accountant may need two or three hours to examine account registers, find all the tax-related transactions, and total them time that you will be charged for. Money can do it in about six seconds.