Transaction balancing

[Derek Atkins]

Greg Stark <gsstark at MIT.EDU> writes:

> Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU> writes:
> 
> > I think it's a bit more subtle that that.  Each import mechanism has
> > different 'strings' to match on.  QIF, for example, has a PAYEE, MEMO,
> > DESCRIPTION, Category, and I think "Account".  OFX has different
> > strings to search on.  HBCI is different from both the above.
> > 
> > I do not think there is a one-size-fits-all system.
> 
> You left out the amount field. Lots of my transactions come through with the
> same textual description. The only way I have of determining what they were is
> that they're always for the same amount.

Well, there is the question of "account" matching vs. "duplicate"
matching.  For duplication matching I agree -- you definitely can (and
should) use the amount.  For "account" matching (i.e., what is the
destination account for this transaction), using the amount doesn't
help you.

> I think it would be possible to throw a general purpose pattern matching
> system at this. Even a simple system like the bayesian filters people are
> using to pre-sort their mail should work great.

You willing to help write it? ;)

[good ideas snipped]

> But I think it's worth implementing a good AI for doing automatic filtering is
> worth it because 99% of the users will never write a line of scheme. Most
> programmers probably aren't familiar with scheme. Even I would rather not have
> to write scheme to do my filtering, it's just so nice when things work
> automatically.

I repeat my question ;)

> greg

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available