Reconnect Microsoft Money

Using the Back Door

Fool me once, shame on you... 

Money has a useful import feature, providing a back-door path to gathering online updates.  In its simplest implementation, the user goes to each of their financial institutions and downloads their latest transactions, subsequently importing the resulting files into Money.  If you only have a single online account, this option wouldn't be too onerous.  By no surprise, many of us had more than two or three accounts, and repeating the cycle over and over again each time we wanted to update would have been less than satisfactory.  Fortunately, we didn't have to.

Thanks to OFX transaction servers, the dirty work could be automated. I began looking into the option in late 2009 when, during a search, ran across TheFinanceBuff web site.  His series, titled Replacing Money, discussed some Python scripts that appeared to do the trick.  The article consisted of a series of posts describing how he got started, the changes he had made, and some alternatives he had considered.  As presented, the option required a few computer skills that many users probably weren't comfortable employing, but it looked promising.  The scripts weren't exactly what I'd call "robust", but it was an opportunity to build on a good idea.

Next: Get Online Data using Python Scripts