When plus and minus are backwards
A card statement where spending shows as positive, or a file with the dates day first. Two buttons fix both before anything lands.
Your workbook may look different. If there is no brown band of buttons along the top, use the Money Mastery menu in the menu bar above your workbook. The names are a little different there: Categorize is Categorize Transactions, Reports is Clarity AI & Reports, Dashboard is Open Dashboard, and Start Here is Getting Started.
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Read the transcript
Hi again. Today a small thing that confuses everyone once: a statement where spending shows as a positive number, or the dates are day first. Two buttons fix both.
Upload a card statement and look at the table. If your purchases are green and the payment you made is red, the signs are backwards.
Above the table, click Flip Amounts. Every amount in the table changes sign at once. Purchases turn red; the payment turns green.
Check one row you know. The coffee should be red now.
Now the dates. If the table shows the fifth of January as the first of May, the file wrote day before month. Click Swap Day-Month, next to Flip Amounts. Every date in the table swaps at once.
Check the first and last dates again. They should be the month you meant.
Click Add to Sheet. The rows land with the right signs, and your totals will be right.
If you added them before noticing, do not worry. Open Categorize, find the rows, and the Special labels video shows you how a card payment is handled so nothing counts twice. For a whole month with the wrong sign, label those rows Ignored and upload the file again with Flip Amounts.
Banks do not agree about plus and minus. Credit cards especially write a purchase as a positive number, because to the card it is. The table shows money in as green so a wrong sign is visible before anything lands.
Flip Amounts and Swap Day-Month act on the whole table at once, so a three hundred row statement is fixed in one click, and the green and red colours show you it worked before you add anything.
Green in, red out, dates in order. If not, Flip Amounts or Swap Day-Month, then Add. See you in the next one.
Hi again. Today a small thing that confuses everyone once: a statement where spending shows as a positive number, or the dates are day first. Two buttons fix both.
Step by step
-
Upload a card statement and look at the tableIf your purchases are green and the payment you made is red, the signs are backwards.
-
Above the table, click Flip AmountsEvery amount in the table changes sign at once. Purchases turn red; the payment turns green.
-
Check one row you knowThe coffee should be red now.
-
Now the datesIf the table shows the fifth of January as the first of May, the file wrote day before month. Click Swap Day-Month, next to Flip Amounts. Every date in the table swaps at once.
-
Check the first and last dates againThey should be the month you meant.
-
Click Add to SheetThe rows land with the right signs, and your totals will be right.
-
If you added them before noticing, do not worryOpen Categorize, find the rows, and the Special labels video shows you how a card payment is handled so nothing counts twice. For a whole month with the wrong sign, label those rows Ignored and upload the file again with Flip Amounts.