Mark J Cox | Home automation | Open Source Software | Security | Metrics

Getting USA Microsoft Money to work with UK banks

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:00:00 GMT

For historical reasons I use the USA version of Microsoft Money. Unfortunately the US version will only connect to US/CA banks and the UK version to UK banks and I wanted a version that would connect to both. There is no reason why it shouldn't work because the protocol used to talk to the banks is open (OFX). In fact it does work, and here is how to do it.

Unfortunately Microsoft changed the way financial institutions work with Money 2005 onwards, so this hack will only work for Money 2004 and below.

Disclaimer: Back up everything, I'm not responsible if you lose 6 years of data or if you suffer heart problems after Money reports your net worth is now negative.

You need a copy of the file FIPARTNR.INI from the UK version of Microsoft Money. Or if you know the details you can make one up yourself.
Backup everything, exit Money
Find your current version of the US FIPARTNR.INI file (it will be in the SYSTEM subdirectory of your Money installation)
Append the contents of the UK FIPARTNR.INI file to the end of the current one
Go into Money (make sure you don't do an internet update)
Goto your finanacial institution (Nationwide say), click "online setup" and with luck it will recognise, configure, and connect to Nationwide
After connecting Money thinks it's being clever and will notice you've altered FIPARTNR.INI and will download a new one. At this point Money will complain that "New online settings are available for Nationwide". You can safely ignore this message (and you'll have to ignore it each time you do an Internet update

But unless you use the UK Nationwide bank or the Woolwich you'll be disappointed; they seem to be the only ones that are fully integrated with Money

Cahoot Credit Card

Fri, 02 Mar 2001 00:00:00 GMT

Another online credit card that gives you a statement but no way of downloading it. How difficult is it to add that function? Anyway until they do here is a program to convert the Cahoot HTML pages into either QIF or OFX format

2ofx.pl (working November 2006)

To use the script:

Log onto the Cahoot web site, and select the statement you want to convert, display the printer friendly version
In your browser save the current page to a file. You sometimes need to do "view source" and save that version. You'll end up with a file, lets say cahoot.html
Make sure you have a perl interpreter on your system. If you're using Linux or other Unix you'll most likely have perl installed. If you're using Windows you'll need to get Perl from someone like ActiveState and figure out the command line stuff
Run
```
perl 2ofx.pl cahoot.html > cahoot.qif
```
Use "Import" in Microsoft Money to load in cahoot.qif

EGG and EGG Money Credit Cards

Thu, 01 Mar 2001 00:00:00 GMT

EGG has a UK credit card managed online. Although you can get your statements in HTML format Egg don't give any export ability. Back in 1999 I wrote a simple converter in Perl that takes the HTML from the EGG statement page and convert it into QIF (for import into things like Microsoft Money). Using something like Money 2000 or 2001 will let it automatically reconcile the statement and match transactions. In May 2000 I updated it to output OFX format, a much better format as it can transfer other information about the account such as balances. The same script deals with Egg, Egg Money, Cahoot, and American Express credit card statements and can output QIF or OFX format.

2ofx.pl (working June 2006)

To use the script:

Log onto the egg web site, and select the statement you want to convert
In your browser save the current page to a file. You sometimes need to do "view source" and save that version. You'll end up with a file, lets say egg.html
Make sure you have a perl interpreter on your system. If you're using Linux or other Unix you'll most likely have perl installed. If you're using Windows you'll need to get Perl from someone like ActiveState and figure out the command line stuff
Run
```
perl 2ofx.pl egg.html > egg.qif
```
Use "Import" in Microsoft Money to load in egg.qif

American Express Card

Fri, 02 Feb 2001 00:00:00 GMT

Another online credit card that gives you a statement but no way of downloading it. If you have a card in the USA you can use Microsoft Money to interactively download your statement. If you live in the UK you can't. Anyway until they do here is a program to convert their HTML pages into either QIF or OFX format for import into Money

2ofx.pl (working May 2001)

Lloyds TSB online statements

Thu, 11 Nov 1999 00:00:00 GMT

The online service from Lloyds-TSB has an option to download a statement in QIF format, but it got the date in the right order and it mixes comments in with the payee line. This simple Perl program converted their QIF to something sensible, but it's not really needed any more.

Equitable Life Pensions

Tue, 12 Oct 1999 00:00:00 GMT

The Equitable Life used to publish the current value for their pension prices on a web page, but not available in any format other than HTML and they did not used to give past information. In March 1999 I started capturing that data and converting it so I could use it to track investment inside Microsoft Money.

Unfortunately the Equitable Life had some problems and it no longer became an interesting project. Also inside Microsoft Money 2001 you can find the Equitable life symbols and so the prices can be updated automatically.