Setting high and low balance limits for accounts

The advisor FYI (Expert Assistant) feature of Money allows you to get warning messages when accounts reach certain limits. These can be specified as low and/or high balance limits.

Once a limit is reached, Microsoft Money can warn you with a pop up message.

The limits you set for this are not related to any overdraft or line of credit limits you may already have on the accounts - these are maintained separately, so you could set them up to tell you when you are, say, $100 off your limit.

You have to put in an absolute value though.

You can set limits for individual accounts. To set them, following the following instructions:
  • First, go to Advisor FYI or Expert Assistant. This can be done by clicking Tools->Alerts Center
  • Next, select the option to customize the Advisor FYI or Expert Assistant in the related box on the page on the right
  • Select the 'Account Balances' tab
  • Select the account, and check the boxes next to 'more than' and 'less than' (both if you want to use upper and lower limits)
  • Finally, enter values that warnings should be given at
The account balances window can be seen below - notice that 'AnyBank Current' has a lower limit of £4,000 set.

Setting upper and lower account balance warning limits in Expert Assistant or Advisor FYI in Microsoft Money

The limit will get activated once you go above the upper limit or below the lower one. For the 'AnyBank' account above, reducing its balance by £10,000 causes the balance to drop below the lower limit, and the following popup warning is displayed.

Exceeding an upper or lower account balance warning limit in Expert Assistant or Advisor FYI in Microsoft Money

Once you have gone through the limit, you will not receive warnings again, even if you continue spending. However, if the balance returns to a value which would not have caused a warning, and then is reduced or increased to breach a limit again, you will get the warning again.

Category: Planning