FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Mojito version 1.1
Q: Why on earth should I trust Mojito with my financial data?

 A: Good question ... and I like your attitude. All of the code for Mojito is open source and can be viewed by anyone. Most of the code is in a library called MojitoLib and the rest of the code is included directly in the Spreadsheet (Tools > Script editor menu). That way you can see what it is doing and make sure it's not doing anything harmful.

 In contrast, Mint is closed source, and we can be confident that they are selling everything they know about us in so-called "non-personally-identifiable" chunks while making a nice little profit. Nothing is free folks.

 Mojito, does not send your data ANYWHERE. I will never see what your financial data looks like. In fact, when you start using Mojito, you are using a copy of the original. This copy is your spreadsheet, and you should share it with no one. Furthermore, Mojito never has access to your Mint password. Mojito is only able to access your Mint account because it "piggybacks" onto your existing Mint login (which is why Mojito's authentication process is cumbersome).

 One final note, Google Docs always uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to encrypt your data as it is transmitted to/from Google's servers. You know this because the web address starts with "https://ʺ -- the "s" stands for "secure". This is the same security used by Mint and your bank.
Q: How many months of transaction data can I store in Mojito?

 A: In theory, you could store several years worth of data, but I suspect the Google spreadsheet will start to bog down if you have too many transactions (maybe 1,500 or so?). Personally, I only plan to keep 12 months in Mojito at one time. At the end of each year (or maybe when I do my taxes the following year), I'll save a copy of Mojito and put the year in the file name. Then I'll download a new copy of Mojito and start the new year, from January 1st. If I want to do some calculations that span multiple years, I can always create a new (empty) spreadsheet and use the importrange() function to retrieve values from the annual Mojito spreadsheets I've saved.


Q: Why would I want to exclude any accounts, categories, or tags on the Budget or In/Out sheet?

 A: Excluding accounts, categories, or tags let's you do three things.

  1. It lets you remove "noise" transactions, such as "Credit Card Payment" where there is a debit in your checking account and a credit in your credit card account for the same amount.
  2. You can create a special tag to mark specific transactions that you don't want included in your budget calculations (my tag is called "xIgnore"). Another example would be a "Work" tag that you exclude to keep work expenses from messing up your personal budgets.
  3. You can create more focused budget items. For example, let's say you want to use an "Unplanned expense" tag to mark unexpected expenses (which could fall into any category) -- such as unexpected doctor's visits, weddings, car repairs, etc. You may already have a Medicine budget for routine doctor's visits, but you don't want an unexpected visit or two to be included in that budget and throw it way off. All you have to do is add the "Unplanned expense" tag to the "exclude list", then create a budget item with that tag in the "include list". Now the tag will be excluded from all other budget items except the ones that explicitly include it.

Q: Can I specify which accounts to include in a budget item?

 A: No, not at this time.
Q: Can I use Mojito to sync transactions from two (or more) Mint accounts?

 A: Yes! Each transaction imported from Mint has a column containing the Mint account that the transaction was imported from. So, you can import transactions from multiple accounts, and the budgets would span all accounts. This allows married couples, for example, to keep their Mint accounts separate but still be able to track their finances and budgets in a joint fashion.

Q: When I am done with a savings goal and it is no longer relevant, how should I "remove" it?

A: My suggestion would be to wait until the end of the year. On Jan 1 of the following year, start a new copy of Mojito, and don't update the old copy of Mojito anymore. You can then delete the categories / tags of the old savings goals from Mint. Your old copy of Mojito will serve as an archive and will still have the old savings goals. In the new copy of Mojito, add any savings goals you would like to continue saving for.

Q: Can I make copies of the Budget sheet so I can have multiple budgets -- to track different accounts, for example?

 A: Yes! You can make copies of the Budget, Savings Goals, and In/Out sheets to track different kinds of finances on separate sheets or to compare what-if scenarios, such as comparing multiple budgets to figure out which one works best for you.
Q: Can I use Mojito to track my investments and loans?

 A: No, not really. You can "track" your investments and loans by watching their account balances over time (which I find very useful, actually), but Mojito doesn't download investment transactions or show you the principle / interest breakdown of your loan payments. That being said, Mojito is a Google spreadsheet, so you can add your own custom sheets with your own formulas, etc., to achieve whatever you want.
Q: Is there a Mojito mobile app?

 A: No. You can view the spreadsheet using Google Drive on your mobile device, but it's not as functional as using a web browser on a standalone computer or Chromebook.

Q: When I "sync all", the merchant of some of the new transactions is ALL CAPITAL letters and the category is "uncategorized". Why is this happening?

 A: You are seeing your transactions in "raw" form. Right after Mint syncs data from your financial institutions, it spends a few seconds updating the the merchant field to be more human readable, assigning a category, etc. Since Mojito imports transaction data immediately after Mint syncs with the financial institutions, the merchant field update process may not have completed yet, resulting in these "raw" transactions with the merchant in ALL CAPS. Version 1.1.2.4 of Mojito attempts to fix this by importing account data before the transaction data to give Mint more time to finish up processing the new transactions.
Q: Mojito is kind of slow sometimes. What's up with that?

A: First and foremost, Mojito is a Google spreadsheet. I have implemented a lot of script behind the scenes to provide additional functionality, and I have tried to improve the user experience where I can; but in the end, it is still a spreadsheet -- which has power and flexibility, but also has limitations . Don't expect a rich user interface with the same level of usability as a standalone application or mobile app. 

Second, Mojito is an online Google spreadsheet. If you have ever used a complex Google spreadsheet, you know that it can be slow sometimes. That's just the nature of using online applications. The flexibility of a run-anywhere application comes with the cost of network latency and slower programming languages.

 Finally, if your Internet connection gets very slow at times, Google spreadsheets can be frustrating to use. I learned this the hard way as I was developing Mojito. My Internet connection slowed down to less than 1 Mbps for nearly a month. I almost quit working on Mojito because it was so painful. Thankfully that dark period has passed...


Q: I saw that a new version of Mojito was released. How do I upgrade my current copy of Mojito?

 A: For many Mojito updates, all you need to do is point your copy of Mojito to the latest version of the MojitoLib library. Follow these easy steps:

  1. Open your Mojito spreadsheet and go to the script editor (Menu: Tools > Script editor ...)
  2. In the script editor, open the Libraries dialog box by selecting "Libraries..." from the Resources menu.


  3. Select the drop-down list next to the MojitoLib library and select the latest version, which will always be at the top of the list.


  4. Click Save, then close the Script editor window.
  5. Select "Sync all with Mint" from the Mojito menu. You will be asked to authorize the script. Click OK. Verify the permissions -- they should be the same three permissions as before -- then click Accept.
  6. Select "Sync all with Mint" from the Mojito menu (again). Mojito will sync the latest data, as usual; but at the end, it will attempt to upgrade itself to the new version. If the auto-upgrade is successful, you will see a popup message on the lower right that says "Mojito upgrade. Done." You can also verify the new version by looking at the version displayed near the top of the About sheet. If "sync all" doesn't upgrade your copy of Mojito, you can try selecting "Check for Mojito updates" from the Mojito menu instead.

Note: The above process should work for most Mojito upgrades. However, it's possible that a future release of Mojito will have too many changes to be auto-upgraded in this fashion. If that's the case, you will receive an error message telling you to download a new copy of Mojito.


Q: How do I upgrade my Mojito 1.1.0 spreadsheet to version 1.1.1?

A: Recent changes in Mint's web services has caused the data sync functionality in Mojito to break. Mojito 1.1.1 fixes this problem but to upgrade your copy of Mojito you must manually replace a script attached to the Mojito spreadsheet itself. Here are the steps.

  1. Open your copy of Mojito and open the script editor (Menu: Tools > Script editor ...)
  2. Open the MintLogin.gs script by clicking it's tab on the left.
  3. Replace the entire contents of that file with the contents of this one: MintLogin.gs_1.1.1
  4. Save the file (Menu: File > Save)

 Once you have replaced the contents of MintLogin.gs, all you need to do is associate your copy of Mojito with the latest version of the MojitoLib library. Here are the quick steps to do that (more detailed steps can be found above).

  1. In the script editor, open the Libraries window (Menu: Resources > Libraries ...)
  2. Click the Version drop-down list next to MojitoLib and select the first entry in the list. It should say "Version 1.1.1".
  3. Click Save; close the script editor. Then, select "Sync all with Mint" from the Mojito menu to complete the upgrade process. If you get prompted to authorize the script change, click Accept, then select "Sync all with Mint" again.

 Note: If you do not want to manually upgrade your copy of Mojito or your are afraid you might mess something up, you can always download a new copy of Mojito and copy your budgets and savings goals to it.
Q: How do I upgrade my Mojito 0.9.1 spreadsheet to the lastest version?

A: To upgrade to the latest version, you will need to download Mojito and copy your data from the old 0.9.1 version to the new version.  To speed up the process, open the old and new versions side by side and follow these steps. (Note: if you make a mistake, select Undo from the Edit menu, or press Ctrl-Z, one or more times until your change is undone.)

  1. First, import some initial data into the new version by select "Sync all with Mint" from the Mojito menu. This will import your accounts names (AccountData), a couple of weeks worth of transactions (TxnData), and your categories and tags (CategoryData and TagData).
  2. Copy your budget items from the old version to the new version.
    • Copy ONLY columns A through F. Make sure the new version has at least as many budet rows as the old version you are copying from. If it doesn't, click the "Insert new budget item" button until there are enough rows.
    • Be careful not to paste anything into the light gray cells, or you may overwrite the formulas.
    • Copy over the two cells in the Budget Options section.
  3. On the In/Out sheet, copy over the two cells in the Options section.
  4. Finally, copy any custom sheets are charts from the old version to the new version. You may find it useful to use the "Copy To" feature. In the old version, right-click on your custom sheet tab and select "Copy to..." from the popup menu; then select the new version as the spreadsheet to copy it into. Note that you will probably need to update your cell formulas manually.
  5. You can import the rest of your transaction and account balance data into the new version be selecting "Sync: Import txn data" or "Sync: Import account balances" from the Mojito menu. Do not copy your transaction data from the old version to the new version because the TxnData sheet has changed considerably.

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