The Money Program v1.0 ---------------------- Written by Alan Bilsborough. Requires 1Mb Memory ******************************** ** This Utility is Shareware ** ** ** ** Details can be found at ** ** the end of this text file ** ******************************** Hello, and thanks for taking the time to look at this program. The following text gives a brief description on how to set up and use this program. However, if while reading, you get confused or think I`m waffling on a bit, then run the program and load the Example File (under the LOAD/ SAVE MENU). I know most programmers think that their programs are easy to use, but this program was written to be User-Friendly ( Heard that one before ? ) and most people should be able to find their way around the program fairly easily. 1.0 Introduction ---------------- The Money Program is a Home Accounts utility program which allows the user to keep track of up to 12 accounts simultaneously. These accounts are stored as one file allowing quick and flexible interaction between different accounts. All transactions are also related to user-defined groups ( i.e. Electicity Bill, Wages etc. ) enabling budgets and expenditure to be carefully monitored. There is one MAIN MENU in this program from which three sub-menus can be accessed :- |------ VIEW/EDIT OTHERS MENU | MAIN MENU -------------- CREATE MENU | |------ LOAD/SAVE MENU These four menus and their options shall now be described in more detail. 2.0 MAIN MENU ------------- As well as accessing the above menus the MAIN MENU also has five additional options which the author felt would be the most frequently used options :- 1) Input Transaction 2) View/Edit Account File 3) View/Edit Group File 4) View Account Graph 5) Budget Comparison Note : To Exit Program, press Esc button whilst in Main Menu. 2.1 Input Transaction --------------------- Hopefully this will be your most used option. The more transactions you enter the greater your ability to monitor expenditures (as well as keep your accounts up to date). A total of 2500 transactions can be input. All transactions have six elements :- 1) Date 2) Account 3) Group 4) Description (Optional) 5) Cheque Number (Optional) 6) Amount Note : No Transactions can be input until at least ONE account and ONE group has been created as they are integral parts of the transaction. Editing of transactions is very easy, so don`t worry about making mistakes as they can be rectified later. 2.2 View/Edit Account File -------------------------- This option allows you to view an entire account file. NOTE : All View/Edit Options allow you to edit transactions by clicking on their button. An edited transaction may disappear from your view page depending on your edit (i.e. changing account while viewing another). Don`t worry about this as you can only delete a transaction completely by choosing the CANCEL option, and you can`t do that by mistake. 2.3 View/Edit Group File - View and/or Edit an entire Group File. ------------------------ 2.4 View Account Graph - Click Left Mouse Button to Exit ---------------------- 2.5 Budget Comparison --------------------- This option allows the user to see at a glance the percentage of budget spent to date. Group Budgets are specified at the Create Group option (described later). To view exact figures click on the group bar. 3.0 VIEW/EDIT OTHERS MENU ------------------------- This menu has 3 lesser used View/Edit Options :- 1) View/Edit Complete Transaction File 2) View/Edit Filtered Transaction File 3) View/Edit Cheque file 3.1 View/Edit Complete Transaction File - Self Explanatory --------------------------------------- 3.2 View/Edit Filtered Transaction File --------------------------------------- This option was introduced to produce a more flexible option for the user to view/edit any combination of accounts and/or groups. The first option screen allows any number of accounts to be specified (ranging from none chosen to all chosen). The second option screen allows any number of groups to be combined with your choice of Account(s). The group option screen allows the chosen groups to be either added to the chosen account(s) file or taken away. This is probably best illustrated by a few examples :- A) View Main Current Account plus all other Electicity Bills B) View Main Current Account except Uncleared Cheques C) View No Accounts but View Car, Car Loan, Car petrol, Car Mileage Income All these examples will allow the user to view accounts/groups with a "What If ?" question applied and total different combinations of accounts/ groups. 3.3 View/Edit Cheque File - Any specified cheques will be displayed. ------------------------- 4.0 CREATE MENU --------------- This menu creates the framework for your transactions and has options to create five different items:- 1) Accounts 2) Groups 3) Direct Payments 4) Reminders 5) Notes 4.1 Create Accounts ------------------- Allows up to 12 accounts and their starting totals to be defined. NOTE : The account names and their totals can be edited but NOT deleted. As transactions are always related to an account it is important that the original accounts are ever-present. The same reasoning applies to Groups. It is therefore important to put some thought into the creation of accounts and groups. TIP : Create an extra account called (for instance) "Miscellaneous Expenses". This account could then be used to store expenses which would normally be hard to keep track of. The running total of this account would not be important but it`s contents would be. This method allows the user to store only the relevant transactions in your main accounts (i.e. ones which would appear in your bank statements such as cash withdrawals & cheques) 4.2 Create Groups ----------------- Allows creation of up to 30 groups. The above Accounts Note also applies to groups so it is advisable not to create too many minor groups which would not be used much. For these minor groups, it would be advisable to create a general group and use the DESCRIPTION to define the transaction more clearly. If required, the user can also define a budget for each group. This budget can then be compared to the actual amount spent using the MAIN MENU option - "Budget Comparison" 4.3 Create Direct Payments -------------------------- Direct Payments are regular payments which are automatically added to your transaction file. Payments can be made on a X-monthly basis (where X can be 1 to 12). The day of payment can also be specified. A total of 20 Direct Payments can be defined. 4.4 Create Reminders -------------------- Reminders can be used to (you`ve guessed it) remind you of forthcoming events i.e. Birthdays, Car Service Due etc. They consist of one line of reminder text and the reminder date. The reminders are displayed in the scroll line. A total of 20 Reminders can be defined. 4.5 Create Notes ---------------- Notes can be used to store any lines of text which the user may want to store i.e. bank addresses, telephone numbers or card numbers etc. They consist of two lines of text and are displayed in the scroll line. A total of 20 Notes can be defined. 5.0 LOAD/SAVE MENU ------------------ Data in this utility should be stored on a seperate Data Disk. Please prepare a formatted disk to Save data once you have edited your file. If you want to start a new file, you will have to use a seperate disk as there are NO options to select and save seperate files. This menu has five options :- 1) LOAD from Data Disk 2) Load Example File 3) SAVE to Data Disk 4) Save for Next Period 5) Save Ascii File (Account) 5.1 LOAD from Data Disk ----------------------- When selected, the program will look for data in drives Df0: and Df1: and, if found, will automatically load the data. 5.2 Load Example File --------------------- This option will load the Example File which is supplied on the Program Disk. Please note that Data loaded from the Example File cannot be saved. 5.3 SAVE to Data Disk --------------------- Saves data to your Data Disk. If a Data Disk is not present the program will ask why not ! 5.4 Save for Next Period ------------------------ This is a special SAVE option which saves everything to a Data Disk EXCEPT the Transaction File. Also, the Starting Totals for each account will be updated to the up-to-date running total, so the new Data Disk is ready for immediate use. NOTE : The User will NOT be able to save this data to an existing Data Disk, so please prepare another Data Disk. 5.5 Save Ascii File (Account) ----------------------------- Time for an apology and a sob story. I haven`t got a printer and this option is a feeble attempt to give you luckier people some kind of output. The basic idea is to create an Ascii file on disk to allow Printer owners to print out an entire account file or, if needed, edit the file before printing. Not a very good note to end the options round-up of this utility but an appropriate time to stress that this is a Shareware program and in return for registering your name you should expect, and will get, a say on how you want this program to develop. Any suggestions on how to improve this program will be welcomed. Registered users will be sent any future upgrades of this program. The Author`s main priorities are :- 1) To achieve full Printer options 2) Explore compatability with Hard Drives However, if no-one likes this program then I`ll employ Plan 3. 3) Ditch the program, and get back to playing F1 Grand Prix. Registration for this program is Ten Pounds (to the following address). Mr Alan Bilsborough, 7/5 Burnhill Quadrant, Rutherglen, Glasgow G73 1ER. Tel: 041 647-4872 This program may only be distributed if accompanied by this document file. The Author cannot accept responsibility for damage caused to any hardware or disks whilst using this program. The Money Program v1.0 was written using AMOS, Mandarin/Jawx. *************************** End of Text ****************************