PDA Software Library/pdasoftwarelib.iso/PILOT/APPS/MONEY/PILOTMON.TXT

Text File | 1997-01-02 | 16.2 KB | 531 lines

 PilotMoney
1.10
Personal finances for the US Robotics
Pilot




FEATURES:    5
THE MAIN SCREEN    7
PROGRAM TITLE BAR    7
TRANSACTION LIST    8
1. The Date Column.    8
2. The transaction description column    8
3. The transaction amount column.    8
4. The total column.    8
5. The Note column.    9
SUMMARY LINE    9
MAIN SCREEN MENU ITEMS:    9
Actions->Run Report    10
Actions->Preferences    10
Actions->Balance Checks    11
Actions->Enter Repeating    11
Actions->Get Info    11
Goto->First Record    11
Goto->Last record    11
Goto->Today    12
Goto->Specific Date    12
ADDING & EDITING TRANSACTIONS:    13
ADDING A NEW TRANSACTION:    13
EDITING A TRANSACTION:    13
TRANSACTION EDIT SCREEN:    14
REPEATING TRANSACTIONS    16
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT REPEATING
TRANSACTIONS AND HOW THEY WORK:    17
TRANSACTIONS WHICH HAVE CLEARED:    18
MARKING CLEARED TRANSACTIONS:    18
ROLLING UP OR DELETING MARKED TRANSACTIONS:    18
PILOTMONEY PREFERENCES    20
EXPORTING DATA TO QUICKEN AND
OTHER APPS.    22
EXPORTING TRANSACTIONS:    22
SELECTING TRANSACTIONS TO EXPORT:    23

Introduction:
PilotMoney is a personal finances package for the US
Robotics Pilot organizer. It has been written as a
handy piece of software to keep track of your day-to-
day expenses etc.


Disclaimer:

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY
WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE
RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS
ASSUMED BY YOU, AND STINGERSOFT AND ITS
AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTORS ASSUME NO
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR APPLICATION
OF OR ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN THE SOFTWARE. IN NO
EVENT SHALL STINGERSOFT OR ITS AUTHORIZED
DISTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF STINGERSOFT OR ITS AUTHORIZED
DISTRIBUTORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE
LIKELIHOOD OF SUCH DAMAGES OCCURRING.
STINGERSOFT AND ITS AUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTORS
SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS, DAMAGES OR
COSTS, ARISING OUT OF, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOST
PROFITS OR REVENUE, LOSS OF USE OF THE SOFTWARE,
LOSS OF DATA OR EQUIPMENT, THE COSTS OF
RECOVERING SOFTWARE, DATA OR EQUIPMENT, THE
COST OF SUBSTITUTE SOFTWARE OR DATA, CLAIMS BY
THIRD PARTIES, OR OTHER SIMILAR COSTS.

SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW EXCLUSION OR
LIMITATION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR LIMITATION
OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES; SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OR
EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.


Features:

? Keeps track of 16 different accounts.
? Records and displays running balances for each
transaction.
? Records are only sorted when needed, and totals
are only calculated when needed.
? A note can be attached to each transaction. Up to
400 characters
? Displays minimum, maximum, ending or current
balance on main screen.
? Displays if any account at any time is or will be
overdrawn.
? Generates reports: Ending Balance, Minimum
Balance, Maximum balance,
? Total of unpaid checks, Number or unpaid
checks and number of transactions all accounts.
? Automatically enters repetitive transactions on a
weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or "End of month"
basis.
? Setting for how far ahead (in days) repeating
transactions are entered
? Transactions can be replicated or one-time
copied using Duplicate Transaction menu.
? Transactions can be marked as "Cleared" and
then "Rolled up".
? Transactions can be marked private.
? PilotMoney is lockable using the security
application.
? Goto any transaction using: Goto First Record,
Last Record, Today or "Select Date" menu at
main screen.
? Displays the transaction you just edited in the
center of the transaction list
? Standard support for Copy, Cut Paste etc. menus.
? When launched, PilotMoney displays the list so
that todayÆs transactions are shown at startup.
? Move between transactions from the edit screen
using the hardware scroll buttons
? Main title bar indicates if your daily balance
drops/will drop below $0.00 at any time.
? Transaction dates and times are recorded.
? Clicking on the date of a transaction marks it a
"cleared" for easy account reconciliation.
? Multiple display formats for checks and
descriptions on the main screen:
 Chk#: Description
 Description: Chk#
 Description
? User selectable currency indicator ($ sign can be
changed)
? Added a Debit/Credit popup item so you do not
have to enter - signs on debits.
? Dynamically resizes Total and Amount columns
for best screen usage
? Integrated fully with the Pilot ôFindö function to
find checks by number, description or note field.


The Main Screen

The PilotMoney main screen displays several things
about your accounts. On the top right is the usual
"Category" selector which is used to select which
account youÆre looking at.


Program Title Bar

The main title on the top right shows the name of the
program and also in brackets a ô+ö or ô-ô. This
indicates whether the current account balance is ever
negative. If the balance on the currently selected
account is ever below 0, the title will show (-). If not,
the title will show (+) This makes it easy to tell if
your account will be overdrawn any time in the
future as a result of any transaction you might enter.
Transaction List

The main screen of PilotMoney shows a list of
transactions. Each item in the list shows the
following information in the following columns:

1. The Date Column.
If the transaction occurs on or before the
current date and time, the date is displayed
as white-on-black.

2. The transaction description column
If the transaction has been marked as
"Cleared" the description will appear in
brackets. ()
If the transaction is a repeating transaction,
the description will have a small vertical line
on the left hand side.
If the transaction has a check number the
check number will also appear. You can set
how this is to be displayed in the
Preferences screen.

3. The transaction amount column.
This is the amount (- or +) of the transaction
and will be shown using the formatting you
specify in the programÆs preferences screen.

4. The total column.
This column can be turned off in the
preferences to make more space for the
description column. The total column will
keep an up-to-date running balance of the
current account.

5. The Note column.
If there is a note attached to the transaction a
small note icon is listed in this column. You
may click on the I to go directly to the not
field. If there is no note icon in the column,
it indicates that the note for the transaction
is empty. You may click on the space where
the note icon would be to enter a note, or
you can enter notes from the transaction edit
screen.

Summary Line

Under all the transactions is a single line with the
New button on it. This line also displays the current
accounts Balance, Ending Balance, Minimum
balance or Maximum balance. Clicking on the
balance text itself cycles through the options.

Main screen menu items:


There are several menus on the main screen of
PilotMoney. They are used to find transactions, run
reports, enter repeating transactions or edit the Pilot
Money preferences.


Actions->Run Report
This opens the report screen. From there you can
select a variety of different reports to run.
PilotMoney will generate the following reports:
? Ending Balances
? Minimum Balances
? Maximum Balances
? Total of unpaid checks
? Current Balances
? Number of unpaid checks
? Number of transactions
Actions->Preferences
This menu option allows you to open the Preferences
screen. On this screen you can set:
? The description line check # display format.
? Number display format.
? Number of days in advance to enter repeating
transactions.
? Whether to automatically enter repeating
transactions on startup.
? Whether to disallow access to PilotMoney if the
ôShow Private Recordsö option in the security
control panel is turned off.
? Whether or not to display the main screenÆs
ôTotalö column.
? The designator for the currency you use: E.g.:  $
Actions->Balance Checks
This menu item causes PilotMoney to delete all
transactions marked as ôClearedö and apply their
amounts to the account starting balance.
Actions->Enter Repeating
This menu item causes PilotMoney to enter all the
upcoming repeating transactions.
Actions->Get Info
Shows the Information screen with PilotMoney tech
support information as well as version numbers.

Goto->First Record
Positions the main screenÆs list at the ôtopö of the
transaction list.
Goto->Last record
Positions the main screenÆs list at the ôbottomö of the
transaction list.
Goto->Today
Positions the main screenÆs list so that the current
dayÆs entries are displayed on screen.
Goto->Specific Date
Allows you to position the main screenÆs display to
show any dateÆs transactions.

Adding & editing Transactions:

Adding a new transaction:
To add a new transaction, click on the button labeled
NEW on the main screen. This will create a new
transaction, and set itÆs time and date to the current
time and date. It will also take you directly into the
transaction edit screen to enter the information about
the transaction.
Editing a transaction:
 To edit an existing transaction, just click on itÆs
description in the main view. Alternately, if you have
just used the ôFindö command, and you click on
ôGoToàö PilotMoney opens up in the transaction
edit screen.


Transaction Edit Screen:
The transaction edit screen lets you enter or modify
the properties of the transaction you selected, or the
new transaction you just created. There are several
fields on this screen. They are:

? The date that the transaction will/or did occur on.
? The time that the transaction will/or did occur.
? A description - which will appear on the main
screen.
? A check number if the transaction is a check.
? An amount of the transaction. The little DR/CR
popup menu lets you easily enter debits or
credits without having to use the - sign which is
difficult to enter using Graffitti.
? How often this transaction is to repeat (E.g.:
Rent may repeat each month)  - See the
ôRepeating Transactionsö section for more info.
? The Type of transaction. This field is for
reporting, so you can keep track of what types of
transactions you used.
? Whether you received a receipt for this
transaction. (For expense tracking)
? Whether the transaction or check has cleared
your account. (This is used for reconciling - See
the ôTransactions that have clearedö section later
in the manual)
? Whether this transaction is flagged to be
exported to Quicken or to Excel. Check the
ôExportö checkbox if you want to export the
transaction.
? Whether this transaction is private and should be
hidden when you have security turned on.
? The note button. Click this to enter notes about
the transaction (up to 400 characters). The note
will appear with no writing on the pad if there is
no note attached to the transaction. If there is a
note attached, the notepad icon will appear with
text on the page.



None of the fields are mandatory and you can leave
the ones you are not using blank. Clicking on the
Done button will return you to the main screen.
Clicking on the Delete button will delete the
transaction.

I suggest that you always add a "Balance" transaction
first with your current account balance


Repeating Transactions

Any transaction in Pilotmoney can be set to
automatically repeat.

To do this, you need to edit the transaction by
clicking on it from the main screen. Once you are
editing the transaction you will notice that there is a
popup list labeled Repeat. From this list you can
select how often the transaction is to repeat itself.
Once you have selected the repetition interval, click
Done to return to the main screen.

You will notice that repeating transactions have a
small vertical line next to them. This line indicates
that this transaction is a repeating transaction.

Transactions which are marked as repeating
transactions are entered automatically into the Pilot
in two ways:

1. If you select "Enter Repeating" from the main
screen menu
2. Each time the program is loaded.

You can set how far in advance the transactions will
be entered by selecting Preferences from the main
screen menu. On the preferences screen you can set
two items. The first is how many days in advance the
transactions will be entered (in days). You enter this
value in the Repeat Range field.
The second is the Enter Repeating Transactions on
Startup checkbox. Check this if you want your
transactions entered automatically each time you start
the program.

Important note about repeating
transactions and how they work:
 You will notice that after repeating, only the last
transaction in the repeat group is marked to repeat
again. It is the last transaction and it is the one that
will reproduce itself as time progresses. If two were
selected they would both repeat themselves and you
would have duplicates.


Transactions which have
cleared:
As transactions clear your accounts you will probably
want to mark them off as having been posted to your
account. By doing this you can also remove them
from the PilotMoney database and also update the
starting account balance at the same time.
Marking cleared transactions:
To do this, you can edit the transactions themselves
and check the "Cleared" check box.

Alternately you can click once on their Dates in the
main screen. Each time you click on the date of a
transaction, it toggles between cleared and not-
cleared.

You can do an account "rollup" once you have
marked all the transactions you want as cleared.
Selecting Balance Checks from the main screen's
menu will do this.

Rolling up or deleting marked
transactions:
When you select the Balance Checks menu item,
PilotMoney deletes each and every transaction in the
current account which has been marked as cleared.

PilotMoney adds or subtracts the value of each
transaction from the very first transaction in that
account (which should probably be labeled as
Balance).

This in effect "cleans up" all completed transactions.
For example:


Screen Before "Balance Checks":

8/1
Balance
1000.00
1000.00
8/4
(802:Rent)
600.00
400.00
8/7
(803:Food)
60.00
340.00
8/7
(804:Telephone)
100.00
240.00
8/9
(Paycheck)
1200.00
1440.00
8/10
Beer!
40.00
1400.00
8/16
Bonus
500.00
1940.00




Screen After "Balance Checks":

8/1
Balance
1440.00
1440.00
8/10
Beer!
40.00
1400.00
8/16
Bonus
500.00
1940.00




PilotMoney Preferences

The preferences screen which is accessible through
the menu on the main PilotMoney screen is where
you can change several settings which affect
PilotMoneyÆs operation.




? The description line check # display format.
 This allows you to change whether the check number
is displayed in the Description column on the
main display, as well as where it is displayed -
before or after the description.
? Number display format.
 This entry lets you select how you wish to display the
amounts in the list views. You can choose not to
display cents, and also not to display the
Currency character.
? Number of days in advance to enter repeating
transactions.
 The repeating transactions in PilotMoney will be
replicated up to this many days in advance.
? Whether to automatically enter repeating
transactions on startup.
? Whether to disallow access to PilotMoney if the
ôShow Private Recordsö option in the security
control panel is turned off.
? Whether or not to display the main screenÆs
ôTotalö column.
? The designator for the currency you use: E.g.:  $
R   Ñ   ú


Exporting Data to Quicken and
other Apps.

Included in this archive is a program which runs on a
PC Windows 95 or higher OS. This app allows you
to select the MoneyDB.PDB file that is created each
time you hotsync. You can then view the
transactions, or use the Export function to quickly
make a QIF Quicken file or a CSV file for Excel.
2