PDA Software Library/pdasoftwarelib.iso/PSION/MISC/BANKDEMO/MANUAL.TXT

Text File | 1995-08-02 | 130.2 KB | 2,913 lines

Banker copyright 1992-95 Pelican Software Inc.
PC copyright IBM
Series 3a copyright Psion Plc.
MacIntosh copyright Apple Computer
Quicken copyright Intuit
PackRat copyright Polaris Software


This software is protected by United States of America copyright laws.

Contacts:               Pelican Software Inc.
                        P.O. Box 741072
                        Houston Tx. 77274-1072
                        [phone] (Voice)
                        [phone] (Fax)
                        Compuserve:  72662,3050
                        Cix:           mesposito
                        INTERNET:   [e-mail]
                        AOL:        mespo



DEDICATION

Banker started out as a bank account manager for myself in early 1992.
It became evident that there was a real need to have such a product available
commercially, so I set out to make it happen. Along the way, a lot of people
helped out. First of all, this is dedicated to my wife Miriam who patiently
waited for this to be finished. (Again!) I also had some great beta testers
without whom this product wouldn't be what it is. Many thanks to them.

Special Thanks to Wolfgang Schirmer, Jim Hoyt, Jason Gant, Rowan Prior,
Alasdair Manson, Barry Balcourt, David Elder, Chuck Santiago, David Wood,
Colly Myers. It takes many helpful people to produce a product like this
one, and these people are the best.

NOTE ABOUT QUICKEN:     The name Quicken is used many times in this manual.
Quicken is financial software developed by Intuit. Banker tries to be
compatible with Quicken for the many Series 3a users that require this. Many
thanks to Intuit for their Qif (Quicken Interchange format) that makes this
possible.


DISCLAIMER

Although this product has been thoroughly tested. Pelican Software Inc. will
take no responsibility for any loss of data, or damage to hardware caused by
using this software.



TABLE OF CONTENTS


SECTION I  Getting Started

        Chapter 1: Getting Started

        Support
        Updates
        What you need to run Banker
        Installing and Running Banker


SECTION II  Using Banker

    Chapter 2: Setting up Groups & Accounts

        How Groups Work
        Creating New Accounts
        Opening Balance
        Inserting Accounts
        VAT Accounts
        Tracking VAT
        Jumping to VAT
        Special Key Commands

    Chapter 3: Working with Transactions

        Adding New Transactions
        Editing Transactions
        Edit Split option
        Edit Category option
        Deleting Transactions
        Transfers
        Go to Transfer

    Chapter 4: Split Transactions

        How Splits work
        Auto Entry
        Special options

    Chapter 5: Memorized Transactions

        Memorizing a Transaction
        Recalling a Memorized Transaction
        Memorized List

    Chapter 6: Categories

        What are Categories
        How Categories Work
        Standard Categories
        Custom Categories
        Categories and Quicken Compatibility
        Quicken and Standard Categories

    Chapter 7: Banker Settings

        Banker Settings

    Chapter 8: Diamond Key Views/Resizing Windows

        Resizing Windows
        Account List View
        Normal View
        List View
        Currery View
        Standing Orders View
        Category View

    Chapter 9: Reconciling Your Accounts

        How to Reconcile Transactions
        Reconcile by Date
        Outstanding

    Chapter 10: Searching Banker Data

        Search options

    Chapter 11: Sorting

    Chapter 12: Unerase,Tidy,and Password Protection

        UnErase/Purge
        Tidy
        Password Options

    Chapter 13: Exporting

        Qif format
        Ascii
        Packrat
        Dif (Spreadsheet) format


SECTION III - Printing and Reports

    Chapter 14: Printing the Check Register

    Chapter 15: Reports


SECTION IV - Utilities

    Chapter 16: Banker Utilities

        Calculator
        Calendar
        General Info
        Financial Calculator

    Chapter 17: Reminders/Alarms

        Reminders
        Alarms

    Chapter 18: Other Pelican Products

    Chapter 19: Plugins


SECTION V - Quicken

    Chapter 20: Quicken Options

        Overview of Quicken Support
        What is a Qif file?
        Importing Quicken Category Lists
        Exporting from Banker
        Importing Account Data into Banker
        Unsupported !Types
        Importing Memorized Transactions
        Exporting Banker Categories

    Chapter 21: Standing Orders

        What are Standing Orders?
        Setting up a new Standing Order
        How do they get posted?
        When all payments are made


APPENDICES

    Apendix A: Upgrading from Banker v1.0

    Apendix B: Flash and RAM SSDs

        What is Flash?
        What is RAM?

    Apendix C: Warning - Don't do This!




Support

Technical support is available at the following Email addresses:

        Compuserve      72662,3050
        INTERNET        INTERNET:72662.3050.@compuserve
        Phone           [phone]
        Mail            Pelican Software Inc.
                        P.O. Box 741072
                        Houston, Tx. 77274-1072

The quickest response will come by using Compuserve, and going to the Psion
area in the Palmtop forum. (Go Palmtop).  Here you can drop a public message
to other Banker users, or to Pelican Software Inc.  For Compuserve membership
in the USA call 1-800-848-8990.

- Updates -

Updates to Banker will come on IBM or MacIntosh floppy disks. Since Banker is
being supplied on a Read Only Memory (ROM) card it cannot be re-written to,
and thus makes updating a bit harder for those that don't have a Pc, Mac or
other desktop computer. In this case Pelican Software Inc. can make no
guarantee that there will be updates or fixes available on Psion Solid State
Disks (SSDs). We will make updates and fixes, if needed, available on floppy
disk. Be sure to send in the registration card as this will be the only way
we can send info out to you by mail.

- What you need -

To use Banker you need a Psion S3a or higher with a minimum of 256k of RAM.
This manual assumes that you know how to operate your Psion. Depending on
where you want to run Banker from, you may need to know how to copy files.
To operate Banker, you will need to be familiar with the basic operation of
the machine. If you are NOT familiar with your Psion, refer to your user
manual.
        ■ Tab key opens filing system when in the system screen
        ■ Tab key opens lists in dialogs
        ■ Menu key shows menus in all applications
        ■ Help key brings up help in most areas
        ■ Always press the Escape key to cancel an operation
        ■ The Psion key is the lower left key with the yellow line above it.
        ■ File management (copying, deleting, renaming) is done from
          the system.
        ■ The system icon always brings you back to the system screen.
        ■ By default, Psion's have 4 drives. (Internal, A, B, C)
                ■ Internal is for system RAM and storage
                ■ A is a Solid State Disk (SSD) Drive
                ■ B is an SSD Drive
                ■ C is an external drive (3Link, 3Fax, etc...)
        ■ Psion, Control, and Shift keys are special keys. They function when
          you hold them down while simultaneously pressing other keys. You
          can't just press the Psion key, let it up, and then press another key.



- Installation -

This section will help you to get Banker up and running quickly. It is assumed
that you have Banker on a Solid State Disk (SSD). If you have a Banker update
on a Floppy disk, or the electronice version, please follow the instructions
supplied for installing the files to your S3a. Installation time is the biggest
cause for problems with users of the S3 Range. One of the problems is caused
by not reading the instructions carefully enough. The other problem is caused by
lousy instructions.<g> You may be excited to get going, but it is important to
take the time to read these instructions .


Important NOTE:

        There are only two ways to run Banker.

        1. Directly from the Banker SSD (no installation needed).
        2. By copying the Banker files to an SSD on your S3a. Which method
           should you choose? The first method, running Banker directly from
           the Banker SSD is the preferred method if you have a slot free on
           your S3a, and don't have a spare SSD that Banker can be copied onto.
           If you have a free slot on your S3a, you don't have to do anything
           more than just insert the Banker disk into the slot, and start
           running Banker. This is of course the easiest way. The second method
           is the more complex method because it involves copying of files from
           one disk to another. For some users this is second nature, and for
           others it's a nightmare. Don't worry, it will be explained in the
           next couple of pages.

        HINT -

           Do NOT copy Banker to the Internal memory of your S3a. This would
           rob you of memory needed to run your programs. If you own an extra
           Flash or RAM Solid State Disk (SSD), you can copy Banker to this
           disk. If you don't have any extra SSDs, you must run Banker from
           the Banker SSD. Again, as long as you have a slot free on your S3a,
           this is the preferable way to run Banker.

- Method One / Running from the Banker SSD -

■ Insert the Banker SSD into one of the slots in the back of your S3a.
■ Turn on your S3a. (Yes the machine won't work if it's off!)
■ That's it. You're done. Go to the next section on "Running Banker".

- Method Two / Copying the Banker SSD to another Disk -

■ Insert the Banker SSD into one of the slots in the back of your S3a.
■ Turn on your S3a.
■ Make sure you have sufficient space on the drive you are copying to
  (Psion<M>).  Banker needs 256k for a complete installation to another drive.
■ Highlight the Calculator on the system screen.
■ Press Psion<C> from the system screen to copy the Banker files to another
  drive. You will need to set the first disk selector to the drive that you
  have the Banker SSD inserted into. The top line should show just a backslash.
  The following diagram shows how it should look. (The diagram assumes the
  Banker SSD is in Disk B, and you are copying to Disk A.)

                ╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║ From file:  Name      \              ║
                ║             Disk      B              ║
                ║ To file:    Name      \              ║
                ║             Disk      A              ║
                ║ Subdirectories        Yes            ║
                ║ Modified Only         No             ║
                ╚══════════════════════════════════════╝

NOTE
        ■ Make sure you set "subdirectories" option to "Yes".
        ■ Press Enter to begin copying the files.
        ■ Remove the Banker SSD. You're done!

If you previously had Banker running from the Banker SSD, make sure you
shut down Banker before copying the files. You will get an error if you try
copying Banker when it is running.


- Running Banker -

■ With Banker now installed, Press Psion<I> from the system screen to install
  the Banker icon. You will need to set the disk selector to the drive that
  you have Banker installed to. Look at the image below to see if you have it
  right.
■ You should see Banker_a.opa. If you don't , you either don't have the correct
  disk selected, or you already have the Banker icon on the screen.
■ With Banker_a.opa selected, press Enter to install the icon.
■ Now you will see the Banker icon on the screen. It should already be
  highlighted.  Press Enter to start the program.
■ Banker prompts you for your name and a password when starting for the first
  time. After you enter these you will see a short summary to get you started.
■ Banker will create the default files that it will need. Now the default group
  file is created for you on the Internal disk. Banker will give you the chance
  to change this during startup. You can create the group file on any disk on
  your S3a. It is recommended however that you create the group file on the
  Internal disk or a RAM SSD since it gets sorted often.
■ Your first Banker group is created and your ready to create some accounts.
  (If you're upgrading from an earlier version of Banker, you would press
  Psion<I> to insert your existing accounts now.)

If you are not upgrading, start out by pressing Psion<E> to create a new
account. (Make sure to take time to look over the menu options in this view
called the Account List View.)

■  Type in a filename, and choose the disk you want the file stored on.
■  You must enter an account description.
■  Pick a Currency for this account. Note that each account can have a
   different currency. (see the section on currencies for more on this
   subject.)
■  The position in list settings lets you keep a certain account on the top
   of the account list, or in any other position.
■  Warn when balance goes below lets you set a warning level for this account.
   Banker will warn you if the account balance goes below the level you set.
■  Custom Category list - Set this to "CustCat" for now.
■  Memorized list - Set this to "Memorized" for now.
■  Press Enter to create your first account.
■  You will be asked for an opening balance for this account. If you don't
   have in zero for now. You can update this later. Set the reconciliation
   status and press Enter to continue. Banker will display your balance. Press
   Enter again.
■  Now from inside the Account List View,  you can press Enter on your new
   account, and Banker will open that account, taking you into the Normal
   view, where you can view all transactions in this account. The Normal View
   is a single record view, like the data application built into the Psion S3a.
   Next, get familiar with the diamond key views. (if you don't see the diamond
   list in the upper right hand corner, first press Psion Shift<diamond> to
   set the diamond views on.)You're up and running in Banker!

   This ends the "Getting started" section. Of course you can get more detailed
   help on all of the above procedures by looking through the manual. Please
   Send the registration card in so we can notify you of any upgrades.


                ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║  Chapter 2  - Setting up Groups and Accounts ║
                ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════╝


If you went through the Getting started section, you are somewhat familiar with
creating a Group. (or maybe you're not!) Groups are viewed in the Account List
View. You can get to this view by accessing the diamond menu. In any view press
the menu key, and then the diamond key. This will take you to the diamond list.
Choose "Account List", unless you're already there, and press Enter. This will
take you into the Account List.

- What is a Group? -

A Banker Group is a file that contains a list of accounts. This Group file is
created from the system screen when you first start Banker, or when pressing
Psion<N> for "New" from the system screen. You also have the option of creating
a new Group from in the Account List View itself. (Psion<N>)

A Group file has the extension .Lst. We would have used .Grp, but Psion is
already using this file extension and we didn't want any confusion. Therefore
any files you find in a \Bank directory on your S3a with a .Lst extension are
Banker Group files.

Using groups of accounts is very common among finance software. Most popular
software use the same method.  You build lists of accounts that are relative
in some way. They may just be related because they all belong to you, or they
can be set up as types of accounts, like business and personal. This is
probably the most common. Lets say you have a business renting apartments that
you own. You might create a personal Group for all of your personal accounts,
and a business Group for all business related accounts, credit cards, etc...

- Splits and Groups -

There is one other Banker file type that is associated with your Groups, and
that is the split files. Each Group has a split file associated with it. This
is where all split transactions go from the accounts in the Group. Split
Transaction files always have a .spt extension.

- Creating New Groups -

When you started Banker, you created a Group. This may be all you will ever
need. You can create as many accounts inside this Group as you want.

- Banker Groups and the system screen -

Groups can be created from the system screen by highlighting Banker, and
pressing Psion<N> for "New". This is handled by the operating system on the
S3a. A message is sent to Banker telling it that you want a new Group file
created. This is how all applications on the S3a work, if they have multiple
files under their icons. Word and Data are good examples of this.

For the most part, you can create all of your new Groups while in Banker,
so it's not a big issue where you create them from. Note that all Groups will
show up under the Banker icon. This means that you to select the Group that
you want to open from the system screen.Group files can be password protected
from the Account List View. Choose Psion Shift<W> and enter a password. If you
forget this password, you'll have to re-create the Group since the password is
encrypted.

- Creating New Accounts -

Banker accounts are created from within the Account List View. Do this by
pressing Psion<E> while in this view.It is important when you first start using
Banker not to get confused between Groups and Accounts. A Group is a list of
Accounts. An Account is an item inside the Group. The Getting Started section
shows you how to create your first account. Here it is again.

■ Press Psion<E> in the Account List View to create a new account.
■ Type in a filename, and choose the disk you want the file stored on.
■ Enter the account description.
■ Pick a Currency for this account. Note that each account can have a different
  currency. (see the section on currencies for more on this subject.)
■ Setting the position in list lets you keep a certain account on the top of
  the account list, or in some other position.
■ Warn when balance goes below lets you set a warning level for this account.
  Banker will warn you if the account balance goes below the level you set.
■ Custom Category List - Set this to "CustCat" for now.
■ Memorized list - Set this to "Memorized" for now.
■ Press Enter to create your first account.

                ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║                 New Account                  ║
                ╠══════════════════════════════════════════════╣
                ║ FileName    Name                             ║
                ║             Disk              Internal       ║
                ║ Description                                  ║
                ║ Currency                      $(US Dollar)   ║
                ║ Position in List              1              ║
                ║ Warn When Balance goes below  0              ║
                ║ Custom Category List          Custcat        ║
                ║ Memorized List                Memorize       ║
                ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════╝


- New Account dialog -

Filename - A legal filename on the S3a is no more than 8 characters , a period,
and a three character extension, like Banker.bnk.  You don't need to include a
file extension since Banker will add it for you. All Banker Account files are
given a .bnk extension.Disk - Set the location for your new account. If you
have spare SSD's for storage, you can use them for storing Banker data files.
(see the section on Flash and RAM SSD's for an explanation of the differences
between Flash and RAM memory)

Currency - Choose a currency for the new account. Banker will allow you to
assign a different currency for each account. Note that if you don't have all
of the currencies that you need, you can go to the Currency View and create any
number of new currencies. Banker will attempt to start you out with your home
currency, if it can determine this based on the language of your machine. If
you don't find the currency on the list that you need, press Esc to abandon,
and press Psion Shft<C> to get to the Currency View. You must have at least one
account created first.

Position in list - You can use this option to make sure certain files stay on
top or bottom of the account list. There are a couple of tricks to setting this
up. You can choose to number the accounts 1-10-20-30-10000, or something like
that. This way , you'll always be able to add an account ,and squeeze it into
a certain position in the account list. If this isn't important to you, Banker
will auto-number each account with the next number in line. So, the third
account you create would be position three.

Warn when Balance goes below - This is a very helpful feature that will warn you
at certain times that your account balance has gone below your waning level.
Everyone can relate to this. If you have overdrawn your account in the past, or
are always close to being overdrawn, this will help.  This can be turned off in
the settings.

Custom Category list - Banker will let you assign a different custom category
list to each account. If you don't understand what categories are for, go to the
section on Categories and read about this. Some users may never need more than
one category list. A Banker category list is unlimited in the number of
categories it can hold. You are therefore not forced to create multiple lists
unless you want to. The most common need for multiple category lists would be
for Personal Categories vs Business Categories.

Memorized list - The Memorized list options work the same way as the categories.
You can have an unlimited number of Memorized transactions lists. You can
assign a different list to each account. (See the section on Memorized
Transactions.)

- Opening Balance -

After creating a new account, Banker will always ask you for an opening balance.
If you don't know it, you can enter zero, and update the opening balance later.
You can update the opening balance from within the Normal View or the List View.

- Inserting an Account -

Under the Account pull down menu in the Account List View, you will find the
option called "Insert". This option is used when you want to bring in an
existing account into the current Group of accounts. You will find this to be
an important feature. You may decide to create a new Group, and want to bring
in only a couple of accounts from a different Group. You can do this by
inserting the account, as opposed to creating. Since it already exists, you
just want Banker to add it to the list.  In order to do this, Banker needs to
calculate the balance for the account, and let you set the preferences for using
this account, like the warning level, etc...Being able to Insert an account is
key when upgrading from an earlier version of Banker. If you are upgrading for
Banker v1.0, you would insert each account, one at a time, until you've brought
in all of your accounts. (see the section on upgrading for more details.)

The dialog you see when inserting is basically the same as the "New Account"
dialog, except that it allows you to load an existing file. Choose the options
in the insert dialog the same way you would when creating a new account.

- Creating a VAT Account -

Banker will let you create a special account for tracking VAT. (Value added Tax)
If you live in the USA, chances are this is not applicable to you. Here's how
you create a VAT Account.
■ From any view, press <-> minus key, which is the hot key for preferences.
  Choose Banker Settings and press Enter. (see the section on Settings.)
■ The third dialog in the settings has an option called "Enable VAT Control".
  Set this to "Yes". Next set the standard VAT rate to use. Press Enter to save
  these settings.

Note:  You must enable VAT control before you will be able to create a VAT
account.

■ Go to the Account List View. Get to it via the diamond list on the menu, or
  by pressing Psion Shift<A> from any view.
■ From the Account List View, press the menu key and you will see a new menu
  heading called VAT. Use the arrow key to move to the VAT heading. Under this
  heading you will see two options.
  1. Set Tracking for Account
  2. Create New VAT Account
■ Choose the second option - Create New VAT Account. You should notice that this
  dialog is the same as the standard "Create New" dialog.

The only real difference is that a VAT account is saved into a \Bank\Vat
directory. In fact this is a must for VAT Accounts. These files must not be
moved from their appropriate directories. Banker assumes that the accounts in
the \Bank\Vat directory are VAT accounts.

- What is VAT? -

Value Added Tax (VAT) is the tax charged for goods and services in some
countries. People living in a country that uses VAT typically keep track of
how much VAT is being paid, so they can report this on a VAT return. (tax return)

If you live in the USA , the concept is similar to keeping track of different
types of tax like state sales tax, and federal income tax.

- Tracking VAT -

Assuming now that you have created a VAT account, you need to tell Banker which
accounts you want to track. In other words , you can have some accounts that use
VAT, and others that don't. You may have an account that doesn't need VAT
tracking. This way you decide selectively.

■ Go to the Account List View (Psion Shift<A>)
■ Highlight an account that you want to track, and press Psion<V>.

If you want VAT tracking on for the highlighted account, set the option to "Yes",
and press Enter. Next, highlight the account again in the Account List, and
press Enter to open the account. (This assumes you have the normal or list
views on your diamond list.)


- How VAT Tracking works -

Once you have VAT Tracking set for an account, Banker takes over for you. Each
time you enter a new transaction, Banker will split the VAT portion of a
transaction, and post this amount to a VAT account of your choice. Here's what
it looks like.

                ╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║         Transfer VAT ($37.23)        ║
                ╠══════════════════════════════════════╣
                ║ VAT Account              MainVAT     ║
                ║ VAT Rate to Use             17.5     ║
                ║ Amount to Use Instead          0     ║
                ║ Memo                                 ║
                ║ Reference                 100012     ║
                ╚══════════════════════════════════════╝


In the "Transfer VAT" dialog, start out by selecting a VAT account to transfer
to. Remember that you must create at least one VAT account or you won't have
anything to save the VAT to.

■ VAT Account - Choose a VAT Account
■ Vat Rate to Use - Defaults to the rate you entered in the settings. All
  fields can be edited though.
■ Amount to use Instead - This lets you type in the exact VAT amount, if you
  know it. Do NOT enter a percentage here.
■ Memo - Enter a memo for this transaction. (optional)
■ Reference - The ck/ref# will be displayed here. You can edit it if needed.

- Currencies in VAT Transfers -

Banker can convert currencies any time you transfer data from one account to
another. This is true when saving VAT. You may have account that uses Canadian
dollars as it's currency. Your VAT account may be British pounds. If you enter
a transaction in Canadian dollars, Banker will convert the VAT amount to pounds
when saving it. In fact you will see the suggested amount of the VAT on the top
line of the transfer dialog. You never have to worry about converting
currencies in Banker. (see the section on currencies.)

- Jumping to VAT -

Banker creates a link between a transaction and a VAT split. Since it has this
link, you can jump back and forth between the transaction and the VAT split.
To jump to the VAT split, (in the Normal or List views), press Psion Shift<T>.
You can verify that a transaction has a VAT split by looking on the menu.
Under the Search heading you will see the option "Go to VAT", if the current
transaction has a VAT split associated with it. The same is true with transfers.
You will see "Go to Transfer" if the current transaction has a transfer associated
with it. (see the section on Transfers.)

- Editing VAT -

You can edit a transaction that has a VAT split. Use the normal method "Edit
Transaction", (Normal or List View), and after editing the details of the
transaction, Banker will let you edit the VAT as well.

- Special Key Commands -

There are some special key commands in Banker that are not shown on the menu.
These are mostly single key presses.

        Key             Action
        A               Jump to Agenda
        B               Battery Status
        C               Clear Transaction
        F               Find
        G               Find Again
        I               Show space free
        L               Remote Link On/Off
        M               System Memory free
        O               Off
        Q               Quicken Options
        Shift<S>        Switch Accounts
        V               Category View
        Ctrl<B>         Show Balance and Cleared
        Ctrl<C>         Copy Transaction
        Ctrl<D>         Balance by Date
        Ctrl<V>         Paste Transaction
        Ctrl<N>         Set Owner
        Spacebar        Show comments
        Minus key <->   Preferences
        tab key         Calendar
        Ctrl<Help>      Brings up Help sensitive to the current View
        Help Key        Brings up Help Index


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║  Chapter 3  - Working With Transactions ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


- Adding New Transactions -

You can add new transactions from the Normal or List views. Choose "New
Transaction" on the pull down menu. Adding a new transaction is very simple
to do. There are a few shortcuts and special features when entering new
transactions. By default, pressing Enter without the menu open will take you
to the new transaction dialog. Control of the Enter key is set in the settings.
Banker also lets you memorize and quickly recall frequently used transactions.
(see the section on Memorized transactions.)  For more on Transfers, see the
chapter in this section devoted to Transfers.

- Choosing a Category -

To start out you must choose a category for the new transaction. If you're just
starting out with Banker, you should read the section on Categories. This
explains how to create new custom categories, and how to import category lists
from Quicken, if you use Quicken.

Banker has 28 standard categories built-in. These cannot be changed. For some
users they may actually be sufficient, but not for most. You will most likely
find that custom categories are needed to accurately define your particular
transaction types.

Note: Make sure you use a specific category for each transaction. If you don't,
it will be more difficult to get a good report later down the road. For example,
if you put everything related to cars in a category called "Auto", and then at
a later date you want to see how much you spent on repairs, you won't be able
to view all entries in the "auto" category to see items relative to repairs.
The correct way to do this is to create a category called Auto:Repairs, and then
you will be able to separate Auto Repairs from anything else related to Auto.


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║              New Transaction "Misc"             ║
                ╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
                ║ Ck/Ref                                          ║
                ║ Payee                                           ║
                ║ Amount                                          ║
                ║ Date                  10.17.1995                ║
                ║ Comments                                        ║
                ║ Reconcile             Open                      ║
                ║ Split Transaction     No                        ║
                ║ Currency              $ (US Dollar)             ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
                fill out all fields in the "New Transaction" dialog


Fill Out the information in the dialog

■ Enter the Check/Reference number (optional)
■ Enter the Payee (Who the money is going to - optional)
■ Enter the Amount (equations can be entered into the amount field)
■ Enter the Date for the Transaction
■ Enter Comments (optional)
■ Tell Banker the reconciliation status. (Open,Clear,Void)
■ Choose Yes for "Split" only if you want to enter multiple categories for this
  transaction. (More on Splits in Chapter 4 )
■ Choose the Currency for this transaction.
■ Press Enter to add the new transaction.

- The Check View -

This is a nice alternative to entering data in the standard Psion style dialog.
It does the same thing, but provides you with a more interesting way of
entering your transactions.

You can select the default method for entering new transactions in the Banker
Settings. However, we realized that you may want the ability to use both
methods randomly, so to enable this, we setup the Control<E> combination to do
the opposite of whatever your current settings are. In other words, if you have
your Banker Settings for entering new transactions set to the standard Psion
dialog, pressing Control<E> instead of Psion<E> will bring up the Check style
screen.

- Editing in the Check View -

The Check View has it's own editor. Here's a list of relevant key commands.

■ Tab key or up and down arrows move through the fields
■ The left arrow key brings up a Psion edit dialog box
■ The Delete key deletes one character
■ Control<Delete> deletes a whole line
■ Enter saves the transaction

- Currencies in New Transactions -

You can enter a transaction in any defined currency. If the currency you need
is not defined, go to the currency view to add new currencies. Banker will
convert any currency you enter to the currency of the current account. It will
use the exchange rates defined in the currency view.

- Editing Transactions -

The edit dialog looks much like the "New Transaction" dialog. When you choose
to edit a transaction, you can make changes to any part of the transaction,
including the category. When the edit dialog comes up , you will see the
category in the top line directly after "Edit Transaction (here!)" Change any
of the information you want. You can even make it a split or change the
currency of the transaction. When you're done, press Enter. The next dialog
comes up allowing you to update the category.

- Edit Split Option -

When you want to edit just the split part of a transaction,
choose this option on the Edit pull down menu, or press Psion<O>. Also note
that you can use this option even if a transaction doesn't currently have a
split. There is no need to go to Edit Transaction when you only need to edit
the split part of the transaction.

- Edit Category -

Use this shortcut feature when you only need to change the category of a
transaction. Make the change and press Enter to save. Press Escape to cancel.


- Deleting Transactions -

While viewing a transaction, you can delete it by pressing the Delete key. If
you are in the List View, make sure you highlight the transaction that you want
to delete first. You will see that when you try to delete a transaction, you
have a decision to make. Banker has UnErase protection. If turned on, all
deleted transactions are saved. They can be UnErased at any time. If you choose
to turn this off, the transaction will not be saved. You can adjust this in the
"Banker Settings" dialog, which you can get to through the "Set Preferences"
menu, or by pressing Psion Shift<B> in most views. For password protecting the
Delete option, see the chapter on UnErase Tidy and Password Protection.

- Transfers -

A Transfer is an option that lets you send or move money from one account to
another. (Always goes from Source account to Destination account) You can use
Transfers in many different ways.

■ Moving money from a checking to savings account
■ Moving money from a savings account into a cash account
■ Moving money from a checking account into an account that tracks a loan
  balance.

When entering a new transaction, you have the option of transferring money to
any account in the current to see how this works, go into the Normal or List
view, and press Psion<E> for "New Transaction". Assuming you have more than
one account in your group, you will see the "Transfer" option come up in the
first dialog. From here just choose the account you wish to transfer money to,
and Banker will post the entry to both accounts.

- Double Entry -

While Banker is not strictly a double entry accounting system, it can be made
to work this way. You would have to create accounts instead of using categories.

Future reports will print totals of categories across all accounts in a group.
Banker uses categories in the same way as Quicken and other desktop programs.
For most consumers this is the easiest way to work.

- How Do Transfers Work? -

When transferring money from one account to another, Banker will add a new
transaction to both accounts for you. For example, if you are making a credit
card payment from your checking account, Banker would add an expense entry in
the checking account, and a deposit in your credit card account. All you have
to do is tell Banker what account you want the money transferred to.

- Deleting or Editing a Transfer -

When you make a change to a transaction that is part of a transfer, Banker will
make the appropriate change in both accounts.

■ If you delete a transfer, Banker deletes the transfer in both accounts.
■ If you edit a transfer, Banker will make the changes in both accounts.

This way mistakes can be fixed without fear of getting confused about how to
find and modify the transaction in the target account.

- Go to Transfer -

This enables you to go directly from the source of a transfer to the target of
a transfer very quickly. In the Normal or List view, just press T if you are
viewing a transaction that is part of a transfer.  In the Normal view you will
see a box in the lower left hand corner with the letter "T" inside. This shows
you that the transaction you are viewing is part of a transfer. In the List
view you will see a small letter "T" next to the transaction.

In the Search options, Psion<F>, you will find an option for jumping to the next
transfer. This will let you skip between transfers if you're searching for a
transaction that you know is a transfer.


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║     Chapter 4  - Split Transactions     ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


Suppose you go to a department store and end up buying a shirt, and a vacuum
cleaner. How are you going to categorize this purchase accurately. There's only
one way. You need a Split Transaction. A Split Transaction gives you a way of
applying many categories to a single transaction. This way you can include two
categories in this purchase. You might call them clothing and household. This is
very helpful at the end of the month when you want to know what the money was
spent on. To split the transaction:

■ Choose "New Transaction"
■ Choose a category and press Enter
■ Fill out the information as usual, but set "Split" to yes.
■ Press Enter to save the transaction
■ The Split window comes up, allowing you to describe all parts of the
  transaction.

  Let's walk through setting up the above transaction. Press Enter to add a new
  item in the split. You can see that within the split, you can select a
  category, memo, and amount. The "Add" dialog always suggests the amount
  remaining to equal the total of the transaction, which in this case is
  200.35. Edit the amount for the first item.

Next you would enter the "Vacuum" under the Household category. The remaining
amount of the transaction is added for you. Press Psion<X> to save and Exit.
The split information can always be edited.

- How can I tell if a transaction has a Split? -

You will notice that a transaction that has a Split will show the "S" indicator
on the screen. In the Normal view it will be a large "S" in a button in the
lower left corner of the screen. In the List view it will be a small "s" next
to the transaction.

Pressing "S" alone in either view will open up the split for editing. If you
want to add a split to an item that currently has no split, choose Edit Split
on the menu, or press Psion<O>.

- Auto Entry in Splits -

The Split view has a feature called "Auto Entry". Auto Entry will allow you to
automatically enter a percentage rate of the total into the splits. This is
helpful for those that need to keep track of local sales tax, state tax etc...
In our example you may have a sales tax of 8.25% as part of the total. The
first graphic shows the menu. The second shows the same example with the 8.25%
tax entry.

Your next question if you're following this with your Psion is why your menu
doesn't look like ours. The answer is that the menu is customizable. Using
the "Setup" option , you can set the amounts that will show up on the menu.
It had to be done this way since no set of % rates would work for everyone.

When you choose the "Setup" option you will see four menu slots, with a
percentage rate for each slot. Start out by naming the slot, and then type in
the percentage amount. For example if you have a state sales tax of 8.25%,
type in the name as shown below, and the rate underneath the name. Once you've
added your own items, press Enter to save them. Now if you choose one of your
items from the Auto Entry pull down menu, the "Add a split" dialog will pop up
with the rate figured out for you. Use the Setup dialog to remove items for
the menu also.

- Add Remainder -

Sometimes you are only concerned about certain parts of the transaction and
not others. Enter the parts you want categorized, and if there is still a
remaining amount you can use the "Add Remainder" feature to add the remaining
amount into the split. This is for appearance only. Banker doesn't ask any
questions if your split totals don't add up to the same amount as the total of
the transaction. This is so that you are not forced to always make the splits
zero out. It ends up being more frustrating than it's worth.

- Special Options -

There are a few special options when in the Splits view.

■ Splits aren't saved until you exit the Split view.
■ Pressing Escape, or Psion Shift<X> will exit without saving.
■ You can enter equations in the amount field of a split.

NOTE -

The Splits view will show you what type of transaction is needed to balance
itself out by showing a plus or minus sign on the Transaction Total in the
lower left hand window. If for example the transaction is an expense and you
enter an Income category, Banker will show that you need more on the expense
side to zero the split This just shows you that you've used the wrong category
type. This won't affect the transaction total. Banker does not ask you to
adjust the transaction if the splits do not zero.


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║    Chapter 5  - Memorized Transactions  ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


Memorizing transactions is one of the most time saving/anti-frustration
features in any personal finance program. It is common for most people to make
payments to the same people, or organizations each month. There is no need to
re-type these transactions every time. The program should remember the Payee's
you use most often. Banker lets you memorize the names you use most often. On
the main menu it's called "Memorize". Psion Shift<M>.

When you choose this feature, you will see the Memorize dialog. If you answer
"Yes", Banker will copy the current transaction to into the list of memorized
transactions. Once copied they can be recalled when entering new transactions.
There are two other options that work together with the "Memorize" option.
They are "Recall" and "Memorized List". Use Recall to use one of your memorized
transactions. Use "Memorized List" to view all memorized transactions. See the
sections coming up on these features.

- Recalling a Memorized Transaction -

There are two ways to recall a memorized transaction. The first is to choose
the "Recall Memorized" option from the main menu. (Normal or List views) This
is the fastest way. Choose the memorized item you want and press Enter. This
will take you directly into the "New transaction" dialog, but all of the fields
will be filled out for you. Of course you can edit any of the data. As you can
see, you also can make this transaction a transfer. When Banker memorizes a
transaction, it won't save any info about a transfer. You can still memorize
a transfer, but you have to tell it that it is a transfer when you recall it.
On the "Transfer to" list choose the account you want to transfer to.

The second method of recalling a memorized transaction is to do it from the
opening dialog when choosing "New Transaction". For "Use Memorized" you can
choose from the list of memorized transactions. Note that any choice you make
from the category list will be ignored if you choose to use a memorized
transaction. The memorized item already has information about the category in
it. If you need to edit any part of a memorized transaction, use the
"Memorized List" option to view and edit memorized transactions. Note that
the "Use Memorized" option won't show up in the "New Transaction" dialog if
you  have not assigned a custom category to the current account.


- Memorized List -

Choosing the "Memorized List" feature will open a special type of List view that
only looks at memorized items. There are many options in this view.

■ Create a new list
■ Open a list
■ Merge a list
■ Sort list
■ Use,Update,Delete
■ Reconcile

Having a special view just for memorized items makes it easier to work with
them. You can edit any aspect of a memorized item here, changing the category,
amount, or reconciliation status. The memorized view is like any other view
in that the font can be zoomed, and the bottom windows can be removed.
(Psion Shift<Z>) However it is not a view that will show up on the diamond
list.  You can get to it by pressing Psion<L> from the Normal or List View.

- Use Memorized -

When you choose this option from the menu, Banker will exit the Memorized List
View, and go directly to the "New Transaction" dialog using the details of the
memorized transaction that you had highlight. This is just another way of
recalling a memorized transaction.



                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║         Chapter 6  - Categories         ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


- What are Categories? -

A Category in Banker is a label that you can apply to a transaction. You can
also think of it as a method for describing a transaction. For example,
"Mortgage" would be an example of a category. If you are entering a new
transaction, and you set the category to "Mortgage", you are telling Banker
what type of transaction this is, and enabling Banker to keep track of all
"Mortgage" payments. Categories are essential since they help to organize
transactions into groups, which makes for better analysis of your accounts
later down the road. It is highly recommended that you take the time to create
custom categories when needed, as opposed to putting a bunch of transactions
in the "Misc" category. Very few transactions should be classified as
miscellaneous. At the end of the year it won't help much to find out that half
of your income was spent on Miscellaneous.

- How Categories work -

Categories are an integral part of Banker. They are used in many different ways,
like in reports, printing, and viewing by category, to name a few. Banker comes
with 28 built-in categories. They are referred to as being the "Standard"
categories. These categories are common types of descriptions that presumably
everyone would need to use. (You may not use all of them.) The only benefit to
using standard categories over custom categories is that they take less memory
to store inside a transaction. This should not be a major issue though. If you
like using all custom categories, go ahead. (see the next section on creating
custom categories.) You will find that in the Banker Settings you can disable
"Standard Categories".

- Standard Categories -
( + sign indicates income categories )
■ Misc          ■ AutoIns
■ Withdraw      ■ AutoLoan
■ Income +      ■ Phone
■ Atm           ■ Clothing
■ Interest +    ■ Entertainment
■ Bank Charges  ■ Gift_give
■ Transfer +    ■ Gifts_rec +
■ ElecWD        ■ Medical
■ OpenBal +     ■ Groceries
■ OtherInc +    ■ LifeIns
■ Elec/Gas      ■ OtherIns
■ Water         ■ Computers
■ Rent/Mort     ■ Travel
■ Auto Fuel     ■ Maint/Repair

You will always be given the option of using standard categories. (unless you
disable them.)

Remember that you must assign some category to each transaction. You have a
choice of using a standard category or a custom category. Custom categories
are all user defined. (That means you create them yourself.) Note also that
custom categories don't show up if you don't create any. Therefore the above
picture would look a bit different. All Income categories will have a <+>plus
sign after them so they can be picked out easily.

- Custom Categories -

Banker can have an unlimited number of custom categories in a category file,
and these categories can be up to 47 characters each. However, if they need to
be Quicken compatible, they should be no more than three sets of 15 characters
separated by colons. (ie. Business:Auto:loan). This is how Banker can be
compatible with subcategories in Quicken.

If you're using Quicken, and need to import your Quicken categories, skip ahead
to the section called "Categories and Quicken compatibility".

To get into the custom category options go to "Set Preferences" , Psion<Q>,
and choose the "Set Categories" option. The picture below shows you what it
should look like. Note that the current default custom list is the one that
will be shown initially. You can of course open any other list using the "Open"
option.
(Beta Note: Set Categories is now Psion<K> under the "File" menu)

All custom category options except importing and exporting related ones are
found here. If you need to create a new category, this is where you can do
it. You can see that there are some very useful features here including the
ability to merge a category list into the currently open list. Banker always
shows you the currently open category list at the top of the dialog. Most of
these options are self explanatory, although a few of them need explaining.

■ Use New to create a new category in the current list.
■ Use Edit to edit a category in the current list.
■ Use Delete to delete an item from the current category list.
■ Use List to view the current category list.
■ Use Create/Open to create or open a new list.
■ Use Merge to merge in a different list into the current list.
■ Use Sort to sort the currently list alphabetically.

- Create -

This lets you create new category lists. The default list
(\Bank\Cat\Custcat.cat) created by Banker may not be enough. In this case you
would use the "Create" option to create a new category list. You can have as
many category lists as you need. Just remember that you have to assign a list
to an account before it can be used, and an account can only have one category
list assigned to it. This makes it very flexible, but also means you need all
relative categories in a single list. For example, you may wish to create a
Business list, and a personal list, if you have business related expenses that
you would keep in a separate account.

- Merge -

This is a very helpful feature that will merge the contents of a Banker category
list with the current open list. You might use this in a case where you started
a specialized list, and later decided to add the items in that list to your
main category list. Rather than having to re-type them in, just use the Merge
feature.

You may have noticed that the background shows different views. That is
because you can call up the preferences from any view.

- Edit -

There are two very special features built into the Edit option. The first
occurs when you try to change a category name, Banker gives you the option of
updating all transactions that used this category. If you don't choose to
update all transactions, and you already have transactions using the
pre-updated category name, you should just know that Banker will treat these
as two different categories, since they no longer have the same name.

The second secial feature occurs when you change the type of a category. Type
being "Expense" or "Deposit". This is more crucial then the first. Banker will
give you the option of updating all transactions, changing the amounts since
you have redefined the type of the category. You will also need to use the
"Verify Balance" option in the Account list view to reset the balances of your
accounts.

Note that if you do choose to change a category name or type, Banker will open
all accounts in the current group to make changes. It will not open accounts in
other groups.

- Categories and Quicken Compatibility -

If you are using Quicken, you should start out by exporting your Quicken
category list from Quicken. You do this from Quicken, not from Banker.

In Quicken...
■ Choose the "Export" option under the "File" menu heading.
■ Click on the "Category List" option only.
■ Select the "Qif File to Export to", and call it "catlist.qif."
■ Click on OK to export the file.
■ Copy this file to a \Bank directory on your S3.

In Banker...
■ From the Normal or List view, choose "Quicken Options" under the "Special"
  menu heading.
■ Select "Import" and press Enter.
■ Select "Import Category List" and press Enter.
■ Read the quick help, and press Enter.
■ Set the first item "Name" to the category list that you copied from Quicken.
  If the disk selector is not on the disk you copied the file to, you'll need
  to change it. In other words, find the catlist.qif file that you just copied
  to your S3. If you didn't copy the file to the \Bank directory, you may have
  to press the tab key to open up the filing system to go look for the
  catlist.qif file.
■ Set the "New File  Name:" to a name you want to give to your new category
  list. If this is your main Quicken category list, you might call it
  Quicken.cat.
■ Press Enter to begin importing.

When the importing is finished, Banker will show you how many categories it
imported. Your done importing. Now that you're done, go to the Account List
View, and update all accounts that you want to use the new Quicken category
list. Since this list contains all the categories that you use in Quicken, you
will now be using the exact same category names as you are using in Quicken.
This is important when it comes time to do any importing or exporting. Since
the category names will match, you will have no problems bringing data back
and forth.

All custom category lists (*.cat) go into a \Bank\Cat directory. If they get
moved from this directory, Banker will not find them. Therefore when creating
new lists, you must always stay in this directory. Banker puts all new lists
there by default.

- Quicken and Standard Categories -

When exporting transactions to Quicken, try to use the same category names in
both Banker and Quicken. This was already discussed in the previous paragraphs.
If you run into a case where you do not have the same names, which is the case
with some of the Standard Categories, Banker gives you the option to convert
these names before doing an export to Qif. This does not apply to custom
categories.

The "Banker" name is the category name as it is in Banker. In this case, ElecWD.

■ Type in the name you want to convert this to on export.
■ Choose the action - Convert, or Don't Convert.
■ Press Enter to Convert, or to move to the next category.

When you convert these standard categories, Banker will save these conversions
to file. You always have the opportunity of editing the conversion before
exporting. These category conversions are kept in a file called Quickcat.odb
in the \Bank directory.


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║      Chapter 7  - Banker Settings       ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


Banker Settings allow you to set up Banker to work in ways more suited to your
liking.

■ Choose Psion<Q>, or  <-> to get to the "Set Preferences" menu.
■ Choose "Banker Settings" and press Enter.

Sound sets the sound universally on or off.

UnErase Protection sets the UnErase on or off. When UnErase protection is on,
all transactions that get deleted are saved to file until purged.

On/Esc Exits to System lets you force the On/Esc key to leave Banker and go to
the system. (Banker is still running.) This is not generally recommended since
the On/Esc key also brings you to the last view in Banker.

Define Enter Key lets you decide what the Enter key will do in Banker. There are
three options.

■ New Transaction  - enter a new transaction
■ Edit Transaction - edit the current transaction
■ Next Record      - move to the next transaction

Set Enter Data Screen sets the type of view you want for entering new
transactions. There are two choices.

■ Standard Dialog
■ Check

The Standard Dialog is the normal Psion type dialog. The Check view is a
custom screen that looks like you are writing a check. There is a secret way
regardless of which you save as your default, to get to the other method.
Press Control<E>.

Prompt Y/N to Reconcile helps to speed things up a bit when you are reconciling
a bunch of transactions. Normally Banker would bring up a dialog saying...


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║           Mark Transaction as Cleared?          ║
                ╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
                ║                                                 ║
                ║              No                Yes              ║
                ║           ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒           ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒            ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════╝


If you don't want to get this prompt, just set the setting to "No".

Warnings Enabled sets the low balance warnings on or off. Use this when you
don't want Banker slowing you down with warnings.

Account View Sorting sets the sorting on or off when in the Account List View.
If you have a short list of accounts and you don't want to wait for it to sort
every time something gets updated in the list, set it to "No".

Press Escape to continue without saving any changes, or press Enter to continue
and save changes.

                Here's The second settings dialog.

Disable Editing of Imported Transactions - Use this option when you want
Banker to stop you from editing an imported transaction. You may wonder why
you would want to do this. If you are using Banker with desktop software like
Quicken, you may not want to edit transactions that are already set in Quicken,
this may get the two programs out of synch. This feature becomes a way to stop
you from doing that. If you set this to "NO", Banker will still warn you that
you are editing an imported transaction, but it will allow you to do it.

Show Comment Window in Normal View turns the comment window on or off.

Select Custom Categories by Default lets you tell Banker to choose "Custom"
by default in all dialogs that make you choose between standard and custom
categories.

Disable Standard Categories goes a step further and tells Banker that you don't
want to use Standard Categories at all.

Set favorite View for Auto-Open - The Auto-Open feature sets a certain account
to open on startup. If this is set, Banker will not go to the Account List View
at startup, but will go directly to the view that you have set as your favorite
view. Options are...

■ Last View
■ Normal
■ List

Disable Duplicate Check Warning - Banker by default will warn you when you try
to enter a duplicate check number. If you would rather not get these warnings,
set this to "No".

Prompt for Exchange Rate forces Banker to give you the chance to enter an
exchange rate anytime it converts currencies. This is useful when you are out
of the country, using cash where the exchange rate may be different each time
you make a purchase.

Set Term for Future Transactions is a friendly way in Banker to adjust a this
term. Most call it Standing Orders in Europe, but in the USA people don't have
a clue what a Standing Order is. This gives everyone a chance to set the
terminology in a way that makes sense.

                Here's the third settings dialog.

Enable VAT Control tells Banker that you want to use the VAT functions.

VAT Rate to Use lets you enter the default VAT Rate.




                ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║ Chapter 8  - Diamond Key Views/Resizing Windows  ║
                ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════╝



Banker is similar to built-in software on the S3 in that it can zoom font sizes,
although only in two sizes. Do this in all views by pressing Psion<Z>.

Next, Banker can completely remove the two lower windows by pressing Psion
Shift<Z>. This will enable you to use the full screen, which can be helpful
especially in the List View.

- The Status Window -

You may have noticed in the examples used in this manual that the status
Window can be sized to the three standard sizes. To do this, press
Control<Menu>.

- Diamond Key Views -

The diamond key on the S3a is used mostly to change between different ways of
viewing data, or between different functions of the software being used. Banker
is no different. Using the diamond key you can switch between the different
views in Banker. First to make sure you are aware of all of the different views,
you can press Psion Shift<diamond>, or choose "Set up u List" on the main menu.

Use this dialog to set up your diamond lists with the views that you like. For
example if you don't use the Currency view, you can take it off the diamond
list. If you live in the USA and don't use Standing Orders, you can take it
off the list too. Set up the list in a way the works best for you.

- Account List View -

The Account List View is the opening view that contains your list of accounts.
The list is comprised of all accounts in the current group. Mainly this view
is provided to create groups and accounts, and to set up any specifics about
the accounts. There are some special settings for each account that can be set
here.

- Verify Balance -

This special option will recalculate account balances. It will be a rare case
when you would have to use this feature. One case is mentioned in this manual,
and that is when you change the specifications of a custom category from expense
to deposit, or vice versa. If your balances don't add up with the same data on
your desktop, you may want to verify the balance of that account using this
feature.

- Account Number -

This feature lets you add your account number for each account in the group
file. There is enough room in this dialog to include the phone number of the
Bank, and a contact person. Enter the account number and press Enter to save.

- Set Auto Open -

You can set Banker to automatically open a certain account without going to
the Account List View.

■ Select the "Set Auto Open" option from the menu.
■ Choose any account in the group.
■ Press Enter to save.The next time you start Banker using the current group,
  Banker will bypass the Account List, and go directly into your favorite
  view.

- Net Worth -

The Net Worth option will calculate the total of all accounts and show you your
net worth. If you have accounts that use different currencies, they will be
converted into your base currency and added to the total.

- Special Delete -

To delete all types of Banker files use the Special Delete option. This will
allow you to delete all Banker file types.

■ Bank       (.bnk)
■ Tidy       (.tdy)
■ Quicken    (.qif)
■ Report     (.rpt)
■ Print      (.prn)
■ Category   (.cat)
■ Memorized  (.mem)

Of course these files can all be deleted from the system screen, but this
gives you an easier way of looking for Banker related files.

- Backup -

Using the Backup option you can save a copy of Banker files to another drive,
or to a backup directory on the same drive. Note that this is almost the same
as tidying. The difference is that when tidying you can delete transactions
while they are being saved to file. Using Backup you are copying the entire
file.

- Normal and List View -

The Normal and List Views are your main areas for viewing transactions. The
Normal View is a single record view. You only see one transaction at a time
in the this view. Banker's strong point is being able to show your data in
different ways.

There are some differences in the Normal view.

■ The comment window can be removed. (Banker Settings)
■ The lower windows cannot be removed.
■ Income Transactions are bold.

The List View is a more traditional way of viewing transactions in a scrolling
list. This List is the standard method for viewing information in Banker.
Pressing the up and down arrow you can scroll through the list of transactions.
There are some special keys for viewing and many of these apply to the Normal
view as well.

■ Up and down arrow move up and down through the list.
■ Psion<Up> moves up one screen.
■ Psion<Down> moves down one screen.
■ Psion<Left arrow>, (Home) moves to the first transaction.
■ Psion<Right arrow>, (End) moves to the last transaction.
■ Psion Control<Up arrow> moves to the first transaction.
■ Psion Control<Down arrow> moves to the last transaction.
■ Psion<Help> (Dial) brings up the Banker dialer.
■ Control<Up/Down arrow> brings up the quick search box.
■ Control<E> brings up other "New Transaction" dialog.
■ Control<Menu> resizes status window.
■ Space bar brings up the expanded comment window.
■ Tab key brings up the Banker calendar.
■ Zero key brings up the calculator

- Currency View -

The Currency View shows all currencies entered into Banker's currency database.
At startup Banker attempts to determine your home currency based on the
language of your machine. It may be wrong in some cases. This currency will be
the only one in your database at startup. You can add as many new currencies as
you need.

The Currency View has a dual function.

■ Allow you to enter currencies for use in Banker
■ Do on-the-fly currency conversions. When in this mode, press the space bar to
  get back to showing exchange rates.

When adding a new currency...

■ Enter the name of the currency. (like US Dollar)
■ Enter the symbol. (Duplicates are not allowed)
■ Enter the equivalent of 1 base unit.

The currency view always has a base unit, or home currency. When you enter an
exchange rate, it must be the equivalent of 1 in your base currency.

- Select as Base Currency -

The base currency in Banker is the currency that all others relate to in regards
to the exchange rate. In order to convert one currency to another, you must
have exchange rates for each currency. You can change the base currency at any
time by choosing the "Select as Base Currency" option. When you do this, all
exchange rates are converted for you. For example if your base currency is US
Dollar, and the exchange rate for British Pounds is .64 to 1., and you decide
to make British Pounds the base currency, Banker will set the rate for Pounds
to 1 to 1, and the rate for US Dollar to 1.56 to 1.

- Quick Convert -

Banker gives you a special way of quickly entering numbers for conversion.
Here's how it works.

■ Instead of choosing "Convert" from the menu, just start entering a number.
  The convert dialog will pop up while you're entering the numbers. Use this
  to do quick currency conversions.

- Standing Orders View -

Also known as "Future Transactions", or "Recurring Transactions". Use this view
when you need to work with Standing Orders. The menu is limited to adding,
updating, and deleting Standing Orders.

If you need to know more about what Standing Orders are, see the chapter on
Standing Orders.

All screen resizing and zooming work in this view. Pressing the space bar will
bring up a special comment viewer. The comment viewer in this view only will
show the Source and Destination account names involved in a Standing Order.
This is important since it doesn't show you this on the screen.

- Category View -

The Category View in Banker is a very useful and powerful feature that is unique
to Banker. This view will show you all transactions that fit in a certain
category or search clue. To see how it works, lets find all Grocery bills.

■ Press Psion Shift<V> to get to the Category View.
■ Choose "Groceries" from the standard categories, or your own custom version
  of this category.
■ Press Enter to begin search.If any matches were found, you will see a list
  of all matching transactions like the graphic below.You may have noticed in
  the preceding graphic, that you had multiple options for starting a search
  in the Category View. Here's a list of search options and how they work.
■ Standard Category - finds all matching transactions in the same category
■ Custom Category - ""
■ Cleared Status - finds all transactions by cleared status
■ Payee - finds all transactions based on the Payee name

The Cleared Status option is helpful when you want to see only transactions
that have not yet cleared. This is not based on category, but will show all
transactions based on the Cleared Status you have chosen.

There are a couple of useful hotkeys for getting into the Category View. While
in the Normal or List Views...

■ Psion Shift<V> or just "V" alone goes into the category view.
■ Psion<V> takes you into the Category View, but auto builds a list based on
  the "Payee" of transaction being viewed. This shortcut can save some time.

- Viewing Totals in the Category View -

In the lower right info window you will see the total of all items in the list.
You can use this view to give you a running total of a category, or the amount
paid to a certain company. At this time you cannot limit the date for this.
Since you can view based on Payee name you can also get a total spent for
miscellaneous items.

For example, maybe you buy camera equipment at "Marks Camera shop" once a month,
and you have a custom category called "Camera". If you want to know what you
spent at "Marks" only, and not other camera shops, you would type in "Mark*"
in the Payee field. Banker will build a list of transactions that were payed
to Marks Camera shop. This will also give you a total spent at Marks too.

Important NOTE:

If you don't use wildcards when doing a search by Payee, Banker will only find
exact matches. Use wildcards (*?) to find all matches containing your item.

There are many features available to you when in the category view, although
the menu is scaled down. Certain features wouldn't work well from within this
view, and are therefore not on the menu. Press the menu key to bring up the
pull down menu options.

- Starting a New Search -

■ To build a new list, choose "New Search" on the Options menu. This will bring
  up the "Set Category View" dialog.



                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║        Chapter 9  - Reconciling         ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝



If you are unfamiliar with the concept of reconciling your transactions, you
got Banker just in time! To Reconcile is to make sure your records about your
transactions are the same as the bank's records, which in the end guarantees
an accurate account balance.

The most common way to do this is to sit down with a monthly bank statement,
checking to make sure each transaction was entered correctly. If you use
Quicken, you can first upload the monthly data, and then do this all on the
desktop.

Hint:  When you mark a transaction as cleared, you have reconciled the
transaction. If it is still "Open" the bank has no knowledge of it, and it
has not been reconciled.

- Reconciling transactions in Banker -

Banker allows you to reconcile transactions in many views.

■ Normal View
■ List View
■ Category View

Reconciling is easiest to do in the List or Category View. As you see
transactions that you want to reconcile, press Psion shift<K> or the C hotkey
and Banker will ask you if you want to "Mark the Transaction as Cleared". If
you answer Yes to this, the transaction will be reconciled and you will move
to the next record on the list.

Hint: Go into the Category View. Build the list based on the Cleared Status
of "Open only". This will build a list of only transactions that are not
reconciled. (Cleared). Follow the above instructions to reconcile each
transaction.

- Reconciling by Date -

Banker also has a special feature under the "Reconcile" menu heading, called
"by Date". Choose this option to reconcile all transactions between two dates.
This is available from the Normal or List View.

The feature will auto select the current month as the beginning and ending
date. Change this to the dates you want, set the reconciliation status you
want, (Clear or Open), and press Enter.

Important Note:  This is not selective reconciling. All transactions between
the two dates will be reconciled based on the method you choose.

- Outstanding -

In the balance window, or Net Worth window, you will see an amount called
"Outstanding". This amount represents the unreconciled funds, or the amount
pending on your account. Of course the balance is always correct since it is
based on the total of reconciled and unreconciled transactions. The
Outstanding lets you see how much money in your account is actually not yet
reconciled or cleared. You can also see the the cleared amount by generating
a balance using Psion<B>.



                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║    Chapter 10  - Searching Banker Data  ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝



Searching can be a very important feature, especially when your accounts start
to get big and numerous. Banker has multiple methods for looking for data.
These methods are provided mostly for speed. You can bring up the Search options
from the pull down menu, by pressing Psion<F> , or by using the hotkey F.

The top line is where you enter the data you are looking for. This can be any
part of a word, check number, payee, anything. Use the top line when you are
searching a "Single Item". This means that you want to search the current
account for any occurrence the the text you have typed in. This is a typical
search. No need for wild cards here. They are used automatically.

OTHER SEARCH METHODS:

- Search by Field -

Searching by Field will allow you to type in a specific search clue into each
field. When you choose this method, any text in the top line will be ignored.
This is actually helpful since you may want to do a different search later
using this text. Also note that you don't have to enter something in all fields.
Enter data to search for in any or all fields. If you are entering data to
search into multiple fields, remember that it must find all for a match.

There are many ways to narrow down your search. The Check Number field and the
Amount Field allow you to use the ">" greater than and "<" less than symbols
to narrow the search. You can also narrow the search by date.

Lets say you have written three checks to a guy by the name of "Rowan Prior".
They are for $100.00, $200.00, and $5000.00 respectively. In order to find the
third entry without having to stop at the first two, you would do a Search by
Field. In the payee enter "Rowan", and in the amount field enter >1000.
Banker will go directly to the third check for $5000.00.

Now by using "> or <" with check numbers it can get even more selective.

- Search All Files in Group -

Banker gives you a way of searching all accounts in the current group. Use this
when you can't remember which account a transaction is in. This is another very
unique feature in Banker. Each account will be opened to do your search. If a
match is found you will be given the option of opening that account, or
continuing the search.

- Search by Check -

This is just a fast way of searching only the ck/ref field. If you are looking
for a check number like 100, you would want to use the Search by Check option.
Otherwise all transactions with the number 100 would be found.

- Jump to... -

The various "Jump to" options are very self explanatory. Use them to jump
through your file stopping only at certain types of transactions.

- Find Again -

The Find Again feature is actually a very intelligent. It will always perform
your last type of search. For example, if you have an item that you know is
inside a split, you can select the "Jump to next Split" search option. After
finding the first split, pressing Psion<G>, or the G hotkey will continue
jumping to the next split until no more are found.

Hint: To make searching as fast as possible, use the hotkeys for Find and Find
Again. Press F for Find, and G for Find Again.


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║          Chapter 11  - Sorting          ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝



Banker does some automatic sorting, like in the account list, but sorting of
Banker data files is done manually by choosing the "Sort" option on the menu.
There are some reasons why Banker data files are not just sorted automatically.

Firstly, the Psion Series 3 Range use Flash SSDs. Flash is different than Ram
in that you can only write data to it once, and then it needs to be formatted
to regain space taken up by the data. Ram does not have this limitation, and
can therefore be written to over and over. For this reason it is recommended
that you keep Banker data on Ram if you need to do lots of sorting. If not,
Flash is a bit more secure since it doesn't need battery power to hold the
data. This is the reason sorting is not just done automatically for you.

Banker will not sort data on Flash. Even when auto-sorting is set on in the
Account List View, if Banker determines that the account group file is on Flash,
it will not be sorted.

When sorting Banker data you can sort by Date or Check Number. The sorting is
fast and therefore can be done over and over based on how you need to see your
data. When looking for missing checks it is helpful to do a sort by Check
Number so you can see missing check numbers.



            ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
            ║ Chapter 12  -  UnErase, Tidy, and Password Protection ║
            ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝



UnErase, Tidy and Password Protection - Banker provides these features to keep
your data secure. These features are worth looking at since the type of data
Banker is storing can be very important, and very painful to lose. They also
can help you to feel more comfortable carrying your financial information in
your pocket. Of course there is nothing better than a backup, and we recommend
you backup your Banker data at least once a week. The Password protection and
UnErase in particular will help to keep others from inadvertently (or
deliberately) deleting you data, should they get their hands on your machine.

- UnErase/Purge -

This kind of protection is key. You can choose in the preferences whether or not
to have this enabled by default, or you can enable it each time you delete a
transaction. When UnErase Protection is enabled, Banker copies transactions to
file before deleting them. These deleted transactions are held in this file
until you decide to delete them using te "Purge" option on the menu. Here's what it
looks like when you try to delete a transaction.


                ╔════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║         Delete this Transaction?       ║
                ╠════════════════════════════════════════╣
                ║        "Home Depot" for $235.00        ║
                ║  Protection                On        ║
                ║                                        ║
                ║            No               Yes        ║
                ║         ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒           ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒      ║
                ╚════════════════════════════════════════╝



In order to turn the protection off you need to know the password. With
protection set to "On", all deleted transactions are copied to file. You never
need to worry when you delete a transaction. You can always UnErase it.

When your ready to UnErase, choose "UnErase" from the menu to bring up the
dialog.

  ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
  ║                                                                       ║
  ║       ╔════════════════════════════╗                                  ║
  ║       ║   File: Test Account       ║                                  ║
  ║       ║ Ck/Ref: 1005               ║                                  ║
  ║       ║  Payee: Radio Shack        ║     UnErase                      ║
  ║       ║   Date: 10.31.95           ║     Press   to Search          ║
  ║       ║ Amount: $129.00            ║     Press Enter to UnErase       ║
  ║       ║  Categ: Misc               ║                                  ║
  ║       ║   Memo:                    ║                                  ║
  ║       ║▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒║                                  ║
  ║       ║▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒║                                  ║
  ║       ╚════════════════════════════╝                                  ║
  ║                                                                       ║
  ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝



■ Press the up and down arrow to see all erased transactions
■ Press Enter to UnErase the current transaction

- Tidy - When should I use it? -

■ When you get too many records in an account
■ When you want to do a Backup
■ When you want to delete all records up to a certain date

- Password Protection -

Banker is loaded with options to keep your data safe. There are multiple ways
of Password protecting your Banker data.

■ At Startup
■ When deleting a transaction
■ When coming foreground
■ When deleting a Banker file
■ When opening a Group

Where do I set these?

- At Startup -
■ Press Psion<Q> and select "Set Password"

Here you can select a new password. Set this option to "Yes" and press Enter
to change the password. To set the password to come up at startup set the
"Password at Startup" option to "On".

- Deleting a Transaction -

If you don't want anyone to be able to delete a transaction without entering a
password, set the "Erase/UnErase" option to "On".

- Require Password when coming Foreground -

This option will force the screen to blank out when Banker is brought into the
foreground from another application. Great when you leave your machine
unattended on your desk. This stops the casual passer by from seeing your
account balances. Note that if you leave Banker in an open dialog this type of
protection will not work.

- When deleting a Banker file -

This option is always on. There is no way to turn it off. Anytime you want to
delete a Banker data file of any kind, you must type in the password. Of course
if someone wanted to delete your files, they could do it from the system screen,
but this stops anyone from deleting your files by mistake from within Banker.

- When opening a Group -

Groups have their own password protection. They are activated from the Account
List View by pressing Psion Shift <W>. You can find this option also on the
menu. When you set this on, Banker will prompt for a password anytime a group
is opened.


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║        Chapter 13  - Exporting          ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


Banker provides exporting features to allow you to share your financial data
with other programs. The standard for financial data is Quicken's Qif (Quicken
Interchange format), and Banker supports this very strongly. In fact this is the
main export format. The other Export formats are provided for programs that
won't support Qif.

This chapter describes all formats except Quicken. Go to the Quicken section in
this manual for an in-depth discussion on Quicken support.

- Ascii -

Ascii format is plain text. Each transaction will be exported to a text file
starting at the record number you indicate. The fields will be delimited using
the character you choose.

- PackRat -

The PackRat format is compatible with PackRat software, and is used in the
financial section of the program. This format uses delimited plain text file
with quotes around all fields. This should work with any program requiring
quotes.

- Dif -

The Spreadsheet built into the S3a will accept Dif format. This is the reason
for supporting this format. Exporting to Dif is an excellent way to export to
the spreadsheet for doing special analysis and forecasting of your accounts.
The "Export to Dif" dialog does suggest a certain format. It exports a line
by line total of each category during the period chosen. You can use this data
in your own custom spreadsheet, or use the following suggested format.

■ Choose a filename (The file will be saved to the \Spr directory)
■ Choose the month you want to export. (January if you're starting)
■ Starting Date is the first day of the month
■ Ending Date is the last day of the month
■ Include Categories with 0.00 total should be set to "Yes"
■ Launch Spreadsheet should be set to "Yes"
■ Press Enter to begin exporting data (This can take some time)

As Banker exports the data you can see it going through all categories, getting
the total for each category over the specified period. When it's finished the
Spreadsheet will be launched for you, and you will be asked to create the new
file.

■ Create the new file
■ On the left you will see the category names, and on the right the totals.
■ If this is the first time you have exported to Dif, you can use this as your
  Yearly expense spreadsheet.
■ Modify the spreadsheet to show the current year in cell A1.
■ Put the month names across the top. (B1-M1)
■ In cell N1 put the word "Totals"
■ Cell A3 should start with your first category. (Misc) If it doesn't, you can
  open the spreadsheet down from cell A2 to make space.
■ Go to cell N3 and type in the following:   =Sum(B3:M3)
■ Press Enter to save this
■ From cell N3 press Psion<C> to copy the formula
■ Move to cell N4
■ Hold down Psion Shift Control and press the down arrow. This should highlight
  the whole column.
■ Press Psion<I> to insert the formula from N3
■ Move to cell B3 and press Psion<T> to set the titles

Here's how you handle Next Month

■ Create the new spreadsheet
■ Go to the top of the right column that has the totals from each category.
■ Press Psion Shift Control and press the down arrow to highlight the whole
  column.
■ Press Psion<O> and open your Yearly expense spreadsheet.
■ Move to the top of the current month, where you want to bring in the data.
  (Starts with "Misc" category.)
■ Press Psion<B> to bring the highlighted text from the other spreadsheet.

If you did this correctly, you should have your new months data in place. If
not, you can try it again. You also can always press Psion Shift<x> to close
the spreadsheet without saving changes. You will run into problems if you change
the number of categories between months. They won't line up correctly from month
to month. Once you have all of your categories set this method works well.


                ╔════════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║ Chapter 14  - Printing the Check Register  ║
                ╚════════════════════════════════════════════╝


Printing the Check RegisterYou can print the check register in Banker by going
to the Print dialog.

■ Connect your parallel cable, or 3Link cable. Consult your Psion manual if
  you need help setting up the cable for printing.
■ Press Psion<P> from the Normal or List Views
■ Set the Starting and Ending dates for the printout
■ Set the Cleared Status (Open, Cleared or Void)
■ Print by Category lets you just print a single category
■ Choose the category if you chose to print by category
■ Decide whether you want comments in the printout

- How Banker prepares files for Printing -

Since Banker is written in Opl it cannot access the print drivers in the Rom of
the Series 3a. Our way around this is to print pure text when printing the
Check Register or Reports. If you can't get them to print correctly on your
printer, you may want to try printing to file, import the file into Word on
the S3a, and then print from within Word.

- Printing by Category -

The print dialog gives you the option of printing the check register by
category. This option will only print one category at a time. You'll need to
set the print dialog each time if you are printing multiple categories. This is
a very useful feature when you need to know how much was spent in a certain
category over a period of time.

- Printing by Cleared Status -

One of the options for printing the check register is to print based on the
cleared status. This can be used when you want to printout only open
transactions, or only cleared transactions. At the end of the month you may
like to have a printout of just the transactions that have not cleared. Using
these options along with the others in the dialog allow for many methods of
printing.

- Printing to a Serial Printer -

If you are printing to a Serial printer, Banker will pop up a separate dialog
to allow you to override the default settings for Baud, parity, and handshake.

                ╔════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║            Set Serial Port             ║
                ╠════════════════════════════════════════╣
                ║  Baud                     9600         ║
                ║  Parity                  None        ║
                ║  Bits                     8            ║
                ║  Stop Bits                1            ║
                ║  Handshake                RTS          ║
                ║                                        ║
                ╚════════════════════════════════════════╝




                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║         Chapter 15  - Reports           ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


Banker has one built-in report called the "Itemized Category Report".
■ Press Psion<R> to bring up the Report dialog

■ Set the Report Type. (Initially Itemized is the only one.)
  (Beta uses "Report")
■ Set the Starting and Ending date for the report
■ Choose the category lists you want included in the report

- Output Options -

You can output the report to Screen, File, or Printer. Choosing Screen will
display the report on the screen only, although while viewing the report you
can press the menu key to report to the printer.

Choosing File will bring up the file dialog. Type in the filename for your
report, and press Enter to save it.

Choosing Printer will print the report to the printer. If you have problems
getting the report to print on your printer, try printing to file, importing
the file into Word on the S3a, and printing the report from within Word.

- Include Categories -

When generating a report, you have the option of including Standard Categories,
Custom Categories, or both. If you don't use Standard Categories, you can save
some time by choosing Custom Categories only.

- Custom Reports -

The Itemized Category report is the only report on the Banker disk. However, we
have more reports planned for Banker v2.  Also, anyone that is familiar with
Psion's OPL (Programming language) can write reports for Banker. Please contact
us if you would like more info on writing reports for Banker.

We will distribute a kind of an SDK (Software Development Kit) for Banker
Plugins. This will include all of the information you will need to write add
on modules (Including reports) for Banker.

You may have noticed that the top line in the Report dialog opens up into a list
if you press the tab key. Initially there is only one report, so when you press
the tab key you only see "Itemized Category". However, when you get additional
reports from us, they will all show up in this list.

All reports have an .rpt extension, and must reside in any \App\Banker\Report
directory. Banker looks in this directory on all drives to find all report
modules when you call up the report dialog. (Psion <R>) We do the same thing for
Banker Plugins, except the extension is .Plg and we look in the \App\Banker\Plug
directory.

You can call us at [phone] for more info on additional reports and
Plugins for Banker.

The first additional report we will have is an expense report that goes across
all accounts in a group.


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║         Chapter 16  - Utilities         ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


There are a number of utilities provided in Banker to keep you from having to go
out of the program just to use the calculator, or the calendar.

- Calculator -

The calculator can be called up by pressing the zero hotkey. It is accessible on
the menu also. The calculator has limited functions compared with the built-in
calculator, but it is perfect for quick calculations. There is one calc memory.

■ Access the calc memory by pressing M when viewing a result.
■ Press the up arrow to move backwards between calculation and result.
■ Press the help key to access the help system.
■ Press left or right arrow while viewing a result to change the decimal places.
■ Press the space bar to bring the calc window back to it's default position

Note that the calculator can be moved around the screen by pressing the right,
left, up, and down arrow keys. It won't work while you're viewing a result since
this changes the decimal places.

- General Info -

Choose this option under the Info pull down menu heading. When you choose this
option Banker will bring up a window with some information about the current
open account, and your current settings.  Among them is one special indicator.
It's called Added Since Last Export. Next to this line Banker will show you how
many transactions have been added in this account since the last export. This
can be very helpful if you use Banker along with a desktop program and want to
know how many transactions are new.

- Calendar -

The Banker calendar has only one size, unlike the built-in calendar. You can
access it by pressing the tab key in any view.
(Beta Note: The beta version uses the built-in Calendar)

- Financial Calculator -

The financial calculator is accessible on the menu. This calculator performs
standard Time Value of Money (TVM) calculations, the most common of which is
loan calculation using compound interest. The financial calc will not handle
simple interest loans.

Term    Term of Loan (in years)
Int%    Yearly Interest Rate
PV      Present Value
PMT     Payment
FV      Future Value

A typical financial problem using TVM functions involve a present value of cash
(PV), a future value of cash (FV), and a stream of regular periodic payments
(PMT) at a certain interest rate. It might look like this when paying down a
loan.

- Qualify a Home Buyer -

Lets use the Financial calculator to qualify a home buyer. We'll assume that the
if the buyer has current debt liability less than 35% of their gross income,
they can afford a payment of about 28% of their gross income. Let's say we're
looking for a home and we have a gross income of $5000 a month. What is the
price range of houses we can look at? Start your financial calculator in Banker.

■ Highlight Term. Press the down arrow. Type in 30 (30 yr. mortgage)
■ Highlight Int%. Press the down arrow. Type in 8 (8% APR)

Now to get the payment, press zero to bring up the calculator. Here's the
formula we're going to use: (monthly income * 28% ) - 25%. This assumes that
taxes and insurance take 25% of the mortgage payment.

Thus...
                (5000 * 28%) - 25%. The result is 1050.00

Press M while viewing this result in the calculator. This value (1050) gets
saved into the calc memory. Escape out of the calculator. Now in the financial
calculator, highlight the PMT box and press the down arrow. Delete anything
already on the line. Type in M. This will put our calc memory into the PMT.
Press Enter to store it. Now to calculate the price of the home we can look at
highlight the PV box and press Psion<down arrow>. Our answer is 143,097.67


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║   Chapter 17  - Reminders and Alarms    ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


What would finance software be without some kind of reminder facility. Banker
has it's own reminders that will ring when starting up the program and also
when the date changes, and Banker is already open. Psion Shift<R> brings up
the options from the Normal or List View.

- Setting a New Reminder -

■ Choose New and press Enter
■ Set the date and message for your reminder



                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║   Chapter 18  - Other Pelican Products  ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


LOG-IT! is a special add-on for Banker that shows up on Banker's menu if
installed. LOG-IT! brings up 6 windows each with it's own timer. Each window
can have a timer running, and each of these timers can be assigned to a job of
some kind with a separate hourly billing rate. As you bill out time, it gets
saved to file. This can then be printed out to a printer.

- Sound Off -

The Sound Off program is a utility that will let you setup a database of events
or times when you want the sound on your S3a to automatically shut off, like
during meetings, or dinners. Sound Off will also read your Agenda files,
bringing all marked meetings into the Sound Off database completely unattended.
Just mark the meeting with a single character prefix and Sound Off will know
that you want your sound turned off during this event.


- Notepad -

Notepad is a Note taker/Project Manager for the S3a.



                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║       Chapter 19  - Banker Plugins      ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


The concept of Plugins is nothing new, but it is for palmtops. Banker lets you
add program modules that install themselves onto Banker's menu. This means that
we can ship out extra programs that function with Banker, and actually show up
on Banker's menu. There are no Plugins included with Banker 2.0, but there are
some already available.

We will distribute a kind of an SDK (Software Development Kit) for Banker
Plugins. This will include all of the information you will need to write add-on
modules (including reports) for Banker.

All Plugin files have a .plg extension, and are placed in an \App\Banker\Plug
directory. Press Psion<W> from the Normal or List View to bring up the available
plugins. Banker automatically searches the Plug directory for all files with
a .plg extension.


- Where to get Plugins and Add-on reports -

As previously mentioned in this manual, there are and will be Banker Plugins
and Reports released from time to time on floppy disk. These can be ordered
from Pelican Software Inc., New World Technologies, or Psion Inc.

Mailing Addresses:

Pelican Software Inc.
P.O.Box 741072
Houston, Tx. 77274-1072
[phone] Voice and fax
Compuserve: 72662,3050
INTERNET:[e-mail]
AOL: Mespo

New World Technologies
532 La Guardia Place, suite 150
NY 10012
[phone] Voice
[phone] Fax
[phone] Orders
Compuserve 72360,3653
INTERNET:[e-mail]
AOL: JonathaNew

Psion Inc.
150 Baker Ave.
Concord, Ma 01742
[phone] Voice
[phone] Fax


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║       Chapter 20  - Quicken Options     ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


- Overview of Quicken Support -

Quicken support is a very important issue in Banker. The program was designed
to be compatible with Quicken. If you are not familiar with Quicken software,
it is the top selling finance software for desktop computers. Most finance
software that can import will handle Quickens Qif format since it is the
industry standard.

Banker is compatible in almost every way, so if you use Quicken, you will be
pleased with the level of support Banker gives you.

■ Imports and Exports Qif files
■ Imports and Exports Category Lists
■ Imports Memorized Transactions Lists
■ Special options when exporting
        ■ New since last Export
        ■ All

All of these features are discussed in this chapter.


- Banker, Quicken and Double Entry -

Quicken is not a strict Double Entry accounting system, and neither is Banker.
Banker was written for the average person, and not for an accountant. There is
therefore very little accounting jargon in Banker.

Banker uses categories in a similar manner to the way Quicken uses categories, and
that is to identify transactions. Banker doesn't consider a category to be an
account, but just an identifier. You can create accounts instead of categories,
and then have Banker do a Double Entries into accounts instead of just using a
category to identify a transaction. It will work either way. It's up to you.

There is one difference to the way Banker looks at categories. Banker uses the
category itself to identify a transaction an expense or deposit. You will
notice that Banker doesn't show you two columns. (Expense or Deposit). It just
shows an amount. The amount is determined by the type of category. With custom
categories you decide their type when you create them. Quicken doesn't do this.
You can apply the income category to a negative transaction. Banker will not
allow you to do this.

- What is a Qif file? -

Quicken Interchange format, developed by Intuit for use with Quicken finance
software. This format has become the industry standard, as has Quicken. It is
this format that enables users of different software to share data. It also
allows Quicken to share data with itself. For example, when you import or
export in Quicken, the default file format is Qif. This even applies when you
are just copying data from one account to another within Quicken. Therefore
there are some simple rules for importing and exporting to and from Quicken.

■ Always choose the Import or Export menu option in Quicken.
■ Never choose Open in Quicken to open a Qif file. Qif is not Quicken's native
  file format. Qif is their Import/Export file format, and therefore cannot be
  opened in Quicken by choosing the Open menu option.

- Importing Quicken Category Lists -

If your version of Quicken supports exporting category lists, you should start
out by exporting your Quicken category list from Quicken. You do this from
Quicken, not from Banker.

In Quicken...

■ Choose the "Export" option under the "File" menu heading.
■ Click on the "Category List" option only.
■ Select the "Qif File to Export to", and call it "catlist.qif."
■ Click on OK to export the file.
■ Copy this file to a \Bank directory on your S3.

Note:  If you don't know how to copy files from your Desktop to your Psion,
refer to the users manual for the Psion software you are using.
(Mclink, Rcom, etc...)

In Banker...

■ From the Normal or List view, choose "Quicken Options" under the "Special"
  menu heading.
■ Select "Import" and press Enter.
■ Select "Import Category List" and press Enter.
■ Read the quick help, and press Enter.
■ Set the first item "Name" to the category list that you copied from Quicken.
  If the disk selector is not on the disk you copied the file to, you'll need
  to change it. In other words, find the catlist.qif file that you just copied
  to your S3. If you didn't copy the file to the \Bank directory, you may have
  to press the tab key to open up the filing system to go look for the
  catlist.qif file.
■ Set the "New File  Name:" to a name you want to give to your new category
  list. If this is your main Quicken category list, you might call it
  Quicken.cat.
■ Press Enter to begin importing.

When the importing is finished, Banker will show you how many categories it
imported. Your done importing. Now that you're done, go to the Account List
View, and update all accounts that you want to use the new Quicken category
list. Since this list contains all of the categories that you use in Quicken,
you will now be using the exact same category names as you are using in Quicken.
This is important when it comes time to do a any importing or exporting. Since
the category names will match, you will have no problems bringing data back
and forth.

All custom category lists (*.cat) go into a \Bank\Cat directory. If they get
moved from this directory, Banker will not find them. Therefore when creating
new lists, you must always stay in this directory. Banker puts all new lists
there by default.

- Exporting from Banker -

To get ready to export your Banker files to Qif format, start out by opening
the account that you want to export. Next, use the following step by step
instructions to export your data.

■ Press the Q hotkey. This brings up the Quicken options dialog. You can also
  get to this from the menu. (Quicken Options)
■ With Export highlighted press Enter.

Now you have a couple of decisions to make. Are you exporting all transactions
in the current Banker account, or just the new transactions since the last
time you exported. If this is the first time exporting for this account,
choose All. If not, you can use the New (Since last Export) option. This is
one of the most helpful Quicken export features in Banker. It allows you to
only export new transactions. Otherwise you will have duplicates in Quicken
when you import the Qif file. This can be a real hassle to clean up so you
should always export the new transactions only. Banker keeps track of this for
you.

The next decision you have to make is what date format you want the file to be
in. This is very important for European users. Banker defaults to the US month
day year format. You must set this to the same format that your desktop computer
is set to. If not, the import into Quicken may do some funny things. Quicken
doesn't handle mistakes of this kind well.

Note:  The UK version 3.0 will only take month day year format.

Lastly decide where to export the file to. Banker by default saves the export
file to the \Bank directory. You'll need to know this when you go to copy the
file to your desktop computer. You can change the location of the file by ...

■ Selecting the line that says *.qif
■ Press the tab key to open up the filing system
■ Move to the directory you want to save the file to, and press Enter

Now your ready to start exporting your Banker file. Select a filename, and press
Enter. You must select a filename. (*.qif is not a valid name.) This just shows
you what the file extension should be. Note that Banker will give the file a
Qif extension if you try to name it with a different extension. Next, move on
to converting standard categories.

- Converting Standard Categories -

This is the next screen you will see while exporting to Qif. Banker has 28
standard categories that can be converted to Quicken category names. This is
your chance to do this. If you don't convert these category names, Quicken may
create them as new categories when it is importing your file.

Note:  You only have to do this once. Banker saves your conversions. If you
don't use Banker's standard categories you don't have to worry about doing this.


In the above graphic, the "Banker" name is the category name as it is in Banker.
In this case, ElecWD.

■ Type in the name you want to convert this to on export.
■ Choose the action - Convert, or Don't Convert.
■ Press Enter to Convert, or to move to the next category.

When you convert these standard categories, Banker will save these conversions
to file. You always have the opportunity of editing the conversion before
exporting.

Remember this conversion is for the built-in Standard categories only, not for
your custom categories. If you imported your custom categories from Quicken,
there is no need to edit their names since they are already the same as you
have them in Quicken.

When you done converting standard categories, press Esc to continue. Banker will
begin to export your file. When done, Banker will show you how many transactions
were exported.

To get this file into Quicken, or whatever program you're using on the desktop...

■ Copy the file you just exported to your desktop computer.
■ From Quicken, choose Import from the file menu heading.
■ Choose the Qif file you just exported from Banker.
■ Click on Special handling for transfers
■ Start the importing

- Importing Account Data into Banker -

If you have already imported your Quicken categories into Banker, it will be
easy to import your Quicken account data. If you have not imported your
Quicken categories into Banker, you should do this first. It's not a must, but
it will make life easier. While Banker is importing data from Quicken, it must
match the category in a transaction with a Banker category. If no match is
found, Banker will let you create the new category. However, if you import
your Quicken category list first, the categories will all import with no
questions asked since they are already in Banker.

■ Copy the file you exported from Quicken onto your S3a. Preferably to a
  \Bank directory.
■ Open the account you want to import the data into
■ Choose Quicken Options from the menu
■ Choose Import and press Enter
■ Choose Import Transactions and press Enter

- The Import dialog -

■ Find the file you exported from Quicken, and copied onto your S3a
■ Set the correct Date Format.
■ Press Enter to start importing

If you see the following dialog, you haven't assigned a custom category list
to the account you have open. You must do this. Press Escape and go back to
the Account List View to assign a custom category to the account.

            ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
            ║             No Custom Category List Assigned          ║
            ╠═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
            ║     This is needed to assign incoming transactions    ║
            ║         to the appropriate category in Banker.        ║
            ║                                                       ║
            ║          Open Other                   Quit            ║
            ║          ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒                 ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒         ║
            ║                                                       ║
            ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝


If the following dialog comes up, Banker has found a category in the Qif file
that it doesn't recognize. This is no problem for Banker. You have a few options.
You can either assign the incoming transaction to an existing Banker category,
or create a new category with the same name. (or different name)

            ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
            ║                 Convert Categories                    ║
            ╠═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
            ║     Quicken               Second Income               ║
            ║     Set Banker:           OtherInc                    ║
            ║                                                       ║
            ║                 Custom List Options                   ║
            ║───────────────────────────────────────────────────────║
            ║     Options               Use Standard              ║
            ║     Custom Category       CashDep +                   ║
            ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝



Make your choice of options from the Options line. If you are linking the
incoming category to a Banker standard category, choose Use Standard. If you
want to use a custom category, choose Use Custom, and if you want to create a
new category choose the third option called Create New Category.

With these new features in Banker there should be no reason to have a
legitimate Qif file that can't be imported. Every situation has been handled.
Even the following rare case has a solution.


- UnSupported Types -

            ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
            ║         Unsupported type found          ║
            ╠═════════════════════════════════════════╣
            ║             !Type:Special               ║
            ║                                         ║
            ║               Continue                  ║
            ║              ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒                 ║
            ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝



In a Qif file the top line has some text describing the type of data that it
holds. An example Qif file with bank account data would have the top line with
the words !TYPE:BANK. What if there is a new type that comes along later,
(maybe called special), or for some reason you want to force Banker to support
a currently unsupported type. Here's what you do. We're going to create a file
called \Bank\Qformat.dbf. Banker will use this if it finds it to determine all
Quicken !Types that are supported.

■ Highlight the data application on the system screen
■ Press Psion<N> to create a new file
■ For the name, type in \Bank\Qformat.dbf
■ Select the drive you want the file to be stored on
■ Press Enter to create the new file
■ On the top line of a new record, type in the name of the type you want Banker
  to support, and press tab to save. In this case it would be !TYPE:SPECIAL.
  All upper case characters. Do this for each type you want Banker to support.
■ Close the file

Note that Banker will only allow one !TYPE in a Qif file. In other words,
Banker will not import transactions, and a category list at the same time. You
have to do them one at a time.

Remember to save your Category lists, Memorized Transaction lists, and
Transactions in separate Qif files when you are exporting from Quicken.

- Importing Memorized Transactions -

This is a feature unsupported by most PDA's and Palmtops, but supported by
Banker. Quicken can export it's own Memorized Transactions, and Banker can
import these to make your life easier. Start out by exporting your Memorized
Transaction list from Quicken.

In Quicken...

■ Choose export from the file menu heading in Quicken
■ Click on Memorized Transactions only
■ Give it a filename,(like mem.qif) and save the file
■ Copy this file to your S3a

In Banker...

■ Choose Export Options from the menu
■ Choose Import and press Enter
■ Choose Import Memorized and press Enter
■ Choose a filename for your new Memorized Transaction List
■ Find the Qif file you just copied to your S3a, and set the date format.
■ Press Enter to start importingExporting Banker Categories
■ In Banker, choose Export Options from the menu
■ Choose Export and press Enter
■ From the Export options line, choose Category List
■ Choose a filename and press enter to begin exporting

This list can now be copied to a desktop computer and imported into Quicken.

- Exporting By Category -

This is a feature unique to Banker. Exporting by category will export only
transactions the match the category you choose.


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║       Chapter 21  - Standing Orders     ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝



- What are Standing Orders? -

Do you have any payments that are automatically taken from your account monthly?
This is a Standing Order. A Standing Order , or direct debit is when you
authorize your Bank, or service provider to transfer an amount from your
account at regular intervals. This would typically be done to pay rent or a
car payment. Of course this can be expanded to make many payments this way.

Banker uses three different ways of describing them, and lets you change the
terminology to one of the following:

        ■ Standing Orders
        ■ Future Transactions
        ■ Recurring Transactions

If you're unfamiliar with this, Recurring Transactions probably describes them
best, since they are transactions that happen again and again. Standing Orders
are transactions that are posted to Banker automatically. You don't need to
enter anything. This is all done when you set up the Standing Order.

- Setting up a new Standing Order -

To enter Standing Orders you will first need to go to the Standing Orders View.
You can get there from the diamond list, or from the menu. Press the menu key,
and then the diamond key and you will see this view. Once you're in the view,
look over the menu items. There are a limited number of menu items to get
familiar with. Remember all we are doing here is to set up transactions that
can handled automatically. We're going to enter the same type of information
that we always enter when adding a new transaction.

        ■ Choose Add from the menu. ( or just press Enter)

Remember that the following dialog must say "Enter a new Recurring Transaction",
or "Standing Order", or "Future Transaction". This is based on how you have
customized Banker in the Banker settings.

Start entering your first new Standing Order.

■ Choose the Source Account
■ Choose the Destination Account (Only if it is a transfer)
■ Choose the next payment date
■ Choose the frequency of the payments
■ Set the number of payments to be made. Use 0 for indefinately.


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║        Enter a New Recurring Transaction        ║
                ╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
                ║ Source Account                Main Checking     ║
                ║ Destination Account           None              ║
                ║ Next Payment Date             12.15.1995        ║
                ║             Every             1                 ║
                ║ Frequency of Payment          Month(s)          ║
                ║ Number of Payments            0                 ║
                ║             (0 = indefinately)                  ║
                ║ Note:  Enter Destination for Transfers Only     ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════╝


The Source account is the account that the payment will be made from. If the
Standing Order is a transfer, the Destination account is the account that will
receive the funds.

■ Press Enter to continue
■ Fill out the other fields as you do when entering a new transaction.
■ Press Enter to save the Standing Order.

Note that if you set the Standing Order for today, Banker will warn you that
it has Standing Orders to handle as soon as you leave the Standing Orders View.


                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║            Enter Transaction Details            ║
                ╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
                ║ Standard              Rent/Mort                 ║
                ║ Custom                CashDep                   ║
                ║ Ck/Ref                                          ║
                ║ Payee                 Suburban                  ║
                ║ Amount                707.00                    ║
                ║ Comments              House Payment             ║
                ║ Reconcile             Open                    ║
                ║ Currency              $ (US Dollar)             ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

- How do Standing Orders get posted? -

You do not have to tell Banker to post new Standing Orders. When the date for
the payment has arrived, Banker will warn you that it is about to add new
Standing Orders.  You have the opportunity of putting them off until later if
you like. IF you choose Automatic, Banker will not prompt you to OK each
Standing Order. You should choose Manual if you need to approve each one.


Here's what it looks like if you choose Manual. Even after choosing too see each
item, you have the option of telling Banker to Add All. Banker will add the
rest without asking you to verify them.

■ Press Enter to add the new transaction
■ Press S to skip this transaction

If you choose to Skip this Standing Order, Banker will cause it to cancel the
payment for the current period. It will continue the next payment period.
(Unless that was the last payment)

- What happens when all payments are made? -

If your Standing Order was for a house payment an you have made the last
payment, Banker will add a double arrow to the left of the Standing Order when
you go into the Standing Order View.This shows that the payments have been
finished. Banker leaves the Standing Order for you just in case you still need
it. If you highlight this order and press Psion<U> to Update it, you will
notice that now the number -1 is put in the Number of Payments field. This
tells Banker that the Standing Order is on hold. You can use this method to
put any Standing Order on hold. Just update it putting  -1 for payments, and
Banker will put it on hold.

- Special Keys -

Pressing the Spacebar in the Standing Orders View will bring up a show comments
window. In this view however, the comment window will show you the Source and
Destination account names on the bottom.


                ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║       appendix a: - Upgrading from Banker v1.0     ║
                ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝


There are a many major differences between Banker 1.0 and Banker 2.0, although
the two are compatible and can share data. If you are upgrading there are some
changes that you need to be aware of.

■ The Custcat.dbf file has been moved and renamed. This file contains your
  custom categories. In version 1.0 the file resides in the \Bank directory.
  You should move it to a \Bank\Cat directory, and rename it to Custcat.cat.

■ The tax field is not supported in 2.0. If you have accounts with important
  information in this field, you should make a backup of your data files before
  loading them into Banker v2.0. This field is now being used for transfers and
  split transactions. We regret having to do this, but this was the only way to
  keep the data files at least compatible between version 1 and 2.

■ The ELECWD (Electronic Withdrawal) and Transfer categories are used in
  Transfers only. They have been left in Banker 2.0, but never need to be
  selected. Choosing Transfer will select the appropriate category for you.

■ When loading data into Banker v2.0, from the Account List View choose the
  Insert option on the pull down menu. This is the method used to bring in an
  existing account into Banker 2.0. If you want to rename these files to more
  logical names, do so before bringing them into Banker 2.0. For example, if
  you have a file that was called 3b01.bnk, and it was a checking account for
  a bank called Bank United, you can rename it to Bunited, and then use the
  Insert option. Once you've inserted the file into the account list, you can't
  rename it. (You could, but you'd have to re-insert it again.)

  Listing of old filenames...

        3b01.bnk        - Checking
        3b02.bnk        - Savings
        3b03.bnk        - Cash
        3b04.bnk        - Other



                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║       appendix b: - Flash and RAM SSD's     ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════╝


- Flash and RAM SSD's -

SSD's are Solid State Disks made by Psion for the Series 3 Range of computers,
and some other computers made by Psion. There is always debate on which type
of memory device is best in different situations. This section is to help
anyone new to this, and to help you make the right decision on using add-on
SSD's with Banker.

- What is Flash? -

The main factor with Flash is that it uses no battery power to keep the data
it holds. If you are familiar with Ram, you'll know that when the power goes
off, the data is gone. Flash is more similar to ROM in a sense, (Read only
memory) in that when you write to it there is no power needed to maintain the
data. The main difference is that it can be written to over and over again.

So, you're probably wondering what the trade-off is. Good question! There is
a trade-off. When the disk is full, you need to format it in order to free the
space so that you can write to it again. The S3a can format these SSD's from
the system screen. The down side is that before you format the Flash SSD,
you'll need to copy the data to another disk since the Flash disk will be erased
while formatting it.

The process therefore with Flash is ...

■ Write to it until it's full
■ Copy the data to another disk
■ Format the Flash SSD
■ Copy the data back to the Flash

Of course you'll only do this if you can free up some of the space on the Flash.
It won't make any sense to format it and copy the same data back on. Flash is
typically used for programs and other data that change. It's good for this
since you'll rarely have to mess around with formatting it since the data on
it doesn't change. Use a big flash to copy all of your software to.

It's fine to use Flash for Banker data files. If you do there is a trade-off.
You won't be able to sort your data. Banker won't sort on Flash since it has
to rewrite the entire file when sorting it. If you need to sort your Banker
data often you're better off putting it on Ram. Either the Internal Ram or a
separate Ram SSD. One last thing about Flash. It costs about half the price of
Ram.

- What is RAM? -

RAM stands for Random Access Memory. The main factor with Ram is that it needs
battery power to hold data. Flash needs no power to hold the data. This has to
be a consideration, although not a big one when it comes to integrity or
reliability. We've tried Ram SSD's for a long time and never lost any data.
You do have to be careful and do backups since there is no guarantee, but they
have proved to be very reliable.

RAM costs a lot more, and this is probably the big disadvantage. Ram is much
more convenient to use since it can be written to over and over without ever
being formatted. There is no need to format it since the data is gone when the
power turns off.

RAM SSD's have a small lithium battery. The battery is not used unless the RAM
SSD is out of the machine. As long as you leave the SSD inside your Psion, the
batteries are not being used. This means that the batteries can last quite a
long time.

You can feel comfortable using RAM for Banker data files. Just make sure you
do a backup of important financial data once a week. Remember also that if you
pull out the battery of a Ram SSD, the data is gone.



                ╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
                ║       appendix c: - Don't Try This!     ║
                ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝


- Don't Try This! -

There are a few things you should not do in Banker, and they deserve mentioning.

■ Do NOT move files from the \Bank directory on the internal drive. Specifically
_Last.dbf, Sethigh.dbf., and Settings.odb. The first two keep track of which
transactions have been exported, and which haven't. If these get deleted or
moved, Banker won't give you an accurate number of new transactions since the
last export. If the _last.dbf  file gets deleted or corrupted, Banker will try
to restore it. Banker will tell you that it's going to restore the High number
counter. Go ahead and let it do this. If however the sethigh.odb file gets
deleted or corrupted, Banker will restore the file, but will no longer know
how many new transactions there are in each account since the last export.
This only affects you if you export your files to Quicken, or other software.
If this happens you will need to export all the next time you do an export, or
call us for a Plugin to individually set transactions be exported.

■ Do NOT delete an account from a Group if the account exists in another Group.
You might be wondering why you would do this. Here's the scenario to watch out
for. You've inserted one of your accounts into a test Group. Now you're done
with the test so you tell Banker to delete the account from the test Group.
While it's deleting this account, Banker also deletes the splits from a separate
file containing splits for all accounts. Now you have unknowingly deleted all
of the splits from this account. The solution is to not run tests with important
accounts. If you're going to test Banker, do it with a test account, and there
is no reason to have an account in more than one Group.

■ Do NOT leave Banker in an open dialog if you have foreground password
protection on. The program won't be able to blank out the screen if you have
Banker stuck in a dialog, or you are displaying a pull down menu.

■ Do NOT try to enter a transfer from the destination account. Banker can
only do transfers from the source account.

■ Do NOT enter an exchange rate of zero for a currency in the currency view.