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- DPBank manual
- Daniel Pfund
- version 1.5, October 1996
- Copyright ⌐ 1995/1996 Daniel Pfund
- http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/8130/
- 1. SUMMARY 2
- 2. FOREWORD 2
- 3. INTRODUCTION 2
- 4. DISTRIBUTION 2
- 5. USES 3
- 6. FEATURES 3
- 7. INSTALLATION 4
- 8. MEMORY REQUIREMENTS 5
- 9. USING THE PROGRAM 5
- 9.1 TRANSACTION DIALOG 6
- 9.2 MOVING AROUND 6
- 9.3 NEW ACCOUNTS 6
- 9.4 TRANSFERS 7
- 9.5 CURRENCIES 7
- 9.6 AUTO DESCRIPTIONS 7
- 9.7 CATEGORIES 7
- 9.8 STANDING ORDERS 8
- 9.9 EDITING TRANSACTIONS 8
- 9.10 EVALUATING TRANSACTIONS 8
- 9.11 COPY / INSERT TRANSACTIONS 8
- 9.12 RECONCILING TRANSACTIONS 9
- 9.13 DELETING TRANSACTIONS 9
- 9.14 ARCHIVING TRANSACTIONS 9
- 9.15 EXPORTING TRANSACTIONS 9
- 9.16 SUM UP TRANSACTIONS 10
- 9.17 VIEWING GLOBAL AMOUNT AND BALANCES 10
- 9.18 PREFERENCES 10
- 9.19 PASSWORD PROTECTION 11
- 9.20 COMPRESSION 11
- 9.21 USEFUL INFO 11
- 9.22 PRINTING 11
- 9.23 DIAMOND KEY 11
- 9.24 PLOTTING ACOUNT DATA 12
- 10. REGISTERING DPBANK 12
- 11. LIMITATIONS AND BUGS 12
- 12. TECHNICAL 13
- 13. FUTURE 13
- 14. THANKS TO 13
- 15. LEGAL STUFF 14
- 16. AUTHOR 14
- SUMMARY
- This file contains all the necessary information to use and
- install the DPBank bank accounts tracking program.
-
- 2. Foreword
- For those who never completely read the documentation files:
- just read the section 7 ``Installation'' and install the online
- help file which you can delete later when you're used to the
- program.
- If you are upgrading from a previous version, I suggest you
- read the file HISTORY.TXT for a list of changes. All version
- 1.x files are compatible with this version so you don't need to
- change anything. You do however need to need to copy the new
- application file as well as a language file and a help file if
- you want help. See the ``Installation'' section for details.
-
- 3. Introduction
- DPBank is a program designed to help you keep track of your
- bank accounts. The program is written in OPL and will only work
- on a Psion Series 3a palmtop.
- It lacks some of the bells and whistles of the ``big'' shots
- (like ``Banker'' or ``S3aBank'') but on the other hand, it
- offers rudimentary bank account tracking possibilities to those
- using a 256/512k RAM Psion Series 3a (and all others who care
- about their precious little RAM ;-) .
- The objective of this program wasn't to try to compete with
- such ``monsters'', but give users with lesser needs an easier
- to use and learn alternative.
- If you need more than a simple bank account tracking
- program, I suggest you opt for one of the above, otherwise take
- a look at section 6 for a list of available features.
-
- 4. Distribution
- DPBank is distributed under the terms of shareware. You can
- try it freely during a test period of 30 days. After this test
- period, if you still like and/or use DPBank you must either
- register it or delete all the files associated to DPBank from
- your Psion. See the file ``REGISTER.TXT'' for more details.
- The program can be distributed freely by any electronic
- means (anonymous FTP sites, BBSes, packet radio ...) provided
- the file ``DPBANKxx.ZIP'' (where the ``xx'' is the version
- number) stays intact (see section 7 ``Installation'' for the
- file's contents).
- Software distributors can freely distribute this program on
- their sharewaredisks, provided that:
- ╖ You don't charge more than $5 for the service.
- ╖ The file ``DPBANKxx.ZIP'' stays intact (see section
- 7``Installation'' for the file's contents).
- ╖ You don't make any money out of it.
- Steve Litchfield has specific right to change the ZIP file
- contents to accomodate his disk's space needs.
- If you have any technical questions or comments of any kind
- (good/bad), do, by all means, contact me (Email prefered)!
-
- 5. Uses
- DPBank is one of the most useful programs on my Psion (of
- course, otherwise why would I have written it ;-). It helps me
- keep track of my bank accounts and I can now have an overview
- of my bank situation at all times. I've added the possibility
- to ``see'' into the future for all those who use a lot of
- standing orders (up to 90 days). I myself am only a (poor)
- student and I must admit that I don't have hundreds of monthly
- transactions on my accounts, so this option is not very useful
- for me.
-
- 6. Features
- ╖ Foreign currencies supported with exchange rates in either
- local or foreign form
- ╖ Accounts can be held in foreign currencies
- ╖ Automatic transaction descriptions supported (avoids
- unnecessary typing)
- ╖ Budget categories supported
- ╖ Shows ``Global'' value (sum of your selected accounts)
- ╖ Supports unlimited transactions
- ╖ Supports unlimited monthly standing orders
- ╖ ``Forecast'' possibility of up to 90 days
- ╖ Automatically deletes counter part of a deleted transfer
- (unless it is already reconciled)
- ╖ Automatically increments cheque number (if account uses
- cheques)
- ╖ Supports useful information for each account
- ╖ Programmed system conform, ie: interacts with the System
- screen for file changes, exit...
- ╖ Optional password protection
- ╖ Dynamically edit transfers
- ╖ View specific balances, ie: debit/credit/reconciled...
- ╖ Possible archive of selected transactions
- ╖ Export of selected transactions to Quicken, ASCII, pure
- Psion DATA
- ╖ Printing to either parallel, serial or file (but NOT with
- PsiPrint!)
- ╖ Possibility to Sum up transactions with same descriptions
- or same categories (view or replace transactions)
- ╖ Possible to evaluate amount (ie: enter 100+23+45 or even
- use calculator memories!)
- ╖ Possible warning when reaching user defined limit
- ╖ Possible automatic monthly interest rate calculation
- ╖ Optional cache memory
- ╖ Optional help system
- ╖ Nice graphic user interface
- ╖ Possible graphical plotting with external Plot application
- writen by Nick Dawkins
-
- 7. Installation
- Here is a table showing you what files are in the ZIP
- archive and where to put them on your Psion:
- File Directory Required Description
- DPBANK.OPA \APP Yes Executable
- LANGS01.OPO \APP\DPBANK Yes* UK language
- file
- LANGS10.OPO \APP\DPBANK Yes* US language
- file
- HELP01.RSC \APP\DPBANK optional UK help file
- HELP10.RSC \APP\DPBANK optional US help file
- DPBANKxx.TXT - - Doc in english,
- ASCII (DOS)
- format
- REGISTER.TXT - - Registration
- details in
- English, ASCII
- format
- HISTORY.TXT - - History of
- program, ASCII
- format
- *only one language file is necessary! (EITHER langs01.opo OR
- langs10.opo but not both!)
- As you can see, only the executable file and one language
- file is necessary for the program to run. These files can be
- placed on any drive (A, Internal, or B) of any media type
- (Internal RAM, Stat RAM, or Flash) as the files do not need
- modifying.
- Here are the language codes used for the language and help
- files:
- ╖ 01: UK English
- ╖ 02: French (available seperately, look for the file
- ``DPBxx_FR.ZIP'')
- ╖ 03: German (available seperately, look for the file
- ``DPBxx_DE.ZIP'')
- ╖ 08: Norwegian (available seperately, look for the file
- ``DPBxx_NO.ZIP'')
- ╖ 10: US English (check instead of cheque)
-
- If for example you own a UK Psion but want to use another
- language file, this is still possible by overiding your Psion's
- preference with the help of the LANGS.USR file (included in the
- different locale files but NOT in this english distribution
- file). This file must be an ASCII file with only the language
- number you want to use (from the above list) as the first (and
- only) line of the file. I've included a sample file (for
- french) in the distribution file so you can see what this
- means.
- For a more permanent change of language for your Psion
- (including the keyboard), I suggest you take a look at
- Konstantin I. Saliy's KbdMap program.
- To install DPBank, simply copy the required files to your
- Psion or use the RCOM installation script. On you Psion, go to
- the system screen and choose the menu option ``Install'' from
- the ``Apps'' list (or just press Psion-i for a shortcut).
- Simply choose ``DPBank'' and that's it! You will then see the
- DPBank icon I have drawn.
-
- 8. Memory requirements
- DPBank requires about 50k of disk space (storage memory).
- When running, DPBank will need about 30k free (process memory).
- As you can see, the program was really optimized for people
- with small memory space. Of course, the counter part of this is
- that you lose in speed. (Programmer's axiom ;-) Although I
- tried to make a suitable compromise between space and speed, if
- you find DPBank too slow, contact me and I'll see what I can
- do.
- It may happen that you don't have this memory free if you're
- really low on mem. The program will warn you of it and act in
- consequence. This version now greatly improves the memory
- checking problem and it should not happen that DPBank exits
- without warning you that your memory is too low.
- Of course, if DPBank is running and then you open other
- applications that require a lot of memory, be sure to close
- them again before coming back to DPBank otherwise it may happen
- that DPBank simply closes.
-
- 9. Using the program
- The first time you will run DPBank, the program will ask you
- on what drive you want to make the DPBank directory (\DPBank).
- This directory HAS to be on RAM disk as it will contain all the
- necessary files to keep your accounts (it will not allow you to
- select FLASH disks anyway). These reason is that the account
- files will change each time you use DPBank, so a Flash card
- would not be recommended!
- Here is a small tutorial for getting the ``feel'' of the
- program.
- Once the program has started, you will be asked to enter
- some information. I will describe the procedure now.
- ╖ Account group name: this is the name that will appear
- under the DPBank icon on your System screen. The default is
- simply ``Accounts'';
- ╖ Small shareware nag reminder (the one and only, rest
- assured);
- ╖ Currency file: you need to define your home currency
- symbol you want to use (up to 5 numbers or characters, but
- please make sure that this is correct, since it is the only
- thing you cannot change later!) and any other foreign
- currencies you plan on using (not necessary for the moment).
- The default is the System currency you set;
- ╖ Accounts: enter your most used account first since DPBank
- will always show this one on start. You then need to enter the
- real opening balance, it's currency, as well as the date of
- this balance. Make sure that the currency is correct, since you
- cannot change this later on. After that you can enter some
- useful information for this account (especially if you use
- cheques, choose yes in the ``Uses cheques?'' line!).
- Now that you have entered everything, you are welcomed with
- your first account in the form of a ``card''. This is just like
- a filing card and each account you add, will appear to the
- right of this one (no re-ordering for the moment, but see
- section 13 ``Future'' for features planned for next versions).
- You see the first transaction which is always the ``opening
- balance'' with the balance you entered. To add a transaction,
- simply press the space bar (or Psion-n). You will see the
- transaction dialog which I will describe now.
-
- 9.1 Transaction dialog
- The first line asks you for a description. It is not
- mandatory to enter a description, since if this line is left
- blank, the auto description will be used (unless of course you
- don't have any auto descriptions!)
- The second line is the auto description choice (select with
- TAB). If you want to select an auto description, be sure to
- leave the description line blank! Note that this line only
- appears if you have entered at least one auto description.
- The third line is the amount and the fifth asks for the
- currency of this amount (select with TAB to expand the choice).
- The fourth line asks if this transaction is a credit or a
- debit in your account ie: if you give money to the bank or take
- back from them). I've put it here so you don't need to move
- around with the cursor too much in order to enter a new
- transaction.
- Finally, your are asked for the date of this transaction.
- You can enter future transactions. For this example, do not
- change this since it automatically defaults to today's date.
- Just enter an amount and a description or use the auto
- description to see how it works. The date defaults to the date
- of the highlighted (selected) transaction or to today if you're
- on the last transaction.
- If all goes well (if you entered enough information), you
- will see this transaction appear on the last line in reverse
- characters (highlighted).
- You can now move up and down on the two different
- transactions. Once you get some more items entered, you will be
- able to move from page to page, below are the commands you can
- use to move.
-
- 9.2 Moving around
- ╖ right/left: moves from one account to another
- ╖ up/down: moves from one transaction to another
- ╖ shift up/down: equivalent to page up/down; moves 10
- ╖ transactions at a time
- ╖ Psion-shift up/down or Psion-left/right: equivalent to
- ╖ home/end; goes to first/last transaction of this account
-
- You can also press the first letter of the account you want
- to jump to. If more than one account has the same first letter,
- pressing the first letter a second time will jump to the next
- and so on.
-
- 9.3 New accounts
- Now press Psion-shift-n (for new) or choose ``Add new'' from
- the ``Accounts'' menu choice. You will be asked for the new
- account's name as well as it's balance (with the corresponding
- date and currency) and some useful information (just like the
- first one actually ...) You then see that a new ``card''
- appears. You can now move between between the accounts with the
- cursor right/left.
-
- 9.4 Transfers
- Now that you have two accounts, you can make a transfer from
- one to the other. Choose ``Transfers'' from the ``Transaction''
- menu choice or press Psion-t for a shortcut.
- You are then shown the Transfer dialog. It is quite straight
- forward, and I don't believe you need instructions ;-).
-
- 9.5 Currencies
- The strong point of this program is its currency management.
- I was looking at some of the other bank account programs for
- the Psion Series 3a but I haven't found one that allowed me to
- do what I wanted very easily: see my bank account in my local
- currency, but allow me to enter transactions in foreign
- currencies (when I travel) for my credit card for example
- (well, of course, other ``monsters'' could do that... but I
- didn't need the rest!). If you've always looked for such a
- feature, then here you have it!
- To go to the currency maintenance, press Psion-shift-u or
- choose ``Currencies'' from the ``Special'' menu choice.
- You will be asked if you want to add/delete/modify a
- currency (unless you don't have any currencies in which case
- you go directly to the add section). Select add and you will be
- prompted with a dialog. The only thing that needs some details
- is the conversion rate. You can enter the rate in both ways,
- this means that you can enter for example: 1$ = XX amount in
- your local currency, or 1 amount of your local currency = XX $.
- This is up to you and actually depends on your country's money
- strength... Just be sure to enter the correct choice in the
- ``Rate is for 1 unit of'' by choosing foreign or local (as in
- the above example).
- Deleting and modifying currencies is quite intuitive, just
- try it. Note that you cannot delete a currency which is
- currently being used in a standing order or as base currency
- for an account (including global).
- Just a quick note here: all currency conversion are made
- through your home currency. It might not give you the exact
- direct conversion rate if say for example you have UKP (home
- currency), USD and CAN$, when you enter a USD amount into an
- account kept in CAN$ since the program will transfer USD to UKP
- then to CAN$ .
-
- 9.6 Auto descriptions
- If you're really in a hurry (and you usually are ;-)), auto
- descriptions can greatly simplify your life. If you want to add
- or delete an auto description, press Psion-shift-a. You cannot
- edit an auto description, so delete it first, then add a new
- one.
- If you delete the last auto description, you will not get
- the ``autodescription'' line in the ``transaction dialog''
- anymore (that was just in case you didn't need them).
- Auto descriptions are limited to a maximum comma seperated
- list of 255 characters (internal OPL limitation). Thus you can
- have many small auto descriptions, but only a few (well 9) of
- 25 characters (maximum I have allowed per auto description).
-
- 9.7 Categories
- For each transaction, you can assign it to a category. This
- field is usually used for budget categories, but you can
- actually use it for anything you like (maybe to remember where
- the money came from/who paid if the account is shared between
- several people/...)! For each category you must assign a
- ``short code'' (2 letters/numbers max) that will be displayed
- on the screen.
- Categories display can be toggled on/off in the preferences.
- If you intend to export to Quicken, be sure to enter the
- same category names that you use in Quicken (in the long name
- field of course).
-
- 9.8 Standing orders
- Standing orders are transaction which happen every month
- (like payments or your salary ...) You can enter these in the
- standing orders dialog which is called with Psion-shift-o.
- Choose whether you want to add/delete/modify a standing order.
- If no standing orders are entered yet, you are defaulted to the
- add option. You will be asked to enter some details and when
- everything is correct, it will save the standing order to disk.
- As soon as the chosen day comes around, you will see the
- standing order appear. You can also make future standing orders
- appear by changing the preferences (see section 9.18
- ``Preferences'').
- For the time being if you want to make a standing transfer,
- you will need to make two different standing orders.
- Just a word of caution though: once the standing order has
- appeared, do not delete it, as it will NOT come back again
- during that month! Please be careful with future standing
- orders! See also section 12 ``Technical'' for more information
- on how the program works.
-
- 9.9 Editing transactions
- Press Psion-e or simply Enter to edit the current
- (highlighted) transaction. As usual, the dialog is quite
- intuitive and looks quite like the ``New transaction'' dialog.
- Note: if you have deleted the original currency the
- transaction was made in, you will get the conversion into your
- account's main currency with the last rate you used. Otherwise
- you will get the foreign currency and amount (what else did you
- expect ;-).
-
- 9.10Evaluating transactions
- When in the transaction dialog, you can evaluate an amount
- automagically simply by entering the string to evaluate in the
- amount line. You can even use the calculator memories! For
- example, if you have 100 stored in the M1 calc memory, typing
- ``m1+25'' will result in a transaction with an amount of 125.
-
- 9.11Copy / Insert transactions
- You can copy a transaction into the memory buffer with Psion-
- c. Alternatively, when you delete a transaction, it will be put
- into the memory buffer as well for safety reasons. Just press
- Psion-i as in all ``normal'' Psion applications to insert the
- transaction again.
- Notes:
- ╖ This does NOT work with transfers; you would only get back
- the transaction from the current account.
- ╖ You can copy/insert transactions over different accounts
- and even different groups.
-
- 9.12Reconciling transactions
- You can check the transactions which have appeared on your
- bank statement when you receive it at the end of the month;
- this is called ``reconciling''. It is only useful if you keep
- back transactions from other months, so you can see up to where
- you have already checked. I usually delete old transactions
- once the statement has arrived. Individual reconciliation is
- done with Psion-m. Reconciled transactions are marked with a
- check mark at the far right.
- You can reconcile up to (and including) the current
- (highlighted) transaction with Psion-shift-m. This might take
- some time, depending on the amount of transactions you have in
- your account, so please be patient.
-
- 9.13Deleting transactions
- Just press Psion-d or the delete key to delete current
- (shown in highlight) transaction. In case you've mistakenly
- deleted a transaction, you can get it back by pressing Psion-i
- (for insert).
- Note: deleting single items does NOT affect the balance,
- even if the transaction is cleared. By this I mean that it will
- not issue a new ``Opening Balance''. It will of course set the
- balance to the correct state in itself.
- You can delete up to (and including) the current
- (highlighted) transaction with Psion-shift-d or more simply
- shift-delete. This on the other hand, WILL update the balance
- and put a new ``Opening Balance'' as the first transaction.
- This is used at the end of the month when you have reconciled
- all your transactions with the bank's statement.
-
- 9.14Archiving transactions
- You can archive any transactions (you have the choice of
- dates and types of transactions) to another file by either
- selecting ``Archive'' from the ``Group'' menu choice or
- pressing Psion-a directly. This file will be a ``regular''
- group file and appear under the DPBank icon on your System
- screen.
- To open it again, simply choose ``Open group'' from the
- ``Group'' menu choice or simply press Psion-o.
- Note: for the time being you cannot append transactions to
- another file. You must either overwrite it or make another
- archive file.
-
- 9.15Exporting transactions
- Pressing Psion-E lets you export any transactions from the
- current account into either a pure ASCII (TXT) file, a Quicken
- (QIF) file or to a Psion database (DBF) file. If you don't
- define a complete filename with an extension, the program will
- set the default extension for you. You have the choice of which
- transaction type (reconciled, unreconciled, ...) you wish to
- export and the record seperation character you wish to use in
- the ASCII export. If you use the ASCII export, you'll get a
- file with each line representing a transaction. Each field in a
- transaction will be delimited with whatever character you've
- chosen. The fields are in this order:
-
- -Date (in whatever format your Psion uses, be sure to set
- the correct format for Quicken files in the Time application,
- ie: DD/MM/YY for Europe and MM/DD/YY or YY/MM/DD for USA)
- Description
- -Local amount (in terms of what currency the account is
- held in)
- -Balance associated with that transaction (may not be
- correct if you don't export all transactions!)
- -Cleared flag (0=uncleared)
-
- 9.16Sum up transactions
- This option is accessed with Psion-S. It allows you to sum
- up various transactions which start with the same description
- or have the same category. This allows you to use the auto
- descriptions and then make a new transaction at the end of the
- month with that transaction's amount being the sum of all the
- same transactions and the date being the last date of the
- summed up transactions.
- Sounds a little complicated, but it's real easy to use, just
- try it.
- You can also only view the result without modifying any
- transactions; this is particularly interesting for use with
- categories for example.
-
- 9.17Viewing global amount and balances
- It is quite straight forward: just select the appropriate
- choice from the menu or use the shortcuts Psion-g (for global)
- or tab (for balances).
-
- 9.18Preferences
- Press Psion-q to go to the preferences menu. You can choose
- the number of days that are displayed from future transactions
- in the future view. The future view is obtained by pressing the
- diamond key. This is only useful if you have lots of standing
- orders and would like to do a ``what if'' choice.
- You can choose if you want to see warnings (when deleting
- transactions for example) or not. I suggest you leave them on
- for some time until you get comfortable at using the program.
- You can also choose the currency used in the ``Global''
- window.
- Here you can also select the amount of memory you want to
- use for the cache (ie: set aside for keeping procedures in
- memory instead of always loading/unloading them). For OPL
- programmers, this is the CACHE xxx,yyy command.
- If you don't understand the technical nature of all this,
- just set it to 2000 (which is the minimum it will use if you
- allow any cache size below this anyway) and you will see a
- considerable speed increase already in the screen refreshing. A
- cache size of 2000 will need about 3k of extra memory.
- I've allowed this option because DPBank was originally
- intended for people with low memory possibilities (256/512k
- Series 3a still exist you know ;-). It was thus highly
- optimized for memory usage and not speed. (Unfortunately, you
- have to choose between the two.) On the other hand, people with
- 1/2Mb Psions felt a little "slowed" down... so hopefully this
- will please everyone now.
- The "allow big amounts" option allows you to enter bigger
- amounts than those normally allowed. You can enter amounts up
- to 999 999 999 999.99 with this option. Hopefully this will be
- enough for all of you now; if not, just transfer me a
- significant part of it ;-)
- The downside to this is that you will not be able to see the
- "Balance" column anymore on the screen (it would have made it
- too clogged). On the other hand, the amounts will be displayed
- with triad separation (if you allowed this from the System
- preference of course). To see the balances, you can still press
- Psion-b or more simply TAB.
-
- 9.19Password protection
- To use password protection, press Psion-w or select
- ``Password'' from the ``Special'' menu choice. You will have
- the choice of asking for the password only on startup or also
- when you switch back to DPBank if you leave it open. The
- procedure is quite easy to understand and similar to the
- System's own password.
- A word of caution here: password protection does not mean
- that the files are encrypted! If you have sensible data to be
- kept on your Psion, don't rely on ANY password to keep your
- thief away from it. Even the System password is bypassable!
- Also, be sure to remember your password since forgetting it
- means that you will not be able to access your bank data any
- more ...
- Be careful if you want to password protect your accounts
- group when switching to DPBank, not to leave DPBank in a menu
- or a dialog when you switch from it! If you do, it will not be
- able to ask for the password and anyone can then look at your
- accounts.
-
- 9.20Compression
- The files are automatically compressed each time you switch
- accounts or when you exit DPBank. If you leave the program
- running for a long time and have made lots of changes to
- transactions, it may be wise to compress the file to gain some
- disk space. This is simply done with Psion-k.
-
- 9.21Useful info
- For each account you can save some useful information. Press
- Psion-u for the dialog. Here you can also change the name of
- the account. You can enter text details like the account number
- and telephone number of the bank by choosing "Enter more
- details". The other options are self explanatory so just take a
- look at them.
-
- 9.22Printing
- To print, you need to first use the "Print Setup" (Psion-y)
- dialog to fix the number of lines per page as well as the
- printer device. You can select either parallel, serial or file
- printing. Printing does NOT work with PsiPrint and there's
- nothing planned in that direction (because it would mean a
- major investement for me and would use up quite some memory).
- If you want to print to your PC's printer, you should choose a
- remote file to PRT: or LPT1: or whatever is suitable (but NOT
- the serial device!). Printing is then accessed with Psion-p as
- usual and it's quite straight forward... why am I writing all
- these docs in the end? ;-)
- Categories will be printed if you have them displayed,
- otherwise they'll not be printed.
-
- 9.23Diamond key
- The diamond key lets you switch between actual and future
- transactions display. Let me explain this: if you want to enter
- future transactions, you will not see them unless you are in
- the future transactions view and you've set the number of
- future days in the preferences.
- There is no status bar on the right of your screen for
- screen space reasons. If you want to see one temporarily, just
- press Psion-Menu. Alternatively, if you don't know which view
- you're in, just press the diamond key and read what the program
- displays in the bottom right corner of your screen.
-
- 9.24Plotting acount data
- You can use Nick Dawkin's excellent Plot utility that allows
- you to view your data graphically in a time wise manner. You
- can download this program from Nick's site at:
- http://www.pavilion.co.uk/users/ndawkins/ Alternatively, you
- can mail Nick at: ndawkins@pavilion.co.uk
- In a future version, you will be able to launch this
- application directly from DPBank.
- Please pass all Plot ideas/comments directly to Nick.
-
- 10. Registering DPBank
- This program is now shareware since it took quite a
- considerable amount of time to make. If you don't like this
- idea, fine: either use version 1.0 of this program or write
- your own ;-) I don't believe it's really worth it for such a
- small fee ...
- In any case, please read the file ``REGISTER.TXT'' for
- details of how to register and the cost.
- The future of this program depends if enough people like it
- and register it.
-
- 11. Limitations and bugs
- ╖ Only 6 accounts can be tracked
- ╖ Only days 1-28 are allowed for standing orders
- ╖ It can get quite slow when a lot of transactions are kept
- in the file
- ╖ DPBank will now work if you use the comma as decimal
- seperator when you start the program; but do NOT change the
- decimal seperator once you've created a group, otherwise DPBank
- will not start anymore.
- ╖ When reconciling foreign amounts, sometimes the amounts
- are too big and you can only see the end of the local amount in
- the dialog (when the amount is automatically displayed); simply
- press cursor left to see the beginning of the local amount.
- ╖ NEVER leave the remote link on! Due to some obscure Psion
- problem (bug?) it might trash your files!
- ╖ A lot of bugs have been found during beta testing (and
- have of course been fixed). I can't garantee you that the
- program is completely bug free (and I suppose there still must
- be the odd one lurking around in there; programmer's axiom:
- there are always at least 2 bugs in a program ;-). If you do
- find one, please report it to me! See section 16 ``Author'' for
- my address.
- And remember: the best cure is prevention! Always keep a
- backup copy of your vital data (and I do suppose your bank
- account is vital data, no?).
-
- 12. Technical
- The program uses several files. It uses four common files
- for each group (preferences, currency, categories, and standing
- orders) and two files for each account (the real data and the
- information).
- If you want to delete a whole group, you must delete all the
- files with the same name (but different extensions). This means
- that for each account you must delete 2 files (the Data and the
- Info).
- The currency and the categories file are the same for all
- the groups on the same drive. All other files are independant
- of each other and can be changed from group to group.
- Each account file is a seperate DataBase file (although you
- cannot open it using DATA because it contains fields which are
- not alphabetical strings). It is compressed each time you
- switch accounts but if you do a lot of transactions on one
- account without switching to another, you can also manually
- compress the file with Psion-k.
- Actually, the hardest part is understanding the standing
- order technique. Each time you write or modify a standing
- order, it is written to the standing order file. The standing
- orders are checked when you change the number of future days
- shown or if the date changes (you can leave the Psion off; the
- next time you run DPBank , it will check for standing orders by
- itself). If there are any standing orders that need to be
- written to an account, then it will ``transfer'' a copy of it
- to the actual account and write a record into it. It will then
- change the date in the standing order file on which the next SO
- must next appear. Thus, if you delete or modify a standing
- order, it may not immediately take effect if you are showing
- future days. Especially if you modify a SO that has already
- appeared once, it will appear again under the new name, so you
- have to manually delete the old occurences ...
-
- 13. Future
- I plan on adding these features for future versions:
- ╖ Re-ordering of accounts
- ╖ More localisation of the whole program (german is catered
- for at the moment, is there a volunteer to translate only the program
- and/or the documentation into other languages?)
- ╖ Better standing orders
- ╖ More accounts
- ╖ Show conversion rate when reconciling foreign currencies
- ...
- ╖ Sorting of auto descriptions/categories
-
- Quite a long list, and so many other things to do :-(
-
- 14. Thanks to
- I would like to particularly thank Philippe Lebreton, Jason
- Savage, Simon Wallace, Arnaud Weil and Konstantin I. Saliy for
- beta testing this program and giving me some new ideas. My
- biggest thanks must go to:
- ╖ Arnaud for having translated the whole documentation and
- program into french (for which I was too busy myself).
- ╖ Espen Joranger for the Norwegian translation of the
- program.
- ╖ Karsten Weisbauer for the German translation of the whole
- documentation, program and help file!
- ╖ Nick Dawkins for his excellent Plot utility.
- Also a very special thanks to Anne-Laure, my girlfriend, for
- having supported me while I was programming and for having
- showed me that you can never make a fool proof program however
- hard you try!
- And last but not least, all the users which have already
- registered the program since version 1.1 (you know who you
- are!), thank you!
-
- 15. Legal stuff
- DPBank is provided ``as is''. This means, it does what it
- does, and I cannot be held responsable if it crashes your
- system, or causes any other dammages. If however you do have a
- problem with it, please report it to me and I will try to help
- you out to fix it.
- You are not allowed to reverse translate this program and/or
- use any part of it in your own programs without my prior
- consentement.
-
- 16. Author
-
- Snail mail:
- Daniel Pfund
- 19, ch. Tirelonge
- CH-1213 Onex
- Switzerland
- You can also reach me via Email (preferred !):
- ``Pfund3@uni2a.unige.ch'' or if this address doesn't work
- anymore (stops around the 11th of October 1997) you can still
- write to me at: ``Pfund@POBoxes.com'' or
- ``101743.775@compuserve.com''.
- If you have World Wide Web access, I strongly suggest you
- check out the DPBank page at:
- ``http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/8130/'' for any
- updates/bug reports.
- [End of DPBank documentation]
-
-