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Text File | 1985-09-24 | 31.9 KB | 700 lines

H O M E B U D G E T M A N A G E M E N T S Y S T E M version 1.0 August 1985 Table of Contents page OVERVIEW................................. 2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS & LIMITATIONS........ 2 CONVENTIONS.............................. 3 GETTING STARTED.......................... 4 INITIALIZING THE SYSTEM.................. 5 CHART OF ACCOUNTS........................ 6 BUDGET ASSIGNMENT........................ 7 LEDGER POSTING........................... 8 CLOSE MONTH.............................. 10 REPORTS.................................. 11 SAVE DATA................................ 12 SAMPLE DATA.............................. 12 OVERVIEW If you are like most people, there have been many occassions when you have uterred those famous words, "Where did all the money go?". The solution of course is to keep better records, but this is a task no one likes to do. This program was created to make the record keeping part as painless as possible. H.B.M.S. is flexible. You may want to use it as a reference on your entire financial position, or just use it as a check register. This program makes it easy to keep accurate and complete records of all your financial transactions. With faithful record keeping and a carefully designed Chart of Accounts, you will be rewarded with a variety of information. This can help you better decide how to manage your money, not to mention how welcome these figures will be when tax time arrives! All this data can be readily viewed on screen, or printed in formated statements. The printed reports include: * Transaction Report * Sorted Ledger Report * Monthly Income & Expense Report * Balance Sheet * Annual Actuals * Annual Budget Report * Chart of Accounts H.B.M.S. is based on a double entry ledger system. Every effort has been made to make the job of entering data as easy as possible. A sample database has been provided to represent what H.B.M.S can do. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS IBM PC, PC/XT, PCjr, or compatible 128K RAM 1 disk drive Printer (screen reports available) Printer should be capable of printing 132 columns, such as a dot matrix printer using a condensed font (17 chrs. per inch). LIMITATIONS 254 accounts 38 catagories - 2 - PROGRAM CONVENTIONS H.B.M.S. is menu driven. Throughout the program when you are prompted to enter data, you will see a field in reverse video. Your data, be it an account code, name, description, etc. will be limited to the length of this field. When in this field, a full array of editing keys are available: <INSERT> <DELETE> <RIGHT ARROW> <LEFT ARROW> <BACKSPACE> <TABS> <ESC> The <ESC> key needs further mention. It is used to erase all data in a field. Hitting the <ESC> key followed by the <ENTER> key, enters a null value. In most cases, entering a null value in response to a prompt will cancel the current mode and return you to a menu. You will be reminded on line 25 when this ESCape option is available. In most parts of the program you will need to supply a code for the account you are interested in. Often you will be provided with a starting code. After that, your prompt will be the next code in the order of their appearance in the Chart of Accounts. H.B.M.S. consists of two program files, HMBS.COM and it's overlay file HBMS.000. These two files must reside on the default drive. H.B.M.S. creates the following files: STARTUP .HBM year and month infor. CATS .yr catagory names ACCOUNTS.yr account names and all data LEDGR-m .yr ledger file for each month (yr = Year of data, m = month) It is suggested that these data files be kept on a separate disk. In this manner you should be able to fit an entire year of data on one disk, or maybe have individual disks for separate budgets. In any case, when the free space gets below 20K, H.B.M.S. will warn you. - 3 - GETTING STARTED To run the program type HBMS followed by drive designation for your data files: HBMS b: If your data files will reside on the program disk, leave off the drive designation. If you are running the program for the first time, you should proceed as follows: STEP 1. Select "Begin New Year" under the Initialize System Menu. Here you enter such things as the year of the data and the beginning month. STEP 2. Return to the Main Menu and select "Chart of Accounts". Here you will able to design your own Chart of Accounts. This is a very important step. A lot of thought should go into it's design, as you will be using it for the entire budget year. (see description under Chart of Accounts) STEP 3. Select "Enter Starting Values" under the Initialize System Menu. Here you will be able to enter any existing balances on your Assets and Liabilities. Income and Expense accounts always start out with a zero balance. STEP 4. Select "Budget Assignment" from the Main Menu. Here you will be able to enter any budget values that you may want to set as goals. This step is optional. STEP 5. Now you are ready for the actual record keeping Routines. Under the "Ledger Posting" selection from the Main Menu, you will be able to enter all your transactions. NOTE: I find it helpful to save my receipts from each day and jot down any other transactions. Then at the end of each week I enter these transactions in the Ledger Posting section. You may want to do this on a daily basis. In either case, you will then have a printed record of all your transactions available. - 4 - INITIALIZING THE SYSTEM Begin New Year When starting a system for the first time you will be asked for year and starting month information. If you already have a working budget you will be given the option to reuse the existing Chart of Accounts. If this is the case, H.B.M.S. will optionally transfer Asset and Liability starting values as well as the Budget data. In order to take advantage of this you should have a copy of the old data files (STARTUP.HBM, CATS.yr, ACCOUNTS.yr) on your new data disk. After the new year has been initialized you may delete the old copies of CATS.yr and ACCOUNTS.yr. Starting Values The current Asset and Liability account values for the beginning of your budget year should be entered here. (Only after Chart of Accounts has been created). Printer Codes H.B.M.S. was designed to work with an IBM compatible dot matrix printer. My Gemini-10X comforms to these standards with no changes. All data, except for the Chart of Accounts, is printed in condensed font (17 cpi). The Chart of Accounts is printed in elite font (12 cpi). If in doubt about your printer, use this section to change any of the printer formatting codes to conform to your particular printer. This will create a separate printer support file on the default drive named PRINTER.HBM. If your printer has a wide carriage, you might want to enter null values for the condensed codes. If your printer does not support italics, enter a null value for the italics codes. - 5 - CHART OF ACCOUNTS Great care should be taken in creating your Chart of Accounts. It can be broad, with just a few accounts under at least one catagory per money group, or it can be very definitive with multiple accounts under numerous catagories. You might want to keep special accounts just for tax related items. I like to separate principals and interest on liabilities. By doing this I can keep an accurate running balance on how much I owe. (see sample data) Group your accounts under catagories for more informational reports. These catagories will be grouped according to whether they are INCOME, EXPENSES, ASSETS, or LIABILITIES. NOTE: the catagories must be created first, so that accounts will have somewhere to be placed. Accounts may be added, changed, or deleted at any time during the budget year. While using the program, accounts and catagories will be referred to by a code which you will assign. These codes can consist of up to four characters. Try to keep them short and easy to remember. These codes can be entered in either upper of lower case. As an example, the code "CK" might be used to call up the "Checking Account". The restrictions that apply are as follows: * There must be at least one catagory per money group. * Total number of catagories should not exceed 38. * Total number of accounts should not exceed 254 with no more than 38 accounts per catagory. * Account names or codes may be changed but this may lead to confusion if printed reports under the first part of the year differ from those after the change is made. None of the other data contained in these accounts will be changed. * Accounts may be grouped under different catagories as long as they don't cross money group boundaries (i.e. an account under an income catagory may not be moved to an expense catagory). * Catagory codes and names may be changed but the confusion factor mentioned above still applies. * Accounts may be deleted only if they have had no action during the year. * Catagories may be deleted if they do not have any accounts assigned to them. This constraint may be avoided by moving all accounts from under the catagory to be deleted, to other catagories first. - 6 - Resequence Accounts The order in which catagories and accounts appear on your Chart of Accounts can be different than the order in which they were entered. After creating or editing your Chart of Accounts, you may resequence their appearance by selecting "Resequence Accounts" under the Chart of Accounts Menu. Their current order will be displayed and you will be allowed to change them around to suit your taste. BUDGET ASSIGNMENT H.B.M.S. allows you to assign a budget figure for each month. By using this feature you may set goals for your projected income and expenses. While I'm not sure that this is proper accounting proceedure, you may even set budget amounts for assets and liabilities. This might allow you to set goals for your savings or how soon you plan to pay off a debt. Of course, it wouldn't make sense to budget for your checking account, as it's balance varies to no set pattern. If you decide you don't want to budget for certain accounts, just enter a zero value for each month. If all months have a zero budget value then your reports will show a "n/a" in place of a budget figure. After selecting a code to budget for, the values for each particular month will be shown along with a grand total for the year. If you want to make changes, answer "n" to the prompt, and you will be allowed to enter figures for each month. On your first visit to the Budget Assignment section, and any time while the starting month of the budget is still open, you will be given an additional choice to enter a yearly total and have the computer divide it among the months. It should be noted that budget figures can be updated at any time, but you will only be allowed to change values for the months which have not been closed. When you exit the Budget Assignment section you will automatically be presented with a summary of your budget status. - 7 - LEDGER POSTING The Ledger Posting section is the part of the program where you will be entering your daily transactions. As mentioned before, H.B.M.S. is a double entry ledger system. At this point maybe we should address the Debit/Credit idea behind this program. It's not too hard as long as you remember which way the money is going. Are you decreasing an account balance (debit) or increasing an account balance (credit)? Notice the use of the word "balance". It is essential that you understand this idea in order to use H.B.M.S. The following examples may help. Let's take the example of writing a check to the Electric Company. You will have to make an entry that shows the money coming out of your checking account. Your checking account balance will go down (a DEBIT). Now that you've shown the money coming out you will have to show where it went. This, of course, would be whatever account you plan to charge electricity to. The electricity account balance would go up (a CREDIT). For every DEBIT (the Checking Account) there must be a CREDIT (Electricity Account). It sounds like a lot of work, but the program has been designed to make it as easy as possible. If you received a paycheck you would have to show the money coming in to an account in the Income group. This would be increasing or CREDITING that account balance. For every Credit there must be a Debit so at this point we must show the money going somewhere. If the paycheck was for $500 and you put the entire amount in a checking account, the checking balance would go up by $500 (a CREDIT). This may sound confusing, two CREDITS in the same transaction. Just remember that any transaction consists of at least two entries representing the movement of the money. In the above example you could have shown the $500 coming in and then dispersed it to more than one account. You might have put $400 in checking, $50 in a savings account, and the remaining $50 into a spending cash account. All of the above account balances increased so they were all CREDITS. When it comes to borrowing money (a LIABILITY), the debit/credit idea still applies. If you take out a $4000 loan to buy a car, you will be increasing a liability account (CREDIT). This money has to be shown going somewhere, and it should be represented as an increase to an expense account for the new car (CREDIT). As you make monthly payments on the car loan, your liability account balance will decrease accordingly (DEBIT). If you stop and think about whether an account balance will increase or decrease then you will know if it's a credit or a debit. If money is shown coming in it must be shown going to somewhere and vice-versa. - 8 - All this discussion will help you decide what the first entry in a ledger transaction will be. The first prompt will be for a "D" (debit), "C" (credit), or "V" (view previous transactions). Once the decision has been made whether you will be debiting or crediting the first account, H.B.M.S. will handle the rest. Negative values will be automatically entered where needed. You should never have to use the minus sign at all. The following is a sample transaction of writing a check to the drug store. Step 1. At the first prompt you would select "D" to debit checking. Step 2. Then you would enter the code for your checking account. At this point H.B.M.S. will show you the current balance for that account. Step 3. Enter the date. Step 4. Enter the check number. This field is optional. If you were debiting spending cash there would be no check number. Step 5. Enter who the check was written to. This field is also optional, as in the case of spending cash. Step 6. Here is where the flexability of H.B.M.S. shines. In the case of a checking transaction you would want to enter the full amount of the check. As you enter where the money will be dispersed in the steps below, H.B.M.S. will prompt you with the remaining balance of the check as you go along. In the case of a spending cash transaction you might want to leave this space blank. As you enter the values that the cash was dispersed to, H.B.M.S. will keep a running total for you. Step 7. Now you will begin to disperse the money to their respective accounts. If all the money is intended to go to one account enter the full amount. Otherwise enter the partial value. Step 8. Enter the code for the account selected. Step 9. Enter a description for the transaction. This field is also optional, but it really helps to describe each item for future reference. NOTE: If you enter tilde character <~> only, H.B.M.S. will copy the description entered in step 5. See the paycheck transactions in the sample data. - 9 - Step 10. Now you have fulfilled the minimum of two entries for a transaction. If you entered a value in step 6 and accounted for all of it in step 7 you will finished. Otherwise you will be able to keep adding entries to be drawn from the account in step 2. When finished you will be asked if everything is ok. If you made a mistake in an entry, enter "n" and you will be allowed to go back and make corrections. However the automatic prompting for the remaining balance will not be in effect so as not to erase the values you may have already entered. Remember, the entire transaction can be aborted at any time by entering a null value for a code prompt. VIEW LEDGER If you enter a "V" in response to step 1 you will be allowed to view the transactions already entered for the current month. This can be very handy if you forgot if you had entered something. You will be prompted for a record number to display. These are the numbers on the left side of the ledger posting screen. When you first enter the VIEW section you will be prompted with the record number following the last one to be printed (see Transaction Report). You may enter a record number that you think is close to the one you want to view, and that entire transaction screen will be shown just as you entered it. You can browse through the screens at will and when finished just enter a null value at the record number prompt. NOTE: Changes are not allowed to the ledger once the "Above ok" has been given. This is to allow a good audit trail. If you made a mistake you will have to make an appending entry to account for the error. CLOSE/OPEN MONTH This section does just what you would expect. At the end of each month you should select the Close Current Month routine. H.B.M.S will read the entire ledger for the current month, update totals, and declare the following month open. If for any reason you have to go back to a previous month to make additions or changes there is a reopen feature also. Just remember that ledger posting can only be done on the current open month. - 10 - REPORTS Reports by Account In this section you have access to almost all data that H.B.M.S. has to offer. When first accessing this section you will be able to select from 3 formats which include a monthly report, an annual report, and a sorted ledger. After making your choice you will be prompted for the account code you are interested in. The data will be displayed and you will given the oportunity to display the same account in the other two formats. Just hitting <ENTER> will keep the format you are in and prompt you with the next account code. NOTE: When selecting either the Month Format or the Sorted Ledger Format for the first time there will be a slight delay while H.B.M.S. gathers up some data. After this has been done you will be able to flip between all three formats with no delay at all. Transaction Report The Transaction Report will make a printed copy of your ledger transactions just as you entered them. You might want to print out the transactiona after every ledger posting session. If so, H.B.M.S. will remember the last record printed for the month and prompt you for the next unprinted record number. I usually post the ledger about 4 to 5 times a month, but I like to wait till the end of the month and then print out the entire month's transactions at one time. If I need to see a transaction that has not been printed yet, I use the "VIEW" feature in the Ledger Posting section. Income and Expense The Income and Expense Report prints all the monthly oriented data including averages, budget figures, reserves, etc. There is also an oportunity to print out just the Asset and Liability information in a form called the Balance Sheet. Annual Actuals Prints all the monthly totals up to and including the current month. All figures will be in whole dollars only because of space limitations. Annual Budget Prints all monthly budget totals for the entire year. Chart of Accounts Prints a summary of all accounts grouped in their respective catagories according to the sequence you have selected. This printout should be kept handy when posting the ledger, but you should find that most codes will be easy to remember if they are carefully selected. - 11 - SAVE DATA H.B.M.S. keeps all account values in memory in order to to keep disk access to a minium and speed up the program. Whenever you end the program, if any data has been changed it will automatically be updated on the disk. If you have entered a lot of data it might be safe to save it occasionally without getting out of the program. A power outage or a program crash (heaven forbid), could negate any data that was entered since the last save. SAMPLE DATA If you have the sample database distributed with this program you can easily see what H.B.M.S. can do for you. Select the Reports section and see the screen reports available, but please read about printer compatabiliy in the Initialize System section of this document before attempting to make any printouts. Also please do not try to reopen a month with the sample data as only the current ledger file has been included. This sample data is entirely ficticious. Some of the amounts may seem a little strange, but they should still represent how the program might be used. The author would like to state that he has used this program for some time, and it serves my purposes well. However, if you find that I have made any unacceptable errors in the design, or if you can suggest some ways to make it better, please let me know. H.B.M.S. was written in TURBO PASCAL and has taken more of my time than I care to admit. If you find that it suits your needs, please consider a $15 contribution. In any case please share this program with your friends, but make sure it includes the documemtation and sample data. Send any comments and suggestions to: Brentson Worrell 6404 Mornay Dr. Tampa, FL 33615 - 12 -