Believe it or not, we have created what we deem to be the most powerful bill splitter in the world! This might seem like an odd thing to do. But if you often eat at the restaurant, and you sometimes split the bill, you’ll probably find the application very practical! And besides, it’s a great application to use to show off your PDA!
The best thing about Resto 2.0 is that it’s FREE! Why? Well, MACAPA has had so much success with our other shareware products (List-It and Napkin Calc) that we decided it would be nice to give the community something fun to use, while still remaining practical.
If you want to learn what’s changed since Resto 1.3, you can simply jump to the end of this document. We give a quick list of changes. We recommend that you read this help file at least once, to help you use Resto 2.0 to it’s fullest potential.
EDITING PARAMETERS
Using Resto is actually quite simple. The first thing you should to is tap on the Options button and select the “Edit Parameters” command. This will bring up a dialog that will let you enter data which very rarely changes. Here is a quick explanation of each option.
Price Options: Show Currency and show Decimals
These options let you decide how you want your amounts to look like. If you put a check mark in the Show Currency box, all your amount will appear with a dollar sign (or whatever currency your Newton is currently using). Show decimals lets you decide whether or not you want to see two (2) decimals after your amount. (ex.: “2.00” or “2”, depending on your choice).
Tax Rates
Since tax rates change only rarely, we decided they should be part of the semi permanent Parameters. You can enter up to three tax rates. Simply enter whatever the rate is (for example, enter “7” for a 7% tax rate) and Resto 2.0 will do the necessary calculation when splitting the bill. You can enter up to three (3) rates if you wish (or rather, if you have to).
Calculation Method: Add Taxes or Accumulate Taxes
Not all taxes are calculated the same way everywhere. This is why we offer you two options. Let’s use a concrete example to help us better understand this options. Lets say you have two taxes, 7% and 4%. If you select the Add Taxes option, the global tax rate will be 11% (since we simply add 7% to 4%). But in some places, taxes are accumulated, that is to say that the 4% tax would be charged on top of the 7% tax. In this case, use the Accumulate Taxes option. This means that your global tax rate will be 11.28%. If you’re not sure what the taxes are or how they work, you can always ask the waiter. He/she should be aware of what ever is currently in use.
SPLITTING THE BILL
So all your basic information has been entered. Now you want to split a bill. How do you do it? Well, if the Parameters dialog is still open, close it by tapping in the X in the lower right of the window. If not, just read on.
There are basically three fields that must be filled before you can know how much each person will have to pay. The first one is called “Bill Total”. This is where you enter what ever total appears on your restaurant bill. Once you’ve entered an amount in this field, Resto will estimate how much taxes you should be paying on your bill (and show it to the right of the total). It will then remove this amount from the bill when calculating the waiter’s tip. You’ll notice that it takes a short while before a dollar sign appears next to the amount you entered. This is a method we use to simplify data entry on various PDA models. Please let us know if you experience any problems with this.
The next field is called “Tip Rate” and is a simple percentage. If you’d like to pay 15% tip to the waiter, just enter “15”. Of course, you really don’t have to enter anything in here. Most travel books recommend that you pay a tip that is somewhere between 15% and 20%. Resto lets you enter anything you like (from nothing to 100%). If you’ve entered something in the “Bill Total” field and you enter a tip rate, the tip amount you’re paying will appear to the right of the rate. Resto will also show you your Grand Total (that is to say, the total amount for the bill, including the tip).
The last field is called Number of People. It lets you decide how many people will be splitting the bill. For example, if you have a $100 bill (including tip) that is being split between 4 people, Resto will show that each person owes $25. For reasons that will make sense after reading the rest of the text, we would like to mention now that the maximum “usable” number of people you should enter right now is 16. Resto will work with more than that, but the display starts to suffer a bit. This will be fixed in a future release.
If that was all you could do, Resto 2.0 wouldn’t be much different that version 1.0. But this is where the REAL power begins! You’ll notice that the screen is split in half. Well, the bottom part is not there for nothing. If we go back to our previous example (4 people splitting a $100 bill), you’ll notice that as soon as you enter “4” in the Nb of People field, a table is drawn will circles around it. These circles represent people sitting around the table. You also have two choices of tables (represented by buttons under the word Table). Tapping on the rectangular button draws a rectangular table (the default table type) while tapping on the circle draws a round table...
THE EXTRAS
Of course, this is all very nice, but what is it good for? It’s great for adding extras that some people might have taken during the meal, but that not everyone is going to pay for. If you tap on one of the circles, you’ll see the drawing disappear and be replaced by a small editor that gives information about the person you just tapped on. The first thing you’ll see is a name (which is automatically set to “Person x” where x is a number). This name can be changed by erasing it and entering a new one.
Next, you’ll see a field called Extras Tot. which show how much the person is going to pay for the extras. The Amount Due field tells you exactly how much that person should pay (including tip, extras and taxes).
The next thing is an area in which will appear the list of extras that the person has taken. It should start out by being blank (this list can be scrolled using the big arrows at the bottom of your screen). Below that is the area in which you enter the data concerning the extra. The Item field lets you enter the name of the extra (you can make your life simpler by tapping on the word ITEM and selecting a name from the list that pops up). Next is the quantity (did the person take only 1 drink, or more?). The last field is the Price. If you find the area a bit small (it’s not easy fitting everything on the screen), you can always double tap on the field to bring up a keyboard).
Once the fields have been filled, tap on the ADD ITEM button to add it to the person’s list of extras. You’ll notice that the amount that every person has to pay has gone down a bit since they’re not supposed to pay for the extra, while the Amount Due field for the person you’re currently looking at has gone up).
If you’ve made a mistake and want to rectify it, just tap on the line with the extra you want to change. The three fields mentioned above will be filled with the appropriate data. When you’re finished with your changes, tap on the MODIFY button. If you’d rather get rid of the extra you’re modifying, you can always tap on the REMOVE button.
When you’re done looking at a person’s data, tap on the RETURN button and the table will be redrawn. You can then modify another person’s data by tapping on that person’s circle.
JOINING
Maybe when you entered your basic parameters, you noticed other menu options when you tapped on the OPTIONS button. Namely JOIN TWO PEOPLE and UNJOIN. This first command lets you specify that someone is going to pay someone else’s bill.
To do this, select the JOIN TWO PEOPLE from the OPTIONS menu. Resto now expects you to tap on two circles. Once you’ve selected the two people, a line will be drawn between them to indicate that a link exists. This means that if you select a particular person by tapping on his/her circle, you’ll know exactly how much that person owes. So, following our previous example, if you join Person 1 and Person 2, and decide to see Person 1’s data, you’ll notice that the AMOUNT DUE field shows $50 instead of $25 (assuming you don’t have any extras). That is because Resto added Person 2’s $25 to Person 1’s $25.
The link between two people goes both ways. This means that the AMOUNT DUE field for either person should show the same amount for both. Also, you’ll probably notice that the amount being paid for another person will show up in the list of extras. You can’t modify it, but it might be good to know how much it’s adding to the person’s bill.
You can link as many people as you wish. Ultimately, if a person is directly linked to every other person at the table, then that person’s total will be the GRAND TOTAL as calculated by Resto.
UNJOINING
If you wish to separate a person from the people he/she is paying for, select this command from the OPTIONS menu. Resto will then expect you to select someone who is linked to at least another person. The line joining them will be erased and this person’s AMOUNT DUE will no longer show other people’s amounts.
GET BACK LAST BILL
This function brings back up what ever you entered the last time you used Resto. This means that you can quit without having to enter everything all over again. There is a limitation though: the links between people are not kept at the present time. This will be taken care of in a future version. But all the extras you enter will be saved (along with the bill total, tip rate and number of people present).
REMOVE DATA
If you’ve been using Resto 2.0 for a while and decide not to keep it on your PDA, you must use this command before erasing it. It will remove the parameters that were created when Resto was installed.
REVISIONS - OR WHAT’S NEW WITH U
This is where you can see the evolution of Resto.
Resto 2.0: Power functions for power users/eaters
- Permanent parameters
- Graphical representation of table
- Better extras control
- People can be joined / unjoined
- Saving of current bill information
- Faster calculations
- Nicer interface
Resto 1.0: Our first baby
- Nothing new, it was the first version.
THE FUTURE
Of course, we already have some ideas for future versions... But your ideas are also very much welcome. We love to hear from people that use our applications (whether the comments are positive or negative). So send in your ideas if you have any! They’ll be greatly appreciated.
If you’d like to reach us, you can do so by sending us e-mail at one of our various mail boxes (you can find the list by tapping on the About button). But if you’d rather write to us using regular mail, you can send us your thoughts at this address:
Macapa Software
440 Upper Edison #7
St-Lambert
Quebec, CANADA
J4R 2V5
Please include your name, address, phone number and an E-Mail address where we can reach you (if you have one).
