Prospects has many preferences that you can use to change its behavior to meet your needs. Before you get started, you should take a few minutes to review them so you are familiar with things you can change if you decide you do not like the default behavior.
Prospects allows you to organize your accounts, reports and budgets into Binders. Determine how you would like to set up your accounts and create the appropriate Binders. For example, you may want to keep your budgets and reports in a separate folder from your accounts, or keep each family member's accounts in their own Binders. Note that you can rename your Binders at any time and/or drag and drop your accounts to move them.
Prospects comes with a large list of default categories. One of the first things you should do is pare the list down to only categories you want to use. Note that you can import categories from Quicken if they are exported in a QIF file. As you pare the list down, keep in mind that these categories will be used for budgeting purchases.
Create a budget and make it your "active" budget. This will make the budget appear in the Budget Advisor while you are working in your accounts. Note that you can modify the budget at any time, or duplicate it to adjust values and see how any changes will impact your finances without losing your old information.
If you want to start fresh, you can manually create your accounts and begin entering transactions. If you use other financial software, you can import the information (in QIF format). If your bank allows you to download transactions in QIF, QFX or OFX format, you can download the fils via your web browser and then import them into Prospects.
Once you begin working with transactions - especially if you import them from your bank - you will want to setup some rules. Rules allow you to automatically set categories or modify transactions based upon a set of conditions.
Once you have all your information entered, you are ready to begin using Prospects to help you better manage your finances. Explore the ViewPoints™, work with the Budget Advisor and watch your prospects grow!