The PC-SIG Library 9

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Text File | 1990-02-18 | 25KB | 507 lines

----------------------------------------------- | | | Turbo Budgeter | | (C) Copyright, 1990 | | All Rights Reserved | | Garth Braithwaite | | | ----------------------------------------------- P R E F A C E _____________________________________________________________________ This file contains an introduction to and a description of the Turbo Budgeting program. This file also contains a listing of the files that contain documentation and what sections are covered in those files. At the very end of this file are the programs hardware requirements, how to install, disclaimers, problems, correspondence registration and the referral program. I N T R O D U C T I O N _____________________________________________________________________ Turbo Budgeter is a simple, fast, easy to learn, easy to use, flexible home budgeting program. This purpose of this program is to help you get a handle on managing your checking accounts faster and easier. This program was designed after the simple checkbook register but it goes far beyond the usefulness of a check register. Every transaction (withdrawal or deposit) is recorded to a category and can be tagged with special attributes (or flags). This makes it possible for you to see at any time during the year where you stand with your spending and income verses what you budgeted for. How much do you spend on food each month? How much have you given in tax deductible donations? Car payments, house payments, electricity, gasoline, entertainment? Without Turbo Budgeter you either guess at where you spent all your money, or you spend long hours with a pencil, paper and calculator. With Turbo Budgeter you can find out this and much more in just a few seconds. Entering checks and deposits is fast and enjoyable. Recurring entries can be entered with as little as two keystrokes. Pre-defined reports can be printed that give you monthly or year-to-date totals for any or all categories or accounts. The user can quickly view all transactions that have not yet cleared the bank, checks or deposits that deal with a certain account or budget category, or all checks made out to certain payees. Many of the figures that go on your tax return are at your finger tips. Never again will you cringe at the thought of having to balance your checkbook. This program will bring order into your financial life. Knowing where you are spending your money makes it much easier to plan for the future. Turbo Budgeter handles the simple task of transaction tracking and budgeting, and it does it faster and easier than anything else. F E A T U R E S _____________________________________________________________________ Some of the major advantages that this program offers are: a easy to use, intuitive pulldown/popup window user interface, fast data entry with maximum editing capability, simple to install and configure, runs great on minimum hardware (like a 4.77mghz PC with 256K and a single floppy). Turbo Budgeter also offers easy account reconciling, flexible viewing, flexible listings and most important, flexible, effective reports. Listed below is an itemized list of some of the other major features of Turbo Budgeter. M A J O R F E A T U R E S__________________________________________ - FAST AND MINIMAL TIME REQUIRED FOR DATA ENTRY. To enter in, and clear a hundered transactions it usually takes about an hour. - AN INTUITIVE AND EASY-TO-LEARN POPUP/PULLDOWN WINDOW DRIVEN, USER INTERFACE. - CONTINUAL HELP LINE on the bottom of the screen that guides the user through each step. - MAXIMUM "ON SCREEN" INFORMATION. - Program constantly DISPLAYS THE LATEST 17 ENTRIES that were worked with. - Account balance is constantly displayed. - Accounts cleared balance is constantly shown when clearing entries. - Category information, Account information, Split information and Transaction information are all displayed when viewing transactions. - Transaction Amounts are highlighted if the entry has not yet cleared the bank, deposited amounts are shown in green and with- drawals are shown in red. The account balance is shown in RED if the amount is less than 0. - USER DEFINED AUTOMATIC DEFAULT VALUES for entries. - FULL EDITING CONTROL when entering/editing fields. Move left/right, jump word left/right, delete character, delete word, delete to end of line, insert, typeover, cut and paste blocks, undo etc. - CUT AND PASTE data feature between data fields. You can cut and paste numbers from the calculator into a number field or into any other field as you see fit. - SINGLE STEP BACK UP/UNDO completly back out of any procedure or accept and entry without ever having to step all the way through it. - SPLITTING OF ONE TRANSACTION INTO AN UNLIMITED NUMBER OF CATEGORIES. Entries can be split into as many categories as needed - until all of the total amount is accounted for. - FAST AND EASY RECONCILIATION. The entries are cleared either by pointing to the entry or by typing in the transaction number. The date the transaction was cleared can also be entered in at this time( then if you sort your entries by the cleared date it will match the order of your bank statment line for line). When clear- ing, the program shows you the banks cleared balance as you clear the entry off. This lets you check each entry with your bank stat- ment to see if your transactions match the bank. - FAST NUMBER CALCULATIONS. Most accounting is done on the fly so that a total recalculation is hardly ever done and when it is done it takes only a few seconds even on an PC with thousands of entries. - SIMPLE AMOUNT TRACKING (no double entry accounting). - FLEXIBLE TRANSACTION VIEWING. You can view all of your entries in any order from any/all accounts or any/all budget categories. When are viewing transactions the transactions category and account windows will also be opened and that information displayed. - FAST AND USER DEFINABLE TRANSACTION SORTING. The user can sort on any field or any combinations of the fields. - FAST AND FLEXIBLE ENTRY SEARCHING. Search by Who, the Description, the Transaction Number or the Amount (wild cards can be used in all these searches to aid in finding an item even if the entire item is not known). - FAST ENTRY DISPLAYING. Windows pop up instantly and scrolling is very fast. - FAST DATA LOADING/SAVING time. The program loads and saves its data in one swift move. - FLEXIBLE KEYBOARD OPERATION. The user can move the selection bar in a variety of ways: arrow keys, WordStar type, single keystroke commands. - COMPACT AND EFFICIENT PROGRAM DESIGN. This program has only one program file. There are not any other EXE's to have to chain to and load when running, no overlays that must be loaded etc. Once the program is loaded the disk containing the program can be taken completely out. Installation time of the program and maintaince are kept to a minimum. The actual program requires less than 100K of disk space and a data file with several thousand entries occupies less than 100k also. - EASY INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE. The program has one data file that contains everything. The program also creates a backup of your old data file. No more loss of data due to a to a correped index file. - CLEAN ERROR TRAPPING AND HANDLING. Printer and disk errors are all trapped by the program. - MINIMAL HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS. Program runs great on a single floppy, 256k, 4.77mghz PC. - EASY TO UNDERSTAND AND USER DEFINABLE ACCOUNTS AND BUDGET CATEGORIES. The user can add/edit and delete as they see fit. - USER DEFINED SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES (flags). Each transaction entry can have three special flags. - FLEXIBLE MONTHLY SUMMARY AND BOTTOM LINE (yearly) summary reports keyed on accounts or budget categories. These reports also cover all accounts giving you the real bottom line and summary. - POWERFUL AND FLEXIBLE SELECTING/GROUPING OF ENTRIES for very selective reports or listings. The user can use all entries, pick a range of entries to use (very useful when also using the sort feature) or define a group that will act as a filter - allowing only those entries that are in that group to be used. The group lets you specify date ranges, amount ranges, transaction number ranges, pick categories, accounts and attributes. - FLEXIBLE LISTINGS WHERE THE USER CAN SPECIFY WHICH FIELDS TO LIST AND THEIR ORDER. - POP-UP CALCULATOR with number cut and paste feature. O P E R A T I O N A L O V E R V I E W _____________________________________________________________________ The operational overview is given for the purpose to provide the user with a feeling of how the program works in common everyday usage (the tutorial gives a good start and a more detailed look into setting up the program and budgeting in general). When the program is started it comes up in a checkbook type display. The screen shows the 17 most recent entries, along with the main menu along the top of the screen and the help line at the bottom of the screen. To make a withdrawal you simply press <W> or move the selection bar to "Withdrawal" and press the <Enter> key. A list of your available budget categories is presented and you are prompted to scroll through the list and select the budget category that this withdrawal will be attributed to (the purpose of picking the budget category first is so that the new entry you are making can be filled out with the default values from the budget categorys' template information). The transaction information is then displayed in its window and the user proceeds to step through and fill out the entry. This involves picking the account which the transaction dealt with (done in the same manner as picking the budget category), typing in the date the transaction occurred on, the transaction number (which is automatically incremented), the amount, whom the transaction was with, a description of the transaction and finally picking any special attributes or flags from the list (like tax deductible, who wrote the check etc.). At any point if the entry is correct you can press <Ctrl><Enter> and not have to step through the rest or you can press <Esc> and backup at any point. Also remember that the transaction will be filled out in advance with default values obtained from the budget category you picked at first. You also have full editing capability of any string you are asked to enter or edit. Some of the editing features are: insert, overstrike, jump word left, jump word right, delete the current character, delete word, delete to the end of the line, and even a cut and paste buffer. That is all there is to making a transaction entry. T A B L E O F D O C U M E N T A T I O N _____________________________________________________________________ Documentation At The End Of This File___________________________ Requirements Installing and running the program Disclaimer Problems Registration Referral Program FUNC.DOC________________________________________________________ Conventions Opening screen and what is shown Bottom Help Line Status Line Selecting Editing USE.DOC_________________________________________________________ Pop-up Calculator Special Split transaction entries Clearing transaction entries View Transactions Program startup Command line options Loading purged data files REPORTS.DOC_____________________________________________________ Introduction to the reports Conventions Report filename extensions Quick report Account summary report Budget summary report Account bottom line report Budget bottom line report Entry listings GROUP.DOC________________________________________________________ Introduction to groups Group Screen Ranges Adding Accounts to group Adding Budgets to a group Adding Attributes to a group Options Item Logic Finished R E Q U I R E M E N T S _____________________________________________________________________ This program runs on the IBM PC family of computers, including the PC, XT, AT, PS/2 and all true IBM compatibles. Requires: MS-DOS or PC-DOS version 2.0 or higher, at least 192k of RAM, any IBM type 80 column display and at least one 360k floppy disk drive. That is all that it takes for this program to run fast and effectively. I N S T A L L A T I O N A N D R U N N I N G _____________________________________________________________________ HARD DISK SYSTEM: A. Make a BUDGET directory on the C:\ drive. At the C:\> prompt type, "MD \BUDGET" and press <Enter>. B. Change to subdirectory BUDGET. At the C:\> prompt type, "CD \BUDGET" and press <Enter>. C. Insert into the A: drive, the floppy disk containing the Turbo Budgeter program. D. At the C:\BUDGET> prompt type, "COPY A:BUDGET.EXE" and press the <Enter> key. E. Remove the floppy disk from the A:\ drive - you are all done. F. To run Turbo Budgeter you must first change to the \BUDGET subdirectory by typing "CD \BUDGET" <Enter>. Now to run the program type "BUDGET" <Enter> and you will off and going. FLOPPY DISK SYSTEM: A. Get a blank formatted system disk and put this disk into the A: disk drive. - If the floppy has not yet been formatted then refer to your DOS reference manual on how this is done. B. Put the Turbo Budeter program disk into the B: floppy disk drive. - If you have single floppy system - skip this step. C. Type, "COPY B:BUDGET.EXE A:" and press the <Enter> key. - If you have a single floppy system you will prompted to insert and remove the source and target disks. D. Remove the original Turbo Budgeter floppy disk from the B: drive and store it away for a safe backup. E. To run the program: 1) Boot the computer with the MS-DOS system disk. 2) Replace the MS-DOS system disk with your Turbo Budgeter disk. 3) Run the program by typing "BUDGET" <Enter>. -or- If you have a dual floppy system and you want to run the program on the system disk (drive A:) and have your data and reports put on the disk (drive B:) then you can do something like this: 1) Boot the computer with your MS-DOS system disk. 2) Replace the MS-DOS system disk with your Turbo Budgeter disk. 3) Insert a formatted data disk into drive B:. 4) Go the data disk on the B: drive by typing the following at the system prompt: A>B: <Enter>. 5) Invoke the program by typing: "A:BUDGET" <Enter>. -or- 1) Boot the computer with your MS-DOS system disk. 2) Replace the MS-DOS system disk with your Turbo Budgeter disk. 3) Insert a formatted data disk into drive B:. 4) Invoke the program and specify the data filename to be used on the command line. EXAMPLE: A>BUDGET B:BUDGET.DAT <Enter> . D I S T R I B U T I O N N O T I C E _____________________________________________________________________ Turbo Budgeter is distributed as SHAREWARE. Users are welcome to copy the software and share it with their friends. After evaluating this product, if a person decides to use it, he or she is trusted to buy the registered set. Anyone may obtain an evaluation copy for $10 by directly contacting the address listed below. The disk contains the complete working software and the documentation, ready to be printed on your own printer. If you decide you like Turbo Budgeter and want to register (after ordering the evaluation copy) simply pay the difference between the evaluation copy and the registration fee. Registered owners receive phone and mail support, new product announcements, update services and enrollment into the Referral Program. D I S C L A I M E R _____________________________________________________________________ The Turbo Budgeter program offers no written, expressed or implied warranties. The programmer will not be liable or responsible for anything with respect to any loss or damage that may or may not be associated with Turbo Budgeter, including but not limited to loss of profits, interruption of service, loss of business or consequential damages resulting from the use of such programs. It is distributed as is, what you see is what you get. If a problem does arise, every effort will be made to correct the problem and satisfy you as quickly as possible. When starting the use of any new software package it is always good practice to test the programs with sample data, and to run the programs in parallel with any previous system for a period of time sufficient to ensure satisfactory results. This software is Copyrighted (C) by Garth Braithwaite, 1988, 1989, 1990 all rights reserved. Copies of this software may be made and distributed as long as the software is not changed or modified in any way, and the documentation files remain on the disk to be dis- tributed. P R O B L E M S _____________________________________________________________________ If you encounter a problem with this program or if you would like to comment on anything, please write to the address below. To help in trouble shooting please specify: The program you are using, program version, name and model of the machine you are using, the specifi- cations of your computer (type of display, memory, disk drives), DOS version, any device drivers or TSR's running, the nature of the problem, along with any messages or anything that seems odd or out of place. If your problem is not urgent, write instead of calling. The problem often can't be resolved over the phone anyway, since it usually requires that we have a copy of your data file to recreate the problem on our computer. When writing include a diskette with a copy of your data file and the data mentioned above. Also include any screen dumps or messages which may be useful in researching the problem. If you find it necessary to call for technical support, please have all the information available. If possible, call from a phone near your computer, in case you need to run Turbo Budgeter to troubleshoot or explain the problem. R E G I S T E R I N G _____________________________________________________________________ Registered users are entitled to one free update, future updates at minimal cost, technical support and enrollment into the Referral Program (see the next section for details). Any comments on this program, updates, or future programs that you would like to see, are appreciated and welcomed. To register please include: your name, address, phone, what program(s) you are using, version number(s), the programs' EXE file date and time, any comments, and the amount that you feel this program is worth (any comments and/or monetary support will be greatly appreciated). A sample registration form is included in a file named: "REGISTER.FRM". Simply copy this to your printer, fill in the blanks, and mail to the address given below. To print the sample registration form, turn your printer on, and type the following DOS command: "COPY REGISTER.FRM PRN <Enter>". If you need an invoice for a purchase order then type "COPY INVOICE.PO PRN <Enter>". Thank you for your support. Send comments and registration fees to: Garth Braithwaite, PC-Consulting 2045 W. 1245 S. Syracuse, Utah 84075 R E F E R R A L P R O G R A M _____________________________________________________________________ For a contribution of $20 or more you will be enrolled into the Referral Program. This will entitle you to receive 25% of all donations received that reference you as the person who referred them to Turbo Budgeter. EXAMPLE: 1. Fully register. When you fully register the most recent program version is sent to you on your own personal serialized disk. 2. You introduce the Turbo Budgeter to a friend. He/she makes a copy of your diskette. 3. They like the program and make a donation. 4. We check our database for the name your friend has specified as the person who introduced them to the program (If no name is given we then try to match up the programs serial number - the time associated with the BUDGET.EXE file or the disk's volume label). 5. You will then be sent 25% of your friend's donation! Whatever the amount. It's that simple. When sending in YOUR registration form, be sure to include the full name of the person who introduced you to this program or the Disk's Volume Label or the time and date associated with your BUDGET.EXE file. F I N A L N O T E _____________________________________________________________________ If you want or need to keep track of your money, budgets or accounts then this program can provide you with an easy and efficient way of doing it on a computer. However, despite the claims of being easy and efficient, tracking your money still takes a lot of work. Ded- ication, consistency, and careful preparation of how you want to keep track of your transactions, are essential to the enjoyment and useful- ness of this program. ------------------------ End of BUDGET.DOC --------------------------