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Cheque-Mate! By Peter Harris © Peter Harris 1994 USER GUIDE TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction 1.0 Copyright Notice 1.1 Disclaimer 1.2 How To Register 1.3 System Requirements 1.4 About Cheque-Mate! 1.5 About Refcodes 1.6 Future Versions 1.7 Technical Support And Bug Reporting Chapter 2 Getting Started 2.0 When And How To Start 2.1 Making A Backup Chapter 3 Buttons And Menus Chapter 4 Refcodes Tutorial 4.1 Menu Options Save Print Reference Codes About Quit 4.2 Buttons Top Insert Change Delete Cancel Chapter 5 Cheque-Mate! Tutorial 5.1 Opening A New Account 5.2 Loading An Existing Account 5.3 Entering Data 5.4 Changing Data 5.5 Saving An Account 5.6 Save As... 5.7 Deleting An Account 5.8 About 5.9 Quitting Cheque-Mate! 5.10 Reports Detailed Expense Report Summary Expense Report Detailed Deposit Report Summary Deposit Report 5.11 Balancing The Books Chapter 6 A Little Bit More... Chapter1: Introduction 1.0...Copyright Notice This program is Freeware. You may copy it and are encouraged to distribute it to others, however, it may not be altered in any way and this document must remain on each disk. You may only make a small charge for copying and distribution (approx. £2.00). Although this program is Freeware you may like to register as a user which will entitle you to unlimited technical support, a full user manual and free upgrade to the Shareware version due out July 1994. See below for details of future releases. 1.1...Disclaimer The author claims no responsibility for any financial loss however incurred or data lost by anyone using this software. If you go bankrupt it's your fault not mine... O.K! As there are numerous hardware configurations now available for the Amiga it would be very difficult to claim that this program will work with all systems. I am sorry if this is the case with yours. 1.2...How To Register If you wish to register please send £5.00 to; Peter Harris 123 Holmes Avenue Hove East Sussex BN3 7LF In return you will receive; o unlimited and free technical support o full user manual o update to Shareware version (due for release July 1994) 1.3...System Requirements Cheque-Mate! v1.00 will work on any Amiga with at least 1Mb of RAM and a mouse. A printer is not essential as all reports can be printed on screen. If you are using a printer it should be set up as follows; Printer Port.....Serial Or Parallel Print Pitch......Any Setting Print Spacing....Any Setting Page Length......66 Lines Left Margin......5 Right Margin.....85 1.4...About Cheque-Mate! Cheque-Mate! is a program designed to help you control your personal finances. You enter details about cheques, salary, direct debits etc. and when you check your entries against bank statements Cheque-Mate! will automatically display if your confirmed balance which should reflect the state of your bank account. You are advised to make a back-up and work only from the copy. Cheque-Mate! can hold up to 1000 entries which should be enough for most people in one year. After this time you should make a new database, see below for further details. 1.5...About Refcodes Refcodes is a separate program supplied on your Cheque-Mate! disk and is an essential accessory to the main program. Cheque-Mate! uses a system of reference codes to group together similar entries (e.g. car insurance, petrol, road fund licence and parking tickets! could all be grouped together under 'VE' for Vehicle Expenses). A set of reference codes has been included which you may like to use or change to your own requirements. 1.6...Future Versions I am writing a Shareware version. It will be a fully working version with no features disabled. I hope to include the following features; o Find...A feature to find and highlight each occurrence of a transaction o Hard disk installation program o Fast Scroll...designed to speed up movement through a database o Reconciliation...Display or print all transactions not yet confirmed o Graphs...Pie and bar showing levels of expenditure and income o Budgeting...Ability to set out a budget and monitor progress o Sort...Facility to sort data by date or reference code o Anything else I can think of! 1.6...Technical Support And Bug Reporting If you require technical support or wish to report a bug either write to the address above or call me on; ******** 0273 220859 ******** but please do not call after 9PM. Please have the following information before calling as it helps when problem solving; a) version number of Cheque-Mate! b) full nature of problem c) hardware setup Chapter 2: Getting Started 2.0...When And How To Start In many ways deciding when and how to start is the hardest part. I suggest that you wait until you receive a bank statement before attempting to use Cheque-Mate!. If you are the kind of person that always keeps a close check on your bank account you should find the next part fairly easy, if you are not then things are going to be a little more difficult. Either way check off all your cheques etc. against your bank statement. Your first entry nto Cheque-Mate! should now be the balance shown at the bottom of your statement (see 'Cheque-Mate! Tutorial for details of how to enter data). You should now enter into Cheque-Mate! all income, cheques, direct debits and direct transfer payments such as 'Switch' or 'Delta' that have not shown on the latest statement or are unlikely to have appeared on any previous statements. If you have always kept a watch on your account you should now have a true representation of your financial affairs. If you have not previously been in the habit of checking against statements you may find that one or two entries have in fact appeared on a previous statement or you have forgotten to enter some. In future keep all cash withdrawal/deposit receipts, wage slips, cheque stubs (correctly filled in!) etc. and enter them into Cheque-Mate! on a regular basis. 2.1...Making A Backup You are strongly advised to make a back-up of the original disk and only ever work from the copy. If you are unsure how to do this refer to your Amiga User Guide or give me a call. Chapter 3: Buttons And Menus Cheque-Mate! and Refcodes use menus in the standard Amiga format. That is press and hold down the right mouse button and move the mouse pointer to the top of the screen. Move the pointer until the option you require is high-lighted and release button. There are a number of 'on-screen' buttons which can be selected by moving the pointer over the button and pressing the left mouse button once. The buttons you will find are; 1. Top Moves you immediately to the first record in your list 2. Bottom Moves you immediately to the last record in your list 3. Insert Cheque-Mate! is ready to receive some input from you at the current cursor position. When Insert has been selected all other buttons and menus with the exception of 'Cancel'will become inactive. 4. Change Allows you to change the record at the current cursor position. When change has been selected all other buttons and menus with the exception of 'Cancel' will become inactive. 5. Confirm Is used to check your entries against your bank statement. This button is not found in the Refcodes program. 6. De-Con Allows the user to delete a confirmation made in error. This button is not found in the Refcodes program. 7. Cancel Allows you to abort when inserting or changing a record (pressing Esc has same effect). 8. Delete Erases the record at the current cursor position from memory. In addition there are two arrow heads. Click on the arrow pointing up to scroll up through your list. Click on the arrow pointing down to scroll down through your list. Pressing the Up and Down cursor keys has the same effect. Chapter 4: Refcodes Tutorial As mentioned earlier Cheque-Mate! requires a set of reference codes for forming reports etc. The Refcodes program has been provided for this purpose. Before using Cheque-Mate! you MUST therefore run the Refcodes program to define or note down the set of codes. If you have a printer you can get Refcodes to print them for you. To run the Refcodes program double-click (left mouse button) on the Refcodes icon. After a short while a screen will appear. I have included some sample reference codes but if you wish to allocate your own you can delete or change them. Each reference code must consist of a two character code. It is suggested that the first character is used for grouping a number of reference codes (this is not so important using v1.00 software but future versions will use this grouping letter for graphs etc.) for instance use the letter C for car or B for bills. The second letter can be anything but it is probably best to use the first letter of its description. Therefore CI could be Car Insurance and CF could be Car Fuel. You will be warned if the code you enter has already been allocated. Click on 'O.K.'. You can then erase the duplicate entry by pressing backspace and entering an alternative code. 4.1...Menu Options Click and hold down the right mouse button to reveal the menu bar. You will now see four options; Save Selecting Save from the menu stores all changes made to your reference codes. Print Reference Codes Selecting Print Reference Codes from the menu sends a list of all reference codes and their descriptions to your printer. About Selecting About from the menu displays a few details about the program. If you wish to report any bugs it is this version number you should quote when contacting me. Quit Select Quit from the menu to leave the Refcodes program. If you have made changes without saving you will be given the option to save before quitting. 4.2...Buttons Top Clicking on the Top button will take you immediately to the top of your list of reference codes. Insert Clicking on Insert will display a thin red cursor in the description box at the foot of the screen. Refcodes is now waiting for you to input something. All other buttons and menus with the exception of 'Cancel' will become inactive. Enter details that best describe the category you wish to define. If you make a mistake you can use the cursor keys, backspace key, or del key to correct errors. If you wish to abort making an entry click on 'Cancel' or press 'Esc' key. If you are happy with your entry press 'Return'. The cursor moves into a small box to the right. Refcodes is now waiting for you to enter the code itself. As before you can correct any errors or abort. Press 'Return' and the details will be added to the list. The cursor will return to the left box waiting for the next entry. If you do not wish to enter any more click on 'Cancel' or press the 'Esc' key. Change If you want to change any of the reference codes or their corresponding descriptions move the block cursor using either the cursor keys, the Up and Down arrow heads, or the Top and Bottom buttons. Click on 'Change' and the details will appear in the boxes at the bottom of the screen. All other buttons and menus with the exception of 'Cancel' will become inactive. The thin red cursor will be in the left box. If you want to make changes to the description you can now do so as mentioned above or press 'Return' to skip to the next box. As before you can abort changes by clicking on 'Cancel' or press 'Esc'. Delete To delete a reference code from your list move the block cursor using either the cursor keys, the 'Up' and 'Down' arrow heads, or the 'Top' and 'Bottom' buttons. Click on 'Delete'. Cancel Click on the 'Cancel' when inserting or changing data to abort the current operation without making changes. Pressing the 'Esc' key has the same effect. All buttons and menus previously inactive will become active again. Chapter 5: Cheque-Mate! Tutorial 5.1...Opening A New Account Press and hold down the right mouse button to reveal the 'File' pull down menu. Move the mouse pointer to 'Open New Account' and release the mouse button. A box will appear at the bottom of the screen waiting for you to input some text. Enter the name of your choice up to a maximum of twenty characters. You can correct any mistakes using a combination of backspace, 'Del' and the cursor keys. Press 'Return' when you are happy with your entry (If you do not wish to open the new account click on 'Esc' or click on 'Cancel'). Cheque-Mate! will automatically add '.Mbx' to the end of the name. If you have defined some reference codes (using the Refcodes program also on this disk) you are now ready to start entering some transactions. Your very first entry should be your opening balance. See section 5.3 'Entering Data' for details on how to input transactions. 5.2...Loading An Existing Account Press and hold down the right mouse button to reveal 'File' pull down menu. Move the mouse pointer to 'Load' and release the mouse button. A requester will appear. Each account will be displayed with a '.Mbx' suffix in a requester. Click twice on the account you want to load. 5.3...Entering Data At each stage in the following instructions you can amend any errors by using a combination of 'Backspace', 'Del' and the cursor keys. You can abort entering data by pressing 'Esc' or clicking on 'Cancel'. I shall assume for this tutorial that you have just opened a new account and this is the first time you are entering transactions. As an example I am going to give you a bank balance (as showing at the bottom of your most recent bank statement) of £352.58 and the date on the statement is April 10th 1994. Click on 'Insert'. All other buttons and menus with the exception of 'Cancel' will become inactive. A box will appear at the bottom of the screen with a red cursor in a box labelled 'Date'. Enter the date of your first transaction in the format DDMMYY, 100494 in our example. Note that you do not need to enter spaces, slashes, dashes or commas as Cheque-Mate! will automatically enter them for you. If you make a mistake you can only correct it by using backspace and re-entering date. Cheque-Mate! will warn you if you enter an invalid date. When you have entered the date press 'Return'. The cursor will move to a box labelled 'Type'. Enter C for credit (money coming in) or D for debit (money going out). In our example the money is coming into the account so enter C (if your opening balance as shown at the bottom of your most recent statement is a minus figure you should enter D for debit) then press 'Return'. The cursor will move to a box labelled 'Code'. Enter the required reference code, DM (Deposit Miscellaneous) in our example and press 'Return'. Cheque-Mate! will warn you if the code you have entered does not exist. The cursor will now move to a box labelled 'Cheque'. You can enter up to four digits for the cheque number, I tend to use the first digit and then the last three (e.g. if my cheque number is 300425 I would enter 3425 in the cheque box). If you do not wish to enter a cheque number just press 'Return'. The cursor will now move to a box labelled 'Description'. Enter the description for this transaction. In our example we could enter it as 'Opening Balance'. Press 'Return'. The cursor will move to a box labelled 'Amount'. Enter the amount for the transaction. Note that you do not need to enter '.' (decimal point) dividing pounds and pence, for example if your transaction amount is £324.85 you would simply enter 32485, Cheque-Mate! will add the decimal point for you). If you make a mistake you can only correct it by using backspace and re-entering the amount. Press enter and Cheque-Mate! will place your transaction in the main list and clear the input boxes ready for your next transaction. If you do not wish to add any further transactions press 'Esc' or click on 'Cancel'. Please Note: Whilst entering data all menus and buttons (except 'Cancel') will become inactive. 5.4...Changing Data If you wish to change a record from your main database firstly move the block cursor to the record you want to change. You can do this by clicking anywhere on it or clicking on the arrow heads or cursor keys until it is next to it. Click on 'Change'. At each stage in the following instructions you can amend any errors by using a combination of 'Backspace', 'Del' and the cursor keys. You can abort changing data by pressing 'Esc' or clicking on 'Cancel'. A box will appear at the bottom of the screen. The details of the selected record will fill each of the boxes. The red cursor will be in the 'Date' box. You can change the date by using the 'Backspace key and re-entering. Note that you do not need to enter spaces, slashes, dashes or commas as Cheque-Mate! will automatically enter them for you. If you make a mistake you can only correct it by using backspace and re-entering date. Cheque-Mate! will warn you if you enter an invalid date. When you have changed the date press 'Return'. If you do not want to change the date simply press 'Return'. The cursor will move to the 'Type' box. Change to C for credit (money coming in) or D for debit (money going out) then press 'Return'. If you do not want to change the type simply press 'Return'. Please Note that you can not amend 'Type' if the record has been confirmed (see Confirming A Record below). The cursor will move to 'Code'. Change the entry to the required reference code and press 'Return'. Cheque-Mate! will warn you if the code you have entered does not exist. If you do not want to change the code simply press 'Return'. The cursor will now move to a box labelled 'Cheque'. Change the cheque number and then press 'Return'. If you do not want to change the cheque number simply press 'Return'. The cursor will now move to a box labelled 'Description'. Change the description for this transaction then press 'Return'. If you do not want to change the description simply press 'Return'. The cursor will move to a box labelled 'Amount'. Change the amount for the transaction. Note that you do not need to enter '.' (decimal point) dividing pounds and pence as Cheque-Mate! will automatically add this for you. If you make a mistake you can only correct it by using backspace and re-entering the amount. Please note: You can not change the amount if the record has been 'Confirmed'. If you do need to change the amount and the record has been confirmed you will have to 'Delete Confirmation' first. Press 'Enter' and Cheque-Mate! will place your transaction back in the main database. If you do not want to change the amount simply press 'Return'. Please Note: Whilst changing data all menus and buttons (except 'Cancel') will become inactive. 5.5...Saving An Account Ensure that the Cheque-Mate! (copy) disk is in your internal drive and is write enabled, that is so that the plastic tab is covering the small hole. To save your work select 'Save' from the 'File' menu. Cheque-Mate! will save the account and all changes made to it. Please note: Cheque-Mate! will only save changes made in this current session, therefore if you have loaded an account from disk you should use that same disk when saving data. 5.6...Save As... Ensure that a formatted disk is in your internal drive and is write enabled, that is so that the plastic tab is covering the small hole. To save your work under a new name select 'Save As...' from the 'File' menu. A file requester will appear. Enter the new name for the account then click on 'O.K.'. The entire database will be written to disk under the new name. 5.7...Deleting An Account It is only possible to delete the account currently held in memory therefore to delete an account you must first 'Load' it. See 'Loading An Existing Account' above. Ensure that you really do want to delete the account as it cannot be retrieved once it has been deleted. Select 'Delete Account' from the 'File' menu. Cheque-Mate! will ask you if you really want to delete the account. If you want to delete the account click on 'Yes'. If you do not want to delete the account click on 'No'. 5.8...About Select 'About' from the 'File' menu. You will be presented with a few details about Cheque-Mate!. Make a note of the version number if you need to report a bug. 5.9...Quitting Cheque-Mate! To leave Cheque-Mate! select 'Quit' from the 'File' menu. If you have unsaved work a warning box will appear asking you if you want to save before quitting. If you chose to save before quitting ensure that a disk is in your internal drive and click on 'Yes'. If you do want to save click on 'No'. Please note: Cheque-Mate! will only save changes made in this current session, therefore if you have loaded an account from disk you should use that same disk when saving data. 5.10...Reports Detailed Expense Report To obtain a detailed report of your expenditure between any two dates select 'Expense Report-Detailed' from the 'Reports' menu. A box will appear at the bottom of the screen. Enter the start date in the format DDMMYY. If you make a mistake you can correct it using backspace and the cursor keys. Press 'Return'. Now enter the end date for the report and press 'Return'. Next enter 'Y' to send the report to a printer or 'N' to display the report on screen. Summary Expense Report To obtain a summary report of your expenditure between any two dates select 'Expense Report-Summary' from the 'Reports' menu. A box will appear at the bottom of the screen. Enter the start date in the format DDMMYY. If you make a mistake you can correct it using backspace and the cursor keys. Press 'Return'. Now enter the end date for the report and press 'Return'. Next enter 'Y' to send the report to a printer or 'N' to display the report on screen. Detailed Deposit Report To obtain a detailed report of your income between any two dates select 'Deposit Report-Detailed' from the 'Reports' menu. A box will appear at the bottom of the screen. Enter the start date in the format DDMMYY. If you make a mistake you can correct it using backspace and the cursor keys. Press 'Return'. Now enter the end date for the report and press 'Return'. Next enter 'Y' to send the report to a printer or 'N' to display the report on screen. Summary Deposit Report To obtain a detailed report of your expenditure between any two dates select 'Deposit Report-Summary' from the 'Reports' menu. A box will appear at the bottom of the screen. Enter the start date in the format DDMMYY. If you make a mistake you can correct it using backspace and the cursor keys. Press 'Return'. Now enter the end date for the report and press 'Return'. Next enter 'Y' to send the report to a printer or 'N' to display the report on screen. If you are warned 'Printer Not Available' whilst attempting to print any of the reports check the following; a. Printer is switched on b. Printer is On-Line c. Printer cable is properly connected d. Printer paper is fed correctly. 5.11...Balancing The Books There are two boxes near the bottom right corner of the Cheque-Mate! screen labelled 'Confirmed Balance' and 'Current Balance'. Confirmed Balance calculates only entries that have been confirmed against a bank statement and therefore should balance with your last bank statement. Current Balance calculates all entries and therefore should give the current state of your finances. When you receive a bank statement you can confirm each entry by moving the cursor to the appropriate entry and clicking on 'Confirm'. A cross will be displayed next to the entry and the confirmed balance will adjust to take account of the change. If you make a mistake and want to delete the confirmation click on 'De-Con'. The cross will disappear and the confirmed balance will adjust to take account of the change. Chapter 6: A Little Bit More Cheque-Mate! was written using Amos Professional and compiled using Amos Professional compiler. This document was written using Wordworth2 AGA from Digita. The graphics used within Cheque-Mate! were created using Deluxe Paint III. Don't forget to let me know what you think of Cheque-Mate! as your feed-back (good or bad) will be vital to any future developments. Thank you for using this program.