Aminet 2/Aminet AMIGA CDROM (1994)(Walnut Creek)[Feb 1994][W.O. 44790-1].iso/Aminet/biz/misc/HomeAccountant11.lha/The Home Accountant/Home_Accountant.DOC

Text File | 1993-09-21 | 22KB | 608 lines

            The Home Accountant
                (c) Dragonwarez 1992 - 1993
                           Version  1.10

                              Manual

 CONTENTS:

    I.   Getting Set Up
    II.  Getting Started
    III. The Main Screen
    IV.  The Main Screen Menus
    V.   Appendix
         A.  The File Requester
         B.  Entering Data
         C.  Concepts
         D.  Glossary
    VI.  Conclusion
    VII. Credits


 I. Getting Set Up:

    You need AmigaDOS 1.2 or higher.  I would suggest that
you have 1 meg of memory total (or better).  A number pad on your
keyboard will also help out a lot.  If you don't have it though
then don't worry.  The program is fully usable without the keypad.
 To use the printer feature, you only need to know how many lines
per page your paper will take.  The program assumes 80 columns
though and will not function properly with less.

    Also, you will need to make a place on your hard drive or
a special floppy for your data.  Most people keep their own areas
for private data.  A directory in this area will be sufficient.

    This program has only been tested out on an NTSC Amiga 500
with 1 meg of ram (512 chip, 512 fast), ECS, and AmigaDOS 2.04.  I
don't know if it will work with AGA machines or not.  Please
inform me on this point.  Efforts will be made to rectify this if
it does not work with AGA machines.

    This program does not use special custom libraries or
anything of that nature.  However it does use floating point
numbers so you will need to have mathtrans.library in your libs
path.  If you simply keep a well stocked libs directory, then it
should be happy.

 II. Getting Started:

    To run _The_Home_Accountant_ you simply type "Acct" from
the cli and let it start.  To start from the Workbench click on
the icon.  The icon uses c:iconx to start a script so make sure
you have iconx in c:.

    When the program starts, it will look for
s:HomeAccountant.prefs.  If you have this file it will load your
prefs.

 III. The Main Screen:

    Once _The_Home_Accountant_ is running you will see a
screen which looks like the following:



                            Welcome to
                      The Home Accountant v1.1
                     (c) 1992, 1993 DragonWarez


                    Make your choice from above.





    When you see this you may use your right mouse button to
drop menus and select from them.  All the menu options have
shortcuts which are shown in the menus so you may use them to
choose the options.  Note here that the shortcut keys are only 1
keypress.  You do not need to use a toggle key to use them.

    To multi-task you need only to press Left-Amiga + A to
switch to and from _The_Home_Accountant_.

 IV. The Main Screen Menus:

    Here's a listing of the menu options and their hot-keys:

 File:
    Open Existing Transaction Base  o
    Create New Transaction Base    c
    Quit                z
    About                a
 Editing:
    Edit Transaction Base        t
    Edit An Account            e
    Edit A Budget            b
 Reports:
    For a single account        i
    For the whole transaction base  r
 Prefs:
    Colors                1
    Printer Setup            2
    Sorting                3
    Max # of Entries        4
    Default Entries            5
    Mouse Pointer            6
    Load Prefs            7
    Save Prefs            8
    Default Prefs            9

 Menu Option: FILE


  Open Existing Transaction Base

    This option brings up a file requester which allows you to
pick your transaction base.  It is recommended that you name your
base files with the suffix of ".Base" or some other extension so
you know what is what in the directory you have set aside.  You
may pick a file or no file (just hit the Quit button).  If you
designate your path then feed it a base name that does not exist.
It will ask you if you want to create it.

    When you choose your base, you need to choose the .Base
file (or whatever extension you have chosen) and not the base's
directory.


  Create New Transaction Base

    This option brings up the file requester also.  Here you
need to choose your path then type in a base name in the file
window of the requester.  If you pick a file that already exists
it will ask you for permission to overwrite that file.

    When a new transaction base is created, it not only
creates the .base file but also creates a directory for the base.
It is assumed that you will put your account files for your
transaction base into that directory.

  Quit

    This option will prompt you to be sure you picked it on
purpose, then it will exit if given permission.

  About

    This will show the addresses at which I may be reached.

 Menu Option: EDITING


  Edit Transaction Base

    This option will allow you to add or delete accounts to
a transaction base.  On the screen you will see little circles and
four buttons.  The circles denote lines. You may click on that
line to edit that selection of the base.  Once you have selected a
line then you may unselect it, select another, or use a button.
Only the buttons ADD and DELETE have meaning when a line is
selected.

    Choosing ADD when a line is selected: the program will
show you the selector for you to choose an account.  You may
choose an existing account or an account you have not created yet.
 If you choose an existing account then the program will check to
see that the file you have chosen is actually an account.  If not,
the add will fail.

    Choosing DELETE when a line is selected will cause that
account to be taken out of the transaction base's list.  It will
not delete the file though.  You must do that outside the program
yourself.

    Choosing SAVE will save out the base file for you.

    Choosing QUIT will save out the base file for you then go
back to the main screen.

    There is a small problem with this system.  You will
notice that when you add an account to your base, the entire path
of your account is recorded.  This is a blessing and a curse for
the end user.  This means that you must leave your base's files on
the same volumes you recorded them on if you want your base to
work!  Example:  An account in your base is
Blank:finances/mortgage.Acct.  Now if you move that account to
another location (even on the same volume) your base won't find it
when you go to print out/display your base.

    The solution is an easy one.  When you need to move your
files for some reason, move the whole thing then just edit the
transaction base file.  Start by deleting all the account names
out of the base then add them in again with the correct paths.
This is inconvenient if you move things often, but it works.
Another solution that works is to move the whole shmear and then
edit the base file manually with a text editor.  If you do this
then you can not change the first and second lines of the base
file.  The third line is the path of the base directory, and the
last ten are the actual accounts.  Be sure not to erase the end of
line characters on any line (character 13).  This is more risky
though and I suggest you use the transaction base editor.


  Edit An Account

    This option starts out by prompting you for an account
name.  If it does not have a valid account file it will exit back to the
main screen.

    Once you have chosen your account it will be loaded and
the editing screen will be displayed.

    In the editing screen you have another menu bar you may
use. All of the options have their own single keypress hot-keys.
The main ones are FILE and EDIT.  The FILE options pretty much
explain themselves.

    The EDIT options allow you to move through your account
entries.   The last menu option here is "Turn Keypad Mode ON
F1".  That means that if you hit the F1 key it will switch all of
the editing hot-keys to the keypad and change the menu to reflect
the change.

    When in keypad mode you can use Home (7) to go to
beginning of the account, End (1) to go to the end, PgUp (9) for
moving one page up, PgDn (3) to move one page down, - to delete
current entry, + to insert an entry, * to refresh screen, and
Enter to edit the current entry.  Note that after you hit + or
Enter you may edit that entry using the keypad, then use Enter to
finish it off.  The real beauty of this feature is that if you use
numbers for your descriptions, you never have to lift your fingers
off the keypad!!! I'm hoping this will be beneficial in quick
entry.

    The only thing that you can't do in keypad mode that you
can do in keyboard mode is change the account type.

    If you have problems hitting the wrong keys on the keypad
(like hitting - instead of Enter) then you should probably stick
to keyboard mode.  Keypad mode does provide a quick way to
navigate your account so it could still be used to that end if it
doesn't work for you otherwise.

    On your screen you will notice a '->'.  This denotes your
current location in the account.

    While making an entry you will have to enter a debit or
credit number.  You may enter a number which has up to 2 decimal
points.  If you enter more, it will be truncated.  If you enter a
non-numeric value then it will be ignored and 0.0 will be the
default value.


  Edit A Budget

    Choosing this option will bring the file requester up.
Here you may give a budget account which already exists or you may
give one that does not.  You will be prompted on whether or not to
create it if it does not exist.

    This screen contains 10 circles and 3 buttons.  The
circles denote the line they are on and one may click on that area
to edit that line.  The buttons are self-expanatory, however, the
QUIT button will not force a save so you must do it yourself.

    When you click on a circle you will be editing the line
you click on.  Each line consists of 3 parts: Descriptor, Comment,
and Goal %.

    Descriptor is the key symbol you assign to an expenditure
or revenue type.  For instance, when I am entering my checks, I
may wish to keep track of my entertainment costs.  So every time I
enter an entertainment expense I enter an 'E' in the description
part of the account editor's line.  Now here, in the budget
editor, I record this fact in the Descriptor part.  This will show
up when I go to display or print my account (or base).

    Comment simply tells me what that symbol represents and
serves as a reminder only.

    Goal % tells me what percentage of the debits/credits that
I want that expense/revenue to consist of.  For instance, I want
my entertainment to be no more than 15% of my debits.  Then I
would enter a 15.  If I wanted my sales to compose no less than
25% of my income then I would enter 25.

    The budget applies to either credits or debits.  It would
be to your benefit to decide which allotments were credits, and
which were debits then total them all to make sure they are 100.
This may be a feature in a later version.

    I had some trouble deciding whether to keep budgets
external to an account, or to include the budget in the account
file. I decided to keep budgets external to the accounts.  This
allows one to reuse a budget for several different accounts.
Also, this keeps the account files shorter, and therefore quicker
to access.  This is fairly important because one will work with an
account much more than the corresponding budget(s).  If you have
an opinion on this then contact me.  You may have an even better
idea.


 Menu Option: REPORTS


  For a single account

    You will be put in another screen for this option.  Here
you may choose what exactly you want in the report and if you want
it on the screen or the printer.  Once you're options are set hit
Start to go ahead with your report.

    Once you hit Start you will be asked for an account file
with the requester.  If you asked for budget results then it will
ask you for which budget you want once its done loading the
account file.

    The printout/display will contain the balance, the budget
results (how the account actually compares to the budget), and the
transactions.  Your printer preference will apply to either a
screen or printout (with the exception of the form length).

    The printout/display is pretty much self-explanatory
except for a couple things.

    If you requested the budget info you will see that budget
displayed along with some new data.  The new data is the Debit %
and the Credit %.  Debit % tells what percentage of the debits
that descriptor accounts for.  Credits % does the same but for the
credits.  You choose which one applies, then compare it to your
Goal % to see how you've done.


  For the whole transaction base

    This does exactly the same thing as the reports for the
single account except for a few details.  If you requested
balances in the options then it will give you the calculated worth
of the base at the end of the report.  This one will not prompt
you for each and every account, but it will go through your base
file to find them all.  If you requested budget info in the
options then a budget will be requested for each one.  If you do
not want a budget for a specific account then hit Quit when the
file requesters shows up.  If the reporter can't find an account
that's in the base then it will notify the user and continue.

 Menu Option: PREFS

    This option allows various things to be customized.  All
of the prefs are saved to a file if you request it.  If you save
this file to s:HomeAccountant.prefs then the program will grab it
at startup.

  Colors

    This is simply a color requester screen.  There are four
colors to fiddle with and one button.  The button is QUIT and
explains itself.

    To change the colors all you have to do is increase or
decrease the red, green, or blue for each color by clicking on the
+ and - symbols.

  Printer Setup

    This asks you how many lines per page and whether or not
to paginate.  8.5 x 11 paper holds 66 lines, so this is the
default.


  Sorting

    This asks you whether or not you want your accounts sorted
(in ascending order by the 'Date or ID' field) before all saves
and reports.

    Note that the "Date or ID" field in the account editor is
not rigid.  You can use any numbering system you like.  Thus you may
use the date, transaction number, or something else which identifies
a specific transaction.  What I do is use the check number for checks,
then use an abbreviation for other things.  "dep" is used for deposits
and "misc" is used for other things.


  Max # of Entries

    This inquires how many entries maximum you expect to have
in your account.  Hitting return with no answer will keep the
current number.  The reason this pref is necessary is because the
program uses a filxed buffer allocation method and does not use
dynamic allocation methods.  The default is 500 and this should
suit most accounts.


  Default Entries

    This asks you what value to assign to empty strings in the
Account Editor.  If you say Blank then it will stay empty.  `None'
will put the string `None' in the spot, and Last Value Entered
will assign the last value given in the same field of the last
record you edited.  This only applies to the Date and Description
fields and not the Credit or Debit fields.

    This pref is valuable if you have a bunch of descriptions
or dates/IDs which are identical.


  Mouse Pointer

    This simply asks you what type of mouse pointer you want
to use.  There is a small bug here.  If you select System Pointer
and then go back to Pointer or Crosshairs then the pointer's
palette will stay the same as the System Pointer's.  I didn't know
how to get rid of this but I know how people tend to like their
own pointers beter, so I kept it in.  It's no big deal, because it
is not permament.  If you save out your prefs and restart, your
pointer will appear correctly.

  Load Prefs & Save Prefs

    Self-explanatory.


  Default Prefs

    Brings in the program's defaults.  These defaults are used
at the beginning of the program if s:HomeAccountant.prefs does not
exist.

 V. Appendix

 A. The file requester

    There are 3 basic areas on the requester and 7 buttons.

    The main area is the viewing area.  It is the middle of
the requester and contains the filenames as they are listed.  A
filename may be chosen by double clicking it or by clicking it
then choosing the Ok button.  To the left of the main area are two
scrolling buttons for moving up and down the list.  The circular
button is to get back to parent directory.  The other two areas
are below the main area.  The one right below the main area is the
path name area.  The one below the path name area is the file name
area.

    The Quit button quits the selector with no selection.
Sort sorts the listing ascendingly as it becomes available and
SetDir make the current path the default for most future
operations.

    Also, if you press the right mouse button while the
requester is listing it will show you a list of all trackdisk
devices and assigns that you may choose to go to.


 B. Entering Data


    When you enter data in any of the editors (account,
budget) which require the keyboard there are some special features
that you  may use to your advantage.  They are listed below.

   Delete & Backspace:

    They do what they are supposed to!  Delete (Del) will kill
    the current character and move the remainder of the input
    to the right, left, one character.  Make sense?  Backspace
    will move the whole works to the right, left by one
    character.

   Shift-Cursor-Left & Shift-Cursor_Right:

    If you press Shift-Left-Arrow that will bring you to the
    beginning of the left word.  Shift-Right-Arrow brings you
    to the word to the right.


Also, you may always enter too much data into a field.
However, only the section of data which fits into the area
provided will be retained.


 C. Concepts


    Presented here are some concepts which will make your use
of this software more meaningful and useful.

    First of all let's start out by saying that none of the
principles I present are GAAP compliant.  These principles are not
intended to be compliant with any existing standard except common
sense.  If you find the principles to be non-compliant with even
common sense then please contact me and explain.  I have written
most of this program, and its documentation, in my off hours after
work.  That means I may have made a few errors which sleep could
have prevented.

    There are different ways to apply this software which I
list below.  Note that the different ways of using it are
contingent upon your intent.

    1.  The first way (and simplest) is to keep track of a
single account.  A typical example of this would be a
draft/checking account.  The purposes here would to keep an
accurate balance, make sure your accounting of transactions agrees
with the bank's, monitor your specific expenditures/revenues
through a use of a budget, and generally just keep on top of
things.

    You should close out your account file once in a while so
it doesn't get extremely large.  To do this, stop making entries
in the account file and start putting your new entries in a new
account file.  Verify ALL transactions in the old account.  Make
everything extremely accurate and compliant with the bank's
numbers. Once this is accomplished, obtain the balance from the
old account.  Make this into a Credit for the new account.  In
this way, the remaining funds/debts are transferred from the old
account to the new one.  Accuracy is KEY here.  You must be very
accurate for this method to be of any use.

    You should note that when using this method, you cannot
use the accounts together in a transaction base.  The reason for
this is that the balance would always be wrong.  To use these
accounts together in a transaction base you would not have to ever
close out an account.  You would simply stop using it and make
another account in which to put your transactions for that
account.  Accounts should be clearly titled so as to avoid
confusion.


    2.  Our next way is to keep track of all your accounts
together.  All of your accounts put together is called a
transaction base here.  The idea here is being able to find the
net worth of your accounts, monitor specific expenditures/revenues
through the use of budgets, and, guess what?, just to generally
keep on top of things.


    3.  Our last way is using a double entry system.
_The_Home_Accountant_ is not really designed for this, but it can
be done.  All you have to do is set up an account which is either
an asset or liability then set up a contra-account which must be
an asset if the first account is a liability, or a liability if
the first account is an asset.  Also, note that you may have a
disproportionate number of assets compared to liabilites.  For
example: you could maintain one asset account and the rest would
be liabilities.

    I'm not going to explain this last one any further.  If
you know anything about real accounting then this will probably be
obvious to you.  If you don't, then ignore this.  Those who know
real accounting procedure will find this program woefully
inadequate to this end anyway.  It can be done though! :)


 D.  Glossary

    The definitions given below apply to the use of this
program only and does not reflect any external standards.

  Account:
    An account is a collection of transactions recorded to
reflect physical transactions that have taken place around a
central source of revenue/debt.  Common examples of this are a
checking/draft account, a loan debt (depicted as an account), or a
mortgage debt.

  Credit:
    A credit is a transaction which increases an asset or
liability.

  Debit:
    A debit is a transaction which decreases an asset or
liability.

  Transaction Base:
    A transaction base is a collection of accounts which are
owned by a single party.


 VI. Conclusion

    I really hope others find this program useful.  I would
like feedback so please take time to tell me what you think of it.
My addresses are in the README file and also in the About menu
function.


 VII. Credits

    This program was written entirely in AMOS Creator 1.34.
    My thanks go to Francois Lionet for an excellent language.

    Also, thanks to Michael Sikorsky of Alberta, Canada for his
mouse preference procedure.

    Thanks to Paul Hickman of Great Britain also, for his advice.

    Thanks to Steve Bohlman for his beta testing and ideas.

    And thanks also to my brother Dave who let me his use his
Amiga while mine was sick. :(