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Text File | 1995-03-19 | 22KB | 496 lines

Pass-the-Bucks a Personal-Accounts Program written by Bob Dufford, S.J. Overview Pass-the-Bucks is a program that helps you keep track of where money comes from and where it goes. It can help you monitor budgets, reconcile bank and credit card statements, and watch the growth (or, ouch!, decline) of your financial net worth. More specifically, with Pass-the-Bucks you can-- 1) create and describe individual accounts; 2) enter transactions and process them against the accounts; 3) sort the transactions chronologically; 4) display the transactions as a complete chronological journal; 5) display the accounts' data with balances shown as month-to-date, quarter-to-date or year-to-date sums; 6) display the accounts with percentages comparing actual balances with budget amounts for expense and income accounts; 7) display (as a ledger) selected transactions that affect a particular account (including running totals); 8) send any of these displays to your printer or to a RAM file for inclusion in a word-processing document; 9) modify or delete any transaction; 10) modify or clear any account; 11) display the net-worth (updated with each entered transaction); 12) maintain several independent account-systems in the same data file prohibiting cross transactions, but allowing cross totals; 13) reconcile checking account and credit card statements; ...and many other features... The program is fast and efficient. You can re-sort a thousand transactions in about 1.7 seconds; moreover, you can completely reprocess those same thousand transactions in about 1.6 seconds. Displayed totals are updated after each new transaction is processed. The program itself uses about 70K plus the space for accounts and transactions. For 80 permanent accounts and 1000 transactions, it takes about 155-190K depending upon which windows are opened. I recommend that you dump this text file to your printer, because it will make it easier to take the following quickie tour through the program's features. It contains embedded ANSI commands for form feeds and underlines. Pass-the-Bucks.doc -- 2 The Cook's Tour You are Ivan the Terrible, the Czar of all Russia, and so you need to keep track of just what goes where in your kingdom. What better helper than your trusty Amiga! To start the demo: from the Workbench, click on the "PTBDemo" Icon. from the CLI, make sure you are in the right directory; then type "PTBDemo" (NB: these both presume that the font PTBfnt is properly installed in the fonts: directory) Several windows will be opened: Bottom Window is a brief listing of the accounts, displayed in batches of twenty, each with its current balance. Top Windows ("Group Totals" and "Wash Accounts") are directly on top of each other. Press F9 (function key 9) to flip back and forth between the two. Middle Window is labeled "Enter New Transaction". This is ready to receive data. There are three lines: 1) The bottom line (marked with the "---->") is the data for the working (new) transaction 2) The middle line is the data entry line with the name of the current field being edited. 3) The top line displays the previous transaction. It is helpful for entering similar data into several transactions. We will return to this Edit Window later. Try selecting Sort Transactions" from the Project Menu. Notice that a small blue window appears briefly telling you that the transactions are being sorted. This is called (would you believe?) the Message Window. It appears on occasion with its good or bad news. Now try selecting "Reprocess" from the Project Menu. In the brief time that the message window appeared, Pass-the-Bucks cleared all the accounts to zero, and reprocessed all the transactions from the beginning of the file, reset all the end-of-month totals for each account, and redisplayed the (possibly updated) totals in the windows. Most of the time is spent displaying the Message Window and updating the screen. You'll find that you can reprocess 1000-1500 transactions in about the same about of time. Press F2. Notice that the next batch of accounts (bottom window) are displayed. Pressing F1 displays the previous batch. When the screen flashes, it means that there are no more accounts to be displayed in the direction you are going. Explore the menus at the top. NOTE: the menus are attached to the Edit Window (the MIDDLE window). If you find you cannot get the menus, be sure that you have clicked in the Edit Window to activate it first. Notice also that there are Amiga-key shortcuts for a number of common operations. They are found right in the menus/submenus. In the Transactions Menu under "Select by...", choose "All transactions" to display a list of all stored transactions. Exit this display by clicking on the Close Gadget. You can get the same display by pressing F3. Pass-the-Bucks.doc -- 3 Try Transactions Menu again. This time choose, "Select by..." Acct Number. Type in a "12" and press <return>. This generates a ledger- page listing of all the transactions that affect account #12. Notice, by the way, that since this is an income account, it is normally negative. The final total (e.g., -$25000.00) tells you that the cumulative amount of salary received is +$25000.00. This is normal accounting practice. Think of it as having transferred $25000.00 from the salary account to the bank account. This means the balance of the Bank Account (#2) is up, and you can tell how much of the balance is accounted for by salary by looking at the negative number under Account #12. So in an income account, -$25,000 is a good thing. Exit this display by clicking on the Close Gadget or by pressing F10). Entering a New Transaction Now, in the Enter New Transaction window, type in the date "8/25/87". Notice that the letters enter a date in the blue data-entry area. Press <return> and see that the program converts your entry to 25aug87. Now type in "2" for the Debit Account, press <return>; type in "19" for the Credit Account, press <return>. Notice where each of these entries goes on the third line of the display, and that the field named in the prompt is highlighted in blue on the third line. Now type in "Burger King" for the description and press <return>; type in "4.65" for the amount and press <return>. View the whole transaction on the third line, and then press <return> again at the prompt "Data approved?". This approves the data and sends it off for processing. The totals are updated in the other two windows. If you want to exit the demo WITHOUT making any changes to Ivan's accounts, select "Abort" from the Project Menu (or press RightAmiga-Q). If you want to save the changes, select "Normal Exit" (RightAmiga-E). If you want to save the current without leaving the program, select "Store Files" (RightAmiga-F). Now, let us proceed in greater detail. Understanding the Window Displays Previously-Entered Transactions Press F3 (or choose Begin Display from the Transactions Menu). This initiates a display of ALL the transactions. Pressing F1 (or F2) will go backward (or forward) amid the transactions, a screenful at a time. Using the mouse on the slider gadget (extreme right) will have a similar effect, but with much larger chunks. Pressing F10 (or clicking on the standard Close Gadget) will end the display. Pass-the-Bucks.doc -- 4 Each transaction looks something like this: (NB: 'xct' means transaction) xct number descriptions(20char) amt \ \/ \ 123> 12may87 doughnuts 0 4.65 f13t16 142> 15may87 cashed check 1402 200.00 f 1t13 \ /\ / \ xct date reference # 'from' 'to' (e.g. check #'s) (account numbers) xct number: This is simply the current number of the transaction. If a later transaction were added with a date previous to this, this number would change. xct date: This is the date of the transaction. The transactions are sorted first by this field and second the first 10 characters of the description. description: This is any set of ASCII characters. There is a routine to search through these description for any string of characters. reference #: This is an optional number (e.g., 1402) associated with the transaction, such as a check number or an invoice number (numerals only). This field is not used by Pass-the-Bucks in any calculation or sorting. from/to acct numbers: 'from' = debit, 'to' = credit. 'f13t16' means that the amount of the xct is subtracted FROM account #13 and added TO account #16. The letter gadgets on the right margin (E,P,D,S) stand for Edit, Print, Delete, and Search. We'll get to them later. The "X" gadget cancels all gadgets. The arrow gadgets have exactly the same effect as pressing F2 or F1 (forward or backward one screenful). Return now to the main window (F10 or Close Gadget). Displaying Selected Transactions (Ledger Pages) Choose "Select from..." from the Transactions Menu, and then sub- select "Acct Number". You will be prompted to enter an account number. Type in the number 3 and press <return>. PTB then opens a new window to display all the transactions which affect Account #3. The display of each transaction is much the same as before except that now the amount of the transaction is displayed either in the left (debit) column or the right (credit) column, depending on whether the account involved (in this example, #3) is being debited (subtracted from) or credited (added to). debit credit cumulative amt amt balances \/ \ / \/ 123> 12may87 doughnuts 0 4.65 \/ 146.78 f 3t16 142> 15may87 cashed check 1402 200.00 346.78 f 1t 3 debit/credit amts: This is the amount of the transaction displayed in the appropriate column. cumulative balance: This is the balance amount in the account after the processing of this transaction. Pass-the-Bucks.doc -- 5 Notice, by the way, the letter gadget "M" (for Mark), and the two arrow gadgets which have the same effect as pressing F2 or F1, namely, forward one screenful, or backward to the beginning. NB: This is different from the F1 of the "All transactions" display. Return to the main window (CloseGadget or F10). The Edit Window for New Transactions The window labeled "Enter New Transactions" is Grand Central Station for all the Pass-the-Bucks activities. So far, we've looked at some transactions that have been entered previously. Now let's enter a new one. Entering Dates On the middle line of the Edit Window, there is a blue strip with the word "Date:": preceding it in white. Type in the date November 12,1987, in the format mm/dd/yy (i.e., 11/12/87) and press <return>. Notice that the program translates the date into "12nov87" on the line below (the "current transaction" line). Also, the prompt line now says, "Debit Account:", and the field "f00" is highlighted. Now press <Shift-LeftArrow>. The program has "backed up" to the date field again. This works for any field. Try entering the date September 1, 1987, as "090187", or "9/1/87" or "9-1-87", backing up between each try to the Date prompt. Now try typing "3" for the date. Notice that just the day of the month has changed. Now try "10/5"(or "1005") to change both the month and day-of-month. Enter the letter "t", and notice that the program converts it to today's date (current system date); likewise "y" converts it to yesterday's date. Do NOT use the form 10oct87. The program will reject it. This format "10oct87" was chosen for its compact display. It also puts the most variable portion first, and the least variable last. Summary: If the date displayed is 05may87 and system date is 10may87, then: t changes date to 10may87 (today=system date) y changes date to 09may87 (yesterday) 3 or 03 changes date to 03may87 20 changes date to 20may87 4-1 or 4/1 or 0401 changes date to 01apr87 090588 or 9/5/88 changes date to 05sep88 Entering Account Numbers Now let's say that Ivan has just purchased two Russian Wolf Hounds to maul wandering serfs found on the palace grounds. He paid $250 for them by check. So the $250.00 is being subtracted from account #2 (Royal Bank) and added to an expense account #28 (Serf Hunting). You can see these accounts in the bottom window. Enter "2" for the Debit Account, and "28" for the Credit Account. Pass-the-Bucks.doc -- 6 Entering Amounts Enter "250" for the amount. Notice that "amount" is in dollars, so that you may enter "250" or "250.0" or "250.00" all with the same result. Five cents must be entered as ".05", ten cents as ".1" or ".10". Correcting errors After you have entered the amount, you are asked to approve the whole transaction as it stands there on the last line of the Edit Window. If all is okay, press return. If anything is wrong, you may (1) backup to the problem field by pressing Shift-LeftArrow; or (2) start over by typing in "n" (or "no", or "no way, Jose", etc.) and then pressing <return>. You may accept any field as is, by simple pressing <return>. When all is acceptable, press <return>, and the program (1) processes the transaction immediately, (2) posts the updated totals to the top and bottom windows of the screen, (3) moves this transaction to the top line of the Edit Window as the "last transaction", and (4) clears the data (except the date) from the current transaction in preparation for the next one. Displaying Accounts Data Now, from the Accounts Menu, select "Display Accounts". Once the window has displayed its data, explore the menus at the top of the window. Notice a new letter gadget "C" (for Continuous Edit); know also that the "M" gadget in this window stands for "Move". From the leftmost menu ("Display") choose "Basic Data" if it is not already selected. Data from each of the accounts is displayed on lines like these: acct # description budget current balance \ 12> Royal Salary 4 -1 1 60000 -25000.00 13> Serf Hunting 7 1 1 4000 824.00 / | \ group type system BUDGET: This amount is STORED as an annual budget. Depending upon the setting in the "Period Length" menu, it is DISPLAYED either as an annual, quarterly, or monthly figure. CURRENT BALANCE: This is stored as the year-to-date figure. Depending on the setting in the "Period Length" menu, it is displayed as a year-to- date, a quarter-to-date, or month-to-date figure. GROUP: This number tells you what special group this account belongs to. The sum total of all the accounts having the same group number appears in the upper window on the original screen. These groupings are optional and arbitrary, and are set completely by the user. Each account may belong to at most one group. TYPE: This number refers to the one of the standard accounting terms such as ASSET (3) or LIABILITY (-3) or EXPENSE (1). These codes may be displayed by choosing the Help Window from the Display Menu. Pass-the-Bucks.doc -- 7 SYSTEM: This field (default=1) allows you to create several (up to 8) completely independent accounting systems within the same file. The advantage of a separate system is that you can be assured that transactions cannot accidentally transfer money from one system to another. Yet the group totals allow you to add up balances from different systems, e.g., a common credit card for both business and personal charges, a common bank account for two people or for one person with two different uses. From the Display Menu, select "Comparison Totals", and watch the changes in the title bar at the top of the window. In the account lines, the figures given after the description indicate: 1) the (user-set) budget for this period (year, quarter, month), 2) the current balance for this period, 3) the percentage of the period's budget that this balance represents, 4) the number of percentage points difference between (3) and the percent of the time elapsed from the beginning of the period. For example, consider an expense account. If the fiscal year started on January 1 and the current date is April 1, then about 25% of the year is gone. If 30% percent of the budget is spent, then the deviation from 25% is +5%; this means that you are over budget for this time in the year. NB: In the demo version, the "current date" is always 12/28/87. This gives meaningful numbers to the percentages. In the shareware version, the "current date" is always the system date. From the Period Length Menu, select "Quarter". Note that the budget amounts are 1/4 of what the yearly budgets were. The balance displayed is the amount brought into the account since the beginning of the period. So, for an expense account, it represents exactly how much was spent since the beginning of the current quarter. The percentages and deviation are likewise calculated with the quarter as the basic unit. Similarly, the period length of "Month", displays all as beginning from the current month (i.e., based on the last end-of-month totals). The BaseMonth Menu allows you to choose months other than the (default) current one in order to see the balances as of the end-of-month marker (cf. End-of-Month, below) for the selected month. Pass-the-Bucks.doc -- 8 End-of-Month (EOM) PTB keeps track of the year-to-date balances for each account at the end of each month for (1) up to eleven previous months, (2) for the current month, and (3) a total for the "Initial Status" balance at the beginning of the fiscal year. This enables quick calculation of quarter figures and various budgets, etc. In order to maintain this, PTB uses dummy end-of-month transactions. They look like this: 150> 99may87 ~~~~~~~eom~~~~~~~ 0 0.00 f 0t 0 The significant elements are: 1. the "99" for the day of the month. This forces the EOM trans- actions to come after all the other transactions of the month. 2. the tildes (~) at the start of the description. 3. the 0's in the "from" and "to" accounts: viz.,"f 0t 0". When PTB processes one of these EOM transactions, it makes a copy of the current year-to-date balances for this particular month-end. The easiest way to produce one of these EOM transactions is to use the End-of-Month selection from the Project Menu. This procedure (1) creates an EOM transaction for the current/recent month, (2) sorts the transactions, (3) reprocesses all the transactions again. Explore the BaseMonth Menu attached to the original Edit Window. Notice that eleven months of the (user-defined) fiscal year are present and also an EOY (end-of-year). [NB: to specify the fiscal year beginning, use the program AcctSetup]. "EOY" refers to the status of the accounts at the end of the previous fiscal year. Several displays can take as their starting point the currently selected BaseMonth instead of the current status. For example, if you explore the Accounts Menu, you will notice that the selection "As of..." has as one of its options "BaseMonth". This will display the accounts as of the end-of-month of the selected month. If you explore the Transactions Menu, you will see that the selection "Starting from..." has the option "BaseMonth". This means that the display of selected transactions (ie., selected by account number, group number, etc) will begin with the EOM transaction of the selected BaseMonth. Note that PTB gets its notion of what the current month is from the number of EOM transactions in the list rather than from the dates of the transactions. This concludes the tour of the program's basic features. Pass-the-Bucks.doc -- 9 ShareWare This version (3.0.0) is the first one released to the public. It is released nominally as shareware for small donations ($5 to $15) depending upon how useful the program is to you. The main reason for the shareware label is to get some feedback from people, and possibly new ideas. For a shareware contribution you will receive: 1. The full documentation (including how to set up your own account system and many features not presented here) 2. The PTBsetup program which allows you to change the key parameters of the system such as the number of permanent accounts and the number of transactions which you may enter during one session. 3. The latest version of the program. 4. The satisfaction of knowing you helped out fellow Amiga users. 5. God's blessing. (Priests always say things like that.) Send shareware contributions to Amiga Users of the Heartland, Inc. P.O. Box 1432 DTS Omaha, NE 68101 (Think of it as a collection after a Sunday sermon.) Send suggestions and questions to Rev. Robert J. Dufford, S.J. Creighton University 2500 California St Omaha, NE 68178 BBS: Bob Dufford The WindDragon Inn: 402-291-8053 Many thanks to Jim Geeding, treasurer of our User Group, for the title "Pass-the-Bucks"; and to Larry Zwart and Dale Hermsen for helpful feedback on the program. HAPPY ACCOUNTING !!!