PART 3 - OTHER FUNCTIONS AND OPTIONAL ADD-ON MODULES. ------------------------------------------------------ STANDING ORDERS --------------- (Also known as Future Transactions or Scheduled Transactions ) (Configurable through the 'Terminology' option in 'Set Preferences') 1. Select the Standing Orders screen using the MENU key, successive presses of the diamond key or . (If you have the title selected to 'Future Transactions' the key will be and if it is set to 'Scheduled Transactions' it will be ) 2. Now use or to enter a Standing Order. The date field is the first date when the order should be actioned. Leave it on today's date for the demonstration. You should use 'None' in the FROM or TO fields if you are paying or receiving to/from an external agency (use or cursor keys to select other accounts), fill in a description and an amount. Use today's date for the demo, 'Current' in the FROM field, 'VISA' in the TO field. Specify how regularly you want the order actioned. Unlike other programs, the program can accept, for example, 3-weekly Standing Orders, and the 'last day of the month'. Note that there has been some confusion over the Interval field. It is simply how often you wish the entry to be actioned. If you want it every 4 weeks then select 'Weekly' and '4', if you want it quarterly then select 'Month' and '3'. For the tutorial, use 2 weeks (i.e. ‘Weekly’ and ‘2’) as the period. At this stage leave the 'Advanced Functions' set to 'No', these functions are discussed in part 4. 3. These Standing Orders will be automatically credited to/debited from the appropriate accounts when the initial date arrives, and the date reset to the next occurrence. 4. As usual, you can Update ( or ) or delete ( or ) entries as required, and note the period and number of times are displayed if you turn the Status Window off. 5. To prove it works, press to go back to the main screen. You should see the Standing Order being processed, and when complete, the Accounts should have been updated. Go into the Orders screen, and you should see the Order date has moved on the appropriate period. 6. There is also an option to use the Standing Order screen to allocate an estimated interest figure automatically. Simply use to specify the first date, which account should be actioned, and how often. In this case, because the Interest rate for that account has not been specified it will ask you for the Credit and Debit % values (for example, my credit card gives me 18% if I run a debit and 2% if I am in credit - There has to be a lesson there somewhere !!). The amount to be credited/debited is calculated using this figure, and the final balance on the account. 7. Although the Standing Orders are basically sorted by date, there is an option to sort those Standing Orders that share the same date. This is for people like me who have all their Standing Orders actioned on the 1st of the month although they actually occur throughout the month. Finally, there is an option to have a 'Total' window displayed using if you feel it is useful. 8. In V1.6, I also included an 'Action Now' option in case you want to manually action a transaction at an earlier date. CURRENCIES ---------- 1. The program provides full support for all currencies. It caters for what I believe is the most difficult case, of someone living in Country A, running some accounts in Country B, and occasionally visiting Country C. (in other words, me !!) It does this by using 3 currency settings: a. The Base Currency is the main currency for the program, and will normally be your country of residence. If you haven't already done it, make sure this is selected from the 'Set Preferences' and 'Currency' menu in the Accounts screen. b. The Group Currency is the country where the bank accounts/investments contained in that specific Group are held. c. The Secondary Currency is the country that you are temporarily visiting. 2. To reduce any possible rounding errors caused by currency switching, the Shares (Stocks), Budget, Fuel, Home Inventory, Utility and Financial Planning files are held on disc in the Base currency, and the Account files are held in the appropriate Group Currency. The Expenses files are allocated their own currency. Although you would normally set these currencies at the start, and not change them, the program will actually allow you to change them and recalculate the values. 3. To show the capability, select the Currency screen (). If you want, enter a few more currencies () (France for example), specifying the Country, Symbol (i.e. FF) and the exchange Rate relative to the Base Currency. Note the usual update and delete options are available, as well an 'Update All' option if, like me, you do them all at once from the evening paper. Ignore the 'Allowances' field, it is described later. 4. You will see there is a 'B' against your currency, which shows the Base Currency in use, and a 'G' against the Group Currency. There should also be a '*' against the currency you selected as the secondary currency. The purpose of the secondary currency is to allow you to enter transactions in a different currency to the Base Currency if you are temporarily there on holiday or business. The next few steps should demonstrate this. 5. Select a secondary currency different to the Group Currency. (Either via the MENU, , or selecting it and pressing '*' or . Press again, then to go into the Transactions screen for the Current Account. (From V1.6, you can have this selected automatically from the 'World' setting for Home City. Use 'Set Preferences' to set it. My thanks to Roger Burton for the code segment to do this.) 6. Now select the Foreign Currency option . This will now remain in force for this Account, until reversed, even if you exit the program (Note that it only affects this Account, not the whole Group, if you want the whole Group to be affected, use the option from the main screen.). Now enter a new transaction (). The difference is that the Reference field is now replaced by a Currency field. This defaults to your secondary currency, but can actually be set to any currency you like. When you enter the transaction, using the local currency value, you will find that the amount has automatically converted to the Group Currency. (If you press CTRL-MENU, you will see that the original value has been stored in the Reference field.) Once you are happy, deselect the Foreign Currency option before you quit. 7. Back in the Currency screen, there are 'Set Preferences' options to set the number of decimal places, inverting the method of displaying/entering/updating exchange rates and, for those like me who have fixed overseas allowances, an optional allowances column to enter daily allowances. (This is for info only and is not used in any calculations. Use the Update option to set the figure) There is also a repeat of the 'Currency' setup dialog from the main screen. 8. Finally, there is a conversion option (), which is quite straightforward, and can actually be accessed from any screen by pressing . The default 'From' and 'To' currencies are configurable through the Set Preferences menu. 9. It is probably worth pointing out at this stage that a number of people have asked for a method by which the values could be changed retrospectively if an exchange rate changes. This is not possible at the moment, because of the memory shortage, so all that happens is that the entry is converted at the time of entry and a record kept in the Reference field in case you wish to change it manually later. I also have to say from a personal viewpoint that I believe the practicality of doing this retrospective change is questionable. In my experience my Visa company uses a different rate every day, so when I am reconciling my entries at the end of each month, I cannot predict what rate has been used. I accept this argument does not apply to Expense Accounts, where companies may suddenly change rates and a whole trip could be updated, and that facility may appear in a later version. BUDGET ------ (Needs BANKSBUD.OVL to be loaded) 1. This optional module allows you to keep track of how much you are spending for various categories (Oil, Gas, Holiday, Car etc) 2. Select the Budget screen using the MENU, the diamond key or . 3. Now use (or ) to enter a category. Use Electricity as an example, and any numbers you fancy for the Estimate and start date, as these are purely for information. Press to put it in, and add a couple more, such as 'Car' and 'Phone' for interest. Then note that, as usual, you can Update () or Delete () or Move () the entries later. There is also an alphabetical sort if that is how you would like them displayed. When you try updating, (or ), you will see I have programmed it to allow a change to the Spend/Income, (Credit/Debit) or to input an absolute value, whichever is most convenient. 4. Now press , select 'Current Account' and press . Enter a transaction, pretending you are paying an Electricity bill (). Fill in the usual details , then move to the 'Update Budget Category' field and select 'Yes'. (If this field is not present, then either deselect the 'foreign currency' option, or select the 'Advanced Functions' field to 'Yes' and access it on the second screen. See Part 4 for instructions on configuring the dialog). Use the key or the cursor keys (or press 'E') to select 'Electricity' (Ignore the 'Split Categories' option, that is covered later) then the transaction. Note that there is also a 'New' option so you can enter a new category directly from this dialog. 5. Now go back into the Budget screen (), and you should see that the Electricity entry shows an appropriate increase in current spend. (Negative to show that it is a spend). If you have the Status Window removed, you will also see the spend expressed as a percentage, to enable you to see how you are doing. 6. Note that if you prefer, you can reverse the logic of the display (using ) and have amount remaining, rather than amount spent, displayed and, of course, you can use it for Income as well as spend. (After much discussion I have standardised on +ve for Income and -ve for Spend) 7. Note that this module is common across all Groups, unlike the Standing Orders, which are specific to a Group. Any subsequent updates to account transactions, or deleting entries, will amend the Budget reading accordingly (unless the 'Split Categories option was used, in which case I didn't have enough memory to keep a record of it for later updating) . Also, it can be used retrospectively to include existing entries, if the Budget Field is amended during an update from 'NONE' to the Budget item. Please note that the date is used only for information. The program also does not keep a record of where the 'Spend' came from, so don't expect a change in date to affect the total figure. It is purely to act as a guideline if, like me, you run your budget on an annual cycle. 8. Once the checking cycle is complete (I use it annually), you can quickly reset the 'Budget' column to the previous spend using for each entry, or for all of them. FINANCIAL PLANNER ----------------- (Needs BANKSPLN.OVL loaded) 1. This is an extension to the existing Budget module, and allows for accurate future budgeting. It basically works on 3 different levels: Level 1. To start up the module, use the Menu, diamond key or . Now use to enter a couple of agencies who send you bills, such as Electricity and Phone (The usual Update, Delete and Move options are available as always). You can now move the vertical highlight to the required agency, and the horizontal highlight to the required month, and use to enter the estimated bill. (Note that this defaults to a single month, but you can actually put in multiple payments.) The bottom line will show the total for each month. Note that, although it starts up with January as the first month, you can use the horizontal cursor to make any month the first to be displayed. All the settings you have will be remembered between sessions. Once a payment has been made, you can use (or the Space- Bar) to show a cost in Bold as a reminder. The default is for a 12-month display, which is usable for costs up to 999. If you need more than 3 figures, or some decimal places, there is an option to reduce the number of months on display to prevent overlap. Level 2. If, like me, you run a separate account to pay the bills, you can use the planner to decide how much to transfer into the account each month. Press to switch the bottom line to 'Transfer' and use to put an initial estimate in for the amount. Note that you can put the amount in for individual months, to the end of the screen (if you have less than 12 months in the display it will fill up the remaining months as though they are displayed), or for all months. Now press again, and the line will show the Balance for each month. You can now increase or decrease the transfer accordingly, depending on how much in debt (or minimum credit) you are willing to go. There is also an option to adjust the initial balance in case you are not starting from zero. Level 3. This is the fully automatic mode that I operate. Use to enter the mode once you have completed all the entries. From now on, the present month will always appear in the second column, leaving the previous month in case there is an outstanding payment. All future payments will be de-reconciled, and the bottom window will show the predicted balance based on the previous months total. This total is shown in bold, and can be changed if required. Once the next month arrives, everything will move one column to the left, so you continually have a prediction for 11-months ahead. 2. Because it is difficult to satisfy everyone's requirements, the display is configurable through 'Set Preferences' so that you can design your own display. See Part 4 for more details. 3. There is also a 'Mark Entry' option if you wish a specific monthly payment to be always highlighted for any reason. SHARES (STOCKS) --------------- (Needs BANKSSHA.OVL loaded) 1. If you have a small shares (stocks) portfolio, you can use this optional module to keep track of their value, and their history. 2. Select the Shares screen ( or the MENU or the Diamond key). 3. Enter a couple of example shares. ( or ). Note that the currency in use is shown on the top line, if you wish to change it, then go into the Module from a Group which has the correct Base currency. If you just want to enter or update in a different currency, just select the 'Foreign Currency' option. 4. The usual update, delete and move options are available, as well as a ‘Sort’ option, plus an 'Update All' option (). I use this once a week to update every share at once. Try this, and then say 'Yes' to the 'Update History' question (Later, if you decide you will always Update the History, you can configure the program to remove this dialog). Now select a share and press and you will see the history display. Once you start updating regularly, the values will be tabulated on the left, and a graph of performance will be drawn on the right. (While you are in this screen, you can set the X-Scale Factor () to the number of pixels/day; and the Y-Scale factor () to the max/min values of the scale or, probably the best way, you can set both axes to automatic scaling. In this mode, you can also change the start date, if the history file starts to get a bit long and Enter/Update/Delete entries if so required, and configure the Gain/Loss figure to various options. 5. This option to update the history file is also available if you update individual shares and, if you make a mistake, you can delete entries. If you use this module to track Unit Trusts, you can specify non-integer share numbers via the Config menu, and also, as shares are often quoted to 3 decimal places, I have allowed you to overwrite the Global decimal places setting for the share price, again through the Config Menu. Finally you can switch Shares using the hot- key or the right/left arrows. 6. gets you back to the Shares screen, where you can see there is also an option to view the History of your Total Portfolio value, which has similar Menu options to those already described for ordinary histories. I suggest you now delete the history file , as this was only a demo. 7, Finally, I personally have the Shares included as a separate Account inside my Savings Group, and it is programmed to automatically update the total if I change the Shares screen. This option is offered to you if you generate a new Account in any Group with a short title called 'Shares' (or 'Stocks'). PETROL (GAS) ------------ (Needs BANKSPET.OVL loaded) 1. I have included this option to keep track of my fuel consumption. Initially it was just for one vehicle, but some of my friends asked if it could cope with more than one. It will now accept 10, which should be enough for anyone. 2. Go into the Petrol screen using or Menu or Diamond (If the title has been set to 'Gas', the key will be ) Note that it defaults to Litres and Miles, if you want to use UK or US Gallons, or kilometers, press and to change the defaults. 3. Type to add the first vehicle, calling it anything you like, although the type is probably a logical choice. Don't worry, you can always change it later. 4. You can now enter the details manually, or automatically. First try a manual entry: type and fill in the details. The cost in the first screen is how much you spent. Note that in the second screen it will actually allow you to enter the total in litres or gallons, or the price per litre/gallon (but not both). It will always default to your last selection, (NOT the screen selection, as I personally like to enter the total in litres and have the screen show Miles/Gallon) If you called the screen from an account where the foreign currency option was selected, or the global foreign currency option is selected, or the petrol foreign currency option is selected you will also be offered a foreign currency. Put in a representative mileage for the first entry (Please Note: this first entry MUST be the total distance read directly off the odometer, NOT the distance since the last entry. For future entries you can choose between the 2 systems.). After entry, the screen will indicate the baseline entry. 5. Now type in another value, using either elapsed or total distance. You should see that the spot MPG (or KPL etc) has now been evaluated, and that the average MPG is the same as the spot. (Logical, of course, because it has only 1 entry to work on. Once there are a number of entries a genuine average MPG will be calculated.) 6. This method of entering is really only for the case where you pay cash for petrol. If you pay by cheque or plastic, you can enter it automatically. To demonstrate this, press and then go into the Current Account. Enter a new transaction, filling in the details, but select the 'Display Advanced Options' to 'Yes'. In the second screen select the name of the vehicle in the 'Update Petrol Manager' field. After pressing you will be presented with the 'Update History' dialog. Fill in the details as before. Note that the cost is transferred as well, in case you bought a newspaper or some chocolates on the same VISA bill and you want to change it!! On completion, go to the Petrol screen and you should see that it has been entered, and the MPGs/MPLs have altered accordingly. (If you call the entry 'Petrol' or 'Gas', it will automatically put you into this mode.) 7. Now try entering a second car () (don't worry if you don't have one, you can delete it later). The screen will now display the new car, and you can repeat a similar exercise as for the first car. If you now enter a petrol transaction you will see that an extra field has appeared, allowing you to specify which car the purchase relates to. For this demo use the second car. Pressing or the left arrow key in the Petrol screen will give you the opportunity to return to the original car. 8. Finally, go back to the petrol screen, select the second car using or the right arrow, and delete it using (and the first one as well, if you don't want to use this option). 9. As of V1.5, I have incorporated a history display exactly the same as that used in the Shares Module. Rather than have to explain it all again, use to access the screen, and see the instructions for the Shares History for an explanation of the functions. This screen also includes a Statistics screen which gives you a breakdown of your costs etc.. HOME CONTENTS ------------- (Needs BANKSHOU.OVL loaded) 1. This optional module is used to allow you to keep track of the value of your possessions for the purposes of insurance policies. The module is very easy to use, and simply contains details of every one of your possessions, based on a description, a value, a serial number for your electrical goodies such as the Series 3A, a room location and a category. The rooms and categories can be added, updated and deleted from their individual screens, and can be included (default) or excluded from the total value. The items can be entered either from the main room screen or from the item description screen. There is an option to allow all the items to be uprated for inflation, (or depreciation) () but if you do not want the Item to be affected, simply select 'Purchase price' in the 'Replacement' field and the value will stay constant during the uprating process. From V1.6 you can also do this just by Category. 2. If you enter the 'Items' screen from the 'Rooms' screen, then it will show the Items in that Room. If you enter the screen from the 'Categories' screen it will show the Items in that Category. You can quickly switch rooms/categories using the hot key or the right/left arrows and find an Item using the 'Find Item' option.. 3. You can have up to 10 different houses defined, each with its own title. Personally I have a house in the UK, I am renting a house in the USA and have some other items in long-term storage, so I need 3 Houses. There is an option available to Move/Copy Items between houses. 4. The Print Routine allows you to print either all the Items, or just those associated with a Room or a Category, and in the Item screen you can sort the entries by a number of parameters. UTILITY MODULE -------------- (Needs BANKSUTI.OVL loaded) 1. This optional module is designed to allow you to keep track of those Utilities you have that are metered, i.e. Electricity, Water, Gas etc.. In my case I pay the bills quarterly and I like to keep track of the figures weekly, so that is how the module is designed. I have allowed for 3 different utilities to be tracked, each of which can have 2 different meters (to allow for dual-meters with cheaper overnight use), 2. I believe the use of the module is fairly obvious, with one exception, covered later. Use , and to set up the 3 utilities, with titles, Standing Charges, costs for each meter and any applicable tax rate. 3. Each week, you can enter the meter readings, and the display will show the weekly usage as well as a running total. The only ‘oddity’ is that when you first start the program, it will calculate the total as though the previous meter reading was zero. Simply use the 'Initial Balance' field in the Setup dialog to give the correct starting total. This may take some trial and error to get right, but it seemed the simplest solution to cover the possibility that someone will start using this program part-way through a billing cycle. 4. Once a bill is received, this can be entered and will be deducted from the running total. (Enter the full amount of the bill, including tax and the standing charge) 5. All the usual keys are available, plus the extra one that the right and left arrows move between the 3 utilities. Also, I have given you the option of displaying more than 1 utility at a time by setting the number of windows. In this case, although you can still enter a meter reading for any of the utilities, if you wish to amend or delete a line, the associated utility must be in the top 'Edit' screen. Finally, there is a 'Swap' facility in case you want to change the order that the utilities appear in as you cycle through them with the arrows. EXPENSES MODULE --------------- (Needs BANKSEXP.OVL loaded) 1. Initially, a number of users (including me) tried to use 'dummy' accounts and the Budget Categories to run Expense Accounts, and we have all come to the conclusion it doesn't work. I have therefore, implemented a specially designed module which is similar to the Transaction screen, but optimised for an Expense Account. I would like to thank Andy Waller, who gave me the basic outline for what was required and has spent a great deal of time making sure I get it right. 2. To use the module, enter it by using the Diamond key, the Menu or . Start a new trip with , allocating a title and, if appropriate, an overall expense allowance (total or per-diem), a vehicle/distance rate (i.e. $0.11 a mile) and a currency. Now we need to build up some Categories. Use and enter some representative Categories such as Food, Petrol, Hotel etc. (I did wonder about using the main Budget Categories but decided it would be more flexible to hold a separate set.) 3. Now enter a couple of expenses ( or ), selecting appropriate Amounts and Categories. The screen displays the results. Now enter a vehicle journey (). The spend will be automatically calculated from the distance and the distance rate. The total distance traveled is shown at the bottom of the screen, and if you want to see the individual distances, then remove the Status Screen (). 4. Now, you can select a Category (or Distance) filter, and only those entries which match the category are displayed. In this way you can find out individual totals for each category. Also, once the travel claim has been submitted, entries can be reconciled in the same way as for the Transaction screen and archived to a file, which can then be viewed in the same fashion as the main archive. Both the main screen and the archive screen can be printed. 5. The final column can either be 'Total Spent', or 'Amount Remaining' and can be set to show positive or negative. 6. Following some discussion with advanced users, we decided to allocate each trip its own dedicated currency, to avoid problems with exchange rates. PRINTING MODULE --------------- (Needs BANKSPRT.OVL and S3APRINT.DYL loaded) 1. I believe the printing functions are relatively straightforward, as they use similar routines as those contained in the built-in applications. Use the ‘Printer Configuration’ option in ‘Set Preferences’ to select Parallel, Serial or File (This simply mirrors the function available in the main System Screen), the ‘Print Setup’ option to define the page layout, headers and footers etc. , the ‘Print Preview’ option to check it, and then the ‘Print’ function to output the details.