PART 2 - QUICK TUTORIAL ----------------------- 1. To start the program: a. Highlight 'Accounts' under the BANK Icon. b. Press to generate a new file (or select via the FILE menu, or just press , to use 'Accounts' as name for the Group). c. Type ACCOUNTS as a title (or anything else you fancy). Remove the 'nag' screen by pressing . If you want to skip this screen you will have to register your copy !! 2. You are now in the 'top-level' screen, which contains details of the accounts you have in the Group. (You actually need only one Group to run your accounts, but personally I like to run different groups for my normal accounts, my savings accounts and my expense account. Basically you treat the Groups and Accounts in the same way as you would treat directories (or folders) and files on your PC, MAC or Psion.) 3. Press the MENU key and then the left arrow key and you will see the various core modules that make up the whole program. Selecting 'Add-In Modules' shows the optional modules (assuming you loaded the appropriate .OVL files). All of these modules can be selected either by using this MENU selection, by pressing a 'hot-key' i.e. for the Currencies, or by using the diamond key to cycle through the screens. This tutorial, and Part 3 of the instructions, will take you through each module in turn. 4. Press and the MENU key again for the FILE commands. I hope these are obvious, and are the usual commands you expect to see in most programs. Just note that you will not be allowed to Delete the Group you are working on, you will have to Open into another Group first. (There is no requirement for a SAVE command, as this happens automatically). 5. Press the MENU key again for the EDIT commands and select 'Enter new account' (or press ). As an example, type 'Current' for the short title, 'Current Account' for the Description, and whatever you feel like for the Opening Balance (Credit or Debit). (For real, this will be the final figure on your last bank statement.) Note the short title is limited to 10 characters, the description can be quite a bit longer. Don't worry about the 'Advanced Settings' field, that is covered in Part 4. Press on completion. 6. Now enter (using ) a 'VISA' account as well, for use later in the tutorial. 7. Note that you can use the 'Update Account' ( or ) option if you want to change the details, or the 'Delete Account' ( or ) option if you make a mistake. I have also incorporated a Move command () if you wish to change the order later. 8. The initial setting is for the Info Window to be hidden. You can switch it in, using the normal Psion method (). You will see later that some modules can display additional information if you have the Info Window hidden. Personally I like having it in view. I suggest you experiment later within each module, but for now leave the Info Window switched off. 9. Note also that the Cursor keys (& PgUp/PgDn/Home/End) allow you to select an account, or you can press the first letter of the Account to jump to it straight away. Select the 'Current' account for the next stage. 10. Now move into the 'Transaction' Screen. This can be done either by pressing the Diamond key, using the Mode MENU option, pressing or, the easiest method of all, just press . 11. Now enter an example transaction, such as writing a cheque (check). Use the MENU, or just press to start the process. Select the date, (to make it easy it defaults to today's date), a description and an amount (leaving it as a Debit in this case, as we are spending money). Move down to the 'Transfer' item and use the key or the arrow keys to see how you can select another account if it is an inter-account transfer (i.e. a cheque from the Current Account paying the VISA bill). Use 'None' for now, to show a cheque being paid to an external agency. Skip the 'Display Advanced Functions' field for now, that comes in Part 4. Finally, you can use the Reference field for anything you like, in this case it's just a free field. Press when complete. 12. Add a few more transactions, and to demonstrate the Transfer function, do a VISA payment by paying a cheque as before, but selecting VISA in the Transfer field. Press when complete. You are offered the opportunity to change the description and value, just in case you want them to be slightly different. Now press (or Shift-PSION-A or via the MENU), to get back to the Accounts screen, select the VISA account, and check the transfer went in OK. 13. Go back to the transactions in the Current Account and practice updating entries ( or ) and deleting entries ( or ). Note that the Update menu replaces the Transfer field with an Attribute field (leave this at the moment, it is explained next). Also, note that if you press or just , a screen is displayed with all the information in for that entry. At the moment, the only additional line is the Reference line, but with optional modules loaded, more information can be displayed. This 'Information' option is available in most screens, to offset the limitation of the small Siena screen. Also, you can select a small font using , which will allow larger numbers and descriptions to be displayed without overwriting or truncating, or the Swiss font through the 'Set Preferences' menu (if the Configuration module is loaded). The font size is screen specific, so you can have different settings in each screen. 14. We can now simulate receiving a bank statement. At the start, the Initial Balance figure should match the starting balance on the previous statement (In real life, if it doesn't, you must have made a mistake reconciling the previous statement!). Now reconcile each entry on the statement, using , or, more easily, the Space Bar. Once you have a reconciled entry, the Initial Balance window changes to Reconciled Balance. After each entry is checked, the new Reconciled Balance should match the balance on the statement (in the UK that is, I find in the USA they do not have 'running balances' on their statements.) 15. Having confirmed the statement, we should now archive the entries (You must do this regularly, as you can hold a maximum of only 100 transactions in each Account, see the FAQ file for a fuller explanation of why. Press to create an Archive file. This will default to the same directory as the normal data, but can actually be put anywhere. (The way I personally use this facility is to call the archive 1996 and use it till the end of the year, archiving all accounts into it. Then I will change the filename to 1997, and use that. Once I feel I will not require regular access to the 1996 archive again, I will store it on a floppy and delete it from the machine. Another method many people use is to have a separate Archive file for each account; basically, the choice is yours.) Now archive the account using , and store the reconciled transactions in an Archive file. (If required, you also have the additional flexibility of archiving or deleting all the entries, archiving or deleting by category, specifying an end-date, and updating the balance or not as required.) Note that the system defaults to Appending the data to the Archive file, but at a later date you may wish to overwrite an Archive. 16. You can then view the archive at any time by pressing (or by using the Diamond key or the MENU). When the file gets quite long, there is a 'Find' and 'Find Next' option available in the Advanced 1 module, which matches text in the Description or Reference fields to enable you to find a transaction. There is also an 'Find Date' option if that is how you wish to navigate through the file. If, at a later date you wish to use another archive file just use . As this is just a practice session, I suggest you now delete the Archive file using Press or to remove the message, then to get back to the Accounts screen and use to specify your preferred name for the future. 17. Another option I have included is the 'Deferred Transaction' idea, where you can put in a transaction which you know will happen in the future, but not include it in the balances. To see this, go into the Current Account, select the transaction, and use the menu or just press D or (Illogical I know, but I ran out of letters !!). The entry will then be ignored in all future calculations, but is there as a reminder. 18. By popular request, I have also included an option to draw a line under a transaction ( or ). You can use this to indicate a credit card statement date for example. Finally, you can also have a 'warning' flag ( or ) which triggers a warning every time you leave the program. I use this to show that a cheque should have been paid, but I haven't actually written it yet ! 19. In the Transaction screen, you can switch between accounts by using or by pressing the right/left arrows. This completes the initial quick tutorial, and if this is all you need you can stop here. However, the program has much more built in, so you might wish to continue with Parts 3 & 4.