WinCheck User's Guide: Getting Started Getting Started The following topics will be discussed in this section: The WinCheck Screen Writing Your First Check Working with the Check Statement and Register Editing and Splitting Transactions Printing a Cash Flow Report Creating a Custom Report The tutorial account included with WinCheck is an excellent place to begin learning to use the program. The WinCheck tutorial file includes sample data for January, February and March of 1991. To start the WinCheck program with the tutorial data, do the following: Start WinCheck by double clicking with the mouse on the WinCheck icon in Program Manger. If you have not added a WinCheck icon with the File New command, refer to the chapter on "Program Manager" in your Windows documentation. Note: If WinCheck is on your path, then it is also possible to start WinCheck by choosing Run from the File menu of Program Manager. Type WINCHECK for the "Command Line:". Otherwise, type the fully qualified path name for WinCheck (such as C:\WINCHECK\WINCHECK). Upon startup of the WinCheck program, you will be prompted for the account to load. To load the Tutorial account, choose TUT from the drop down listbox (click on the down arrow). The keyboard equivalent to clicking on the down arrow with the mouse is to press ALT+Down Arrow on the keyboard. Once you have selected TUT, click on the OK button or press Enter on the keyboard. If you have already started the WinCheck program and need to load the TUT account, choose Load Account from the File menu and choose the TUT account from the drop down listbox. When loading the Tutorial file, the Balances Dialog will appear with the balance values for Savings and Checking as well as the date of the last transaction. Press OK to exit the Balances dialog and view the account Register for March of 1991. WinCheck automatically loads the account Register that is closest to the current date. In the case of the TUT account, March 1991 is the last month with transactions. The WinCheck Screen: There are two visual aids besides the menu at the top of the screen: The Control Bar of icons across the top of the screen (mouse required) and the Status Line along the bottom of the WinCheck screen. The Control Bar allows for quick operation of the program by placing icon buttons of common operations below the menu. There are fifteen buttons that execute common WinCheck operations and an "Acct:" listbox on the far left that lists open accounts. The TUT acronym is listed now, to indicate that the Tutorial file is open. Left to right the icons do the following actions: 1 Credit Card transactions from credit card account or Debit Card transaction from Checking account. 2 Write a check. 3 Check Deposit. 4 Savings Withdrawal. 5 Savings Deposit. 6 Cash machine withdrawal from Checking. 7 Cash machine withdrawal from Savings. 8 Miscellaneous transaction from Checking. 9 Miscellaneous transaction from Savings. 10 Activates the Windows Calculator. 11 Clear selected transaction. 12 Unclear selected transaction. 13 Sum selected transactions in Statement or Register window. 14 Print check(s). 15 Find a transaction. The Status Line displays the description of the account (WinCheck Tutorial File) and the current balance information. The caption just above the menu lists the open month, the account ID, and whether the open window is a Statement or a Register. For example: WinCheck - Current Month 03/91 -[TUT: Register for March, 1991] The menu bar is just below the description information. One letter of each menu item is underlined. This letter is underlined to indicate the ALT combination to activate the menu. In otherwords, to activate the File menu from the keyboard, you would type ALT+F (for File). To activate the File menu using the mouse, click on the word File. There are three arrow buttons in the upper right corner of the WinCheck screen. The top two buttons are used to control the size of the WinCheck program screen and third button below is used to control the size of the Register or Statement window. Click on the third button (the Up and Down Arrow) and the Register window will be reduced in size. Click on the Down Arrow along the title of the Register window and the Register will now be reduced to an icon at the bottom of the screen. Double click on the Checkbook Icon or press Enter to restore the Register window again. Finally, click on the Up arrow along the frame of the Register window to Maximize the window to it's original position. Controlling the size of the program screen: Click on the Up and Down arrow in the far upper right corner to reduce the size of the WinCheck program from a full screen application. Click on the Down arrow to minimize the WinCheck application. Double click on the WinCheck icon at the bottom of the screen to switch back to WinCheck. Finally, click on the Up arrow to maximize the WinCheck program to full screen. Writing Your First Check To write a check, click on the check icon button (the tiny blue check) on the Control Bar, or press F3, or choose Check from the Checking menu. Any of these actions will bring up a blank check transaction. Note: When clicking on an icon button, you only need to click on it once. Double clicking will bring up a message stating that only one new open transaction may be open at a time. If this message box appears, press the OK button and continue. In the resulting check, click on the down arrow to view current transaction categories. Categories are a means to classify your transactions into certain groups such as "Entertainment" or "Business". The keyboard equivalent to clicking on the down arrow with the mouse is to press ALT+ from the keyboard. Steps for completing the check: 1. Select the "Health Club" category from the drop-down listbox (click on down arrow). 2. Press the Tab key twice to jump to the Date field and type 03/30/91. (For the purpose of this tutorial, we have changed the date to be within the month of March to match the other tutorial data. Normally, you would leave the current date that is automatically inserted with a new transaction.) 3. Press the Tab key again to advance to the "To:" field. 4. Type "NorthWest Fitness". 5. Press the Tab key once to advance to the dollar amount field and type 23.34. The check is now complete. 6. Click on the OK button or press Enter on the keyboard to record the check transaction. To view the check in the Register window, use the vertical scroll bar to scroll to the end of the month (or use the Page Down key when Num Lock is off). Sorting the Register and Statement Data The default sorting routine for the Register is to sort by Date, so the transaction will appear near the end of the Register window data. From the Data menu choose Sort-> and pull to the right with the mouse to view the sorting options. The current sorting option is by Date, as indicated by the check mark. Choose by Number as the sorting method for the data in the Register window. When the Register is sorted by number, all of the transactions without check numbers (such as deposits) will appear at the top of the Register window with the checks below in ascending order. WinCheck is capable of viewing several Statements and Registers from the same or different accounts at one time. To view a check Statement, choose Display Check Statement from the Acct menu. In the resulting dialog, WinCheck displays the available months (in this case January 1991-March 1991). "Available months" are those months that actually contain data. For example, April will appear in the "Pick a month to view" dialog once a transaction has been made with an April date. Choose January 1991 and press Enter or click on the OK button. The Statement differs from the Register in that the transactions are grouped according to type (Deposits, Checks, etc). Click with the mouse of the Window menu or press ALT+W. At the bottom of the Window menu is a listing of the open Register and Statement windows. The two open windows are listed with a check by number 2. This indicates that the Statement window for January, 1991 is the active window.: 1: TUT: Register for March, 1991 2: TUT: Statement for January, 1991 Choose Tile (from the Window menu) and view both windows at the same time. Switch back and forth between windows by clicking with the mouse anywhere in the January Statement window or the March Register window. Choose TUT: Register for March, 1991 from the Window menu to activate the March window. Now, click on the Up arrow to the left of the window title bar to maximize the Register window. The Column Headings for this Register are: ChkAmt: The amount of the Checking transaction. ChkBal: Your running balance for Checking. BnkChk: "The Bank's Opinion" on your running balance. SavAmt: The amount of the Savings transaction. SavBal: Your running balance for Savings. BnkSav: "The Bank's Opinion" on your running balance. The column widths for the Register and Statement windows can be adjusted with the mouse. To adjust the width of the columns, position the mouse between the two columns (such as ChkAmt and ChkBal) columns so that the mouse cursor changes to a line with arrows on either side. Now, click and drag the mouse to the right to expand the width of the ChkAmt column. Expand the width of the ChkBal column, by clicking on the right edge of the column and dragging to the right with the mouse. To save these changes to the column widths, choose Memorize Heading Columns from the Data menu. Summing Transactions To sum a portion of the transactions in the active check Statement, click with the mouse on check number 3287 to Safeway and drag the mouse through check number 3291 to Cellular One. Once all five transactions are selected click on the sigma icon button from the Control Bar, or press the + key on the keypad, or choose Sum Highlighted Amts from the Data menu. Selecting items in the Register or Statement The keyboard method for selecting transactions is to press and hold the Shift key while using the Up and Down arrow keys on the keyboard to extended the selection. To remove the selection click anywhere in the Statement window or press the Up arrow on the keyboard without holding down the Shift key. Calculator If you need to manipulate numbers not necessarily within transactions, click on the calculator icon located on the Control Bar (it's the 6th icon button from the right) or choose Calculator from the Data menu. To close the Calculator, press ALT+F4 or click twice on the close bar in the upper left corner. Colors and Fonts The colors and fonts that WinCheck is currently using are totally customizable. For example, to change the Statement screen font, do the following: 1. Choose Fonts from the File menu. 2. In the box labeled "Font Usage" choose the the Statement Window option (ALT+W). 3. Choose a Typeface such as Helv. 4. Choose 14 for the Size. 5. Click on the Apply button or press ALT+A to see the changes made to the statement window below. 6. Now, click within the Underline box or press ALT+U. 7. Again click on Apply button or press ALT+A. to see the changes made to the statement window below. 8. Choose OK to exit the dialog once you are satisifed with the font. To change the background color of the Statement window, do the following: 1. Choose Colors from the File menu. 2. In the Description box, select "Statement Window". 3. Click with the mouse on an alternative color such as light blue (from the keyboard press ALT+C and use the Up and Down arrows on the keyboard to select a color). 4. Click on the Apply button or press ALT+A to see the changes to the check statement window. 5. Choose OK to exit the dialog once you are satisfied with the colors. Editing and Splitting TransactionsEditing Choose Close Active Register/Statement from the Acct menu to close the Statement window. To expand the size of the Register window, click on the Up arrow button to the right of the window text, TUT: Register for March, 1991. To edit a transaction in the Register window, double click with the mouse on the item to edit (or press Enter when the selection bar is on the item). Double click on the checking deposit dated 03/14 to bring up the checking deposit information. Any of the items in this dialog can be changed. As a primer to the categories feature of WinCheck, choose Split... from the list of categories in the upper left corner (click on the down arrow). Split... is the first item in the drop down list box, followed by all of the custom categories for the tutorial account. After selecting Split..., click on the OK button to bring up the Split Transaction dialog. Within the following dialog, change the amount from 3100.00 to 1000.00 and then click on the down arrow to select "Royalty" as the category. Click on the Add button to add this split. Next, change the amount field to 1100.00 and select "Band Income" for the category. Again, click on Add to add this split to the checking deposit transaction. Finally, choose Model Fees for the remaining 1000.00 dollars, and click on Add. When no dollar amount remains in the amount field (0.00), all of the transaction has been split to separate categories. Press OK to enter the split information for the transaction. To print or view the Register information in a Report format, choose Report Generator from the Acct menu. 1. In the WinCheck Report Generator dialog, select January 1991 for the starting and ending date (this will be a report for the month of January only). 2. Below the Choose a Report Type label select Checking: Cash Flow. 3. Click on the Preview button or press ALT+V. This allows you to preview the cash flow report for January before printing. If the dialog in the lower right corner is obstructing the viewing of the data, click on the title bar labeled "WinCheck Print Preview" and drag the box about the screen. 4. Click the Stop button to return to the Report Generator Dialog. Click on the Print button to print a Cash Flow report for January 1991 or Exit to return to the WinCheck Register window (refer to the Configuring WinCheck chapter for information on configuring WinCheck for printing checks and reports). Creating a Custom Report There are several reports included with the WinCheck program (such as Checking:Cash Flow), and it is also possible to create your own custom reports. To create a custom WinCheck report for the tutorial data: 1. Choose Report Generator from the Acct menu. 2. Select January 1991 for the starting month and February 1991 for the ending month. 3. Click on the Add button to design a custom report. 4. In the following dialog type in Credits for the filename of the upcoming custom report, and press OK. 5. In the Report Description field you can type text to better describe your custom reports. For this example, type Barbie's Credit Report as the description. 6. Set the 1st Sorting method to Date, the 2nd to Amount, and the 3rd to Original Order (click on the down arrow and select from a list of available sort keys). 7. Uncheck the box labeled Debits or press ALT+B from the keyboard. A gray segmented bar appears below the report description field. This bar is used to indicate the data and width of each column. Double click within the first segment of the bar (to the far left) to bring up the Column Attributes dialog. In this dialog you can choose the type of data that will be displayed in the column. Choose Date and click on the OK button. Place the mouse cursor on the line between the first two columns so that the cursor changes to a line with an arrow on either side. When the mouse cursor has changed to the double arrow, click the mouse and drag to the left. This will shorten the width of the "Date" column. Now, double click within the second column and choose Amount for the column attribute. Next double click within the third column, choose Description from the column attributes dialog and click on the OK button. To preview the report with data from January and February, click on the Preview button. The resulting report will display only those transactions which added money to Barbie's account (credits). Click on the Stop button or press ALT+S to return to the previous dialog. Once returned to the WinCheck Custom Report Maker screen, click on the OK button. The custom report will now appear in the list of reports as "Barbie's Credit Report". This report can be printed at any time by selecting a starting and ending month and then clicking on the Print button. Additionally, the report can be edited at any time by selecting Barbie's Category Report and clicking on the Edit button. Now you are ready to start entering your data. If you are converting from a Quicken(R) account, please read the QUICKEN.TXT file included with WinCheck.