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Text File | 1992-04-10 | 26.7 KB | 517 lines

The Monthly Budget Program ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright 1991, Richard S. Haseltine Riverside software RR3, Box 830 Orrington, Maine, 04474 This program has come to your through the facilities of the Eagles's Haven BBS in Bucksport, Maine, 207-469-6732. For a prompt reply you may leave a message to the author at any time, 24 hours a day, on Eagle's Haven's message board. Thank you for trying BUDGET. This program is offered to the public as Shareware, which means that it is not meant to be free. According to the honor principle underlying Shareware, it is your duty to give the program a fair trial, and, if it is beneficial to you, to register it with me for the low fee of $20. Doing this results in much more than an investment in just this one program....you are supporting a system of distribution that over the years can save you hundreds of dollars in software investment. You also give me needed encouragement and other software developers. With your support we will continue the production of reliable software for your consideration. We do not ask for a registration fee if the program is not beneficial to you. What could be more fair? We enter into the Shareware system of distribution knowing full well that a certain minority will milk the system for all it is worth. But we know too that the majority of users are honorable men and women and will support the Shareware distribution system. The development of many fine programs has occurred over a period of time in this system. The authors rely on the people who try their programs for their ideas for improvement. Please let me hear from you if you have any suggestions. And now, on to the program..... Your BUDGET disk contains eight files: 1. BUDGET.EXE: You will use this program the most...to maintain the budget. 2. INITBUDG.EXE: You will use this program to set up your budget and to later make additions to or deletions from your budget. 3. BUDSETUP.EXE: You may use this program to determine questions about back-ups and to set up your own color scheme if desired. 4. BUDGDATA: This is a data file in which you will save your budget data. 5. CALC: This is a TSR calculator which you can pop onto the screen whenever you wish. It disappears just as readily. You have to install it. 6. CRLVALUE: This data file saves the color values used in the programs. 7. DEMODATA: This is a sample budget display to aid you in setting up your own color schemes. 8. BUDGET.DOC: Please read this before running any of the programs. It would be helpful to you if you printed it out. (about 8 pages) THE CALC.COMM PROGRAM: The program, CALC, is a TSR (terminate and stay resident) program. By pressing ALT S you can bring a calculator on screen. Pressing ESC erases it from the screen. When it comes on screen, it is in a non-finacial mode. Press F2 and it is in the financial mode. Install it so that whenever you boot up your system, Calc.com will be loaded. I copy it on my DOS disk, and enter 'calc.com in my Autoexec file. If you do this, be aware that the Alt S command may interfere with another program that uses the Alt S command. In such cases you will have to amend your Autoexec file. HARD DISK USERS: You have three programs to install, and three data files. There is also the manual, Budget.Doc. The three programs and the three data files should be filed in the same directory file similar to the following: MKDIR \C:\UTILITIES\BUDGET\BUDGET.EXE MKDIR \C:\UTILITIES\BUDGET\INITBUDG.EXE MKDIR \C:\UTILITIES\BUDGET\BUDSETUP.EXE MKDIR \C:\UTILITIES\BUDGET\BUDGDATA MKDIR \C:\UTILITIES\BUDGET\CLRVALUE MKDIR \C:\UTILITIES\BUDGET\DEMODATA MKDIR \C:\DOCUMENTS\BUDGET.DOC You should run Budsetup.Exe first because the programs need to know your desires concerning your data back-up files. You can elect to have no back-up files if you enjoy 'living on the edge'. You can file your back-up file on your hard disk, or on a floppy disk, or whatever system you desire. FLOPPY DISK USERS: Copy the program disk onto a new disk to serve as your back-up disk. This should be done whether you have one or two drives. 1. Place Dos disk in drive A 2. Type 'diskcopy a: b:' 3. Instructions will come on the screen, telling you what to put in what drive. For a floppy disk user, the programs automatically save data to the program disk and to your back-up disk. If you have only one disk drive, the program will prompt you as to the proper procedure to follow. If you do not prepare a back-up disk, the program will crash at this point. WHAT TO DO FIRST: If you are using a hard disk, you must first run the 'BUDSETUP' program. Type 'BUDSETUP' The only reason for a floppy disk user to run 'BUDSETUP' is to experiment with the color scheme. NUM LOCK AND CAPS LOCK: The programs each set the keypad to figures rather than to arrows. The caps are set for Capital letters. The lights will not be on, and if you turn them on, you will get the arrows on the keypad, and lower case letters. It is best not to turn them on during the programs' duration. When I wanted the effect of arrows, for moving the cursor, I have used the numeric value of the key. The Caps are on because much of your input will be read by strings, and as you know, if the program is looking for a Capital letter and reads a lower case letter, it will not respond. There will be no need for you to change these two controls. However, if you go to another non-budget program, you should reboot first, else the setting of the CAPS LOCK and NUM LOCK will still be in place. OBTAINING PRINTER OUTPUT A note of caution: Be sure your printer is on before you ask for a print-out of any material. The programs periodically offer you the opportunity to make hard copies of your budget pages. To do so, you follow the instruction to press <SHIFT> and <PRTSC>. If you have no printer, just press any key and you'll skip the print-out. DESCRIPTION OF BUDGET PROGRAM: This program brings to the computer system the age-old envelope budgeting system. You'll recall that in this system on each payday the appropriate amounts of cash were placed in the GROCERY envelope, in the RENT envelope, in the Clothes envelope, etc. The envelopes were often kept as a file in an old shoebox. It is an ideal system because when the bill comes due, the money is there in the envelope to pay it. However, the system is terribly unwieldy. With this program the shoebox is now your CHECKING ACCOUNT. The envelopes are RESERVE ACCOUNTS in your CHECKING ACCOUNT. Through data furnished by you, the computer knows how much goes in each RESERVE account each month. When you enter your expenditures, it keeps an accurate balance of each account. So the first step in using this program is to furnish the computer the data it needs. To do this, you load the INITBUDG file: Type INITBUDG <ENTER> THE INITBUDG (initiate budget) PROGRAM On a notepad, list all your accounts. Some of your accounts charge interest each month. We'll call these TIME-PAYMENT ACCOUNTS, or TP for short. These are the accounts that are paid off over a period of time and include charge accounts, mortgage accounts, car purchase accounts, etc. List these accounts first. Note down how many TP accounts you have, then add two or three to the figure. This will result in two or three blank accounts for future use for new accounts. Now list all the remaining accounts you wish to establish. Establish an account for each of the expenses you are liable to face in the coming year. This part of the list will include ELEC, GROC, CLTHS, MED (medical), DR., GAS, REPRS (car repairs), EDUC, HEAT, anything you want to save for, etc. Note the total of all your accounts, including the TP accounts (including the blank TP accounts). Add several blanks to the total for future use. Make 'MISC' your last account. The programs need to know when you're using the 'MISC' account in order to branch to a special routine used for this account alone. This program will support a list of 38 budget items. The program will pretty much run itself by your following the input prompts at the bottom of the screen. After you have answered the initial questions about number of accounts, the screen will display a series of column headings. The number '1' is displayed and the program awaits your input. You can probably start immediately entering you budget, reading the text as needed as you go along. I recommend printing the Doc file...about eight pages. CODE You will name each account with a CODE. The code is limited to five characters or less. 'Repairs' becomes 'REPRS'; 'clothing' becomes 'CLTHS'. Try to arrive at a code that is readable. When you have entered the code, the cursor moves to the next column and the program awaits your input. ANNUAL INTEREST RATE The annual interest rate is usually listed on each monthly bill. Do not enter the monthly interest rate. The rate may be stated as 18%. You enter .18. If 13.9%, enter .139. Just be sure to start with a decimal point. The cursor moves on. ESCROW The escrow amount is an amount charged for future taxes or insurance payments to be made by the bank on a mortgage account. If your account has no escrow charge, just enter '0'. The cursor moves on. BALANCE The balance owed on your account is usually stated on your monthly statements. This is the only area of the program where we do not claim absolute accuracy. As you make each payment, the program computes your interest charge and adjusts your remaining balance accordingly. Due to the various ways banks, etc. have of computing their interest charges, our results will not be precise. It will, however, be very close. The facility to periodically replace our figure with the bank's is included in the program. The cursor moves on. PAYMENT WHEN DUE Enter here the payment you are required to make each month, or the amount you wish to budget each month. Leave your 'MISC' account flexible. Enter '0' for its PAYMENT column. If you are billed monthly, enter the monthly amount; if quarterly, enter the quarterly amount; if annually, enter the annual amount. If it's an account you are not billed for like Clothes, Recreation, Groceries, enter the amount you wish to budget each month. FREQUENCY OF PAYMENT Enter here how often you are required to pay on the account. Enter 'M' if monthly, 'Q' if quarterly, 'S' if semiannually, 'A' if annually. Enter one of these for those accounts that demand payment when due. Other accounts, such as a clothing account do not demand a payment from you except any payment you impose on yourself. We call these accounts 'indefinite' accounts. You can decide in any given month not to budget anything for such an account, and you have to answer to no one for your decision. Enter 'I' for these accounts. Other accounts which may be 'I' accounts are DR., MED, REPRS, and MISC. The BUDGET program uses these symbols as part of its procedure in highlighting the accounts that are due each week. Please be careful to choose the proper symbol. THE ARREARS ACCOUNT The ARREARS account is maintained automatically by the program. Ideally, when setting up a budget, one should have the money on hand to immediately bring all accounts up to date. For example, if one had an account paid semiannually coming due in two more months, he should have four months already in that account's reserve. In all likelihood, this will not be the case. Therefore, the account is four months in arrears. If each month's budget amount were $20 for this account, the arrears account will show a $20 x 4mos=-$80 arrears. The arrears account shows you at a glance the status of any given account. This will guide you in the judicious use of the small amounts of surplus you hopefully have each week. By applying these amounts to the accounts in arrears, you can bring your budget gradually to the ideal state. Please don't be discouraged if your arrears amounts are high at first. Simply apply anything you can to them, and gradually you'll reduce them to $0.00 amounts. Notice that after you have entered the Frequency of payment info, you are then asked for the number of payments you may be behind for that account, and the amount of the arrears is amended as necessary. The cursor then returns to start the next account. When you have entered all your TP accounts, you will notice that the cursor jumps from the Code entry to the Payment entry, skipping the Interest and Escrow columns. Notice, too, that arrears are not calcu- lated for the 'I' accounts. CHANGES? When you have finished making all your budget entries, type 'D'(done). You will be asked if you wish to make any changes. If you answer 'Y', the cursor will appear at the upper left of your screen, and an instruc- tion on moving the cursor appears at the bottom of the screen. Using the arrow keys you can move to any column except the ARREARS column. If you correct the Payment column, you will also be required to re-enter the Frequency of payment data and a new arrears will be calculated for you. When you have finished making corrections, answer 'N' to the Changes? question. PRINTING AND SAVING DATA By pressing Shift PRT SC, you can make a hard copy of your budget with your printer. But before this, your data is saved on both your main disk and your back-up disk. To skip the print-out, simply press any key. You are then returned to the MENU. INCOME DATA AND ANALYSIS Select the third Menu option and the headings of the INCOME box appear on the screen. Number 1 will be displayed, and the program awaits your input. There is allowance for six sources of income. INCOME CODE Enter the code of your first source of income. The CODE is limited to five letters or less. The cursor moves to the Amount column. AMOUNT ENTRY Enter the amount and how often you receive it. The final amount that is displayed will be a monthly figure. For example, if your source came to you Quarterly, you would enter the quarterly amount, and designate that you receive it quarterly ('Q'). The program divides it by 3(months) and prints the monthly amount. This enables the program to do a brief analysis of your Income/Budget figures. CHANGES? The correction routine is the same as the Budget correction routine. Simply follow the instructions at the bottom of the screen. ANALYSIS Next, an abbreviated version of your budget is displayed and its total amount is compared to your Income amount. The difference between the two, if surplus, represents your power to improve your financial position. It is the only money you have that is free of obligation. May you use it wisely. If the Income/Budget comparison yields a deficiency, you will need to adjust your budget. Suggestions will be displayed on the screen and you will then be returned to the MENU. There remains the Savings Account to set up, and the reporting of your current checking account balance, but that will not be done until the Income amount is either equal to , or greater than, the Budget amount. SAVINGS account If you have no savings account, simply follow the instructions to set one up for possible use in the future. The Savings account is set up in categories. For instance, you may have an semi-annual payment to make on your car-insurance. Category 1 could be coded 'CRINS' and each week you could transfer the budget amount into savings to earn interest for you, then transfer it back when it is time to pay the bill. Other categories could be something you wanted to save for, or persons' initials to establish savings accounts for members of your family. Transferring money to the Savings Account within the computer of course does not actually put the amounts into a Savings account. This you would do by calling the bank and asking that a transfer be made from your Checking account to your Savings account. There is allowance for five categories in the Savings Account. Please be sure to use the same code as you used in setting up your budget for those categories intended to hold money transferred from your budget accounts until the bill becomes due (Quarterly,Semiannual, and Annual accounts). CHANGES? Corrections routine is the same as the Budget routine. CURRENT CHECKING ACCOUNT BALANCE Enter here only the Checking Account current balance. Do not enter any total cash-on-hand amounts. The reason will be explained soon. PRINT AND SAVE Your data is then saved and you may now print the current display on your printer. If you have no printer, simply press any key to skip a printout. You have now completed your Budget set-up and will only use this program again if you wish to add or delete Budget items. You will be returned to the MENU. Select the option to 'load Budget program', and it will be done. At the start of future session you will use only the BUDGET program: TYPE Budget (when you start your next session) USING THE BUDGET PROGRAM Routine use of the BUDGET program involves four activities: 1. Entering the amounts SPENT since your last deposit 2. Entering your new income and the amount you have deposited 3. Distributing your deposit to your various accounts 4. Entering the amounts you decide the spend during this session. FIRST session Select the 'Deposit' choice on the MENU. You will see your budget displayed. Note that all the RESERVE accounts are $0.00. In the lower right corner your Checking Account balance is displayed. Note that the RESERVE amount is $0.00, and that the FREE Balance amount equals the TOTAL amount. It is requested that you always distribute the entire amount of Free Balance into your Reserve columns. Your unexpected needs will be taken care of through the MISC Reserve, and the amount of cash you withhold from your deposit. This program does not keep track of your cash expenditures. They are treated here like 'Petty Cash' accounts. The TOTAL amount should always agree with the RESERVE amount. I am firmly convinced that one of the primary reasons so many of us end up with so little to show for our years of effort, is because we did not make regular, judicious decisions about how to best use the many, many small surplus amounts we had left each payday over the years. By requesting that you distribute ALL money in your checking account to some purpose, I am asking you to do what so many of us failed to do over the years. After all, that small surplus is the only real power you have in bettering your financial position. Comply with this request, and I can almost guarantee that, a year down the road, it will amaze you how well you are doing! (End of Lecture!) If you have just made a deposit that is not included in your reported Checking Account Balance, then do so now. List the total amounts of each income source, decide what you need for 'petty cash` and deposit the rest. If no deposit has been made, then enter $0.00 for all amounts. THE TRIAL-RESERVE ACTIVITY The screen display highlights the pertinent columns you will be working with now. You are offered the facility of automatic entry of the budget amounts of each account. If you answer 'Y', the program will enter the budget amount of column two into the Trial Reserve column. This is called a TRIAL Reserve Activity because you can experiment all you wish and until you give your final approval nothing is permanently done. Note the options you have, listed in green at the bottom of the screen. By Typing 'E' when asked for an amount, a correction routine comes into play. Please note that while the prompt is the question as to whether of not to use the Automatic entry, The program will not respond to the 'green commands'. At this point, if you wish to enter a 'green command' answer the prompt with 'N'. By typing 'A',you can get a report of the arrears of any account. By typing 'X', you can transfer amounts between accounts. By typing 'M22' the cursor jumps to account #22. Use this also during correction routines. Typing 'D' signifies your approval of what you have done, and causes the amounts to be transferred from the TRIAL RESERVE column to the RESERVE column. Remember, to use these options, answer the AUTOMATIC question 'N'. Note that as you enter amounts into the TRIAL RESERVE column, the amount is deducted from your FREE Checking account balance, and added to the RESERVE total. Bear in mind that during this activity, you are not spending money. You are only distributing it into the RESERVE accounts. Also bear in mind that your actual checking account balance and reserves are not really changing. Nothing becomes permanent until you signify your approval by typing 'D' (done). When your FREE Balance equals $0.00, and you are satisfied with what you have done, answer 'N' to the AUTOMATIC question, and then enter 'D' (done). The amounts are transferred into the RESERVE accounts, and after saving the date and printing the page, you enter the SPENT activity. THE SPENT ACTIVITY Now, if you have some bills to pay, you may enter the amounts into the Spent Column. Note that as you do, the amount is deducted from the pertinent RESERVE column, from the CHECKING account Reserve, and from the CHECKING account TOTAL balance in the lower right corner of the display. You have the same options at the bottome of the screen. You will find the move-cursor option to be very helpful in moving around the screen. When finished, type 'D' and after saving the data and printing the page, you are returned to the menu. ARREAR/BALANCE/INCOME TOTALS/ACCRUED BALANCES REPORT Select this choice from the MENU, and a report is displayed of all your ARREARS, TP BALANCES, ACCRUAL BALANCES (what you've spent on each non-TP account this year), SAVINGS BALANCE PER CATEGORY, INCOME ACCRUALS FOR the YEAR. A further word about arrears activity. Each time you move from the DEPOSIT routine to the TRIAL RESERVE routine, each account's arrears account is debited with that accounts monthly budget figure. For example, let's say your Phone account allows for a bill of $20.As you enter the TR section, let's assume the Phone arrears is $0. When you have arrived at the TR section, your Phone arrears is now -$20. When you distribute $20 into the Phone account reserve, the arrears again becomes $0. If you skip budgeting the Phone account that month, the Phone arrears remains at -$20. Thus, at a glance, you can determine the status of each account at any time. You may change any arrears amount or any TP balance at this time. You may then save your data and print out this page. Next, a Payment Directive will be displayed. This will list all payments you have made this session, and can serve as a guide in making out your checks. On the right side, the Grocery, Gas, and Misc. amounts are totaled, and subtracted from the Total Reserve amount. The resulting balance is your 'Minimum Balance', the amount you must not spend in the coming week to keep your budget intact. Of course, if the amount is budgeted for, then you may spend it without affecting the integrity of your Budget. SECOND SESSION AND THEREAFTER From now on, each session will consist of these steps: 1. Choose first option from MENU, the SPENT option, and record all the checks you have made out since your last session. Save the data, and print it, and return to the MENU. 2. Choose the second option from MENU, the DEPOSIT option, and record your total incomes and any new deposits. 3. Distribute your deposit into your Reserve columns in the TRIAL reserve routine. 4. Enter any new expenses you are paying in this session. Save the data and print out the page. 5. Choose the fifth option, ARREARS, etc. display, save the data, print it and then the Payment directive will be displayed. Save the data, print it and you are done. A FINAL WORD Most of our paychecks are spent before we ever receive them due to commitments and promises we have made in the past. In a sense we should realize that very little of each paycheck is truly ours to spend in accordance with our free will. I emphasize, therefore, the importance of that small amount left over when you have finished distributing your deposit. I call these amounts 'surpluses', but they are actually surplus amounts only when your budget is up to date. Skip a budget session and you can later make it up. What you will have lost, however, is your opportunity to seriously think about what best to do with that small surplus. Funny thing about those monthly surpluses.....if not dealt with immediately, they tend to just up and disappear. That's what has happened to most of us over the years. I hope you won't let it happen to you. Good luck and good fortune.