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MONEYC7.TXT
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1993-05-30
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Money Counts 7.0 Personal Edition
Review by David Jensen, Madison PC User's Group
Parsons Technology continues to produce high-quality, easy-to-use
programs to help manage your personal finances. Money Counts 7.0
Personal Edition is the latest update to their basic bookkeeping
package. While Parsons doesn't have the marketing clout that
Microsoft can put behind Microsoft Money, or a well recognized brand
name, they have put together a personal bookkeeping package that
will compete with the best of them, both in terms of features and
ease of use.
Using the Program
Money Counts allows users to do either single-entry (traditional
checkbook) or double-entry ("real" accounting) bookkeeping. It
actually maintains the books using double-entry bookkeeping and
users can toggle between single- and double-entry. It's even
possible that they may learn some of the features of double-entry
bookkeeping by using Money Counts and toggling between the two.
Extensive accounting information is available in an online
accounting guide.
Whichever way you choose to maintain your accounts, you have to have
them defined before you can track them. Account management may be
one of the more difficult parts of accounting, as opposed to the
bookkeeping which is just tedious, but Money Counts has done a lot
to simplify that step by providing five template account systems to
choose from. Even if a user wants to enhance them, the account
template is a good place to start, with good concern for creating
useful accounts.
Once the accounts have been set up, it is time to enter transactions.
For transactions using the checking account, the transaction form
looks like a check to be filled out. This is the case whether you
use the available check printing feature or not. There is an
alternate entry screen that is used by transactions for other
accounts, but the blank check is so intuitive that it doesn't make
sense to change it.
Money Counts provides quick transaction and smart data entry to allow
you to look up information from previous transactions and available
options, respectively. It saves keystrokes and makes it easy to
remember what options are available from the field you are in.
As with other programs, Money Counts will print checks on preprinted
forms. Money Counts supports a wide range of laser and tractor-fed
forms, including those designed for Quicken, Microsoft Money, and
Managing Your Money. If the form is not predefined, Money Counts
allows you to custom-define the locations of fields to match those
on your forms.
Money Counts allows for multiple, unrelated accounts. By default,
the first one is known as personal, but there is no limit to the
number that can be set up. This is handy if you are keeping track
of, for example, your mother's checkbook as well as your own, or
you are the treasurer of some organization.
You can generate reports for a chart of accounts, income and
expenses, balance sheet, cash flow, general ledger, account
balances, or a tax summary. You can do analysis of accounts,
transactions, a transaction register, and cash needs forecasts. You
can do budget analysis for all of the appropriate reports. For
investments, Money Counts provides reports for investment earnings,
gainsand losses by valuation or sales, market value, market history,
return on investment, maturity tracking, and investment analysis.
Each of these reports can be customized for the user's needs.
Based on the reports available, charts and graphs can be created for
a quick view of where you are. While they are not precise, it is
often more meaningful to see relative results, rather than suffer
through the dryness of numbers. These charts and graphs are
excellent assets.
Investments is a special group of accounts that Money Counts
supports. Unlike regular asset accounts, investment accounts
provide a wider range of options, offering and requiring more
information. It allows close tracking of securities including
market tracking, units, direct initial cost, and allocated costs
(fees, commissions). It maintains securities by a first-in-first-out
(FIFO) tracking system, and nets all costs for purchase and sale.
The procedure appears to be quite robust, and considering the
problems of tracking, relatively simple.
An unexpected feature of Money Counts is its ability to accommodate
fund accounting, the bizarre way for non-profit organizations and
governments to keep track of their accounts. [I would not recommend
fund accounting for anyone who doesn't need to use it. Think of it
as a budget with a straightjacket: You can't fix the water heater
because there is nothing left in the repair fund, even if there is
the $350 you need in the entertainment fund. Only the people who
gave you the money in the first place can let you change the use of
the funds.]
While it requires the use of double-entry accounting to maintain
fund accounting, it was amazing to me that Parsons had made it
available. There are a lot of small not-for-profit organizations
that have to use fund accounting that don't need a full-blown
accounting package. This package can fill the bill.
New Features
Parsons has made a number of changes in Money Counts since the
previous release (Money Counts 6.5). These changes have improved
the features and ease of use of the program. Menus are pull down
with full mouse support. The mouse even works correctly in a
Microsoft Windows window. The transaction screen looks like a check
or deposit slip, making it easy to start transaction entries without
the manual.
While all of these personal bookkeeping programs have made account
reconciliation easier, Parsons has upped the ante by providing tips
about possible errors in reconciling the account. Transactions that
have been misidentified as cleared or may have a transposition in
the figures will be flagged by Money Counts as possible offenders
when you are trying to track down the reason you can't get your
numbers to agree with the bank's.
Money Counts lets you schedule on-screen reminders of bills to be
paid, investments to be made, or taxes to be done. It provides 25
predefined reports, and allows customization for personal
requirements. Money Counts also allows you to use pie charts, and
bar and line graphs to see financial outcomes at a glance.
Parsons has provided a transfer utility that allows users to import
and export data from Quicken, Dollars & Sense, Managing Your Money,
and Microsoft Money, as well as previous versions of Money Counts.
Budgeting and categorizing have both been improved, as Money Counts
now allows users to budget all accounts at once, and they have
expanded the scope of predefined categories.
Investment management has also been improved by allowing all
investments to be tracked, updated, and given updated market values.
Reports are available to help analyze future needs and make
necessary changes.
Installation and Requirements
Installation is simple. Run install from the command line, and it
will prompt you to change disks when needed. The program comes with
its own icon and PIF file, so it is very easy to set it up under
Windows.
Money Counts only takes up about 2.5 MB of disk space. It requires
DOS 3.0 or later and 512K memory (640K is recommended). It will
accept a wide range of printers and monitors. There is mouse
support.
Overall, I feel that Parsons has once again provided a good product,
and at $35, it is an unsurpassed price. Money Counts 7.0 is well
worth looking at.
Parsons Technology
One Parsons Drive
P.O. Box 100
Hiawatha, IA 52233-0100
(800) 223-6925
(319) 393-1002 (fax)