CreditWindow is a credit account management program. Though mainly for use with credit cards, it can be applied to other types of consumer credit. It was born out of a need for the author to find out just how bad his credit situation was, and in the hopes that better tracking would result in better credit management. Too many of us have large credit card bills without knowing how they got that way. CreditWindow allows you to track these purchases. CreditWindow is also optimized to track only credit, unlike many other programs on the market that attempt to use one data entry system for everything.
Although there will be a few more additions to CreditWindow soon, (Such as expanded reports and interest cost analysis), there are some things it will not do. The most glaring one, is that it will not subtract payments made from your current balance on any given account. This is for one main reason. This is that, as most of us know, consumer credit has interest. The amount of that interest charged per month is based on an average daily balance. This means that the amount of your payment that goes towards the principal depends on how many days in the month (or billing cycle), and when your payment gets there. Since in most cases this is not possible to know, I do not attempt to guess. The result of all this is that you have to re-enter your balance when you get your statement each month. Sorry, but it's more accurate this way.
File Commands
New This command will cause a new database to be created on the current directory.
This consists of 4 .DB files, and 4 .IDX files.
This command also leaves the new database in an open state.
Check This command does nothing at the moment.
Backup This command will backup the current database and index files to the specified
drive and directory. IT IS STRONGLY SUGGESTED THAT THIS YOU DO THIS AFTER EVERY SESSION!
Every attempt is made to ensure that data is saved as soon as you change it,
but unexpected problems (such as power) can occur at just the wrong time.
A backup can save you many hours of work.
Restore This command will restore a database from the specified drive and directory.
Print This command, which only shows up when a report is selected and being displayed,
will cause a hard copy of that report to be printed.
Reports
Totals This report will display the current account balances and show the total for all accounts.
Payments This report will show the payments you have made to a specific account, or to
all accounts, based on the dates you enter.
Activities
Charges This command invokes the charges dialog box. This box is the interface that allows
the user to enter his charge information for all accounts. When first displayed,
the listbox will show all defined accounts. The user must first select which one of
these he will be working with. When selected, the name will appear in the
"Account Name" edit box. Alternately, the user can just type the first characters
in this box of an account name (enough to distinguish it from any other accounts)
and tab out of this field. The database will be searched and the closest match will
be entered in the edit field. The next step is to select a catagory in which to
allocate the charge. This can be done by selected the "Catagories" radio button,
and then choosing from that list, or as in the account name field, type a few
characters and tab out. The closest match will be filled in. The next step is to enter
a description of the charge. This should be a short note just to remind you exactly
how you spent your hard earned credit dollar.
The next items to be entered are the amount of the charge, and then the date.
The date can be entered as simply as 3/4, or as complex as 03/04/89. It will be
filled out (using the current year, of course). Be sure to use a slash between
day and month. When all this data has been entered, select the "ADD" pushbutton.
The listbox will change to the charge mode, and the charge will be added.
To delete or change any charge, select the account first, then select "Charges"
over the listbox. All charges for that account will be listed. Selecting one
will cause it's information to be displayed in the edit boxes. Any item can be
edited, and then the "Change" button can be pressed, or a selected charge can
be deleted by pressing the "Delete" button.
Payments This screen allows the user to record all payments made to the charge accounts.
The user must first select an account from the box, and then enter the reqested
data. When the "add" button is pressed, the box will switch to payments and the
payment will be displayed. Deletions and changes function as in the "Charge"
dialog box.
Balances This dialog allows the user to enter the current balance from his last statement.
"Change" is the only option here.
Setup
Account information This screen allows the user to define all information about the
charge accounts. Several common ones are listed, or "other" can be
selected to enter your own. Simply enter everything asked for,
and press "Add". The "Change" & "Delete" buttons function as in
the other screens.
Catagory information This screen allows the user to set up catagories for future allocation. If default catagories were chosen at build time, they will be displayed here.
Disclaimers:
This documentation is by no means complete, and will be updated at some point. Registered Users will receive updates of the software and documentation.
Use or registration of CreditWindow does not entitle the user to any warranties,
express or implied. The software is provided on an "as-is" basis. Regular backups of
the database are strongly recommended.
To register, call David Krauss Computer Services at 305-344-4570 or Write: David Krauss
