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For best results this text file should be viewed using the 'System' font. __________________________________________________________________________ ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ ######| #| ##| #| #| ##| #| ######| ######| #|¯¯¯¯ #| #|#| #| ###| #|#| #| #|¯¯¯¯ #|¯¯¯¯ ####| #| #|¯#| #| #|¯¯#| #|¯#| #| #| ####| #|¯¯ #| #| ¯# #| #######| #| ¯# #| #| #|¯¯ #| #| #| ¯##| #|¯¯¯¯¯¯#| #| ¯##| #| #| #| #| #| ¯#| #|¯ ¯#| #| ¯#| ######| ######| ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯ ##| ##| #| ##| #| #| ######| ######| #######| #|#| #|#| ###| #|#| #| ###| #|¯¯¯¯ #|¯¯¯¯ #|¯¯¯¯#| #|¯#|#| #| #|¯¯#| #|¯#| #| #|¯¯#| #| ####| #######| #| ¯#| #| #######| #| ¯# #| #######| #| ##| #|¯¯ #|¯¯#| #| ¯ #| #|¯¯¯¯¯¯#| #| ¯##| #|¯¯¯¯¯¯#| #| #| #| #| ¯#| #| #| #|¯ ¯#| #| ¯#| #|¯ ¯#| ######| ######| #| ¯#| ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯ ¯ __________________________________________________________________________ ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Designed and written by Colin Solloway © Solloway Software —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— This is the demonstration version of Finance Manager. It will do all that the full version will do except: • Keep any accounts after it has been closed down • Import transactions from text files • Restore any data from a back up file Please pass a copy of this version on to your friends and colleagues. The full version is supplied in a presentation case and comes with a comprehensive, printed manual. To obtain the full version or for more details please contact: Solloway Software 23, Portland Drive Willen Milton Keynes MK15 9HD England Telephone 01908-233206 —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— C o n t e n t s ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— The following is a list of the various headings in this manual. This is to assist in finding a particular section of the manual by using the search facility in a text editor. I n t r o d u c t i o n I n s t a l l a t i o n S t a r t i n g F i n a n c e M a n a g e r A c c o u n t s V i e w e r * Creating A New Account * Sorting The Viewer Display * Selecting Accounts * Deleting Accounts * Editing Account Names * Account Information * Grouping Transactions * Moving Around Viewer Displays * Finding An Account Name * Loading An Account U n c l e a r e d T r a n s a c t i o n s V i e w e r * Creating A New Transaction * Entering dates * Entering A Reference * Entering A Description * Entering An Amount * Moving Around Dialogue Boxes * Entering Transactions * Using Function Keys * Defining Function Keys * Copying Transactions * Transferring Funds * Categorisation Of Transactions * Editing Transactions * Deleting Transactions * Finding Transactions C l e a r e d T r a n s a c t i o n s V i e w e r * Clearing transactions A u t o m a t i c P a y m e n t s V i e w e r * Creating Automatic Payments * Editing Automatic Payments * Deleting Automatic Payments G r o u p e d T r a n s a c t i o n V i e w e r S e a r c h i n g E x p o r t i n g / P r i n t i n g / I m p o r t i n g * Exporting Transactions * Printing Transactions * Importing Transactions P r e f e r e n c e s * Opening Viewers On Start Up * Print/Export Amount Format * Print/Export Balance Format * Issue Warnings * Loading An Account On Start Up * Password Protection B a c k U p A n d R e s t o r e * Back Up * Restore F o r c a s t i n g A n d B u d g e t i n g * Forecasting * Budgeting K e y b o a r d S h o r t C u t s C l o s i n g D o w n F i n a n c e M a n a g e r —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— I n t r o d u c t i o n ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Thank you for purchasing the Finance Manager software package. It has been carefully designed to be both comprehensive and very easy to use. Finance Manager requires a computer with RISC OS 3.00 or later and 2Mb of memory. Features include: • Unlimited number of accounts. • Unlimited number of transactions in each account. • Unlimited number of automatic payments (standing orders etc.). • Drag & drop import and export. • Drag & drop back up and restore facility. • Produces statements that exactly match those sent in the post. • Comprehensive transaction analysis. • Automatic filing with no loading or saving of files to worry about. • Extremely fast data entry. • Inter-account transfer. • Powerful categorisation of transactions. • Forecasting and budgeting. This manual assumes the user is familiar with the details of standard RISC OS operations, such as copying files, loading printer drivers etc. These, and more, can be found in the Acorn manuals supplied with the computer. This manual should be read while sitting at a computer with Finance Manager running. This will enable the user to experiment while working through the text and will greatly speed up familiarisation with the application. In addition to this manual Solloway Software offer a free telephone support service to users who may, as a last resort and after reading this manual thoroughly, require assistance in using this package. The number to call is 01908-233206. Throughout this manual words within angled brackets <> denote a key on the keyboard or one of the three mouse buttons. Words in square brackets [] denote icon buttons within desktop windows. <Select> = The left hand button on the mouse. <Esc> = The top left hand key on the keyboard. [Create] = The window icon labelled 'Create' I n s t a l l a t i o n ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Finance Manager is supplied on one master floppy disc. Copy the Finance Manager application from the master floppy disc to a working directory, preferably on the computer's hard disc. Keep the master floppy disc in a safe place in case Finance Manager ever needs to be re-installed. S t a r t i n g F i n a n c e M a n a g e r ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Before starting Finance Manager ensure that the filing system from which it will be run is not write protected. Double click on it's directory display icon. If start up is successful the Finance Manager icon will appear on the right hand side of the Icon Bar. A c c o u n t s V i e w e r ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Finance Manager has five 'viewers' for displaying accounts, transactions and automatic payments. Each viewer is very similar in appearance and operation. To open the Accounts Viewer click <Select>> on the Finance Manager icon on the Icon Bar. The Accounts Viewer displays the names of the currently open accounts along with their balances. The central part of the viewer, coloured white, is the 'Viewer Display'. This is a scrolling display with it's own scroll bar and scroll arrows. These operate in exactly the same way as the scroll bar and arrows of a standard RISC OS desktop window. Outside the Viewer Display area are five boxes. The box at the top of the viewer shows the name of the currently loaded account. It is blank if no account is loaded. The term 'loaded', in this context, means loaded into the transaction viewers rather than loaded into the computer's memory. The four boxes at the bottom of the viewer show how many accounts are currently open, how many of those accounts have been selected, the total balance of all the accounts and the total balance of the selected accounts. Each viewer has a 'Back' icon, a 'Close' icon, a 'Toggle size' icon and an 'Adjust size' icon. The 'Adjust size' icon can be used to re-size the viewer so that only the central Viewer Display area is visible. * Creating A New Account ------------------------------------- Click <Menu> anywhere over the Accounts Viewer. Select the menu item 'New account' from the Accounts menu. .———————————————————————. | Accounts | |———————————————————————| | Load account F2 | |* New account... ^N | | Display ⇨| | Find... F4 | |–––––––––––––––––––––––| | Selection ⇨| | Select all ^A | | Clear selection ^Z | | Toggle selection ^T | `———————————————————————´ This will open a dialogue box entitled 'Create A New Account'. Type into the writable field the name of the new account. Names can be up to fifty characters in length. This will allow, perhaps, an address, telephone number or an account number to be included. When the name has been typed click on [Create]. To create several new accounts in succession click on [Create] with <Adjust>. This will keep the dialogue box on screen ready to create another account. New accounts can be created at any time and the number of accounts that can be created is limited only by filing system capacity. * Sorting The Viewer Display ------------------------------------- The 'Display' menu item leads to a submenu allowing accounts to be displayed in different orders. .———————————————————————. | Accounts | |———————————————————————|.———————————————————————————————. | Load account F2 || Display accounts | | New account... ^N ||———————————————————————————————| |* Display ⇨||€ As created | | Find... F4 ||–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––| |–––––––––––––––––––––––|| By name (Ascending) | | Selection ⇨|| By name (Descending) | | Select all ^A ||–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––| | Clear selection ^Z || By balance (Ascending) | | Toggle selection ^T || By balance (Descending) | `———————————————————————´`———————————————————————————————´ Each viewer in Finance Manager has it's own 'Display' menu item allowing great flexibility in the viewing of accounts, transactions or automatic payments. * Selecting Accounts ------------------------------------- To select an account in the Viewer Display click <Select> over the name. A selected account name is shown in 'reverse video', or white on black. Using <Select> will select only one account while deselecting any others which are already selected. To select more than one account use <Adjust>. <Adjust> will toggle between selected and deselected. A block of accounts can be selected by holding down <Adjust> and dragging the mouse pointer either up or down. The Viewer Display will scroll automatically as the pointer is dragged. Another way of selecting a block of accounts is to select the first account in the block, then move to the last account in the block and select that as well (using <Adjust>), then double click <Adjust> on the last account in the block. All the accounts in between the two selected will then be selected also. If there are many accounts this method is likely to be faster. The above methods of selecting blocks of accounts can also be used to deselect blocks of accounts. The Accounts menu has items for selecting all the accounts, clearing (deselecting) all the selections and toggling the selection. Toggling a selection of accounts will select all those which are not selected and deselect those which are. This can be useful when there are a lot of accounts and all but a few must be selected. To do this select the few which will remain deselected and click on 'Toggle selection' in the Accounts menu. The Accounts menu has a 'Selection' submenu. .———————————————————————. | Accounts | |———————————————————————| | Load account F2 | | New account... ^N | | Display ⇨|.———————————————————————————————. | Find... F4 || Selection | |–––––––––––––––––––––––||———————————————————————————————| |* Selection ⇨|| Edit account name... ^E | | Select all ^A || Delete accounts... Delete | | Clear selection ^Z || Information... F1 | | Toggle selection ^T || Group transactions ^G | `———————————————————————´`———————————————————————————————´ From this submenu accounts can be renamed or deleted or their transactions grouped together in the 'Grouped Transactions Viewer'. * Deleting Accounts ------------------------------------- Deleting, or closing, an account will permanently delete all of it's transactions and automatic payments. If the [Warnings] option is 'On' in the 'Preferences' dialogue box a 'Warning' dialogue box will give the chance to abort the operation. The selected accounts will only be deleted if the [Delete] icon is clicked with <Select>. Any other action will abort the operation. * Editing Account Names ------------------------------------- Before choosing this menu item select the account to be renamed from the Viewer Display. To edit an account name it is important to select only one account. If more than one is selected then this menu item will be unavailable. Type in the new name and click on [Edit]. * Account Information ------------------------------------- The same applies to the 'Information' item, select only one account first. This menu item will open a window giving information about the selected account and all the accounts as a whole. * Grouping Transactions ------------------------------------- First select the accounts whose transactions are to be grouped. 'Group transactions' will place all the transactions in the selected accounts into the Grouped Transactions Viewer. This is a way of viewing the transactions from more than one account. The Grouped Transactions Viewer is covered in detail later. * Moving Around Viewer Displays ------------------------------------- The Viewer Display in the Accounts Viewer can show eight account names and balances at a time. When more than eight accounts have been created the Viewer Display can either be scrolled with the mouse using the scroll bar and arrows or with the keyboard using the following keys: <⇧> Scroll the display down by one. <⇩> Scroll the display up by one. <Home> Scroll the display to make the first account visible. <End> Scroll the display to make the last account visible. <Page Up> Scroll the display down by ten. <Page Down> Scroll the display up by ten. <⇨> Scroll the display to make the next selected visible. <⇦> Scroll the display to make the previous selected visible. <Ctrl+⇨> Scroll the display to make the last selected visible. <Ctrl+⇦> Scroll the display to make the first selected visible. <Shift+⇨> Scroll the display to make the next deselected visible. <Shift+⇦> Scroll the display to make the previous deselected visible. If most of the accounts are selected the last two keys in the above list will make it easy to find the few accounts which are not selected. * Finding An Account Name ------------------------------------- .———————————————————————. | Accounts | |———————————————————————| | Load account F2 | | New account... ^N | | Display ⇨| |* Find... F4 | |–––––––––––––––––––––––| | Selection ⇨| | Select all ^A | | Clear selection ^Z | | Toggle selection ^T | `———————————————————————´ This menu item will open the 'Find Account Name' dialogue box. Type into the writable field the name of the account to be found. Wild card characters can be used in the Find string. To match any number of characters use *, to match any single character use ?. For example: Financ* would find Finance Manager, Financial account, Financier. *llo* would find Solloway, Follow, Hollow accounts Ltd. ?oo? would find Door, Moor, Pool, Coot. There are two options which can be set in the dialogue box. Find first: The search will end when the first match is found. Case sensitive: The case of each character in the Find string must match the case in the account name. For example: Finance would find Finance but not finance. *MaNaGeR would find Finance MaNaGeR but not Finance Manager. The search will start after the last selected account in the Viewer Display. This is a useful way of limiting the search. To search through all of the account names ensure that none are already selected. Use the 'Clear selection' menu item. Before the search begins any selections are automatically cleared. As account names which match are found they are selected. Then, when the search has finished, only the accounts which are selected are the ones which match the Find string in the 'Find' dialogue box. A way to make the search 'pause' after each find is to set the [Find first] option to 'On' and then repeatedly click on [Find] with <Adjust> until the required account is found. If 'Find' has been used before the previous Find string will be displayed in the writable field. If a new Find string is to be entered it is not necessary to use <Ctrl+U> to clear the field first. Just start typing and the field will be cleared automatically. The old Find string can be edited by moving the caret, the red 'I' shaped vertical bar, to the position in the field where editing is to begin and then start typing. This is true for most writable fields throughout Finance Manager. If typing is started without first moving the caret, and providing the caret is at the start of the field, then the field will be automatically cleared. This will help speed up data entry. 'Find' in the Accounts Viewer will probably not be useful when there are only a few accounts open. It will be much more useful if there are hundreds of accounts open. * Loading An Account ------------------------------------- The quickest way to load an account into the transaction viewers is to point at the required account and double click <Select>. When it has loaded it's name will appear at the top of the viewer. Accounts can also be loaded from the Accounts menu by selecting 'Load account'. U n c l e a r e d T r a n s a c t i o n s V i e w e r ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— To open this viewer select the 'Uncleared transactions' item from the 'View' submenu on the Icon Bar menu. .———————————————————————. | Finance Manager |.————————————————————————————————. |———————————————————————|| View | | Info ⇨||————————————————————————————————| |* View ⇨|| Accounts... F5 | | Search... F10 ||* Uncleared transactions... F6 | | Function keys ⇨|| Cleared transactions... F7 | | Preferences... F11 || Automatic payments... F8 | | Clear selections || Grouped transactions... F9 | | Back up ⇨|`————————————————————————————————´ | Quit | `———————————————————————´ This viewer is very similar to the Accounts Viewer except that instead of displaying accounts it displays transactions. Transactions can be displayed in different orders using the 'Display' submenu. .—————————————————————————. | Uncleared |.———————————————————————————————. |—————————————————————————|| Display transactions | | New transaction... ^N ||———————————————————————————————| |* Display ⇨||€ As created | | Find... F4 ||–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––| |–––––––––––––––––––––––––|| By Date (Ascending) | | Selection ⇨|| By Date (Descending) | | Select all ^A ||–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––| | Clear selection ^Z || By Ref. (Ascending) | | Toggle selection ^T || By Ref. (Descending | `—————————————————————————´|–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––| | By Description (Ascending) | | By Description (Descending | |–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––| | By Amount (Ascending) | | By Amount (Descending) | `———————————————————————————————´ A transaction is the movement of money either into or out of the account. Each transaction has a Date (on which it occurred), a Reference (perhaps a cheque number or transaction type), a Description (what the movement of money was for and where it went to or came from), and an Amount. If the transaction was out of the account the amount is displayed with a minus sign in front of it. If the transaction was into the account the amount is displayed without a minus sign. An 'uncleared' transaction is one which has not yet appeared on the statement sent in the post. These may be cheques that have been written and sent off but have not yet been cleared by the bank. This applies to money passing into as well as out of the account. Cheques received will also take several days to clear through the bank. All new transactions must initially be entered into the Uncleared Transactions Viewer. * Creating A New Transaction ------------------------------------- After first loading the appropriate account transactions can then be entered for that account. Click <Menu> anywhere over the Uncleared Transactions Viewer and select the 'New transaction' item from the Uncleared menu. .—————————————————————————. | Uncleared | |—————————————————————————| |* New transaction... ^N | | Display ⇨| | Find... F4 | |–––––––––––––––––––––––––| | Selection ⇨| | Select all ^A | | Clear selection ^Z | | Toggle selection ^T | `—————————————————————————´ This opens the 'Create A New Transaction' dialogue box. There are four writable fields in this dialogue box for a Date, a Reference, a Description and an Amount. * Entering dates ------------------------------------- Finance Manager makes use of the computer's system clock to find out what today's date is. It is important to ensure that the system clock is set to the correct date. This can easily be done by using Acorn's Alarm application, available from the Apps directory on the left hand side of the Icon Bar. Use the 'Set clock' item from the Alarm Icon Bar menu. When the 'New Transaction' dialogue box is first opened the Date field defaults to the system clock date. The caret can be seen at the start of the Date field. If the date of the transaction being entered is different from the one displayed then the date of the transaction must be typed in. As an example, assume that today's date is 14/04/1995. The transaction to be entered occurred on 10/04/1995. In this case all that needs to be typed is 10. When <Return> is pressed Finance Manager will make up the rest of the date from the system clock. If the transaction occurred on 10/03/1995 then all that needs to be entered is 1003. The delimiters '/' and '.' can be used if required. The last example could then be 10.3 or 10/3. If delimiters are not used it is advisable to include leading zeros in the entry. If the transaction to be entered occurred on 10/12/1994 then 101294 or 10/12/94 or 10.12.94 must be typed because the system clock reads 1995. For years before 2000 only the last two digits of the year need to be typed. For years after 1999 all four digits of the year must be typed. So for a transaction occurring on 14/04/2001 then 14042001 would need to be typed. Unless the caret has already been moved, or it is not at the start of the field, it is not necessary to use <Ctrl+U> to clear the date field first. If there are a lot of transactions to be entered for, say, November 1994 it would be quicker to temporarily change the system clock to read 1st November 1994. Then only the day part of each transaction date would need to be typed in. Though remember to reset the system clock to today's date afterwards. Finance Manager will try to make sense of the dates entered. For example, typing 31 when the current month is April would become 01/05/1995. However, for dates that make no sense at all, the current date of the system clock will be used in it's entirety. * Entering A Reference ------------------------------------- The reference field can be used for anything. It is six characters in length and so is probably best suited to such things as cheque numbers, or "Cash", or "SO" for Standing Order. * Entering A Description ------------------------------------- The description field is forty characters in length and can be used to show what the transaction was for. It could also show who the payers or payees were. * Entering An Amount ------------------------------------- Amounts must be entered in full. For example, to enter £24.95 type 2495. The decimal point is not obligatory as it will be displayed by Finance Manager. However, it can be included when typing amounts if preferred. To enter £5.00 either 500 or 5.00 can be typed. To enter £0.12 type 12 or 0.12. The amount appears in the field from right to left as it is typed. The caret always stays in the same place and cannot be moved within the Amount field. The <Copy> and <Delete> keys work as normal. <Copy> deletes forward while <Delete> deletes backwards. <Ctrl+U> will clear the amount to zero. Amounts can either be positive (a 'Credit', or money moving into the account) or negative (a 'Debit', or money moving out of the account). In Viewer Displays a Debit is always shown with a leading minus sign. A Credit is shown without a minus sign. However, as will be seen later, when printing or exporting transactions it is possible to arrange Debits and Credits into two distinct columns. At any time while typing in an amount it can be made positive (Credit) or negative (Debit) by pressing the <+> or <-> keys on the keyboard. The amount field sign will then stay as set for subsequent entry of transactions into that account until it is changed again. Some accounts will nearly always have amounts which are negative, such as credit card accounts, or positive, such as savings accounts. Finance Manager remembers for each individual account whether the amount last entered for that account was a Debit or a Credit. This will help to speed up entry of transactions. * Moving Around Dialogue Boxes ------------------------------------- To move around Finance Manager dialogue boxes use the following keys: <⇧> Move the caret to the previous writable field. <⇩> Move the caret to the next writable field. <⇨> Move the caret right by one character. <⇦> Move the caret left by one character. <Shift+⇨> Move the caret to the right of the next 'Space'. <Shift+⇦> Move the caret to the left of the previous 'Space'. <Ctrl+⇨> Move the caret to the end of the field. <Ctrl+⇦> Move the caret to the beginning of the field. <Copy> Delete the character to the right of the caret. <Delete> Delete the character to the left of the caret. The caret can also be moved with the mouse. Point to the new position within the dialogue box and click <Select>. * Entering Transactions ------------------------------------- Each time <Return> is pressed the caret moves into the next writable field for entry. If the caret is in the Amount field when <Return> is pressed the transaction is entered into the account and will appear in the Viewer Display. Using the <Return> key will cause the dialogue box to remain on screen ready for the next transaction. Clicking <Select> on [Create] at any time will enter the transaction and remove the dialogue box from the screen. Clicking <Adjust> on [Create] at any time will enter the transaction and keep the dialogue box on the screen. Pressing <Esc> or clicking <Select> on [Abort] will remove the dialogue box from the screen without entering the transaction. Throughout Finance Manager <Esc> and [Abort] have the same effect of cancelling the current dialogue box entries with no further action. If <Select> or <Esc> are used the dialogue box is removed from the screen. After a transaction has been entered, and if the dialogue box stays on screen, all but the Amount field stay as they were. So for several transactions with the same Date, Reference or Description, that data does not have to be repeatedly typed in. The Amount field is cleared to zero. For each field, except the Amount field, providing the caret has not moved within that field and it is at the start of that field, it is not necessary to use <Ctrl+U> to initially clear the field. Just start typing. * Using Function Keys ------------------------------------- It is possible to set up the keyboard function keys for entering whole transactions or parts of transactions which remain the same. The computer effectively has forty eight function keys: F1 ⇨ F12 Shift+F1 ⇨ Shift+F12 Ctrl+F1 ⇨ Ctrl+F12 Shift+Ctrl+F1 ⇨ Shift+Ctrl+F12 Each of these function keys can be defined for use when entering transactions. Either the whole transaction, or just the Reference, or just the Description, or just the Amount can be defined for each of the forty eight function keys. Depending on which field the caret is in when a function key is pressed determines what is automatically placed in the field. Dates cannot be defined on to function keys. These always have to be typed in by the user. For example: The caret is in the Date field. The user types in the required date. Then, instead of pressing <Return>, if the user presses <F1> the Reference, Description and Amount fields will be filled with what ever was defined for function key F1. If the caret is in the Reference field then pressing <F1> will cause what ever was defined for key <F1>, for the Reference field only, to be placed into that field. This could be completely different from the Reference as part of the whole transaction when the caret is in the Date field. The same applies to the Description and Amount fields depending on which of the fields the caret is in when the function key is pressed. * Defining Function Keys ------------------------------------- The function key menu tree can be found on the Icon Bar menu. .———————————————————————. | Finance Manager | |———————————————————————| | Info ⇨|.———————————————..——————————————————..——————————. | View ⇨|| Input type || Key type || Key | | Search... F10 ||———————————————||——————————————————||——————————| |* Function keys ⇨||* Transaction ⇨||* Key ⇨||* F1... ⇨| | Preferences... F11 || Reference ⇨|| Shift+Key ⇨|| F2... ⇨| | Clear selections || Description ⇨|| Ctrl+Key ⇨|| F3... ⇨| | Back up ⇨|| Amount ⇨|| Shift+Ctrl+Key ⇨|| F4... ⇨| | Quit |`———————————————´`——————————————————´| F5... ⇨| `———————————————————————´ | F6... ⇨| | F7... ⇨| | F8... ⇨| | F9... ⇨| | F10... ⇨| | F11... ⇨| | F12... ⇨| `——————————´ Each of the items in the 'Key' submenu, 'F1' to 'F12', lead to a dialogue box for the respective function key. When entering a reference it is possible to set an [Increment] option. This could be useful for such things as cheque numbers. With this option set to 'On' each time the function key is pressed the contents of it's reference field, if it has one, will be increased by one. Only reference fields which contain integers, using the characters 0 to 9, can be incremented. When entering a number into a reference field it is advisable to include leading zeros. For example, '000025' instead of '25'. This will ensure that sorting of Viewer Displays by Reference will work as expected. In definitions for whole transactions one or more fields could be left blank. For example, where transactions will have the same Reference and Description fields but with the amounts varying, the Amount field could be left at zero ready for a figure to be entered later. When entering several key definitions in succession move the last submenu (Key) to the left hand side of the screen. To enter the definition click on [Set] with <Adjust> then move back over the submenu arrows to open the dialogue box for another key. This will save having to open all the menus for each new definition. A total of 192 function key definitions can be set up. These definitions are available only when the 'Create New Transaction' or 'Edit Transaction' windows have the 'input focus'. A window which has the input focus has it's title bar highlighted. * Copying Transactions ------------------------------------- It is possible to copy all or part of a previously entered transaction. A transaction from any of the viewers can be copied. First, select the required transaction. Then press <Shift+Copy>. As with the function keys, depending on which field the caret is in at the time will determine which part of the transaction is copied. For the whole transaction, excluding the date, ensure that the caret is in the Date field. For just the Reference, Description or Amount, move the caret to the respective field before pressing <Shift+Copy>. When <Shift+Copy> is pressed Finance Manager looks for the first transaction which is selected. It looks first in the Uncleared, then the Cleared, and then finally the Grouped Transactions Viewers. If a transaction is to be copied from the Grouped Transactions Viewer make sure there are no selections in either of the other two viewers first. A quick way of doing this is to use the 'Clear selections' item from the Icon Bar menu. .———————————————————————. | Finance Manager | |———————————————————————| | Info ⇨| | View ⇨| | Search... F10 | | Function keys ⇨| | Preferences... F11 | |* Clear selections | | Back up ⇨| | Quit | `———————————————————————´ This is a global selection clearer and will clear all selections in all viewers. * Transferring Funds ------------------------------------- Inter-account transfers are possible while creating new transactions by using the [Transfer] icon in the dialogue box or the <Tab> key. To make a transfer, first select the account to transfer into from the Accounts Viewer. Then, with the caret visible in the Amount field click on [Transfer] or press <Tab>. If the amount is negative (Debit) then the transaction will appear as a Credit in the selected account. In this case funds are transferred out of the loaded account and into the selected account. If the amount is positive (Credit) then the transaction will appear as a Debit in the selected account. Here funds are transferred into the loaded account and out of the selected account. For the transferring of funds it is important to ensure that only one account is selected in the Accounts Viewer. * Categorisation Of Transactions ------------------------------------- Finance Manager offers a powerful way to categorise transactions. For example, if a transaction is made to purchase some petrol from the local garage with a credit card, that transaction would be entered into the account set up for that credit card. The description field might say that garage x had been paid for n litres of petrol. However, it may also be desirable to enter that transaction under the 'category' (sometimes called 'Heading') of travelling expenses. To do this create a new account in the Accounts Viewer called 'Travelling Expenses'. This will be a category account which will serve as the travelling expenses category. In the above example of buying some petrol, with the credit card account loaded, select the Travelling Expenses account in the accounts viewer. Then, as for funds transfer, instead of pressing <Return> to enter the transaction, press <Tab>. The transaction will then appear in the 'Travelling Expenses' account as a credit. Each time a transaction is made in any account which qualifies as a travelling expense, such as for rail tickets or airline tickets, as well as for petrol, they can also be entered into the Travelling Expenses account in the same way. Using category accounts in this way means that an unlimited number of different categories can be set up. This system allows individual transactions to be placed into more than one category as they are created. A 'Car Expenses' category and a 'Business Expenses' category could be set up in addition to the one for 'Travelling Expenses'. Then the petrol transaction above could go into the 'Car Expenses' and the 'Travelling Expenses' category at the same time. A purchase of airline tickets might qualify as a business expense as well as a travelling expense, so would go into these two categories. Select all the categories (accounts) from the Accounts Viewer into which the transaction being created must go and then press <Tab>, or click on [Transfer], to enter the transaction. Subsequent analysis of expenditure will be much easier if this system of categorisation is used. * Editing Transactions ------------------------------------- Financial institutions, such as banks, building societies and credit card companies, do not edit customer's transactions. Instead they will create a new transaction to correct an error. Editing of transactions in Finance Manager has been provided for convenience. It should only be used for correcting such things as typing errors. To edit, select the required transaction from the Viewer Display and then select the 'Edit transaction' item from the 'Selection' submenu. .—————————————————————————. | Uncleared | |—————————————————————————| | New transaction... ^N | | Display ⇨|.———————————————————————————————————. | Find... F4 || Selection | |–––––––––––––––––––––––––||———————————————————————————————————| |* Selection ⇨||* Edit transaction ... ^E | | Select all ^A || Delete transactions... Delete | | Clear selection ^Z || Clear transactions ^C | | Toggle selection ^T || Group transactions ^G | `—————————————————————————´| Export transactions ⇨| | Print transactions Print | `———————————————————————————————————´ A dialogue box very similar to the one for creating new transactions will appear. The rules for data entry are the same as for creating new transactions, including the use of function key definitions. The 'Edit transaction' dialogue box has no [Transfer] icon so editing of transferred transactions in other accounts must be carried out individually. The fastest way to do this would be to use 'Search' to find and group all the relevant transactions into the Grouped Transactions Viewer and do the editing from there. Searching and the Grouped Transaction Viewer are covered later on. * Deleting Transactions ------------------------------------- Again, as financial institutions never delete a transaction once it has occurred, the Delete operation has been included in Finance Manager for convenience. To delete transactions first select them from the Viewer Display. Then select the 'Delete transactions' item from the 'Selection' submenu. If the [Warnings] option is 'On' in the 'Preferences' dialogue box a 'Warning' dialogue box will appear allowing the operation to be aborted. Deleting of transactions, as with accounts, is destructive and cannot be undone. * Finding Transactions ------------------------------------- .—————————————————————————. | Uncleared | |—————————————————————————| | New transaction... ^N | | Display ⇨| |* Find... F4 | |–––––––––––––––––––––––––| | Selection ⇨| | Select all ^A | | Clear selection ^Z | | Toggle selection ^T | `—————————————————————————´ This menu item will open the 'Find transaction' dialogue box. It works in exactly the same way as for finding accounts. Enter a Find string for either a Reference or a Description and click <Select> on [Find]. As before all the found transactions in the Viewer Display will be selected. This is a quick find facility. A comprehensive search operation on some or all accounts is also available and will be covered later. C l e a r e d T r a n s a c t i o n s V i e w e r ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— To open this viewer select the 'Cleared transactions' item from the View submenu on the Icon Bar menu. .———————————————————————. | Finance Manager |.————————————————————————————————. |———————————————————————|| View | | Info ⇨||————————————————————————————————| |* View ⇨|| Accounts... F5 | | Search... F10 || Uncleared transactions... F6 | | Function keys ⇨||* Cleared transactions... F7 | | Preferences... F11 || Automatic payments... F8 | | Clear selections || Grouped transactions... F9 | | Back up ⇨|`————————————————————————————————´ | Quit | `———————————————————————´ A 'cleared' transaction is one which has appeared on the statement sent in the post and been cleared by the bank, building society or credit card company. There is usually a period of several days between a transaction occurring and it being cleared. The process of clearing transactions is sometimes called reconciling. In Finance Manager transactions which have been cleared always appear in the Cleared Transactions Viewer. These transactions, when displayed in 'As cleared' order will be in exactly the same order that they appear on the posted bank statement. * Clearing transactions ------------------------------------- When a statement arrives in the post load the account for which the statement has been printed and open the Uncleared Transactions Viewer. Display the transactions in Date order by using the 'Display' submenu. Find in the Viewer Display the first transaction on the statement. Then double click <Select> on this transaction. The transaction will then be removed from the Uncleared Transactions Viewer and placed in the Cleared Transaction Viewer. This transaction has now been cleared. Continue down the statement, in order, double clicking on the transactions as they are found in the Viewer Display. When all the transactions on the statement have been cleared the ones which are left in the Uncleared Viewer Display are the ones not yet cleared by the financial institution that sent the statement. The transactions in the Cleared Transactions Viewer Display will be in the same order as they are on the statement. This makes discrepancies easy to spot. The balance at the bottom of the statement should be the same as that in the 'Total balance' box in the Cleared Transactions Viewer. If the wrong transaction is accidentally cleared just double click on it again in the Cleared Transactions Viewer Display and it will be moved back to the Uncleared Transactions Viewer. Transactions can be cleared, or uncleared, in bulk. Select all the transactions to be moved and then click on the 'Clear transactions' menu item from the 'Selection' submenu. .—————————————————————————. | Uncleared | |—————————————————————————|.———————————————————————————————————. | New transaction... ^N || Selection | | Display ⇨||———————————————————————————————————| | Find... F4 || Edit transaction ... ^E | |–––––––––––––––––––––––––|| Delete transactions... Delete | |* Selection ⇨||* Clear transactions ^C | | Select all ^A || Group transactions ^G | | Clear selection ^Z || Export transactions ⇨| | Toggle selection ^T || Print transactions Print | `—————————————————————————´`———————————————————————————————————´ If unclearing transactions in bulk select them from the Cleared Transactions Viewer Display and click on the 'Unclear transactions' menu item from the 'Selection' submenu of the Cleared Transactions Viewer. .—————————————————————————. | Cleared |.———————————————————————————————————. |—————————————————————————|| Selection | | Display ⇨||———————————————————————————————————| | Find... F4 || Edit transaction ... ^E | |–––––––––––––––––––––––––|| Delete transactions... Delete | |* Selection ⇨||* Unclear transactions ^U | | Select all ^A || Group transactions ^G | | Clear selection ^Z || Export transactions ⇨| | Toggle selection ^T || Print transactions Print | `—————————————————————————´`———————————————————————————————————´ If transactions are cleared in bulk they are not likely to match the order of the statement when displayed in the Cleared Transactions Viewer. Transactions in the Cleared Transactions Viewer can be edited, deleted and ordered in the same way as in the Uncleared Transactions Viewer. A u t o m a t i c P a y m e n t s V i e w e r ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— An automatic payment is one which creates transactions at regular intervals. The transactions created will have the same Reference, Description and Amount. The most common types of automatic payment are standing orders and direct debits. Automatic payments could be set up for a regular income where the amount of each transaction does not change. Each account has it's own set of automatic payments displayed in the Automatic Payments Viewer. As with transactions there is no limit to the number of automatic payments which can be set up. To open the Automatic Payments Viewer use the 'Automatic payments' menu item from the 'View' submenu on the Icon Bar menu. .———————————————————————. | Finance Manager |.————————————————————————————————. |———————————————————————|| View | | Info ⇨||————————————————————————————————| |* View ⇨|| Accounts... F5 | | Search... F10 || Uncleared transactions... F6 | | Function keys ⇨|| Cleared transactions... F7 | | Preferences... F11 ||* Automatic payments... F8 | | Clear selections || Grouped transactions... F9 | | Back up ⇨|`————————————————————————————————´ | Quit | `———————————————————————´ * Creating Automatic Payments ------------------------------------- Click on the 'New payment' item in the 'Automatic' menu. .—————————————————————————. | Automatic | |—————————————————————————| |* New payment... ^N | | Display ⇨| | Find... F4 | |–––––––––––––––––––––––––| | Selection ⇨| | Select all ^A | | Clear selection ^Z | | Toggle selection ^T | `—————————————————————————´ This opens a dialogue box for creating new payments. As an example, a standing order is to be set up to pay the council tax for a house. The payments are to be monthly and start on 17/05/95. Each payment will be for £109.76. There are to be ten payments in total. In the Date field type 170595. The rules for Date entry are as before. In the next field type the number of payments to be made. This can be between 1 and 999999999. For this example type 10. For payments to be made indefinitely leave this field blank. The next field is for the 'frequency', or how often the payment should be made. Any frequency from 1 day up to 999 years can be entered. In the example the payment is to go out every month so type 1 in the writable field and click on the [Month] radio icon. For a payment every four weeks type 4 in the writable field and click on the [Week] radio icon. The Reference could show the payment number, in which case type in 000001 and click on the [Increment] option. The leading zeros are to help with sorting on the Reference field in the Display Viewer. Each time a transaction is created the Reference field will be increased by one. The Reference field, though, could contain anything. A description for the example could be something like: 'Council Tax. Paid to the Borough Council' In the Amount field type 10976. To create the payment click on [Create] or press <Return>. The automatic payment will appear in the viewer showing when the next payment is due to be made, the Reference, Description and Amount. A negative amount indicates that the payment will create transactions that pass money out of the account. A positive amount indicates that transactions will be created which pass money into the account. To create a payment that transfers money to or from another account follow the same procedure as for transferring funds when manually creating transactions. Select the required account in the Accounts Viewer Display and then click on [Transfer] or press <Tab>. Also as before, the transactions created by the payments can be automatically categorised. Select all the required categories (accounts) in the Accounts Viewer Display and then click on [Transfer] or press <Tab>. Transferring and categorising will set up independent automatic payments in the target accounts so if the details of a payment change all other relevant payments need to be changed or deleted as well. If 0 is entered into the 'Number of payments' field when creating a payment Finance Manager will assume it is to be paid indefinitely. * Editing Automatic Payments ------------------------------------- As with transactions, to edit an automatic payment select only one in the Automatic Payments Viewer and choose the 'Edit Payment' item from the 'Selection' submenu. .—————————————————————————. | Automatic | |—————————————————————————| | New payment... ^N | | Display ⇨|.—————————————————————————————. | Find... F4 || Selection | |–––––––––––––––––––––––––||—————————————————————————————| |* Selection ⇨||* Edit payment... ^E | | Select all ^A || Delete payments... Delete | | Clear selection ^Z |`—————————————————————————————´ | Toggle selection ^T | `—————————————————————————´ Enter any new data in the same way as when creating payments. To prematurely terminate a payment without having to delete it type 0 into the 'Payments to go' field. Every time Finance Manager is started up or restored from a back up file it pays all the due automatic payments to bring them up to date. Unless the 'Payments to go' field is blank, each time a payment is made that field is decreased by 1. When the 'Payments to go' field reaches 0 the payment is terminated and the word 'Finished' can be seen in the Viewer Display instead of the next due date. When a payment has finished it becomes dormant until it is either edited or deleted. To restart a dormant payment type in a new 'Next payment' date and change the 'Payments to go' field to a number greater than 0 or make it blank by pressing <Ctrl+U>. Sometimes it is necessary to make the first of a set of payments a different amount from the others. In the above example perhaps the first payment should be £98.00 and the other nine £109.76. In this case set up two separate payments. In the first the 'First payment' date would be 170595, the 'Number of payments' would be 1 and the 'Amount' would be 9800. In the second the 'First payment' date would be 170695, the 'Number of payments' would be 9 and the 'Amount' would be 10976. All the other details would be the same. * Deleting Automatic Payments ------------------------------------- To delete a payment from the Automatic Payments Viewer select the required payments in the usual way and use the 'Delete payments' item from the 'Selection' submenu. .—————————————————————————. | Automatic | |—————————————————————————| | New payment... ^N | | Display ⇨|.—————————————————————————————. | Find... F4 || Selection | |–––––––––––––––––––––––––||—————————————————————————————| |* Selection ⇨|| Edit payment... ^E | | Select all ^A ||* Delete payments... Delete | | Clear selection ^Z |`—————————————————————————————´ | Toggle selection ^T | `—————————————————————————´ As with transactions and accounts, if the [Warnings] option is 'On' in the 'Preferences' dialogue box, a 'Warning' dialogue box will give the chance to abort the operation. G r o u p e d T r a n s a c t i o n s V i e w e r ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— .———————————————————————. | Finance Manager |.————————————————————————————————. |———————————————————————|| View | | Info ⇨||————————————————————————————————| |* View ⇨|| Accounts... F5 | | Search... F10 || Uncleared transactions... F6 | | Function keys ⇨|| Cleared transactions... F7 | | Preferences... F11 || Automatic payments... F8 | | Clear selections ||* Grouped transactions... F9 | | Back up ⇨|`————————————————————————————————´ | Quit | `———————————————————————´ The Grouped Transactions Viewer is a viewer just like the other two transaction viewers. It's purpose is to hold transactions from any of the accounts in the Accounts viewer. Grouping transactions from different accounts in this way could be used as a method of analysis. Each of the 'Selection' submenus for the Accounts and other transaction viewers has an item called 'Group transactions'. This will place in the Grouped Transactions Viewer all the selected transactions in the Viewer Display. The 'Group transactions' item in the 'Selection' submenu of the Accounts Viewer will place all of the transactions, cleared and uncleared, for the selected accounts, into the Grouped Transactions viewer. Transactions in the Grouped Transactions viewer are not copies. They are the same transactions being displayed differently. So if they are edited or deleted the changes will be reflected in all the other Viewers. To remove transactions from the Grouped Transactions Viewer (not delete) use the 'Ungroup transactions' item from the 'Selection' submenu. .—————————————————————————. | Grouped | |—————————————————————————| | Display ⇨|.—————————————————————————————————. | Find... F4 || Selection | |–––––––––––––––––––––––––||—————————————————————————————————| |* Selection ⇨|| Edit transaction ... ^E | | Select all ^A || Delete transactions... Delete | | Clear selection ^Z ||* Ungroup transactions ^U | | Toggle selection ^T || Export transactions ⇨| `—————————————————————————´| Print transactions Print | `—————————————————————————————————´ Transactions displayed in the Grouped Transactions Viewer can be sorted in the same way as in other viewers. The order in which the transactions are displayed in other viewers is not affected by this. S e a r c h i n g ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— The 'Find' item in the viewer menus is a quick search facility. Only a Reference or Description can be searched on. 'Search', on the other hand, offers a comprehensive searching facility, allowing a search to be conducted on Date ranges and Amount ranges as well as on References and Descriptions. To open the 'Search' dialogue box use the 'Search' item from the Icon Bar menu. .———————————————————————. | Finance Manager | |———————————————————————| | Info ⇨| | View ⇨| |* Search... F10 | | Function keys ⇨| | Preferences... F11 | | Clear selections | | Back up ⇨| | Quit | `———————————————————————´ Example 1: Search for all the transactions for the month of January 1995. In the two Date fields type 010195 and 310195. All the other fields can be left blank. Then click the [Include] option to the right of the two Date fields to 'On'. The other three [Include] options should be set to off. The [Include] options tell Finance Manager whether or not to include the respective fields in the search criteria. It is important for the right combination of these options to be set before the search is started. The search will be conducted on all the selected accounts in the Accounts Viewer. If no accounts have been selected the search will be conducted on all the accounts in the Accounts Viewer. Transactions which meet the search criteria will be placed in the Grouped Transactions Viewer. The Grouped Transactions Viewer is automatically opened if any transactions have been found. To search on one date only, not a range, type the same date into the two Date fields. Example 2: Search for transactions for all petrol purchases over £10.00 If a 'Petrol' category has been set up then just type 1000 into the first Amount field and 999999999 into the second Amount field. This sets up the range to search on. Make sure the sign of the amount range is correct. Then click the [Include] option for the Amount fields to 'On' and the other three to 'Off'. Select the account set up as the 'Petrol' category in the Accounts Viewer and then click on [Search]. If a 'Petrol' category has not been set up but petrol transactions include the word "petrol" in their Descriptions then type *petrol* into the Description field and set it's [Include] option to 'On'. As with 'Find', the wild card characters * and ? can be used. Also, for References or Descriptions, the search can be made case sensitive. When more than one field is 'Included' in the search, transactions must match all of the included fields before they are placed into the Grouped Transaction Viewer. For example, if a Date range AND an Amount range is given then each transaction must have a Date AND an Amount which fall within the respective ranges. E x p o r t i n g / P r i n t i n g / I m p o r t i n g ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— * Exporting Transactions ------------------------------------- Each 'Selection' submenu has an 'Export transactions' item. .—————————————————————————. | Uncleared | |—————————————————————————| | New transaction... ^N | | Display ⇨|.———————————————————————————————————. | Find... F4 || Selection | |–––––––––––––––––––––––––||———————————————————————————————————| |* Selection ⇨|| Edit transaction ... ^E | | Select all ^A || Delete transactions... Delete |.—————————. | Clear selection ^Z || Clear transactions ^C ||Export as| | Toggle selection ^T || Group transactions ^G ||—————————| `—————————————————————————´|* Export transactions ⇨||Text F3 ⇨| | Print transactions Print ||CSV ⇧F3 ⇨| `———————————————————————————————————´`—————————´ This will export the selected transactions in the relevant Viewer Display to a directory display in a filing system or another application. The CSV format is useful for exporting to applications such as spread sheets where graphs or charts could be created based on the exported transactions. The Text format is useful for exporting to DTP applications for enhanced presentation. To export, drag the icon from the 'Save as' dialogue box to a directory display or application in the normal way. * Printing Transactions ------------------------------------- Each Transaction Viewer 'Selection' submenu has a 'Print transactions' item. .—————————————————————————. | Uncleared | |—————————————————————————| | New transaction... ^N | | Display ⇨|.———————————————————————————————————. | Find... F4 || Selection | |–––––––––––––––––––––––––||———————————————————————————————————| |* Selection ⇨|| Edit transaction ... ^E | | Select all ^A || Delete transactions... Delete | | Clear selection ^Z || Clear transactions ^C | | Toggle selection ^T || Group transactions ^G | `—————————————————————————´| Export transactions ⇨| |* Print transactions Print | `———————————————————————————————————´ Ensure that there is a RISC OS printer driver loaded on the Icon Bar. Then select the required transactions in the required Viewer Display. Then click on 'Print transactions' in the menu. For exporting and printing transactions there are different layout options which can be used. These options are set in the 'Preferences' dialogue box and are explained later. * Importing Transactions ------------------------------------- Transactions in text files created by exporting from Finance Manager can be imported into Finance Manager again. This allows, for example, transactions to be exported to a text editor, a search and replace performed on them, and then imported back into Finance Manager. The format of these text files is very important so when doing a search and replace, for example, the length of the source string must match the length of the target string. Pad out with spaces if necessary. If the text file is dragged to the Accounts Viewer Display a new account will be created from the imported transactions. If it is dragged to the Uncleared Transactions Viewer Display, providing there is an account loaded, the imported transactions will be created for the loaded account and added to the Viewer Display. P r e f e r e n c e s ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— This dialogue box is opened from the 'Preferences' item in the Icon Bar menu. .———————————————————————. | Finance Manager | |———————————————————————| | Info ⇨| | View ⇨| | Search... F10 | | Function keys ⇨| |* Preferences... F11 | | Clear selections | | Back up ⇨| | Quit | `———————————————————————´ * Opening Viewers On Start Up ------------------------------------- Any combination of the five viewers can be made to open automatically when Finance Manager is first started up, or restored from a back up, by clicking the appropriate options to 'On'. * Print/Export Amount Format ------------------------------------- Some financial institutions, such as credit card companies, display transactions on their statements with the amount in a single column and with a minus sign to show Debits. Others, such as banks, use two separate columns for Debits and Credits. Finance Manager caters for both formats. For one amount column click on 'Show single amount'. For two columns click on 'Show Debit and Credit'. * Print/Export Balance Format ------------------------------------- The balance shown after each transaction can either be a 'Global' balance or a 'Local' balance. To explain this here is a list of imaginary amounts with a balance shown after each one. The * indicates where a selection has been made. Amount Balance ------------------------------ 49.95 49.95 * -26.87 23.08 26.00 49.08 * 232.32 281.40 -43.45 237.95 * -23.45 214.50 -232.32 -17.82 * 87.11 69.29 -26.87 42.42 -6.95 35.47 With 'Local' each balance is calculated only from the transactions which were selected. From the above selections the following list would be produced. Amount Local Balance ------------------------------ -26.87 -26.87 232.32 205.45 -23.45 182.00 87.11 269.11 With 'Global' each balance is calculated as if all the transactions had been selected. Amount Global Balance ------------------------------ -26.87 23.08 232.32 281.40 -23.45 214.50 87.11 69.29 'Global' balances are useful when printing or exporting transactions where all the previous transactions in a Display Viewer must be taken into account. This is the same as printing the latest page of a run of statements but having to take into account the transactions on all the previous pages. This avoids having to create a 'Carried Forward' amount for each new statement. * Issue Warnings ------------------------------------- By default, when a destructive operation is initiated, such as 'Delete' or 'Restore', a warning dialogue box gives the opportunity to continue with, or abort, the operation. As some experienced users may find these warnings irritating it is possible to inhibit them by clicking the [Issue warnings] option to 'Off'. * Loading An Account On Start Up ------------------------------------- To choose the account to be loaded when Finance Manager starts up first select the required account in the Accounts Viewer. Then click on the small [Set] icon. The name of the selected account will appear in the box. Click the [Enable] option to 'On'. Every time Finance Manager is started the account shown will be loaded into the viewers. To disable the loading of an account on start up click the [Enable] option to 'Off' * Password Protection ------------------------------------- To restrict the use of Finance Manager it is possible to set up a password. Finance Manager will then deny access to the accounts unless the correct password is entered. Scroll the 'Preferences' dialogue box to reveal the Password protection section. Type a password into the writable field. Passwords can be between one and fifty characters in length. Click the [Enable] option to 'On'. Now when Finance Manager is started the user will be required to enter the password before continuing. The password is case sensitive. This means that if the password is "Hands Off My Money", then, when Finance Manager is started, entering "hands off my money" will fail. When Finance Manager asks for a password it is important to enter it straight away. Do not move the mouse. To disable password protection click the [Enable] option to 'Off' This is useful if password protection is only required occasionally. It is very important not to forget the password. When enabled, entering the correct password is the only way for the user to access Finance Manager. The only way to retrieve accounts without the password is to submit the Finance Manager application, or a back up of it to Solloway Software, whereupon a small charge may be made. When all preferences have been set up click on the large [Set] icon or click on [Abort] to cancel them. B a c k U p A n d R e s t o r e ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— * Back Up ------------------------------------- One of the features of Finance Manager is it's automatic filing operations. The user is not required to remember to save or load account files or remember where they are. However, although not necessary, it is advisable to keep a back up of the data held within Finance Manager. Finance Manager offers two types of back up from the 'Back up' submenu on the Icon Bar menu. One for all the data and one for just function key definitions. .———————————————————————. | Finance Manager | |———————————————————————| | Info ⇨| | View ⇨| | Search... F10 | | Function keys ⇨|.————————————————————————————————. | Preferences... F11 || Back up | | Clear selections ||————————————————————————————————| |* Back up ⇨|| Export all data ^F3 ⇨| | Quit || Export function keys ⇧^F3 ⇨| `———————————————————————´`————————————————————————————————´ To back up all data drag the 'AllBackUp' icon to a directory display. This will create a file of everything about Finance Manager. All the accounts, transactions, automatic payments, function keys and any preferences that have been set up will be saved. A file of just the function key definitions can also be created. Drag the 'KeyBackUp' icon to a directory display. This could be useful for keeping different groups of key definitions for different users of the same set of accounts. The objects created by backing up are, in fact, directories inside which the data is stored. Interfering with these directories or their contents could corrupt the data and the Finance Manager application. * Restore ------------------------------------- To restore all data or just a set of function key definitions drag the appropriate icon from the directory display to the Finance Manager icon on the Icon Bar. If the [Warnings] option is 'On' in the 'Preferences' dialogue box a 'Warning' dialogue box will give the chance to abort the operation. Restoring all data from a back up is equivalent to starting Finance Manager. This means that, if enabled, a password will be asked for and any automatic payments will be brought up to date. F o r c a s t i n g A n d B u d g e t i n g ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— * Forecasting ------------------------------------- It is sometimes desirable to see how account balances may look at some point in the future. To do this first make an 'All' back up as described above. Then set the system clock (using Acorn's Alarm application) to the required date in the future. Then restore the back up data by dragging it to the Finance Manager icon on the bar icon. This will have the effect of paying all the automatic payments which are currently set up on the accounts up to the new date. The new balances in the Accounts Viewer will then show how the accounts are expected to look on the new date. Obviously this will not include any manually entered transactions or new automatic payments which may be created between the present date and the new date. To restore the data as it was first reset the system clock to today's date. Then drag the back up icon to the Icon Bar again. * Budgeting ------------------------------------- Some users may like to set a budget, or an allowance, for various items of expenditure. As an example, set a budget of £300.00 for eating out. First create a new account in the Accounts Viewer called something like 'The Eating Out Budget For 1995' and load it into the transaction viewers. Create a new transaction with the Description "Allowance" and type -30000 into the Amount field. This is effectively a category account (see earlier). Every time a transaction is created in another account for eating out expenses select the 'The Eating Out Budget For 1995' account in the Accounts Viewer and click on [Transfer]. When the balance of 'The Eating Out Budget For 1995' account reaches or passes through zero then the Eating out allowance has been exhausted. The 'The Eating Out Budget For 1995' account will also detail where all the eating out allowance went to and how much each outing cost. Different, and sometimes complex, combinations of budgeting can be set up using category accounts in this way. K e y b o a r d S h o r t C u t s ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Many of the operations in Finance Manager have equivalent keyboard short cuts. These are shown on the various menus for the viewers and Icon Bar. All windows in Finance Manager (viewers and dialogue boxes) can be closed by pressing the <Esc> key. With dialogue boxes this has the same effect as clicking on the [Abort] icon. Pressing [Return] in a dialogue box usually has the same effect as clicking on the 'Default' icon. The Default icon in a dialogue box is the one with a yellow outline. Keyboard short cuts which are shown as requiring the <Ctrl> key to be pressed in combination will also work on their own. So pressing <Ctrl+Z> and just pressing <Z> will have the same effect of clearing selections. Inclusion of the <Ctrl> key is for RISC OS compatibility. C l o s i n g D o w n F i n a n c e M a n a g e r ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Always leave Finance Manager by using the 'Quit' item from the Icon Bar menu. .———————————————————————. | Finance Manager | |———————————————————————| | Info ⇨| | View ⇨| | Search... F10 | | Function keys ⇨| | Preferences... F11 | | Clear selections | | Back up ⇨| |* Quit | `———————————————————————´ This is the recommended way to close down any RISC OS application before turning off the computer.