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README.TXT
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1995-10-31
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*****************************************************************
-> This file introduces YOUR-PLAN, explains how to get started
etc. It should be read by all first-time users.
-> The file has been supplied as an integral part of YOUR-PLAN.
This is a personal financial planning software package developed
as a shareware package for use on a 'try-before-you-buy' basis
by Invest-Tech Limited. For contact details, see end of this file.
-> To print this file, type "PRINT README.TXT"
(Press CTRL+BREAK to quit now)
*****************************************************************
WELCOME
=======
YOUR-PLAN (r2.1) is an easy-to-use software package for
preparing a personal/household budget and cashflow projections
for six months ahead. It enables you to project your income
and expenditure and to forecast monthly cashflows and end-month
bank and credit card balances. Use YOUR-PLAN to plan ahead
and save money !!!!!!!!
YOUR-PLAN is a fully operational and useful package and not
'disabled' in any way. We have offered it as shareware to
encourage users to register and to purchase our other financial
planning software products for preparing financial projections
for the home and businesses.
YOUR-PLAN is NOT free software. It has been supplied on a "try-
before-you-buy" basis. If you continue to use YOUR-PLAN after
a 30-day trial period, you must register with the author,
Invest-Tech.
In return for registering, you will be licensed to use YOUR-PLAN
on a single computer indefinitely and you will automatically
receive (at no extra cost) a copy of the latest release of
PERS-PLAN, a more powerful and comprehensive personal financial
planner with its spiral-bound 90-page manual incorporating
tutorial exercises etc. You also gain access to full support
etc. for both products.
You can also upgrade and register directly with Invest-Tech via
our World Wide Web (WWW) site on the Internet using a credit
card and its special built-in forms. See bottom of file for
details of its location. Our Web site, called PlanWare,
contains downloadable versions of *ALL* our financial planners
for businesses and the home. It also offers useful advice in
the form of text files on such topics as business planning,
cashflow forecasting etc. as well as lots of other interesting
stuff.
YOUR-PLAN is fully protected by copyright. However, it may be
copied in its entirety and without modification for FREE
distribution to friends and, subject to the conditions set out
in the VENDINFO.DIZ file, by shareware libraries etc.
Good luck with YOUR-PLAN.
Brian Flanagan, Invest-Tech Limited
*****************************************************************
FILE CONTENTS/INDEX
===================
This file (README.TXT) covers the following topics in separate
sections below:
A - Details of supplied files, how to copy them etc.
B - General introduction YOUR-PLAN and related matters
C - Guidance on how to run YOUR-PLAN
D - Explanation of shareware
E - User Licence Agreement
F - Software revisions
*****************************************************************
The supplied file VENDINFO.DIZ also contains important information.
It can be accessed by entering READ_ME.BAT at the DOS prompt.
******************************************************************
A - SUPPLIED FILES
==================
See VENDINFO.DIZ for details.
Before starting to use YOUR-PLAN, we recommend that you review
this entire file either on-screen or, preferably, after printing
it. It includes brief instructions for loading YOUR-PLAN which
should enable you to start using the package.
Another supplied text file (MANUAL.TXT), explains, in much more
detail, how to load and use YOUR-PLAN. Because YOUR-PLAN is
very intuitive and contains very extensive 'on-line' help, you
may only need to refer to this file on an occasional basis.
However, you may wish to print it at this stage in order to
have it readily accessible for future reference, or if you get
"stuck", or need detailed guidance on a specific issue.
We have also included with YOUR-PLAN a text file (MONEY.TXT)
which contains dozens of famous (and not so well-known)
quotations on the subject of "money". If you feel depressed
about your personal finances after using YOUR-PLAN, you should
have a look at MONEY.TXT. It MIGHT cheer you up !! We welcome
further quotations for inclusion in the next release of
YOUR-PLAN. More seriously, have a look at Section 6.5 within
the manual text file (MANUAL.TXT) for some basic ideas on
utilising the output from YOUR-PLAN to improve your financial
planning and/or position.
Other text files of note are as follows:
REGISTER Details and Form for registration
ENTERASS Detailed guidance on entering assumptions.
*****************************************************************
B - GENERAL INTRODUCTION
========================
YOUR-PLAN is an easy-to-use software package for preparing a
personal budget and cashflow projections for six months ahead.
It can be used to improve the management of your finances by
forecasting your income and expenditure. The resulting budget
can then be used to improve your financial planning & control
and, ultimately, to save yourself money.
For a more detailed and formal description of YOUR-PLAN, you
should refer to the text file called VENDINFO.DIZ.
Based on your estimates and assumptions, YOUR-PLAN compiles a
detailed and summary budget for up to a six months ahead. It
also produces reports analysing the budget and detailing all
your underlying assumptions on income and expenditure.
YOUR-PLAN incorporates facilities for graphing key results;
overwriting assumptions by actuals; undertaking 'what-if'
analysis; and rolling-forward assumptions and projections one
month at a time.
YOUR-PLAN is very suitable for users with limited or no
prior experience of computers as well as for more experienced
computer users who do not wish to go to the very considerable
trouble, or to waste valuable time, developing their own
planning system on a spreadsheet. Bear in mind that YOUR-PLAN
involved hundreds of hours of development and years of
"know-how".
To run YOUR-PLAN you need the following system:
* Industry-standard PC with DOS 3.30 or higher and a hard disk,
or dual 3.5" or 5.25" drives.
* Conventional memory of 640k.
* VGA, GCA, mono, Hercules or LCD display (or equivalent).
A printer (dot-matrix, ink-jet or laser) is desirable. You can
run YOUR-PLAN as a DOS program within Windows (use the supplied
icon called YOURPLAN.ICO).
YOUR-PLAN complements the very many personal financial packages
currently available in the market. Most of these are basically
household accounts systems with only very limited budgeting
facilities. To our best knowledge, very few of them have any
dynamic planning capabilities, similar to YOUR-PLAN's. To
produce any form of projections with most of these systems,
you must first keep historic accounts. For many people, this is
a pain in the ...... Most of us are much more interested in
projecting our income/expenditure and making ends meet in the
FUTURE, rather than in learning about the past ("water under
the bridge", "closing the stable door after the horse has
bolted" and that sort of thing).
Historic data is NOT required to use YOUR-PLAN. However, if you
do happen to keep household accounts (either manual or
computer-based), past data on income and expenditure patterns
etc. should help you make more accurate projections for the
future.
Features
--------
YOUR-PLAN's features include the following:
* Seven categories of income (salary for one wage earner,
reimbursed work expenses, dividends, rent etc.).
* Facilities for handling salary deductions based on absolute
amounts and simple percentages as well as different
percentages related to bands and thresholds (as for PAYE
income tax) specified by the user. YOUR-PLAN is not
restricted to any particular tax system or currency. Basic
information on current tax bands and rates for the UK and
Ireland is contained in a supplied file (TAX.TXT).
* Sixteen main expenditure groups (household, car,
accommodation etc.) incorporating twenty-eight subgroups
which can be defined by a user.
* Facilities for planning credit card expenditure and payments
and for calculating interest on any outstanding balances.
* Current and deposit accounts with facilities for calculating
interest on the basis of specified interest rates, handling
accrued interest and specifying interest payment dates.
Help
----
YOUR-PLAN is entirely menu-driven and incorporates very
comprehensive context-sensitive help facilities. These
include extensive menu prompts, error trapping, on-line Help
Pages, pop-up Hint & Guidance Windows, annotated variable
descriptions and "drill-down" values. A very comprehensive
manual is supplied as an accompanying text file (MANUAL.TXT).
Specification
-------------
Number of reports 7 (13)*
Number of graphed variables 18 (18)*
Approximate maximum number of user assumptions 530 (950)*
Approximate total number of built-in formulae 870 (1,600)*
* Numbers for PERS-PLAN given in parenthesis
Registration
------------
The idea behind shareware is to allow a user to evaluate a
software package at minimal cost - "try-before-you-buy".
YOUR-PLAN is NOT FREE software. If you decide that you would
like to retain and continue to use YOUR-PLAN after a 30-day
trial period, you must register with Invest-Tech, the author
and copyright holder. See VENDINFO.DIZ for further details.
In return for registering, a user is licensed to continue
using YOUR-PLAN on one computer without any time limit.
In addition, a user automatically receives (at no extra cost)
a fully-operational copy of a much more powerful and comprehensive
version of YOUR-PLAN, called PERS-PLAN, with its 90-page
spiral-bound printed manual (incorporating tutorial exercises
etc.). You also gain access to full support for both products.
Further details about PERS-PLAN are given below and within
YOUR-PLAN itself. (Practically all registrants immediately switch
over from YOUR-PLAN to PERS-PLAN as soon as they receive the
latter).
See the REGISTER.TXT file for further details and a Registration
Form.
YOUR-PLAN contains a built-in Registration Form. Alternatively
you can use the Registration Form contained in the REGISTER.TXT
file.
PERS-PLAN
---------
PERS-PLAN, the version of YOUR-PLAN which is automatically
supplied (at no extra cost) to all users on registering, includes
many additional features and facilities:
* Covers a 12-month period with separate full-year reports
* Handles incomes, salary deductions etc. for one or two
wage-earners
* Special graph printing utility
* Much more extensive range of expenditure assumptions
* More function keys to facilitate data entry etc.
* Different printer set-ups can be used for monthly and
full-year reports.
It is supplied with a 90-page spiral-bound manual.
Invest-Tech Limited
-------------------
We are management consultants specialising in financial and
business planning software. Formed in 1983, Invest-Tech is a
Registered Practice within the Institute of Management
Consultants in Ireland and the UK. Our banker is Bank of
Ireland, O'Connell Bridge, Dublin 1, and our auditors are
Deloitte & Touche, Dublin.
In addition to YOUR-PLAN and PERS-PLAN, our range of financial
planning software includes the following commercial products:
BANK-PLAN: 12-month cashflow planner for micro- and small-
businesses. Runs 'stand-alone' and with similar
general structure to PERS-PLAN. Handles debtors,
VAT, creditors, expense payments etc. Price: 50
pounds (sterling or Irish) excluding VAT (US$70).
These is a shareware version of BANK-PLAN. Look for
a file called BANKP*.ZIP.
CASH-PLAN: 4-week + 11-month cashflow planner for small/medium
sized businesses, subsidiaries of large companies
and corporate cash planning. Runs 'stand-alone' and
with similar general structure to PERS-PLAN. More
powerful version of BANK-PLAN with additional
features and facilities. Price: 95 pounds (sterling
or Irish) excluding VAT (US$150).
EASI-PLAN: A range of comprehensive and fully-integrated financial
planners (P&Ls, cashflows, balance sheets, ratios etc.)
covering 12-months plus 8 quarters. To our best
knowledge, no other package even remotely offers the
same range of features or facilities for business and
financial planning. Runs 'stand-alone' with similar
general structure to PERS-PLAN.
A "MICRO" version for new and very small businesses (with
annual sales of up to 250,000 pounds). Price: 45
pounds (sterling or Irish) excluding VAT (US$70).
A "LITE" version for new and small businesses (with
annual sales of up to 2 million pounds). Price: 75
pounds (sterling or Irish) excluding VAT (US$120).
A "PRO" version for larger businesses and/or professional
advisers. Price: 145 pounds (sterling or Irish) excluding
VAT (US$230).
These are shareware versions of EASI-PLAN Micro, Lite and
Pro. Look for files called EASI*.ZIP.
FIN-PLAN: Wide range of comprehensive and fully-integrated
financial planners (P&Ls, cashflows, balance sheets,
ratios etc.) covering 12-months plus 8/16 quarters.
Versions are available to run on Lotus 1-2-3 (any
release for DOS or Windows).
Extensive menus with numerous features and facilities.
Easily expanded by user. Price: 95 pounds (sterling or
Irish) excluding VAT (US$150).
Comprehensive descriptions, specifications and 'demos' are
available for each of the foregoing products.
******************************************************************
C - HOW TO RUN YOUR-PLAN
========================
Refer to Section 3 of the MANUAL.TXT text file for more detailed
instructions if you run into any problems.
The following guidelines assume that you have already installed
(i.e. copied, unzipped, unarchived, uncompressed etc.) the complete
set of YOUR-PLAN files onto a hard disk.
a) Get into the sub-directory where you have installed
all YOUR-PLAN's files. For example, if the sub-directory
YOUR was used, type "CD YOUR" and press RETURN at the
DOS prompt.
b) Type "GO" to access an introductory menu system. If your
PC uses a very old type of display, do not select this
option choose c) or d) instead.
or
c) For guidance on the syntax for loading YOUR-PLAN etc.
type "YP".
or
d) Type "YP MASTER" to directly load YOUR-PLAN with specimen
assumptions contained in a file called MASTER.ASS.
To access any of YOUR-PLAN's text files, you can use the EDIT utility
supplied with DOS or the NOTEPAD accessory supplied with Windows.
Running YOUR-PLAN through Windows
---------------------------------
To set up YOUR-PLAN to run within Windows, install it using the DOS
commands etc. before you load Windows.
Next, run the Windows Program Manager and proceed as follows:
1. Select the Applications Group which you want to contain YOUR-PLAN.
2. Select File and New options from the Program Manager's menu.
3. When the New Program Object box appears, select Program Item
and OK.
4. When the Program Item Properties box appears, proceed as
follows:
- Type "YOUR-PLAN" as the Description.
- Type "C:\YOUR\YP X" as the Command Line. Make sure you enter
a single space between YP and X. This command assumes that
YOUR-PLAN has been installed to the YOUR sub-directory on
a hard disk called C.
- Enter "C:\YOUR" as the Working Directory.
- Select Change Icon and select OK when the Change Icon message
box appears.
- When the next Change Icon box appears, enter
"C:\YOUR\YOURPLAN.ICO" as the File Name and select OK.
- Once you return to the Program Item Properties box select
OK twice to complete installation.
To run YOUR-PLAN within Windows, double-click on its icon and wait
while it loads. Press RETURN to ignore the 'File does not exist'
message and then use the cursor keys and RETURN to select the desired
*.ASS file in response to the instruction 'Enter Data File Name" which
appears at the top of the screen. If more than five such data files
exist, press the F3 Function Key to display them in a larger window.
If using Windows, you can view any of YOUR-PLAN's text files using
the Notepad accessory.
***** WATCH OUT ****
If you try to display graphs when running YOUR-PLAN in a DOS Window
(i.e. less than full screen) when running in Enhanced Mode, the graphs
may not show and the display may lock. To unlock it, return to a full
DOS screen by pressing ALT+RETURN. Always use a DOS full screen when
displaying graphs.
Using a LCD display
-------------------
If you are running YOUR-PLAN on a portable PC with a LCD display, you
will probably need to change YOUR-PLAN's video setting once it has
loaded in order to clearly distinguish the rectangular cursor which
appears when you are viewing reports on the screen. To do this,
press I (for Initialise) at the Main Menu, V (for Video) and L
(for LCD/B&W). The Manual explains how to make these changes permanent.
****************************************************************
D - WHAT IS SHAREWARE ?
=======================
"Shareware" is a method of software distribution designed to
give users a chance to test a package before purchase at a very
competitive price. Copyright rules apply to shareware and the
authors retain all the rights except as indicated in their licence
agreements. As you will see from YOUR-PLAN, shareware does not
signify cheap (in the nasty sense) or poor quality software.
*****************************************************************
E - USER LICENCE AGREEMENT
==========================
See VENDINFO.DIZ.
*****************************************************************
F - SOFTWARE REVISIONS
======================
V1.0 16-NOV-1992
------------------
First shareware release of YOUR-PLAN. Based on PERS-PLAN,
a more powerful and comprehensive planner which YOUR-PLAN
users automatically receive on registering with Invest-Tech.
V1.01 6-FEB-1993
-----------------
Minor changes to Help Pages & menu prompts. Improved display
for Liquid Crystal Displays.
V2.0 19-JUL-1993
------------------
Addition of the following:
Graph printing utility. "Roll-forward" facility. Pop-up
Guidance and Hint Windows. "Drill-down" values.
We have also added the ENTERASS.TXT and MONEY.TXT
files. Extensive changes have been made to the layout and
contents of the README.TXT and MANUAL.TXT files.
V2.1 10-FEB-1994
------------------
The batch file called GO.BAT was enhanced to include introductory
screens and a menu system for new users. Minor changes to *.TXT
files.
*****************************************************************
YOUR-PLAN (c) Copyright Invest-Tech Limited 1992-95
All Rights Reserved
Invest-Tech Limited
27 Ardmeen Park, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Irish Tel: 01-283 4083 UK Tel: 01232-315454
(Call 9 to 9 weekdays and 10 to 6 weekends - GMT/BST)
Fax: 278 2391
Fax codes: Irish:01- UK:00-353-1- Inter'l:+353-1-
CompuServe: 100606,2665
Internet: brianf@iol.ie
WWW Site URL: http://www.planware.ie/resource/planware
*****************************************************************
To view this file page-by-page, type "TYPE README.TXT|MORE"
*** End of README.TXT file ***