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Text File | 1987-11-06 | 21KB | 425 lines

PC-BILL MASTER USER'S GUIDE Version 2.10 copyright 1987 by John Davis ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTRODUCTION PC-BILL MASTER is, plain and simple, a system that manages your checking accounts for you. PC-BILL MASTER was written because the author wanted a system that was easy to use, had a regular check book register type display and maintained a file of recurring payments. Many other public domain and shareware programs were examined before development was begun, but none met the author's needs exactly. Some features of PC-BILL MASTER - - Familiar easy to use register type display - Recurring payments module that can also be used as a budgeting system - Ability to enter items as posted (immediately effecting the balance) or unposted future items (totaled into an unposted balance) - Easy bank statement balancing - A search capability that allows retrieval of items based upon the contents of any field including a partial string search; items retrieved are also totaled - Up to 500 items per check register with an unlimited number of separate registers - Up to 100 ledger account codes and titles SHAREWARE PC-BILL MASTER is being marketed under a unique scheme known as shareware. This software is not public domain and is fully protected by all federal copyright laws. You are encouraged to make copies of PC-BILL MASTER and distribute them to anyone that you wish. If you found PC-BILL MASTER to be usefull and plan to continue using it; it is to your benefit that you register your copy. When you register you will be placed on a mailing list that will be used to notify you when the next release (version 3.0) of PC-BILL MASTER is available. PC-BILL MASTER is constantly being improved, and the next release will include these improvements along with a reports module and graphing capability which is not available in the current (version 2.10) release. As a user of the program you are encouraged to submit any ideas for enhancements or any problems that you might have found with the program. In addition, I would very much like to hear what you think of PC-BILL MASTER in general. To register your copy of PC-BILL MASTER, send $15 along with your name and address to - John Davis 1011 Brookgreen Dr. Cary, N.C. 27511 FILES ON DISK README - Contains a list of current files and any changes to the documentation BMASTER.DOC - This documentation BMASTER.EXE - PC-BILL MASTER main menu module PAYMENTS.TBC - PC-BILL MASTER payments module BMASTER.CFG - Configuration file CHECK.REG - Empty check book register file PAY.DAT - Empty payments file TO USE PC-BILL MASTER 1) Boot DOS, 2) Insert PC-BILL MASTER program disk into disk drive, 3) Type "BMASTER" and PC-BILL MASTER will begin execution. A NOTE ABOUT MENUS A number of different menus appear within PC-BILL MASTER. When a menu appears, to highlight a menu item, simply press the up or down arrow. To select the highlighted menu item, press the enter key. To exit from the menu, either select the last menu item or press the escape key. PC-BILL MASTER MAIN MENU After the program loads and displays a credit's screen you will be prompted to either verify or enter the current date. The current date should be entered as MM/DD/YY. After checking for correct entry of the date the PC-BILL MASTER main menu will appear. From this menu you can either access a check book or load the payments module. The last item on the menu is used to exit PC-BILL MASTER. It is important that you always exit PC-BILL MASTER by using this option rather than simply turning off your machine, as PC-BILL MASTER rewrites the configuration file while executing the last option. PC-BILL MASTER CHECK BOOK The first option on the main menu is to access a check book. If this is the first time you have executed PC-BILL MASTER, an empty check book will be created for you. At the top of the screen on the very first line will be the account name and also the check book file name. On the next line the current account balance will appear; as will the total of all unposted items and the unposted balace (current account balance plus unposted items). Next the bottom most portion of the register will appear, with the last posted item in the check book being the last item on the screen. To scroll through the register simply press the up and down arrow keys. As scrolling takes place the current item appears highlighted. To scroll backwards and forwards a screen within the register press pgup and pgdown. To go to the beginning of the register press home and to go to the end of the register press end. PC-BILL MASTER actually uses two different types of displays. The initial display is the previously mentioned register display. If you press the escape key, the item display appears. The item display shows one item on the screen at a time, but at a greater level of detail. Where certain fields in the register display might have to be truncated, the item display shows the entire field. In addition, the item display gives a list of account codes and titles that are currently being used. The item positioning keys mentioned previously (up and down arrows, pgup, pgdown, home and end) work identically on the item display as they do on the register display. To return back to the register display from the item display simply press escape. At the bottom of either display appears a list of function keys that perform certain commands. Before describing the function keys however I wish to describe the various fields associated with each item on the screen. FIELD DESCRIPTION ----- ----------- Date Contains the date of the item, when entering if you press enter without keying anything the current date is taken as the default. Type "C" for check, "D" for deposit. Number Sequential check number for the item, when entering if you press enter without keying anything the previous number is incremented automatically by 1. Payee Payee for the item. Amount Amount of the item. Memo Memo for the item. Code Ledger account code from 00 to 99. Code Title Appears to right of code on item display, does not appear on the register display. When adding a new item if the code has not been used before you will be prompted to enter a new title if desired, titles are optional though. Flag Can be used for any reason needed, for example a value of "T" could be used to flag tax deductions. Posted "Y" means item is posted, while "N" means item is unposted. Clear "Y" means item has cleared bank, while " " means item has not cleared. Balance Account balance when item was posted, note - this is not necessarily the current balance, it is only the current balance at the point the item is posted. It should be noted that regardless of which display is on the screen, the above fields for each item will be present; except for code title which appears only on the item display. The following is a list of all function keys that perform certain commands in PC-BILL MASTER. The function keys work identically from both item and register displays. FUNCTION KEY DESCRIPTION ------------ ----------- F1 Displays a help screen. F2 Enter a new item. A blank item display will appear. You should then key values followed by the enter key for each field on the screen. By pressing enter without keying a value within a field, the default value for the field will be taken. Note at the end the default value for posted is "Y"; thus if you want the item to be entered as unposted you must key an "N". All items are entered at the end of the register, but as the file is written to disk when you exit the program all posted items are kept together and all unposted kept together also. During entry (or changing) of an item, you can press the up and down arrows to position you at a field. If the field already has a value, the cursor will appear at the end of the value. Press backspace to delete the field and reenter or change the value as needed. To exit from entry (or change) mode, press the escape key. The entry (or change) menu will then appear. From this menu you can choose to accept the entry as keyed, abort the entry or to return to entry mode. F3 Change current item. You can change any field except for three exceptions. First you can not change the amount for a posted item. Also you can not change the posted field itself. Nor can you change the type field. F4 Delete current item. You can only delete unposted items. F5 Post current item. The current item can only be posted if it is unposted. When posting occurs the posted field is changed to "Y", the current balance is changed to reflect the amount change, the balance field on the item is updated and the item is removed from the unposted items total. In addition, if the posted item had a blank date, the current date is entered as the item date and the check number is incremented by one and entered as the item check number. Note, once an item is posted it can not be unposted. If you have made an error you will have to add a new item reflecting the correction amount. F6 Search for items. Search can be performed on most of the fields on the item display. The search is of the "AND" type meaning that if you have search values entered into two fields both searches have to be true for the item to be selected. A partial string search is allowed on all string type fields. For example to select all items entered during the month of November, simply key "11" in the date field. Note, the up and down arrow keys will position you at a field just like in enter and change mode. Once you have entered the search criteria, press the escape key and the search will begin. The register display will appear and all items that match your search criteria will scroll onto the screen. After all items appear on the screen a total of the amounts will appear. The search criteria is very usefull if you wish to list all items that have a certain account code. You can get a total of the account code by doing this also. It is also very usefull if you wish to find all the items that have been written to a certain payee. F7 Mark item as having cleared bank. This function key is used when you balance your bank statement. By positioning an item as the current item and pressing this function key, the item will be marked as cleared. A "Y" will appear in the cleared field on the screen. A subsequent press of this function key will erase the "Y". After you have marked all the items that have cleared on your statement, press function key 8 to display the statement balance. F8 Displays statement balance for use in bank reconciliation. After you have marked all items as cleared you should enter any bank charges that appear on your bank statement. The charges should be entered as posted and also be marked as having cleared the bank. Function key 8 will then compute a statement balance which should match the balance that appears on your bank statement. F9 Utilities menu. Will be explained below. F10 Return to PC-BILL MASTER main menu. First the current check book is written to disk and then the main menu will be displayed. UTILITIES MENU Function key 9 will display the utilities menu. The various menu selections appear below. MENU SELECTION DESCRIPTION -------------- ----------- Registration Information Displays information on how to register your copy of PC-BILL MASTER. Load Payments To Check Book Loads to the current check book all payments that are being maintained within the payment's module. The payments are loaded as unposted with a blank date. Function key 5 should then be used to post each payment as desired. This function key will assign the item the current date and will increment and enter the check number also. Display Check Book Menu Displays a menu that will allow you to 1) create a new check book or 2) load a previously created check book. Before either action occurs though, the currently loaded check book is saved. Set Screen Colors You can change colors for normal text, highlighted text and the background. Your color changes are automatically saved when the configuration file is written to disk. Change Account Name Allows you to change the account name of the currently loaded check book. This does not change the disk file name only the name that appears at the top of the register screen. To change the disk file name use the DOS rename command. Note though that all check book files must end with a ".REG" suffix. Change Accout Balance Allows you to change the current balance of the currently loaded check book. Clear Check Book Of All Does just as it says, this is a very Entries powerful function and should be used very carefully. Update Account Titles Allows you to update any of the account titles. Use the up and down arrows to position the account code desired. Then either enter or change the title as needed. Press escape to return to the menu. Display Free Space Displays free space. PC-BILL MASTER PAYMENT'S MODULE The second option on the main menu will load the payment's module. The payment's file (PAY.DAT) is a separate file from any check book. PC-BILL MASTER only recoqnizes one payment file (PAY.DAT), but separate files can be maintained by using the DOS rename command. The payment file is in reality a subset of the normal check book file. All fields are present except for date, number, posted, balance and cleared. Several differences do exist between the check book module and the payment's module. First any amount can be changed. Also any item can be deleted. When a new item is entered using function key 2, it is entered as the next item below the current item, rather than at the end of the file. A running total of all check and deposits as well as a payment's balance is maintained at the top of the display. Most of the function keys, enter and change mode and menus work the same in the payment's module as in the check book module. There are fewer function keys though. The only new function key found is function key 5 which serves to zero out the amount field in all the items in the file. The payment's module can be used in several different ways. I use it as an original entry point for all my regular monthly bills. I start a month by zeroing out all the amount fields for the bills as they were paid during the previous month. I then delete any bills that were for the previous month only. As the bills come in during a month, I enter the new amounts, still using the payment's module and I also enter in any new bills that are to be paid that month. Then on the first day of the month when I am actually ready to pay my bills, I go into the main module and load the payments after I enter and post my monthly pay check. I then item by item post each payment, while at the same time I write the check. The Payment's module could also be used to maintain a budget for all expenditures, with the payee amount serving as the budget category. I would like to hear from others that might have suggestions on additional uses of the payment's module as well as the unposted item ability. The combination of these two functions can provide a very powerfull personal finance capability. FINALLY I hope you find PC-BILL MASTER to be as usefull to you as I have found it to be myself. I did not setout to release this program as shareware but rather developed it primarily for my own use; thus the low registration fee. I wanted to keep it simple, but wanted to emphasize the payment's capability. I seriously urge you that if you determine any functions that you would like to see added to PC-BILL MASTER, please let me know. Have fun and keep in touch. John Davis STATEMENT OF WARRANTY AND LIABILITY The author makes no warranty of any kind, express or implied, including without limitation, any warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. The author shall not be liable for any damages, whether direct, indirect, special or consequential arising from a failure of this program to operate in the manner desired by the user. In addition, the author shall not be liable for any damage to data or property which may be caused directly or indirectly by use of the program. IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY.