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E X P R E S S C H E C K User's Guide by David Berdan EXPRESSWARE CORPORATION P.O. Box 230 Redmond, WA 98073 (206) 481-3040 (C) Copyright 1987, 1988 - Changes are periodically made to the information contained herein. These changes will be incorporated into future editions of this publication. A User Response Form is provided at the back of this manual. If this form has been removed, please address your comments to: EXPRESSWARE CORPORATION P.O. Box 230 Redmond, WA 98073 Proprietary Notice ExpressCheck is a proprietary product published by Expressware Corporation, Redmond, Washington. All rights reserved except those expressly granted to the user by this document. - 1 Introduction 2 Installing ExpressCheck 8 Keyboard Conventions 10 A Guided Tour 13 Adding New Transactions 21 Find Transactions 24 Check Register 25 Sort the Transactions 26 Report Section 34 Maintenance Section 40 Quitting ExpressCheck 40 Customizing ExpressCheck 45 Reporting Problems 46 Distribution Notice 46 Disclaimer - Introduction What is ExpressCheck? ExpressCheck has a simple goal in life, to help you manage your checking accounts. Because the various screen look just like your paper checks, deposit slips, ATM machines, and check registers, you will find the program extremely easy to learn and use. But Express- Check goes far beyond the usefulness of a check register. Every check and deposit can be recorded to various budget codes that you set up. This makes it possible for you to see at any time during the year where you stand in regard to your spending. How much do you spend on food each month? How much have you given in tax deductible donations? Car payments, electricity, gasoline, entertainment? Without ExpressCheck you either guess at where you spent all your money, or you spend long hours with a calculator. With ExpressCheck you can find out in just a few seconds. Entering checks and deposits is fast and enjoyable. Recurring payments can be entered with two keystrokes. Budget codes can be defined on the fly and you can pop up a window with all the currently defined codes whenever you need them. ExpressCheck will even print the checks for you on any kind of tractor feed forms. Pre-defined reports can be printed that give you monthly or year-to-date totals for any or all budget codes, average monthly amounts per budget code, a check register with running balance, all transactions that have not yet cleared the bank, checks or deposits that included certain budget codes, or all checks made out to certain payees. Many of the figures that go on your tax return are at your finger tips. INTRODUCTION Never again will you cringe at the thought of having to balance your checkbook. Pop up the electronic check register and run down with your bank statement marking off the cleared checks, deposits and services charges listed. Then push a key and have ExpressCheck display your current balance, checks and deposits outstanding, how many checks and deposits you marked as cleared and what your bank statement balance should read. A powerful search feature allows you to quickly find out if you really did pay last months car payment, or if check number 4284 has cleared the bank yet, or what the payment to the ABC Company was for. ExpressCheck will bring order into your financial life. Knowing where you are spend your money makes it much easier to plan for the future. 1 - Will It Run On My Computer? If your computer is 100% compatible with the IBM PC, XT or AT, then ExpressCheck will definitely run on it. Some semi-compatibles may require some special configuring. Generally, if your computer uses the PC-DOS or MS-DOS operating system, then ExpressCheck will probably run on it. There are some minimum hardware requirements: PC-DOS or MS-DOS version 2.0 or higher At least 256K of RAM memory One diskette drive Your computer may have either a monochrome or 80-column color monitor. If you have a color monitor, ExpressCheck will format its screens in your choice of colors. A printer is optional, but is of course needed if reports or checks are to be printed. Installing ExpressCheck How Do I Get Started? The first step is to install the ExpressCheck software on your compu- ter. Usually this is a simple process, but there are some PC's with unique configurations which require special procedures. ExpressCheck may be run on a computer with one or two diskette drives or a computer with a hard disk drive. If your computer has one or two diskette drives, the installation process is explained in the sections following the hard disk installation. These installation instructions assume that you have a basic under- standing of DOS commands and terms. If you are not familiar with terms such as subdirectory, path, formatted diskette, etc. you will need to consult your DOS manual for more information. Computers With Hard Disks When using ExpressCheck from a hard disk, it is possible to put the program modules in one subdirectory and your account files in one or more other subdirectories. This is not a decision that you need to make now; the path to the account files can be changed anytime Express- Check is started. For simplicity, these installation instructions assume that the program files and the account files will reside in the same directory on your hard disk. This subdirectory may have any valid name. For this example we will create a subdirectory called CHECK from the roots directory and put the programs in it. 2 - Put the ExpressCheck Program diskette in drive A and enter the DOS commands shown below. The small print on the right indicates what each command is doing. C: Make drive C: the current drive. CD \ Change to the root directory of drive C: MD CHECK Make a new subdirectory called CHECK CD CHECK Change to the new CHECK subdirectory COPY A:*.EXE Copy all the program files COPY A:EXAMPLE.* Copy the Example checking account The new CHECK subdirectory now contains all the ExpressCheck program files as well as a sample checking account file that will be used as an example throughout this manual. There are a few other files on the ExpressCheck diskette that you don't need to copy onto your hard disk. One of these files contains the on-disk documentation and another is a batch file used to print the document file. Since you already have a copy of the manual, you won't have to print another. Two other files contain and print an order form that can be used to order other Expressware products. If you share ExpressCheck with your friends, be sure to give them a complete copy of the ExpressCheck Program diskette so that they will have the files needed to print the manual and order form. Computers With One Diskette Drive If just the ExpressCheck program files are copied onto a blank disk- ette, there is enough room remaining to easily fit a checking account file that is large enough to accommodate more than the number of checks that are written by the average household over the course of a year. Because of this, ExpressCheck can be used on computers that only have one diskette drive. Although there is room on the diskette to put a copy of DOS so that the diskette can be self-booting, it is recommended that you boot from a separate DOS diskette to save as much room as possible for you checking files. To install ExpressCheck on a single-drive system you will need one blank, formatted diskette to be used for both the programs and data. Place the original ExpressCheck Program diskette in drive A and type: DISKCOPY A: B: <Enter> The diskcopy program will give you a message to place the source diskette in drive A and to press any key to begin the copying process. You will be prompted to remove the source diskette and replace it with the target diskette one or more times during the copying process until all the files have been copied onto the new diskette. To make room on the new diskette for data files you must erase the documentation and order form files. To do this, make sure the new diskette is in drive A, and type: 3 - ERASE CHECK.DOC <Enter> ERASE PRINTDOC.BAT <Enter> ERASE ORDER*.* <Enter> ERASE README <Enter> At this point the Example checking account file still remains on the diskette. If you are using ExpressCheck for the first time you should leave them there to use in the Guided Tour section following the Installation. Remove the new diskette from drive A and label it "ExpressCheck Working Diskette". Be sure to put the original Program diskette in a safe place. Computers With Two Diskette Drives To install ExpressCheck on a two diskette drive system you will need two blank, formatted diskettes. If you want to be able to boot your computer from the working program disk, be sure to use the /S option while formatting it. (See your DOS manual if you need any further explanation of how to do this). Place the original ExpressCheck Program diskette in drive A and place the first of the new blank diskettes in drive B and type: COPY A:*.EXE B: <Enter> This will copy all the program files onto the new diskette and will create a "working diskette" which should be labelled "ExpressCheck Working Diskette". The second blank diskette is used for a "Data Disk" where all the checking account information will be stored. If this is the first time you have used ExpressCheck, you should copy the Example checking account files onto the second diskette for use in the Guided Tour section following the Installation. To copy the example files, make sure the original ExpressCheck Program diskette is still in drive A and your new blank data disk is in drive B. Type: COPY A:EXAMPLE.* B: <Enter> The original ExpressCheck Program diskette should be stored in a safe place. Computers With Color Monitors If your computer has a color monitor and a graphics board, ExpressCheck automatically displays its screen in color. If you prefer different colors than those ExpressCheck uses, see the section titles CUSTOMIZING EXPRESSCHECK for changing screen colors. 4 - ExpressCheck detects whether your computer has a monochrome board or a color graphics board, and then uses colors or black/white accordingly. Some computers have a black and white monitor connected to a color board, which tricks ExpressCheck into sending colors to the black-and-white screen. This can cause some characters to appear hazy and unreadable, or in some cases, some characters may not appear on the screen at all. If this condition occurs, or if you suspect it is occurring, press <Esc> then <Enter> to exit from ExpressCheck, then start the program again using the /M command line option (more on this later). Or you can customize the various screen colors to black-on-white and white-on-black using the CUSTOMIZING EXPRESSCHECK section explained in the next section. Starting ExpressCheck Please do not use the original Program Disk to run ExpressCheck. If you are running from diskettes, make a working copy of the program disk- ette, and store the original in a safe place. Users with hard disks use the following commands to start the Express- Check program: C: Make drive C: the current drive (if not already) CD \CHECK Change directory to the new CHECK subdirectory CHECK Start the ExpressCheck program Users with only diskette drives use the following command to start the program. From the A:> prompt type: CHECK The ExpressCheck loads into memory, and after a second or two, this banner screen appears: (picture of Banner Screen) If your banner screen does not display, or if it has some unreadable characters, you probably have a special hardware configuration that ExpressCheck cannot properly detect. See the /M command in the next section, or refer to the section titled TROUBLESHOOTING near the end of this manual. 5 - At the bottom of the banner screen you are prompted: Press <Enter> for Main Menu or <F1> to customize program The normal response here is to press <Enter> and continue on to the Main Menu. However, if this is the first time you are using Express- Check, there are many features of the program that you may want to customize for your computer system and personal taste. These features include things like color, sound, printer ports, default data drives, and even a certain checking account to automatically load every time you start the program. The customizing screen of ExpressCheck is reached by pressing <F1>. The description of the many choices you can make is given later on in the manual in the CUSTOMIZING EXPRESSCHECK section. When you pressing <Enter>, the main ExpressCheck program loads and a screen appears that asks which disk drive (and path, if any) the ExpressCheck checking account are on. ExpressCheck anticipates your response to these questions, and has filled in some "default values". If you are running from diskette, ExpressCheck assumes your data is on drive B. If not, type the correct drive letter. If you are running from a hard disk, ExpressCheck assumes your data is on drive C, in the same directory as the ExpressCheck programs. If not, change the path name. If the drive letter and subdirectory are correct, just press the <Enter> key twice, and the "Open an Account" screen appears. An illustration of this screen and further instructions on running ExpressCheck are in the following chapter, titled "A Guided Tour". Command Line Options In the previous example we simply typed CHECK on the command line to start ExpressCheck. There are other things that could have been typed on that same line. For example, the drive letter and path could have been included on the command line, and then ExpressCheck would have skipped the screen that asks for the drive and path. Here are some examples of valid start-up commands: CHECK B: Indicates data is on drive B CHECK \ACCOUNTS\ Indicates data is in subdirectory \ACCOUNTS on current drive. CHECK PERSONAL Selects account called PERSONAL on the current drive CHECK B:\ACCOUNTS\PERSONAL Selects account called PERSONAL from subdirectory \ACCOUNTS on drive B 6 - If an account name is specified on the command line but the account doesn't exist, ExpressCheck assumes you want to create a new account, so control is passed to the Define screen. In addition to the drive, path and account name, the command line may contain one or more of the following commands: /M Monochrome (black and white) display: This command is sometimes necessary when using ExpressCheck on a monochrome graphics monitor with a color graphics board. Users with color graphics monitors can also use the command to make the screen appear in black and white. /S Turn off the sound: ExpressCheck makes a distinctive "beep" when it accepts a data field from the keyboard. It makes a slightly different sound when an invalid character is entered. Some computers have louder speakers than others, and the sound may be annoying to you or to others around you. Use /S command to turn it off. /B Use BIOS calls for screen display: Some computer's video memory is not fully compatible with the IBM PC. To display data on the screen as quickly as possible, ExpressCheck places data directly into video RAM. Some early models of MS-DOS computers did not map video memory at the same address as the IBM PC. On computers whose video RAM is at a different address, nothing gets displayed; i.e. the screen stays blank. If you specify /B on the command line, ExpressCheck uses calls to the ROM BIOS for screen displays. This makes screen displays slower, but assures that the data is displaying on the screen. /F Fast start-up: This command tells ExpressCheck to skip the banner screen during start-up. /P Pause and go directly to the Setup screen to allow changes to program defaults. These slash command switches must follow the drive, path and account if they are specified. Use the forward slash character "/". Backslash characters "\" do not work. There cannot be a space following the slash, but there may optionally be one or more spaces preceding it. ExpressCheck can be configured to automatically use one or more of these command line options plus several other options by going through the customize option from the opening screen. For more information on customizing ExpressCheck, see the chapter titled CUSTOMIZING EXPRESS- CHECK. 7 - Keyboard Conventions In this manual, and on many ExpressCheck screens, when you see a letter, number or special key enclosed in <brackets>, it means to press the key enclosed in brackets. For example, <F1> means press the F1 key. <Alt-H> means hold down the Alt key and press H. When a letter <A> through <Z> appears in brackets, either an uppercase (capital) or lower-case (small) letter may be entered. Sometimes at the bottom of a screen, the first letter of a word is enclosed in brackets, such as rint. This is a short-hand way of indicating that pressing the P key selects the Print function. The <Esc> Key The Escape Key <Esc> can be used almost anywhere in ExpressCheck to back out of a section of the program and return to the previous menu. For example, if you are adding checks and the last one has been added, press <Esc> to return to the Main Menu. Single Keystroke Input When a prompt requires that only one key be pressed, the command is carried out immediately without having to press <Enter>. All single-- key commands make a short "blip" sound (unless the sound option has been turned off). Whenever an incorrect or inappropriate key is pressed, ExpressCheck sounds a two tone warning and ignores the keystroke. The <F10> key is used in many places to indicate that you are finished entering information and are ready to move on to the next step. Input Fields Of Two Or More Characters All questions or entries that allow more than one key to be pressed must be followed by an <Enter> before ExpressCheck processed the keystrokes. On any prompt or field that allows two or more characters to be entered, the following editing keys may be used: <Backspace> Erases the character to the left of the cursor. <Del> Erases the character under the cursor. <Ins> Toggles Insert mode on and off. When Insert mode is on, the cursor increases in size. Characters are inserted at the cursor as they are entered, and the characters to the right of the cursor are shifted toward the end of the field. 8 - <Left Arrow> Moves the cursor left, toward the beginning of the field. No characters are erased. <Right Arrow> Move the cursor right. toward the end of the field. NO characters are erased. <Home> Moves the cursor to the first position of the field. <End> Move the cursor to the position following the last non-blank character on the line. <Ctrl-Home> Erases the entire line and puts the cursor back at the beginning of the field. <Ctrl-End> Erases all characters from the cursor to the end of the field. The cursor does not move. <Enter> Indicates that all the data has been entered in the field. <Enter> may be pressed no matter where the cursor is within a field, and the entire field is processed as input. Characters may not be entered past the end of a field. When the cursor reaches the end, it jumps to the top of the last character. Any attempt to enter further characters causes the computer to beep. However, all control keys (<Enter>, <Backspace>, <F10>, etc.) may still be used. The Alternate <Ctrl>-Keys ExpressCheck also supports the keyboard standard for the <Ctrl> keys popularized by Micropro's WordStar, and sometimes referred to as the "WordStar control key standard". Because the WordStar control key standard is so popular, we support it in all our software packages. There are two important reasons why this standard is so popular: (1) it allows touchtypists to perform all the control key functions without removing their hands from the keyboard; and (2) it allows numeric keypad users an optional set of arrow keys so <NumLock> can be left on all the time. If you are a fast typist and seldom look at the keyboard, or if you do a lot of ten-key input, you will likely find these control keys helpful. It takes some time to get accustomed to them, but eventually they become second nature just like the other keys on the keyboard. The <Ctrl> key is like a special shift key. If you hold it down and press a letter, a special character is sent to the computer. These are the <Ctrl> keys which ExpressCheck supports: 9 - <Ctrl-E> same as <Up Arrow> <Ctrl-G> same as <Del> <Ctrl-S> same as <Left Arrow> <Ctrl-T> same as <Ctrl-End> <Ctrl-D> same as <Right Arrow> <Ctrl-Y> same as <Ctrl-Home> <Ctrl-X> same as <Down Arrow> <Ctrl-Q> same as <Esc> <Ctrl-F> same as <Tab> <Ctrl-W> same as <F10> <Ctrl-A> same as <Shift-Tab> <Ctrl-Enter> same as <F10> <Ctrl-V> same as <Ins> A GUIDED TOUR Opening an account When ExpressCheck is started, there are three ways to identify the account to be used: (1) it can be included on the command line; (2) it can be specified in a custom profile; or (3) if neither of the other methods is used, ExpressCheck goes directly to the "Open an Account" screen and asks you to select an account from the list. It looks like this: (picture of account selection screen) Before you can add checks or deposits to an account, or print a report or do anything in ExpressCheck, the program needs to know which account you want to work with. The "Open an Account" screen displays all the accounts on your disk, and asks which one you want to open. Starting A New Account File To start a new checking account from the "Open an Account" screen, press <Enter> instead of entering the number of an existing account. ExpressCheck will ask: Name of new account:__________ Enter a valid file name and press <Enter>. The new account definition screen looks like this: 10 - (picture of Define screen) Account Name The account name will appear at the top of the check entry screen and on the top of any reports that you print. Select a name that describes the account. An example might be "Dave's personal account", or "Acme checking account". The name can be anything up to 30 characters long. Account Number Enter the number of your checking account. This will also be printed on reports that are produced. This field may be left blank if you don't want the number printed. Beginning Balance Enter the balance of your account at the point where you will start entering transactions. This is usually the resulting balance after reconciling your last bank statement. Low Balance Warning If you enter non-zero number in this field, ExpressCheck will warn you whenever your account balance dips below it. If you don't want to be bothered with the warning, just leave this field at zero. Small or Large Account Size Version 3 of ExpressCheck allows you to select between two different account sizes. These are the differences: Small Large Dollar amounts $ 99,999.99 $ 9,999,999.99 Budget Codes 3 5 Address on check No Yes (4 lines) Because of the increase in amount size, number of codes and addition of address space, the Large account takes up about twice the disk space storage than the Small account. This is usually not a problem since you can still save over 1100 transactions on a 360K diskette, more than the average person writes in a year. ExpressCheck will now save the above information on the data disk and take you to the Main Menu. 11 - Selecting An Existing Account From the "Open an Account" screen where all the existing account names are listed in alphabetical order, select the number of the account you want to work with and press <Enter>. ExpressCheck will load the account, calculate the current balance and then display the Main Menu. The Main Menu We will use the account called EXAMPLE. The accounts are displayed on the screen alphabetically, and are numbered on the left. Since EXAMPLE is number 1, press 1 then the <Enter> key. Now that the account has been selected, ExpressCheck goes to its Main Menu screen which looks like this: ExpressCheck 2.0 Q - Quit and Exit M A I N M E N U M - Maintenance R - Report Section S - Sort the Transactions C - Check Register F - Find Transactions A - Add Transactions O - Open Another Account Open Account: Example Checking Account Current Balance: $ 482.29 Transactions : 32 Next check # : 1024 Please make Selection _ (this picture looks a lot nicer in the Registered Manual) Whenever you are in the ExpressCheck program, it is always possible to return to the Main Menu by pressing the <Esc> key one or more times. To select an item from the Main Menu enter the first letter of the menu 12 - choice: "O" for Open, "A" for Add, etc. It is not necessary to press the <Enter> key; menu choices are single keystroke commands. This Guided Tour of ExpressCheck will use the Main Menu as a road map. You will select options progressively along the menu and return back to this point before going on to another section. Adding New Transactions To add new checks and deposits to an account press "A" (remember, don't press <Enter>) from the Main Menu. A screen with a picture of a check appears. This form should look familiar. It is fashioned after the paper checks you are using every day. (picture of check) Whenever you enter this section from the Main Menu, a check will appear on the screen (as opposed to a deposit slip or Automatic Teller Machine entry). If you are like most people, you will be entering many more checks than deposits or ATM transactions. However, a deposit slip or ATM screen is only a keystroke away. You will notice at the bottom of the screen a prompt that says: <PgUp> ATM <PgDn> for deposit Press <PgUp> to change the check to a picture of an Automatic Teller Machine. (picture of ATM) Here you can enter withdrawals that you have made at your favorite Cash Machine. Press <PgDn> to return to the Check screen. Now press <PgDn> to replaces the check with a deposit slip of a different color. (picture of Deposit) If you want a check when a deposit slip is showing, press <PgUp>. The check reappears. Anytime the cursor is in the first field, you can switch between checks, ATM's and deposits using <PgDn> and <PgUp>. Entering a check or deposit is as simple as filling in the blanks, just as you do on your paper checks and deposits. 13 - Help Window When you are entering transactions, ExpressCheck displays a small three-line help window below the form that reminds you of the contents and options available in each field as you go down. When you are first starting to use ExpressCheck this window is very informative and will help you to remember the various features that you can use in each field. When you progress to the point that you no longer need or want the window to be displayed, you can press <Alt-H> to turn it off. Starting A New Account If you are just starting to use ExpressCheck to keep track of your existing checking account, here are a few tips to consider: Reconcile your checking account and make sure everything balances and is in order before converting to ExpressCheck. Any errors that were made before will continue to plague you if not found now. Enter all the checks and deposits that have not yet cleared your bank statements. If you are starting to use ExpressCheck on January 1st for example, enter all the outstanding transactions left over from the previous year. This will make it possible for ExpressCheck to recon- cile your account at the end of January. Think about what budget categories you want to keep track of. You can set up very general catagories, like UTILITIES, or you can very detailed, such as ELECTRIC, PHONE, GARBAGE, GAS, CABLE TV, etc. Tracking detailed budget codes makes it possible to produce very detailed spending patterns later, but it does require a little more planning and attention. If you are starting to use ExpressCheck in the middle of the year, you might want to consider entering all the checks you have written for the prior months of the year. This doesn't take long and will instantly give you information on your spending patterns. It can be very revealing. Entering Checks and Deposits Check Number The first field is the check number field. When you first come into the add section, the number will be pre-loaded with number 1. Let's say that the first check number you are going to enter today is 2001. Just type the number right over the 1 and press <Enter>. Later, when this check is saved, the next check will appear with the number 2002 14 - automatically filled in for you. Then all you will have to do is press <Enter>. You can also enter the words VISA, MC, or ATM into the number field if desired to make it easier to track charge cards and cash machine transactions. By default, ExpressCheck will keep track of check and ATM numbering separate from deposit numbering. If you would like to tie the number- ing together, you can indicate this in the Setup procedure. Date The cursor has now moved to the Date field. This field has a few tricks of its own. The format of the field is fixed: two-digit month, two-digit day and two-digit year, each separated by a dash. For example December 25, 1988 appears as 12-25-88. The dashes are placed in the date automatically by ExpressCheck. To enter the date 12-25-87, just enter 122587. The numbers will all fall in the correct position. Another feature of the date field is that you can automatically increment it by one day by pressing the <Spacebar>. Most check entering sessions are done in date order, from oldest to most recent. The <Spacebar> method of changing the date is a lot quicker than typing the month and day each time you want to update it. The plus key <+> works the same as the <Spacebar>. To decrement the date one day at a time, you can press the minus key <->. Of course this feature auto- matically takes into consideration the variable lengths of each month and even leap year! If you enter a date manually, ExpressCheck will verify that you have entered a valid date. If the date is found to be out of range, you will receive a message to this effect and will have to re-enter it. Payee (check only) If you are filling in a check the next field to be entered is the Payee field, or "Pay to the Order of" field. Simply fill in the name of the person or company to whom the check was made out to. (ExpressCheck has a feature available here called QuickFill, that allows an entire check to be filled in with any recurring payment information with a simple key combination. This is useful for payments that are the same each month or that occur many times during the year. This feature is described in the QuickFill section a little later). 15 - Amount The amount field will accept any number up to 99999.99 if you are using a SMALL account or up to 9999999.99 if you have defined a LARGE account. Only numeric digits and one decimal point are allowed into this field. After the number is entered, ExpressCheck will convert it to a two decimal place number, adding any needed zeros or rounding excess decimal places if too many were typed. (123.4 becomes 123.40 and 123.456 becomes 123.46). If you are filling in a check, Express- Check will spell out the amount on the line below the Payee. (One hundred TwentyThree & 40/100). Memo The memo field is used to note what the check, deposit, or ATM entry was for. It may be left blank if you like. Address (check only) If you have defined a LARGE account you may enter up to a four line address. If the first line of the Address section is left blank, the remaining three lines will be skipped and the cursor will jump over to the Budget Code section. Most of the time, when entering a name and address, one of the lines will be the same as the entry on the Payee line. You can copy the Payee field down to any of the address lines by pressing <Alt-P> when on that line. Budget Code Budget Codes are a great feature of ExpressCheck. Their use allows you to categorized your payments and deposits to different pigeon holes from which you can later produce reports that make this whole exercise worthwhile. Assigning transactions to budget codes is like putting a record of your checks and deposits into different marked envelopes after you write them. Imagine that you have ten envelopes that are marked with these titles: UTILITIES MORTGAGE FOOD GAS GIFTS COMPUTER DOCTOR DENTIST INSURANCE SALARY 16 - Each time you write a bill to the electric company you put a slip of paper in the UTILITIES envelope with all the check information on it. Each time you pay for car or life insurance you put a record slip into the INSURANCE envelope. And each time you get paid and deposit your paycheck in the bank you put a record of that into the SALARY envelope. If you go into a department store and buy a part for your computer, a gift for an upcoming birthday party and a bag of groceries, you will have to split the check amount up into three pieces and put a piece of paper into three different envelopes. At the end of the year, or at any time during the year, you can pick up an envelope and pull out all the pieces of paper and add them together to see how much you have spent up to that point. ExpressCheck can do the same thing with a lot less hassle, by allowing you to assign your check and deposit amounts to one or more budget codes. At any time you can print a report of your spending habits, good or bad. You can give ExpressCheck your list of budget codes all at once before you start adding transactions, or you can define new codes as you find you need them while adding checks or deposits. All checks and deposits must be assigned to at least one budget code and may be split between up to five codes if need be (three if a SMALL account). If you don't know how to categorize a certain check or you don't want to be bothered with the coding section at all, just press <Enter> when you get to this field and an appropriate default will be entered for you, MISC CHK for checks and MISC DEP for deposits. (Of course these defaults can be changed in the Setup section). Being able to assign the amount of a check or deposit to one or more catagories is a feature that makes ExpressCheck worth it weight in gold. Budget codes are classified as either Expense or Income. Expense codes are generally categories that you spend money from while Income codes are categories you put money into. If you make a deposit to an Income code, the amount will be added and if you write a check from an Income code, the amount will be subtracted. Conversely, if you write a check from an Expense code, the amount will be added to the code. If you make a deposit to an Expense code, the amount will be subtracted. For example, if you have an Income code called COLLEGE and you deposit money into that code, the amount will be added. If you write a tuition check from that code, the money will be deducted. As you enter each budget code, ExpressCheck will scan the current list of acceptable codes and if it doesn't find it, will report to you that you have entered an unrecognized code and ask if you want to <R>e-enter the code, <A>dd the code to the list, or <V>iew the list of current codes. Pressing <R> will clear the entry that you have just made and 17 - allow you to type it in again (and hopefully get it right this time). Pressing <A> will add the new code to the list (in upper case) and continue on. Pressing <V> will pop up a window containing a list of the currently defined codes and allow you to page up and down, looking for the code you really want or to realize that you need to add a new code to the list after all. If you can't remember if a certain code has been defined, you can enter just a slash (/) into a Code field to pop up a window containing a list of the currently defined codes sorted into alphabetical order with the Expense codes at the top, follow by the Income codes. You may then move a highlighted bar up and down in the list until you find the one you want and then press enter to select it. Budget codes may also be selected by their assigned number. If you know that APPLIANCES is number 1 on the list you can just enter 1 instead of having to spell out APPLIANCES each time. (If you enter a number that is out of range of the current list of budget codes, ExpressCheck will assume that you want to enter a code who's name is the number you typed. Some people prefer to use numbers for budget categories). ExpressCheck will allow you to define up to 200 different budget catagories. Here is a list of commonly used codes that you might want to use when setting up your budgeting system: MORTGAGE (Expense) GAS (Expense) FOOD (Expense) DONATION (Expense) ELECTRIC (Expense) CAR REPAIR (Expense) ENTERTAIN (Expense) GIFTS (Expense) CASH (Expense) COMPUTER (Expense) WATER (Expense) DENTIST (Expense) DOCTOR (Expense) MEDICINE (Expense) LIFE INSUR (Expense) AUTO INSUR (Expense) FIRE INSUR (Expense) LIAB INSUR (Expense) TAXES (Expense) GARBAGE (Expense) SALARY (Income) DIVIDEND (Income) INTEREST (Income) 18 - Budget Code Amount The portion of the check or deposit that you are assigning to the budget category is entered here. This field will accept any number up to 99999.99 (or 9999999.99 if a LARGE account). Only numeric digits and one decimal point are allowed into this field. After the number is entered, ExpressCheck will convert it to a two decimal place number, adding any needed zeros or rounding excess decimal places if too many were typed. If this is the first code amount field and you want the entire check or deposit amount to be assigned here, just press <Enter> and the field will be filled in with the full amount and the cursor will jump directly to the Cleared field, skipping the other two or four code fields. If you only want to assign part of the check or deposit amount to a particular code, just enter the desired amount. After doing so, the cursor will move down to the next code field. Anytime you want to assign the remaining amount to a code field, just press <Enter> while in that field. ExpressCheck will calculate the remainder and fill it in for you. If you need to split a check or deposit between more than the allowed three or five different budget codes, you will have to enter the first three or five on one form and then continue on another check or deposit slip with the remaining codes and amounts. When doing a continuation check or deposit, we suggest that you enter the same number as the first check with a ".1" at the end. (example: 1234 and 1234.1) This way, if you sort by transaction number, the pair will always stay in the correct sequence. Cleared When entering a check or deposit, you can mark them as to whether or not they have been included on a bank statement. If you are keeping up with your entries, the answer will usually be "N". ExpressCheck has anticipated the answer by filling in a default response of "N". If this is acceptable, just press <Enter>. If you would like it to be marked as Cleared, press "Y" and <Enter>. Saving The Transaction After the Cleared field has been filled, the cursor will jump back up to the number field at the top of the form. If you want to make any corrections or changes to the check or deposit, simply continue to press <Enter> until the cursor moves to the field you want and then make the changes. 19 - When you have completed the transaction and would like to move on to the next one, press <F10>. ExpressCheck will save the information on disk and present you with a new blank check to fill in. (On most computers, the <F10> key is located near the lower left hand corner of the keyboard and only requires a quick roll of the left wrist to be pressed. Some computers have the function keys placed along the top of the keyboard and reaching for the <F10> key is a little awkward. ExpressCheck provides two other key combinations that can be used in place of the <F10> key. They are <Ctrl-W> and <Ctrl-Enter>. Any time ExpressCheck requires the <F10> key, it will also accept these two alternative keys. QuickFill Some of the checks that you type in are recurring payments that are the same each month. ExpressCheck offers a feature that allows you to memorize these payments the first time you enter them, and then to automatically fill in the information when you enter a slash-code into the Payee field. This is called a QuickFill. QuickFill codes start with a slash </>. Following the slash you can enter any letters or numbers. To define a new QuickFill code, you first decide what word or words you want to use with the slash. This will usually be something that helps you remember the entry. For example: Every month you have to pay a mortgage payment to XYZ Bank. The payment, memo and budget codes are exactly the same each month. You decide to use /MORTGAGE for the QuickFill code to remind you of your house payment. Fill in the Check # and date as you always do. When you get to the Payee field, type /MORTGAGE <Enter>. Because ExpressCheck doesn't recognize this QuickFill code because it is new, this message appears: This is a new QuickFill character, <D>efine or <R>e-enter? Since you do want to define this entry, press <D>. The window will disappear, the Payee field will be cleared and the cursor will be put back to the beginning. In the upper right corner of the screen "Recording (OFF=Alt-Q)" will appear to indicate that ExpressCheck is recording any information you will be typing in. Enter your mortgage payment as you normally would, filling in the Payee, Amount, Memo, and Budget Code information. When you save the check by pressing <F10>, ExpressCheck will also save what you have entered in a separate file. Now, when you want to enter a mortgage payment, fill in the Check # and the date and then just enter /M in the Payee field. The remainder of the check fills in instantly and leaves you at the Cleared field. The recording of a QuickFill code can also be turned off before you fill in the whole check. For example, if you write a lot of checks to 20 - the American Light Bulb Company, but each check is for a different amount, you can have QuickFill enter the Payee and leave you at the Amount field. To do this, type in /BULB (or any new code you choose to associate with this Payee), press <Enter>, then press <D> to define it, and then enter American Light Bulb Company. When the cursor is in the Amount field press <Alt-Q> to turn off the recording. The "Recording" disappears and you may continue on to fill out the rest of the check. /A now only fills in the Payee field and leaves you at the Amount field. You can define up to 100 different QuickFill codes for each account. If you get to the Payee field and forget what you have defined as QuickFill codes, you can just type in a slash and press <Enter>. A window will pop up displaying all the QuickFill definitions. You may then cursor up and down to move the highlighted bar to the line you want and then press <Enter> to fill in the check. (picture of quickfill window) Exiting From The Add Section When you have finished entering checks and deposits, press <Esc> to return to the Main Menu. Find Transactions The Find section of ExpressCheck can be used to locate any check or deposit in the account. The search can be done by any field on the form, number, date, payee, amount, memo, address, code, code amount or the Cleared field. Once a transaction has been found, you can choose to edit the contents or delete the check by voiding it. To find transactions in an account, and optionally change or delete them, select <F> from the Main Menu: Find Transactions. This screen displays: 21 - +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | C H E C K | | Check # _ Date: | | | | Pay to the | | Order of $ | | | | | | Memo: Code Amount | | $ | | $ | | Cleared (Y/N): $ | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Move to desired field with <up> and <down> and enter search string or enter ALL in number field to display every check and deposit After deciding which field you want to search, you can move the cursor to that field by using the <Cursor Up> and <Cursor Down> keys. When the cursor appears in the desired field, enter the information that you want to search for and press <Enter>. ExpressCheck will search through the account entries and display the first check, deposit or ATM entry that matches the request. If you are searching by one of the numeric fields, (Check #, Amount, or Code Amount), a transaction is considered a match if the number matches exactly what you typed in. If any of the other fields are used, a match is found if the field contents are the same up to the length of the string you typed in. For example, if you type FAMILY into the Payee line of the check, ExpressCheck will find checks payable to FAMILY PHOTO, FAMILY SHOES, FAMILY GROCER, etc. Text searches are done without regard to upper and lower case. Searching for william will find WILLIAM. If you would like to view all the checks from the beginning of the account, type ALL into the Check # field and press <Enter>. The first transaction will be displayed immediately. If you want to find all deposits, type DEPOSIT in the Payee field. If you want to just display the Cash Machine entries, type ATM in the Payee field. Viewing The Transaction As soon as the search text has been entered, ExpressCheck begins searching for a matching entry. The first check or deposit that matches the criteria is displayed. There are several options that may be selected at this time, depending on whether this was the check you were looking for or not. Most of the options are displayed across the bottom of the screen: 22 - <F> Continue Searching (Forward): When ExpressCheck displays a check, there may be other records further down in the account which also match the search criteria. If this is not the record you were looking for, press <F> to continue searching the account for the next transac- tion that matches. When the end of the account is reached, you are told: "No more matches found ...Press any Key". After pressing a key, you may press <F> again to start the search over, displaying all the checks it found the last time around. Continue Searching (Backward): It is possible to search backward through the account as well as forward. Press to search backward for the previous matching check. This is a convenient way to get back to the last check you were looking at. <E> Edit: To make changes to the check or deposit, press <E>. The cursor moves to the first field, Check #. At this point, the up and down arrow keys, <Enter> key, and all the other features available when you first entered the check operate the same. For further information on entering new checks and deposits, see the Add Transactions section. Once the changes have been made to the check, press <F10> to save it to disk or <Esc> to abandon any changes you made. <V> Void the check: If you want to cancel a check or deposit, press <V>. ExpressCheck will ask: Are you sure you want to VOID this transaction (Y/N)? Reply <Y> to void the check or <N> to leave it alone. If you reply <Y>, the payee, amount, codes and code amounts are blanked and the word "VOID" is filled into the payee field. The Check # and date are left untouched for future reference. <N> Next: Pressing <N> advanced the display to the next check. By pressing <N> several times, you can "walk" through the account looking at consecutive transactions in the last sorted order. Previous: Pressing backs up to the previous transaction in the account in sorted order. Use the <N> key to move forward in the account and the key to move backward. <S> Search: Pressing <S> returns you to the Find Transaction screen so you can enter new search criteria. Your second search begins from the record just displayed, which can make searching faster in some cases. Note: On a <S>earch, ExpressCheck does not stop when it reaches the end of the index. It continues the search at the beginning of the account, wrapping around, until it searches up to where it started. <X> Print a Check: Pressing <X> prints a QuickCheck for the transaction currently displayed. A QuickCheck must have already been set up for this option to work. The screen for setting up QuickChecks 23 - is on the Maintenance menu (see the chapter titled MAINTENANCE for more information). <C> Clear: Pressing <C> will mark the check or deposit as "cleared", placing a "Y" in the Cleared field. Unclear: Pressing will mark the check or deposit as "un- cleared", placing an "N" in the Cleared field. <Esc> As always, pressing <Esc> returns to the menu -- in this case, the Main Menu. Check Register With ExpressCheck you can view an electronic check register that displays 20 transactions at a time. The running balance of your account is displayed as you page up and down through the account file. To reach the check register, press <C> from the Main Menu. Here is an example: (picture of check register) Number Date Payee Withdraw X Deposit Balance ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1001 01-01 Acme Party Supply 27.83 x $ 2122.51 1002 01-06 Corner Market 199.30 x $ 1923.21 1003 01-08 American Light Bulb 24.95 $ 1898.26 1004 01-08 XYZ Bank 623.78 x $ 1274.48 01-15 D E P O S I T x 2045.00 $ 3319.48 etc... To view transaction, move cursor to desired line and press <Enter> <PgDn>-next <PgUp>-prev <Home>-top <End>-bot <C>lear <Esc>-exit Several options may be used when viewing the Check Register: <Cursor up> <Cursor down> Move the Cursor: The up and down arrows may be used to scroll through the Register. The transaction which the cursor is currently marking is highlighted in a different color. The arrow keys move the highlighted cursor to the next or previous transac- tion. If the cursor moves off the screen, the next 20 checks and deposits are displayed. <Enter> View the check: Use the arrow keys to position the cursor to a line, then press <Enter> to view that check or deposit in its entirety. The check is displayed in the same manner as in the Add section. As soon as you press <Enter>, the check displays, and all the options that were available when Finding a check are displayed across 24 - the bottom of the screen (<E>dit, <V>oid, <N>ext, rev., <X>-Print, etc. See the Find Transactions section for a complete list). Pressing <Esc> returns you to the Check Register screen once again. <PgDn> Advances to the next page (screen) of 20 checks. <PgUp> Backs up to the previous page (screen) of 20 checks. <Ctrl-PgDn> Advances through the Register 100 checks at a time instead of only 20 <Ctrl-PgUp> Backs up 100 checks at a time. <Home> Displays the first 20 checks in the account <End> Displays the last 20 check at the end of the account. <C>lear Press <C> to mark an entry as "cleared" in the highlight- ed transaction. This indicates that the check or deposit has been listed on a bank statement. After changing the status, the highlighted bar will move down one position, making it quick and easy to mark multiple checks as "cleared". nclear Press to remove a "cleared" check mark from the highlighted transaction. <Esc> Pressing <Esc> returns to the Main Menu. Sort The Transactions When you are entering checks and deposits into ExpressCheck you will generally be adding them in date and number sequence. There may be times, however, when you forget to put in a check and have to enter it later, thus putting it out of date or number sequence with the rest of the transactions. To arrange all checks into the proper sequence, either by date or by number, you must sort the account. To sort the account, press <S> while viewing the Main Menu. Express- Check will ask: Sort by <D>ate, <N>umber or ayee If you want the account sorted by date, press <D>. ExpressCheck will pull the date and number from each transaction in the account file and will sort, first by date and then by number within the date so that all checks with the same date will be in number order. Because checks and deposits are recorded in your own paper check register in date order, this is probably the way you will usually keep the account sorted. If you want the account sorted by number, press <N>. ExpressCheck will pull the number of each check and sort them into numeric order. Any 25 - checks or deposits that do not have a number will be sorted to the beginning of the index and put in Date order. This type of sort is useful if you want to print out a report of every check to make sure that each check number was entered into the account. If you want to sort by Payee, press . ExpressCheck will sort your transactions first by the Payee field and then by the Date field. After ExpressCheck has sorted the account, the Main Menu will display again. Report Section The main reason for putting all your checking account information into ExpressCheck is the ability to get useful information back out again. ExpressCheck offers several different reports to help you. And as an added feature, two different accounts can be combined into one report. To reach the Report Section of ExpressCheck, press <R> while viewing the Main Menu. The following menu appears: Report List * 1 - Budget Code totals for selected Codes * 2 - Budget Code totals for selected Codes (monthly totals) * 3 - Budget Code Averages (monthly) 4 - Check Register (with running balance) 5 - Checks not yet marked Cleared * 6 - Checks listed for selected Budget Codes 7 - Checks listed for selected Payees Select desired Report number, or press <Esc> for Main Menu * <C>ombine another account with these reports if desired Select the report you want to print by pressing its corresponding number. Each report request prompts you for a date range to use for selecting 26 - the checks and deposits to print. The default Low and High dates are January 1st and December 31st of the current year. You may change either date to narrow or broaden the range. Some of the report will prompt you for more information before actually printing the output. The additional input is described below as each report type is described. The asterisk at the beginning of reports 1, 2, 6, and 7 indicates that these report can be generated by combining another account with the current one if desired. To select the second account, press <C> before selecting one of these reports to print. A window will pop up on the screen prompting: Enter name of second account (or leave blank to cancel) Enter the name of the second checking account that you would like to combine with the currently opened account. (Or, if you had already selected a second account and would like to cancel the combination reports, just leave the field empty and press <Enter>). After select- ing a second account, reports 1, 2, 6, and 7 will read both files to create their reports. 1 - Budget Code totals for selected Codes After prompting for the date range this report will ask you which budget codes you want to have reported: picture of budget code list window +---------------------+ | 1 COMPUTER | | 2 DENTIST | | 3 DOCTOR | | 4 FOOD X | | 5 GAS | | 6 GIFTS | | 7 HOUSEHOLD X | | 8 INSURANCE | | 9 MISC CHK | | 10 MISC DEP | | 11 MORTGAGE | | 12 PERSONAL X | | 13 SALARY | | 14 UTILITIES | | | +---------------------+ <Enter> to select code <Alt-A> select all <Alt-C> clear all <F10> finished 27 - Select the codes that you want to total up moving the highlighted bar to the desired code and pressing <Enter>. This will place a check mark to the right of the code. Pressing <Enter> on a code that already has a check mark will remove the mark. You can use <PgUp> and <PgDn> to view all the codes. If you want to select every code, press <Alt-A> and a check mark will appear after each line. This is much faster than moving to every line and pressing <Enter>. If you want to clear all the selected codes, press <Alt-C>. The check marks will disappear. After your choices have been made, press <F10> to continue. Screen, Printer or Disk? ExpressCheck asks: Print report to <S>creen, rinter or <D>isk? No matter what your response is the report always echo to the screen. Screen: To write it only on the screen and nowhere else, enter <S>. Printer: To write it to the screen and the printer, enter . Disk: To write the report to a disk file as well as to the screen, press <D>. You are prompted: Enter name for OUTPUT FILE Enter the name of the disk file where you would like the report written to. This may include a drive and path name and an extension. Note: For reports 1, 2, and 3, there are two special file extensions that can be used to create a disk file in another format. .DIF If you put an extension of .DIF on the file name, the report will be written to disk as a DIF file instead of a regular report text file. This file will contain the monthly or yearly total figures as shown on the report instead of any individual transaction amounts. DIF files are one of several industry standard data interchange formats that allow information to be shared between different programs. For example, the resulting DIF file can be loaded directly into ExpressCalc, our spreadsheet program or imported into File Express. (DIF files can also be exported from the Main- tenance Section of ExpressCheck that contain individual transaction amounts.) .GRF If you put an extension of .GRF on the file name, the report will be written to disk as an ExpressGraph graph file that can be loaded into ExpressGraph, our business graphics program to be used to create graphs and charts. 28 - While printing the report, ExpressCheck will first read through all the check and deposit records in the account that fall within the date range entered and total up the budget code amounts that match those you selected. After this is done, the report will print on the screen and optionally on your printer or to a disk file. The Year-to-Date budget code summary for the EXAMPLE file looks like this: Budget Code Summary 01-01-87 to 12-31-87 Example Checking Account Expense Income Budget Code Amount Amount ----------- ------------- ------------ COMPUTER 35.00 DENTIST 2655.60 DOCTOR .00 FOOD 1537.52 GAS .00 GIFTS 183.06 HOUSEHOLD 218.35 INSURANCE .00 MISC CHK .00 MISC DEP .00 MORTGAGE 3118.90 PERSONAL 64.83 UTILITIES 630.35 INTEREST 733.46 SALARY 29736.34 ------------ ------------ Total: 37465.09 29736.34 When the report finishes, this message displays: End of Report...press any key Press any key to return to the Report List menu. 29 - 2 - Budget Code totals for selected Codes (monthly totals) This report is almost the same as report 1 except that the report displays the amount that has been assigned to each budget code on a month-by-month basis. Monthly Budget Code Summary 01-01-87 to 12-31-87 Example Checking Account: 123 456 789 Expense Budget Code Amounts ------------------------------------------------------------- MORTGAGE $ 3118.90 Jan $ 623.78 May $ .00 Sep $ .00 Feb $ 623.78 Jun $ 623.78 Oct $ .00 Mar $ 623.78 Jul $ .00 Nov $ .00 Apr $ 623.78 Aug $ .00 Dec $ .00 PERSONAL $ 64.83 Jan $ 39.83 May $ .00 Sep $ .00 Feb $ 16.00 Jun $ 623.78 Oct $ .00 Mar $ .00 Jul $ .00 Nov $ .00 Apr $ 9.00 Aug $ .00 Dec $ .00 etc. 3 - Budget Code Averages (monthly) This report is similar to the Budget Code Totals report (report 1) except that the figures reported are the average monthly subtotal amounts for the codes selected. This is a valuable report when you are trying to figure out how much you spend on the average each month for certain categories. The averages are figured by determining how many months are included in the date range that is given. If you enter a date range of 01-01-88 to 03-31-88 then the subtotals gathered for that date range are divided by 3 to figure the average. If you enter a range of 01-31-88 to 03-01-88, ExpressCheck will still divide by 3. Only the month digits of the date are used to calculate how many months to divide by so be sure to use the beginning of one month to the end of another so that all transactions in the first and last month are included in the average calculation. (picture of report 3 30 - 4 - Check Register (with running balance) This report prints a check register that contains just the basic information about each transaction. A running balance is included along with an indication of whether or not the check has cleared the bank. After you answer the date range question the report is printed: Check Register 01-01-87 to 12-31-87 Example Checking Account: 123 456 789 Date Number Pay to Order of Amount Balance C ------ ------- ------------------------- ------- -------- - BEGINNING BALANCE 2150.34 01-01 1001 Acme Party Supply 27.83 2122.51 x 01-06 1002 Corner Market 199.30 1923.21 x 01-08 1003 American Light Bulb 24.95 1898.26 x 01-08 1004 XYZ Bank 623.78 1274.48 x 01-15 D E P O S I T 2045.00 3319.48 x etc... 5 - Checks not yet marked Cleared This report prints all the checks and deposits that have not yet been marked "Cleared". At the end of the report a total of the checks and deposits is printed. It is a handy report to have in hand when trying to figure out why the banks ending balance doesn't agree with yours. After replying to the date range question the report will be printed: 31 - Checks not marked Cleared 01-01-87 to 12-31-87 Example Checking Account: 123 456 789 Date Number Pay to Order of Check Deposit C ------ ------- ---------------------------- -------- -------- - 01-20 1005 Mary Smith 12.00 01-28 1009 Everyone's Department Store 293.40 02-05 1010 XYZ Bank 623.78 02-17 1012 Corner Market 189.99 03-10 1012 Corner Market 200.34 05-03 D E P O S I T 2045.00 etc... -------- -------- 7050.83 2045.00 6 - Checks listed for selected Budget Codes This report lists all the checks and deposits that include the budget codes you select. The full detail of each transaction is printed. After specifying the date range and the codes to include, the report is printed: Transactions for selected Budget Codes 01-01-87 to 12-31-87 Example Checking Account: 123 456 789 Date Number Payee and Memo Code Amount C ------ ------- -------------------------- ---------- ----------- - 01-01 1001 Acme Party Supply PERSONAL 27.83 x 01-01 1001 Acme Party Supply PERSONAL 27.83 x 01-01 1001 Acme Party Supply PERSONAL 27.83 x 01-01 1001 Acme Party Supply PERSONAL 27.83 x ----------- 100.64 01-06 1002 Corner Market FOOD 199.30 x 01-06 1002 Corner Market FOOD 199.30 x 01-06 1002 Corner Market FOOD 199.30 x 01-06 1002 Corner Market FOOD 199.30 x 01-06 1002 Corner Market FOOD 199.30 x 01-06 1002 Corner Market FOOD 199.30 x ----------- 1975.75 ============= Total: 2736.45 32 - 7 - Checks listed for selected Payees This report prints all the checks that have a Payee matching a list you specify. After entering the date range you are prompted to enter up to 20 different Payees to report on. After you have entered them, press <F10> to print the report. If you want to print all the transactions in the file, including checks, deposits, and ATM entries, enter ALL as a Payee to look for. To print just all the checks, enter CHECK. To print all the deposits, enter DEPOSIT. To print all the Automatic Teller entries, enter ATM. Transactions for specific Payees 01-01-87 to 12-31-87 Example Checking Account: 123 456 789 Date Number Payee and Memo Code Amount C ------ ------- -------------------------- ---------- -------- - 01-08 1003 American Light Bulb HOUSEHOLD 24.95 x Light Bulbs 01-23 1006 American Light Bulb HOUSEHOLD 34.67 x Light Bulbs 03-15 1015 American Light Bulb HOUSEHOLD 10.56 Light Bulbs 04-20 1019 American Light Bulb HOUSEHOLD 42.87 x more light bulbs... When you are done printing reports, press <Esc> to return to the Main Menu. 33 - Maintenance Section This chapter covers those functions of ExpressCheck which most people use only occasionally. The Maintenance section contains functions that are not part of the everyday data entry and report printing process. But the occasional times when you need one of these functions, you will be happy to find that they are as easy to use as the rest of the ExpressCheck sections. To reach the Maintenance Section of ExpressCheck, press <M> from the Main Menu. The following screen displays: Maintenance Menu E - Edit Account Definition C - Current Balance Recalculation R - Reconcile the Account Q - QuickCheck Printing Setup F - QuickFill Deletes B - Budget Code Setup K - Clone Current Account X - Export a File <Esc> to Main Menu Selection _ Edit Account Definition Menu choice <E> is used to change the account definition entries. These include the Account Name, Account Number, Beginning Balance, and Low Balance Warning Amount. This information is described in the "Starting A New Account File" section near the beginning of the manual. (Note: The account size, although first defined here, can not be changed in this section. See the Cloning Section to instructions on changing the account size). 34 - Current Balance Recalculation Menu choice <C> will re-read all the checks and deposits in the account and recalculate the current balance. This is actually done each time an account is opened and theoretically should never have to be done during a session, but is here just in case it is needed. Reconcile the Account Each month when you receive your bank statement indicating the checks and deposits that have been applied to your account, you will want to make sure that your records match theirs. If there is a difference, then you will want to find out who made the mistake and where it was made. ExpressCheck will assist you in this process. If you have procrastinated and have several months worth of bank statements to reconcile, you should do them one at a time, starting with the oldest one. Make sure everything balances before proceeding to the next one. The first thing that you should do in the reconciliation process is to go to the Check Register section and mark all the checks and deposits that appear on the bank statement. This is done by moving the high- light bar to the cleared transactions and pressing <C>. (See Check Register Section for complete instructions). If your bank statement lists any additional charges or deposits such as service charges, per-check-charges, overdraft charges, interest payments, cash machine deposits or withdrawals, automatic withdrawals (Check-O-Matic), or automatic deposits, etc, that you have not yet entered, you should go to the Add Transactions section and make the appropriate entries. When you are entering them, be sure to mark them as Cleared by typing a <Y> in the Cleared field. When you have entered the additional charges and deposits, and have marked everything that shows on the bank statement as Cleared, you are ready to have ExpressCheck reconcile your account. While viewing the Maintenance Menu, press <R> to begin the reconcile process. ExpressCheck will prompt you to enter the Ending Balance that is shown on your bank statement. After you have entered this amount, ExpressCheck will read through the entire account file, adding up all the uncleared checks and deposits. When it finishes, this screen is displayed: 35 - Current Balance of your Bank Account: $ 1,886.73 Add Checks and Charges not yet Cleared : $ 7,050.83 Subtract Deposits not yet Cleared : $ 2,045.00 ----------- Statement Balance by ExpressCheck : $ 6,892.56 Statement Balance by Bank : $ 6,892.56 ----------- Difference : $ 0.00 Cleared this session - Deposits: 3 Checks: 7 ExpressCheck has taken the current balance of your account, added to that amount the checks that have not been marked as Cleared, subtracted all the deposits that have not been marked as Cleared and come up with an amount that should match the Ending Balance on your bank statement. The difference between this amount and the Ending Balance is also shown. If the difference is 0, then you have been successful in the reconciliation. If not, then you have a little detective work to do. Sometimes the problem is as simple as looking for a check or deposit that equals the difference amount and finding that you forgot to mark it as Cleared. Other times you will find yourself comparing each transaction amount that you entered into ExpressCheck with the bank statement and the actual paper check. Often times, a check that has been written by hand will be misread by the bank. Zeros sometimes look like sixes and sixes look like zeros and threes are occasionally read as eights. The best way to locate these discrepancies is to use the Check Register section of ExpressCheck. Make sure that you have marked as Cleared everything that appears on the bank statement, including service charges, interest, check charges, cash machine transactions, etc. If you make some changes, try running the Reconcile option again to see if you have made up the difference. If so, congratulations. If not, then the next step is to compare the check and deposit amounts shown in ExpressCheck with those shown on the bank statement. If you find one that doesn't match, then compare them with the actual check or deposit receipt sent with your statement. If you have recorded the check wrong, then all you have to do is change the check in ExpressCheck and rerun the Reconcile option. If the bank has read the check wrong then you have a decision to make. If the error is small, and unimportant, (like 5 cents on a baby sitter check), you may just want to change the ExpressCheck entry to match the bank record. If, however the error is significant or important, (like an income tax return payment), you will have to contact your bank to report the problem. In this case you can type in an offsetting check or deposit entry to record the difference until you can straighten the matter out with your bank. 36 - Sometimes you just can't find where the problem is coming from. When all else fails, you can just accept what the bank says you have and make a correcting entry to make the ExpressCheck balance the same as the bank balance. (The bank is usually right anyway. Their computers are bigger...?). QuickCheck Print Setup Whenever you are entering, editing or viewing a check, you can produce a printout of it on paper. This printed output can be on a tractor feed check form that you have purchased from your bank or other check form printing company, or it can just be a printed list of all the transactions as you enter them. To be able to use this printing capabilities of ExpressCheck you must first set up the format of the printout. While viewing the Maintenance Menu, press <Q> to set up a QuickCheck format. This screen will display: (This is for a Small account. There are 8 more fields shown on a Large account). QuickCheck Setup redo 1 Check Number 8 2 Date 8 3 Payee 32 4 Check Amount 8 5 Memo 32 6 Budget Code 1 10 7 Budget Amount 1 8 8 Budget Code 1 10 9 Budget Amount 1 8 10 Budget Code 1 10 11 Budget Amount 1 8 12 Cleared 1 13 Spelled out Amount 55 T = Tab F = field S = space CR = carriage return "Text in quotes" Example: T10 S50 F1 CR2 S40 F2 CR2 F3 S4 F4 CR2 F13 CR4 F5 CR6 To set up a QuickCheck format you must indicate the fields that you would like to print and where to put them. At the bottom of the screen is an example of a QuickCheck format: T10 S50 F1 CR2 S40 F2 CR2 F3 S4 F4 CR2 F13 CR4 F5 CR6 37 - A quick explanation of what this format is defining will probably be all you need to understand the process. The T10 at the beginning of the line tells ExpressCheck to Tab over to the 10th column to start all its printing for each line. The example then continues with S50, (space over 50 characters), F1, (print field 1, Check#), CR2, (do two carriage return to move down two lines), S40, (to space over 40 characters), F2, (to print the Date field), CR2, (move down two lines), F3 S4 F4 CR2, (to print the Payee; then 4 spaces; then the check amount; then move down two lines), F13, (to print out the spelling of the amount), CR4, (to move down four lines), F5, (to print the memo field), and finally CR6, (to move down six lines to the top of the next form). Simple, huh? On the screen is a list of all the available fields that you can print. If this is the first time that you are defining a QuickCheck, the input line will be blank. If you have previously set up a format, the input line will contain that format and the cursor will be placed at the beginning. Type in the format string and then press <Enter>. ExpressCheck checks the format to make sure it is valid. If something is unacceptable in the QuickCheck, this message appears: Error in QuickCheck string...press any key The cursor is placed at the character in the text where ExpressCheck encountered the problem. Fix the problem, then press <Enter> again. If everything is correct, ExpressCheck saves the format on your account disk for future use and returns to the Maintenance Menu. Now, whenever you are viewing a check or deposit, you can press <X> to print the contents in the QuickCheck format you just set up. If you are editing a check, you can press <Alt-X> to print. QuickFill Edits QuickFill entries can only be defined while entering a check, but once they are entered you can edit them here if something needs changing. Press <F> while viewing the Maintenance Menu to bring up a list of the currently defined QuickFills. When the list has popped up you can use the up and down cursor keys along with the PgUp and PgDn keys to view the entire list. If you want to make a change to a specific entry, move the highlighted bar to the desired line and press <E> to go into edit mode. (picture of quickfill edit window 38 - You may now make any changes to any of the fields. To save the changes, press <F10>. Press <Esc> to return to the Maintenance Menu. Budget Code Setup Budget Codes are normally added to an account while filling in checks and deposits (See Budget Code field description in the Add Transactions section). To add new codes or delete unwanted ones without having to go into the Add Transactions section, press while viewing the Maintenance Menu to pop up the Budget Code window. Press <A> to add a new code or <D> to delete a code you no longer need. When you are finished, press <Esc> to return to the Maintenance Menu. Clone Current Account Sooner or later you are going to fill up your data disk and want to continue on a new disk. A blank 360K diskette will hold about 2500 transactions for a SMALL account or about 1100 for a LARGE account which, under normal check volumes will last from one to three years. Most people, however, like to keep only one years worth of information per diskette. When beginning a new year it is necessary to have available the record of all the unCleared checks and deposits from the year before so that the reconciliation section will work properly. The Clone section of ExpressCheck is used to copy a group of transactions between a speci- fied date range to a new diskette. To reach the Clone Section, press <K> while viewing the Maintenance Menu. The Clone process asks you to: Enter name of new Account: _______ Enter the name of the new account file, including a drive spec if you are copying to a different drive. You are now asked if you would like the resulting account to SMALL or LARGE. A SMALL account allows amounts up to $99999.99, up to three budget codes per transaction and does not allow addresses on the checks. Transactions in a SMALL account require less than half the disk space of LARGE account transactions. If these limitations cause you no concern then SMALL is the account for you. If, however, you want to put addresses on your checks, enter up to $9999999.99 in amount fields, or split a check into five budget codes, then you should select the LARGE account. Press <S> or <L> accordingly. 39 - You are now prompted for the date range of the transactions to copy. Enter the Low and High dates, changing the defaults if you need to. ExpressCheck now asks: Copy <A>ll transactions or just ncleared? If you are cloning a new file to start a new year, all you really need in the new file are the uncleared transactions. They are all that is necessary to be able to reconcile the account. Press <A> if you want to copy all the checks and deposits that fall within the date range or press to copy only the checks and deposits that have not yet been marked as Cleared. After entering the date range, ExpressCheck will go through the current file looking for checks and deposits that are within the range speci- fied, and copying them to the new file. When this process is over, you will be shown the current account definition where you can make changes needed. You may notice that the Beginning Balance is changed. During the copy process ExpressCheck keeps track of the new running balance and adjusts the Beginning Balance of the new account so that the current balance stays the same. When the Cloning process is over, you are taken back to the Maintenance Menu. (You are still in the original account, not the new cloned account). Quitting ExpressCheck When you are ready to exit ExpressCheck, press <Q> from the Main Menu. ExpressCheck asks if you are sure you want to quit. Answer <N> if you want to say in ExpressCheck or <Y> to be returned to DOS. Be sure to make frequent backup copies of your account files. You never know when a disk will go bad or the lights will go out... Customizing ExpressCheck This section describes the profile feature. Many aspects of Express- Check can be tailored to special environments or personal tastes. For example, all the colors used for ExpressCheck screens and menus can be changed. Defaults, such as the disk drive and path can also be changed. These custom changes are placed in a special file called a profile, which resides in the directory with the ExpressCheck programs. The name of the file with the profile options is CHECK.PRO. If the file doesn't exist, ExpressCheck uses all its standard options. 40 - To change the default settings of ExpressCheck, press <F1> from the opening banner screen. The ExpressCheck Setup screen appears: Page 1 ExpressCheck Setup Drive and/or Path for Accounts : Account to Open at startup : Sound on, <Y>es or <N>o : Y <M>ono or <C>olor : C Display <F>ast or <S>low : F Use linefeeds <Y>es or <N>o : Y Use formfeeds <Y>es or <N>o : N LPT <1> or <2> : 1 General color : LT WHITE ON BLUE General high color : YELLOW ON BLUE Main menu color : RED ON WHITE Main menu high color : BLACK ON WHITE Sub menu color : BLUE ON CYAN Sub menu high color : BLACK ON CYAN Check color : RED ON WHITE Check high color : GRAY ON WHITE Deposit color : BLUE ON CYAN Deposit high color : BLACK ON CYAN Shadow color : BLACK ON BLUE Input color : YELLOW ON BLACK Title color : LT WHITE ON RED Exit color : WHITE ON BLACK Page 2 ExpressCheck Setup Maximum Records 1,2,3, or 4000 : 2000 Reconciliation Name : ExpressCheck Default Check Code : MISC CHK Default Deposit Code : MISC DEP Connect Chk & Dep Numbers (Y/N) : N Return to Check after Deposit (Y/N) : N Length of Page : 66 Lines per Page : 58 Space Character 1. 2_ 3- 4* 5 6 7 8 : 2 Always check disk space (Y/N) : N Snow check <Y>es or <N>o : N Help Mode <Y>es or <N>o : Y 41 - Page 1 settings: Drive and/or Path for Accounts ExpressCheck defaults to the current directory of the data drive when saving transactions. You can override this default by filling in a drive or path. Account to Open at startup To specify an account to automatically open when you start Express- Check, type in the name of the account. Sound Most people find the sound feature useful, so we have made it the default. But some people turn it off because the speaker on their PC is too loud or because others around them find it annoying. If you aren't sure about the sound, try it for a couple days. Once you have become accustomed to the audio feedback from the program, you may find it hard to operate without it. <M>ono or <C>olor If your computer has a monochrome video card, ExpressCheck recognizes its presence and displays screens with white characters on a black background. If it has a color card but a monochrome monitor, or if you prefer black and white displays on your color monitor, enter <M>. If you want to use the color features of ExpressCheck, enter <C>. Display <F>ast or <S>low If your computer's video memory is not at the same address as IBM video memory, you can still use ExpressCheck by either specifying /B on the command line, or by entering <S> here. Use linefeeds <Y>es or <N>o Some printers automatically line feed when they receive a carriage return character. Since ExpressCheck sends both a carriage return and line feed character at the end of each line, it can cause a "double spacing" effect. If your printer double spaces when you print with ExpressCheck but not when you print with other programs, enter <N> into this field, otherwise leave it <Y>. Use formfeeds <Y>es or <N>o When moving to the top of the next page when printing reports, Express- Check defaults to using line feeds. If you are using a printer with a 42 - sheet-feeder or a laser printer, you will want to use formfeeds instead. Enter <Y> to use formfeeds or <N> to use line feeds. LPT <1> or <2> The default printer port for ExpressCheck is LPT1. You can change that to LPT2 by entering a <2>. Customizing Video Colors If your computer has a color monitor, you can change the color which ExpressCheck uses on its screen and menus. The list of available colors is displayed on the right side of the screen. There are sixteen foreground colors and eight background colors. Type the color combina- tions as: foreground ON background The Exit color is the color that ExpressCheck will leave the screen when the program ends. Page 2 settings: Maximum Records 1,2,3 or 4000 The default setting is 2000. ExpressCheck will require slightly less memory if the setting is changed to 1000 and slightly more memory if increased to 3 or 4000. If you are on the borderline of your memory, you may want to decrease this number. If you need to enter more than 2000 transactions per file then you will want to increase this number. (Do not set this number less than the number of transactions in any current file. If you do you won't be able to access records above the limit until you change it back). Reconciliation Name This name is just used to personalize the reconciliation form. Default Check and Deposit Code This is the code that will be used if you just press <Enter> on a Budget Code field. 43 - Connect Chk & Dep Numbers Normally ExpressCheck keeps two separate numbering systems for checks and deposits. The highest number for each is remembered when the account is first loaded and each is incremented separately during entry. If you want to have the same numbering system for both check and deposits, change this answer to <Y>. Return to Check after Deposit When you PgDn from a check for to get a Deposit form, enter it and then save it, ExpressCheck automatically takes you back to a new Check form. If you would like to stay in the Deposit section until you explicitly press <PgUp> to return to the Check forms, change this answer to <N>. Length of Page This is the length of the paper you are printing on, in lines. This setting defaults to 66. (11 inch paper printing at 6 lines per inch). Lines per Page This is the number of actual printed lines desired per page. This is equal to the length of the page minus a top and bottom margin. Space Character ExpressCheck offers you 8 different characters to use as fill for unused positions of an input field. The default is #2, the underline character. Always check disk space If you would like ExpressCheck to display the remaining disk space when entering transactions, change this answer to <Y>. Some hard disk controller cards on large drives return an erroneous number that causes ExpressCheck to display a message that there is no more disk space available. If you run into this situation, answer <N> to this question and keep track of your remaining disk space from the DOS level. 44 - Snow check <Y>es or <N>o If annoying "snow" appears on your screen when data is displayed, enter <Y> to make the snow disappear. Help Mode <Y>es or <N>o ExpressCheck displays help windows while you are entering checks and deposits. you would like these windows not to appear, enter <N>. Saving the new setup When you have completed your changes, press <F10> to save the new profile commands in the CHECK.PRO file. You will then return to the Opening Screen. Reporting Problems To Expressware As you may know, Expressware provides technical support by telephone and in writing to registered users. Unlike many other software companies, there is no extra charge for this service. But like many other software companies, our phones are always busy. At least half the technical calls we receive can be answered by reading the manual. So please help up to keep our costs down and keep our phone lines open: look it up first in the manual. If your problem is not urgent, write to us instead of calling. The problem often can't be resolved over the phone anyway, since it usually requires that we have a copy of your files to recreate the problem on our computer. Send your problem reports to Expressware. Our address is in the front of this manual. Include a diskette with a copy of your account file. Include an explanation of the problem, describing how to make it recur. Also include any reports or screen dumps which may be useful in researching the problem. If you find it necessary to call for technical support, please have all the information available. If possible, call from a phone near your computer, in case you need to run ExpressCheck to troubleshoot or explain the problem. If our phones are busy, try calling in the afternoon. We are on the west coast, so our busiest phone time is from 9 AM to noon Pacific time. By 2 PM Pacific time, users in the east have gone home for the day, so our phone traffic is lighter. 45 - Distribution Notice All Expressware products are distributed as SHAREWARE. Users are welcome to copy the software and share it with their friends. After evaluating an Expressware product, if a person decides to use it, he or she is trusted to buy the registered set. Anyone may obtain an evaluation copy of any Expressware product for between $10 and $15 from a local software dealer or directly from Expressware. The disk set contains diskettes with the complete software the documentation, ready to be printed on your own printer. Complete registered sets are also available from dealers throughout the U.S. and Canada, or may be purchased directly from Expressware. The registered set includes a commercially printed copy of the User's Guide, diskettes and a user registration form. Registered owners receive phone support on Expressware products, newsletters, product announcements, and update service. End users, whether registered or not, are encouraged to copy the software and share it with their friends for evaluation. The following restrictions apply: No Charge may be made for the copies. No alteration may be made to the files on the diskettes. The printed manual may not be reproduced in any way. The computer-printed manual may not be reproduced in any way. Commercial sale or use of the copies is prohibited. Special rules apply for educational use and copying services. Contact Expressware. Disclaimer Expressware makes no representation or warranties with respect to the contents hereof and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. ExpressCheck is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. Expressware shall have no liability or responsibility to your or any other person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused by ExpressCheck, including but not limited to any loss of profits, interruption of service, loss of business or consequential damages resulting from the use of such programs. When starting the use of new software it is a good practice to test the programs with sample data, and to run the programs in parallel with any previous system for a period of time sufficient to ensure satisfactory results. ExpressCheck is a trademark owned by Expressware Corporation. 46 - The registered User's Guide contains a Glossary and a detailed Index 47 -