Now here‘s a subject we can all get into. Everybody likes money, likes to spend money, likes to count money. But no one likes to pay the bills, or write checks, or keep budgets. There are several finance programs available for the Mac to help you and me keep track of our money and help in writing checks. Some are simpler than others and some are more complete, probably in the middle of the pack is Monogram’s–Dollars and Sense™.
I’ve been using Dollars and Sense since 1987 version 1 to keep track of my money, checks, ATM transactions etc. Since then I’ve upgraded to version 4 and version 5 is expected yet this summer sometime. Dollars and Sense has password protection on individual accounts so each file has it’s own password. Dollars and Sense contains it’s own on–line help called “Why / Expert Why?” so you can chose how much you want to be coached along when mistakes come up, and Monogram has telephone support too if you need it. ¶
Dollars and Sense is not a spreadsheet like program, but rather a database type program with entry windows and dialog boxes to enter selections for searched report selections and the like. The searched reporting capabilities are great and can be used on any or several accounts to show records by months, quarters, or the difference from this year to last. Dollars and Sense can handle more accounts (9,999) and check amounts bigger than I will ever need. It will also do lots of checking accounts on different banks, well that lets me out, I ain’t got that kind of money.
I have no accounting training, know nothing of double entry booking, and still am unable to effect a budget, however, it helps to think of this as a place for everything and everything in it’s place (I hope). What I mean is to go into detail and create accounts (places) for every little thing rather than general categories. Like one for the phone company, one for the electric company rather than one for utilities, one for the grocery store and sales tax and so on. I even enter all the paycheck deductions separately in a gross income account under the name of my employer. Enter credit card charges and payments into separate accounts one for expense (interest) and one for liability (payment). All these multiple transaction entries are done in one window in Dollars and Sense. The more accounts you have to enter records into, the more powerful the searched reporting capabilities become and then you can tell all about your spending habits and create budgets, too. (Yeah, I wish).
I like to use Dollars and Sense for all my money record keeping chores and I use it to write checks too. My checks have vouchers or stubs on the bottom of the check and Dollars and Sense prints these too all in the Imagewriter. Two part and three part checks with and without vouchers are available for the software from Deluxe Business Forms. I also use compatible two window envelopes so the check functions as the address and return address all printed up for me saving me to just sign the checks. Descriptors are used to save the details about each transaction ie:name, address, accounts, amounts if they’re the same etc. This feature is great and saves alot of time each month as all I do is enter the amounts that vary from month to month and then select print checks. In fact it takes me longer to sign the checks and seal the envelopes and attach the stamps than the software takes to handle my money, wow the money sure goes fast, but now I have a record of where it all went.
Of course my complete financial picture includes credit cards, saving accounts, and paper statements and receipts to backup all the computer data. All this and the computer too result in a little more work than it used to be, but I think, as we work hard for our money, we should work hard to take care of it. None the less Dollars and Sense on the Mac makes all my money housekeeping chores a little easier. ¶
Most of the time using Dollars and Sense is spent in the transaction entry windows. Here (see figure) you enter all your checks, deposits, and withdrawals. Each entry is checked for balance and multiple accounts can be used to enter purchase price and sales tax separately at the same time. You actually write the check in this window including a memo if you want, however the address if you use one is written later. I use address’ on all my checks and the descriptors automatically put the address’ in for me each time I write that check, it’s great.
Dollars and Sense has graphs also to let you see bars and pies of how your money breaks down into categories. You first make a report to your specifications and then tell it to create graph, rather limited and I don’t use it much, but it works okay. If you need to you can export data to graphs software too.
The budget calculator shown here ¶ is used to setup monthly budgets and loan payments. It would come in quite handy in case I win the lottery then I will have enough money to budget, otherwise I keep paying as best as I can. I know Dollars and Sense is more than most people need, in fact it’s more than I need, but I like large software packages as they give me an opportunity to learn more and grow into using the Mac for better and better results concerning my everyday life. That’s what I bought it for after all.
The complete power of Dollars and Sense is too great to go into completely in this space, but I think anyone wanting to use a finance program on the Mac should look at Dollars and Sense.
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