Crawly Crypt Collection 1/crawlyvol1.bin/crm_demo/pfm/pfm.doc

Text File | 1985-11-19 | 34KB | 823 lines

This is a demonstration version of the popular accounts program

           PERSONAL FINANCE MANAGER   --  PFM for short

All features function correctly in this version with the
exception of the following:-

     PRINTING - Printing of the account statement is disabled.

     SIZE     - The maximum account size is fixed at 30 entries
                and 2 standing orders.

Good luck with the program, and remember that the fully featured
PERSONAL FINANCE MANAGER can be obtained from.....


MICHTRON
P.O. Box 68
St. Austell
CORNWALL
PL25  4YB


Tel: [phone] (All major credit cards accepted)

or from the publishers of ST FORMAT (see the special offers page near
the back of the magazine).



INTRODUCTION

Personal Finance Manager (PFM) is a database program specially
created to handle personal bank accounts, savings accounts,
credit card transactions and many other similar applications.
With its full GEM interface entering new transactions is as easy
as filling in a form, and graphical reports can be instantly
called up from the drop down menus.  Standing orders can now be
automatically debited or credited your account without you having
to remember them.  When its time to check the account against an
official statement PFM will even work out which transactions have
not yet cleared.

PFM can be used with either a monochrome monitor (high
resolution) or with a colour monitor in medium resolution.  It
cannot be used in low resolution mode.

Following this introduction there is a tutorial that will take
you through most of the features by example.  You will see how
to create your own account, enter new transactions, set up
budgets and plot graphs.  Later on you will use the example
data file supplied on the PFM disc.



TUTORIAL


Getting Started

If you are not already familiar with the ST and how to format
discs, copy files, and so on, you should read the ST manual
before using this program.

It is strongly recommended that you make a backup of the program
disc before starting the tutorial.  You should find the following
files on the disc:-

          PFM_DEMO.PRG   The PFM program
          PFM.RSC        A file used by PFM (resource file)
          EXAMPLE.MNY    An example account file
          PFM.FMT        Date format file (may not be present)

Copy these to a formatted backup disc by using the disc copy or
file copy facilities (the PFM disc is not copy protected in any
way).  The original disc should then be stored away safely and
only the backup used.  Ensure that the write-protect tab on the
backup is not in the protect position as some of the tutorial
exercises write data to the disc.

There will be many cases where dates must be entered.  Throughout
this manual the format used is DD/MM/YY.

Place the backup disc in the disc drive and display the directory
by double clicking on the drive icon.  Now run the program by
double clicking on the icon labelled PFM_DEMO.PRG.  After a few
seconds a dialog box should appear requesting that you enter
today's date.  This will already be filled in with the current
system date.  Press the Esc key to clear the old date and enter
11/02/88.  Note that the "/" characters are already there; only
the numbers need to be typed.  When you have done this press
Return or click on "OK".

If you try to run the program in low resolution an error message
will be displayed instead of the date dialog.  You should select
medium resolution using the "Set preferences" choice in the
desktop "Options" menu and try again.

The next step is to create an account by "opening" a file.  Now
that you have entered the date PFM displays the file selector
showing the files on the current disc.  You will notice that the
file path name on the top line reads "A:\*.MNY".  This means that
only subdirectories and files whose name ends with the extension
".MNY" will be listed.  PFM expects its account files to have
this extension and this feature means that only PFM account files
are listed.  You will also see that the file name "ACCOUNT.MNY"
has already been entered.  Press the Return key or click on "OK".

A GEM window will appear with the title:

      "New account A:\ACCOUNT.MNY"

At this stage the window will be empty.



Entering Account Transactions

The next step is to start the account by entering an opening
balance.  Call up the Account Transaction Form by clicking on
"New entry" in the "Update" menu.

In order to fill in this form you will need to be able to move
the cursor (shown as a thin vertical bar) between entry fields.
This is done using the down-arrow key to move to the next field
and if necessary the up-arrow key to move to the previous field.
Delete and Backspace will delete individual characters whilst the
Esc key will completely clear the current field.

Now enter the following information:-


                    Date          ->  01/02/88

                    Amount        ->  1000

                    Budget code   ->  _  (leave this blank)

                    Description   ->  Balance


Now click on "Credit" to make the balance amount positive.

Make sure that the information has been entered correctly and
then press Return or click on "Done".  The form will disappear
and the window should display the information just entered.

Using the same process enter the following transactions as
"Debits".  Instead of clicking on "Done" when each form is complete
try clicking on "Next".  This will accept your data and present
you with a blank form ready for your next entry without the need
to select from the menu each time.  You will find that in each
case the date is carried over from the previous entry.  You can
clear this by pressing the Esc key before typing the new date.

Remember to use the "Done" button with the last transaction.


     Date      Amount   Budget code    Description

     05/02/88   94.75       T          Car Repairs
     03/02/88   55.68       C          Weekly Shopping
     07/02/88  410.33       H          Mortgage
     10/02/88   49.68       C          Weekly Shopping
     01/02/88   60.00       M          Cash

The account window should now display all six transactions and
the total balance in each case.  Notice that these have now been
rearranged into date order.



Making Corrections

Let's suppose that the entry for 10th Feb is incorrect and that
the amount should instead be 59.68.

To edit the entry first select it by moving the mouse pointer to
anywhere in that line and clicking the left mouse button once.
The entry will now appear highlighted.  Select "Edit entry" from
the "Update" menu and the Account Transaction Form will be
displayed with the current entry details already filled in.  This
is the same form as you previously used except that the "Next"
button is disabled.  Now move the cursor to the "Amount" field
and make the necessary changes.  Click on "Done" or press Return
and the account window will show the corrected information.

An alternative way to call up the form for edit is to double
click on the appropriate entry line.  Try using this to edit back
the original amount.



Entering Standing Orders

PFM allows you to set up a number of standing orders that are
automatically executed at the specified dates.  Later on you will
see these in action but this section will concentrate on the
entry form.

Click on "View standing orders" in the "Report" menu.  An empty
window will appear.  Now click on "New entry" in the "Update"
menu and the Standing Order Form will be displayed.  This is very
similar to the Account Transaction Form and is used in the same
way.

Enter the following details:


          Description     ->  Loan Repayment

          Amount          ->  120.00

          Start Date      ->  02/01/88

          End Date        ->  02/11/88

          Budget code     ->  M


Debit and Credit describe the effect on the account.  This is a
debit (the default case).  The five buttons on the right of the
form determine the frequency of the standing order.  In this
case click on "monthly".

The completed form therefore describes a standing order that will
deduct 120.00 from the account each month for eleven months starting
on 02/01/88.

Press Return or click on "Done" and you will see the entry in the
window.

Editing is carried out in exactly the same way as for the account
entries.  In fact you may have noticed that the menu choices you
have been using are the same as before.  Their action is
determined by whichever window is currently active.

Close this window by clicking on the close device in the top left
corner.



Creating a Budget

You will have noticed that your entries include a single
character field labelled "Budget code".  This letter can be used
to identify one of several categories so that in this case for
example 'T' is transport, 'M' is miscellaneous, 'H' is house, and
'C' is consumables.

PFM allows you to set a budget figure against each of these
categories and to compare this with your actual expenditure over
any period.  To see how this budget is set up click on "Set
budget" in the "Options" menu to display the Budget Details
dialog box.

In the left hand column labelled "Code" enter the code letters
you have already used, namely T, H, M, and C, one letter on each
line.  Now move the cursor to the start of the second column
labelled "Description" by pressing the down arrow key
repetitively or by pointing the mouse at this field and clicking.
Enter the descriptions suggested above against each code letter
as a reminder of its meaning.  Finally move the cursor to the
start of the third column labelled "Budget" and enter the budget
amount for each category, say 40, 450, 150, and 160.

PFM allows you to define up to ten budget categories and you may
identify these with any single character from a choice of
A-Z, 0-9, ?, :, and *.  Each code must be unique.

On the right of the dialog box you will see three buttons
labelled "Year", "Quart", and "Month".  These set the periods
that apply to the budget amounts.  Since the default period is
monthly the amounts you have entered are the budgets for each
month.  This period can be changed by clicking on the appropriate
button.



Saving the Account

For the remainder of this tutorial you will be working with the
sample account file supplied on the PFM disc but first you will
see how to save your existing account.

Click on "Save file" in the "File" menu and your account will be
stored on the disc.  The information saved includes all
transactions, standing orders, and budget data.  A "save" does
not delete the account from the program's memory and further work
can be carried out if necessary without having to reopen the
file.  It is sometimes useful to be able to save the account
under another name or on a different disc to the current one.
This can be done by clicking on "Save as..." in the "File" menu
and entering the appropriate information in the file selector
box.

To summarise, you have seen how to start PFM, how to set the system
date, and how to create a new account.  You have entered
transactions and standing orders using the appropriate forms and
have seen how account entries are automatically arranged in date
order.  You have also seen how to edit transactions and standing
orders by double clicking on them or by selecting the edit
facility from the menu.  You have covered the significance of the
budget code and seen how to set up a budget.  Finally you have
saved your account to disc.



Scrolling

Click on "Open file" in the "File" menu.  The file selector box
will appear with the name of the last (or default) file already
filled in.  This time select the file "EXAMPLE.MNY" and click on
"OK".

When loaded the account window will open and display a full
screen of transactions.  In fact there are too many entries to
show on the screen at the same time and so we need a way of
scrolling over the complete account.

The account and standing order windows both include a full set of
GEM horizontal and vertical scrolling devices.  The right hand
border area between the up and down arrows represents the whole
of the account (or standing order list) and the white rectangle
just above the down arrow represents the portion that you can
see.  Now click on the shaded area above this rectangle and the
window will display the previous "page" of entries.  You will
notice that the rectangle has now moved up a little and this
tells you approximately where in the account you are currently
looking.  Clicking on the shaded areas will move the window by as
many entries as are displayed, clicking on the up or down arrows
will move the display by one line at a time, and dragging the
rectangle to a new position will directly move the display to
that part of the account.  The horizontal scroll devices act in
the same way although they are only of use when the window is
reduced in size.

This is the normal way of scrolling through the account but there
is an alternative that is especially useful for large accounts.
Select "Goto date" from the "Report" menu and enter "02/01/88"
into the dialog box displayed.  Click on "Ok" or press Return and
the account window will move directly to the entries starting at
that date.



Checking Entries

PFM provides a number of features to help you check your account
against a formal statement.  The simplest is a means of marking
entries that have been confirmed on the statement.

Move to the start of the account by dragging the scroll bar
rectangle as described above.  Then select one of the entries for
edit so that the entry form is displayed.  You will notice a
button labelled "Checked".  Click on this and then click on
"Done" or press Return.  You will see that the display now shows
a check mark in the left hand column against that entry.

The same result can be achieved by a quicker method.  Point to
another entry using the mouse and click the left button whilst
holding down the right button.  You will see that this entry is
now also checked.  Checked marks can only be removed using the
edit facility.

It is also possible to check entries automatically by clicking on
"Auto-check" in the "Update" menu but first wait until you have
read the section on reconcilation.

This feature simply allows you to see which entries have been
confirmed against for example a statement.  They are not used by
PFM in any other way.



Deferring Entries

Imagine that the account displayed represents your bank account
and that you have just received a statement through the post.
You want to check the PFM account against the statement but none
of the balance figures agree.  Assuming no errors, there are
generally two reasons for this.  Firstly the cheques may not be
cleared in the same order that they were written which means that
the earlier balance figures will appear incorrect.  Secondly the
statement only includes cheques that have passed through the
clearing system.  The PFM account is likely to include cheques
that were written before the statement date but have not yet
cleared.  If these cheques could be "hidden" from PFM then the
final balances should agree.

PFM provides a way to effectively hide individual entries without
deleting them.  Such entries are said to be "deferred".  To see
this in action open an entry for edit as before and click on the
"Defer" button.  When you return to the window you will see that
the entry is now displayed in shaded rather than solid text.
Notice also that the entry is not included in the balance column.
Any number of entries may be deferred and their amounts will not
be added into the balance.

Individual entries may be reinstated by clicking on the "Defer"
button in the edit form.  Alternatively clicking on
"Clear defers" in the "Update" menu will reinstate all deferred
entries.

If a deferred entry is "checked" using the quick method the defer
will be cleared.  Otherwise the use of checked and deferred in
the edit form are independent.

Ensure that there are no deferred entries before starting the
next section.



Reconciliation

The process just described of juggling recent transactions until
the balance agrees with the statement is called reconciliation.
PFM provides a facility that will attempt this automatically.

Scroll to the end of the account and provided you have not
altered any of the entries you should see that the final balance
on 10/02/88 is 4177.01.  Assume that you have just received a
statement that shows a final balance of 3273.18 at 11/02/88.

Click on "Auto-balance" in the "Update" menu and you will see a
dialog box requesting the target date and amount.  Enter the date
and amount on the statement (11/02/88 and 3273.18).  The field
labelled "Scope" determines how many entries are to be juggled
starting at the target date and working backwards.  A default
value of 14 is already filled in.

Click on "OK" or press Return.  After a few seconds a message
will be displayed stating that an exact match has been found.
Press Return and you will see that a number of entries have been
automatically deferred and that the final balance agrees with the
statement.  The deferred entries represent those that have not
yet been cleared.

In fact this facility will always defer all entries dated after
the target date and then attempt to balance the preceding
entries.  Clear the defers and try repeating the procedure using
05/02/88 and 3000.00.  After approximately 8 seconds you will
see a message indicating that an exact match has not been found.
When you return to the display you will see that entries after
the target date have been deferred but the earlier entries are
untouched.

This facility does have a few limitations as follows:-

          It will fail if transactions have actually occurred
          (and are in the statement) but have not been entered
          into PFM.

          If there is more than one transaction of the same value
          within the scope of auto-balance then there is no
          guarantee that the correct one will be chosen.

          It will fail if there is an uncleared transaction
          outside the range of scope.  Note that the scope can be
          altered if required but that each increase of 1 will
          double the possible time taken to perform the match.

Clear the defers and repeat the first example that produced a
successful balance match.  Suppose that you now want to mark as
checked all those entries that are not deferred.  Click on "Auto-
check" in the "Update" menu and a warning box will be displayed.
Click on "OK" and the account window will now show all cleared
entries as checked.  Using the menus "Auto-balance", "Auto-
check", and "clear defers" in turn provides a very fast way of
checking the account against a written statement.

Now clear the deferred entries using the appropriate menu item
and close the account window.



Plotting the Balance

Click on "Plot balance" in the "Report" menu and you will see the
balance amounts displayed graphically. The vertical axis is self
scaling to accommodate the highest balance figure and you will
see that the horizontal axis (zero line) has repositioned itself
to accommodate the negative balances.

Now try altering the size of this window by dragging the bottom
right corner.  You will see that the graph is redrawn to fit the
new size.  The window can also be moved to a new screen position
by dragging the title bar.  Clicking on the "Full" device in the
top right corner will toggle the window between this new smaller
size and the original full screen size.  All of the PFM windows
can be resized in this way except for the buffer window.

Now close the window.



Using the Budget

You have already seen how to create a budget.  If you look at the
budget details dialog (using the "Set budget" option) you see
that a number of categories have already been set up.  You will
also see that under the column labelled "Use" certain boxes have
are shown filled in black.  Those categories selected in this way
are used by the two graphics charts not yet covered, namely the
entry distribution chart and the budget comparison chart.

Click on "OK" or press Return and select "Entry distribution"
from the "Report" menu.  A window will open displaying a pie
chart with 6 segments.  To the right of the pie is a key that
relates each of the patterns in the pie to a budget category.
The complete pie represents the total of all transactions within
the selected budget categories and shows the proportion occupied
by each category.  This is also shown in the percentage figures
next to the key.

Display the Budget Details dialog again and select the "L"
category (Loans) by clicking on the appropriate box in the "Use"
column.  Exit the dialog box and you will see that the pie chart
now includes an extra segment.

Close this window and click on "Budget comparison" in the
"Report" menu.  A bar chart will be displayed.  Along the
horizontal axis you will find the familiar budget codes and above
each will be a pair of vertical bars.  The left hand bar of each
pair represents the budget for that category whilst the right
hand bar shows the actual total so far.  On the left you will see
the start date of the chart.  Below this is the end date of the
budget period and below that is the end date for the totalling of
the account entries.  The budget bars simply represent the
amounts specified in the Budget Details dialog multiplied by the
whole number of budget periods covered by the chart.  At the
bottom is displayed the total budget and total actuals for the
selected categories over the whole period.

To see what all this means consider this example account.  The
date of the last entry is 10/02/88 so this is the end date for
the actuals.  However the budget has been set up as monthly
amounts and the end of the next whole budget period is therefore
01/03/88.  We would therefore expect the actuals to be slightly
below budget since we still have some of the budget period
remaining.  In a typical account you would expect to see the
actuals well below budget at the start of the period (in this
case the start of the month) and increase during the period.  As
the start of the next period is reached you would see the budget
bars suddenly increase by the amounts specified in the Budget
Details dialog.

The budget comparison chart provides a useful view of the
account where only approximate values are required.  For a more
detailed examination the actual figures are needed.  Select
"Actuals >< Budget" from the "Report" menu and you will see the
actual expenditure and budget figures for all categories
displayed in tabular form.  The "H" (house) category for example
is on average overspent against budget.

To see what might have caused this we need a convenient way of
looking at all entries in this category.  PFM provides such a
facility by allowing the account display to show only selected
categories.

Select "Filter" from the "Options" menu.  You will see a dialog
very similar to the Budget Details form.  Click on the box in the
column labelled "Select" corresponding to category "H", then
click on the button labelled "Screen".  Press Return or click on
"Ok"  and then check the account display.  You will see that only
entries in this category are displayed, making it much easier to
find the cause of the overspend.

The printed statement may be filtered in the same way by clicking
on the button labelled "Printer" in the filter dialog.



Setting Graph Date Ranges

So far all of the graphs have covered the entire period of the
account, in this case from 01/01/88 to 10/02/88.  However PFM
allows alternative start and end dates to be defined
independently for each of the graphs.

The effect can most easily be seen in the balance graph window so
first close the budget comparison window and then select "Plot
balance" from the "Report" menu.  Note the dates and the general
shape of the graph and then click on "Graph dates" in the
"Options" menu.  Now move the cursor to the appropriate field
(bottom left) in the dialog box and enter 10/01/88 against the
start date.  Enter 01/02/88 for the end date and exit the dialog
box.  You will see that the shape of the graph has changed and
only covers the date range specified.

You can define either start or end dates or both.  Where no date
is entered it is assumed to be the date of the first or last
entry as appropriate.  This feature allows you, for example, to
display a budget comparison chart for a particular month.



Multiple Windows

You have by now seen a total of five different types of display.
To remind you these are:-

     - Account entries.
     - Standing orders.
     - Balance plot.
     - Entry distribution chart.
     - Budget comparison chart.

Each of these has its own window and can in fact be displayed on
the screen at the same time.  In the tutorial you have generally
closed one window before opening the next but this is not
actually necessary.

At this point the balance plot should still be displayed on the
screen.  You have already seen how to alter its size and position
and for this exercise reduce the size until it occupies only the
top left quarter of the screen.  Now move it so that it just
completely fits into the bottom left corner.

Now select the account window.  Initially this will cover the
whole display area and will hide the balance graph. Reduce the
height to just half of the display area height whilst retaining
full width.  You will now be able to see both windows
simultaneously.  Further windows can be opened if needed although
the screen can get very crowded.  Try experimenting with the
number and sizes of windows.

Some facilities depend on which window is currently active (top).
The active window is always the one that displays its border
components.  You may notice that the others show these only in
outline.



The Graph Buffer

The contents of any window may be captured and stored in a
special buffer for subsequent display.  To see how this can be
useful carry out the following steps:-

     Using the Graph dates dialog set the budget comparison
     start date to 01/01/88 and end date to 30/01/88.

     Display the budget comparison chart and resize it so that it
     occupies no more then a half of the screen width.

     Click on "Chart -> buffer" in the "Report" menu.  PFM will
     warn you that any previously capture contents will be lost.
     Answer "OK".

     Now change the start date to 01/02/88 and clear the end date.

     Move the chart window to the right half of the screen.

     Click on "Show buffer" in the "Report" menu and you will see
     the two budget comparison charts side by side.

This allows you to directly compare the budget chart for April
with the chart for May.  Similarly this feature might be used to
display two different parts of the account at the same time.

The buffer window is the sixth and final PFM window.  It can be
moved around the screen but it always takes on the same size as
the window whose contents were captured.



More on Standing Orders

We have already dealt briefly with the entry of standing orders.
In this section we will cover a little more detail and also
demonstrate them in action.

Like most similar programs the operation of standing orders
depends on the system date.  You will remember that you entered
this when starting the program.  Unlike many other programs however
PFM records exactly when each individual standing order was last
executed and so cannot be confused by any manually entered
transactions.

Display the standing orders in this example file.  You will
notice that the first entry has a start date of 10/05/86.
Clearly this is much earlier than the start of the account so
what has happened?  PFM takes the first account entry (the opening
balance) as the start point and only implements standing orders
on payment dates that follow this start.  In this case the first
payment is on 10/01/88.

Standing orders can executed monthly, quarterly, 6 monthly, or
annually.  They can also be set up as a single payment.  A start
date must be specified but an end date is optional.  Thus the
mortgage standing order in the example is a monthly payment that
will continue indefinitely.

This arrangement will accommodate most situations.  One common
example can be found in housing rates where on a monthly payment
scheme the first amount is different from the remaining eight or
nine.  This case is entered as two separate standing orders, the
first as a single payment for the first amount and the second as
a monthly payment with specified start and end dates for the
second amount.

Care must be taken when editing standing orders.  It is
permissible to change the description or the amount at any time,
and the new details will be effective when the order is next
executed.  However if the standing order has already started
payment changes to the start date will have no effect.  This
means that you cannot change the payment date on an active
standing order.  If, for example, you wanted to change the
payment date from the 12th of each month to the 23rd of each
month you must delete the current order and enter the details as
a new order.  Alterations to the end date will be effective
although of course there is no point in setting it earlier than
any past payment date.  Standing orders that have expired can be
deleted at any time or can if desired be left without ill effect.

Finally you may have notice that the standing entry form contains
a button labelled "Suspend".  If set, its effect is very similar
to the defer option on account entries.  Suspended standing
orders are simply not implemented.  Note however that when this
suspension is removed all missing payments will be made.

Now try these two examples.  First call up a new standing order
form and enter the following details:-

          Description   ->  Jackpot prize

          Amount        ->  1000

          Start date    ->  06/01/88

          End date      ->  (blank)

          Budget code   ->  P

Set this entry as a monthly credit and click on "Done".  Examine
the account window and you will see that it now includes this
entry on the 6th of each month starting in March.

For the second demonstration click on "Alter date" in the
"Update" menu and change the system date to 20/05/88.  The
account window will now include several extra entries
representing all the standing orders executed since 10/02/88.



Printing the Account

PFM can produce a printed statement of account (and standing
orders) on any 80 column printer connected to the parallel port.
It also allows you to set a number of options that control the
content of the statement, the page size, and so on.

This feature is disabled on the demonstration version.



Maximum Database Size

With most database programs the maximum number of entries is very
high and can generally be ignored.  PFM however operates slightly
differently.

Click on "Maximum entries" in the "Options" menu.  You will see
that these maximums appear to be 30 account entries and 2
standing orders.  You will also notice that the actual numbers
used so far are displayed.

At this point it is necessary to understand what happens when
these limits are reached.  Firstly, no additional standing orders
can be entered when you have reached the maximum number.  Account
entries however are treated in a special way.  Suppose that you
have just entered the 31st account transaction.  If you were to
check back to the start of the account you would find that the
second entry has disappeared and the opening balance has changed.
In fact the first and second entries have been added together to
form a new first balance entry.  This takes on the date of the
second entry.  This rollover continues with each subsequent entry
and prevents the account becoming unmanageably large.

These maximums are fixed for this demonstration version.  The
fully featured version starts with initially higher maximum
values and these can be further altered at any time.



Changing the Date Format

PFM offers a choice of two date formats:-

          dd/mm/yy        or        mm/dd/yy

Click on "Date format" in the "Options" menu.  A dialog box will
appear with one of these formats already set.  Select the
alternative format by clicking on the appropriate button and
press Return or click on "OK".  You will first notice that PFM
accesses the program disc and that the dialog box will then
disappear leaving the transaction dates in the new format.

If you were to examine the disc you would find a file PFM.FMT
present.  This is read when the program is next loaded to ensure
that your choice of date format is already selected.



Quitting from PFM

When you have finished this tutorial click on "Quit" in the
"File" menu.

A message will appear warning you that you have made changes to
the account and have not saved these to disc.  You can now either
"Stay" in PFM or quit anyway.  This is a safety feature to ensure
that you do not lose valuable data.  In this case we want you
quit anyway so click on "Quit".

If no changes have been made PFM will quit immediately.



END OF TUTORIAL