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OS/2 Help File
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1996-10-19
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307KB
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ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Introduction ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Introduction
Electronic Teller is a home finance application. It features a rich set of
functions and utilities, which include:
An attractive user-interface to handle various sets of accounts.
Multiple-user support to shield accounts from one another.
A calculator that can be used to paste calculations directly into the
dialog used to create new transactions.
A calendar that can also act as a reminder for upcoming events or
payments, be they one-time events or repeated indefinitely.
A configurable cheque printer that supports user-defined designs and
multiple cheque-per-page printing.
A wide assortment of reports, from budget to transaction reports, with a
variety of subtotalling options.
Budget tracking and graphs.
Transaction fee or service charge tracking.
A converter to import and export QIF files.
Electronic Teller is released as shareware, and sells for $40.00 US. For
complete registration information, please refer to the Registration topic.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. Terms and Concepts ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Terms and Concepts
Included, here, is an alphabetical, brief list of the terms used throughout
this help file and Electronic Teller in general.
Account
Balance
ATM card
Category
Class
Cleared
Code
Credit
Date
Debit
Description
Ending balance
Forward balance
Ledger
Link
Memorandum
Number
Particulars
Payee
Postdate
Record
Reconcile
Split
Subcategory
Transaction
Transfer
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. Service Desk ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Service Desk
The Service Desk is where account and card activities take place. It is the
nerve-centre, of sorts, for all of Electronic Teller's primary
(non-transaction) functions.
The window is divided into two parts: the ATM Cards Container that displays all
currently-defined cards, and the Accounts Container, displaying all defined
accounts for the selected, opened card.
See also:
Service Desk Menus
ATM Cards Container
Accounts Container
ATM Card Creation
Card Backup / Restore
Deleting Cards
Account Management
Deleting Accounts
Card Net Worth
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.1. Service Desk Menus ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Service Desk Menus
The Service Desk provides the following list of menu options:
Cards
Menu Item Menu Function
Access Opens the selected ATM card if closed.
Close Closes the selected ATM card if opened.
New Creates a new ATM card.
Destroy Deletes the selected ATM card if already closed, deleting
all of its accounts in the process.
Setup Permits the editing of the selected ATM card.
Backup Copies the contents of the selected ATM card to a diskette
or drive.
Restore Restores a previous backup to an existing card's directory,
or permits a previously deleted card to be recreated.
Settings Invokes the global Settings notebook, used to edit list
items or other characteristics.
Net worth Displays the selected card's net worth.
Reports Invokes the report preview and printing function.
Import QIF Starts the conversion utility to import an account.
Exit Closes all currently opened cards and exits Electronic Teller.
Accounts
Menu Item Menu Function
Access Opens the selected accounts if currently closed.
Close Closes the selected, opened accounts.
New Creates a new account.
Delete Permits the deletion of one or more accounts.
Edit Invokes the Account Management notebook so that the
selected account may be edited.
First aid Repairs balance innacuracies or damaged index files.
Create record Invokes the Transaction dialog in order to add transactions to the
selected account.
Export QIF Exports the selected account to QIF format.
View budgets Provides a graphical representation of category usage versus budgeted
amounts.
Utilities
Menu Item Menu Function
Calculator Invokes the calculator.
Calendar Invokes the calendar / reminder.
Window
Menu Item Menu Function
Sort Permits the temporary sorting of accounts by name,
number, balance, or type.
[Additional] All currently opened Account Books will be listed in this
menu for easy access.
Help
Menu Item Menu Function
Help contents Displays this help file's contents.
General help Displays this help file's Introduction.
Register Invokes the Registration dialog so that this copy may
be registered and its limitations removed.
Product information Displays Electronic Teller's current release level and the
person to whom this version is registered, if applicable.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.2. ATM Cards Container ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
ATM Cards Container
The ATM Cards container displays all existing cards..
When Electronic Teller first starts up, it searches for any directory beneath
its own bearing the name card.*. For each directory, a file, named base.dat is
read and the card values retrieved from that file. The load order, therefore,
is defined by the directory order, and the sort order upon the load order.
Depending upon the access state of a card, certain Service Desk menus will be
disabled.
Card Closed
Close (disabled)
Import QIF (disabled)
Card Opened
Access (disabled)
Destroy (disabled)
Restore (disabled)
In addition, if a card is closed, the Accounts menu will be disabled.
A popup menu is also available for the ATM Cards container, with the following
items:
Access
New
Destroy
Setup
Backup
Restore
Import QIF
Calculator
Calendar
Exit
To access a closed ATM card, either double-click upon its icon, or select the
Access (Shift+A) item from the Cards menu.
See also:
Service Desk Menus
ATM Card Creation
Deleting Cards
Card Backup / Restore
Card Net Worth
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.3. Accounts Container ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Accounts Container
The Accounts Container displays all of the defined accounts for the currently
selected card. Initially, these are sorted alphabetically, but the sort order
may be temporarily changed to any of these additional options:
Number
Balance
Type
The container is divided into 6 fields:
Type
The icon represents the type of account.
Name
This field displays the name that was assigned to the account
when it was originally created.
Number/Description
This is the account number or description assigned when the
account was originally created.
Balance
This is the account's ending balance. If Electronic Teller is
unable to determine the ending balance or no transactions for
the account exist, n/a will be displayed, here, rather than an
amount. If an amount is not available, but transactions exist,
it will be necessary to invoke First Aid upon that account.
Last accessed
This is the date upon which the account was last opened or data
last written to the account, either with the account as the
source of those changes, or as the target of links or transfers
from other accounts. If the account was never accessed, a series
of zeros will be displayed rather than an actual date.
Last reconciled
This is the date upon which the account was last reconciled. If
the account was never balanced, a series of zeros will be
displayed rather than an actual date.
Accessing accounts can be done in a number of ways, depending upon whether
the account is currently opened. If it is closed, double-clicking on its
icon or selecting the Access item from the Accounts menu will open the
selected account(s). If the account is already opened, it will be
displayed in the task list in addition to Electronic Teller's Window menu
in both the Service Desk and Account Books. Yet another alternative is to
double-click on the account icon once again to bring the book to the
surface.
A popup menu is also available for this container, with the following
items:
Access
Close
New
Delete
Edit
Export QIF
Calculator
Calendar
Exit
See also:
Account Management
First Aid
Reconciling Accounts
Deleting Accounts
Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.4. ATM Card Creation ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
ATM Card Creation
To create an ATM Card, select New from the Cards menu.
To edit an existing card's values, select Setup from the Cards menu.
The ATM Card Data dialog contains the following controls:
Card name
This is the name by which Electronic Teller will reference the ATM
card.
Password (optional)
A ten-character password may be entered here. Passwords are encrypted
and are necessary to access the contents of a card, without exception.
This includes editing the card's password. There is no master password
with which to access a card's contents if the original has been lost or
forgotten.
Other card access rights
Electronic Teller provides as much security from other cards as
desired. Any transfers between accounts in separate cards are just
that, transfers. They are not links. There are four levels of access
rights that can be granted to any other card:
1. Never allow other accounts in other cards to transfer funds to or
from any account in the current card.
2. Allow other accounts to deposit, or credit, any account in the
current card.
3. Allow other accounts to withdraw, or debit, funds from any account in
the current card.
4. Allow both credits and debits; that is to say, no restrictions are
placed on the accounts in the current card.
If an option other than Never is selected, the Access code (optional)
entryfield will be enabled into which a, maximum, ten-character password can
be entered. Transferring funds to or from a card account will then be
conditional upon the initiator of the transfer providing the correct password.
Prompt for backup on close
If this box is checked, the backup dialog will be displayed whenever
the individual card or Electronic Teller itself is closed.
See also:
Deleting Cards
Card Backup / Restore
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.5. Card Backup / Restore ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Card Backup / Restore
Electronic Teller provides either manual or automatic backups of the contents
of an ATM card. The backup dialog can be invoked manually by selecting the
Backup item from the Cards menu, or can be invoked automatically when the card
or Electronic Teller is closed by checking the appropriate box when creating
the card.
Backups are, in fact, merely copies to the drive specified in the Destination
drive combobox. To ensure that there are no file clashes, the following
directory structure is maintained:
ΓöîΓöÇ ETBACKUP
Γöé
Γö£ΓöÇΓöÇΓö¼ΓöÇ CARD.1
Γöé Γöé
Γöé ΓööΓöÇΓöÇ <data files>
Γöé
ΓööΓöÇΓöÇΓö¼ΓöÇ CARD.2
Γöé
ΓööΓöÇΓöÇ <data files>
Restoring is slightly more complex than backing up for the simple reason that
Electronic Teller permits the restoration of cards that have been deleted. To
restore a card or its contents,
1. Select the appropriate Source drive.
2. Click Restore.
3. Select the card from the list (this list consists of all valid cards
located on the source drive or diskette).
4. Click OK
If the card's directory no longer exists, you will be prompted whether you
wish to recreate the card and copy the files. If you reply in the
affirmative, the card will be recreated. If the card is of the same version
as the current Electronic Teller release version, the card will be added to
the ATM Cards Container at the end of the restoration process. If it is of an
earlier version, you will be instructed to close the application and restart
it in order that the recreated card may be properly migrated to the current
level.
Initialization Entries: Electronic Teller keeps much of a card's data and
accounts in a separate subdirectory. There are values, however, which must be
made global to the rest of the program, including the Service Desk. To this
end, a dedicated file, named etdeskf.ini, is used. When a card is backed up,
an ascii file is created, containing the card's complete INI entries. When a
card is restored, those entries are converted to their proper format and
reintegrated into etdeskf.ini. This is done to ensure that the contents in
the initialization file, such as the sums tables, item lists, etc. reflect the
accounts accurately.
See also:
Service Desk Menus
ATM Card Creation
Deleting Cards
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.6. Deleting Cards ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Deleting Cards
To delete an ATM card, select the Delete item from the Cards menu. Doing so
first deletes all files in the card's directory and then proceeds to remove all
references to the card in the etdeskf.ini file.
Please note: It is possible to remove a card's directory manually, and doing
so will not harm Electronic Teller in any way. This method, however, has the
disadvantage of not deleting the card's items from the etdeskf.ini file,
thereby occupying valuable resources. Moreover, card handles are reused as
soon as they become available, and many of the card characteristics are
contained in the initialization file, which may result in unusual behaviour.
See also:
Service Desk Menus
ATM Card Creation
Card Backup / Restore
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.7. Account Management ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Account Management
The Account Management notebook is used for both creating new, and editing
existing accounts. Accounts are added to the ATM card that is currently
selected and opened.
There are three pages to the notebook:
Basic This page contains the preliminary data associated with each
account. Some of the controls on this page are optional.
Others are required.
Credit This page is relevant to credit card accounts only, and
allows the user to define the credit limit associated with
the credit card account. This value is used in the account
book to determine the amount of credit remaining on a card.
Type This page contains the available account types. It is
important to select the appropriate type, because some
accounts handle amounts and balances differently.
See also:
Account Types
Deleting Accounts
Card Backup / Restore
Account Book
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.7.1. Basic Page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Basic Page
The Basic page contains controls that will define the account's primary
characteristics. These controls are:
Name This is the name assigned to the account as it will
appear throughout Electronic Teller. The name is
limited to 32 characters.
Description This is the description and/or account number of the
account being created or edited. This informational
string which can be no longer than 32 characters
appears exclusively in the Accounts Container.
Balance This is the account's starting balance, or the amount
of the initial transaction in the account book. See
below for further clarification.
Calendar The calendar is used to specify the date of the
initial transaction upon account creation. Simply
select the appropriate date, and the initial
transaction will be dated as indicated, but see below
for further clarification
Further clarification: When an account is first created, a cleared entry is
added to the account, dated in accordance with the selected calendar date and
bearing the amount specified in the Starting entryfield. If an account is
edited, the first record's amount and date will be used, which may not
necessarily be the original, initial entry if a transaction dated earlier than
that which was specified on creation was added subsequently. Changing the
amount and/or date, therefore, affects not the initial transaction but the
earliest dated transaction.
In order to save changes made to an existing account or create a new one, the
Name field must contain at least one alpha-numeric character when the notebook
is closed. If nothing in this field is found, any changes are additions are
merely discarded, and an existing account is left unchanged or a new one
uncreated.
See also:
Credit Page
Type Page
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.7.2. Credit Page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Credit Page
The Credit page is used solely when creating a credit card account. The amount
entered here will be used by the Account Book to track the account's credit
limit. If this amount is left at $0.00, the account book will display n/a
rather than the credit remaining.
See also:
Account Book
Account Types
Basic Page
Type Page
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.7.3. Type Page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Type Page
The Type page is used to specify the type of account being created or edited.
It is important that the appropriate type be selected, otherwise unpredictable
amount and balance results will occur.
Five types of accounts are currently supported:
Bank
Credit card
Cash
Asset
Liability
See also:
Account Types
Basic Page
Credit Page
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.7.4. Account Types ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Account Types
Electronic Teller currently supports five types of accounts:
Bank This account is typically used to track savings or
chequing accounts. Amounts are treated normally, in
that deposits, or credits appear in an Account Book's
plus column, and debits, or withdrawals, in the minus
column.
Credit card This account is used to track credit card purchases
and payments. Unlike bank accounts, credit amounts are
treated differently, since credit card purchases are
essentially additions to the overall balance-owing to
the institution or company owning the card. Thus,
purchases appear in the plus column, whereas payments
appear in the minus column. Essentially, credit card
accounts are nothing more than liability accounts,
with the exception of added support for a credit
limit.
Cash Cash accounts are used to track out-of-pocket expenses
or other types of cash-based accounts. Amounts and
balances are treated exactly as they are for bank
accounts.
Asset Asset accounts are used to track personal assets and
may be used as a generic or inventory database by
making use of Electronic Teller's categories and
classes. For example, personal effects or assets
could be entered thus:
Description Category:Subcategory/Class
Wedding ring Jewelry:Diamonds
Pocket watch Jewelry:Gold
123 Any St. RealEstate:Home/Personal
456 Busy St. RealEstate:Home/Rental
Asset amounts and balances are treated exactly as they
are for bank and cash accounts.
Liability Liability accounts are used for any type of
transaction that will deduct from a card's net worth.
As such liability amounts and balances are treated as
they are for credit card accounts.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.8. Deleting Accounts ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Deleting Accounts
Because restoring deleted account files is extremely tedious at best, if not
altogether impossible, even with an file-system undelete function, Electronic
Teller provides an extra level of security before actually removing accounts
from the ATM list.
The process begins by selecting the accounts to be deleted from the Accounts
Container and then selecting the Delete item from the Accounts menu (or
pressing the Delete key).
A secondary dialog listing all selected accounts will then be displayed, and
those accounts will be preselected. Clicking Delete will begin removing the
associated account files from the card's subdirectory. The process ends with
the account's entries in the etdeskf.ini file being removed.
Please note: It is not recommended that an account's files be removed
manually, although doing so will not harm Electronic Teller in any way. The
problem with manual removal is that the entries in the etdeskf.ini are not
removed as a result, and the data occupies what may be valuable drive real
estate.
See also:
Service Desk Menus
Account Management
Card Backup / Restore
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3.9. Card Net Worth ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Card Net Worth
Electronic Teller's net worth function will pull the ending balances of all
accounts for a given card, and display these in a separate window. Liability
account totals (credit cards, liabilities) are subtracted from asset account
totals (bank, cash, and asset) in order to arrive at an accurate net worth.
If the net worth is found to be negative, the Statement of current net worth
amount will be drawn in red rather than black.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. Account Book ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Account Book
The Account book is used both to display individual transactions and to
manipulate them.
The ledger portion of the window uses a fixed set of text and colour attributes
to denote each transaction's status. These are:
Black Uncleared transactions.
Blue Cleared transactions.
Cyan (not shown) Transaction transfers.
Green underscored Voided transactions.
Strikeout Deleted transactions.
Halftone Postdated transactions.
The status area of the window can also aid in determining the status of a
transaction. There are five fields to the status area:
Message This first field will indicate the purpose of a button
or other informational text where appropriate.
Mode This second field will display the current mode of the
book. Generally, this will be regular. Other
possible modes are: reconcile or search.
Status This will indicate the status of the last selected
transaction, either cleared, uncleared, voided,
deleted, postdated, or transferred.
Date This penultimate field displays the current system
date.
Time This last field displays the current system time,
updated every second.
The ledger is divided into six columns when the view is not expanded:
1. Date (as defined by the system).
2. Number / Code.
3. Payee.
4. Credit (deposits for asset accounts, liabilities for liability
accounts)
5. Debit (withdrawals for asset accounts, assets for liability
accounts).
6. Balance (the running balance whose format is defined by the system).
When the display is expanded, an additional line is appended to every
transaction, containing, from left to right:
1. Category: Subcategory listings, if applicable.
2. Class, if applicable.
3. Memorandum, if present.
See also:
Account Book Menus
Account Book Ledger
Adding Transactions
Deleting Transactions
Drag and Drop Operations
Recalling Transactions
Voiding Transactions
Memorizing Transactions
Forecasting a Balance
Range Balance
Search and Replace
Reconciling Accounts
Transaction Graphs
Printing Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.1. Account Book Menus ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Account Book Menus
The Account Book contains the following menu items:
Book
Menu Item Menu Function
Page Contains submenus intended to navigate
the current notebook page (Jan to
Dec) or the entire notebook.
Settings Invokes the Settings notebook for the
current card and account.
Recalculate Forces a recalculation of the Account Book.
Reconcile Begins the reconciliation process for the account.
Close Closes the account book after all running threads
are halted.
Records
Menu Item Menu Function
Create Invokes the Transactions dialog from which new
records are added to the account.
Edit Invokes the Transaction dialog and preloads
the selected records for editing purposes.
Recall Contains submenus used to recall list items
(code, category, class), or all or portions of a
memorized transaction.
Delete / shred Deletes selected regular transactions or shreds
selected deleted transactions.
Undelete Undeletes the selected, previously deleted transactions.
Void Voids the selected, unvoided transactions.
Restore Restores the selected, previously voided, transactions.
Clear transfer Removes the emphasis used to denote a transfer from
another account in a different ATM card.
Memorize Memorizes the selected transaction for recall by the
Transactions dialog or by the Account Book's Recall
menu item.
Forecast Displays an account's ending balance on a defined
date, expanding postdated transactions to adjust the
real running balance.
Range balance This function will permit the subtotalling of all
transactions within a specified date range, including
original and expanded postdated transactions if desired.
Search and replace Invokes the function used to search and optionally replace
transactions containing data in a specific field within
a specified date range.
Expand / shrink A toggle menu option that will alternatively display a
transaction's category, class, and memorandum by doubling
the item's height, or conceal them (the default).
Utilities
Menu Item Menu Function
Calculator Invokes the calculator.
Calendar Invokes the calendar / reminder.
Graphs Presents a graphical representation of an account's
inflow versus outflowtrend for the current year,
as defined by the notebook's selected page.
Print cheques Invokes the cheque printer to design and print
selected cheque transaction entries.
Reports Invokes the report printer in order to preview
and print various reports.
Window
Menu Item Menu Function
Service Desk Changes window focus to the Service Desk.
[Additional] Every opened Account Book will be listed so that
switching to a different book can be accomplished
easily.
Help
Menu Item Menu Function
Help contents Displays this help file's contents.
General help Displays this help file's Introduction.
Product information Displays Electronic Teller's release level and
the name to whom this copy is registered if applicable.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.2. Account Book Ledger ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Account Book Ledger
The Account Book ledger provides the easiest means of manipulating
transactions.
Because the control used to list transactions is not a container, special
consideration is required. For example, right-clicking does not give a record
cursored emphasis as it does in a standard OS/2 container, and so selecting a
popup menu item may not have the expected result. This topic is intended to
clarify some of the Account Book's oddities or subtle qualities.
Virtually all functions associated with existing transactions are based upon a
listbox selection. Editing, for example, invokes the Transactions dialog after
which all selected records are preloaded into the dialog's viewing container.
Similarly, deletions, undeletions, voids, restorations, and all other such
activities affect selected transactions. Because some actions are not
appropriate, such as undeleting an undeleted transaction, for example, certain
functions will either have no affect on a particular record, or will inform you
that the requested action is innapropriate. In certain other instances, menu
items will be disabled to avoid inadvertent loss of data or damage to an
account. Recalling a memorized transaction, for example, would be detrimental
if more than one listbox item were selected. To avoid this, the Recall menu
item is disabled if more than one listbox item is deemed selected.
Where this distinction is most confusing, potentially, is during drag and drop
operations.
See also:
Account Book Menus
Drag and Drop Operations
Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.3. Adding Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Adding Transactions
There are, in fact, two ways in which transactions can be added to an account,
either by dragging and dropping existing records, or by creating them, using
the Transaction dialog. Each method has its own restrictions, which are
explained fully in the appropriate topic.
Transactions created with the Transaction dialog are always added to the
account from which the dialog was invoked, if from an Account Book, or, if from
the Service Desk, to the first selected account in the container.
See also:
Creating Transactions
Creating Linked Transactions
Creating Split Transactions
Creating Postdated Transactions
Transferring to Other Cards
Drag and Drop Operations
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.4. Deleting Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Deleting Transactions
There are two deletion levels in Electronic Teller:
The first merely sets the transaction's deletion flag so that it can
be undeleted at a future time.
The second removes, or shreds, the transaction permanently from the
account.
To delete one or more transactions, listbox items must first be selected and
then one of the many delete options selected. Depending upon a transaction's
status (deleted, undeleted, or voided), the function will:
Delete the transaction (if it is neither already deleted nor voided).
Shred the transaction (if it is already deleted).
A deleted transaction will be displayed as a record with strikeout emphasis --
a line running through the individual column containing any data.
To undelete one or more transactions, again, select them from the ledger, and
either select the undelete function, or hold the Ctrl key and click the waste
basket. If the record has not been previously deleted, invoking the undelete
function will have no effect. The same holds true for voided transactions.
These are restored using the Restore item in the Records menu.
Note: Deleting or shredding a transaction will also affect the memorized
record. If it is deleted, it will be available again only if the original
transaction is undeleted. If the original is shredded, the memorized record
will no longer be available for recall.
See also:
Account Book Menus
Recalling Transactions
Memorizing Transactions
Voiding Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.5. Drag and Drop Operations ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Drag and Drop Operations
Electronic Teller makes use of OS/2's drag-and-drop feature for moving,
copying, and linking transactions. Because some operations would not be
inherently intelligent, such as linking two transactions within the same
account, certain functions are not permitted. These are listed further into
this help topic.
Dragging is initiated by holding the right mouse button down. Any of the
following mouse button and key combinations will define the drag:
Move Mouse button two alone.
Copy Control key plus mouse button two.
Link Shift plus Control keys in addition to mouse button two.
Dropping on an Account Book or Service Desk account icon is permitted under
the following circumstances only:
Move
- permitted to any opened Account Book using the same card.
- permitted to any opened or closed account icon in the Service
Desk using the same card.
- disallowed if the source and target accounts are the same,
regardless of whether the transactions are dropped on an Account
Book or Service Desk icon.
Copy
- permitted to any Account Book or Service Desk icon, including
the source of the drag, but not to accounts contained in
different cards.
- permitted when dragging selected transactions to the Transaction
dialog container for editing purposes.
Link
- permitted when dragging to an Account Book or Service Desk icon,
only if the target account shares the same parent card and is
not the source of the drag.
Links are considerably more complex than simple moves or copies, and the fact
that a listbox is used rather than an OS/2 container complicates matters even
moreso. As a result, special consideration is required in order to link an
existing transaction from one account to another.
There are, in fact, two types of links:
1. Instances in which the source transaction is both copied into the
target account and linked, e.g. the creation of new transactions. A
successful drop will occur only if the source has one or more records
selected and the target account has none. All selected source
records will be copied and then linked.
2. Instances in which an existing transaction in the source account is
linked to an existing transaction in the target account. Such an
operation will be successful only if both the source and target
accounts have one record selected.
As the previous two instances indicate, a link will be rejected if the target
account has more than one listbox item selected.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.6. Recalling Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Recalling Transactions
Recalling a transaction depends largely upon the status of that transaction.
If it is neither deleted nor voided, then a recall will have no effect.
There are two forms of recalls: undeletion and restoration of voided entries:
1. To undelete one or more transactions, simply select them from the
account ledger, and select the Undelete option from the Records menu.
2. To restore a previously voided transaction, again, select it from the
ledger, and click the Restore item from the Records menu.
In both cases, the record will be restored to its previous status prior to
deletion or voiding, i.e. either cleared, uncleared, postdated, or
transferred.
See also:
Deleting Transactions
Voiding Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.7. Voiding Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Voiding Transactions
A voided transaction differs from a deleted one in that the the former can not
be shredded whereas the latter can. This important distinction makes it simple
to shred deleted transactions, using the Search and Replace function, while
leaving voided entries, which are, in all likelihood, important to the overall
account with respect to cheque numbering, for example, untouched. These two
types differ, also, in that a voided transaction is visually represented as
underscored, dark-green entries in the Account Book ledger and deleted entries
as blue (cleared), black (uncleared), half-toned (postdated), or cyan
(transferred) text with the additional strikeout attribute.
In order to void one or more transactions,
1. Select the transaction(s) that are to be voided.
2. Select the Void option from the Records menu.
See also:
Recalling Transactions
Deleting Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.8. Memorizing Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Memorizing Transactions
There are two ways in which transactions can be memorized. The usual method is
to check the Memorize box in the Transactions dialog after a new transaction is
Appended to the display container, or check the Memorize is default box on the
Settings' Miscellaneous page, which will automatically check the aforementioned
box upon each new transaction.
The alternative to this method is to select a transaction from the Account
Book, and click the Memorize item from the Records menu.
Either method memorizes the original transaction's unique identification number
in addition to the description or payee for reference and update purposes.
These can then be recalled later either during the creation of new transactions
or in replacing user-selected portions of existing ones.
Note: Deleting or shredding a transaction will also affect the memorized
record. If it is deleted, it will be available again only if the original
transaction is undeleted. If the original is shredded, the memorized record
will no longer be available for recall.
See also:
Account Book Menus
Creating Transactions
Deleting Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.9. Forecasting a Balance ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Forecasting a Balance
A forecasted balance is one which extends beyond the actual ending balance
balance of an account, and is most suitable for accounts that contain one or
more postdated transactions. For example, if an account contains a postdated
transaction that repeats once every month, it is possible to forecast that
account's balance to the end of the year, given the current contents of the
account.
The first step in forecasting a balance is deciding the date upon which the
forecast is to end. This date is inclusive, meaning that the forecast will end
the day after the specified date. If there are any postdated transactions from
the beginning of the account to the forecasted date, they will be expanded up
to, and including, the forecasted date.
Forecasting lists the transactions for the month prior to the first postdated
record in addition to all original and expanded postdated transactions in
chronological order. Any postdated or regular transactions beyond the forecast
ending-date are ignored.
Original and expanded postdated records are denoted by a blue LED to the left
of the item entry.
See also:
Creating Postdated Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.10. Range Balance ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Range Balance
A range balance lists all transactions that fall between a specified date range
and presents a calculated total of all such records.
To determine a range balance, two dates must be supplied, a starting and ending
date. By default, the ending date is inclusive, meaning that any transactions
falling upon the ending date are included in the final list and their amount
included in the total.
There are three additional controls that can be used to control what is
included in the final list:
Inclusive 'To date'
To ignore any transactions falling upon the specified ending
date, remove the check mark from this box.
Include postdated
By default, postdated transactions are not included in the date
range tabulation or list. To include these, check this box.
Expand postdated
This box is enabled only if the Include postdated box is
checked, and indicates that any postdated transaction included
in the list will be expanded until their calculated date exceeds
that which has been specified as the ending date. The Inclusive
'To date' applies to postdated record expansion, as well.
Original and expanded postdated records are denoted by a blue LED to the left
of the item entry.
See also:
Creating Postdated Transactions
Forecasting a Balance
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.11. Search and Replace ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Search and Replace
The Search and Replace utility allows one to search for transactions in the
current Account Book by field or by status.
The following fields are searchable:
Cheque / Code
Payee / Description
Amount
Category
Class
Memorandum
The following transaction status attributes may also be specified to limit a
search further:
None All transactions will be included in the search.
Deleted Only deleted transactions will be considered in the search.
Postdated Only postdated transactions will be considered in the
search.
Voided Only voided transactions will be considered in the search.
Before a series of transactions may be affected by a replacement value, a
search must be performed. This involves:
1. Selecting the desired field in which to search for the value.
2. Defining any status restriction.
3. Selecting a range date (the ending date is inclusive, meaning that
the search will cease only once the ending date is exceeded).
4. Entering a Search string.
Defining the search
Depending upon the Field being search, the Search field will contain either
a general, predefined, or formatted string. If searching for a payee, for
example, the field can contain any full or partial string. If searching
for a code, category, or class, the search field should contain an existing
code, category, or class item. To view a list of existing items, either
right-click in the entryfield once the Field has been specified, or tab to
it and press the F2 key. Lastly, if searching for an amount, the value
entered as the search string will be formatted in accordance with the
system's country settings before initiating the search procedure.
By default, a search is case insensitive and a substring of the search
string (with the exception of amounts, which must match exactly).
Moreover, split transactions are not excluded. Any of these properties may
be altered by placing or removing the check mark from the appropriate box.
Initiating the search / replace
To initiate a search, at least one character must have been entered into
the Search field. Pressing the Enter key in any object other than the
Replace entryfield and Results listbox will initiate the search, as will
clicking upon the magnifying glass or selecting the Search item from the
Records menu.
To initiate a replace, enter an optional replacement string in the Replace
entryfield. Since the replacement string will be applied to all items
listed in the Results listbox, it is important that items to be omitted
from the replacement be removed from the list. Press Enter to begin
replacing the search field contents with the replacement string, or press
and hold the Ctrl key while clicking the magnifying glass. A third
alternative is to select the Replace item from the Records menu.
Note 1: If the search did not result in any hits, a replacement will not
be permitted.
Note 2: It is possible to replace the contents of the search field with an
empty string.
Note 3: It is also possible to replace a code, category, or class with a
non-existant item. If the replacement string does not match any existing
item, you will be asked if you want that item created. If you decide not
to have the item created, the replacement will not take place.
Note 4: Once a replacement has been issued, the Results list will no
longer be valid (for obvious reasons). The Hits and Total status fields
will display dashes rather than numeric values to reflect the innacuracy of
the displayed items.
See also:
Search and Replace Menus
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.11.1. Search and Replace Menus ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Search and Replace Menus
The Search and Replace dialog contains the following menus and functions:
Records
Menu Item Menu Function
Search Initiates a search.
Replace Initiates a replace.
Create Invokes the Transactions dialog
in order to create additional records.
Edit Invokes the Transactions dialog
and preloads the selected Results
items for editing purposes.
Remove Removes the selected Results items
from the list but not from the file. This is
to permit exclusion of specific records from
the total or from an impending replacement.
Delete / undelete Deletes the selected, undeleted items and/or
undeletes the selected, deleted items. Either
operation has a direct affect upon the account
itself.
Shred Permanently removes the selected items from the
Results list and from the account
file.
Void / restore Voids the selected, regular transactions and/or
restores the selected, voided transactions.
Either operation has a direct affect upon the
account itself.
Close Dismisses the Search and Replace dialog.
Utilities
Menu Item Menu Function
Calculator Invokes the Calculator.
Calendar Invokes the Calendar / Reminder.
Print Sends the contents of the Results
list to a printer.
Printer setup Permits the selection and set up of an
installed printing device.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.12. Reconciling Accounts ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Reconciling Accounts
Reconciling an account is essentially ensuring that the balance is up-to-date
and correct in accordance with the institution with which the account exists.
Typically, an account is reconciled monthly, when a statement from that
institution is received.
Before an account can be properly reconciled, a maximum of five pieces of data
are required:
Previous balance (essential)
The forward balance, or the amount the account contained
following the last reconciliation, or, if the account was never
reconciled, its starting balance.
Increase by
Any transaction provided by the instution that will increase the
account's balance is inserted in this entryfield. Such items
include interest payments paid out to you on a savings account,
for example, or service charges imposed by a credit card
company.
Decrease by
Any transaction imposed by the institution that will deduct from
an account is located here, such as service fees in the case of
bank accounts, or credits applied to a credit card.
New balance
The account's ending balance at the end of the reconciliation
period must be inserted here. The statement will usually
provide this amount for you.
Statement
This is the period which marks the end of the pre-reconciliation
period; that is to say, the New balance is effective as of the
date specified here.
The actual reconciliation process requires only that the transactions that
appear on the statement be identified as having been cleared. To do so in,
simply double-click on the list box entry or scroll to it and press the Enter
key. A check mark will appear to the left of the item. Either action shifts
the contents of the list box up so that the last affect item appears as the
second item in the list. If there is an insufficient amount of items in the
list to warrant scrolling, the item position will remain unchanged, but the
emphasis will still shift to the next list box entry.
For each transaction that is cleared or uncleared (if an error has been made),
the totals along the bottom of the dialog will be updated. These are:
+ the total of all positive transactions
- the total of all negative transactions
= the difference between the increase less the decrease amounts, plus
the total credits less the total debits
Once the = status equals the amount entered in the New balance entryfield, two
tones will sound from the computer, indicating that the reconciliation is
considered accurate and complete. Clicking the check mark icon or selecting
the Reconcile item from the Options menu will complete the process.
Adding Transactions
If it is discovered that one or more transactions for the period in
question were never entered into the Account Book, selecting the Create
record item from the Options menu will invoke the Transactions dialog, from
which additional records may be created. All new additions will be
inserted into the reconciliation listbox so that they, too, may be cleared.
Editing Transactions
Existing transactions may also be edited directly from the reconciliation
listbox, either by selecting the and then the Edit item from the Options
menu, or by selecting them and pressing the Enter key.
See also:
Creating Transactions
Transaction Graphs
Reconcile Menus
Unreconciled Records Reports
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.12.1. Reconcile Menus ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Reconcile Menus
The Reconcile dialog provides the following menu functions:
Records Menu Items
Menu Item Menu Function
Create Invokes the Transactions dialog from which new records
may be created. These will be added both to the
account ledger and the reconciliation list box.
Delete Deletes the selected item from both the account and the
reconciliation listbox.
Edit Invokes the Transactions dialog and preloads the selected
items from the reconciliation listbox in order that they
may be edited. Changes appear both in the account ledger
and in the reconcilation list box.
Reconcile Completes the reconciliation process by updating the
account book.
Close Dismisses the reconciliation dialog.
Sort
Menu Item Menu Function
Date Sorts the reconciliation list box items by date.
Cheque / code Sorts the reconciliation list box items by cheque
number and transaction code.
Payee Sorts the reconciliation list box items by payee,
or description.
Utilities
Menu Item Menu Function
Calculator Invokes the calculator.
Calendar Invokes the calendar / reminder.
Graphs Provides a graphical representation of the uncleared
transactions inflows versus outflows.
Print Invokes the report preview and printing function,
preselecting the Unreconciled records type.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.13. Transaction Graphs ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Transaction Graphs
Transaction graphs are simple graphs used to view an overall picture of the
funds entering and leaving an account, referred to as inflows and outflows.
They should not be confused with the budget graphs.
The x axis of the graph is divided into twelve sections, one for each month of
the year as defined by the selected Account Book notebook page. The y axis
denotes the amount of the individual graph entries. Unless otherwise
indicated, these are in single dollar format.
If you wish to zoom in on the transactions for a given month, you may do so by
double-clicking upon the bar for the month in question. A secondary,
informational dialog box will appear, containing all transactions for the
requested month.
Note: Zooming is not available from the reconciliation graph.
A popup menu is also available for this graph window:
Menu Item Menu Function
Keep negatives This toggle menu item will either show negative
amounts as additions to the positives amounts
or preserve negative amount signs so that these
will appear beneath the x-axis line as they do in
the screen-shot above.
Bar This submenu contains two items that will convert
a line graph or pie chart to a bar graph.
Line This function will convert a bar graph or pie chart
to a line graph.
Pie This function will convert a bar or line graph to a
pie chart. Note that negative amounts are converted
to positive integeters.
Close Dismisses the graph window.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4.14. Printing Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Printing Transactions
For a complete discussion concerning the printing of transactions, see the
Reports topic.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Transactions
The Transactions dialog is used to create new records and to edit existing
ones.
Five types of transactions can be created at any given time:
1. Regular transactions
2. Linked transactions
3. Split transactions
4. Postdated transactions
5. Card transfers
Depending upon the type of transaction that was created and whether it is a
new or existing record, some of the dialog controls will not be available.
Here is a complete list of the dialog's usage, categorized by window control:
Calendar
The calendar is always available, but attempting to date a split
transaction to a date other than the one used by its parent will always
fail. Double-clicking upon a calendar date will change the Date field to
the selected value.
Memorize
This check box is avaible only if a transaction in the viewing container is
selected. Which means that, in order to memorize a transaction, one must
first be created.
Update link
This check box is enabled only when editing a transaction that has been
linked to another account. It is highly recommended that links be always
updated. Remember that the QIF Convertor requires an exact match across all
record fields for the establishment of links.
Transfer to ATM account
This check box is enabled only if a transaction is selected in the viewing
container, which means that a record must first be created in order for it
to be transferred to an account in another card.
Postdate
This checkbox is enabled only if a transaction is selected in the viewing
container. A record, therefore, must first be created in order that it may
then be postdated. The box remains disabled if the selected record is a
split, or if it has just been created. That is to say, record that is being
edited cannot be postdated; neither can a previously postdated record that
is being edited be unpostdated.
Use split sum
This checkbox is enabled only if a split transaction is selected in the
viewing container. If the box is checked, the total of all splits will be
used as the parent transaction's amount; otherwise, the parent's total will
be used as a sort of running total for each individual split -- with each
successive split appended to the parent, the appropriate amount entryfield
will be updated with the parent transaction's total less the total of all
existing splits.
Change postdate selection
This push button is enabled only if the selected item in the viewing
container has been previously postdated.
Date
The date entryfield is always available, but attempting to change the date
of a split to one that is dissimilar to that of its parent will fail.
To scroll the date, use the Up and Down keys to scroll the day portion; use
the same keys in conjunction with the Ctrl key to scroll the month portion.
Number
The number entryfield is always available. This field serves a double
function: to specify a transaction's cheque number or code.
Regardless of whether the field is to contain a cheque number or
transaction code, line completion is available for this field.
A next cheque hot key can also be used to display the next available
cheque. Enter the hot key and tab out of the entryfield for the key to
take affect. The default key is an exclamation mark (!), but this can be
changed to any alphanumeric key via the Setting's Miscellaneous page.
Note, however, that possible conflicts may result, e.g. selecting 1 as a
hot key will prevent the use of any cheque numbered 1.
The Up and Down keys may be used to scroll existing codes. The F2 key or a
right click anywhere in the field will display a list from which a code may
be selected.
Note: Transaction codes and cheque numbers are used by the Transaction Fee
report to track transactions and assign a possible cost to each item per
month. Note, however, that if codes are entered for splits, it may be more
prudent to omit them in the parent to avoid incorrect readings in the
report.
Particular / Payee
This entryfield is always available, and is used to specify a record's
payee or description.
Line completion is available for this field.
The Up and Down keys may be used to scroll existing memorized records. The
F2 key or a right-click anywhere in the field will display a list of all
existing memorized transactions.
Memorization recall occurs after the field loses focus.
To undo a recall, press the F3 key.
Deposit
This entryfield is always available, and its descriptive text will match
the type of account for which transactions are being created.
Use this field to add transactions that will increase an account's ending
balance, such as credits.
It is an error to enter an amount in both this field and the next.
Withdraw
This entryfield is always available, and its descriptive text will match
the type of account for which the transactions are being created.
Use this field to add transactions that will subtract from an account's
ending balance such as debits.
It is an error to enter an amount in both this field and the previous one.
Category
This field is always available and is used to define a transaction's
category or the account to which the transaction is to be linked.
Line completion is available for this field.
The Up and Down keys may be used to scroll existing categories. The F2 key
or a right-click anywhere in the field will display a list of all existing
categories.
Account names are included in this list, and are enclosed within square
brackets, e.g. ]Savings].
Note: Categories are used by the Budget report and Budget graphs to track
category usage for each transaction containing a valid category. It is
good practice to assign a category to each item entered. Note, however,
that you may want to avoid categorizing parent transactions containing
splits, since the splits are likely to be categorized themselves, and so
categorizing both parent and splits may result in incorrect readings --
essentially transaction duplication.
Class
This field is always available and is used to define a transaction's class.
Line completion is available for this field.
The Up and Down keys may be used to scroll existing classes. The F2 key or
a right-click anywhere in the field will display a list of all existing
classes.
Memorandum
This field is always available, and is used to define a transaction's memo.
Viewing container
The viewing container will display all transactions that have been created
during the current session and/or any transactions that are to be edited.
Splits are always appended as children of a parent.
Records to be edited can be added to the container at any time, regardless
of whether the dialog was invoked with the intention of adding new records
or was invoked as a result of editing, provided that the additions emanate
from the same account that invoked the Transactions dialog in the first
place. Records can also be removed from the viewing container at any time.
OK
New records or changes to existing ones are never actually written to the
account until this button is clicked. It remains disabled until at least
one transaction is held in the viewing container.
Cancel
This button is always enabled and is used to dismiss the Transactions
dialog. Any additions or changes are discarded as a result. If there are
transactions in the viewing container, confirmation to dismiss is requested
to avoid inadvertent loss of effort.
Help
This button invokes this help panel.
Settings
This button will invoke the Settings notebook if it is not already running.
Append
This button is always available, and is used to append a parent transaction
to the viewing container.
As Split
This button is enabled only if a parent transaction is selected in the
viewing container. Clicking it will append a split transaction to the
parent as a child of that parent.
Change
This button is enabled only if an existing transaction in the viewing
container has been double-clicked. It is used to confirm changes and
update the container record.
Remove
This button is enabled only if a record in the viewing container is
selected.
Depending upon the type of record that is selected, this button serves two
purposes:
if the selected transaction is a parent, it and all of its
children, or splits, will be removed from the viewing container
only.
if the record is a split, it will be removed from both the viewing
container and from the account after confirmation is received.
Note: The Remove button is the only means by which a split transaction
can be deleted from an account.
See also:
Creating Transactions
Creating Linked Transactions
Creating Split Transactions
Creating Postdated Transactions
Transferring to Other Cards
Editing Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.1. Creating Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Creating Transactions
To create a regular transaction:
Date the entry
Either double-click on a calendar date, or tab to the Date field and press
the [Ctrl]+Up / [Ctrl]+Down keys to scroll the displayed date, or enter the
date manually, ensuring that it corresponds to the system's country
settings format, either mm/dd/yyyy, dd/mm/yyyy, or yyyy/mm/dd.
Enter a number or code
Tab to the Number field and enter a cheque number or transaction code.
If Electronic Teller's Transaction Fee tracking capabilities are used, it
will be necessary to enter something here. Note, however, that if a code
is entered for splits, the parent's code should be omitted to avoid
incorrect readings in the report.
Codes can be created manually, using the Lists page of the Settings
notebook, or on the fly for each new transaction whose code does not
currently exist.
Enter a payee
If a cheque is being written, the person's name to whom the cheque is made
out should appear here. Otherwise, any identifying string should be
entered, since the Transaction report has the capacity to subtotal by
payee.
The name entered here is used to identify memorized transactions. If an
item already exists, it will be updated to reflect any possible changes
made during the current session.
Enter an amount
If the transaction is to add to the account's ending balance, the amount
must be entered in the first of the two amount entryfields. If it is
deducting from the account's ending balance, it should go in the second.
In either case, an amount is entered as a positive value.
Note 1: It is possible to create zero-amount transactions, but Electronic
Teller will request confirmation before appending such a transaction to the
viewing container.
Note 2: It is an error to enter an amount in both entryfields. If two
amounts are found, the transaction will be rejected.
Enter a category
Typically, it is good practice to categorize transactions so that a report
can be generated, using categories as a basis for subtotalling.
Categories can be created either manually using the Lists page in the
Settings notebook, or on the fly with each new transaction whose category
does not currently exist.
Note: If splits are categorized, it may be preferable to leave the parent
uncategorized to avoid incorrect readings (duplicates) in reports and
budgets.
Enter a class
If a category:subcategory combination is not sufficient to identify a
transaction, a class may be used to achieve that end.
Classes can be created either manually using the Lists page of the Settings
notebook, or on the fly with each new transaction whose class does not yet
exist.
Enter a memo
The memorandum is entirely optional.
Save the transaction
Depending upon the type of transaction or operation involved, one of three
pushbuttons must be clicked in order to save the transaction:
Append Appends a parent record to the viewing container.
As Split Appends a split record to the viewing container's as a child
of the parent record.
Change Confirms any changes made to an existing record.
Note: Records are not actually saved as a result of clicking any of these
three pushbuttons. They are kept in the viewing container and written to file
only after the OK button is clicked. Any additions are alterations can be
discarded by clicking the Cancel button.
Completing the process
Once these basic steps are complete, one of the check boxes in the upper
right-hand side of the dialog may be selected:
Memorize
Check to memorize the selected record. Uncheck to remove the
memorization flag or prevent the record from updating an
existing memorized transaction.
Update link
Uncheck if the transaction with which the existing record is
linked is not to be updated to reflect any changes made. This
is not a recommended practice.
Transfer to ATM Account
If unchecked, clicking this box will invoke a secondary dialog
from which the destination card and account will be selected as
targets of a transfer. Removing the check mark from this box
cancels the record transfer.
Postdate
If unchecked, clicking this box will invoke a secondary dialog
in which postdated options are specified. If already checked,
clicking this box will cancel the postdating of the transaction
(but will not remove the postdate setup).
Use split sum
Check if the total of all splits are to be used as the parent's
amount; uncheck if the parent's amount is to be used as the
basis for additional splits.
Writing to file
In order to make any additions or alterations permanent, the OK button must
be clicked. To discard the contents of the viewing container, click the
Cancel button.
See also:
Creating Linked Transactions
Creating Split Transactions
Creating Postdated Transactions
Transferring to Other Cards
Editing Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.2. Creating Linked Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Creating Linked Transactions
There are two methods by which a transaction in one account can be linked to
another account in the same card:
Follow the steps outlined in Creating Transactions, but pause when at
the category entryfield so that the target account may be selected or
entered. To select an existing account, press the F2 key or
right-click in the entryfield for a list of all categories. Accounts
are included in this list, and are enclosed within square brackets,
e.g. ]Savings]. To enter an account name, begin with a square
bracket. The line completion process will display the first account
in an alphabetically sorted list. Continue typing until the correct
account is displayed, or press the Down key to scroll the list.
Drag and Drop an existing transaction from one account to a different
Account Book or to the target account's icon in the Service Desk.
Please note: Links can be established only between accounts sharing a common
card. When the target account resides in a different card, a transfer must be
effected, using the Transactions dialog's Transfer to ATM account checkbox.
See also:
Creating Transactions
Creating Split Transactions
Creating Postdated Transactions
Transferring to Other Cards
Editing Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.3. Creating Split Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Creating Split Transactions
Creating a split transaction is virtually identical to creating a regular
transaction, with two three exceptions:
The Date field is ignored, since splits share their parent's date.
The As Split button must be clicked in order to append the
transaction to the Transactions dialog's viewing container rather
than the Append button, which is used to append parents.
Splits are appended to the viewing container as children of a parent.
See also:
Creating Transactions
Creating Split Transactions
Creating Postdated Transactions
Transferring to Other Cards
Editing Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.4. Creating Postdated Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Creating Postdated Transactions
Postdated transactions appear in the account ledger using a half-toned text
attribute -- it is slightly more difficult to read, but has the added advantage
of clearly denoting that the transaction is to take place in the future and is
not considered a part of the account ledger as of yet. As such, the amount of
the transaction is not tabulated into the overall balance.
To postdate a transaction, first select the record to be postdated from the
Transactions dialog's viewing container and click the Postdate checkbox. If
the transaction is successfully postdated, the box will remain checked. To
revert to a regular transaction on new entries only, remove the check mark from
the box. To edit the postdate settings, click the Edit postdate button.
When the Posdated Transaction dialog first appears, the text entered in the
previous dialog as the Payee / Description appears in the Setup name combobox.
If a postdated setup bearing that name already exists, its configuration
options will be reflected in the dialog. If one does not already exist, it
will have to be created before the dialog can be dismissed. The buttons to the
right of the combobox aid in the manipulation of setups:
Add Creates a new setup.
Change Changes the name of the selected setup.
Delete Deletes the selected setup.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When a setup is deleted, it affects not only the current
transaction, but all transactions in the same card that make use of that
particular setup. If this occurs, recreating the original will not be
possible. Instead, a new setup will have to be created, and each
transaction making use of the original will have to be edited so that they
refer to the newly created one.
ADDENDUM: Although the Calendar / Reminder makes use of this dialog for
its own purposes, the setups are not interchangeable. In other words,
deleting a reminder repetition will not affect any of the accounts in any
of the cards.
You will note that there is no actual Save button on the dialog to preserve
the setup options, other than the name, that is. This is because setups are
automatically updated when the OK button is clicked. If, for example, a setup
named Simple made use of the Simple repetition when it was initially created,
and if it was changed to One time at a later date, the new repetition option
would be preserved upon dismissal of the dialog. The new repetition would
also affect all transactions in all accounts of the current card making use of
that particular setup.
There are four possible types of postdated transactions that can be created:
One Time
Select this option if the transaction is postdated but is not to be
repeatead after the expiry date is reached. When this event occurs, the
transaction will be added to the account and the postdated copy silently
deleted.
Simple
This type is the simplest to set up. Any combination of the three
spinbuttons (Days, Months, Years) is permitted. So, setting them to:
Days: 1 Months: 2 Years: 3
will advance the transaction's next date by 3 years, 2 months, and 1 day
from the day it becomes due.
The maximum values permitted for each spinbutton are:
Days ................ 31
Months .............. 11
Years ............... 99
Recurring Date
There are two spin buttons in the Date options groupbox with possible
values of:
On the ............. <1st> to <31st>, or
<last>
of every ........... <month>, or
<2nd> to <11th> month, or
<Jan> to <Dec>
The first spin button represents an actual calendar date. If a value less
than 29 is selected, bear in mind that not all months have more than 28
days, and so the item will repeat only in months with that many days. If it
is the last day that is intended, then the last value should be selected to
ensure that the item is repeated on the last day of every month, regardless
of how many days there are.
The second spin button can be set to repeat monthly (month), every x months
up to a maximum of 11, or every specific month, (January through to
December).
The syntax of this group box should be used as a guide in defining the
recurring date, postdated transaction.
Recurring Weekday
This is the most flexible of all, but also the most difficult to setup.
There are three spin buttons, with possible values:
On .................... <--->, or
<1st> to <4th>, or
<last>
.................... <Sun> to <Sat>
Of every .............. <week>, or
<2nd> to <4th> week, or
<month>, or
<2nd> to <11th> month
Again, the syntax should be used as a guide. If creating an entry for a
bi-weekly pay cheque, deposited into an account every second Friday, for
example, then the spin button values would read:
On --- Fri of every 2nd wk
If, on the other hand, an amount is withdrawn from an account on a specific
day of the month, every month, and, if that day happens to be the last
Monday of the month, the spin button values would read:
On last Mon of every month
Before a postdate setup is actually accepted, a number of verifications take
place to ensure that the date of the transaction corresponds with that of the
setup, which will become the starting point for all future calculations. These
verifications include:
The transaction's initial date of the month must correspond to the
postdated date of the month, where applicable, e.g. 1st to 31st.
The transaction's week in the month must correspond to the postdated
week option, where applicable, e.g. 1st week to 4th week or possibly
5th week.
The transaction's weekday must correspond to the postdated option's
weekday where applicable, e.g. Sunday to Saturday.
If any of these verifications fail, the postdated options will be rejected
until either they are redefined or the transaction to which they apply is
altered.
See also:
Creating Transactions
Creating Linked Transactions
Creating Split Transactions
Transferring to Other Cards
Editing Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.5. Transferring to Other Cards ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Transferring to Other Cards
To transfer a transaction, one must first be created and selected from the
Transactions dialog's viewing container, after which the Transfer to ATM
account box may be clicked.
Depending upon the amount of the source transaction, the transfer dialog will
either show itself or report that no additional cards permitting that
particular type of transaction were found. Types are defined as the opposite
of the source transaction's amount. For example, a source credit will result
in a debit transfer and vice versa. If all other cards are defined to accept
only a type other than the one being requested, the dialog will not appear. If
at least one card was found that will accept the requested transfer type, the
dialog will appear.
There are three controls in the Transfer dialog:
Card
This list box will contain a list of all cards that accept the
type of transfer that is about to take place. To view a list of
accounts, double-click on the desired card.
Accounts
This list box will contain a list of all accounts that exist for
the the card that was double-clicked in the previous list box.
An account must be selected before the transfer can take place.
Password
This entry field is used to supply a password before the
transfer can be accepted. If the target card was not setup to
require a password, this entry field may be left blank. If one
is required, and is incorrectly inserted, here, the transfer
will be rejected.
The transfer does not actually take place until the Transactions dialog's OK
button is clicked. Once sent, a transfer cannot be recalled, edited, or
deleted by the account that initiated the transfer.
Transfers to accounts are visually represented in the target account as dark
cyan text with two right-angled brackets to the left of the description, e.g.
>>Transfer from Savings. To clear a transfer (and remove the cyan colour
attribute), select the Clear transfer item from the Account Book's Records
menu. Alternatively, edit the record and delete the angled brackets manually.
See also:
Account Book Menus
Creating Transactions
Creating Linked Transactions
Creating Split Transactions
Creating Postdated Transactions
Editing Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5.6. Editing Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Editing Transactions
There are a number of ways in which existing transactions can be edited. The
most straightforward is to select the items in question from the Account Book
Ledger and press the Enter key.
An alternative is to select the transactions and then the Edit item from the
Account Book's Records menu.
Yet another alternative is to invoke the Transactions dialog and then press and
hold the Ctrl key while dragging the selected records to the Transactions
dialog's viewing container.
Transaction may be added to the Transactions dialog for editing at any time,
provided the account that owns the transactions is the same as that which
invoked the dialog in the first place.
See also:
Account Book Menus
Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. Settings ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Settings
The Settings notebook is used to define or edit certain parameters, specific
either to an individual card (including all of its accounts), or to an
individual account.
There are four pages to the notebook:
Lists Page
Miscellaneous Page
Budget Page
Fees Page
Any changes made to any of the 4 pages are preserved when the notebook is
closed. Changes made to list items (either emendations or deletions) will
have no effect upon Account Books that are already opened. In order to view
the changes made in such accounts, the book(s) must first be closed and then
reopened.
Note: If the notebook is invoked from the Service Desk without an account
being selected, the Miscellaneous and Fees pages will not be available, since
these are largely specific to individual accounts.
See also:
Service Desk
Lists Page
Miscellaneous Page
Budget Page
Fees Page
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.1. Lists Page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Lists Page
The Lists page permits the adding, editing, and deletion of list items, which
include:
Transaction codes
Memorized transactions
Income categories
Expense categories
Classes
In order to edit or delete an existing item, it must first be double-clicked,
which will enabled the Delete and Change buttons for all list types with the
exception of memorized records, which cannot be changed manually.
See also:
Budget Page
Fees Page
Budgets
Reports
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.2. Miscellaneous Page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Miscellaneous Page
The Miscellaneous page affects transaction entering/editing for a specific
account, with the exception of ATM card cheque numbering.
Cheque numbering
The top section of this page contains options specific to cheque numbering.
By default, numbering is global to an entire card, which means that only
one series of cheques is used for all accounts in a given card. If various
accounts within the same card use separate cheque books, numbering may be
set to each account in the card, meaning that Electronic Teller will
increment cheque numbers independently of any other account in the card.
Electronic Teller also tracks cheque numbers based upon a series from 1 to
999999999. Series are subdivided into 1000 cheques, so that one series
spans 1 to 999; another spans 1000 to 1999; and so forth. To set the
initial series number, spin the button so that the number reflects the last
used cheque for the account, not the next in the series. For example, if
the last cheque written was numbered 10 and the next in the series is 11,
the spin button should be set to 10.
Cheque number tracking is available solely as a preventative measure. If a
new transaction is created with a number that has already been used,
confirmation will be required before the transaction is appended into the
Transactions dialog's viewing container. It is possible to reuse cheque
numbers, in other words.
The Next cheque hot key is used by the Transactions dialog as a quick means
of entering the next available cheque number. If the number is greater
than one digit, then line-completion will complete the remaining digits for
you. You can, however, rely solely on the hot key to enter the next number.
The default key is an exclamation mark (!). This value can be changed to
any alphanumeric key, but bear in mind that a selection may undergo line
completion and require backspacing. For example, if a W is entered, here,
and a code item is defined as WIT, then the program will automatically
expand that initial 'w' to the defined code.
Miscellaneous options
If transactions are typically memorized, it may be more convenient to allow
Electronic Teller to memorize them all by default and removing the check
mark from the Memorize box in the Transactions dialog whenever one is not
to be memorized. If this is the case, then check the Memorize is default
box.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.3. Budget Page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Budget Page
The Budgets page is where individual categories can be assigned budget values
for an entire year. To define a budget, follow these simple steps:
1. Select the category from the Category combobox.
2. Spin the Year button to the appropriate year if it is not there
already.
3. Tab to the Jan. entryfield, and enter the budget amount for that
month.
4. Continue tabbing through the subsequent months until all values have
been entered.
5. Click the Save button to make the changes permanent.
Any changes made to a budget can be undone by clicking the Undo button, but
note that this function will not succeed if the Save button was pressed.
To delete a budget entry for an entire category, click the Delete button.
Because Electronic Teller provides the ability to define multiple yearly
budgets, there may be instances in which a previous year's budget still
applies to a subsequent year. If this is the case, then spin the Year button
to the first year's budget, and spin the Copy button to the subsequent year.
Click Copy to copy the year's budget for the selected category to the copy
year.
See also:
Budgets
Reports
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6.4. Fees Page ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Fees Page
The Fees page is used to define transaction fees -- costs imposed by an
institution for some or all types of transactions. Fees are based upon
transaction codes.
Defining a fee schedule for a transaction code is fairly straightforward and
requires the following steps:
1. Select the code from the Codes listbox. If a fee for that item
already exists, its values will appear in the entryfields below.
2. Determine how many Free items per month are permitted, if any, and
enter that value in the first listbox.
3. Determine what is the minimum required balance for complete or
partial exemption, and enter that amount in the Minimum balance req'd
entryfield.
4. Determine how much each transaction of the type Code costs if the
minimum monthly balance is not met, and enter that value in the Cost
if balance not met field.
5. Finally, enter the cost for each transaction of type Code if the
minimum monthly balance is met, and enter that amount in the lower
entryfield, labelled Cost if balance met.
6. Click Save.
To undo any changes before the Save button has been clicked, press the Undo
button.
To delete a fee schedule for a selected code, click the Delete button.
See also:
Transaction Fee Reports
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. Conversion ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Conversion
Electronic Teller provides the ability to convert from or to QIF file, a format
used by both Quicken and MS Money, and, in all probability, others.
See also:
Importing Transactions
Exporting Transactions
Sample File
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.1. Importing Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Importing Transactions
Importing from QIF format is a simple matter that requires the existence of a
QIF file, an ATM card into which the imported account will be saved, and the
following steps:
1. Start the importer by ensuring that all accounts in the selected card
are closed and by clicking the Import QIF item from the Cards menu.
2. Select the appropriate options from the available list: Regular
transactions imports the transactions located in the QIF file (in
addition to creating the account); Categories imports the category
section of the QIF file, including any existing budgets; Classes
imports the classes section of the QIF file.
3. Click Import and select the QIF file from the file dialog to initiate
the process.
Categories and classes are imported first, after which the account is created.
If the account already exists (a duplicate name determines this), you will be
asked whether you want the account to be recreated, the data in the QIF file
merged with that of the existing account, or simply appended to the account.
To avoid duplicate transactions, it is best to select Merge. If Append is
selected, then the new entries will be added to the accound in chronological
order, making it extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible, to locate
those new entries manually. If the section containing the account information
cannot be located in the QIF file, it will be necessary to define the type of
account being imported. A list identical to that which appears in the Account
Management notebook will appear. This initial record's category will be used
as the account name if the appropriate section is not found.
Before the actual import of records begins, a Date Format dialog appears
requesting that the proper date format be selected. In all likelihood, the
format used in the QIF file is that of the United States, e.g. mm/dd/yy, but
the converter will not assume this to be the case. Rather, it will retrieve
the first transaction and parse its date. The parsed values will appear in
the dialog from which you can decide which is the proper format. If you select
an incorrect format, eventually the converter will reach a date which is
beyond the boundaries of a given month, e.g. 31/8/96 when it ought to have
been 8/31/96. If this occurs, a fatal error will be raised and the conversion
stopped.
As each transaction is imported into the account, the category field will be
searched for square brackets, denoting a possible link, e.g. [Savings]. If
such an account already exists, it will be searched for an exact match, i.e. a
date, code, payee, amount (with possible reversal), category, class, and memo
match. If one is not found, the date will be broadened to include all
transactions within the imported record's month. Once again, if a match is
not found, rather than create the record and risk possible duplication, it
will be logged to the Link Errors dialog, which will be displayed at the end
of the actual import. Each logged entry will contain sufficient information
to perform a manual link or to permit the user to create the entry manually.
The log list can be saved to file or printed, if desired.
As the export takes place, the listbox will display a log of any significant
events or errors. The contents of this log may be saved to file by clicking
the Save button.
See also:
Service Desk Menus
Account Types
Date Format
Account Type
Duplicate Accounts
Link Errors
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.1.1. Date Format ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Date Format
The Date Format dialog allows the user to specify the date format used in the
QIF file. Typically, this will be the US format (mm/dd/yy), but it may well be
either the European (dd/mm/yy) or Canadian (yy/mm/dd) formats. (Electronic
Teller, for example, uses the system's country settings when exporting to QIF
file).
Rather than make an assumption about the date and risk possible error, the
conversion utility will parse the first record in the QIF file and display the
parsed values in this Date Format dialog. The correct format can then be
specified by selecting a date element in the listbox and clicking the Up or
Down buttons until all three fields are in there proper order.
It may be difficult to determine the actual format based upon the initital
transactions. A date of 1/1/96, for example, may indicate the 1st of January
or January the 1st. If the former is determined to be accurate and the date
fields sorted accordingly when in fact the latter ought to have been specified,
then, eventually, a date of 31/1/96 will be encountered, which would be far
beyond the boundaries of a valid year, the 1st of the 31st month of 1996. If
such a condition is encountered, a fatal error will be raised and the
conversion process stopped.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.1.2. Account Type ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Account Type
A QIF file typically contains a section that describes the account being
imported -- name, type, etc. If such a section is not found, then the
conversion utility will pause and request that you enter the appropriate type.
This is import, given the fact that liability accounts (credit cards and
liabilities) are treated differently from asset accounts. It is imperative,
therefore, that the appropriate type be selected. The list of available types
is identical to that found in the Account Management notebook.
See also:
Sample File
Account Types
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.1.3. Duplicate Accounts ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Duplicate Accounts
Accounts are considered duplicates if their names match exactly. If this is the
case, then the conversion process will pause, requesting that you select an
appropriate action. Available options are:
Create Overwrite the data in the existing account with that of the
imported account.
Merge Insert the data from the imported account only if an
identical match in the existing account is not found.
Append Insert the data from the imported account into the existing
account, without considering possible duplication.
Cancel Cancel the import process altogether.
See also:
Importing Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.1.4. Link Errors ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Link Errors
As transactions are imported, the category field of each import is inspected to
determine whether it is enclosed within square brackets, indicating that it
refers either to the account being imported or constitutes a link with another
account, e.g. [Savings]. If the latter, the card into which the account is
being imported is searched to determine if the linked account already exists.
If it does, then that account, itself, is searched to determine if an exact
transaction match exists. A match is deemed exact if the date, code, payee,
amount (with possible reversal), category, class, and memo in each account is
identical. If no match is found, the date is broadened to include any
transaction in the potential link account that matches the source record's year
and month in addition to all other fields mentioned above. If still no match
is found, the record is logged to the Link Errors dialog. This entry contains
sufficient information to permit a manual link by the user or the creation of a
new transaction. At the very least, the actual QIF file can be searched and
the transaction reconstructed based upon the information contained in the file.
The conversion utility will not automatically create the transaction to avoid
potential duplications if the match was incorrectly unsuccessful, or if the
source transaction was never intended to be included into the QIF file.
See also:
Importing Transactions
Sample File
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.2. Exporting Transactions ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Exporting Transactions
Accounts may be exported to QIF file format, and that exported data may contain
any of the following four sections:
Accounts
Regular transactions
Categories
Classes
The first step in exporting an account is selecting it from the Service Desk's
Accounts Container, and selecting the Export QIF item from the Accounts menu.
This will invoke the conversion dialog from which any or all of the four
sections are selected. Clicking Export begins the process by presenting a
file dialog box in which the QIF exported file is specified.
As the export takes place, the listbox will display a log of any significant
events or errors. The contents of this log may be saved to file by clicking
the Save button.
See also:
Service Desk Menus
Sample File
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7.3. Sample File ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Sample File
This sample is a portion of an export from Electronic Teller's demonstration
card
!Type:Class ΓöÇΓöÇ class section
NClass One ΓöÇΓöÇ name
^ ΓöÇΓöÇ separator
!Type:Cat ΓöÇΓöÇ category section
NIncome ΓöÇΓöÇ name
B 0.00 ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÉ
B 0.00 Γöé
B 0.00 Γöé
B 0.00 Γöé
B 0.00 Γöé
B 0.00 Γö£ΓöÇ budgets
B 0.00 Γöé
B 0.00 Γöé
B 0.00 Γöé
B 0.00 Γöé
B 0.00 Γöé
B 0.00 ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÿ
I ΓöÇΓöÇ Income category
^
NUtilities:Electricity
B -30.00
B -30.00
B -30.00
B -30.00
B -30.00
B -30.00
B -30.00
B -30.00
B -30.00
B -30.00
B -30.00
B -50.00
E ΓöÇΓöÇ Expense category
^
!Option:AutoSwitch ΓöÇΓöÇ Accounts list
!Account
NSavings ΓöÇΓöÇ Account name
TBank ΓöÇΓöÇ Account type
DBank account ΓöÇΓöÇ Account description
^
NVisa
TCCard
D5555 123 789 456
L1,000.00 ΓöÇΓöÇ Account credit limit
^
!Clear:AutoSwitch ΓöÇΓöÇ Account being imported
!Account
NSavings
DBank account
TBank
^
!Type:Bank ΓöÇΓöÇ Account type
D1/ 1/96 ΓöÇΓöÇ Transaction date
T1,000.00 ΓöÇΓöÇ Trans. amount
CX ΓöÇΓöÇ Cleared flag
PStarting balance ΓöÇΓöÇ Trans. payee
L[Savings] ΓöÇΓöÇ Trans. category
^
D7/31/96
T-46.75
CX
NBPY
PHydro Electric
LUtilities:Cable
Mauto bill-payment ΓöÇΓöÇ Trans. memo
^
D7/31/96
T-25.67
CX
NBPY
PBell Telephone
LUtilities:Telephone
Mauto bill-payment
^
D8/ 1/96
T-250.00
NWIT
PWeekly expenses
SGroceries ΓöÇΓöÇ Split category
$-150.00 ΓöÇΓöÇ Split amount
EThe usual ΓöÇΓöÇ Split memo
SPersonal
$-50.00
SAuto:Fuel
$-25.00
SHousehold
$-25.00
^
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. First Aid ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
First Aid
First aid is used to repair one of a possible three account damages or apparent
innacuracies:
1. Sums table
2. Index files
3. Forward Balance
In order to invoke first aid on an account, it must first be closed and
selected.
See also:
Service Desk Menus
Sums Table
Index Files
Forward Balance
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.1. Sums Table ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Sums Table
The Sums first-aid option repairs an innacurate or missing ending balance.
Electronic Teller uses sums tables in order to determine quickly the running
balance for a given year or month. This table is contained in the etdeskf.ini
file, located in Electronic Teller's root directory. If these table entries
are not found, the program will not be able to determine accurately an
account's ending balance, and so the running balance in the Account Book will
be innacurate, as it will be elsewhere where a balance is required.
To reconstruct these table entries:
1. Close the damaged account.
2. Select it from the Service Desk's Accounts Container.
3. Invoke First Aid.
4. Select the Sums table (running balance) item from the available list.
5. Click OK
The account's entry balance in the Service Desk will be updated to reflect the
newly-calculated ending balance.
See also:
Service Desk Menus
Accounts Container
Trouble Shooting
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.2. Index Files ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Index Files
Electronic Teller uses index files to reduce the time required to load or
otherwise retrieve transactions from the database. Actual transaction entries
are kept in a separate file, ending with an extension REC. Should any of the
index files become corrupt, the account will be unusable if not innaccessible.
Should you experience odd behaviour, it is recommended that first aid be
invoked upon the misbehaving account thus:
1. Ensure the account is closed.
2. Select it from the Service Desk's Accounts Container.
3. Invoke First Aid.
4. Select the Index files (delete & rebuild) option from the available list.
5. Click OK.
This function will first delete all the index files associated with the
account. It will then read the main record file one record at a time,
reconsctructing the index files, ending and forward balances as it goes along.
IMPORTANT NOTE: It is always a good idea to ensure that a recent backup of a
card exists before attempting such a major reconstructive operation. Of
course, backing up to a location other than the usual is a good precautionary
measure, as well.
See also:
Card Backup / Restore
Trouble Shooting
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8.3. Forward Balance ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Forward Balance
The forward balance is used solely in account reconciliation. Having an
accurate forward balance is as important as having an accurate ending balance;
otherwise, balancing an account may become extremely tedious if not altogether
impossible.
Determining whether a forward balance is accurate is not an easy thing to do,
unless you are someone who reconciles religiously at the end of the month or
receives a statement, stating what the account's previous balance was before
the beginning of the month's transactions.
If a statement is not available, and it is patently obvious that the forward
balance as it appears in the reconciliation dialog is not correct, then it may
be necessary to invoke first aid:
1. Close the account in question.
2. Select it from the Service Desk's Accounts Container.
3. Invoke First Aid.
4. Select the Forward balance (for reconciliation) option from the available
list.
5. Click OK.
This function will cycle through all the records in the account's main record
file and increment the total of all transactions that have been previously
flagged as cleared. This total will then be used as the account's forward
balance.
See also:
Reconciling Accounts
Trouble Shooting
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. Budgets ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Budgets
The budget module is used to pull together a previously defined budget and the
actual data from at least one account in an ATM card. Budgets make extensive
use of categories, without which, budgets would be meaningless accumulations of
data.
Budgets are created using the Settings notebook' s Budget Page in conjunction
with predefined categories. A budget is global to the accounts of an entire
card, not simply an individual account.
For help in creating budgets, refer to the Budget Page topic.
For help in viewing budgets versus category usage, refer to the Viewing Budgets
topic.
For help in printing a budget versus category usage report, refer to the Budget
Reports topic.
See also:
Viewing Budgets
Budget Reports
Creating Transactions
Lists Page
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.1. Viewing Budgets ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Viewing Budgets
The budget graph consists of two windows, the main window (displayed above)
from which the type of graph and the data to be included in the graph are
defined, and the graph window itself.
The first step in viewing a graph is deciding what to include in the final
output. The controls on the main window are used to define those parameters.
Categories
This groupbox contains two radio buttons and one listbox. When the dialog
is first displayed, the Income button is selected, and the income
categories (if any) are displayed. This listbox is used to view a specific
category in relation to its defined budget. To do so, simply double-click
upon the desired category, and the graph window will be updated
accordingly.
Graph
The Graph groupbox contains two radio buttons. When the dialog is first
displayed, the Bar button is selected. To convert the current graph using
the defined parameters as a pie chart, select the Pie button. A pie chart
will not accommodate negative values. For this reason, a summary graph
cannot be viewed as a pie chart.
Trans. Year
This spin button defines the transaction year that is to be used in
constructing the graph. Budget graphs are limited to a single transaction
year.
When the dialog is first displayed, the selected accounts are not actually
read in the event that the current year is not the preferred year or that
not all accounts are to be included in the graph, or that the preselected
months are not accurate. In order for a comparison to be made, the ref
button to the right of this spin button must be pressed so that the
selected accounts may be read. Whenever the transaction year is changed,
this ref button must be clicked in order to update the data contained in
memory.
Budget Year
Electronic Teller supports multiple-year budgets, and this spin button
selects the year for which the budget has been created. By default, the
value here reflects the current system year. Whenever this value is
changed, the ref button to the right of the spin button must be clicked to
update the data contained in the memory.
Accounts
This listbox contains all the accounts for the currently selected card. By
default, all the accounts are preselected, indicating that they will all be
read and their values combined when building the graph. To omit any
account from the final display, deselect it.
If any changes to the account selection are made, the ref button to the
right of the Trans Year spin button must be clicked to update the data
contained in memory.
Include
A graph is only as good as the data it contains, and since budget graphs
span an entire year, it may be desirable to omit certain months of the
year from the final tally. The Include listbox, which contains twelve
items, permits this very thing. When the dialog is first displayed, all
the months up to, and including, the current system month, are
preselected. To omit or include any of the twelve months, simply deselect
or select them, respectively. Once again, any changes made to this
selection must be followed by a click upon the ref button to the right of
the listbox to update the data contained in memory.
There are, in fact, three types of graphs available, excluding the Bar / Pie
displays:
Category
This graph, described above, displays the budgeted amounts for a
selected category versus the actual amounts over the specified
twelve-month period.
Summary (default)
The summary graph groups all categories and all budgets over the
specified twelve-month period, and displays the data as six
separate items along the x-axis: Budgeted Income versus Actual
Income; Budgeted Expense versus Actual Expense; and Budgeted
Income less Expense versus Actual Income less Expense.
Group
This graph groups all categories of the selected type (Income or
Expense in the Categories groupbox) and all budgets for that
category type. The results are then displayed over the
specified twelve-month period.
The Report button at the bottom of the dialog invokes the Reports function,
with the Budget report type preselected.
See also:
Budget Page
Budget Reports
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9.2. Printing Budgets ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Printing Budgets
The printing of budget results is handled by the Budget report.
See also:
Budgets
Viewing Budgets
Budget Page
Budget Reports
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 10. Calculator ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Calculator
For quick calculations, a calculator is always at hand and can be used for
independent calculations or, if the Transactions dialog is running, for pasting
a calculated value directly into that dialog.
The calculator is divided into two sections. The top section is the calculator
tape into which all calculations are appended. The bottom portion holds the
various keys, used to perform or edit pending calculations.
Tape
For virtually all key presses, the calculator tape will be updated to
reflect the most recent key press. The listbox can contain approximately
32,000 lines, which should be sufficient for day-to-day usage. If desired,
the contents of the tape can also be saved for future recall, or sent to a
printer.
Keys
The following keys perform the described functions:
LED Closes the calculator.
Ў Divides the previous value by the next value.
x Multiplies the previous value by the next value.
Removes the last keypress from the pending value.
0-9 Appends the number associated with the key to the pending value.
. In regular mode, inserts a decimal point. This key will reflect
the system's country settings.
00 In financial mode, the decimal key changes to double zeros to
enable easy insertion of whole dollar amounts.
- Subtracts the previous value from the next value.
+ Adds the previous value to the next value.
= Completes the calculation.
% Converts the displayed value to percentage.
Mr Recalls a memorized value.
Mc Clears a memorized value.
M- Subtracts the displayed value from the memorized value.
M+ Adds the displayed value to the memorized value.
Virtually all keys have a keyboard equivalent. The less obvious are:
Keyboard Equivalent or function
-------- ----------------------
Insert 0
Delete . [or] 00
End 1
Down 2
PageDown 3
Left 4
Alt+Keypad 5 %
Right 6
Home 7
Up 8
PageUp 9
O (letter) LED key (off)
Esc Clear
Backspace delete ()
* multiply (x)
/ divide (Ў)
Menus
Options
Menu Item Menu Function
Financial mode Toggles between regular and financial mode.
Copy Copies the last value in the calculator tape to
the clipboard.
Paste Pastes the last value in the calculator tape into
the Transactions dialog if it exists.
Memory plus Adds the last value to the memorized value.
Memory minus Subtracts the last value from the memorized value.
Tape
Menu Item Menu Function
Clear Clears the tape contents.
Recall Recalls a previously saved tape content and replaces
the existing contents with these.
Save now Saves the tape contents, overwritin any previously
saved content.
Save on exit If checked, the tape contents will be saved whenever
the calculator is closed, overwriting any previously
saved contents.
Print Sends the contents of the calculator tape to a printer.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 11. Calendar / Reminder ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Calendar
The calendar / reminder serves two purposes: as a quickly accessible calendar
and as a reminder utility.
The calendar portion of the dialog is used to define the date upon which an
event is due.
Beneath the calendar are a series of controls:
Event title
This is the identifying string that will appear in the listbox.
Create
This push button creates the event and adds it to the list if
appropriate.
Close
This button closes the calendar.
Desk
This button either changes focus to the Service Desk or invokes
it if it is not already running.
The listbox to the right of the calendar lists all items for the calendar
month. If the calendar is invoked with the /NOSCAN parameter and the Service
Desk is not running, it will enter into a startup mode, which means that any
items that are due or past due will be displayed in the listbox, and the Show
button enabled. If items are not found, the calendar will exit without
showing itself.
The listbox displays three items per entry:
1. An LED icon (see below).
2. The day of the month the item is due.
3. The descriptive string identifying the entry.
The LEDs use four separate colours to identify the item location within the
calendar year in relation to the current system date:
Black Indicates that the item falls within a seven day period
surrounding the current system date.
Blue Indicates that the item is greater than 7 days old but less than
22 days old.
Red Indicates that the item is greater than 21 days old and will be
deleted at the end of 31 days.
Green Indicates that the item is greater than 7 days into the future.
If it is desirable to have the item repeat itself automatically upon
expiration, clicking the Repeat box will invoke the postdate dialog from which
a repetition can be defined. An item that is repeated will be displayed in
subsequent calendar months for as long as the item is valid. For example, the
Car insurance event in the screen shot is set to repeat on the last day of
every month. Scrolling the calendar forward will display this particular
item, because it is valid during that month. The two earlier items, however,
are relevant only to the current month, and will not be displayed in any
subsequent month.
The four push buttons beneath the list serve the following functions:
Edit repetition
This button is enabled only if the selected item is set to
repeat. Clicking it invokes the postdated dialog, preloading the
existing values.
Change
Changes the date and/or Event title of the selected event.
Delete
Deletes the selected event from the list and file.
Show
This button is enabled only if the calendar is started in
startup mode. When this occurs, all items that exist prior to
the current system date are displayed in the list, regardless of
the month for which they were created. Clicking this button
cancels startup mode and reverts to the calendar's regular mode.
See also:
Service Desk
Creating Postdated Transactions
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12. Reports ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Reports
There are currently five types of reports available from the Type combobox:
Transaction
Budget
Cheque Usage
Unreconciled Records
Transaction Fees
A report may consist of one or more accounts selected from the same card.
Depending upon where the report function was called, either an account in the
Accounts listbox or a report type will be preselected. The inclusive date
range is set to the first and final day of the current system month, by
default. Any of these preselected values may be changed at any time.
See also:
Print Preview
Transaction Reports
Budget Reports
Cheque Usage Reports
Unreconciled Records Reports
Transaction Fee Reports
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12.1. Print Preview ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Print Preview
The layout is intended to represent, as closely as possible, the printed page.
For this reason, sizeing the window will almost certainly be necessary because
there will likely be column clashes, in which the items of one column will run
into those of another. When sizeing the preview window, you need only worry
about the Memo and Category columns, because the center of these is a potential
point of intersection. By that, I mean that the Date, Code, Description, and
Memo columns are all based upon the left margin of the page as defined by the
printer driver, and the Amount, Clr, and Category columns are based upon the
right margin. The long and the short of this is: if there is text overlap in
the preview window, there will surely be overlap in the printed report.
The columns in the transaction report are all self-evident, with the exception,
perhaps, of the Clr column. This is generally used to denote whether a
transaction has been cleared, in which case an (X) is written to this column.
If the transaction in question represents a split, an -s- will written to this
column instead. Or, if the transaction has been voided, a -v- will be
displayed.
There are two menu structures in the Preview window (excluding the Help menu
item). The Options menu is available to all report types. The functions
included here are:
Menu Item Menu Function
Font Selects a font for the print preview which will be
translated to the printed page.
Go to If the report contains multiple pages, this item
will allow jumping to a specific page.
Print Sends the report to the default or last defined
printer.
Printer setup Permits the selection of a different printer and/or
alterations to the job properties.
Close Dismisses all report-related windows.
The Subtotals menu is available only for transaction reports, and contains the
following selections:
Menu Item Menu Function
None Does not subtotal the report.
Weekly Subtotals the report after every week (a week is
defined as a 7 days beginning on Sunday and ending
on Saturday).
Two weeks Subtotals the report after every two weeks, defined
as 14 days beginning with a Sunday and ending with
a Saturday.
Half monthly Subtotals the report after the 15th of the month
and again upon the last day of the month.
Monthly Subtotals the report at the end of every month.
Quarterly Subtotals the report at the end of: April,
August, and December.
Six months Subtotals the report at the end of June and December.
Yearly Subtotals the report at the end of every year.
Category (family) Subtotals the report for every complete category
tree, e.g. Utilities:Electricity will be
subtotaled, as will be Heating:Electricity.
Category (single) Subtotals the report for every individual category.
For example, Utilities:Electricity and
Heating:Electricity will be subtotalled
together, because they share the common child,
Electricity.
Class Subtotals the report after every class.
Payee Subtotals the report after every payee or tranaction
description.
See also:
Transaction Reports
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12.2. Transaction Reports ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Transaction Reports
The Transaction report resembles most closely the actual Account Book Ledger,
with the exception of drawing attributes (colours, underscoring, etc.) which
are not reproduced.
This report type will include all transactions in the ledger with the exception
of deleted and postdated transactions. Splits are always included, and are
located directly beneath their parent. The string -s- is written to the Clr
column to highlight the fact that the entry is a split.
Voided transactions are also included but not tabulated in any subtotal or
overall total. The string -v- appears in the Clr column to denote the fact
that the transaction in question has been voided.
There are a number of subtotalling options available for this particular type
of report, all of which are explained in the Print Preview topic.
See also:
Print Preview
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12.3. Budget Reports ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Budget Reports
The budget report displays a breakdown of the selected categories used by an
account in conjunction with any budgets that may have been created for the
individual categories. Each month a category is used during the prescribed
period, an entry in the report will be created.
The first step in generating a budget report is selecting the accounts that are
to be included in the report, in addition to a date range. Subsequent steps are
completed, using the Budget Options dialog:
1. Select any or all of the Income categories to include in the report.
To exclude all income categories, remove the check mark from the
Print income box beneath the income listbox.
2. Select any or all of the Expense categories to include in the report.
To exclude all expense categories, remove the check mark from the
Print expense box beneath the income listbox.
3. Select the Months to include in the report. Because months for which
no transactions yet exist may skew results, it is best to leave those
unselected.
4. Select the Budget year to use.
5. By default, empty or unused categories are omitted from the report. A
category is deemed empty if there are no transactions within the
specified date range. It is deemed unused if the category is never
encountered in an account throughout the entire date range.
The report itself is fairly straightforward, and may look something like the
following:
Category Budget Actual Difference Mth
[Income] Income:Pay
1,500.00 0.00 -1,500.00 Jan
1,500.00 0.00 -1,500.00 Feb
2,250.00 0.00 -2,250.00 Mar
1,500.00 0.00 -1,500.00 Apr
1,500.00 0.00 -1,500.00 May
1,500.00 0.00 -1,500.00 Jun
1,500.00 0.00 -1,500.00 Jul
1,500.00 850.00 -650.00 Aug
1,500.00 0.00 -1,500.00 Sep
1,500.00 0.00 -1,500.00 Oct
0.00 0.00 0.00 Nov
0.00 0.00 0.00 Dec
========= ====== ==========
15,750.00 850.00 -14,900.00
See also:
Print Preview
Budgets
Lists Page
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12.4. Cheque Usage Reports ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Cheque Usage Reports
The cheque-usage report serves the purpose of retrieving cheque-only
transactions within the specified date range for the selected accounts, and
listing these in reverse numerical order. The end of the report lists any
duplicates and any numbers that have been skipped.
Note: If more than one account is included in the report, and one of these
accounts contains links for which a cheque was written, duplicates will be
reported, even though, in reality, they are not duplicates, merely copies of
the same transaction.
See also:
Print Preview
Cheque numbers
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12.5. Unreconciled Records Reports ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Unreconciled Records Reports
The unreconciled-records report is virtually identical to the Transaction
report, with the exception that only uncleared transactions are included in the
report, and the Clr column contains three successive dashes (---) so that a
manual clearing may be performed upon a hard-copy simultaneously.
See also:
Print Preview
Reconciling Accounts
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12.6. Transaction Fee Reports ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Transaction Fee Reports
The transaction-fee report is similar in purpose to the Budget report, except
that transaction codes are used instead of categories.
For this report to be meaningful, a fee schedule must first be created so that
each transaction for each month within the specified date range may be compared
to the fee values and an intelligent total presented. If no fee schedule
exists for a particular code, the string n/a will be displayed rather than a
numerical or monetary value.
A transaction-fee report may look something like the following:
Date Code Description Memo Category Clr Amount
31-07-1996 BPY Hydro Electric auto bill-payment Utilities:Hydro X -46.75
31-07-1996 BPY Bell Telephone auto bill-payment Utilities:Phone X -25.67
BPY transactions for July 1996: 2
Free transactions per month: 0
Free exceeded by: 2
Minimum monthly balance: 927.58
Minimum balance required: 1,000.00
Amount owing if balance met: 0.00
Amount owing if balance shortfall: 1.80
=========
Total owing: 1.80
See also:
Print Preview
Lists Page
Fees Page
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 13. Cheque Printer ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Cheque Printer
The initial cheque printing dialog is divided into two sections:
The first half contains a list of the selected transactions with a
valid cheque number. This is the list of cheques that will be
printed. As each item is successfully queued, a cheque mark will
appear to the left of the item.
The second half contains a list of designs. The selected design will
be used in formatting the cheque fields and assigning font
attributes.
To omit an item from the Queued cheques listbox, select it and click the
Remove button. To send the displayed cheques to a printer, select the desired
design and click Print.
To create a new design click the Create button. To edit an existing design,
select it and click the Edit button. To delete an existing design, select it
and click the Delete button.
See also:
Cheque Designer
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 13.1. Cheque Designer ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Cheque Designer
The cheque design consists of two windows. The screen-shot shows the main
window, used to define certain cheque paramaters. The second window is used to
position individual cheque fields, and to set certain field characteristics.
Every design must be given a name, which appears in the Design entryfield and
in the Designs listbox on the Cheque Printer dialog.
The other controls are used to define the page and cheque properties:
Cheques per page
This spin button will accommodate values from 1 to 5 or
continuous, meaning that a page contains either a single cheque
up to 5 cheques, or that the pages are continuously fed by the
printer.
Dimensions (W x H)
This specifies the dimensions of individual cheques. The values
entered here are important, because the cheque printer uses
these to determine where to position individual fields, and
where to insert a form feed if the cheques per page are greater
than one.
Window scale
This spin button serves no purpose in the actual printing of
cheques; rather it is used to size the design window so that it
more closely resembles the physical cheque.
Print cheque number
If this box is checked, then the number field on the design will
be available, and cheque numbers will be included in the
printout.
Combine date fields
Depending on the cheque layout, you may wish to combine the date
fields to form a single item as opposed to two. When combined,
a date will resemble 1 Jan 95. If not combined, the 1 Jan
portion will be separated from the 95 portion.
Cheque includes stub
If your cheques contain a stub line, check this box in order to
make the stub field available for positioning and printing.
Once these values have been set properly, you can then proceed to set the
field characteristics, i.e. fonts and sizes used for each individual field or
for all fields in the cheque. Following this, field positioning can be
completed. And, lastly, click the Test button to test the design layout for
accuracy and aesthetic qualities.
See also:
Field Characteristics
Field Positioning
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 13.1.1. Field Characteristics ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Field Characteristics
There are two characteristics for each available cheque field that can be set,
excluding, of course, positioning: the font and size.
To change or set a field's font, simply open the font palette, and drag a
selection to the desired field. As the mouse moves over the field, it's size
and font characteristics will be displayed in the Font status window. For
example, if the system 10 point Courier font is dragged, the status window will
read: Font: 10.Courier.
Each field can use a different font and/or size, but remember that too many
selections may result in unappealing results.
See also:
Cheque Designer
Field Positioning
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 13.1.2. Field Positioning ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Field Positioning
Field position is achieved by pressing and holding the right mouse button, and
dragging a field to another location within the window.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When measuring the location of a line, it is important that
the measurement start at the bottom left-hand corner of the cheque, since this
is the 0x0 coordinate used by the cheque design window. For example, if the
Memo field is the lowest field on the cheque, its vertical height will be less
than that of the Date's, assuming, of course, that the latter is closer to the
top of the cheque than the former.
When measuring the horizontal position, no special consideration need be taken,
since measurements are taken from the left of the cheque to the right.
The two status windows, labelled X and Y provide an approximate position for
the field beneath the mouse pointer, in millimeters. This is why it is
important to test a design before actually using it on an actual cheque,
because fine-tuning will almost certainly be necessary.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 14. Registration ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Registration
Electronic Teller is released as shareware. You are granted granted permission
to use Electronic Teller for a period not exceeding 30 days for evaluation
purposes only. If you decide to continue using Electronic Teller, you are
required to register the program by sending a registration fee of $40.00 US
($45.00 CAN) to:
Paul H. Caron
6-16 Eastwood Pl.
Vanier, Ont.
K1L 6X1
CANADA
If you are sending a cheque or money order, please print the supplied
Registration Form and send it along with your payment.
For overseas or credit card orders, registration can be accomplished by
contacting BMT Micro. A separate order form as well as relevant phone numbers
are located in the Ordering by Phone topic.
You are encouraged to distribute Electronic Teller as long as you maintain the
integrity of the original archive and do not distribute any of the programs
contained therein separately as individual applications. You are not permitted
to charge a fee for the use of Electronic Teller, except for a small
administrative fee not exceeding $10 US to cover distribution and/or media
costs.
After your registration payment is received, you will be given a unique
registration key which you will then use to unlock the limitations of the
non-registered version by selecting the Register menu item from the Service
Desk's Help menu. Your key will either be sent to you my snail-mail if no
e-mail address is supplied on the registration form, or by e-mail if a valid
address is given. Please print your e-mail address clearly.
See also:
Unregistered Copy Limitations
Pricing
Registration Form
Ordering by Phone
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 14.1. Unregistered Copy Limitations ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Unregistered Copy Limitations
The unregistered copy of Electronic Teller is limited in the number of
transactions that can be created per account. This ceiling is currently set at
200 records per account, excluding any that have been imported from a QIF file.
No other limitations have been imposed.
See also:
Registration
Pricing
Conversion
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 14.2. Pricing ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Pricing
Electronic Teller sells for $40.00 US ($45.00 CAN).
This registration fee will remove the unregistered copy limitations and covers
all subsequent versions up to, but excluding, version 4.00a.
Although no additional cost is envisioned for upgrading to 4.00a when that time
comes, I reserve the right to charge a fee.
No additional fee will be required for updates from version 2.90b through to
3.99z inclusive.
See also:
Registration
Unregistered Copy Limitations
Registration Form
Ordering by Phone
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 14.3. Registration Form - 2.90a ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Please take a minute to fill out the form below, and send it along with your
registration fee (cheque or money order only, please) to:
Paul H. Caron
6-16 Eastwood Pl.
Vanier, Ontario K1L 6X1.
CANADA
If ordering in Canada, please add $5 to the amount listed below and send
Canadian dollars.
Name: ____________________________________________________________
Company: ____________________________________________________________
Address: ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
City: _______________________ State/Province: __________________
Country: ____________________________ Postal Code: __________________
Phone: ____________________________________________________________
Fax: ____________________________________________________________
Email: ____________________________________________________________
(please print clearly)
Product Version Price Quantity Total
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Electronic Teller 2.90a $ 40.00 US x ________ = $____.___
Total: $____.___
Comments / suggestions? Please list them below:
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 14.4. Ordering by Phone ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
If ordering by mail, please print and submit the supplied order form...
Mail Orders To: BMT Micro
PO Box 15016
Wilmington, NC 28408
U.S.A.
Voice Orders: 8:00am - 7:00pm EST (-5 GMT)
(800) 414-4268 (orders only)
(910) 791-7052
Fax Orders: (910) 350-2937 24 hours / 7 Days
(800) 346-1672 24 hours / 7 Days
Online Orders via modem: (910) 350-8061 10 lines, all 14.4K
(910) 799-0923 Direct 28.8K line
Ordering and general ordering questions:
Via AOL: bmtmicro
via MSN: bmtmicro
Via Prodigy: HNGP66D
via Compuserve: 74031,307
via Internet: orders@bmtmicro.com
telnet@bmtmicro.com
http://www.bmtmicro.com
We accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, Diners
Club, Carte Blanche, Cashiers Check, Personal Check. Personal
checks are subject to clearance. Eurochecks in DM are welcome.
DM, Sterling, and US Currency is welcome but send only by
registered mail, return receipt requested. We cannot be liable
for lost cash sent through the mail.
Purchase orders are welcome, subject to approval. The minimum
amount is $250.00.
ORDERING FROM INSIDE GERMANY ONLY
Persons in Germany wishing to order shareware may also transfer funds
into our account with Deutsche Bank. Once the money is deposited you
may either fax a confirmation to us with proof of deposit or wait until
Deutsche Bank notifies us of the transaction (usually 10-18 business days).
Account information is as follows:
Deutsche Bank / Frankfurt Branch
EmpfДnger: Thomas Bradford / BMT Micro
Konto-Nummer: 0860221
Bankleitzahl: 500-700-10
When you make the transfer, be sure to put your name and the program you
are registering on the transfer.
Current exchange rates can be obtained by sending an email to
dm_to_us@bmtmicro.com. An automated reply will return todays exchange
rates.
It is very important that you send us a completed order form by
either email or fax if you deposit money into this account for a
registration. Fill the order form out as usual except in the credit
card number field put "DEUTSCHE BANK". We will file the order and
use it to match against the deposit information we receive from the
bank.
IMPORTANT!
When you email us your order form, we will reply with an
acknowledgement. If you do not get an acknowledgement within 24 hours
please send your order again in case it was lost. This extra bit of
caution can save a lot of confusion.
If you are concerned that your order is taking too long to process, feel
free to check with us about the status of your order. It's important
to all of us that you feel safe doing business with our company and
please feel free to suggest ways we can improve our service to you.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 14.4.1. BMT Micro Order Form - 2.90a ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
_____________________________________________________________________
Company:_____________________________________________________________
Name:________________________________________________________________
Address:_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
City: _______________________________State/Province: ________________
Postal/ZIP Code: ____________________Country:________________________
Phone:_______________________________________________________________
Fax: _______________________________________________________________
E-Mail #1____________________________________________________________
E-Mail #2____________________________________________________________
Product Quantity Price Number of copies
_________________________ ______________ ________________
Electronic Teller 40.00 US x ____________ = + $ _______
North Carolina Residents add 6% Sales Tax $ _______
Total: $ _______
ΓöîΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÉ
Γöé Γöé
Γöé For credit card payment only Γöé
Γöé Γöé
Γöé Circle one: VISA / Master / Discover / American Express / Diners Γöé
Γöé Γöé
Γöé Credit card number: _____________________________________________ Γöé
Γöé Γöé
Γöé Expiration date: ________________________________________________ Γöé
Γöé Γöé
Γöé Authorization signature: ________________________________________ Γöé
Γöé Γöé
ΓööΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÿ
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 15. Trouble Shooting ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Trouble Shooting
This topic contains possible solutions to problems encountered using Electronic
Teller. It is organized by way of question and answer.
The program freezes when loading my accounts in the Service Desk. What do I do
now?
In all likelihood, one of the index files is corrupt.
The first thing to do is restore a backup. If the account is still
inaccessible,
Identify the account that is causing the program to freeze. If this is an
impossible task, try starting the program with the /showtimer parameter.
This will display a small window in the lower left-hand corner of the
desktop. The top field displays the card identification number. This
number refers to the subdirectory, i.e. a 1 refers to the subdirectory
card.1. The bottom field displays the identification number of the account
being accessed. This number is used to construct the account names in the
card subdirectory, i.e. a number of 2 represents all files in the
subdirectory beginning with 2; for example, 2.REC.
Once the actual account files have been identified, close Electronic Teller
and proceed with the deletion of the files beginning with the number that
was determined previously and ending with the following extensions: .AI?,
.DTA, and .IDX. In all, 10 files should be deleted. Do not delete the
.POL or .REC files; otherwise, the account will truly become unusable.
Restart Electronic Teller and access the card. If all goes well, select
the errant account and invoke First Aid's Index Files option to recreate
the index files. If all does not go well, e-mail me and we'll work it out.
My running balance is definitely not right, and the Service Desk shows an
incorrect balance, as well. How do I fix this?
Electronic Teller uses sums tables to determine an account's ending balance
quickly. If an index file is damaged or the etdeskf.ini file is damaged, it
will be necessary to invoke First Aid on the account.
If the account is accessible, chances are the sums tables are corrupt.
Simply select the account, and invoke First Aid's Sums Table option to
recreate the tables. At the end of the process, the Service Desk's
Accounts container will reflect the calculated balance. If it is still
incorrect,
Select the account and invoke First Aid's Index Files option to recreate
the index files and sums tables simultaneously. Once again, the Service
Desk's Accounts container will reflect the calculated balance.
I'm trying to balance an account but can't seem to get my statement to agree
with my account. What am I doing wrong?
The first thing to check is that all transactions that appear in the
statement are in the account ledger. If any are missing, add them. If
they're all there,
Ensure that the amount of each transaction is, in fact, correct. If it is,
Verify that the forward balance is correct. If it is not, then reconciling
the account will be extremely difficult. If you are unable to determine
what that balance is, you can close the account, ensure that it is selected
in the Service Desk's Accounts container, and invoke First Aid's Forward
Balance option. All records in the main account file will be read and a
total all transactions that are flagged as cleared constructed. Once the
process is complete, reopen the account, and begin the reconciliation
process again.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 16. Contacting the Author ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Contacting the Author
For help, additional information, or bug reports, I can be reached at:
phcaron@travel-net.com
For update notices, visit my web page at: http://www.travel-net.com/~phcaron
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 17. Warranty ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Warranty
Electronic Teller and its accompanying software and documentation are supplied
with no warranty whatsoever, expressed or implied. Its author will not be held
directly or indirectly responsible for any loss and/or damage to your data
and/or system as a result of the use and/or misuse of Electronic Teller. All
software is supplied as is. If you use this program, you understand that you
do so AT YOUR OWN RISK.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 18. Copyright Notices ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Copyright Notices
Electronic Teller (c) 1994-1996 Paul Caron.
OS/2 (c) IBM Corp.
Quicken (c) Intuit.
MS Money (c) Microsoft Corp.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Access menu item from the Service Desk's Cards menu opens the selected,
unopened ATM card. If the card is already opened, this function is disabled.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Access menu item from the Service Desk's Cards menu opens the selected,
unopened ATM card. If the card is already opened, this function is disabled.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The New menu item from the Service Desk's Cards menu invokes the dialog used to
create new ATM cards.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Destroy menu item from the Service Desk's Cards menu prompts for deletion
of the ATM card and its entire contents.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Setup menu item from the Service Desk's Cards menu invokes the dialog used
to edit the currently selected ATM card.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Backup menu item from the Service Desk's Cards invokes the Backup / Restore
dialog, used to copy the contents of the ATM card to a floppy diskette or
hard-drive subdirectory.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Restore menu item from the Service Desk's Cards invokes the Backup /
Restore dialog, used to copy the contents of an existing ATM card from a floppy
diskette or hard-drive subdirectory into the ATM card's own subdirectory.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Import QIF menu item from the Service Desk's Cards invokes the QIF
Converter, used to import category and class lists and transactions into an
existing ATM card.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Reports menu items and the variants from the various Electronic Teller
modules generally invoke the Reports function to generate and printer various
reports. The exception to this rule is the cheque printer, which handles
printing separately.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Settings menu item from the various Electronic Teller modules invokes the
Settings notebook, used to create, edit, or otherwise define such items as
category lists, budgets, transactions fees, etc.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Exit menu item in the various Electronic Teller modules generally close the
window from which it was called. If called from an Account Book, the account
is closed. If called from the Service Desk, opened accounts are closed in
addition to Electronic Teller itself.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Close menu item from the Service Desk's Accounts menu closes the selected,
opened account(s). If any of the accounts is already closed, this function
will have no effect. If there are no accounts selected, this menu item will be disabled.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Access menu item from the Service Desk's Accounts menu opens the selected,
unopened account(s). If any of the accounts is already opened, this function
will have no effect. If there are no accounts selected, this menu item will be disabled.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The New menu item from the Service Desk's Accounts menu invokes the Account
Management notebook so that one new account can be created.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Edit menu item from the Service Desk's Accounts menu invokes the Account
Management notebook on behalf of the selected, closed account. Any changes
made to the account are preserved when the notebook is closed. In order to
cancel any changes, simply remove the account's name from the Name entryfield.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Delete menu item from the Service Desk's Accounts menu invokes a secondary
listbox in which all selected accounts are displayed and preselected. To omit
any accounts from the deletion list, deselect them.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The First Aid menu item from the Service Desk's Accounts menu invokes
Electronic Teller's first aid function, used to repair balance innacuracies, or
damaged index files.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Create record menu item from the Service Desk's Accounts menu invokes the
Transaction dialog on behalf of the first selected account.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Export QIF menu item from the Service Desk's Accounts menu invokes the QIF
Converter, from which the transactions in the first selected account may be
exported, in addition to the category and class lists.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The View budgets menu item from the Service Desk's Accounts menu invokes the
Budget viewer, from which an accounts budgeted and actual category amounts may
be viewed graphically.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A credit limit is used in credit card accounts to track the credit remaining on
that card. For example, if the card's credit limit is $1,000.00 and $300.00
worth of purchases have been made with the card, the credit remaining, as it
will appear in the account book, will be $700.00.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The Net worth menu item from the Service Desk's Cards invokes a display of the
actual net worth of an entire card. The ending balance of liability accounts
(credit card, liability) are subtracting from those of asset accounts (bank,
cash, and asset), and an overall total is displayed.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Shredding a transaction permanently removes it from the account book. Its
unique identification number then becomes available for future use, thereby
making a restoration of the transaction impossible.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A postdated transaction is one whose amount will be taken into consideration
only after it is no longer considered postdated -- its date is found to be
equal to or less than the current system date.
Postdated transactions cannot be voided or immediately shredded. They can,
however, be deleted in preparation for shredding.
These are visually represented as half-toned text.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A voided transaction differs from a deleted transaction in that it cannot be
shredded without first being restored, then deleted, and, finally, shredded.
Voided transactions are visually represented as dark-green, underscored text in
the ledger.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A deleted transaction may be recalled, or undeleted by the account book owning
the transaction. Deleted transactions are visually represented with the
strikeout text attribute.
Deleted transaction cannot be voided without first being undeleted.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A category identifies a transaction as belonging to a certain type. For
example, Income may be defined as a category, and any transaction which
constitutes a source of income would be identified as being a member of that
category.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Dates in Electronic Teller conform to the system's country settings and must
adhere to one of the following formats:
mm/dd/yyyy
dd/mm/yyyy
yyyy/mm/dd
When entering dates, they must be entered in accordance with the country
settings, but the full format need not necessarily be followed. If the system
is defined to accept mm/dd/yyyy, entering 1/9/1996 will be interpreted as Jan.
9, 1996.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A memorandum is a purely informational item attached to a transaction.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
See transaction.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
See payee.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A Number differs from a code when dealing with transactions in that it refers
to a cheque number. Electronic Teller defines a number as a string beginning
with a numerical value. 123, for example, is considered a number, as is
123abc. abc123 is not considered a number, however.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
See payee.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The payee is, in the case of cheque transactions, the person to whom the cheque
is addressed. In all other instances, it can be used as a descriptive string
identifying the transaction.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A postdated transaction is one that will occur in the future. Although these
appear in the ledger as half-toned text, it is not considered part of the
account until it becomes due, at which point it is added to the account.
If postdated transactions are set to repeat themselves, the next date will be
advanced once the transaction is added to an account; otherwise, it will be
silently deleted.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A split is a child of a transaction.
Parent's may have more than one split.
Splits are typically used to break down a transaction into separate components.
If, for example, $100.00 is withdrawn from an account, it may be desirable to
track where that money has gone:
Withdraw 100.00 ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇΓöÇ parent
Groceries 70.00 ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÉ
Personal expenses 20.00 Γö£ΓöÇ splits
Auto Fuel 10.00 ΓöÇΓöÇΓöÿ
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
To reconcile an account is to ensure that the balance is up-to-date in
accordance with a statement issued by a bank or other institution. Reconciling
generally consists of going through the individual transactions throughout a
month, and marking those that appear in the statement. These transactions then
become cleared and appear as blue entries in the the account ledger.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The ledger refers to the list box portion of each account book, and contains a
list of that account's transactions.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Balance may refer either to the process of reconciliating an account, or to a
physical ending or forward balance.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The term cleared refers to transactions that have been processed by an
institution and have appeared upon a statement. Such items appear as blue
entries in the ledger following the reconciliation process.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
An account is a collection of transactions.
Five types of accounts are supported: bank, credit card, cash, asset, and liability..
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
ATM Cards are, in a sense, specialized folders in that they contain collections
of accounts but will not permit moving or copying accounts between themselves.
Cards are ideally suited for multiple users or for separating disparate
accounts that do not share code, category, and class lists, such as the
accounts of a parent and those of his/her children.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A class aids in further identifying a transaction, when a category or
subcategory is insufficient.
For example, assume that fuel is purchased for both an automabile and a
motorcycle. Each purchase could be categorized, subcategorized, and, finally,
classed as:
Category Subcategory Class
------- ---------- ----
Purchase Fuel Auto
Purchase Fuel Motorcycle
Classes are frequently associated with categories and are delimited by a
forward slash, e.g. Category/Class.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A code identifies a particular type of transaction more generally than a
category. Withdrawals, for example, could be coded as WIT and deposits as DEP.
Codes are used by the Transaction Fee report which, in conjunction with a
Transaction fee schedule will display the cost, if any, of all transactions of
a given code over a period of one month.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The ending balance is the total of all transactions in an account.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A transaction is an individual entry in an account that represents either a
credit or debit applied to the ending balance.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Transfers differ from links in two respects:
Transfers exist only between accounts that do not share the same ATM
cards. Transaction associations between accounts within the same
card constitute links.
Editing or deleting a transfer has no effect upon the account from
which the funds have been transferred.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Inflow is a term used to describe all transactions that increase an account's
ending balance.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Outflow is a term used to describe all transactions that decrease an account's
ending balance.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A credit is a transaction that increases an account's ending balance.
For asset accounts (bank, cash, asset), any positive transaction constitutes a
credit. For credit card accounts, a purchase is equivalent to a credit, as is
any transaction that increases the total liabilities in a liability account.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Debits are transactions that subtract from an account's ending balance.
For asset (bank, credit card, asset) accounts, any negative transaction
constitutes a debit. For credit card accounts, payments are equivalent to
debits, as are any transactions that reduce overall liabilities in a liability account.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A link refers to a transaction that is connected, in a manner of speaking, to a
transaction in a separate account within the same ATM card. When such a
transaction is deleted, so, too, is its link. When one is edited, it is
prudent to allow Electronic Teller to edit the linked transaction as well since
the QIF convert relies upon an exact match across all record fields for the
establishment of links.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
Line completion is available in many areas of the Transactions dialog.
Basically, this means that, as an item is entered, existing items such as
cheque numbers, transaction codes, memorized records, categories, and classes
will complete the line only if what has been typed matches the first x
characters of an existing item.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
A sub-category further defines a category. Income is a valid category, but it
is far too broad to serve any real purpose. It may, therefore, be necessary to
subcategorize Income so that a more meaningful report can be created. Examples
of subcategories are:
Category Subcategory
Income Gifts
Interest
Pay
Winfall
Auto Repairs
Fuel
Insurance
Insurance Auto
Home
Electronic Teller accomodates more than one level of subcategory if necessary,
e.g. Category:Sub-One:Sub-Two, and always delineates individual members by a
colon, as in the above example.
ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ <hidden> ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
The forward balance is the total of all transactions flagged as cleared in an
account
Clearing is a result of the reconciliation process.