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________________________________________ | | | | | | | Home Management II | | version 3.30 | | | | | | User's Manual | | | |______________________________________| (C) Copyright 1986-1991 MVP SOFTWARE 1035 Dallas SE Grand Rapids, MI 49507 (616) 245-8376 DISCLAIMER MVP SOFTWARE makes no warranties with respect to its pro- grams, with the exception that the customer shall be entitled to one (1) updated or modified version of the purchased soft- ware package for a fee of 50% of the price of the updated version and upon return of all copies of the original pur- chased program. The foregoing warranty is in lieu of all other warranties, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the im- plied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose and mer- chantability. In no event will MVP SOFTWARE be liable for consequential damages even if MVP SOFTWARE has been advised of such damages. If any of the provisions, or portions thereof, of this Dis- claimer are invalid under any applicable statute or rule of law, they are to that extent deemed to be omitted. MVP Software is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 or send a Compuserve message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536" SPECIAL SHAREWARE NOTICE This version of Home Management II is distributed under the shareware or "user supported" concept. It is a full working version of the program. However, MVP Software receives no royalties from the distribution of this software and cannot support users who do not register their copies. Shareware such as this software package is "try before you buy." If you find this software useful, please register it with MVP Software. If you choose not to register, please discontinue using the software and give it to a friend. To register your copy of the program with MVP Software, please send the reg- istration price of $29.95. If you register, you will re- ceive the following: (1) The latest version of Home Management II. The program comes with a full printed documentation manual, including the latest updates. (2) Full telephone support and bug fixes for at least one year. Any registered user who discovers a bug will receive a free patched updated copy. (3) The right to purchase new versions of the program for 50% off list price. (4) The knowledge that you have supported the development of easy to use software oriented to the home user. The authors of Home Management II are moonlighting program- mers who have devoted many hours to the development of the product. They receive royalties from the sale of the program, but they want the software to remain inexpen- sive. Your registration fee helps to support them in their work. (5) As a special incentive, if you register you will receive a free game software package. This package contains two different chess games with many outstanding features. It is our way of saying "thank you" for your support of our continuing efforts to bring low-cost software to you. To register your copy of the program, send $29.95 (purchase price) to: MVP Software 1035 Dallas SE Grand Rapids, MI 49507 Or order by phone with MasterCard or Visa: (616) 245-8376 For your convenience there is an order blank printed on the last page of this manual. HOME MANAGEMENT II Congratulations! You are the owner of what we think is one of the best values available today in home financial man- agement software. In the fall of 1985 we introduced Home Management 1. It was useful, but by today's standards lim- ited. However, it had and still has many satisfied users. But we knew that more was needed. Following upon the success of Home Management I, we asked, "What next?" The answer is Home Management II, a com- pletely rewritten package of five programs to help you keep track of your money plus a whole lot more. Unlike other home finance software, ours is uncomplicated, easy to learn and use, and written so that you need learn only those portions of the software you will actually use. Let's face it. Different people want to do different things in financial planning. Some want only to balance their checkbook, others want to track stocks, still others want to plan their family budget, and so on. But not every- one wants to do all these tasks. With the five programs in Home Management II you can do all of this -- and much more. But since each program is self-contained, you need learn only what you use. We keep it simple because we know how frus- trating it is to waste time learning (and paying for!) parts of a program which are useless for you. Much financial management software tries to be all things to all people, both in the home and business. As a result it does little useful work for anyone. We've taken a different approach. Instead of incorporating all tasks into one giant program, we've included five different programs in Home Management II. This makes the sum of all the parts more flexible, and we hope, more suited to the individual needs of the home user. Whether you're a homeowner or a renter, there's some- thing for you in Home Management II. All five programs in the package are designed to help you out with many of those big and little chores that get in the way of what you really want to do. Following is a brief description of each one. 4 BUDGET -- A flexible and easy-to-use checking account and fi- nances manager. Features include: * handles multiple accounts * 54 expense categories and 30 deposit categories, all user- defined (except for the last category of each, which is reserved for the total of all categories) * Completely menu-driven; no special commands to remember * Extremely fast; all sorts conducted in RAM (not from disk) * Sort entries by month or category * Encode data files for security * Printout options * Graphic data display * Accepts up to 2600 expense and 2600 deposit entries per account * Automatically flags outstanding checks and reconciles your bank statement * Full subdirectory support * TSR (terminate stay resident) feature * Supports all printers supported by DOS Program filename -- BUDGET.COM TYPEWRITER -- You say your typewriter broke and you need to fill out one more form? Typewriter turns your computer into a memory typewriter. Great for whenever a word-processor just isn't right. Program filename -- TYPER.COM PBP -- (Personal Budget Planning) A recursive personal budget model that prompts you through the otherwise pain- staking chore of planning your spending. Takes away the drudgery and assists in setting up a personal bud- get you can live with. Program filename -- PBP.EXE. QUIK LOAN -- Fast and flexible, Quik Loan prints amortization tables including payment number, year, periodic payment, payment interest, total interest, pay- ment principle, total principle and balance due. Plus, it calculates your monthly payment amount and final payment, which is usually different. It also allows you to change any value at a key- stroke for quick loan comparison. Program file- name -- QUIK.COM STOCK BROKER -- Keep track of stock transactions and compare your portfolio to the performance of the Dow Jones Industrials. Stock Broker also pro- duces printouts and allows you to open as many data files as you like. Program file- name -- STOCKS.EXE 5 Note: Before continuing, please make a working copy of your Home Management II distribution diskette. To do this, first format a blank disk. Then place your Home Man- agement II distribution diskette in drive A and your newly formatted diskette in drive B (if you have two drives). Type copy *.*. If you have one drive, use the DISKCOPY command as explained in your computer's users guide. After the files have all copied onto the new diskettes, label them, and store your distribution diskettes in a safe place. PROGRAM MANUAL Each Home Management II program is easy to learn and use. However, please read all instructions carefully before you attempt to run any program. Then read the instructions again as you are running the program for the first time. RUNNING A PROGRAM All programs in Home Management II are run from DOS. Each main program is contained in a file with a .COM or an .EXE extension. To run a program make sure the disk is in the logged drive. Then type the filename of the program you wish to run (without the extension) and press <ENTER>. BUDGET More than a simple checkbook ledger and balancing aid, Budget is a sophisticated and easy-to-use tool for keeping track of one's checking payments and deposits and for per- forming budgetary analysis. It allows the user to enter checks and deposits and to sort and analyze them by category and/or month. A combination of graphic data display and printout options facilitates comparison of spending habits, so the user can easily determine where he's spending his mon- ey, in which areas he can expand his own personal or family budget, and in which areas expenses can be trimmed. In addi- tion, since the spending categories are user-defined, Budget can also be used as a tax-preparation aid. Finally, for those users with various income categories, similar analysis can be performed on deposits. In fact, Budget is so flexible that small businesses can use it to record and analyze sales and expenses. And oh yes, Budget does incredibly simplify reconciling your bank statement and checkbook balance. 6 Version 3.30 Many new features have been incorporated into version 3.30 of Budget. In addition, bugs uncovered in previous ver- sions have been corrected. However, users of Budget versions earlier than 2.00 must convert the data files EXPENSES.NAM, DEPOSITS.NAM and CHECK.DAT to the version 3.30 format. To do this, copy the conversion program BUDCON.COM onto the disk which contains your Budget data files. Then from DOS type Budcon, followed by <ENTER>. Budcon will automatically con- vert your data files to the new format. If you have not used versions earlier than 2.00, DO NOT run Budcon. Version 3.30 is compatible with 2.00, and so users of that version should not run Budcon. Getting Started Budget is completely menu-driven, so it is quite easy to learn. It is also extremely flexible, but this means that you must customize it for you own use by defining the various expenses and deposits categories. Each time you record a check or a deposit, you must assign it to a category. Your expenses categories, for example, might include mortgage, electric, newspaper, credit cards, etc. You may also desig- nate various deposits categories for various sources of in- come: husband's employment, wife's employment, tax refunds, self-employment, etc. You will need to define these cate- gories the first time you run the program. It is a good idea to maintain a disk exclusively for your Budget program files. That way, as you record more items and the files in which they are stored grow larger, you won't risk running out of disk space. So before you begin, if you have not already done so, copy all the Budget files from your Home Management II distribution disk onto a newly formatted blank disk. If you have a hard disk, you should create a subdirectory just for your Budget files. The fol- lowing files should all be copied. BUDGET.COM EXPENSES.NAM DEPOSITS.NAM CHECK.DAT BANK.DAT CODE.DAT HM2.SCR 7 The file BUDGET.COM contains the main program, EXPENSES.NAM and DEPOSITS.NAM will contain your expenses and deposits category names (for the default account), respec- tively, and CHECK.DAT and BANK.DAT will contain your expenses and deposits entries, respectively for the default account. CODE.DAT will contain your password should you choose to en- code your data, which, by the way, you probably should. After all seven files have copied, place your new Budget working disk in the logged drive. You will also want to keep a backup copy of this disk, since it will contain all the in- formation you enter. Budget does not automatically make backup copies of data files, as WordStar and many other word processors do. Since sometimes an entire disk can become scrambled, backup copies of files on the same disk as the originals are worse than useless, because they may create a false sense of security. Make sure you keep a backup disk -- and this should not be your Home Management II distribution disk -- which you update after every session with Budget. We cannot overemphasize the importance of this habit, especially since it concerns your financial records. To begin the program, type BUDGET. You will be asked if the currently logged date is correct. If it is not, enter N. Enter the month, day, and year, SEPARATED BY COMMAS (not dashes). For example, August 1, 1991 should be entered as 8,1,91. If the information is not in entered in this format it must be reentered. Press <ENTER>, confirm that the date is correct, and press Y. If it is not correct, press N and you'll be given another chance. Next the main menu will be displayed. Since we want to define your expenses and deposits categories, press 4. Se- lect either Expenses or Deposits Categories. Each current category name (they will be blank at this point) will be dis- played, followed by a prompt asking for the new name. Type in the new name exactly as you want it to appear, but none may be longer than 18 characters. Press <ENTER>. You may de- fine up to 53 expenses categories (the 54th is reserved for totaling all expenses categories), although you may leave as many blank as you wish. Continue until you have defined as many categories as you want. If you have less than 53 ex- penses categories to name, at the prompt following your last entry, type <ENTER>. Your entries will be stored, and then you should proceed to define your deposits categories. Fol- low exactly the same procedure here, except that there are only 29 possible categories to name, with the 30th again re- served for totals. 8 Later you may want to modify existing categories or, if you have any blank ones remaining, add new ones. For any category you wish to leave unchanged, press <ENTER> only at the prompt. If you modify your categories later, remember that you'll also have to modify the check or deposit entries originally included in that category so that they may be ac- curately analyzed. To delete a category, at the prompt press the space bar, followed by <ENTER>. It's a good idea to decide on your categories and write them down before you attempt to define them in the program. Careful planning now may save reorganization later. Also, plan your categories especially with taxes in mind. All types of tax deductible items, for example, such as chari- table contributions, state and local taxes, employee business expenses, etc., should receive their own categories. Then at the end of the year these items will be separately totaled, making it easier to fill out your tax forms. Also, use one category for recording bank charges, and make sure you keep automatic payments from your account in mind as well. Remember that at the beginning of a new year you will want to begin Budget again from the start. It's best to keep one Budget disk, with all seven files on it, for each year of record-keeping, or alternatively, open a new account for each year on the same disk. If you don't do this the pur- poses of the program will largely be defeated, since it sorts entries by month. Entering Deposits To enter deposits, from the main menu type 2. A second menu will appear (the "Data Menu"). Type 2, and you will be all set to enter more deposits. For each deposit you will be asked the month, amount and category of the deposit. Enter the information, and when you are finished press <ENTER> only at the following prompt. Your entries will be stored, and you will be returned to the data menu. If you enter duplicate deposits, Budget automatically flags them and asks if you want to delete either one or re- tain both. If you wish to correct an erroneous entry, there are two ways to do it. First, you may let the incorrect in- formation stand and correct it later. To to this, from the data menu type 3, and you will be asked the date, amount and category of the entry you wish to correct. Budget will lo- cate the erroneous entry, display it on the screen, and prompt you for the correct information. Or you can correct the data as you enter it. To do this, press the up arrow key on the numeric keyboard until the cursor is on the line with the incorrect entry. Then retype the correct information. To backspace on the same line, press the DEL key (not the BACKSPACE key) the required number of times. 9 If you are entering deposits for the first time, your first entry should be the amount in your checking account im- mediately preceding the first check you will record. For ex- ample, suppose the first check you will enter is number 256. Your first deposit entry should then be the amount of your checkbook balance just before you wrote that check. The screen will display only 15 deposit categories at one time. To view categories 16-30, at any of the prompts enter <ENTER>. To view categories 1-15 again enter <ENTER>. A category name and number need not be displayed to be entered; they are displayed simply for your convenience in remembering them. Entering Checks Entering checks is quite similar to entering deposits. From the main menu, type 1. The data menu will appear; type 2. For each check you must enter check number, month, amount and category. After you've entered all your checks, press <ENTER> only at the following prompt. Your entries will be stored, and you will be returned to the data menu. To correct errors, again you have two choices. The first one is to correct the entry as you are entering it, using the the up arrow key and the DEL key as when correcting deposits entries. The second is to correct it later. To do this, from the data menu enter 3. You will be asked the check number to be corrected. After you've entered this in- formation, Budget will locate the erroneous entry, display it on the screen, and prompt you for the correct information. Budget also will automatically flag duplicate checks and dis- play them, asking you to delete one or both. Remember to enter all bank charges and automatic pay- ments deducted from your account. You must assign a check number to each of these too (since Budget uses these number for sorting purposes), so assign numbers here that none of your checks already has. The same holds for cash payments that you may wish to enter. If you want to split a payment between two categories, the best way to do it is to assign part of the payment to the actual check number and the other part to a fictitious number. Twenty-seven expenses categories will be displayed on the screen at one time. To view categories 28-54, enter <ENTER> at any prompt. To again view categories 1-27, enter <ENTER>. A category name and number need not be displayed to be entered as data for an expense. 10 Analyzing Data To analyze your checking account data, from the main menu type 1 if you want to analyze payments or 2 if you want to analyze deposits. Then from the data menu, type 1. You will be given a choice of printing some or all payment/depos- it entries or continuing on to your choice of category. To perform the analysis, type 2. Next you must choose the cate- gory you wish to analyze. Type the number corresponding to your choice, followed by <ENTER>. Monthly subtotals and year- ly totals to date for that category will be displayed. To further analyze your data, press any key. You will be presented with 5 new options, two of which permit further data analysis. Type 2 to view a list of all entries in the category under analysis. You may list the entries on the screen only, or you may also request a printout. This list will show all the available information on each entry under that category. Press any key to continue. Next, you may type 3, and a bar graph will appear comparing total entries in that category in each month of the year. This is useful for a quick comparison of monthly income and spending pat- terns in any or all categories. When listing checks or deposits, Budget allows you to view the previous screenful of checks or deposits, as well as the first screenful and the last. When listing either checks or deposits, to view the previous screen, press PG UP at the prompt. To view the first screenful of checks or deposits, press HOME (7 on the numeric keypad). To view the last screenful, press END (1 on the numeric keypad). Special note to Sanyo 550/555 users: To view the last screenful of checks, do not press LF (1 on the numeric key- pad). This executes a line feed and causes problems for the display. Instead, press the down arrow (5 on the keypad). To analyze data in a different category, type 1. Follow the above steps for data analysis on this new category. Budget is designed to display your spending and income patterns clearly so that you may easily analyze your finan- cial affairs and plan accordingly. It allows you to see where your money is coming from and where it is going, and when. This facilitates more informed decisions regarding your finances and, if used carefully, may even assist in de- termining how and where you can save. You may be surprised to discover where you are actually spending some of your mon- ey and where greater economy is possible. 11 Printout Options To assist in data analysis Budget permits several print- out options. First, you may print a list of total entries by month in some or all deposits or expenses categories. To do so, from the data menu type 1. At the next prompt, type 1 again. You must tell Budget how many categories you want printed, 1 to 54 for expenses, 1 to 30 for deposits. The categories will always be printed starting with the first one and continuing through the number you specify. Make sure your printer is ready to go. If you'll be printing more than 4 categories, the program will wait for you to press a key after every fourth category is printed. This allows you to insert a new sheet of paper if you are not using continuous form paper. The printout will list total entries in each month in the categories selected. Upon completion of this you will be returned to the main menu. You may also print a list of all entries for the year in any category. To do this, from the data menu type 1, and then type 2 at the following prompt. Enter your choice of category, press <ENTER>, and the listing of entries in that category for each month will be displayed. Press any key to continue. Now you are given 5 options again. Type 2. Make sure your printer is ready to go, and type P. will receive a printout and screen listing of all entries for that category. Finally, you may also print a list of outstanding checks. For instructions on how to do this consult the sec- tion of this manual on reconciling your bank statement. Checking Your Balance To check your current balance, from the main menu type 3. The sum of all your deposits and the sum of your checks will appear on the screen, followed by your balance. Press any key to return to the main menu. This option is most use- ful after you've reconciled your bank statement and you want to make sure the balance listed in your checkbook is correct. Reconciling Your Bank Statement One of Budget's nicest features is that it allows you to painlessly and quickly reconcile your bank statement and checkbook balance. Because the program flags outstanding checks and automatically determines your actual account bal- ance (the figure on your statement) and your true balance (the figure in your checkbook), most of the work involved in this dreaded chore is handled with ease. Budget does not simply duplicate on the screen what you could do on paper (like some programs do). Rather, it handles 90% of the job itself. 12 Before you attempt to reconcile your bank statement, make sure you have entered every check, deposit, automatic payment and bank charge affecting your account. Bank charges and automatic payments must be assigned a check number. Choose numbers for them, say from 1 to 100, that will not be assigned to checks. Do not attempt to reconcile your account until you are sure all payments and deposits have been re- corded. After you have recorded all payments and deposits, from the main menu enter 6. Budget will select those checks still outstanding and present them to you one at a time. With your bank statement in front of you, verify that each check has cleared. You may want to mark off each check on your state- ment as you go. For each check that has not cleared, enter N. For each check that has cleared enter Y. Please do this carefully, for if you tell Budget that a check has cleared when it has not, you cannot go back and change it. On the other hand, if you miss one, and tell Budget that it has not cleared when it has, you can go back later and report it cleared by running through the whole procedure again. Next Budget will list all your outstanding checks. You may also request a printout of these, which is a good idea especially if you have more than 22 of them, since in that case the first ones will scroll right off the screen. Com- pare this list with your checkbook to make sure they agree. When finished, press any key to continue. After you've finished with this, you must enter all out- standing deposits. You may enter as many as 20 of these, one at a time. Budget will prompt you. After you've entered all outstanding deposits, press <ENTER> only at the following prompt. Finally, the total dollar amount of outstanding checks and outstanding deposits will appear on the screen, followed by your actual account balance. This figure should agree with the ending balance shown on your bank statement. Remem- ber that your actual balance shown will not agree with the balance shown in your checkbook unless you have no out- standing checks and deposits. In addition, remember that your actual balance will not be equal to your outstanding de- posits minus outstanding checks. What to do if Your Bank Statement and Actual Balance Don't Agree If the figures don't agree, check the following: 1. Did you record all deposits? 2. Did you record all checks, automatic payments and bank charges? 13 3. Have any checks cleared that Budget has as outstand- ing? 4. Are any checks outstanding that Budget has as cleared? 5. Did you list the outstanding deposits correctly? 6. Do the amounts listed on your statement for each check and deposit agree with your records? If there are no errors in any of these six areas, check with your bank to make sure they haven't made any errors. Also, remember that you still must double-check the arithme- tic in your checkbook. No program can do that for you. After you've finished reconciling your bank statement, check the balance in your checkbook and your balance recorded in Budget to make sure they agree. Encoding Data Budget allows you to encode your expenses and deposits data for all accounts so that no one but you has access to that information. All entries are stored in the files CHECK.DAT and BANK.DAT (for the dafault account), and if these files are not encoded anyone can list on the computer screen the information contained in them, and the files can also be printed. And both of these can be done without ac- cess to the main program itself. But encoding the data not only makes it unreadable by the main program, it also makes it appear as gibberish on the screen and prevents printing it. To be useful it must be decoded, and you will select a secret password so that you alone are able to decode it. To encode the data, from the main menu type 5. At the next menu prompt type 1. Your data will be encoded. To de- code it, type 2 at the prompt. If you have not selected a password, you will be asked to do so. Choose a four-numeral password (3333, 4297, etc.), and enter it, followed by <ENTER>. For security reasons your password will not appear on the screen as you type it. Also, the first time you enter a password you will be asked to verify it by entering it a second time. Once you've selected your password, you must enter it to decode your data. It's best to select a password even if you're not sure you will use this feature. But make sure you either remember your password, or better yet, write it down and keep it at work or someplace other than with your computer paraphernalia. Note: If you cannot remember your password, a program is available from MVP Software that will recover it for you. To receive this program send a blank SS formatted disk, plus a $5.00 shipping and handling fee, or send $8.00 and no disk, to MVP Software. Request the "Budget password recovery" program. 14 To change your password, enter * at the prompt asking for the old password. You will be asked to enter your old one (so the program is sure that you are making the change) and choose a new one. Make sure you then remember the new one. Using Multiple Accounts Version 3.30 allows you to use as many accounts as you would like. This is especially useful if you have multiple checking accounts or different people use the program on the same computer. You also may use this feature to open a new account for each new year. All new accounts that you create can be encoded. To select an alternative account, from the main menu se- lect 7. You will be asked to choose (or name) a new account by entering filenames for both the expenses and deposits data files. The filenames you choose must be eight or less char- acters long and must not have an extension. Budget will sup- ply the extension for you. To select the default account files (BANK.DAT and CHECK.DAT), simply press <ENTER> at the prompts. Once you select your new account, you will be returned to the main menu. Notice that your new filenames are listed at the top of the screen as the logged accounts. All proces- sing will now be done using those files. Remember that the first thing that you should do when opening a new account for the first time is define your expenses and deposits catego- ries. You may switch back and forth between accounts as many times as you like within a Budget work session. Choosing New Default Account At the beginning of a new year, or whenever appropriate, you will want to change your default account. Choosing menu item #8 will do this automatically for you. When you choose this option, the program will ask you to choose a filename in which it will store data from the current default expenses and deposits accounts. Choose these names, and the program will do the rest. Your category names will be retained in the new default account. Your newly renamed accounts then can be accessed by choosing them as optional accounts. 15 Suggestion: At the beginning of each new year, choose new default accounts and rename your old accounts for the year that just ended. For example, you might name the deposits account for 1990 "BANK90" and the expenses account for 1990 "CHECK90". Do not choose filename extensions; the program must do this itself. BUDGET allows you to choose any legal filename of eight characters or less, unless such a file already exists on the drive. Exiting Budget Budget may be exited at any time by pressing Function Key 1, or by entering 9 from the main menu. Pressing F1 re- turns you to DOS, but this allows Budget to remain in memory. For this feature to work correctly the file COMMAND.COM from your system disk must be present on your Budget disk. You may then run any other program and return to Budget simply by entering EXIT <ENTER> at the DOS prompt. However, use caution when doing this. Never exit Budget until all data is proper- ly written to disk. And remember that when the program re- mains memory-resident this uses more than 90K of memory. Ex- iting by entering 8 from the main menu removes Budget from memory. Error Messages There are two types of error messages you may encounter in running Budget. The first is "Budget overlay file(s) not found. Program terminated." This means that one or more of the files EXPENSES.NAM, DEPOSITS.NAM, CODE.DAT, CHECK.DAT, BANK.DAT or a new file you have created is not on the disk in the logged drive. Correct the problem and restart Budget. You also may run into a "Bad file data" error. When this happens it is due to one of two problems. The first one, and the worst, is that your data files (CHECK.DAT and BANK.DAT for the default account) have become corrupted. Copy the data files from your backup disks onto your working Budget disk. The other cause of this message is not so seri- ous. To encode your data files, you must have made at least several data entries into both your expenses and deposits categories. Do not attempt to encode your data files until you have done so. If you do, you will get this error mes- sage. 16 What to do if You Encounter Problems If questions or problems arise in using Budget, first get as clear as you can on the precise nature of the problem: Where in the program does it occur? What were you doing when it occurred? What do you think might be causing it? Consult your Home Management II user's manual first to resolve the problem. If no help is forthcoming there, call or write MVP Software. If we cannot solve your problem immediately, we will contact you as soon as possible with the solution, usually within a few days. We are a service-oriented com- pany, and we want 100% customer satisfaction. If you have suggestions for improvements in Budget or any other Home Management II programs, drop us a note. We are continually improving our products, and remember that as a customer you are entitled to any new versions of Home Man- agement II at 50% off the price of the upgraded package. If, however, we incorporate any significant suggestions which you are the first to make, you will be entitled to the new up- grade free (if you have already purchased the previous ver- sion). We are serious about being responsive to the needs of our customers. TYPEWRITER Useful for filling out forms, writing short notes, or whenever you don't want to fire up a full-scale word pro- cessing program, Typewriter is quite simple to operate. You set margins and spacing (single, double or triple) between lines only, and for these Typewriter will prompt you. Enter data just as you would on your typewriter. Since your input is not sent to the printer until you press <ENTER>, Typewriter functions much like a memory typewriter, allowing you to make corrections before printing. Corrections must be made before the data is sent to the printer. To correct an error, delete the erroneous data using the backspace key, and retype the line from that point. When you are finished, hit ESC to ter- minate the program and return to the operating system. Before using Typewriter turn on your printer and put in a piece of paper. If you are using a daisy wheel printer, make sure your paper is set at the initial print position, and make sure that the spacing switch is properly set and the proper daisy wheel is in place. You will notice that Type- writer does not have many features found on a regular Type- 17 writer. For example, it has no tabs or margin release. The program is designed to be used primarily to fill out forms and write short notes. For anything more involved you would probably want to use a word processor anyway. Since the pri- mary purpose of Typewriter is to save time and type short items, we have kept extra features to a minimum. This means that to use it there is practically nothing you have to re- member. The ruler line at the top of the page tells how much you have typed on a line and how much more you can type. When you reach the right margin no more characters will be en- tered. If you fail to catch an error until after it has al- ready been printed, move the paper back to the line in which the error occurred, space over to the spot directly beneath the error, and type the correct letter(s). Do not retype anything other than the incorrect characters. Press <ENTER>. The correct letters will be then be printed. Of course you must blank out the incorrect characters with correction fluid before printing the correct ones. To change the margins or spacing without exiting Type- writer, press CTRL - A. PERSONAL BUDGET PLANNING (PBP) One of the most important, and most neglected, areas of personal financial planning is constructing an accurate, workable budget. The difficulties include the complexity of the task, remembering all the various categories of expenses, allocating money to each category, and the mathematical cal- culations involved, among other things. PBP prompts you through this task and does most of the work for you. It is easiest to describe how the program works by running through each of its steps. Step 1 -- select budgeting period You will be asked to select a budgeting period from the following four options: 1 - weekly, 2 - biweekly, 3 - semi- monthly, 4 - monthly. Select the period that most readily lends itself to budgetary planning. This may be according to how you are paid, so that if you receive paychecks twice a month, for example, you may want to select 3. On the other hand, you may have quite a few monthly expenses, such as rent or mortgage, electric, gas, phone, loan payments, etc., and so a monthly budgeting period may be more appropriate. In any case, select the option with which you can work the easi- est. The program will automatically extrapolate for you over a year's time. 18 Step 2 -- income You will be asked to enter your income for the budgetary period you have selected. At each prompt, enter the appro- priate amount in dollars, without commas. First enter gross salary/wages for your budgeting period, then enter other in- come. If you have quarterly or yearly income, estimate how much of it you receive in a budgeting period, and enter that. Make sure you enter interest, investment returns and the like. Step 3 -- paycheck deductions Enter the following paycheck deductions: federal income tax, state and local tax, social security, unemployment in- surance, health insurance, life insurance, contributions and other deductions. Again enter dollar amounts only and use no commas. For each entry of zero, simply press <ENTER>. Step 4 -- fixed expenses Expenses are divided into two categories: fixed and variable. Fixed expenses are those that are the same when each payment is due. Make sure these are entered accurately. Fixed expenses include rent/mortgage, life insurance, health insurance, house insurance, auto insurance, car payments, loan payments, trash removal, cable TV and other fixed expenses. Following step four you will be shown your totals so far, including spendable income, which is the amount of money remaining after paycheck deductions and fixed expenses are subtracted from your gross income. Press P when you are ready to continue to variable expenses. Step 5 -- variable expenses This is where the rubber hits the road in planning your budget, since this is where careful planning is most effec- tive in saving money. Most of us can't do much about the categories of income, paycheck deductions and fixed expenses, but most of us can control variable expenses better than we actually do. It is here that PBP is most effective. It works like this. In the first round you will be asked to enter figures for many variable expenses categories. Don't be too concerned with accuracy in this round; just take a good guess if you aren't sure of the actual amount. How- ever, don't enter zero unless you are sure you spend nothing in that category over the whole year. Later on, when you re- fine your guesses, any category in which a zero is entered will be eliminated. Thus if you have doubts, enter at least $1. 19 After the final entry, you will be given your total var- iable expenses for the first round, your total spendable in- come, and the difference. Press P to begin round two. In round two you will be given the chance to refine your budget. The difference between your spendable income and variable expenses has been prorated over all the remaining categories of variable expenses (i.e, those with entries greater than zero). For each category, the amount presently recorded for it will be displayed, and you will be asked if it is correct. If it is, press Y. If not, press N. Then enter the correct amount. You will be asked if you want this `account' (category) frozen at that amount. Press Y only if you are sure the amount is correct. Doing so removes it from further refinement, and so you will not be able to make changes. If you aren't sure, press N. This process will continue for all categories with entries greater than zero. Round 3 is the same as round 2. Continue with this pro- cess until all accounts are frozen. Note that all of your income must be accounted for. Think realistically, and put any excess in savings. Sometimes PBP will prorate money over accounts in a rather odd fashion. If this happens, simply enter the correct data. Following is a list of the variable expense categories: food/ beverage, clothing, dry cleaning, barber/beauty, home maintenance, home heat, water, electricity, telephone, gas/oil, auto maintenance, fares/tolls/parking, dentist, phy- sician, drugs/sundries, school expenses, family allowance, clubs/lodges, theater/sports, restaurants, other entertain- ment, mags./books/papers, sitters, childcare, vacation savings, IRA, other savings, contributions and other expen- ses. Step 6 -- results You will be given a detailed listing (printout optional) of your budget and a bar graph (printout optional) of percen- tage of income each expense requires. To analyze your bud- get, request a printout, since the information scrolls off the screen rather rapidly. QUIK LOAN With Quik Loan you can easily list, print and amortize loans, and with a few keystrokes change loan values for com- parison. You must first enter the interest rate of the loan, the number of payments per year, the number of years and the loan principal. Use no commas in your entries. 20 You will then be given the periodic payment amount. If you want an amortized listing, press Y at the following prompt. You may also request a printout of this listing. The listing may be suspended at any point by pressing the space bar. Otherwise it will continue until it reaches the end. After the listing is completed you will be told the to- tal amount of all payments and the amount of the final pay- ment, which is usually different from the amount of the other monthly payments. Now you may change loan values for comparison. You may change the interest rate, number of years, number of payments per year, amount of the loan, or you may continue with the same loan values or exit Quik Loan. To change any loan val- ue, press the appropriate key. Enter the new amount and press <ENTER>. When you have changed all the values you wish to, press C. You will then be given information on your new loan. STOCK BROKER Investing in stocks is often exciting and, one hopes, profitable. But it also can be difficult to keep track of a sizable portfolio. Stock Broker helps you do just that. It evolved over a period of six years during which the author was developing it as a tool to maintain records on his own security investments -- records that should make buy/sell de- cisions easier and more intelligent. What Does Stock Broker Do? When the program first loads, the initial screen asks you to insert your data disk. All of the main program loads into memory, so once it is running all disk reads and writes are for data. If you are maintaining a separate disk for Stock Broker (we recommend this), or if you are using a hard disk, ignore this request. If you keep a separate data disk, insert it now into the logged drive. Once you enter data, Stock Broker will produce printouts and analysis on screen. These are of two sorts: (1) First, it identifies each security by name, stock ex- change code, total number of shares held, total cost and the annual dividend rate per share. It also summarizes the following information: total number of shares, total cost and total annual dividend income. 21 (2) Second, it identifies each security by stock exchange code, the current market price per share, the market val- ue -- taking into account a brokerage commission for the sale, and the annual dividend in dollars and as a percen- tage of market value. Summary data are provided for the total number of shares, the total cost, the net total gain or loss, the number of holdings worth less than cost, the loss if only those holdings were sold, the to- tal annual dividend income and the cash reserve. What Must the User Do? Stock Broker is menu driven and easy to use. First, you must enter all relevant data concerning your current portfolio. The program will prompt you through this task. After that, on a regular basis (we recommend week- ly), you must update your data, again following the menu. For a portfolio of about 35 stocks this takes no more than 15 minutes, since updated information includes only (1) the date, (2) the Dow Jones Industrial Index, and for each stock, (3) the market price. The program will then give you the new information detailed above in printouts and on-screen analysis. In addition, whenever you acquire or dispose of a security and whenever a capital gains dividend (but not an income dividend) is distributed, appropriate changes in the stock inventory as well as corresponding changes in the cash reserve must be entered. Stock dividends and income dividend changes must also be recorded in the ap- propriate records. The idea here is that the investor starts with a fixed investment package made up of securities of vari- able market value, plus a cash reserve (usually a money market fund or a bank account) of fixed dollar value. Any purchase of sale of securities and any capital gains distribution will change the cash reserve by the amount involved in each case. What Information Will Stock Broker Provide? For each security, the summary printout indicates the market price trend expressed as percent change -- an indication of the price pattern. It also indicates the net gain or loss as a percent of cost, the annual div- idend dollar income to be expected, and that income ex- pressed as a percent of market value. The summary data shows which securities are worth less now than they were at purchase and the maximum loss if only those securities were sold. 22 Stock Broker also calculates your personal Stock In- dex (SI). This unique feature is the following ratio: (cash reserve) + (market value of securities) SI = --------------------------------------------- (Dow Jones Industrial Index) x (Factor) The Factor is automatically calculated when the data for the portfolio are first entered and after the arbi- trary cash reserve is designated. Ideally the initial Stock Index is set at 100.00. After that the Stock Index will vary, depending on the relative movement of the num- erator versus the denominator and will reflect the acumen of the investor measured against the moving index of the Dow Jones Industrials. Since it is clear that changes in security markets do not affect the cash reserve, the reserve should be kept low if one believes the market in general is about to rise, and vice versa. The cash reserve is established at the outset and could be set at zero, or even at a neg- ative number should the investment strategy be to acquire securities on margin. Changes in one's Stock Index should force the investor to review his investment stra- tegy every time he updates his portfolio. In other words, your Stock Index, measured against the Dow Jones Industrial Index, will tell you whether you are doing better than the DJI, or whether you are doing worse. But to maintain the validity of the formula it is essential that any purchase or sale of securities, or any capital gain distribution, be reflected in a correspond- ing change in the cash reserve. In estimating market values of securities, it is customary to multiply the market price per share by the number of shares owned. However, this does not give a realistic value, as it ignores the brokerage sales com- mission. Stock Broker permits the investor to select an average value for the sales commission, measured as a percentage of the "market value." A figure of 2.5% is a good estimate for a full service brokerage house (al- though some may charge more) handling small trades, while 1% is usually a good estimate for a discount broker. If the investor acts as his own broker, or if he wishes not to figure in the commission, he may enter zero for this figure. 23 Menu Options After the stock data file has been loaded from disk, a menu appears with several options. 1. Enter New Stock Prices 2. Review Data on Screen 3. Proceed to Summaries 4. Save Data to Disk 5. Correct any Data Entries 6. Delete a Holding 7. Insert a New Holding 8. Add a Capital Gain Distribution Dividend 9. Print Basic Stock Inventory 10. Return to Main Menu 1. provides for updating the market prices. The new prices will be compared with those in the file selected, either the previous week, the start of the month or year, or any base data. 2. provides for a review either of the data recov- ered from disk, or after new data are entered. First it prints to screen all of the entered data. After that it provides for a detailed review of any security, which will be identified by its sequence number. 3. makes all of the summary calculations and then gives the user an option to print a hardcopy. After en- tering new price data the user should perform this op- tion. 4. saves the new data to disk. This option must be performed before Stock Broker is terminated or the new data will not be saved. 5. is a provision to correct any entry; for changes in a specific holding a submenu is offered. 6. and 7. handle total changes in specific invest- ment holdings. But if only a part of a holding is sold, or if an addition is made to an existing holding, this should be treated as a correction to an entry and entered using 5. above. 8. requires an addition to the cash reserve by the amount of the capital gain distribution. 9. provides for an inventory printout. 24 Additional submenus are generated whenever appropri- ate to facilitate program use. The choices in these are explained on screen as the program is running. To exit the program, you must always return to the main menu. Never turn off your computer until after you exit the program. Failure to do this will cause loss of data. Three sample Stock Broker data files are provided on your Home Management II distribution diskettes. These are TEST1.STO, TEST2.STO and TEST3.STO (all Stock Broker data files are automatically given a .STO extension). We recommend that you become familiar wth the program by practicing on these before you enter your own data. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Order Form Here is my registration for Home Management II. Please send me the latest version of the software, the printed manual and my free chess game disk. I'm enclosing $29.95. Name ____________________________________________________ Address _________________________________________________ City, State, Zip ________________________________________ Computer make and model _________________________________ Disk size (circle one) 5-1/4" 3-1/2" For credit card orders only MC/Visa card number _____________________________________ expiration date _________________________________________