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1986-02-26
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H O M E B U D G E T M A N A G E M E N T S Y S T E M
version 1.3 February 1986
Table of Contents page
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS & LIMITATIONS........ 2
OVERVIEW................................. 3
CONVENTIONS.............................. 4
GETTING STARTED.......................... 5
SETTING UP YOUR OWN SYSTEM............... 6
MAIN MENU:
INITIALIZING THE SYSTEM............... 7
ACCOUNT MAINTENANCE................... 8
LEDGER POSTING........................ 10
CLOSE/OPEN MONTH...................... 13
REPORTS............................... 14
SAVE DATA............................. 15
This program is being distributed in an "ARC" file format
named HBMS13.ARC. The following files should be included:
README.HBM textfile
HBMS.DOC documentation
HBMS.COM program
HBMS.000 program overlay
STARTUP.HBM sample data file
CATS.84 sample data file
ACCOUNTS.84 sample data file
LEDGR-4.84 sample data file
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
IBM PC, PC/XT, PCjr, or compatible
128K RAM
1 disk drive
Printer (screen reports available)
Printer should be capable of printing 132 columns,
such as a dot matrix printer using a condensed
font (17 characters per inch).
NOTE: This program is set up to run on a color monitor as
the use of color is exploited throughout the program.
LIMITATIONS
254 accounts
38 categories
-2-
OVERVIEW
-----------
If you are like most people, there have been many
occasions when you have uttered those famous words, "Where
did all the money go?". The solution of course is to keep
better records, but this is a task no one likes to do. This
program was created to make the record keeping part as
painless as possible.
H.B.M.S. is flexible. You may want to use it as a
reference on your entire financial position, or just use it
as a check register. This program makes it easy to keep
accurate and complete records of all your financial
transactions. With faithful record keeping and a carefully
designed Chart of Accounts, you will be rewarded with a
variety of information. This can help you better decide how
to manage your money, not to mention how welcome these
figures will be when tax time arrives! All this data can be
readily viewed on screen, or printed in formatted statements.
The printed reports include:
* Transaction Report
* Sorted Ledger Report
* Monthly Income & Expense Report
* Balance Sheet
* Annual Actuals
* Annual Budget Report
* Chart of Accounts
H.B.M.S. is based on a double entry ledger system.
Every effort has been made to make the job of entering data
as easy as possible. A sample database has been provided to
represent what H.B.M.S can do.
- 3 -
PROGRAM CONVENTIONS
------------------------
H.B.M.S. is menu driven. Throughout the program when
you are prompted to enter data, you will see a field in
reverse video. Your data, be it an account code, name,
description, etc. will be limited to the length of this
field. When in this field, a full array of editing keys are
available:
<INSERT> <DELETE>
<RIGHT ARROW> <LEFT ARROW>
<BACKSPACE> <TABS>
<ESC>
The <ESC> key needs further mention. It is used to
erase all data in a field. Hitting the <ESC> key followed by
the <ENTER> key, enters a null value. In most cases,
entering a null value in response to a prompt will cancel the
current mode and return you to a menu. You will be reminded
on line 25 when this ESCape option is available.
In most parts of the program you will need to supply a
code for the account you are interested in. Often you will
be provided with a starting code. After that, your prompt
will be the next code in the order of their appearance in the
Chart of Accounts.
H.B.M.S. consists of two program files, HBMS.COM and
it's overlay file HBMS.000. These two files must reside on
the default drive. H.B.M.S. creates the following files:
STARTUP .HBM year and month infor.
PRINTER .HBM * optionally created printer driver
CATS .yr category names
ACCOUNTS.yr account names and all data
LEDGR-m .yr ledger file for each month
(yr = Year of data, m = month)
It is suggested that these data files be kept on a
separate disk. In this manner you should be able to fit an
entire year of data on one disk, or maybe have individual
disks for separate budgets. In any case, when the free space
gets below 20K, H.B.M.S. will warn you.
- 4 -
GETTING STARTED
--------------------
To run the program type HBMS followed by drive
designation for your data files:
example-> HBMS b: <RETURN>
H.B.M.S will search for your data on the drive
specified. If your data files will reside on the program
disk, leave off the drive designation.
SAMPLE DATA
I highly recommend that you run the program using the
sample data before you begin your own budget. Supplied with
H.B.M.S you should find four sample data files consisting of
STARTUP.HBM, CATS.84, ACCOUNTS.84, and LEDGR-4.84. By
running the program with this sample data you can easily see
what H.B.M.S has to offer. You will be able to see what
H.B.M.S can do, without waiting for your own data
to accumulate.
Go to the reports section and explore. Each
report is explained later in this document. Please try
printing out some or all of the reports provided, but read
about printer compatibility in the Initialize System
section of this document before attempting to make any
printouts.
DO NOT try to start a new year with the sample data.
Also please do not try to reopen a month with the sample data
as only the current ledger file (April) has been included
for demonstration purposes. The first three months of data
are in the database, but their ledgers have not been
included.
This sample data is entirely fictitious. Some of the
amounts may seem a little strange, but they should still
represent how the program might be used.
-5-
SETTING UP YOUR OWN BUDGET SYSTEM
--------------------------------------
When you are ready to start your own budget make sure
that you have removed the sample data! All you need for your
own system is the file HBMS.COM and it's overlay HBMS.000.
STEP 1. Go to the under the Initialize System and select
"Begin New Year". Here you enter such things as
the year of the data and the beginning month.
STEP 2. Return to the Main Menu and select "Account
Maintenance". Here you will able to design your
own Chart of Accounts by using the ADD,CHANGE, and
DELETE functions. This is a very important step.
A lot of thought should go into it's design, as you
will be using it for the entire budget year. (see
description under Chart of Accounts)
STEP 3. Select "Initial Balances" . Here you will be able
to enter any existing balances for your Assets
and Liabilities. Income and Expense accounts
always start out with a zero balance.
STEP 4. Select "Budget Assignment". Here you will be able
to enter any budget values that you may want
to set as goals. This step is optional.
STEP 5. Now you are ready for the actual record keeping
Routines. Return to the Main Menu and select
"Ledger Posting". Here you will be able to enter
all your transactions. NOTE: I find it helpful to
save my receipts from each day and jot down any
other transactions. Then at the end of each week I
enter these transactions in the Ledger Posting
section. You may want to do this on a daily
basis. In either case, you will then have a
printed record of all your transactions available.
- 6 -
INITIALIZING THE SYSTEM
-----------------------------
Begin New Year
When starting a system for the first time you
will be asked for year and starting month
information.
If you already have a working budget you will
be given the option to reuse the existing Chart of
Accounts. If this is the case, H.B.M.S. will
optionally transfer Asset and Liability balances
as well as the Budget data. In order to take
advantage of this you should have a "copy" of the
old data files (STARTUP.HBM, CATS.yr,
ACCOUNTS.yr) on your new data disk. After the new
year has been initialized you may delete the old
copies of CATS.yr and ACCOUNTS.yr.
Printer Codes
H.B.M.S. was designed to work with an IBM
compatible dot matrix printer. My Gemini-10X
conforms to these standards with no changes. All
data, except for the Chart of Accounts, is printed
in condensed font (17 cpi). The Chart of Accounts
is printed in elite font (12 cpi). If in doubt
about your printer, use this section to change any
of the printer formatting codes to conform to your
particular printer. This will create a separate
printer support file on the default drive named
PRINTER.HBM. If your printer has a wide carriage,
you might want to enter null values for the
condensed codes. If your printer does not support
italics, enter a null value for the italics codes.
Your printer manual should list all these codes.
- 7 -
ACCOUNT MAINTENANCE
-------------------------
Chart of Accounts
Great care should be taken in creating your Chart of
Accounts. It can be broad, with just a few accounts under at
least one category per money group, or it can be very
definitive with multiple accounts under numerous categories.
You might want to keep special accounts just for tax related
items. I like to separate principals and interest on
liabilities. By doing this I can keep an accurate running
balance on how much I owe. (see sample data)
Group your accounts under categories for more
informational reports. These categories will be grouped
according to whether they are INCOME, EXPENSES, ASSETS, or
LIABILITIES. NOTE: the categories must be created first, so
that accounts will have somewhere to be placed.
Accounts may be added, changed, or deleted at any time
during the budget year. While using the program, accounts
and categories will be referred to by a code which you will
assign. These codes can consist of up to four characters.
Try to keep them short and easy to remember. These codes can
be entered in either upper of lower case. As an example, the
code "CK" might be used to call up the "Checking Account".
The restrictions that apply are as follows:
* There must be at least one category and one account
per money group.
* Total number of categories should not exceed 38.
* Total number of accounts should not exceed 254 with
no more than 38 accounts per category.
* Account names or codes may be changed but this may
lead to confusion if printed reports under the first
part of the year differ from those after the change
is made. None of the other data contained in these
accounts will be changed.
* Accounts may be moved to different categories as
long as they don't cross money group boundaries.
( an account under an income category may not be
moved to an expense category )
* Category codes and names may be changed but the
confusion factor mentioned above still applies.
* Accounts may be deleted only if they have had no
action during the year.
- 8 -
* Categories may be deleted if they do not have any
accounts assigned to them. This constraint may be
avoided by moving all accounts from under the
category to be deleted, to other categories first.
Re-sequence Accounts
The order in which categories and accounts appear on
your Chart of Accounts can be different than the
order in which they were entered. After creating or
editing your Chart of Accounts, you may re-sequence
their appearance by selecting "Re-sequence Accounts".
Their current order will be displayed and you will
be allowed to change them around to suit your
taste.
Budget Assignment
H.B.M.S. allows you to assign a budget figure
for each month. By using this feature you may
set goals for your projected income and expenses.
While I'm not sure that this is proper accounting
procedure, you may even set budget amounts for
assets and liabilities. This might allow you to
set goals for your savings or how soon you plan to
pay off a debt. Of course, it wouldn't make sense
to budget for your checking account, as it's
balance varies to no set pattern.
If you decide you don't want to budget
for certain accounts, just enter a zero value for
each month. If all months have a zero budget
value then your reports will show a "n/a" in place
of a budget figure.
After selecting a code to budget for, the
values for each particular month will be shown along
with a grand total for the year. If you want to
make changes, answer "n" to the prompt, and you
will be allowed to enter figures for each month.
On your first visit to the Budget Assignment
section, and any time while the beginning month of
the budget is still open, you will be given an
additional choice to enter a yearly total and have
the computer divide it among the months.
It should be noted that budget figures can be
updated at any time, but you will only be allowed
to change values for the months which have not been
closed.
When you exit the Budget Assignment section
you will automatically be presented with a
summary of your budget status.
- 9 -
LEDGER POSTING
--------------------
The Ledger Posting section is the part of the program
where you will be entering your daily transactions. As
mentioned before, H.B.M.S. is a double entry ledger system.
At this point maybe we should address the Debit/Credit idea
behind this program.
It's not too hard as long as you remember which way the
money is going. Are you decreasing an account balance
(debit) or increasing an account balance (credit)? Notice
the use of the word "balance". It is essential that you
understand this idea in order to use H.B.M.S. The following
examples may help.
Let's take the example of writing a check to the
Electric Company. You will have to make an entry that shows
the money coming out of your checking account. Your checking
account balance will go down (a DEBIT). Now that you've shown
the money coming out you will have to show where it went.
This, of course, would be whatever account you plan to charge
electricity to. The electricity account balance would go up
(a CREDIT). For every DEBIT (the Checking Account) there must
be a CREDIT (Electricity Account). It sounds like a lot of
work, but the program has been designed to make it as easy as
possible.
If you received a paycheck you would have to show the
money coming in to an account in the Income group. This
would be increasing or CREDITING that account balance. For
every Credit there must be a Debit so at this point we must
show the money going somewhere. If the paycheck was for $500
and you put the entire amount in a checking account, the
checking balance would go up by $500 (a CREDIT). This may
sound confusing, two CREDITS in the same transaction. Just
remember that any transaction consists of at least two
entries representing the movement of the money. In the above
example you could have shown the $500 coming in and then
dispersed it to more than one account. You might have put
$400 in checking, $50 in a savings account, and the remaining
$50 into a spending cash account. All of the above account
balances increased so they were all CREDITS.
When it comes to borrowing money (a LIABILITY), the
debit/credit idea still applies. If you take out a $8000
loan to buy a car, you will be increasing a liability account
(CREDIT). This money has to be shown going somewhere, and it
should be represented as an increase to an expense account
for the new car (CREDIT). As you make monthly payments on
the car loan, your liability account balance will decrease
accordingly (DEBIT).
If you stop and think about whether an account balance
will increase or decrease then you will know if it's a credit
or a debit. If money is shown coming in it must be shown
going to somewhere and vice-versa.
- 10 -
All this discussion will help you decide what the first
entry in a ledger transaction will be. The first prompt will
be for a "D" (debit), "C" (credit), or "V" (view previous
transactions).
Once the decision has been made whether you will be
debiting or crediting the first account, H.B.M.S. will
handle the rest. Negative values will be automatically
entered where needed. YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO USE THE MINUS
SIGN AT ALL.
The following is a sample transaction of writing a check
to the drug store.
Step 1. At the first prompt you would select "D" to debit
checking.
Step 2. Then you would enter the code for your checking
account. At this point H.B.M.S. will show you the
current balance for that account.
Step 3. Enter the date.
Step 4. Enter the check number. This field is optional. If
you were debiting spending cash there would be no
check number.
Step 5. Enter who the check was written to. This field is
also optional, as in the case of spending cash.
* Step 6. Here is where the flexibility of H.B.M.S. shines.
In the case of a checking transaction you would
want to enter the full amount of the check. As
you enter where the money will be dispersed in the
steps below, H.B.M.S. will prompt you with the
remaining balance of the check as you go along.
In the case of a spending cash transaction you
might want to leave this space blank. As you
enter the separate amounts that the cash was
dispersed to, H.B.M.S. will keep a running total
for you.
Step 7. Now you will begin to disperse the money to their
respective accounts. If all the money is intended
to go to one account enter the full amount.
Otherwise enter the partial value.
Step 8. Enter the code for the account selected.
- 11 -
Step 9. Enter a description for the transaction. This
field is also optional, but it really helps to
describe each item for future reference.
NOTE: If you enter tilde character <~> only,
H.B.M.S. will copy the description entered
in step 5. See the paycheck transactions in
the sample data.
Step 10. Now you have fulfilled the minimum of two entries
for a transaction. If you entered a value in step
6 and accounted for all of it in step 7 you will
be finished. Otherwise you will be able to
keep adding entries to be drawn from the
account in step 2.
When finished you will be asked if everything is ok. If
you made a mistake in an entry, enter "n" and you will be
allowed to go back and make corrections. However the
automatic prompting for the remaining balance will not be in
effect so as not to erase the values you may have already
entered. Remember, the entire transaction can be aborted at
any time by entering a null value for a code prompt.
VIEW LEDGER
If you enter a "V" in response to step 1 you will be
allowed to view the transactions already entered for the
current month. This can be very handy if you don't
remember if you have entered something. You will be
prompted for a record number to display. These are the
numbers on the left side of the ledger posting screen.
When you first enter the VIEW section you will be prompted
with the record number following the last one to be printed
(see Transaction Report). You may enter a record number that
you think is close to the one you want to view, and that
entire transaction screen will be shown just as you entered
it. You can browse through the screens at will and when
finished just enter a null value at the record number prompt.
NOTE: Changes are not allowed to the ledger once the "Above
ok" has been given. This is to allow a good audit trail. If
you made a mistake you will have to make an appending entry
to account for the error.
- 12 -
CLOSE/OPEN MONTH
--------------------
This section does just what you would expect. At the
end of each month you should select the Close Current Month
routine. H.B.M.S will read the entire ledger for the current
month, update totals, and declare the following month open.
If for any reason you have to go back to a previous
month to make additions or changes there is a reopen feature
also. Just remember that ledger posting can only be done on
the current open month.
- 13 -
REPORTS
-------------
Reports by Account
In this section you have access to almost all data
that H.B.M.S. has to offer. When first accessing this
section you will be able to select from 3 formats
which include a monthly report, an annual report, and
a sorted ledger. After making your choice you will be
prompted for the account code you are interested in.
The data will be displayed and you will given the
opportunity to display the same account in the other
two formats. Just hitting <ENTER> will keep the
format you are in and prompt you with the next account
code. NOTE: When selecting either the Month Format or
the Sorted Ledger Format for the first time there will
be a slight delay while H.B.M.S. gathers up some data.
After this has been done you will be able to flip
between all three formats with no delay at all.
Transaction Report
The Transaction Report will make a printed copy of
your ledger transactions just as you entered them.
You might want to print out the transactions after
every ledger posting session. If so, H.B.M.S. will
remember the last record printed for the month and
prompt you for the next unprinted record number. I
usually post the ledger about 4 to 5 times a month,
but I like to wait till the end of the month and then
print out the entire month's transactions at one time.
If I need to see a transaction that has not been
printed yet, I use the "VIEW" feature in the Ledger
Posting section.
Income and Expense
The Income and Expense Report prints all the monthly
oriented data including averages, budget figures,
reserves, etc. There is also an opportunity to print
out just the Asset and Liability information in a form
called the "Balance Sheet".
Annual Actuals
Prints all the monthly totals up to and including the
current month. All figures will be in whole dollars
only because of space limitations.
Annual Budget
Prints all monthly budget totals for the entire year.
Chart of Accounts
Prints a summary of all accounts grouped in their
respective categories according to the sequence you
have selected. This printout should be kept handy
when posting the ledger, but you should find that most
codes will be easy to remember if they are carefully
selected.
- 14 -
SAVE DATA
-------------
H.B.M.S. keeps all account values in memory in order to
to keep disk access to a minimum and speed up the program.
Whenever you end the program, if any data has been changed it
will automatically be updated on the disk. If you have
entered a lot of data it might be safe to save it
occasionally without getting out of the program. A power
outage or a program crash could negate any data that was
entered since the last save.
I would like to state that I have used this program
for some time, and it serves my purposes well. I hope you
will be able to benefit from it also. In it's present form
it is set up to run on a color monitor, as the use of
color is exploited throughout the program. However, if
you find that I have made any unacceptable errors in the
design, or if you can suggest some ways to make it better,
please let me know.
H.B.M.S. was written in TURBO PASCAL and has taken more
of my time than I care to admit. If you find that it suits
your needs, please consider a $15 contribution. In any case
please share this program with your friends, but make sure
it's in the original "ARC" format and includes the
documentation and sample data. Send any comments and
suggestions to:
Brentson Worrell
6404 Mornay Dr.
Tampa, FL 33615
- 15 -
