KeepTrak Version 2 =================== KeepTrak was conceived and written by Ayaz S. Brox-Khan. It was written to help families who have computers gain better control of their finances and also to give those families an economical program for their computer. The latter is very important since a computer is a sizeable investment and the more it can be used the better. Software of this nature aims at putting your investment to work for you. If this is the first home accounting software that you have received and if you give it a try for the next month, I am convinced you will find that KeepTrak will give you a whole new level of control over your finances. If you need to escape from this information press ESC. You will be able to read this introduction by selecting UTILITY at the MAIN MENU and then selecting INFORMATION. Press the Page Down key to view more pages. Before you escape from this information, you should at least read up to SECTION 1: QUICK START. You will be given the amount of minutes this program will run. This is the demonstration period. When it expires, you will only be able to run the program after a password is issued to you. When the demonstration period runs out and you are still interested in using KeepTrak, you will be given the appropriate instructions to send a $15 check. This is the cost of the program and needs to be paid only if you desire to continue using the program after the end of the demonstration period. * Disclaimer/Agreement -------------------- Users of KeepTrak must accept this disclaimer of warranty. KeepTrak is applied as is. The author disclaims all waranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness of any purpose. The autor assumes no liablilty for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of KeepTrak. This program is still being tested. It is likely that you will find problems with the program. You are welcome to report these problems, however, the author will be under no obligation to offer compensation of any sort. If after the demonstration period you are satisfied with the product and decide to continue using it, you will be required to send a $15 check. Once sent this amount is non-refundable. Any problems with this software after its demonstration period has expired are also treated as mentioned above. Please remember you are using this program at your own risk. * The information session is divided into the following sections: (Page number) SECTION I: QUICK START 7 1. Startup 7 2. The first steps 8 SECTION II: GETTING AROUND 9 1. Using the menus 9 2. Using the arrow keys 13 3. Using the mouse 13 4. Help menus 14 5. What is available on the disk 15 SECTION III: FEATURES 17 1. Menu structure 17 2. Data entry 18 3. Updating subheadings 22 4. Listings and reports 27 5. Utility functions 35 SECTION IV: BASICS 37 1. Main headings vs subheadings 37 2. Transaction types 42 3. Examples of setting up subheadings 46 4. Dealing with mixed transactions 62 5. Transfering money without affecting other accounts 68 SECTION V: OTHER FUNCTIONS 70 1. Printing screens 70 2. Backups and restore 71 3. Printing help manuals 72 SECTION VI: READY TO START 73 * SECTION I: QUICK START ======================= 1. STARTUP ---------- If this is the first time you have run KeepTrak, the program will perform preliminary initialization. Once this initialization is complete, you are ready to use the program. Your first task is to enter initial data. This task is simplified by using STARTUP from the UTILITY menu. Startup is designed to help you declare initial account information, account balances, statement dates and enter initial data. The help and information menus will guide you through the process. Note: You do not need to use Startup in all cases. If you are going to enter a large amount of past data, for example, for the whole past year, Startup is not suitable. In this case you will need to follow your check book and should enter data using KeepTrak. See sections IV and VI in this case. 2. THE FIRST STEPS ------------------ Use PRINT SCREEN or SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN to print important pages Creating new subheadings (MAIN -> UPD SUBHEAD -> ALL -> ADD) Printing subheadings (MAIN -> LISTING -> SUBHEADING -> PRINT) Adding data (MAIN -> UPDATE DATA -> ADD -> CONTINUE) Edit data (MAIN -> UPDATE DATA -> EDIT ->> CONTINUE) Finding a data record (MAIN -> LISTING -> DATA -> FIND) Printing a report (MAIN -> LISTING -> REPORT ->> PRINT) Viewing a chart (MAIN -> LISTING -> REPORT -> ALL ->> SUMMARY -> CONTINUE -> GRAPH) Screen saver/Suspend (MAIN -> QUIT -> [s]) Change password (MAIN -> UTILITY -> NEW PASS) * SECTION II: GETTING AROUND ========================== 1. USING THE MENUS ------------------- In order to perform a task, you will need to move through the program using the menu bar. The menu bar is on the top of the screen and occupies two levels. The menu bar consists of the title box on the top level, two menu boxes also on the top level and six menu boxes on the lower level of the menu bar. The top two menu boxes are selected using the page up and page down keys on the keyboard, while the boxes on the lower level are selected using the escape key and the first five function keys on the keyboard. The diagram on the next page shows a basic menu bar. * -------------------------------------------------- --PGUP----- ----PGDN--- | MAIN MENU || || | |__________________________________________________||___________||___________| ----ESC---- -----F1---- ----F2----- ----F3----- ----F4----- ----F5----- | EXIT || DATA || SUBHEADING|| LISTINGS || UTILITY ||INFORMATION| |___________||___________||___________||___________||___________||___________| If a key performs a certain function, that function will be printed in the menu box. For example, in the above menu, F1 will select DATA, but PGUP will not select anything. In order to select an option, simply press the appropriate key as indicated on top of the desired menu box. * During certain instances of data entry, the title bar is converted to a data entry bar with INPUT written on top of it. The menu bar will look like the following diagram. ----------------INPUT----------------------------- --PGUP----- ----PGDN--- | Number:_ || || | |__________________________________________________||___________||___________| ----ESC---- -----F1---- ----F2----- ----F3----- ----F4----- ----F5----- | EXIT || || || || || | |___________||___________||___________||___________||___________||___________| Simply enter the desired number or other required data and press ENTER when finished. In the event that you do not wish to enter the data and would like to exit, simply press the ESC key. In the event the ESC key has no function, nothing will be printed in the ESC box. * During certain data entry, you have the option to press the ENTER key and keep the current value. If you have such an option, the menu bar will look as follows. Notice the two page up/page down boxes have been replaced with a box with the title ENTER written above it. ----------------INPUT----------------------------- --------ENTER----------- | Number:_ || DEFAULT | |__________________________________________________||________________________| ----ESC---- -----F1---- ----F2----- ----F3----- ----F4----- ----F5----- | EXIT || || || || || | |___________||___________||___________||___________||___________||___________| When you see DEFAULT written in the ENTER box, you may press the ENTER key and retain the current value in the variable. This will only work if you have not typed anything in the INPUT box. If you do enter any numbers or letter, the current value will be replaced by the new value. * 2. USING THE ARROW KEYS: ------------------------ In order to make data entry and menu selection faster, KeepTrak also offers the use of the arrow keys. By pressing the UP arrow key, you can activate the arrow selection. When the arrow selection is activated, you will see a yellow menu box. You may select different menu boxes by pressing the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys. Once you have reached the required menu box, press ENTER or the UP arrow key. This will select the option available in the menu box. If the menu box is empty (i.e., has no options available in it), selecting it using ENTER or the UP arrow key will have no effect. 3. USING THE MOUSE ------------------- The mouse is activated at certain points in the program. Generally the mouse is active only in the menu bar. You will not be able to use the mouse below the menu bar unless you choose MOUSE_SELCT. This option becomes available when you need to make a selection from a list. Once selected you will be able to move the mouse into the list and by clicking the left button, make your selection. 4. HELP MENUS ------------- Before you select any option for the first time, you should first select the HELP option. If the HELP option is available at the menu, you will see HELP written in the box for the F5 function key. The help instructions need to be viewed to learn about the functions in each menu and any precautions that you might to be aware of before selecting an option. Once you have viewed the help instructions, pressing the ESC key will bring you back to the menu from which you selected HELP. 5. WHAT IS AVAILABLE ON THE DISK -------------------------------- The disk comes with the file KEEPTRAK.ZIP and INSTALL.BAT*. The KeepTrak disk contains the following programs and help files saved in a compressed form within the file KEEPTRAK.ZIP 1. KT_V2.EXE+ This is the main program to enter transactions. 2. KEEPTRAK.BAT* This is the batch file that runs KT_V2. 3. BACKUP.BAT* This batch file will save all personal files (.PER) to backup files (.BAC). 4. RESTORE.BAT* This program will copy all backup files (.BAC) to personal files (.PER). 5. MANUAL.BAT* Use this program to print the information to your local text printer 6. HELP1/2/S.TXT These are all the help files that contain help information at the menus 7. INFO/S.TXT These are the information files that contain the instructions to run KeepTrak and Startup. It is these files that are printed by MANUAL.BAT. 8. ENDDEMO.TXT This file contains instructions that need to be followed once the demonstration period ends. For Network versions: (*) are not available (+) KT_V2.EXE is KEEPTRAK.EXE In addition to these files, once you run the program, the following files will be created. These files constitue your personal files; and you should not give these files to anyone else. 1. PASS.PER This contains your password and other information needed for security. 2. SUBHEAD.PER This contains all the subheadings that you have defined. 3. DATA.PER This file contains all your data records. 4. BALANCE.PER Created by Startup and contains balancing information. * SECTION III: FEATURES ====================== 1. MENU STRUCTURE: ------------------- MAIN MENU | --------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | UPDATE DATA UPDATE SUBHEADING LISTING UTILITY QUIT | | | | | ------------ | -------------- | ------- | | | | | | | | | | ADD EDIT NULLIFY | SUBHEADING DATA REPORT | END SUSPEND | | ---------------------- ----------------------------------- | | | | | | | | INCOME ACCOUNT SPENDING ALL INITIALIZE INFORMATION NEW PASSWORD STARTUP * 2. DATA ENTRY: -------------- There are two ways you can enter data. The first is to ADD new data records, and the other is to EDIT existing data records. Whenever you make a transaction, you will enter that transaction into the computer using the ADD option within DATA. If you make a mistake, you have the option of REPEATING your data entry. If you discover a mistake in your data entry after you have already saved the data, you can select the EDIT option within DATA. In the EDIT option, you will first be asked to select the data record you want to edit. EXAMPLE: This example explains step by step how you might enter a new data record. 1. From the MAIN MENU, press UPDATE DATA. 2. From the UPDATE DATA MENU, press ADD. 3. Press CONTINUE. 4. You are ready to enter the DATE now. Press CONTINUE. 5. Enter the date of the transactions starting with the month. Next you will be asked to enter the day and lastly the year. In order to enter the date for July 1, 1993; you must input 7 [ENTER] 1 [ENTER] 1993 [ENTER]. 6. You are now ready to enter the AMOUNT. Press CONTINUE. 7. Enter the amount. For example, 12.34 [ENTER]. 8. You are now ready to enter the TRANSACTION TYPE. 9. Press INCOME if you want to add money to your account, TRANSFER if you are transfering money from one account to another and SPENDING if you are spending money. 10. Depending upon the type of transaction, you will be asked for two subheadings. If you chose INCOME: You will first be asked for the appropriate subheading in income sources and then the money account the money was deposited in. If you chose TRANSFER: You will first be asked for the money account the money was taken from and then the account it was deposited in. If you chose SPENDING: You will first be asked for the money account the money was taken from and then the spending category it was spend on. 11. For each of the two subheadings, you have the option to select the subheading from the list, to create new subheadings or to type them in. If the subheading you enter is not in your predefined list, you will get an error message. 12. Next, you need to enter a description. After pressing CONTINUE, type a description followed by [ENTER]. 13. Next, enter NO CHK to indicate no check number or CHECK NUM if there is a check number you wish to enter. You will be asked to type the number in the latter case followed by [ENTER]. 14. Lastly, you need to press any key to continue to the confirmation menu. 15. At the DATA CONFIRMATION MENU, you have the option to repeat your data entry if you find errors, to ignore the data you entered or to save it and continue with another entry. In the event you find a data record that you do not wish to keep, you may NULLIFY it by selecting DATA from the MAIN MENU followed by NULLIFY. You will next need to select the correct data record and then press CONTINUE. If you do not wish to NULLIFY the data record simply press ESC. The data in a NULLIFIED record is converted to zeros and stored at the beginning of the data base. You may edit a NULLIFIED data record if there are too many of them. Once edited, it will be moved to the correct location in the database according to its data. * 3. UPDATING SUBHEADINGS: ------------------------ You have a number of options within the UPDATE SUBHEADING MENU. You select this option by pressing SUBHEADING from the MAIN MENU. Once you have done so, you must select between income sources, money accounts, spending categories or all the headings. After that, you will need to select between adding new subheadings, editing existing subheadings, deleting subheadings or moving the subheadings in the list. EXAMPLE: Once you have decided on a rough sketch of how your subheadings will look, it is time to set them up. From the MAIN MENU, select SUBHEADINGS, ALL and then ADD. This will allow you to add new subheading in all three main headings one after another. You will start at INCOME SOURCES. Select TYPE SUB and enter each subheading one at a time ending with ENTER. After you have entered your last subheading, press ESC/DONE. Now you will press F1/CONTINUE to go onto the next main heading, MONEY ACCOUNTS. Repeat the same procedure. Lastly, you will enter the main heading SPENDING CATEGORIES. Now it is time to make corrections and organize your subheadings. You may select ALL once again and then select EDIT. Go through each of the main headings and use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scan through the subheadings checking for spelling mistakes or errors. If none are found press ESC/EXIT at the LISTING MENU and then F1/CONTINUE at the UPDATE SUBHEADING MENU. Repeat this till you are finished. If an error is found, you will want to first select the required subheading by pressing NUMBER or ARROW UP/DN. Once you have typed the number or selected the subheading using the arrow, press ENTER. Next, press F1/CONTINUE at the LISTING MENU. This will take the number and allow you to edit that subheading. You will see the subheading and will have the option to update it. Once done, you can proceed scaning the list and correcting more errors. After you have corrected the last main heading SPENDING CATEGORIES, you will press F1/CONTINUE. You will now have the option to go back in and organize your subheadings. You may do this by selecting ALL and then selecting MOVE. You must now look at the list and decide which subheading you want moved and where to. * For example, you have the following subheadings within MONEY ACCOUNTS. Money Accounts (Before) (After) -------------- [1] Savings [1] Savings [2] Checking <-- [2] Investment <------ [3] Cash | [3] Checking [4] Investment ------- [4] Cash [5] Loans [5] Loans In the example above you want to move "Investment" from position [4] to "Checking" at position [2]. This will cause "Checking" to move out of the way allowing "Investment" to take its place. In order to accomplish this move, you would first enter the number 4 when asked "Moving from" and then enter the number 2 when asked "Moving to." Instead of moving one subheading at a time, you may choose to keep your subheadings alphabetized. If you desire this, select the option ALPHABETIZE, and the list will be immidiately alphabetized. * 4. LISTINGS AND REPORTS: ------------------------ After selecting LISTING from the MAIN MENU, you have the option to view three types of listings. A. SUBHEADINGS: This will give you a listing of the subheadings. First, you will see income sources, then money accounts and lastly, spending categories. B. DATA: This will allow you to view each data record in your database, one record at a time. C. REPORT: Using this option, you can view a report of your transactions. There are a number of reports that can be generated. First, you will be asked for the main heading. Once selected, you will have two options. (i) Select a single subheading. (ii) Select all the subheadings within the main heading. Next you will have three options. (i) Select only the new transactions. (These include transactions that you have not checked off.) (ii) Select new and old transactions. (These include both checked and un-checked transactions.) You can use this option to view all the transactions that are included within a subheading. (iii) Select transactions within a certain period. (By selecting this option, you will have the option to view all the transactions made in a certain period. You would assign your period by specifying the starting and ending dates.) If your report is more than one page, you will be able to use the page down key to see the rest of the pages. Once you reach your last page you will have a number of options. (i) Select BALANCING to view balancing information. (ii) Select MORE DESC to view more description about a data record. Once selected, you would need to specify the record number. (iii) Select SUMMARY to view ending balances on each subheading. Within SUMMARY you can view a piechart of the various subheadings. You may also select PRINT to print the results. In order to print the chart make sure you entered graphics [printer] at the DOS prompt, where [printer] is the appropriate printer type. All you have to do next is use the PRINT SCREEN or SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN button when you are viewing the chart. (iv) Select CHECK OFF to check off a data record. If you select this option you will be asked for the data record you want checked off. If you are listing OLD and NEW records, checking off a data record will not make it disappear. However, a * will appear besides the data record number. If you wish to un-check the data record, you may select CHECK OFF again and enter the number. Thus CHECK OFF acts as a toggle switch. When you view the records using the NEW ONLY option the checked off records, those which had the * besides their number, will not be seen. Please note that the above options appear selectively at required report types. For example, the SUMMARY option is available when you select ALL the subheadings within a main heading. The BALANCING option is available when you select only one subheading and view the NEW records only. In order to see what option is available to you simply watch the menu bar. If an option is available to you, it will be displayed in one of the boxes. * EXAMPLE: For example, you have a subheading "Checking" within money accounts, and you select this subheading with the option OLD AND NEW. The * means the record This is the ending total has been checked off from the last page. | | ACCOUNT: Checking | | DATE DESCRIPTION | C REC# AMOUNT TOTAL | | 0.00 <- 7/1/1993 Initial amount - > * [1] 10000.00 10000.00 8/21/1993 Money put in savings [2] -2000.00 8000.00 * If you select the same subheading as above with the option NEW ONLY, you will not see any checked off entries. In the above example, record #1 was checked off and will not be visible. The total, as you can see, will follow as if it were there. ACCOUNT: Checking DATE SUBHEADING REC# AMOUNT TOTAL 0.00 8/21/1993 Money put in savings [2] -2000.00 8000.00 * If you were to select ALL the money accounts and had only made the above two transactions; the report, after selecting OLD AND NEW will look as follows ACCONT: ALL DATE SUBHEADING C REC# AMOUNT TOTAL 0.00 7/1/1993 Checking * [1] 10000.00 10000.00 8/21/1993 Checking [2] -2000.00 8000.00 8/21/1993 Saving [2] 2000.00 10000.00 It should be noted that a transfer appears twice in the listing even though it is the same data record and has the same number. It appears once at the point money is taken from an account and then at the point money is put in another account. As you can see, the resulting total is what it was before the transfer. You should also note that when you list ALL the subheadings within the main heading, the DESCRIPTION column is replaced by the SUBHEADING column. * 5. UTILITY FUNCTIONS: --------------------- After selecting UTILITY from the MAIN MENU, you have the option to initialize your whole database, view this information or set a new password. A. INITIALIZE. When you select this option, you will first be asked for your current password. This is a precaution against unauthorized deletion of all your data. Next, you will be asked for a new password and the initialization will be completed. B. INFORMATION. In order to read this information during the program, you can select INFORMATION after entering the UTILITY MENU. C. NEW PASSWORD. Select this option occasionally to change your password without deleting any other information. NOTE: If you forget your password, you will NOT be able to access your data again. D. STARTUP. The startup program. See the last section for more details. * SECTION IV: BASICS: ===================== 1. MAIN HEADINGS VS SUBHEADINGS:" --------------------------------- There are three "Main Headings" that are the root of the program; they are listed below. Within each of these main headings, you will create your own "Subheadings." There is a limit of 100 subheadings within each main heading, and each subheading must be limited to 20 characters or less. THE THREE MAIN HEADINGS _________________ | | Income sources --->> | Money accounts | -->> Spending categories |_________________| * 1. Income sources: These constitute all the ways in which you receive money. These include income from work, returns on investments, interest from savings, money from family and even cents found off the ground! You would define the "Subheadings" according to your particular needs. Some examples include "My income," "Business," "Spouse income," "Interest," etc. There is no limit to how detailed you can make this as long as the number does not exceed 100. * 2. Money accounts: These constitute ALL the ways or forms in which money is kept. Any money you have and any money that you owe is all included in this heading. This includes money in savings and checking, money as cash, money you owe on credit cards, money invested and IOU's. Examples of subheadings within money accounts include "My Checking," "Savings," "VISA," "AM EXPRESS," "Cash," "Investment 1," "Loan 1," etc. * 3. Spending categories: These constitute all the ways you spend money. It is important to note that the point at which a sale or commitment is made constitutes money having left a particular "money account" and having been spent. In other words, if you make a purchase over the telephone using your VISA card for an item, you would deduct money from a subheading within money accounts called "VISA." Even though you have not signed a receipt or sent any money to VISA from your checking, for the sake of this system, you have "spent" the money. Following this method, you will have full control and knowledge of how much money you have and how much you will have in the future when all the bills come in. You will have to spend some time thinking of all the subheadings within "spending categories." You might also want to organize by groups all the ways you spend money. For example, "Business: expences," "Household: Groceries," "Entertainment," "Car: repair," "Car: fuel," "Household: rent," etc. Your initial list does not have to be comprehensive in any way. It should be large enough to give you a good start because you can always edit and add more subheadings as need arises. * In addition to the three "Main headings" you should be aware of three main types of transactions. When entering data, you will be asked for the transaction type. You can enter it by typing [I], [T], or [S]. Or by selecting them from the menu. Quite simply they are INCOME, TRANSFER or SPENDING. THREE TRANSACTION TYPES ____________________ | | | Transfering | Receiving income -> | money within | -> Spending money | accounts | |____________________| * 2. TRANSACTION TYPES: --------------------- 1. Income or [I]: This tells the computer that you are receiving money from one of your income sources and depositing that money into one of your accounts. You will be asked to identify this income source and then to identify the account the money was placed in. This transaction increases your net worth. Another example of income sources is interest on money in savings or in investments. You would have to create these income sources. When the account statement comes in, you could see how much interest you have earned and add that amount from "Interest" to "Savings." * 2. Transfer or [T]: This tells the computer that you are moving your money from one form or account to another form or account. Examples would include an electronic withdrawl from a checking account. Here, you are transfering from "Checking" to "Cash." Another example could be writing a check for a VISA bill. In this case, your money is going from "checking" to your debt with "VISA." As you can suspect, a transfer does not change your net worth. Another example is taking out a loan. You would create an account called "Bank loan" and transfer money from it to your other account like "Savings." As long as you have the money in your savings, you will agree that you have the ability to pay it back or transfer it to the loan and not affect you net worth. Only if you spend the money, would you have reduced your net worth. * 3. Spending or [S]: This tells the computer that you are taking money from one of your accounts and spending it. You will be asked for the account the money was taken from and the category the money was spent on. For example, buying donuts from a store with cash would deduct money from "Cash" under the category "Snack." Once again, if a charge is made on a credit card, you would be deducting money from that charge card account. This would leave a debt on that account to be cancelled later when money is transfered from checking to the credit card account. In dealing with checking account charges or interest on loans, you would need to create sepearte spending categories. For example, "Loan interest" or "Finance charge." Whenever you receive your statement and realize a charge is included, you would need to add this information to your data. You would have money from "checking" spent on "Finance charge." You could deal with interest on a loan in a number of ways. As an example, when you send payment on a loan, you could first have money transfered from a "checking" account to a "loan" account and then have that month's interest taken from the "loan" account and "spent" on "Loan interest." This way you would be able to keep track of how much interest you have been paying off on a loan and how much your principal is getting reduced. * 3. EXAMPLES OF SETTING UP SUBHEADINGS: -------------------------------------- Before you start actually typing in data, you will have to think of how you would like to set up your accounts, income sources and spending categories. This section will deal with additional information on how these main headings work and how you can get the most out of KeepTrak. There are a number of ways you receive money, and you will have to analyze each one of them. Take for instance money from a paycheck. The paycheck includes your earnings, deductions from your company plans, taxes, some company credits and overtime. The resulting NET income is hardly comparable to your earnings. How much detail is important for you? Let's look at a highly simplistic way of dealing with income. You would define a main heading "income" and a holding account like "checking." Whenever you receive your paycheck, you look at the last line for the NET income. You would then put this amount in your checking account (supposing you did not cash it along the way). Your data entry would follow the following scheme. 1. Date 2. Transaction Type: I or Income 3. Amount 4. Income source: "Income" 5. Deposited in account: "Checking" 6. Description: Net income * A diagram of the transaction would look like the following: Income source Option Money account _______________ I | | "Income" ----------> | --> Checking | |_______________| NOT RECOMMENDED * This method, though simple and acceptable, does not allow you to keep track of the taxes you have paid, the money you spend on company insurances or even company investments. One could make the model more complex and thus keep track of more items. Let's suppose you declare a net income which includes your salary, all the various deductions and taxes as "Income: Net income." You may also declare other income sources such as "Income: Taxes," "Income: Investment" and "Income: Medical." Next, you declare money accounts such as "Company investment," "TEMP" and "Checking." Then you declare spending categories such as "Taxes: All" and "Insurance: Med." Your data entry would be a little more complicated, but it will put more in perspective. For example, you would put money from your income source "Income: Net income" into your money account "checking." You would put your income source "Income: Investment" into your money account "Company investment." Next, you would put your "Income: Medical" into "TEMP" and spend it from the money account "TEMP" on the spending category "Insurance: Med." You would do the same thing for "Income: Taxes." You would put it in "TEMP" as (I) and then spend that amount from "TEMP" as (S) on "Taxes: All." * To simplify all of this, look at the diagram below. Income sources Option Money Accounts Option Spending Category _____________________ I | __________ | Income: Net Income --->|-> | checking | | | |__________| | I | ________________ | Income: Investment --->|->| Comp investment| | | |________________| | I | _____________ | S Income: Medical ------>|->| |--->|------> Insurance: Med I | | TEMP | | S Income: Taxes ------->|->|_____________|--->|------> Taxes: All |_____________________| * As you can deduce from the earlier model, you will be able to monitor how much net income you made, how much is now invested in the company and how much you spend on insurance and taxes over the year. One may even consider a third model. In this case, you could define a temporary holding account for your income within your money accounts called "TEMP: Income." Any actual earnings and company credits (both of which are actually incomes) will be put from seperate income sources "Income: earnings" and "Income: credits" to your "TEMP: income" account. From here, you would decide what to do with your overall income. You may want to have seperate money accounts called "Company investments" and "Checking." In addition, you would create spending categories "Insurance: Med" and "Taxes: All." You would then transfer the appropriate amount (equal to the net income) from your "TEMP: Income" account to your "Checking" account. Then transfer the appropriate amount from your "Checking" account to your "Company investments" account. You would also take the appropriate amounts out of your "TEMP: Income" account as spending on "Insurance: Med" and also "Taxes: All." This last model will sooner or later be of great benefit. A diagram of this model is given on the next page. * Income sources Option Money Accounts Option Spending Category _____________________ I | _____________ | S Income: Earnings ----->|->| |--->|------> Insurance: Med I | | TEMP: Income| | S Income: Credits ------>|->|_____________|--->|------> Taxes: All | | | | | T | T | | | __V______ | | | |Checking | | | | |_________| | | | ____________V___ | | | Company Invest.| | | |________________| | RECOMMENDED MODEL |_____________________| * Now, whenever you would like to see how much your earnings are, you can use "Report" to view the subheading "Income: Earnings." As you can see, each model has its own advantages and disadvantages. How you wish to use KeepTrak should be determined by your own personal needs. The section on "Reports" should help you decide how much detail you would want and what model is necessary. The above example was for income, but many other instances such as "loans" and "credit cards" can also be dealt with different ways. The important thing to consider is what do you define as an income, as a money account and as spending. * To further grasp the ways in which to use KeepTrak, let's explore the simple everyday use of a credit card along with examples of a loan. You might declare a credit card such as "VISA" as a money account. This would imply that this is a form of your money. Each time you make a charge using the charge card you can consider that you have spent that money from your charge card account and left a negative amount (or a debt). This debt will be removed when you pay the bill. You may declare a loan in a similar way i.e., as a money account. Each time you take out a loan, that money is transfered from the loan to your checking account. Each time you make a payment, you transfer money from your checking account to your loan account. Each time you realize you have accrued interest on the loan, you take the money from your loan account and spend in on a spending category. As you can see from this, a loan or a charge card are treated as "your money," and all you are doing is moving money from one place to another. As long as the money is NOT spent, the net total of all the accounts will come out to your total wealth. This method is recommended. The diagram of this method is given on the next page. * Income Sources Option Money Accounts Option Spending Category _____________________ | _____________ | S | | LOAN or |--->|------> Interest/Charges | | CREDIT CARD |--->|------> Items Bought/Charges | |_____________| | S | | ^ | (Receiving Loan) | T | | T (Payment)| | __V___|__ | | |Checking | | | |_________| | |_____________________| RECOMMENDED MODEL * You may, on the other hand, only want to consider how much money is spent only when you write a check and the money is taken from your checking. This method will require less work but will not allow you the added protection and knowledge that KeepTrak intends to provide. In this case, you could have spending categories "VISA," "MASTER CARD" and "LOAN." Whenever you make a payment, you would take money from your "Checking" account and SPEND it on your credit card. You will not have to record each credit card transaction in the database. In this case, it is of no importance to you how much you have charged on your charge card--you do not consider that your debt--all you would be concerned with is how much you have to pay once the bill is due. THIS METHOD IS NOT RECOMMENDED. In the case of a loan, when you receive the loan, you would enter the loan amount from an income source "LOANS" as an income and deposit the amount in "checking." Since the loan is treated as an income, KeepTrak assumes you have no strings attached to that amount. However, when the loans are due, you will be making payments or spending money from "checking" to a spending category "Loan." This method will detach you from your obligations. The resulting diagram is given on the next page. * Income Sources Option Money Accounts Option Spending Category _____________________ I | _____________ | S LOAN ----------------->|->| |--->|------> Loan Payment I | | Checking | | S | |_____________|--->|------> VISA Payment |_____________________| NOT RECOMMENDED * 4. DEALING WITH MIXED TRANSACTIONS ---------------------------------- Suppose you used your credit card to buy stamps and a roll of quarters. You would have spent $10.00 on the quarters and $5.80 on the stamps. How would you enter this data into your database? You should break down all mixed transactions and indicate so in the description. Taking the first example. You would do two seperate data entries. The first will have $10.00 transfered from the credit card account to an account for the quarters. The second would be a spending from the credit card account on a category for stamps. In the description of BOTH data records, you should write something like "Part of $15.80 transaction." This is necessary so that you can later identify this transaction. When you check off the transaction you will have to check it off in both the data records. As a second example , suppose you are keeping track of spending categories "AUTO: tools" and "HOME: Utility." You go to Wal-Mart and buy a number of car tools and home utility items, but you pay for them using the same charge card transaction. Let us suppose your receipt looks like Filter wrench 2.34 (Auto tool) 30pc set 23.45 (Auto tools) Tissues 4.50 (Utility) Batteries 5.96 (Utility) ------ Sub Total 36.25 Credit - .25 (Coupon for batteries) Sub Total 36.00 Tax 1.63 ------ TOTAL 37.63 How would you enter this transaction so that the correct amounts are recorded in the two seperate spending categories? * In the second example you will need to add up how much you spent on each cateory. If you do not want to re-figure taxes, you can use approximate amounts. The important thing is the total for each should be the total on the receipt. Thus the break down comes to: Car Tools: 25.79 Utilities: 10.21 Tax : 1.63 (4.5%) TOTAL : 37.63 If you keep track of taxes seperately, you can simply put the three seperate amounts into the respective spending categories. This would require three seperate data entries and thus three data records. In the description of each you should mention that it is a part of a $37.63 transaction. If you do not keep track of taxes you could divide the taxes up between the two spending categories. Suppose you calculate the taxes were 4.5% then Car Tools: 26.95 (Approximate after tax) Utilities: 10.66 (Approximate after tax) TOTAL : 37.61 <--Notice Total is not correct Since the total must be $37.63 you should adjust the amounts to make the total exactly $37.63. Thus, Car Tools: 26.96 (Adjusted) Utilities: 10.67 (Adjusted) TOTAL : 37.63 (EXACT) Now you have only two data records to enter. You would spend 26.96 from the credit card account on "HOME: Utility" and 10.67 from the credit card on "AUTO: Tools." You will also mention that the two transactions are a part of the $37.63 transaction in the description. * 5. TRANSFERING MONEY WITHOUT AFFECTING OTHER ACCOUNTS ----------------------------------------------------- When you make a transfer in KeepTrak, two accounts are affected. The first is the account from which the money is taken and the other is the account it was put in. However, suppose you transfer money from one account to another, but you do not want the amount affected in the second account. What can you do? An example of such a situation might be if you are entering data using your bank statements. Suppose you decide to enter the transactions from all your checking account statements. These statements might contain transfer in the from of withdrawls or deposits. For example, there might be an electronic withdrawl where you took out $20 as cash. If you enter this transaction as a transfer you would have $20 less in your account and $20 more in your cash account. If this is a very old transaction and you are not keeping track of your cash from that period, you will not want your cash account to be affected. One reason might be that you have already declared that you have $50 cash in your cash account and this old transaction will mess up your current total. In such a case you should not use TRANSFER as a transaction type. Instead you could spend the $20 to a spending category called "Withdrawl." This way the money will be taken out without affecting any other account. You should, however, mention this in the description. If you added money to the account, you can add it using INCOME. You may have an income source called "Deposits" from which you can add money to the required account without affecting any other account. * SECTION V: OTHER FUNCTIONS ========================== 1. PRINTING SCREENS ------------------- Since KeepTrak is a DOS application, you may print any screen by pressing the Print Screen key on your keyboard. If you are running the program in windows you will need to use SHIFT+Print Screen. Also you need to configure DOS to your graphics printer. Do this by entering graphics [printer] at the dos prompt, or entering it in your autoexec.bat file. In the able case [printer] is the appropriate command for your printer. For example if you have an HP deskjet you would enter graphics deskjet You can print any chart that you see, or screen using the above. You can print upto two screens on a single page in the case of text. After the two pages have been printed, you should press the eject key on your printer. In order to save paper you may place the page again in the printer page feed for printing on the back side. In addition to the above method, you can print a report or your subheadings simply by pressing PRINT from the menu. The PRINT menu box will become active when you are on the last page of your REPORT, last page of the SUMMARY and when you select SUBHEADING from the LISTING MENU. 2. BACKUPS AND RESTORE ---------------------- You should frequently make backups of your personal files or the *.PER files. This is easily accomplished by running backup. If you lose your data through some error or power failure, you will be able to recover your data to the last backup version. All you will have to do is run restore. In this case, ALL your backup files will be restored. Note: These commands will only work if your files are in the C:\keeptrak directory. 3. PRINTING HELP MANUAL ----------------------- If you would rather have a hard copy of all this information, you should run manual. This will send all the information text directly to your printer. Your printer should be configured to print DOS text. Note: This command will only work if your files are in the C:\keeptrak directory. * SECTION VI: READY TO START =========================== The shortcut to getting started is to select startup from UTILITY. Startup has certain limitations which are listed below. If you make a mistake and need to make corrections simple move out of startup and use EDIT DATA, UPDATE SUB and other features to make corrections. a) You can only define money accounts. All income sources and spending categories default to the subheading "INITIAL." b) You can not make any modifications to these money accounts c) Transactions within data entry are limited to income (or deposits) and spendings (or withdrawls). No transfers are allowed. In the event of a transfer from one account to another, you must enter a withdrawl in one account and a deposit in another account. d) You will not be able to delete or edit any data entry once it is saved. As you can see, you are limited in the structure of the database, the types of subheadings, and the number of functions available. Even though, Startup can accomplish the task of initializing data with great ease; you might have to use keepTrak in conjunction. This might become necessary if you make a mistake in data entry and need to delete the data. KeepTrak also offers a wider variety of reports. In Startup, you can only view a single subheading. In addition, the initial balance amounts become checked off automatically and cannot be seen. With KeepTrak you will be able to use the NEW AND OLD option to view the checked off records. Also, keep in mind that since Startup puts all spending categories and income sources in subheadings called "INITIAL," you will need to create these subheadings, from KeepTrak, if you want to view your initial data. If you do not declare "INITIAL" as an income source and as a spending category, when you select to report income sources, "INITIAL" will not be in the list. You will not need to declare these till you have a problem and need to view the initial records or make corrections to them. In the event you decide to save your own startup data using KeepTrak rather than using Startup, you should follow the following guidelines. 1. Set up money accounts corresponding to your bank account, credit card accounts and cash. 2. Set up initial spending categories and income sources called "INITIAL." 3. In order to make the initial bank balance match up with the statement, add a data record putting money from "INTITAL" into your bank accounts. 4. In order to match the debt in your credit card accounts, SPEND the appropriate amount from the credit card account on "INITIAL." 5. You should check off these initial amounts. 6. Next, you should add in all the appropriate transactions making sure not to repeat a transfer twice. If you do, simply delete the second instance. 7. Frequently view the reports to make sure all transactions are correctly recorded and follow along with the bank statements. ~