WELCOME TO THE BILL DRAWER! This program is designed to help you pay your bills in a timely manner. Unlike "checkbook" programs, which assume you know what you want to pay, "The Bill Drawer" helps you organize your bills by their due date, then gives you powerful features to review, select and write checks for only the bills you desire. In addition, there are many features to help you control and analyze your unpaid bills and expenditures like: * Recurring bills * Disputed bills * Late or discounted payment amounts * Cash requirements reporting * Multiple expense categories per bill * Monthly and yearly statistics for companies and categories * Full check register and supporting detail * Support for multiple bank accounts * Support for multiple preprinted check formats * Payment history reporting by company or category * 941 tax reporting * Credit card tracking Furthermore, The Bill Drawer contains many features to help you control and reconcile your bank accounts like: * Full check register with supporting detail * Manual check, deposit and withdrawal entry * Control of last check number used * Multiple expense categories per check or withdrawal * Multiple income categories per deposit * Support for voided checks and corrections * Monthly and yearly statistics for each bank account * Full account reconciliation functions to help balance your statements * Tax deductable payment tracking Finally, recognizing that these are your important financial records, The Bill Drawer contains a complete security system keyed by user name and password. You can fully control who can access any program function, and whether they can merely look at or update the information presented by that function. PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS: * Microsoft Windows - The Bill Drawer is a Microsoft Windows program, and as such requires Windows version 3.1 or higher. This program has been especially optimized for Windows 3.1 and will not function with Windows 3.0. * MS-DOS version 3.3 or higher is required. * A minimum of 3 megabytes of hard disk space is required to install and operate the program. * SHARE.EXE - The Bill Drawer requires SHARE for both program installation and normal operation. SHARE is a MS-DOS command that helps protect the data files from damage if multiple users or applications access the files simultaneously. To load SHARE, simply type "SHARE" from the MS-DOS command line BEFORE starting Windows. You can also place the command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. CAUTION: IF YOU DO NOT HAVE SHARE LOADED NOW, YOU MUST DO SO BEFORE STARTING THE INSTALLATION PROGRAM. INSTALLATION: The Bill Drawer comes with an automated install program, which will install the programs, files, and help files required to execute the program under Microsoft Windows to your hard disk. To execute this install program, follow these steps: 1. Make sure you have at least 3 megabytes of freespace on your hard drive. 2. Make sure you have SHARE.EXE loaded. 3. Load Windows and make sure that all extraneous applications are closed. 4. Select the "Run" menu option under "Program Manager File" menu. 5. Run the install program, by entering a command line of "A:INSTALL.EXE" or whatever path will point to the install program. 6. View the technical notes by clicking on the "View Tech Notes" button. We suggest you print these notes using the "Print Topic" option under the "File" menu. 7. View the license agreement by clicking on the "View License Info" button. 8. Complete the desired installation options and select "OK". Use the program help, if you don't understand a specific option. MANUAL INSTALLATION PROCESS: Should the automated install program fail for any reason, you can try manually installing the program using the following steps: 1. Create a directory on your hard disk for The Bill Drawer. For example, "C:\MELSOFT\BILLS". Off this directory, create DATA and BACKUP sub-directories. For example, "C:\MELSOFT\BILLS\DATA" and "C:\MELSOFT\BILLS\BACKUP". 2. From the DOS command line, run the manual installation procedure MANUAL.BAT. Specify the directory where the distribution files reside and the new directory you created as the parameters. For example, type "A:", then "MANUAL A: C:\MELSOFT\BILLS" at the MS-DOS command line to copy all the distribution files from "A:" to "C:\MELSOFT\BILLS" and "C:\MELSOFT\BILLS\DATA". Note that ending back slashes are not entered. 3. If you did not use the directory name, "C:\MELSOFT\BILLS", then you must use the Windows Notepad editor (in the Accessories group) to edit the MAP0300.INI file. This file was copied to the directory you specified in step 2. You will need to change the "FileDir=", "BackupDir=" and "ReportDir=" parameters to match the directory names you chose. View the technical notes for additional information on these parameters. 4. Create a new program group and program item, using the Windows Program Manager File Menu (New option). The program item should reference the correct path and "MAPMAIN.EXE". For example, a command line of "C:\MELSOFT\BILLS\MAPMAIN.EXE" would be entered for the new program item. 5. Double click on the new program item you just created and start using The Bill Drawer. Note that you should not get any file missing messages when you start up the program. If you did, then the directory names in the MAP0300.INI file are not correctly specified. 6. It would be greatly appreciated if you would send us a note indicating what problems you had with the automatic installation program. Use our registration address and be sure to mention your model of computer, amount of memory, MS-DOS Version and MS-Windows Version. REGISTRATION: In addition to a clear conscious, registration includes the following: * The current commercial version of the program and notification of new program versions. * The Bill Drawer User Guide, a printed manual containing over 130 pages of information. It includes information on ordering checks and sample check forms. * The reporting engine and associated standard reports. Over fifteen different reports are provided to help you get more value out of The Bill Drawer. The reporting engine let's you review these reports in a scrollable, re-sizable window, or print them to any Windows supported printer. * Paradox format files. The commercial version of The Bill Drawer uses Paradox format files. The Paradox file format is the native format of Borland's Paradox database system and is supported by many different software products. Since The Bill Drawer adheres to this file format for all it's major files, you can use these products to build additional windows, reports or functions specific to your own requirements. For example, you could use Borland's Quattro Pro spreadsheet to import bank account, category or company statistics and further summarize or graph them. Note: The commercial version includes a procedure to convert your existing shareware Bill Drawer files to the Paradox format. Per the license agreement, you may use this program for 30 days to evaluate it's suitability to your needs. At the end of this period you must either register it or delete it from all computer systems where it was installed. The registration fee is a very reasonable $30 (US) payable to: MelissaSoft Systems 11676 Windcrest Lane San Diego, CA 92128 Please use the "REGISTER.TXT" form when registering, you can print it with Windows Notepad (under the Accessories group). We have many exciting plans for future versions of this program, but they will not happen without enough people telling us they like the program by registering it. Packing List (Sorted by Extension): BNK0300.DAT Sample data file. CAT0300.DAT Sample data file. FRM0300.DAT Sample data file. HST0300.DAT Sample data file. INV0300.DAT Sample data file. RPT0300.DAT Sample data file. SEC0300.DAT Sample data file. VEN0300.DAT Sample data file. MANUAL.BAT Manual installation procedure. LZEXPAND.DLL Expand installation function. MAPIOBT.DLL Data file routine. MAPUTIL.DLL Utility functions. WBTRCALL.DLL Data file driver. INSTALL.EXE Installation program. MAPMAIN.EXE The Bill Drawer program. MAPHELP.HLP The Bill Drawer help. MAPINST.HLP Installation help. MAP0300.INI The Bill Drawer configuration file. README.TXT This file. REGISTER.TXT The Bill Drawer registration form. FPGRID10.VBX Custom control. TRADEMARKS AND COPYRIGHTS: The Bill Drawer is (C) Copyright 1993 MelissaSoft Systems. All rights reserved. Microsoft, MS-DOS, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation. All other brand or product names are either registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders.