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Information about “PERSONAL LEDGER”
PERSONAL LEDGER will help you keep track of all your financial
activities.
Each transaction includes a check number or an entry number, a one-word
description, payee/comment, amount, and date of the transaction.
Entries can easily be sorted according to number or date. Automatic
entry features are included to modify, delete, or search for previous
entries. For personal sorting purposes, transactions may be grouped
together in any of 10 user-defined categories, with each category having
up to 20 descriptions.
FILE1482.TXT
Disk No: 1482
Program Title: PERSONAL LEDGER version 1.25
PC-SIG version: 2
PERSONAL LEDGER is a simple program that will help you keep track of all
your financial transactions. Each financial transaction includes a
check number or an entry number, a one-word description, payee/comment,
amount, and date of the transaction. Entries can automatically be
sorted according to number or to date. Automatic entry features are
included, and you can also modify, delete, and search for previous
entries. For personal sorting purposes, transactions may be grouped
together in any of 10 user defined categories, with each category having
up to 20 descriptions.
Usage: Database/Accounting.
Special Requirements: None.
How to Start: Type GO (press enter).
Suggested Registration: $25.00
File Descriptions:
ASSETS PL Data file
DEPOSITS PL Data file
PL DOC Documentation
PL EXE Main program
PC-SIG
1030D E Duane Avenue
Sunnyvale Ca. 94086
(408) 730-9291
(c) Copyright 1989 PC-SIG, Inc.
GO.TXT
╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ <<<< Disk No 1482 PERSONAL LEDGER >>>> ║
╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ To print the documentation, type: MANUAL (press enter) ║
║ ║
║ To start the PERSONAL LEDGER program, type: PL (press enter) ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
PL.DOC
March 12, 1989
Personal Ledger 1.20
Copyright 1982, 1987 A. A. Weber
I. Overview
Personal Ledger is a personal financial record keeping program that
is very powerful and yet very simple to use. Personal Ledger will
help you track ALL of your financial records, either by ASSET and
LIABILITY or by DEPOSIT and EXPENSE. The records that you want to
track will be grouped by CATEGORY and DESCRIPTION automatically.
Since Personal Ledger can summarize each record into one of ten
CATEGORIES, and within each CATEGORY into one of twenty DESCRIPTIONS,
you have the power to categorize records into up to 200 different
groups. Furthermore, you have complete control over the naming of
both CATEGORIES and DESCRIPTIONS. Each financial transaction you want
to track consists of just a few pieces of information: an entry
number (such as a check number), a one-word DESCRIPTION,
payee/comment, amount, and date.
Personal Ledger consists of five files, four of which are included as
a shareware distribution:
PL.EXE Personal Ledger 1.20
PL.DOC This documentation
ASSETS.PL An example ASSETS/LIABILITIES Personal Ledger file.
DEPOSITS.PL An example DEPOSITS/MEMOS/EXPENSES Personal Ledger
file.
The fifth file, Personal Ledger X (PLX.EXE), offers enhancements to
Personal Ledger and is not being distributed as shareware. Details on
obtaining PLX.EXE are included at the end of this documentation.
You can begin using Personal Ledger with the example ASSETS.PL and
DEPOSITS.PL files and adjust them to your needs, or create your own
Personal Ledger files. Either way, as you enter and adjust
transactions, you will see your BALANCE and SUMMARIES change
immediately.
Personal Ledger handles ASSETS/LIABILITY (A/L) and
DEPOSITS/MEMOS/EXPENSES (DME) files in slightly different ways.
A/L files treat the DESCRIPTIONS within each of the first five
CATEGORIES as ASSETS and the DESCRIPTIONS within last five CATEGORIES
as LIABILITIES. Therefore, each transaction into one of the ASSET
CATEGORIES will cause the CURRENT BALANCE to increase, while a
transaction into one of the LIABILITY CATEGORIES will cause the
CURRENT BALANCE to decrease.
DME files treat a DESCRIPTION within any category according to the
first four characters within that DESCRIPTION. Transactions within
DESCRIPTIONS that begin with the four characters 'DEPO' are treated
as DEPOSITS and will cause the CURRENT BALANCE (and, when 'CLEARED',
the CLEARED BALANCE) to increase. Transactions within DESCRIPTIONS
that begin with the four characters 'MEMO' are treated as MEMO
DESCRIPTIONS (information only) and will leave the CURRENT AND
CLEARED BALANCES unchanged. Transactions within any other DESCRIPTION
are treated as EXPENSES and will cause the CURRENT and CLEARED
BALANCES to decrease.
As mentioned above, DME files also contain a CLEARED BALANCE. This
BALANCE functions like the BALANCE of your bank account statement.
The CLEARED BALANCE allows you to track any account, 'CLEARING' each
transaction as it is recorded on your account statement while still
tracking the CURRENT BALANCE as the BALANCE of all transactions. See
the 'CLEAR' and unCLEAR functions in the ENTRY section for more
information on 'CLEARING' transactions.
A. Simple File Access
Personal Ledger allows you to set up a "Current Directory Path"
(consistent with MS-DOS(tm) 2.0 and up). Then Personal Ledger
will display all 'PL' data files within that Directory,
itemizing each as A/L or DME. If there are no "PL" files in the
"Current Directory" (or if you hit the <ESC> key instead of
picking a file), you may create a new Personal Ledger file.
1. Selecting a current Ledger File.
You may select any file appearing within the file menu
window by using the cursor movement keys and hitting
<ENTER> once you have highlighted the file you wish for
your current session.
Creating a new Ledger File.
If no files appear (or you hit "ESC" instead of selecting
one), you will be asked for a new file name. Enter a
filename (and extension, if you wish, as long as the
extension begins with the characters "PL"). Personal
Ledger will then prompt you for subsequent file related
information, such as type (A/L or DME), account year,
(your CURRENT and CLEARED BALANCES, if you select DME),
and the names of all CATEGORIES and DESCRIPTIONS that you
wish to activate. You do not need to supply names for all
CATEGORIES and DESCRIPTIONS at this time.
Within a CATEGORY, when you finish entering the
DESCRIPTIONS you want, just hit <ENTER> instead of the
next DESCRIPTION and you will skip down to the next
CATEGORY. Once you are finished with all CATEGORIES you
wish to name, hit <ENTER> for the next one. If you are
creating an A/L file, you can enter just those ASSET
CATEGORIES you want, hit <ENTER>, and skip down to the
LIABILITY CATEGORIES you want to enter. Remember that you
can always start with the example ASSETS.PL or
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DEPOSITS.PL file, initialize the BALANCE(s) within the
ENTRY/INIT function, and modify whatever CATEGORIES or
DESCRIPTIONS you wish within the UPDATE section.
B. Simple Data Entry
The record entry process for both DME and A/L files is
identical. Each entry requires an entry number, which consists
of up to six characters (including blanks), a DESCRIPTION up to
10 characters long, a Payee/comment entry up to 20 characters
long, an amount (up to $9999999.99), and a date in MM/DD/YYYY
format. The only other entry field tracked by Personal Ledger
that you can access applies just to DME files. This field is
activated when you 'CLEAR' an entry and deactivated when you
'unCLEAR' it. The last field shown for each entry is the actual
position of that entry within the Personal Ledger file and is
displayed for information only. Because of sorting capabilities
within Personal Ledger, entries may be moved to different
record positions.
1. Entry Number
The Entry Number field is a six-character field that will
basically accept anything, even six blanks. While some of
the entry features (MODIFY/DELETE/SORT, etc.) utilize
this field in performing their function, it is not
essential that all entries in this field be different. In
fact, you may find that entering transactions with a
common set of characters is advantageous, especially when
sorting.
2. DESCRIPTION
This KEY field controls what happens to your transaction
once entered. You may enter all or just part of a
DESCRIPTION into this field. Personal Ledger will attempt
to match it with those DESCRIPTIONS you have previously
activated. If Personal Ledger finds a perfect match, it
will summarize this entry within that DESCRIPTION without
further comparisons. However, if these characters match
any part of a DESCRIPTION, Personal Ledger will prompt
you to decide whether that DESCRIPTION is the one you
want this transaction to be entered within. Until you say
yes, the comparison process will continue. If no match is
found, Personal Ledger will ask you whether this
DESCRIPTION is a new one, allowing you to move the cursor
to the CATEGORY you want and activate a new DESCRIPTION
within that CATEGORY, if that CATEGORY has room (fewer
than 20 active DESCRIPTIONS). If you decide not to
activate this DESCRIPTION, just hit the <ESC> key and
Personal Ledger will ask you to re-enter your
DESCRIPTION. If you leave your DESCRIPTION blank,
Personal Ledger will return you to the MAIN MENU.
As the display indicates, you can RECALL your entire list
of DESCRIPTIONS by entering <ALT> and <R> keys together
at any time during your DESCRIPTION entry. Scroll through
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each category by hitting any key, or return to the
DESCRIPTION entry by hitting the <ESC> key.
You can also re-enter the DESCRIPTION of the last
transaction in your file (normally the last one entered,
unless you have sorted your file since entering
transactions) by entering the <ALT> and <S> keys
together. If you have several transactions, all within
the same DESCRIPTION, <ALT-S> will speed entry.
3. Payee/Comment Area
The Payee/Comment Area is a twenty-character field that
may contain any characters or comments you want
associated with your current entry, such as the actual
PAYEE. Some of the other features allow screening on this
field.
4. Entry Amount
This field accepts any amount from -999999.99 to
9999999.99. Because this field is numeric, it will accept
negative numbers. Personal Ledger, however, expects all
transactions to be made using positive numbers. Only the
CURRENT (or CLEARED) BALANCE is expected to ever be
negative.
5. Date
This field accepts MM/DD/YYYY date entries that
correspond to the date the transaction was made. Personal
Ledger does not keep track of the date you entered the
transaction into Personal Ledger.
6. CLEARED Flag
This field, active only within a DME file, indicates
whether an entry has been "CLEARED". One of the Data
Entry functions accesses this field. Clearing a
transaction will cause that transaction's amount to
affect the "CLEARED BALANCE" according to that entry's
DESCRIPTION Name (i.e., adding to the CLEARED BALANCE if
the DESCRIPTION name begins with DEPO, or subtracting
from it if the DESCRIPTION begins with anything other
than DEPO or MEMO. (Remember that MEMO DESCRIPTIONS leave
both the CURRENT and CLEARED BALANCES unchanged. However,
they are not automatically cleared to allow you to CLEAR
them when you want to.)
7. Transaction number
Up to 400 entries (1500 in PLX) may be stored in a
Personal Ledger Data file. Each transaction is stored in
the order entered unless reordered via the "SORT"
Function within the ENTRY part of Personal Ledger. This
number is shown for information only.
C. Simple Status
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Within each CATEGORY and DESCRIPTION both a count and a summary
are kept of all transactions. These counts and summaries are
accessed automatically during data entry and on command within
the SUMMARY function.
D. Key-Pad Activation
The numeric key-pad is activated by toggling the num-lock key.
When num-lock (and the key-pad) is on, the cursor keys will be
de-activated except during menu selections.
II. Main Parts of the Program
Personal Ledger is composed of five main parts, ENTRY of data,
SUMMARY (Reports), UPDATE (updating or maintaining
CATEGORY/DESCRIPTION names), LIST (list the entire data contents of a
PL file into a text file), and FINISH (ending the current session).
A. ENTRY - Entering data transactions into Personal Ledger
1. Data Entry Functions
Several functions are available to assist entering,
modifying, or deleting transactions. Each function can be
activated by hitting <ENTER> while the cursor is on it,
by typing the function name, or by holding the <ALT> key
down while typing the function's first character. Not all
of the functions available are shown. To see more, move
the cursor all the way right with the right cursor arrow,
exposing those remaining functions. Furthermore, some of
the features are indicated as FUTURE FEATURES, available
in PLX. Under the function menu are the most recent
transactions. If you want to view all of them, move the
cursor all the way to the left with the arrow keys and
hit the left arrow one more time. To reveal the other
functions again, hit the right arrow key.
a. AUTO
This function has two options within, NEW and
RENUMBER.
i. NEW
NEW allows you to enter up to a six-digit
number within the Entry Number field that
will be automatically incremented by 1 for
each additional transaction you enter. You
may turn off this function by over-typing the
function name 'NOAUTO' or by hitting the
<ESC> key. In PLX Personal Ledger will search
all previous entry numbers for the highest
one, increment it, and allow you to choose it
or another one with which to start your
series of entries. While AUTO-NEW is active,
you may also access the other functions by
entering the function name instead of the
current AUTO number (or the <ALT> key and the
first character of the function name.) You
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may also over-type a different number or
other transaction characters, allowing
transactions to be entered that are not
number related while still remaining in the
AUTO Function.
ii. RENUMBER
RENUMBER allows you to RENUMBER numeric Entry
Numbers. Personal Ledger will request three
numbers: A 'from' number, a 'to' number, and
a 'new from' number. It will then scan all
records, flagging those entries whose entry
numbers are between 'from' and 'to'. It will
then display each entry number, its record
number in your ledger file for reference, and
the new entry number. You can then allow the
change by hitting any key except the <ESC>
key. Hitting the <ESC> key will cause that
entry to remain unchanged.
b. NOAUTO
This function turns off the AUTO/NEW numbering
function. You can also turn off the AUTO/NEW
numbering function by hitting <ESC> instead of
<ENTER> when the next ENTRY number appears.
c. MODIFY
This function allows you to modify any of the five
normal data entry fields, including the DESCRIPTION
field. The effect of modifying the DESCRIPTION
field is the same as deleting the transaction and
adding it under the new DESCRIPTION.
d. DELETE
This function allows you to remove a transaction
completely from Personal Ledger. If you later
decide you didn't want to delete it, simply re-
enter it.
e. FIND
You can review transactions with this function.
FIND will allow you to retrieve either a single
transaction or all transactions, displaying them
within the Entry window.
i. Entry No.
Personal Ledger will request your Entry No.
and retrieve each transaction whose Entry No.
matches your request for your review. If you
answer 'Yes' to the question 'Is this it?',
the retrieval process ceases.
All
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This function allows many transactions to be
reviewed (or echoed to a standard Printer via
LPT1: -- see your DOS manual for standard
printer set-up). You will be asked to provide
a start date (the default date shown is the
date of the earliest transaction in the
file). You can also limit your review to
transactions containing certain Payee/comment
characters. Only those entries from the date
span--from and to dates--you provide will be
listed.
You can also use the ARROW keys or mouse (if
you have one), to scan up and down the
listing of transactions. use the up arrow (or
move the mouse up) to scan backward, and the
down arrow (or downward movement of the
mouse) to move forward. Once you have
selected a scan direction, hitting the
<ENTER> key (or the left mouse button) will
allow you to continue the scan.
f. LAST
The last transactions are retrieved and displayed
within the Entry window.
g. SORT
Transactions may be ordered by either Entry No. (an
alphanumeric sort) or by Entry Date. If you select
Entry No., multiple entries with the same Entry No.
will be sorted by Date. If you select Entry Date,
multiple entries by Date will also be sorted by
Entry No.
h. INIT
Sooner or later, you will want to create a new file
from your old one and/or initialize all entries.
INIT has two options, RESET and ARCHIVE.
RESET
RESET will allow you to RESET Account Year,
CURRENT BALANCE, (CLEARED BALANCE if a DME
file), and optionally, initialize all
transaction counts to zero. Before activating
RESET, See 'DONE - ending your session' for
information on creating a copy of your
current file. After adjusting Year and/or
BALANCE(s), you may elect to clear your
transactions. If you answer 'No' to the
question 'Init entries, too?', only the
BALANCE information will be changed. If you
answer 'Yes', counts, summaries, and
transactions will be initialized to zero.
Your CATEGORY and DESCRIPTION Names will
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remain intact regardless of which choice you
make.
PLX contains Budget capability. While within
the INIT function, you may initialize or
modify the Budget values for any
DESCRIPTIONS. You may also elect to FIX a
particular DESCRIPTION's budget to a 'fixed'
amount, or allow it to be averaged for 'BY
MONTH' SUMMARY reporting.
ARCHIVE
ARCHIVE allows you to create a PL file from
your current PL file that contains only
records up to and including a certain date,
such as 12/31/1987. You will be prompted for
a date. Then Personal Ledger will delete all
transactions subsequent to that date and
prompt you for a unique filename to save as a
complete PL file. Then, Personal Ledger will
delete all records from your original PL file
that were just ARCHIVED, allowing your
current file to contain only transactions
subsequent to your ARCHIVE date. Be sure to
save your new file at the end of your current
session. By the way, an ARCHIVE file is
identical to a normal file. You can load it
and ADD/MODIFY/DELETE transactions if you
want, as well as report SUMMARIES with it.
PLX also allows you to archive by Statement
Clear Month/Year. You first select the year,
then the month through which you want
transactions archived. As this implies, the
Clear function within Personal Ledger X
allows gives you the capability of assigning
year, as well as month, to your transaction
clearing.
i. TAG
This function is available only in PLX. TAG will be
used in conjunction with 'REPEAT' or 'POST'. It
will allow you to identify certain DESCRIPTIONS as
those you repeatedly enter or update transactions
on. TAG will identify the DESCRIPTION of the next
transaction you make as special, storing the amount
you enter with that transaction for later retrieval
by the 'REPEAT' or 'POST' functions (also available
in just PLX). If you TAG a DESCRIPTION that was
previously TAGGED, Personal Ledger will ask you
whether you want to unTAG it. If not, the reTAG
will allow you to enter a transaction and adjust
the TAGGED amount for that DESCRIPTION. As shown in
the question that appears after activating TAG, you
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may also list the TAGGED DESCRIPTIONS to the
display or printer.
j. REPEAT
This function will also be available only in PLX.
REPEAT will retrieve the last transaction on all
tagged DESCRIPTIONS for you, allowing you to adjust
the amount and/or date within that transaction.
This feature should be especially useful for A/L
files, where repeated actions are adjustments to
ASSETS or LIABILITIES that have already been
entered. If, while cycling through the TAGGED
DESCRIPTIONS, you don't want to update a retrieved
entry, just hit <ENTER> for amount and date areas.
k. POST
This function is also available only in PLX. It is
similar to REPEAT in that it retrieves TAGGED
DESCRIPTIONS, but different in that you are adding
a transaction within that DESCRIPTION, rather than
updating the last one. Modify the entry fields you
want to change or hit <ENTER> for those that you
don't want to change. If you don't want to add an
entry for a particular DESCRIPTION, just hit <ESC>
at the ENTRY No. field.
This function may also be used in conjunction with
the AUTO function. Activate AUTO first, entering
the Entry No. you wish to start with. When that
Entry No. appears in the Entry No. field, just hit
the <ALT> and <P> keys when you are ready to enter
the TAGGED DESCRIPTION entries. If you do, POST
will be activated and the AUTO Entry No. will be
displayed for you to accept (or change) as each
TAGGED DESCRIPTION and its amount are retrieved.
The payee/comment area will be retrieved from the
last entry within this DESCRIPTION. If you hit
<CNTL> and <PgDn> tpgether, the next previous
payee/comment within this DESCRIPTION will be
retrieved. If you hit <CNTL> and <PgUp>, the next
following payee/comment within this DESCRIPTION
will be retrieved. This cycle will continue until
you accept or modify the displayed payee/comment.
Remember that the amount retrieved is the amount
originally tagged, not the amount of your last
entry. (See "TAG" if you ever want to adjust the
amount that is retrieved for you.)
l. WRITE
This function is also available only in PLX. It
will allow you to write checks using unCLEARED
transactions from a certain date on. The
Payee/Comment will become the Payee, and the amount
will be printed in the appropriate locations on
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either a business sized check (LONG) or a personal
sized check (SHORT). To set up for LONG checks,
align your printer to the top line of the first
check, just below the top perforation. Personal
Ledger will allow you to choose which checks you
want to write. As with POST, set up AUTO first,
then <ALT> <W> to access the WRITE function. NOTE:
The check write function works on SHORT checks,
too. However, they require a holder that I'm trying
to develop. Once perfected, it will be available to
those registering, who express an interest in it. I
don't know how much it will cost, but as with
updates, it will be as close to cost as I can make
it.
m. HOLES
This function is also available only in PLX. It
will search your Entry Nos. for missing numbers.
Also, if you are currently working with a DME file,
you can also choose to specialize your search to
those HOLES within CLEARED Entries. It will find
the smallest and largest pure numbers, then display
missing numbers between them for you either onto
the printer, or onto the display. If you elect
display, Personal Ledger will report each missing
Entry No., one at a time, advancing when you hit
any key.
n. BAL
This function is available only within DME files.
It allows you to retrieve a list of entries by Bank
Statement Month. In addition to the list of
entries, a summary of DEPOSITS, MEMOS, and EXPENSES
will be printed if you elect to send the list to
your printer.
o. CLEAR
This function is applicable only within DME files.
It allows you to flag transactions as 'CLEARED',
changing the CLEARED BALANCE that appears just
below the CURRENT BALANCE in the right upper corner
of the screen.
Personal Ledger will first request the month within
which you are CLEARing entries, such as the month
within which most of the CLEARed entries were
either issued or received by the bank or the month
within your Statement Date. Personal Ledger will
then request an Entry No. and cycle through each
match it finds asking you 'Is this it?'. If you
answer 'Yes', that transaction will be flagged as
CLEARED. If Personal Ledger doesn't find the Entry
No., it will ask whether you want to enter that
transaction or not. Entering it now will cause that
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transaction to be CLEARed at the same time. You may
type 'exit' or hit the <ESC> key to exit this
function.
PLX will first request the year within which your
Statement Month exists. PLX will keep track of up
to seven years. For beyond seven years, PLX will
simply flag the entries you clear with an 'x' as
cleared.
A feature just added in PLX version 2.00 allows you
essentially double entry capability. Assuming that
your main PL file is a DME file that tracks your
checking account, you may have a VISA card and wish
to write a check to pay your visa bill. If you have
created a DESCRIPTION of 'VISA', and you have
previously created a DME file, called 'VISA.PL',
PLX will search for 'VISA.PL' as you clear that
check. When it finds it, PLX will allow you to
enter the same amount and Entry No. into that DME
file as a DEPOSIT, locating a DESCRIPTION for you
that matches 'DEPO...'. Since an expense within
your checking account is actually a deposit into
the credit card account 'VISA.PL', PLX will now
make those entries easier.
p. unCLR
This function reverses the CLEAR process on a
transaction. As with CLEAR, to exit, type 'exit' or
hit the <ESC> key.
q. insert
This function is not shown on the menu because it
is a special function that bypasses some of the
normal ledger tracking features. It allows you to
insert CLEARED transactions into a DME type file
after you have started it and not change the
CURRENT and CLEARED BALANCES during the process.
Each inserted transaction will be summarized in its
respective CATEGORY and DESCRIPTION without
affecting either the CURRENT or the CLEARED
BALANCES. To access 'insert', you must type
'insert' in the Entry No. field in lower case
letters only. To exit, just hit the <ENTER> key
within the DESCRIPTION field. These entries will be
treated as having been CLEARed before your first
normal monthly CLEAR session.
...
This function is just a reminder that you can enter
whatever you want into the Entry No. field. If any
key is typed other than one of the cursor movement
keys, the <ENTER> key, the <ALT> key and the first
character of one of the function names, or the
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<ESC> key, that key will begin your Entry No. As
mentioned above, if your cursor is here and you hit
the left arrow key, the rest of the menu will
disappear, allowing you to see all of the
transactions in the Entry window.
Once you have entered your Entry No., hit the
<ENTER> key to move the cursor to the DESCRIPTION
field. Whatever you enter will be matched against
the current DESCRIPTIONS after you hit the <ENTER>
key. (If you leave this field blank, you will
return to the MAIN MENU).
Once the correct DESCRIPTION has been located, you
can enter your Payee/Comment. If your DESCRIPTION
is one that already contains previous transactions,
the last transaction's payee/comment is retrieved
for you to accept or modify. If you hit
<CNTL><PgUp> or <CNTL><PgDn>, you can cycle through
previous payee/comments. Select the one you want,
modify it for this particular transaction, or enter
a completely new payee/comment.
Next, enter the transaction amount. This field may
not be blank when you get to it. If the amount
within the last transaction within this DESCRIPTION
is an amount entered before, Personal Ledger
assumes that you may wish to repeat it again. That
amount will appear for you to accept or modify. If
you selected a payee/comment from another
transaction, then the amount from that transaction
will appear for you to accept or modify.
The last field to enter is the transaction date,
entered as month, day, and year fields. The most
recent date is retrieved for you to accept or
modify. Hit the <ENTER> key after entering the date
and Personal Ledger will immediately display the
CATEGORY and DESCRIPTION information for your
entry. Both CATEGORY and DESCRIPTION summaries and
your CURRENT BALANCE will have been updated.
B. SUMMARY - Reporting transactions within DESCRIPTIONS
Personal Ledger provides you with access to the summaries
within each CATEGORY and DESCRIPTION for all transactions. If
your printer is currently on, Personal Ledger will allow you to
choose whether or not to echo your summaries to the printer.
Next, the current status of all CATEGORIES is displayed,
listing the counts and totals for each, along with summaries
for file specific information, such as Deposits, MEMOS, or
EXPENSES summaries for DME type files, or ASSETS and
LIABILITIES summaries for A/L type files.
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Within PLX you will have the opportunity to combine the SUMMARY
information from other PL files, most likely those previously
ARCHIVED, REPORTING the CATEGORY and DESCRIPTION information on
the totals. Once you leave the SUMMARY function, the SUMMARY
information will revert to your current PL file's information.
Keep in mind that PLX's feature to access PL files matching
DESCRIPTIONs is not active during the COMBINE process. That
way, the same DESCRIPTION within several PL files will not
cause that DESCRIPTION file information to be entered into the
SUMMARY information each time a PL file is combined,
artificially increasing that DESCRIPTION's SUMMARY totals.
You can select any of the ten categories to summarize by
hitting the <ENTER> key while the cursor is on that category.
If you elected to echo your SUMMARY to the Printer, you can
print a summary of all active DESCRIPTIONS within all ten
Categories by selecting the 'Summaries to Printer' selection.
Then, Personal Ledger asks whether you want to view summaries
by DESCRIPTION or by MONTH.
1. By DESCRIPTION
Personal Ledger will allow you to select a DESCRIPTION to
list transactions from. If you are in a DME type file,
you may elect to list all of your transactions or only
those transactions that haven't CLEARED. If you hit
<ALT-A>, you will be able to list all DESCRIPTIONS
together.
a. All transactions
If you select this choice, you can also list only
those transactions from a specific transaction date
forward.
b. Transactions that have not CLEARED
This choice applies only to DME type files.
Personal Ledger will then list all transaction for
your DESCRIPTION that have not been CLEARED via the
CLEAR function. You may also elect to list just
certain transactions, screening on a special
character string within the Payee/Comment area.
Personal Ledger will then display your
transactions, providing monthly sub-totals (only to
the printer) whenever it detects a change of month
from transaction to transaction. (Note that sorting
transactions with the SORT function by Date rather
than by Entry No. is recommended to make maximum
use of this facility.)
By MONTH
Personal Ledger will provide summaries for all active
DESCRIPTIONS within that CATEGORY for the month you
select, within the ACCOUNT YEAR you have up near the
BALANCE(s). All transactions made within that month for
any DESCRIPTION within that CATEGORY will be listed in
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the transaction window (and also to the printer, if
selected).
PLX has an additional feature within SUMMARY selections
By MONTH. You may elect to display budgets for each
DESCRIPTION. See the ENTRY section's INIT function for
information on initializing each budget. Displayed are
each DESCRIPTION, the current month's count, summary,
budget type (either Fixed, Average, or Not Set), the
budget value, and the difference between budget and
actual for that month.
- Fixed budgets remain the same for each month. The
difference calculation is budget - summary for
that month.
- Average budgets are calculated dynamically. Each
is calculated by taking the summary value,
dividing it by the total count, then multiplying
it by the current month's count. The difference
calculation is then budget - summary for that
month.
C. UPDATE - Maintaining or Updating CATEGORY and DESCRIPTION Names
Personal Ledger allows you to modify or update CATEGORY or
DESCRIPTION Names at any time. Note that changing a DESCRIPTION
Name will change the Name for all transactions stored within
that DESCRIPTION. Adding DESCRIPTIONS can be accomplished
either at the time the Personal Ledger file is first created,
via the entry of a new DESCRIPTION as part of an entry
transaction, or within UPDATE.
1. Modifying CATEGORY Names
Move the cursor over the CATEGORY that you wish to change
and hit the <ENTER> key. This activates the EDIT feature,
allowing you to modify that CATEGORY name to whatever you
wish. Once you hit the <ENTER> key again, you will
register your change for the current session. Also,
Personal Ledger will convert your changes to all upper
case letters. (Make sure you save your changes when you
exit your session if you want them as permanent changes.)
2. Modifying DESCRIPTION Names
Select the CATEGORY within which you wish to change a
DESCRIPTION. Hitting the <ENTER> key twice (the first one
puts you into CATEGORY Edit mode) allows you to access
the DESCRIPTIONS within that CATEGORY. Move the cursor to
the DESCRIPTION you want to change and hit <ENTER> to
move into the Edit mode. As with CATEGORY changes, your
DESCRIPTION changes will be converted to upper case. Be
sure to save them at the end of your session. You can
also add DESCRIPTION names by moving the cursor down to
the first open DESCRIPTION and enter the DESCRIPTION you
want to add.
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Special DESCRIPTION Names
Within A/L files in PLX you can add DESCRIPTION names
with special meaning. When an A/L files are loaded, PLX
scans your current directory for '.PL' files, whose
primary filename matches each DESCRIPTION. If you examine
the example ASSETS.PL file closely, you will see a
DESCRIPTION within the BANK_ACCTS CATEGORY of 'DEPOSITS'.
The DESCRIPTION 'DEPOSITS' matches the name of the other
example Personal Ledger file. When PLX finds one, it
checks to assure it is a valid PL file, and then loads
that file's CURRENT BALANCE into the summary for that
DESCRIPTION and its corresponding CATEGORY, increasing
the count by one (but not actually adding a transaction),
and then into the CURRENT BALANCE for your A/L file.
When you want to save your A/L file, this information
will be removed before saving, so that it doesn't 'build
up' artificially over time. This means that you can
create DESCRIPTIONS that actually represent other PL
files, and automatically view their CURRENT BALANCES
whenever you access your A/L file(s).
There is a chance that you may wish to represent the
CURRENT BALANCE of one of your A/L or DME files
differently in your A/L file containing their filenames.
For example, if one of your DME files represents a credit
card, each of the transactions within will make the
CURRENT BALANCE negative, while payments would be
entered as DEPOSITS to make the BALANCE positive. If
listed as one of the LIABILITY DESCRIPTIONS, the negative
balance will actually be negated when added to the
BALANCE in your current file. So, you can change the sign
of that balance, if you wish and make the negative
balance positive, when added to the CURRENT BALANCE.
Doing so within this file will not affect your Credit
Card DME file. So, when you are finished modifying a
special name, you will be asked whether you wish to
toggle the SIGN for reporting that DESCRIPTION's AMOUNT.
D. LIST - Listing PL Contents to a Text File
You can create an ascii file consisting of your PL file
contents with this option. The file created is entirely ASCII.
The name of the file is the same basic name as your current PL
file, but has an 'ASC' extension. You are also given the
opportunity to include or exclude your entry data as well.
E. FINISH - File Saving/Changing
You may end a current session three ways: by saving your
current file, by accessing a new one, or by exiting the
program.
1. SAVE - saving your current session.
By selecting SAVE, you have another option. Personal
Ledger will indicate your current file name. If you
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choose to modify it, Personal Ledger will allow only a
new filename, not another existing filename within your
current directory. Then, Personal Ledger performs the
following steps to assure, if possible, that your data
gets saved. (Following these steps, if you hit <ESC>, you
may exit Personal Ledger.)
a. If your filename existed before, it renames it with
an extension "PBK", deleting a previous "PBK" file
if it finds one, first. Then it checks for adequate
space before saving your current file. If there is
not enough space in the current directory for the
back-up file, it simply saves the current file in
the space it allocated for it at the start of this
session.
b. If your filename did not exist before, it turns the
image of your current file it saved at the start of
the session as your back-up file, provided it has
enough space to create a new copy of your current
file. If not, it simply saves the current file in
the space it allocated at the start of the session.
2. NEW - Retrieving a new Personal Ledger file.
This option is identical to starting Personal Ledger
over.
3. DONE - Leaving Personal Ledger.
Personal Ledger will return you to the directory you were
currently in when you first activated Personal Ledger.
You may also exit Personal Ledger from the MAIN MENU by
repeatedly hitting the <ESC> key.
III. Copyright Notice
Personal Ledger is being distributed under the "Shareware" concept.
You can copy and distribute PL.EXE, as long as you include this
documentation and the two PL data files, do not charge for it other
than for media preparation, and do not alter it. Although PL is
completely functional in that you can print and save your
transactions, (and bug free, I hope), you will notice that certain
special features have not been activated. I plan to continue adding
features and capabilities. Personal Ledger X, will be available only
to those who have registered and will not be released as "Shareware".
To register for the latest version of PLX.EXE, please send your name,
address, and $25 (check or money order) to:
Anthony A. Weber
331 N. High Pointe Ct.
Roselle, Il. 60172
Subsequent versions will be available for as close to cost as I can
get (approx. $5 right now). I will try to announce major features and
updates as efficiently as I can. If you send a stamped, self
addressed disk mailer and disk, the updates will be $1.00.
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Personal Ledger is distributed on an 'as is' basis. It contains
assembler routines that access video directly. If your PC is not a
reasonable compatible, this program may not work correctly on it
(i.e., it assumes that B/W memory is at B0000h and Color memory is at
B8000h, and that certain video info is in low RAM). By using this
program you acknowledge that I am not responsible for any problems
resulting from the use of this program.
Notes: As of May 22, 1988, both PL.exe and PLX.exe (the enhanced version)
have been updated. The following are applicable to both versions.
A bug has been located and fixed in the 'add description' function
that arises when selecting a category that already contains the
maximum 20 descriptions, hanging the program in an endless loop. Sorry
about that.
A feature has been added that is activated when you choose 'By
Description', rather than 'By Month' for a report when in SUMMARY.
Rather than selecting an individual Description by hitting <ENTER>,
hit <ALT-A> (for all) and list all Descriptions within that Category.
Also added is mouse support. Right now, the Mouse Systems Mouse (tm)
from MSC Technologies works great for cursor control and three button
support (<ENTER>, <DEL>, and <ESC> respectively). All you need is the
driver, MSMOUSE.SYS, which can be installed in your "CONFIG.SYS" file,
or the executable resident program MSMOUSE.COM, which can be installed
in your "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file. Other Microsoft compatible mouses may
work as well.
When entering records, the payee/comment area is filled with the
payee/comment of the last entry within that DESCRIPTION, saving typing
time if this entry's payee/comment is identical. Also, if you hit the
<ESC> repeatedly, the payee/comment of the next to last DESCRIPTION
is retrieved, and so on. Continuing the <ESC> will wrap your
payee/comments back to the last one again.
Added num-lock capability for key-pad. When num-lock is on, the key-
pad will function as numeric keys, except when at a menu selection
point in Personal Ledger. When num-lock is off, the keys will function
as cursor arrows.
Added a function to the AUTO feature, called RENUMBER (detailed within
the AUTO feature).
Added the ability to add an entry within CLEAR if that entry is
missing, allowing the entry to be added and cleared in one
transaction.
Added the LIST option to list PL contents to a TEXT file.
Added the capability to retrieve the same DESCRIPTION as the last one
entered within the ENTRY Section by hitting <ALT-S>. If you are adding
several transactions within the same DESCRIPTION, this feature,
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combined with the payee/comment retrieval feature, will hopefully
simplify data entry.
When entering or modifing payee/comments, you may retrieve
payee/comments from other entries of the same DESCRIPTION by simply
hitting the <CNTL-PgUp> or <CNTL-PgDn> keys.
Personal Ledger requires at least 512K to run.
Added 12/18/88 to the ENTRY section is "BAL", a function that will
retrieve and print all DME entries CLEARed in a specific month and
will report the CLEARED_BAL up to the end of that statement month.
The CLEAR function within entry is also modified to request the
statement month within which entries are being cleared.
Added in Jan 89 budget capability for Personal Ledger X.
Added in Feb 89 is the capability to scroll through lists of
transactions, such as in the FIND feature.
Added in March, 89, is double entry capability for PLX within DME
files for expenses that are also deposits into another DME file. See
the 'CLEAR' function within the ENTRY Section for details.
Also, removed the need for an '*' in front of a DESCRIPTION within PLX
as a flag that that A/L DESCRIPTION also corresponds to a PL file.
Now, each DESCRIPTION is checked for a corresponding PL file. Because
of this, the capibility of having this feature active during a COMBINE
process has been deactivated.
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Directory of PC-SIG Library Disk #1482
Volume in drive A has no label
Directory of A:\
ASSETS PL 21060 4-12-89 9:28p
DEPOSITS PL 21060 1-17-88 6:55p
FILE1482 TXT 1049 6-20-89 12:20p
GO BAT 38 10-19-87 3:56p
GO TXT 540 6-20-89 12:22p
MANUAL BAT 148 6-20-89 12:23p
PL DOC 59906 3-26-89 7:59p
PL EXE 99504 4-12-89 8:49p
8 file(s) 203305 bytes
113664 bytes free