
LEARN ABOUT PCBUDGET
Welcome to PCBUDGET.  PCBUDGET is designed to help assist,
simplify, and organize your home financial records.  You can use
PCBUDGET as a simple Checkbook manager or as a detailed record
keeping and tracking home accounting system.  You can keep track of
your bank accounts, credit cards, expenses, incomes, assets,
liabilities, and bills.  You can use PCBUDGET to plan your future
needs, measure your progress, and alarm you of problems areas.  

The most important thing to remember about PCBUDGET is to stick
with it.  The more you put into it, the more you will get out of
it.

PCBUDGET organizes your finances by assigning each account you
create with a two digit account code.  Among the types of accounts
which you may wish to create are:

     Incomes  - Salary, Dividends . . .
     Expenses - Groceries, Telephone, Taxes . . . 
     Credit Cards - MasterCard, Visa . . . 
     Liabilities - Car Loan, Mortgage, Personal Loans . . . 
     Bank Accounts - Checking Account, Savings Account, IRA . . .
     Assets - Personal Property, Value of your Auto . . . 

You should begin creating accounts immediately after you have
created your data file.  Or, accounts can be created as you need
them while making transactions.  Each account can have a budget
assigned to it.  For example if the Grocery budget is $200 per
month, and you write a check for $220, 'paid to' Grocery, you have
just exceeded the Grocery budget by $20.  

When transactions are made, at least two accounts are always
affected.  For example, when you used your Checking Account to
purchase Groceries, two accounts were affected.  Your Checking
Account balance decreased and your Grocery account increased.

As more and more transactions are recorded, the better you will be
able to get the "big picture" of where your money came from, where
it is going, and how to keep it under control.  

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

PCBUDGET commands are organized in menus on the menu bar.  The
PCBUDGET environment is designed for fast and simple operations
which can get you to and from any activity without having to step
through needless screens and prompts.

To pull down PCBUDGET Menus, do the following:

     Press and hold down the ALT key, then press the first
     letter of the menu name.

     If you have a mouse, point to the menu name, and then
     click on the left mouse button.

If you pull down the wrong menu, take one of the following actions:

     Cancel the menu by pressing the ESC key.

     Move to another menu by pressing the LEFT or RIGHT arrow
     keys.
     
To select from the menu, do the following:

     Press the key corresponding to the highlighted (or
     underlined) letter.

     Use the UP or DOWN arrow keys to move the highlight to
     the selection that you want, then press the ENTER key.

     If you have a mouse, point to the selection that you
     want, then click the left mouse button.

Sometimes there may not be a letter in the window which is
highlighted.  This is because the items in the window have been
determined by the types of accounts and account names you have
created on your data file.  For these cases, you will have to use
the arrow keys or mouse (if you have one) to make your selection.

When there are arrows in the top right and bottom right hand corner
of the window, there is more information or items to select from. 
You can use the PAGEUP, PAGEDOWN, HOME, and END keys to view the
rest of the window,  or, if you have a mouse, place the mouse
cursor on the arrows in the window and click the left mouse button.


PCBUDGET displays a Data Entry Window when you are entering data or
when additional information is required.  An example data entry
window looks like:

            ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐   
            │ Source: Checking Account           134.67│
            │ Amount: ░░░░░░░░░░░                      │    
            │   Memo: ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░         │
            │Paid to: ░░                               │
            │Check #: ░░░░                             │
            │   Date: ░░                               │
            │    Tax: ░                                │
            │Cleared: ░                                │
            ├──────────────────────────────────────────┤
            │    <F9=RECORD>  <Esc=Cancel>  <Help>     │
            └──────────────────────────────────────────┘

To move the cursor within the Data Entry Window you can use the up,
down, left, and right arrow keys, or you can use a mouse.

All Data Entry Windows have at least two selections which can be
made while they are being displayed.  In the example above, there
are three selections.  RECORD, CANCEL, and HELP.  To select one of
these items, use the TAB key to highlight the brackets surrounding 
the item, then press the ENTER key.  Or, press the function key or
the Esc key as it applies.

Many of the Data Entry Windows have numerous function keys
associated with them.  All active function keys for the current
Data Entry Window are located on the information bar (the bottom
line of the screen).  All Data Entry Windows have a TOPIC help file
which describes in further detail what the Data Entry Window is
asking for and how to go about using it.

STARTING YOUR DATA FILE
Before you begin using PCBUDGET, you should consider at what point
in time the PCBUDGET data will become current.  That is, how and
when will PCBUDGET get in synch with your current finances and/or
your bank or credit card company.  

Were going to handle your checking account first since its probably
the most important and the most used account you will have.  The
best way to handle this is to enter the "bank balance" of your most
recent bank statement for your checking account.  You should enter
this on the line that says:

          Opening Balance :▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓

Suppose you enter a balance of $115.50.  Next, enter the date that
this balance was correct.  

                    Month : ▓▓
                      Day : ▓▓
                     Year : ▓▓▓▓

Suppose you enter June 15, 1991 and lets say the "actual" date is
July 11, 1991.  PCBUDGET will adjust its DATE to June 15, 1991 and
will create an account 'Checking Account' with a June Year-To-Date
(Y-T-D) balance of $115.50.  Next, PCBUDGET will ask once again for
the current Date (this is the opening screen from now on).  You
should enter June 15, 1991.

At this point, you can either begin adding more accounts or you can
begin making transactions to bring your checking account up to
date.

If your going to create other accounts while still in June, you
should try to enter the Y-T-D balance for the new accounts to be
whatever the balance was on June 15, 1991.  If the balance is
unknown, like most expense account balances are, then just enter
$0.  

To bring your checking account up to date enter all the
transactions that occurred in June which were not included on the
bank statement (don't forget about the transactions which were made
prior to June 15 that have not hit your bank statement yet).

When your done entering the June transactions, you may be ready to
begin July transactions.  If the actual month is still June don't
worry.  You can begin July when July actually comes.  However if
the actual month is July, you will need to transfer your June
balances into July and make all the July transactions to date.  

Balances are transferred when the date entered at the beginning of
your PCBUDGET session is a month later than the 'Last use' date or
by pulling down the FILE menu and selecting TRANSFER.  When you
transfer your data file to the next month all Y-T-D balances for
all accounts are transferred into the new month.

─

FILE MENU
OPEN A MONTH : This selection allows you to view a different month. 
The viewing month is displayed on the bottom right corner of the
screen.  When the viewing month is different than the current
month, the month indicator will flash.  The current month is
displayed in the bottom middle of the screen.

CREATE NEW ACCOUNT : This selection allows you to create new
accounts on your PCBUDGET data file.

SETUP GROUP: This selection allows you to specify a group of
transactions which can be made with one single account code.  Up to
5 different groups can be specified.  Group Entry codes all begin
with the letter 'G' and end with the number 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.  For
example Group Entry 1 will have the account code 'G1'.  Group
Entries are useful when one transaction affects more than two
accounts.  Transactions which exhibit this are: Salary (Salary,
Federal taxes, State taxes, deposit into your checking account, etc
. . .), Payments to Credit Cards.

SETUP LOAN: This selection allows you to setup a loan.  To setup a
loan, you must first create a liability account which represents
the money which you owe to your lender and an expense account which
represents the finance charges which you will incur during the life
of the loan.  

SELECT DATA FILE : This selection allows you to enter a new data
file path name.  If a data file is not found, you will be asked if
you wish to create a data file.  At that time, this selection will
act the same as if you had selected CREATE DATA FILE.

CREATE DATA FILE : This selection allows you to create a new data
file.  When a data file is created, the accounts, Checking Account,
Misc Income, and Misc Expense, are created automatically.  You will
also be allowed to enter the opening balance to your Checking
Account at this time.  When you create a data file, the file you
create will become the active data file/path.

BACKUP DATA FILE : This selection allows you to backup your data
file.  A data file backup is very important and should be done
often.  

TRANSFER MONTH/YEAR : This selection transfers all account data to
the next month or starts a new year.  The same results occur when
entering the date at the beginning of each PCBUDGET session.  For
example, if a date is entered which indicates the next month after
PCBUDGET was last used, you will automatically be allowed to
transfer your data to the next month.  Or, if the date entered is
a new year, you will be allowed to transfer your data file to a new
year.  When starting a new year all bank account, asset, credit
card, and liability account balances are transferred to the new
file.  Income and expense account balances are reset to zero.  All
budget data for all accounts are transferred to the new file.


PRINT : This selection outputs the current report to your printer. 
You printer should be connected to LPT1.

OUTPUT TO FILE : This selection outputs the current report to a
file on your program disk.  The extension .PRN is automatically
added to the file name.

EXIT : This selection exits you from PCBUDGET.  All account data
will be saved automatically.  The date is stored to a file called
'LAST.DAT'.  This date is used to determine if account balances
need to be carried over to a new month when PCBUDGET is next used,
or if a new year has begun.

TRANSACTIONS MENU
Select the Transactions menu to make new entries to your monthly
transaction list.  When you select Transactions, you will get a
menu of all Bank Accounts, Credit Cards, and Income accounts
currently on your data file.  All transactions must affect at least
one of these accounts.

A typical Transaction data entry window looks like:


            Account  ───┐
            Selected    │                          ┌──── Current
            from menu   │                          │     Balance of
            ┌───────────┴──────────────────────────┴───┐ Account
            │ Source: Checking Account           134.67│ Selected
            │ Amount: ░░░░░░░░░░░                      │    
            │   Memo: ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░         │
            │Paid to: ░░                               │
            │Check #: ░░░░                             │
            │   Date: ░░                               │
            │    Tax: ░                                │
            │Cleared: ░                                │
            ├──────────────────────────────────────────┤
            │    <F9=RECORD>  <Esc=Cancel>  <Help>     │
            └──────────────────────────────────────────┘

All transactions affect at least two accounts.  One of the accounts
affected will be the account selected in the Transaction menu.  The
other account which will be affected will be the account entered in
the 'Paid to' field.  


RECONCILE ACCOUNT : This selection allows you to reconcile your
bank account or credit card account balance with your bank or
credit card statement.

REPORTS MENU
TRANSACTION LIST : This selection displays all transactions which
have been entered for the viewing month.  This report is
automatically displayed when transactions are being made.  To edit
a transaction, or to delete a transaction, press the F1 key when
viewing this report.

PERSONAL NET WORTH : This selection displays your current net
worth.  You net worth is the difference between your total assets
(bank accounts and other assets) and your total liabilities (credit
cards and other liabilities).

INCOME AND EXPENSES : This selection displays your income and
expenses for the viewing month and the year-to-date amount up to
and including the viewing month. 

ACCOUNT BALANCES : This selection displays all accounts currently
in your data file.  It displays the name of the account, the type
of account, the account code, the balance for the viewing month,
and the year-to-date balance.  To edit an account name or balance,
or to delete an account, press the F1 key.

TAX ESTIMATOR : This selection allows you to estimate your personal
Federal income taxes.  Taxes can be estimated for the entire year,
or for the year-to-date.  Select the OPTIONS menu, 'TAX ID CODES'
to tell PCBUDGET your filing status, number of exemptions, and
which account codes are being used for taxable categories. 

PAYMENT REMINDERS : This selections allows you to view and/or add
items to your payment reminders list.  Payment reminders are those
payments which are made on a regular basis or those which you want
to alarm you when they become due.  When making transactions, press
the F6 key to automatically insert the payment into the transaction
input window.  This payment will then be marked as Paid.  When
PCBUDGET first runs, it looks at the unpaid bills which are due at
that time.  PCBUDGET will alarm you that there are bills which need
to be paid and it will automatically make the transaction for you
if you have specified an 'Auto Source' account. 

MAILING LIST : This selection allows you to view and/or add items
to your mailing list.  If the first 10 characters of the first line
of the mailing list item is the same as an account name on your
data file, this mailing list item will be automatically inserted
when you print checks.  Press the F3 key to view all accounts which
are currently on your data file.  Press the F1 key to edit or
delete a mailing list item.

SEARCH FOR ITEM : The selection allows you to search the
transaction list for any particular sequence of characters.  To
search for TAX ITEMS, press the F5 key.  PCBUDGET will search for
all transactions marked with a 'T' in the tax column.

LOAN AMORTIZATION : This selection will generate a loan
amortization schedule.  You must enter the amount of the loan, the
length of the loan, the interest rate percentage, and the first
payment you want to display.

ACCUMULATION SCHEDULE : This selection will generate a report of
compounding interest for any initial value of money and/or time
deposits for any length of time.

BUDGETS MENU
COST BUDGET : This selection allows you to view and/or modify the
monthly budgeted amounts for any given account.  You may also view
the actual cash flows for the given account and compare it to the
budgeted amount.  Press the F1 key to modify the budgeted amounts
for the viewing account.

PROFIT BUDGET : This selection will display the actual vs. budgeted
income and expenses for the viewing month. 

CASH BUDGET : This selection allows you to view a schedule of all
expected cash inflows and outflows for the following four months. 
PCBUDGET uses the account code specified in the Checks/Print
selection in the OPTIONS menu as your cash account.  When you view
the CASH BUDGET the beginning cash balance will be Y-T-D amount of
the account specified.  This account is usually your checking
account or the account which is used to pay your monthly bills.

BUDGET CASH FLOWS : This selection allows you to view the actual
vs. budgeted cash flows for the viewing month.  

GRAPHS MENU
ACCOUNTS : The ACCOUNTS selection allows you to view actual vs.
budgeted and year-to-date Incomes, Expenses, Credit Cards,
Liabilities, Bank Accounts, or Assets, for the time span selected. 

NET WORTH : This selection allows you to view your NET WORTH for
the time span selected.

INCOME AND EXPENSES : This selection allows you to view your INCOME
and EXPENSES for the time span selected.

SELECT AN ACCOUNT : This selection allows you to select any account
within PCBUDGET.  The graph will be the budgeted vs. actual
activity for that account for the time span selected.

DISTRIBUTION OF ACCOUNTS : This selection allows you to view the
year-to-date distribution of the selected account type.

DEMO : This selection will display a randomly generated bar graph.

PARAMETERS : This selection allows you to change the time span, the
maximum and minimum value for the Y axis, and the maximum number of
bars which you want displayed.

To print a graph, press the 'P' key while you are viewing the
graph.  For best results, select a screen mode, CGA 2 COLOR, MCGA
High, or VGA when you are going to print.  This will give the best
contrast on the paper.

OPTION MENU
SCREEN COLORS : This selection allows you to change the screen
colors.  You must enter the color number, and then press the F1 key
to view the new colors.  Press the F9 key to save the new colors to
disk.  

CHECKS/PRINT : This selection allows you to set the following:
1)   Enable or disable the check printing function.  To enable
     check printing, enter the account code you wish to use
     for printing checks.  To disable check printing, enter a
     blank for the account code.
2)   Specify which account code is being used as your primary
     checking account.  Whenever this account is selected, the
     check number in the Transaction Data Entry Window will
     automatically update.  This account is also used as the
     'Beginning Cash Balance' account when viewing the CASH
     BUDGET.
3)   Specify if a return address should be printed on an
     envelope when printing a mailing list item.  The return
     address is specified by selecting NAME AND ADDRESS from
     this menu.

NAME AND ADDRESS : This selection allows you to enter your name and
address.  This is used for printing on reports and printing
envelopes.

TAX ID CODES : This selection allows you to enter your filing
status, number of exemptions, and taxable account codes for use by
the TAX ESTIMATOR.

GRAPHICS SCREEN MODE : This selection allows you to change the
graphics screen mode for viewing bar graphs.  PCBUDGET will default
to the best possible screen mode.

POP-UP CALCULATOR : This selection allows the use of a calculator. 
Press CTRL-P to pop-up the calculator at any time.

POP-UP CALENDAR : This selection displays the current month and
year in a calendar form.  Press CTRL-C to pop-up the calendar at
any time.

─

YOUR PAYCHECK
For most people, your paycheck, whether issued weekly, bi-weekly,
monthly, or whatever, usually consists of a multitude of
transactions, transfers, and/or deductions.  There are many ways to
handle this. In order to easily handle all things involved, try
this approach.

Suppose your paycheck is as follows,

                         GROSS PAY : 1000.00      (Income)
                     FEDERAL TAXES : 280.00       (Expense)
                           F.I.C.A : 75.00        (Expense)
                       STATE TAXES : 45.00        (Expense)
              COMPANY SAVINGS PLAN : 80.00        (Bank Account)
                           PENSION : 10.00        (Bank Account)
            COMPANY LIFE INSURANCE : 4.00         (Expense)

                           NET PAY : 506.00

The first thing you should do is create an account for each of the
items which are deducted from your check.

After all accounts have been created, pull down the FILE menu and
select 'Setup Group'.  If this is the first group you are creating,
enter a 1 (for Group Number 1).  You will then be allowed to
specify which accounts will be affected by group 1.  Enter all the
account codes which are affected by your paycheck. 

You should keep in mind that the account which receives your NET
PAY must also be accounted for.  For example, if your NET PAY is
usually deposited into your Checking Account, then your Checking
Account should also be one of the accounts in the Group.  If
sometimes you deposit some of the NET PAY into your Checking
Account and some of it into your Savings Account or other bank
account, then you should include both accounts as part of the
Group.  

To record your paycheck, select your Income account from the
TRANSACTIONS menu.  Enter the GROSS amount of your check in the
AMOUNT field.  Next, enter the code 'G1' (Group Entry 1) in the
CODE field and press F9.  Enter each amount next to its
corresponding account name.  Press the F9 key again and all
transactions will be recorded.

ELIMINATING KEYSTROKES
Whenever entering data for transactions, group entries, or payment
reminders, enter your PCBUDGET two digit code before entering the
description.  If entered first, the description will be
automatically inserted.  This will decrease the number of
keystrokes required to enter data.

Payment reminders can also be for recurring transactions.  Pressing
the F5 key when making transactions will automatically insert
transaction data.  Pressing the F4 key just prior to making a
transaction will Memorize that transaction by adding it to the
Payment Reminders/Recurring Transactions (PRRT) list.

If you are printing checks, use the mailing list to store account
names and account numbers.  Make sure that the first 10 characters
of the first line in the mailing list are identical to the first 10
characters of the account name.  Include in the mailing list the
account number and/or the address of the account.  When the check
is printed, the address/account number will be automatically
printed on the check.

KEYS
     PgUp      Moves the screen one line up.
     PgDn      Moves the screen one line down.
     Ctrl-PgUp Moves the screen one page up.
     Ctrl-PgDn Moves the screen one page down.
     Home      Moves the screen to the top.
     End       Moves the screen to the bottom.

     Ctrl-C    Popup Calendar.
     Ctrl-P    Popup Calculator.

     Tab       Moves the highlighted choice in the Data Entry
               Window.

     Alt-W     Erases a Data Entry Window so that the background
               can be viewed and/or scrolled.  Press the Alt-W key
               again to recall the Data Entry Window.

CREATE NEW ACCOUNT
TYPE (1) Income Accounts
          Income accounts are those accounts which provide for the
          SOURCE of all cash inflows.  Such as: Salary, Dividends,
          Interest received from Bank Accounts . . .
     (2) Expense Accounts
          Expense accounts are those accounts which reduce your net
          worth when a payment is PAID TO the account.  Examples of
          these accounts are: Groceries, Telephone, Electric,
          Finance Charges, Cable TV, Rent, Gifts . . . 
     (3) Credit Card Accounts
          Credit Card Accounts identify the credit cards which you
          own.  Credit cards can be handled one of two ways
          depending on the type of credit card or by the way you
          make the payment.  If the credit card is one which
          requires you to pay the full balance each month, you may
          not need to create a credit card account.  For this type
          of credit card you only need to create the accounts which
          might be used when making purchases with the credit card. 
          Then when the credit card bill is paid, select your
          checking account or whatever account you will use to pay
          your credit card bill, and make the payment PAID TO the
          type of account which was used when the credit card
          purchase was made.  For credit cards whose balance is not
          paid in full each month, the credit card account should
          be created.  When a credit card account exists,
          transaction should be entered into PCBUDGET whenever the
          credit card is used.  When the credit card bill is paid,
          the PAID TO account will be the credit card account.
     (4) Liability Accounts
          Liability Accounts are those accounts which identify
          money which you owe to other people (other than credit
          cards).  Examples of liability accounts are: mortgage,
          car loan, student loan, or basically any type of loan.
     (5) Bank Accounts
          Bank Accounts are those accounts such as your savings
          account, checking account, IRA, company savings plan,
          pension plan . . .
     (6) Asset Accounts
          Asset Accounts are those accounts which identify personal
          property or the value of an item which could be converted
          into cash if sold.  Asset accounts are: Value of your
          home, automobile, other personal property, stocks, bonds,
          mutual funds.

NAME : Enter the name you wish to give to the account.

BALANCE : Enter the current balance for this account. If the
current balance is unknown, enter zero.  When entering the balance,
you should enter the balance as of the date shown at the bottom
middle of the PCBUDGET screen.  

CODE : Each account must have a unique two digit code. The code can
be made up of letters, numbers, or other characters.  Some codes
are reserved by PCBUDGET.  They are G0,G1,G2,G3,G4,G5,L1,L2,L3,L4,
L5,L6,L7, and L8.  These codes are used for Group Entries (G0-G5)
and Loans (L1-L8).

BUDGET : Enter the expected ACTIVITY for the account per month. For
an Expense Account, this would be the expected expenditures for one
month.  For an Income Account, this would be the expected income
for that account for one month.  For Bank Accounts, Assets, Credit
cards, and Liabilities, the budget amount is the expected increase
or decrease for that account per month.  Therefore, if you expect
a Bank Account or Asset Account to increase, you should enter a
positive amount, and if you expect a Credit Card or Liability
account to decrease, you should enter a negative amount.  If the
budget amount is unknown, leave it blank or enter a 0. Budget
amounts for individual months can be entered by pulling down the
BUDGETS menu and selecting COST BUDGETS.

MAKING TRANSACTIONS
AMOUNT : Enter the Amount of the Transaction.

MEMO : Enter a description of the Transaction in the Memo field. 
If the first character of the MEMO field is left blank, the MEMO
field will automatically be filled in when the CODE is entered.

CODE : Enter the account code which is being charged (Paid To).  To
reverses charges, press the F1 key.  To view and/or select usable
accounts, press the F3 key (or press the right mouse button).  

DATE : The date of the Transaction defaults to the current day of
the month.

CHECK : If a check is being written, enter the check number.
PCBUDGET will ask to print the check if you have check printing
enabled.  To enable check printing, select the OPTIONS menu and
choose PRINT CHECKS.

TAX : If the transaction is TAX related, place a 'T' in the TAX
column.  If you have identified the Tax ID codes, this field will
automatically have a 'T' placed in it.  To identify the Tax ID
codes, select the OPTIONS menu and choose TAX ID CODES.

CLR : If the transaction has already been cleared by your bank or
other institution, place a 'C' in this field.  Use the RECONCILE
ACCOUNTS selection in the TRANSACTIONS menu to clear transactions
after you have received your bank statement.


Other keys
----------

F4 - MEMORIZE transaction.  This will add the transaction to
     Payment Reminders/Recurring Transaction list. (See the REPORTS
     menu 'Payment Reminders')
F5 - INSERT transaction.  This will insert any transaction from the
     Payment Reminders list into the transaction Data Entry Window.
F6 - UNPAID transaction.  This will insert only UNPAID transactions
     from the Payment Reminders list.  After the transaction has
     been made the Payment will be marked as paid 'P'.

GROUPED TRANSACTIONS
If the transaction affects more than two accounts, the code 'G0'
(Group Entry) can be entered. This code will allow you to break
down a single transaction into multiple transactions.  You should
begin entering the account(s) which are affected and the amount
which is applied to each account.  When the sum of the amounts add
up to the amount specified in the Transaction Data Entry Window,
all transaction will be recorded.

If the Group transaction occurs regularly you should set up a pre-
defined group account.  To setup a group, pull down the FILE menu
and select SETUP GROUP.

CREATING A NEW DATA FILE
DATA FILE PATH NAME : Enter the data file path name.  

Press the F9 key to create data file.

Entering A:, will create a data file on your A: drive.

Entering 1991, will create a data file in a directory 1991 of the
current drive/path.  For example, if your PCBUDGET program disk is
on your hard disk in directory C:\PCBUDGET, the data file will be
created at C:\PCBUDGET\1991.  The directory 1991 will be created
for you automatically.

The data file name is recorded in a file named DFILE.DAT on your
program disk. 

A normal data file will use about 200 to 300 kbytes of space in one
year. If you are using a 360K byte disk (most 5 1/4 disk are 360K)
it is not advisable to put your data files on your program disk
(the disk which contains the PCBUDGET.EXE file).  If, however, you
are using a 720K floppy or greater, or your data file is on your
hard disk, then the data file can be stored on the program disk. 

CREATING YOUR MAILING LIST
NAME : Enter a name.  Items in your mailing list are alphabetized
by the first letter of the NAME.  Therefore, you may wish to type
the last name first and the first name last.  

ADDRESS : Enter the address.

Accounts created on your data file can have a mailing list item
attached to it.  This is very useful when printing checks because
the mailing list information can contain account numbers as well as
names and addresses.  To view the current accounts on your data
file, press the F3 key.  If the first 10 characters of the NAME
match the first ten characters of an account on your data file,
then when a check is written to that account, the mailing list
information will be automatically inserted and printed on the
check.

PAYMENT/RECURRING REMINDERS
AMOUNT : Enter the amount of the transaction.

DESCRIPTION : Enter the description of the transaction.  If you
enter the code first, the description will be automatically
entered.

CODE : Enter the two digit code for the account.  To view and/or
select usable accounts, press the F3 key.  

DATE DUE : Enter the day of the month that the payment is due.

DAYS NOTICE : Enter the numbers of days notice you require before
PCBUDGET reminds you of the Payment.

JFMAMJJASOND : Enter an 'X' under the month that the payment is
due.  PCBUDGET will automatically place a 'P' in this field when
the payment for the given month is made.

Auto Source: If you wish to have the payment made automatically
when it becomes due, enter the two digit code which will provide
the source of funds to make this payment. 

When PCBUDGET first runs, it checks the Payment Reminders for
payments which have not yet been paid. If unpaid bills are found,
PCBUDGET reminds you of the unpaid bills.

The bottom right corner of the screen displays the total amount of
bills which need to be paid for that month.

The purpose of this screen is two fold.  First, it can be used to
remind you of transactions which must occur at certain times of the
month or year.  Second, it can record recurring transactions
therefore eliminating keystrokes.

When making transactions,

     F4 - will MEMORIZE the transaction by automatically
     adding it to the Payment Reminders list.
     F5 - will INSERT a Payment Reminder into the transaction
     input window.
     F6  - will insert only the UNPAID Payments into the
     transaction input window.

ENTERING NAME AND ADDRESS
Type your name and address. This information is used for printing
on reports or when printing envelopes. 

ACCUMULATION SCHEDULE
INITIAL VALUE : Enter the initial value of an amount of money in a
bank account or savings plan.

ANNUAL INTEREST RATE : Enter the expected annual interest rate
which you expect to earn.

NUMBER OF YEARS : Enter the number of years which you will be
holding the money.

ANNUAL INVESTMENT : Enter the annual investment (how much you are
going to deposit each year).

Press the F9 key to view your savings plan.

SELECTING FROM A WINDOW
If this is a selection window, use the up/down arrow keys to move
the menu bar.  Press the ENTER key or the high-lighted letter to
make your selection, or press the ESC key to cancel the Menu.   

If this is a HELP screen, press the ESC key to erase the window.  
If there are arrows at the top right and bottom right side of this
window, it means there is more information available in the window. 
You can use the PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End keys to view the rest of
the window.

ENTERING COST BUDGETS
Enter the expected monthly budget for the selected account for each
month, January through December.

For Income Accounts, the budget is that amount which you expect to
earn per month.

For Expense Accounts, the budget is that amount which you expected
to spend per month.

For Bank Accounts, Assets, Credit Cards, and Liabilities, the
monthly budget is that amount which you expect the account to
change.  Therefore, if you expect a Bank Account or Asset Account
to increase, you should enter a positive amount, and if you expect
a Credit Card or Liability account to decrease, then you should
enter a negative amount.

LOAN AMORTIZATION SCHEDULE
LOAN AMOUNT : Enter the amount of money which you expect to borrow.

ANNUAL RATE : Enter the annual interest rate which you will be
charged by the lending institution.

LENGTH : Enter the length of the loan.  A maximum of 360 months (30
years) can be entered.

STARTING MONTH : Enter '1' if you wish to view all payments.  If
you just wish to view the monthly payment for the loan amount,
enter the last month (the length).  This will be much faster than
waiting for the complete schedule to be generated.

CONTINUE
  Press the Esc key to continue.

REPLACE DISK
Replace the disk in your A drive.

Your PROGRAM disk is the disk containing the PCBUDGET.EXE file.

BACKUP DATA DISK
TARGET DISK : Enter the target data file path.

Your data file will be copied to the Target path.

If your system is a two floppy disk system, and you have your
PROGRAM disk in drive A: and your normal data file is in drive B:,
your Target path should be entered as A:.  Before the backup is
made, PCBUDGET will tell you to remove your PROGRAM disk from drive
A: and insert your BACKUP disk.  When the BACKUP is complete, you
will be told to remove your BACKUP from drive A: and insert your
PROGRAM disk.

ENTERING THE DATE
Enter the current date as,

MM-DD-YYYY

MM is the month 1-12
DD is the Day 1-31
YYYY is the year.

If the date entered is the month AFTER PCBUDGET was last used, then
all account balances will be carried over to the next month. 

Press the F9 key to enter the date. If you press the ESC key, the
date will default to the active date being displayed.

SETTING THE SCREEN COLORS
Enter the desired screen colors by selecting numbers between 0 and
15 for all cases. 

For most color monitors, the following numbers will display the
specified color.

     0 - Black       8 - Gray
     1 - Blue        9 - Light Blue
     2 - Green      10 - Light Green
     3 - Cyan       11 - Light Cyan
     4 - Red        12 - Light Red
     5 - Magenta    13 - Light Magenta
     6 - Brown      14 - Yellow
     7 - White      15 - High Intensity White

For most monochrome monitors, different combinations of these
numbers will turn underline and high intensity on and off.  

Press the F1 key to view the new colors on your screen, or press
the F5 key to use the default colors for PCBUDGET.  Then press the
F9 key to save the new colors to disk.

SEARCH FOR ITEM
Enter a sequence of characters or numbers to search for.  For
example, if you type 'CH', PCBUDGET will search all transactions
which have the letters 'CH' in it.
Press the F9 key to begin the search.  

If you wish to search for TAX items, press the F5 key.

PRINTING CHECKS
Enter the name and address if it is different from the memo entered
when making the transaction.  If the first 10 characters of the
memo match the first 10 characters of a name in your mailing list,
then the mailing list item will be automatically retrieved and
inserted into your check.

Press the F9 key to print this check to your printer.  Your printer
must be connected to LPT1.  

CANNOT FIND DATA FILE
To use PCBUDGET, a data file must be created.  Select the FILE menu
and choose CREATE DATA FILE. 

After your data file has been created, you should begin creating
the accounts you would like to keep track of.  When your data file
is created, three accounts are created for you automatically. 
These accounts are:

          Checking Account    (BANK ACCOUNT)
          Misc Income         (INCOME)
          Misc Expense        (EXPENSE)

To create more accounts, select the FILE menu and choose NEW
ACCOUNT.  Other accounts which you may wish to create are:

          Savings Account     (BANK ACCOUNT)
          Grocery             (EXPENSE)
          Telephone           (EXPENSE)
          Gas                 (EXPENSE)
          Mastercard          (CREDIT CARD)

          etc. . .

After your accounts have been created, you can begin making
transactions and tracking your budgets.  Don't worry if you don't
know all the accounts when you first start.  You can add new
accounts at any time.

ENABLE CHECK PRINTING
1)   To enable check printing, enter the two digit code that
     you wish to use for printing checks.  To disable check
     printing, enter a blank.  When check printing is enabled,
     PCBUDGET will ask you if you wish to print the check just
     prior to the transaction being recorded.
2)   You can specify which account is to be used for your
     primary checking account.  When you select this account
     when making transactions the next check number will be
     automatically inserted and incremented as checks are
     being written.
3)   If you print envelopes using the MAILING LIST, you can
     specify if a return address should be printed.  The
     return address is the one entered when you select NAME
     AND ADDRESS in the OPTIONS menu.

OUTPUT TO FILE
FILE NAME : Enter a file name for your report.  The report will be
written to your program disk and can be viewed by a word processor
or text editor.  The extension .PRN is automatically added to the
file name.

USING THE CALENDAR
The calendar month defaults to the current month.  You can view
other months and years by entering the new month or year.  Press
the ESC key to cancel the calendar.

USING THE CALCULATOR
Enter the numbers you wish to calculate.  All numbers are computed
from left to right. 

For example,   10+16-2  will display 24.
               24/2*4  will display 48.

Always press the F9 key to execute the calculation and press the
ESC key to cancel the calculator.

FILING STATUS
For the tax estimator, enter your filing status and your number of
personal exemptions.  If you do not itemize your deductions, you
may take the standard deduction.  The standard deduction varies for
each different filing status.  When PCBUDGET computes your taxes it
will compute your itemized deductions and it will check your
standard deduction.  PCBUDGET will use whichever deduction is
greater.

ESTIMATING FEDERAL INCOME TAX
To estimate your personal Federal income tax, enter the amount(s)
of income, adjustments to income, and itemized deductions on each
line as they apply.  If you have identified an account code for a
taxable item (see TAX ID CODES in the OPTIONS menu), the amount of
each item will be the total amount PCBUDGET has recorded to date. 
If you are estimating your taxes to the year end, PCBUDGET will
take the year-to-date figure, and based on that, it will estimate
the year end amount.  For example, suppose it is the end of August
(243 days into the year), and you have identified an income account
code in the TAX ID CODES, and its year to date amount is $23,000. 
PCBUDGET will compute the estimated year end income to be $34,547
(23000 / 243 * 365).

If you do not have your TAX ID CODES identified, the Tax Estimator
can still be used.  All data, however, will have to be entered
manually.

ENTERING TAX ID CODES
Enter the two digit account code for each item that applies to your
personal income tax.  For example, if your salary has an account
code of 'SA', you should enter 'SA' on the Income or Other Income
line.  If you do not have an account code specified for a
particular line item, and the item will apply to your taxes for the
current year, you should created that account.  

Transactions which use accounts which are associated with tax
related items will automatically be marked with a 'T' in the
transaction list.

SETTING BAR GRAPH TIME SPAN
This window allows you to specify the parameters for bar graphs. 
You can specify the following parameters:

     - Time span (January - December)
     - Maximum and Minimum dollar amounts
     - Auto or manual scaling.
       In auto scaling, the Max and Min dollar values are ignored.
     - Maximum number of bars.  For most bar graphs, up to 3      
       different bars can be displayed for each time period.

STARTING A NEW YEAR
TARGET DISK : Enter the target data file path.  If your data file
is the A: drive, the default TARGET path is the B: drive.  If your
data file path is on the C: drive, the default TARGET path is the
A: drive.

NEW YEAR : Enter the new year.  

When starting a new year, you will need to transfer your prior
years data file to a new data file.  All Income and Expense values
will be reset to zero.  Bank Accounts, Assets, Credit Cards, and
Liability accounts will maintain their current value.  All budgets
will be carried over and will be the same as the prior years
budgets.

TRANSFER DATA
Your data file account balances will be transferred to the new
period.  If the new period is the next month all Y-T-D balances
will be transferred into the new month for all accounts.  If the
new period is the next year all Y-T-D balances for Assets, Bank
Accounts, Liabilities, and Credit cards will be transferred into
January of the new year.  For a new year all Income and Expense
data for Y-T-D will be reset to 0.

REGISTERING PCBUDGET
To Register PCBUDGET, fill out the form REG.FRM on your PCBUDGET
program disk and mail it to us.

Please mail your form to:

ProLogic Software
P.O. Box 71
Loveland OH, 45140

You can print the form to your printer by typing:

     COPY REG.FRM PRN

PCBUDGET is an Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP)
approved "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the
user for evaluation.  The essence of "user-supported" software is
to provide personal computer users with quality software without
high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to
continue to develop new products.  If you find PCBUDGET useful and
find that you are using PCBUDGET and continue to use PCBUDGET after
a reasonable trial period, you are required to register.  The
registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer
at any one time.

As a registered user, you will be entitled to:

     - One free copy of the next version of PCBUDGET.
     - Free technical support.
     - Notification of program updates.
     - A printed manual.

ENTER GROUP NUMBER
Enter the Group number which you wish to modify or add.  You are
allowed to have up to 5 different Group Entries.  If you select a
Group number which has already been assigned, you will be allowed
to edit that Group.  

Group Entry codes all begin with the letter 'G' and end with the
number 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.  For example Group Entry 1 will have the
account code 'G1'.  Group Entries are useful when one transaction
affects more than two accounts.

ENTER GROUP CODES
Enter a name for the Group Entry selected and the account codes for
the Group.  These accounts will automatically be selected when
making a transaction using the code 'Gx', where x is the Group
number (1-5).

GROUP PROGRAMMED TRANSACTIONS
Enter the amounts to be applied to each account.  The total of the
amounts must be equal to the original amount entered when making
the transaction.  If you wish to total the amount of the Group,
press the F5 key.

DISK DRIVE ERROR
An error was detected while trying to access your disk.  Possible
causes for this are:

     The disk is not properly inserted into the drive.
     The drive door is open.
     The disk is write protected.

If all three items have been checked and the error still exists,
you may have a bad disk.  If you have a backup data disk, use it. 
If you don't have a backup disk, try going to DOS and use the DOS
COPY command to copy all your files to another disk.

PRINTER ERROR
An error was detected while trying to print.  Make sure that:

     - The printer is turned on.
     - The printer is ON LINE.
     - Paper is loaded
     - You are connected to port 1 (LPT1).

ILLEGAL TRANSACTIONS
You are trying to make a transaction which transfers money from an
Income account to another Income account.  This is not a valid
transaction.  Income accounts are a SOURCE of money.  All
transactions involving income accounts must have the 'Source'
designation placed next to the Income account code.  The 'Paid to'
designation can be any account type except an Income account.

NEW MONTH
The date which you entered indicates that a new month is starting. 
If you are finished entering transactions in the previous month,
press the F9 key and all account balances will be carried over to
the next month.  If however, you still wish to make transactions in
the previous month, press the Esc key.  The date will then be set
to the 'Last use' date.

If you start a new month, but then you realize that you forgot to
enter a transaction for any of the previous months, select the File
menu and open the viewing month which you wish to make the
transaction in.  Then, make the transaction just as you would in
the current month.  All account data will be transferred forward to
the current month.

START A NEW YEAR
Starting a new year will transfer the data on your data file to a
new disk/directory specified by the TARGET path.

TOO MANY SEARCH ITEMS
The search sequence you selected found too many items to display at
once.  A maximum of 360 items can be displayed at a single time. 
To view the remaining items, narrow the time span for the search.

DATA FILE NOT FOUND
The directory name for your data file does not exist.  If you wish
to create a directory for this data file press the F9 key.  

ESTIMATE YEAR END TAXES
If you would like your income taxes to be estimated to the year
end, press the F9 key.  PCBUDGET will take the year-to-date figure,
and based on that, it will estimate the year end amount.  For
example, suppose it is the end of August (243 days into the year),
and you have identified an income account code in the TAX ID CODES,
and its year to date amount is $23,000.  PCBUDGET will compute the
estimated year end income to be $34,547 (23000 / 243 * 365).

If you wish to get an estimate to date, press the F5 key.

INVALID DATE/TOO EARLY
Sorry, you cannot enter a date which has already occurred.  You are
trying to enter a date which is earlier then the 'Last used' date. 
If you wish to make transactions in a month that has already
occurred,  select the File menu and open the viewing month which
you wish to make the transaction in.  Then, make the transaction
just as you would in the current month.  All account data will be
transferred forward to the current month.

DELETE ITEM
Press the F9 key if you wish to delete the current item.  Press the
Esc key to cancel the delete.

DATA FILE CREATED
Your data file has been successfully created.  Three accounts have
already been created for you. 

They are: Checking Account
          Misc Expense
          Misc Income

You can start adding more accounts by pulling down the FILE menu
and selecting NEW ACCOUNT.

To view the accounts you already have, pull down the REPORTS menu
and select ACCOUNT BALANCES.  


Press the Esc key to continue . . . 

MEMORIZE TRANSACTION
If this is a recurring transaction, or one which you wish to be
reminded of each month, press the F9 key.

To get a list of all payment reminders or recurring transactions
(PRRT) pull down the REPORTS menu and select Payment Reminders.

DELETE NOT ALLOWED
You are trying to delete an account which was used in a transaction
in a prior or the current month.  If you still wish to delete this
account, you must delete the transactions which have used the
account.

PRINT CHECK
Press the F9 key to print this check to your printer.  Your printer
should be connected to LPT1.

PRINT REPORT
Press the F9 key to print the current report to your printer.  Your
printer should be connected to LPT1.

SELECT A DIFFERENT DATA FILE
Enter the name of the data file which you wish to view.  The data
for your current data file will be saved and the new data file will
become the active file.  

CREATE ACCOUNT
The account code which you selected was not found.  If you would
like to create an account with this account code, press the F9 key.

SETUP LOAN
Enter the following information to setup a loan:

Name:  Enter the name of the loan.

Principle Loan Account:  The Principle Loan Account is the
liability account which identifies the debt which you owe to your
lender.  You must create the liability account before creating the
loan.  To create a liability account, pull down the FILE menu and
select NEW ACCOUNT.

Interest Expense Account:  The Interest Expense Account is the
Expense account which will track the finance charges which you pay
to your lender.  You must create the expense account before
creating the loan.

Other Account #1, #2, #3:  If other accounts are affected by your
loan payment such as; property taxes, insurance, or any other
escrow type account, enter them here.  These accounts must be
created before creating the loan.

Payments made to date:  Enter the number of payments you have made
so far.

Payment Amount:  Enter the amount of your payment.  

Number of annual payments:  Enter the number of payments which are
made each year towards this loan.  For a normal loan, this is 12. 
Some loans (some mortgages) are paid twice a month, or every two
weeks.  For a loan like this, enter 26.

Length of loan (years): Enter the number of years you have to pay
the loan.

Annual interest rate: Enter the annual interest rate for this loan
in percent (9.5, 10.5 . . .)

ENTER LOAN NUMBER
Enter the Loan number which you wish to modify or add.  You are
allowed to have up to 8 different loans.  If you select a loan
which has already been assigned, you will be allowed to edit that
loan.  

Loan codes all begin with the letter 'L' and end with the number 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8. For example Loan 1 will have the account
code 'L1'.  

COMPUTE LOAN PAYMENT
The principle and interest for this payment has been computed based
on the information setup for this loan.  If the payment number is
incorrect, you can enter a new payment number.  Press the F5 key to
compute the new principle and interest for the new payment number. 
Press the F9 key to record the loan transaction.

DATA FILE ALREADY EXISTS
You are trying to create a data file where one already exists.  If
you wish to remove the data file, go to DOS and use the DOS ERASE
command to delete all the files.

DATA FILE NOT FOUND
The data file you selected was not found.
