|
BudgetMaster can help keep track of how much
money is being spent in different areas. First a budget spending
plan is created. Then during the budget period as spending is
entered, BudgetMaster tracks spending against the budgeted
spending goals. BudgetMaster provides the ability to see both in
particular areas of the budget and in the budget plan as a whole
how much money has been spent versus how much you have
designated to be spent. BudgetMaster can let you know if you
spend too much in a particular area, or if you budget plan
exceeds your total income. In addition, BudgetMaster can remind
you of bills that are due or coming due.
BudgetMaster can be compared to a manual
system where a user would take all of the bills and upcoming
expenses and record them in a ledger to see how much money is
needed during the budget period. He would probably also write
down any fixed income such as income from an employer. Then he
would appropriate his income against these known expenses. What
was left might be appropriated to a savings account. If the
budgeted amount exceeded his income, he might try to eliminate
some spending that was not necessary.
Next he could take his money [if it were
all in cash] and divide it into envelopes; each one having a
label for the area it was to be spent. Then during the budget
period, he would take money from those envelopes each time he
needed to spend some for those particular areas. At any time
during the month, he could open an envelope, see how much was
remaining, and know if he was meeting his budget plans.
BudgetMaster works in a similar fashion. Envelopes
[categories as they are called in BudgetMaster] are defined and
a budget amount is assigned to each. The amount assigned could
be thought of as the amount of money initially placed in each
envelope in the example above. Just as in the example above,
each time the user records an amount spent in a particular
category, BudgetMaster reduces that envelope [category] by the
amount spent. Of course in real life, a user might have certain
times where more money is required in a particular category than
at others. BudgetMaster makes this as simple as changing the
amount designated for that category. Of course doing so
increases or decreases the overall budget accordingly.
Back to Top
What does BudgetMaster not do?
BudgetMaster is not a checkbook
program. A checkbook program is intended as a replacement for a check register
where a user enters a bank statement balance, records deposits and spending
during the month, keeping an adjusted running balance. Then when the user gets a
statement from the bank, he reconciles his records against those of the bank.
While BudgetMaster could be used to compare bank account spending transactions
against a bank statement, it is not primarily designed for reconciling a
checking account. A checkbook program is more suited for this type of operation.
Several well designed checkbook programs for the palm are currently available
from several of the Internet palm software distributors. BudgetMaster is
primarily intended for designing a spending plan and tracking spending against
that plan. Checkbook programs generally do not provide these types of reporting
features.
Back to Top
How do I install BudgetMaster?
BudgetMaster is delivered by download from a number of
Internet-based software distributors. The download will be
either a .zip (compressed file) or a .prc (Palm Resource file).
If you download a .prc file, you can either save it on your
computer or you can choose to 'Open' or 'Run' the file which
should immediately queue it for installation during the next
HotSync session.
If the file you downloaded is a .zip file, the file will need to
be uncompressed using software such as WinZip or PKZip.
Windows XP has the ability to open .zip files without the need
for additional software. Once you have unzipped the file,
you will file it contains a single .prc file. Simply
HotSync this file onto your handheld and it should automatically
start the installation process and then start BudgetMaster.
Note that the trial version includes a warning that installing
it over an existing copy of the software WILL OVERWRITE any
existing data on the device. This is due to the fact that
the trial installer not only includes the program files but also
empty copies of all data files used by the program. The
warning message indicates that if you are already using the
program, to check our website for upgrades. This warning
is designed to prevent existing users from downloading the a
more recent trial version of the software and accidentally
overwriting their valuable data.
If you have BudgetMaster on your
device already and have recently purchased the software, then
make sure to also read the help topic about
unlocking the trial version.
Back to Top
How do I uninstall BudgetMaster?
To uninstall BudgetMaster, tap the menu icon
in the writing area of the palm. Under the [App] menu, tap
[Delete...], tap BudgetMaster to highlight it, and then tap the
[Delete...] button. Tap [Yes] when prompted to confirm your
request to remove BudgetMaster.
Note that the following paragraph should
not be performed if you are running one of our other products
such as Expense-n-Go for Palm OS because it will remove common
files used by all of our Palm software and will cause our other
applications to stop working. If you are not using any of our
other software, then it is advised that you do remove these
common files by following the instructions below.
[Removing common files]
To remove the common component files used by BudgetMaster (and
other software we produce), please locate and delete using the
procedure above the application called "Solid Rock Resources".
Important note about removing BudgetMaster:
When you have performed the operations above, all program and
budget data will be removed from the handheld. In addition,
during your next hotsync of the handheld with the desktop,
backup files of the BudgetMaster program and data will be
removed from the desktop.
How do I purchase BudgetMaster and unlock the
trial version (and keep my data)?
When you purchase BudgetMaster through our Software Store (powered by
PalmGear.com), or through one of our other distribution partners, you will
receive an email giving instructions for downloading the software and a personal
key code which will unlock the trial version that you will download. There
is no "full version" but rather a trial version that becomes a fully working
copy of the software once the key code is entered into the program on the
handheld device.
The trial version includes a warning that installing it over an existing copy of
the software WILL OVERWRITE any existing data on the device. This is due
to the fact that the trial installer not only includes the program files but
also empty copies of all data files used by the program. The warning
message indicates that if you are already using the program, to check our
website for upgrades. This warning is designed to prevent existing users
from downloading a more recent trial version of the software and
accidentally overwriting their valuable data.
In short, once you purchase the software, all that is required is for you to
enter the key code into the software.
How do I prepare to begin using BudgetMaster?
Note:
This example is based on a monthly budget plan and is only intended as a
possible way to use the software and does not necessarily cover
every possible budget scenerio.
1. Figure up all of
your regular sources of income. These will be used to give BudgetMaster
a reference point to compare against your budget plan and spending information.
2. Get all of your
bills together so you will have an idea of what you spend each month.
This will include expenses such as car payments, house payment, phone
bill, electricity, water, insurance, so on...
3. Jot down any other
areas where you spend money each month. This will include expenses such
as food, gasoline, so on... In a following step you are going to create
categories to represent your spending habits (spending plan). You can
think of this like taking all of your income and distributing it into
unique envelopes each labeled with the name of a bill or an area where
you spend money. Then you will be dividing up your money and putting it
into these envelopes, so to speak.
4. From the menu,
go into the Income Setup screen and create an Income category for each
source of income you recorded in step one above. On the income details
screen, enter the amount per budget period [per month in this example]
that this source of income generates. Make any notes about the income
source as required.
5. From the menu,
go into the Budget Setup screen and for each of the expenses above, create
a unique category giving it an appropriate description and an estimated
[or actual if known] amount that each category will require you per month.
Also, if the category is for a bill such as a car payment, check the box
[ ]This budget is for a bill, and tap on the line next to Bill due on:
to select the appropriate date. If the category is for something like
car insurance that may not be due each month, you can set up a schedule
of when this category is to be included in your budget plan. For more
information on this screen, see the section in this document on using
the Schedule screen and Set All Schedules function.
6. When you spend
money, go to the Enter Spending screen, tap on the appropriate category,
and click [New] to enter the details for the amount spent.
7. When you pay a
bill, go to the Pay Bills screen, click the bill you are paying, and click
[Pay] to pay the bill. Enter any details about the payment as required.
Both steps six and
seven above will reduce both the individual category by the amount being
spent [or paid as is the case with bills]. In the case of spending, the
category amount remaining will be reduced by the amount being spent. Usually
on a bill the amount being paid is the amount of the bill, thus leaving
a zero balance in that category.
8. At the end of each
period [a month in this example], you will want to start over on the budget
plan. This is done by clearing all the spending transactions, thus resetting
each budget to its full amount to begin the spending cycle over.
Note: Prior to clearing
the transactions you may want to run one or more of the reports from the
Reports menu (also found on the End Of Period Tasks screen). These reports create memos in the Palm's built-in memo application.
When you hotsync your handheld with the desktop, these memos are transferred
to the desktop where they can be printed or imported into another program.
See the three sections on reports below for more information.
9. To start a new budget period, go to the Maintenance Menu, then
use each step to prepare for the next month.
10. At any time even
during spending cycles, you can adjust one or more budgets as necessary.
For example, you might adjust a category called Entertainment to a lower
amount and increase a category called Savings to a higher amount to shift
around the way you wish to allocate your money.
11. One trick is that
after you enter all income categories and budget categories, create a
category called Extra Money. Set the budget amount of Extra Money to whatever
the difference is between your income and your total budget requirements
[see the Reports - Income/Budget/Spending report for this number]. Then
if you need a little more for a certain category, simply reduce the Extra
Money category by the amount needed and increase the category budget amount
you are needing more available money in. This way you keep you budget
in check with your income.
12. If you happen
to overspend in one or more categories during the month, you will notice
that the [Remaining] amount for that category will be a negative number.
BudgetMaster is simply telling you that you went "in the hole" by whatever
negative amount is showing. There is an option in the User Preferences
to alert you whenever a category goes "in the red". This can be turned
on or off as required.
It is time to begin a new month? How do I
do this in BudgetMaster?
Go to the "Maintenance Menu", "End Of Period Tasks" screen
and follow all steps in order.
Does BudgetMaster support multiple concurrent
budgets?
No, however BudgetMaster is designed to basically work
with "amounts" and these amounts can be inferred as whatever currency a
particular user wishes.
Does BudgetMaster get backed up during HotSync
operations?
Yes, both the program and data files are backed up during each HotSync.
If the Palm software is installed into the default folder, then these files will
be located in the C:\Program Files\Palm\<username>\Backup folder.
The batteries on my device went dead, how do I
get BudgetMaster back?
Do not reinstall the software, doing so will overwrite your
existing data. When you do the first HotSync after
replacing or recharging the batteries, the program and data
should reappear on the device.
I had to do a hard-reset on my device, how do I
get BudgetMaster back?
Do not reinstall the software, doing so will overwrite your
existing data. When you do the first HotSync after hard
resetting the handheld, the program and data should reappear on
the device.
I forgot my BudgetMaster security password.
What should I do?
Email us at
support@budgetprogram.com or fill out the
Support Request form, making sure to choose the option about
'forgot password'. Once we locate you in our database, we
will email you an over-ride password. Note that for
security reasons, we cannot email this over-ride password to
non-registered users.
How do I upgrade my
existing version of BudgetMaster to a newer version?
Solid Rock Software provides upgrades to BudgetMaster which
are designed to keep the user's existing data intact.
Please check our
BudgetMaster Upgrades page for details. Make sure to
read carefully the description of each upgrade to ensure that
you choose the correct upgrade for the version you are currently
using.
Back to Top
|
