Notes on using HOMEACC.COM

    
    To load from MSDOS all that is required is to type in the name HOMEACC
    at the DOS prompt and the programme will load and run.

    HOMEACC.COM is a programme specifically designed for use by people who
    like to keep account of all their personal and household finances. It
    is not intended for business use and I make no claims for it in this
    direction. I hope it fulfills my aim of being simple, pleasing to use,
    and a useful help in  budgeting income against expenditure.

                ***  Starting from scratch with no accounts. ***

    Before any transaction can be carried out, you must first of all have
    at least two account names for reference. For example, 'account 1'
    paying and 'account 2' receiving a certain sum of money.

    Supposing you would like to make your first account 'Account 1' your
    Bank Current Account which has a £100.96 in it. This would be your
    opening balance for this account. The procedure would be as follows:

    Press the white key number 3 to select 'Open new account' from the
    menu. Type in 'Bank Current Account' and enter it. The screen will then
    display the account name in upper case lettering and ask for
    confirmation Yes or No. Press the 'Y' key for yes. The accounts list is
    then displayed with the first 15 letters of the account name followed
    by the number of the account written in yellow.

    You can now select 'Transaction' from the menu because you now have TWO
    accounts. An account named 'Opening Balance' has been given the account
    number 0 and is resident in the programme. Select 'Transaction' from
    the menu by pressing the white key number 2. When asked for the account
    to debit enter number 0. For the account to credit enter the account
    number printed in yellow, in this case number 1. Enter the amount
    £100.96. You are then given the option of entering any notes of
    relevance or whim such as an address, phone number, or item purchased
    etc. If no notes are wanted just press the Enter or the Carriage Return
    key.

    If you now select 1 to 'Display Account' you will be asked for the
    account number of the account you wish to view. Enter number 1 which is
    the number of your Bank Current Account. The account is shown in detail
    on screen. Similarly selecting 4 will show you your accounts names in
    full and the balances to date.

    Say you have a mail order agency and that father chose a fishing rod
    from the catalogue. Open an account with the name of the agency and an
    account for father, and make a Transaction debiting the agency and
    crediting father with the cost of the fishing rod. Future payments made
    by father would be transacted debiting him and crediting the agency
    until he had cleared his original transaction. Other accounts such as
    Credit Card Purchases where the shop name account would be paid by the
    credit card account for the purchase, and the Bank Current Account
    paying off the credit card payments. Of course any cash drawn from the
    bank for pocket money or housekeeping can be paid to an account named
    Cash From Bank.

    Item number 5 of the menu (Files) allows you to load and view data
    saved by the program from previous years. It may be a while before you 
    accumulate enough data to use it. Enter the file name and the file will 
    be loaded. 

    Item number 6 of the menu (Delete Account), is really only used when
    the program gets near its limit of 60 Accounts and 200 Transactions.
    The program will warn you well in advance of the capacity left, giving
    you time to decide when to save data to a master disk and delete
    unwanted accounts. Preferably at the end of a month or quarter or year,
    depending on the amount of useage. When 'Delete Account' is selected
    you are asked to provide a file name for the data in memory. I suggest
    you use something like SEP87 or similar to give a clue for later
    searching of accounts. Entering the file name saves the data in memory
    and goes to the next screen for deleting unwanted accounts,(make more
    room).All the accounts in memory now have only the balances and no
    details. You will want to keep certain accounts such as Bank,
    Investment, Credit Card and Mail Order Accounts with their opening
    balances. The accounts list is on screen when deleting and the account
    numbers will change as you delete, so be careful not to use your own
    memory of account numbers and check just which account you are
    deleting.

    Finally to 'Finish'. If no changes have been made to the data, nothing
    will be written to the disk, but if any changes are made then the
    UPDATE.DAT file will be updated automatically. The Shift, PrtSc keys
    are functional if a printout of the screen is required.

    For a printout of this file Enter the following at the DOS A> prompt.
    A>type homeacc.doc > prn