PORTABLE CHECKBOOK The Shannon Group - 1986 PORTABLE CHECKBOOK is an easy-to-use menu driven program which can organize your entire home financial record keeping system. The program provides a monthly record and printed statement of each check written. You may record deposits and other noncheck transactions such as 24 hour teller machine withdrawals or service charges. Each monthly record can be saved along with the balance to a monthly file in RAM, cassette, DVI, or other appropriate mass storage device. A continous checkbook balance is always available. All transactions can be coded to provide different catagory expenses such as utility billings, automobile expenses, mortgage payments or donations. At years end you will have a record of all important tax transactions coded for quick reference. Most important is the ability of PORTABLE CHECKBOOK to print checks. You can easily design the program to fit your individual check system. You can use the personal checks you now have or purchase continous feed multi-part checks available through your bank or other commercial supplier. PORTABLE CHECKBOOK is offered as shareware. Please feel free to alter, change, modify, copy, trade, share or transfer PORTABLE CHECKBOOK provided the title screen remains unaltered and intact with the program. If you find the program of value, please send $15.00 to: THE SHANNON GROUP, RT. 2,BOX 162M, ROSWELL, NM 88201. Request a printed copy of the full documentation. MAIN MENU-PORTABLE CHECKBOOK After a brief title screen, if the file "CKDATA.DO" is not already present in RAM or is not configured correctly, the program will create a new file and begin questioning you for information data to fill it. Turn to the section titled "8. CONFIGURE CKDATA.DO" in the latter part of this documentation to help answer the questions. If the file already exists, you will be taken directly to the program main menu. After CKBOOK's main menu appears, pressing any number (pressing is not required) will take you to the appropriate portion of the program. 1. ENTER DATA Though not required, depressing the CAPS LOCK is the best method for entering data since searches are case sensitive. IMPORTANT: Do not use commas in any entries. A) AMOUNT: Begin entering data in the AMOUNT space. Always enter positive numbers. If you enter more than $99999.99 in the space, the computer will BEEP and start over. After you have entered the correct amount, press , and you will be tabbed to the DATE position. If you make a mistake before pressing , you may "backspace" and correct your error. However, if you have moved on in the Menu and discover an error in a previous line, you will have to restart by first pressing function key 1 and then . This will clear the screen and redisplay the ENTER DATA menu. The previously interrupted data will not be stored. This applies to all the data entry positions. B) DATE(MM/DD/YY): To use the current date, press , and the program will display the date and move to the next line. For a date other than the current one, enter the date in the MM/DD/YY format. C) PAYEE: Enter the PAYEE in this line using no more than 34 spaces. D) ADDRESS: Enter the address using no more than 22 spaces. Do not use any commas in any entries. If you do not need to record the address, skip this line and the CITY line by pressing before entering any data. E) CITY:-STATE:-ZIP: Enter the CITY line using no more than 15 spaces. Pressing will tab you to the STATE position. These three positions will be skipped if you pressed before entering any data in the previous ADDRESS line. F) PURPOSE: Use up to 23 spaces to describe any explanation of the transaction. G) CODE: You are given 5 spaces to provide an appropriate abbreviated code of your own chosing. If you want this entry to be printed later as a check, the first character must be a "/" symbol. If the transaction amount is to be added to the balance such as a deposit, then the first entry in the CODE line must be a "$" symbol. All amounts without a "$" symbol are subtracted from the balance. Code entries without the "/" symbol are used for hand written checks, service charges, or other non-check transactions that are not printed. Because the first position may be occupied by a "/" or a "$",it is best to utilize less than 5 alpha-numeric characters. H) CHECK NUMBER: If you have used a "/" to indicate a record that will later print as a check, the program will be ask for a STARTING CHECK #. Input any starting number. All succeeding records entered during this session with "/" in the code line will be assigned the next number without prompting you for a number. On all other code entries without a "/" symbol, you are prompted for a CHECK NUMBER. You may enter a number or press without making an entry. All entries to be printed during the check writing routine must be continous check numbers. When the display clears, the record is stored in the file CKFILE.DO and a new DATA ENTRY screen is displayed. If you wish to quit, press in the "AMOUNT:" line before typing a new entry. 2. BALANCE Pressing the number "2" will give the account balance on the screen contained in the RAM file CKFILE.DO. 3. SAVE CKFILE TO (CAS) (CAS is used for this example) This routine will allow you to save the RAM file called CKFILE.DO to any appropriate mass storage device. Typical mass storage devices such as the DVI or a cassette recorder may be used. 4. PRINT CHECKS After several setup questions,the program will ask "PRINT CHECK STARTING WITH ? NUMBER". Input the check number of the record marked earlier with the symbol "/" that you wish to begin. If for instance, early in the month you printed checks 36-48 and in the second session of the month you wish to print a second round, enter the number 49. After the start number is entered, the program will begin printing checks in succession. 5. PRINT CKFILE At any time you may print out the contents of the CKFILE.DO file and have a permanent record of all monthly transactions. Print this file to review all entries before printing checks to spot any entry errors. If your review finds any errors, the corrections can only be made by entering CKFILE.DO from the computer's main menu via TEXT and correcting the offending digit(s)! BE CAREFUL THAT YOU DO NOT ALTER ANY COMMAS OR OTHER DATA. 6. SEARCH DATA You can search through all or selected months of the files contained in your mass storage device. The search fields are numbered: 0-All Entries, 1-Payee, 2-Address, 3-City, 4-State, 5-Zip, 6-Purpose, 7-Code, 8-Date, 9-Amount, and for Check #. After responding to the setup prompts, you are asked "SELECT DATA BASED ON ?". Press the appropriate number to select the search field. Unless your entry is "0" or ALL ENTRIES, you are asked to "ENTER SEARCH STRING". Enter any search criteria. The print out will contain those records which match your search string. 7. KILL OLD CKFILE-CREATE NEW CKFILE WITH BALANCE If CKFILE.DO exists in RAM, this routine will take the ending balance from it, KILL the old file and create a new CKFILE.DO using the prior ending balance as the as the first entry. If no prior file exists, the new file will have $0.00 entered as the beginning balance. This is a good way to establish a new CKFILE.DO when none exists. Enter the file directly from the computer's main menu to change the starting balance amount if other than $0.00. Every CKFILE.DO must have an initial "OLD BALANCE" entry and amount even if $0.00 8. CONFIGURE CKDATA.DO The file CKDATA.DO contains all the information to identify your mass storage device and print the checks to your own design. If this file is not present, the program will create one. Pressing "8" will create a new CKDATA file and all previous data in that file will be lost. The first question is "ENTER CHECK LENGTH (# OF LINES)?". The number you enter indicates the number of lines on the check page. Since the normal spacing is 6 lines per inch, a 3 and 1/2 inch long check will have 21 lines per check etc. You may use any check length. The second question is "HOW MANY 2 OR 3 FIELD LINES?" Some lines of your printed check may require more than one piece of information such as a line containing the City, State, and Zip (a 3 part field line). Or perhaps you might require a line with both the amount and date printed on it (a 2 part field line). Your answer should be the total number of lines containing both 2 or 3 part fields. The next question asks for the 3 letter abbreviation used to represent the mass storage device such as CAS for a cassette or DVI. The entry is used for LCD screen display purposes only. The next question asks for the symbol used to call the mass storage device from basic. Examples are CAS: for cassette or 0: for the DVI. The next set of questions pertains to the fields to be printed on each line of the check and the indentation from the left margin. The fields are numbered and defined as: (1) PAYEE, (2) ADDRESS, (3) CITY, (4) STATE, (5) ZIP, (6) PURPOSE, (7) CODE, (8) DATE, (9) AMOUNT (numeric), (10) CHECK #, (11) AMOUNT (spelled out), (12) 1st 2 or 3 part field line, (13) 2nd 2 or 3 part field line, (14) 3rd 2 or 3 part field line etc. The questions will come in pairs and will ask 2 questions for each line of the check: "FOR LINE n ENTER FIELD #?" and "INDENT TAB LENGTH?". The questions will repeat until you have progressed through all the number of lines for the check length that you previously answered. If any lines of your check will be blank, respond to the two questions with zero. If the first line of the check is to contain the date, enter 8 for the first question for line 1 and respond with the number of spaces the printing should begin from the left margin for the second question. If the eighth line of the check is to contain both the PAYEE and the numeric AMOUNT on the same line enter the number 12 (if you have defined it this way in the next set of questions below) in response to "FOR LINE 8 ENTER FIELD #?". If the printing is to start on the 10th space from the left, respond with 10 for the 2nd question pair. Continue until you have stepped through all the pairs of questions defining the entries for each line of the check. The last set of questions defines the multi-field (2 or 3 part) lines. Five sets of question will be asked and repeated for the number you entered in answer to the previous question "HOW MANY 2 OR 3 FIELD LINES?". The first question asks for the field # of the 1st entry to be printed; the second question, the number of spaces between the 1st field # and the 2nd field #; the third question, the 2nd field # to be printed; the fourth question, the number of spaces between the 2nd and 3rd field #; and the fifth question asks for the # of the 3rd field to be printed on the same line. The first set of questions defines multi-field line #12. Succeeding questions define fields #13, #14, etc. From the previous paragraph, if you defined line 8 to print field #12 (to print the PAYEE and AMOUNT on the same line), your responses to the multi-field questions might be 1:7:9:0:0. This says that field #1 is the PAYEE, with 7 spaces between it and the #9 AMOUNT field. Since there is no third field printed, zeros are used to represent the spacing and the last field response. If a line is to contain the CITY STATE and ZIP then your response to the question set might be 3:2:4:2:5; placing two spaces between each of the field entries. Each succeeding set of entries defines field #13, #14 etc. for as many multi-field line entries as you need.