Personal Finance Manager Help/FAQ

JDM Software

Personal Profile

This tab can be used to configure your accounts and categories to fit your personal preferences. You can also enter information about yourself and determine whether or not you wish to factor children into your budget.

Topics

Personal Information Form
Account and Category Editor
Merging Accounts and Categories

Personal Information Form

The "Personal Profile" tab can be used to enter information about yourself. Select the checkbox for "Children" if you have children and want to factor them into the budget calculations. This will ensure that the percentages are calculated accurately for the "Guideline" budget.

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Account and Category Editor

To add new entries to a list, simply type the name to be added in the entry field below the list and select "Add." To edit a list item, select the item from the list to be edited, type the new name in the entry field, and select "Edit." To remove an item, select the item in the list and select "Rem."

Removing any list item here can be somewhat destructive. The program will ask you whether you wish to purge all the transactions contained in the item you are removing or whether you want to move them to another location. See example on "Merging Accounts and Categories" below for more information.

Editing the name is safer if you have transactions you wish to preserve but want to change the reference to them. It is recommended that, in most cases, you should leave existing entries in place and just create new ones as needs arise.

Use the "Accounts" and "Transaction Types" editors to create, edit, or remove financial accounts.

The four default accounts are set up with transaction types that are typical to those generic types of accounts. You can, however, change the names of these accounts to something such as "Don's Checking." The account name must start with a letter and be less than thirty characters.

Similar rules apply to all other lists in the editor. In addition, for the other lists, the first word of a new entry cannot match the first word of another. For example, you cannot have a category called "Salary 1" and "Salary 2." If similar names are required, then use underscores (e.g. "Salary_1" and "Salary_2" are valid).

Accounts are assigned a starting balance of $0.00 by default. If you wish to change the starting balance to reflect the current balance in your account, type in a new value (positive or negative values allowed) and hit Enter. You can also change the value by typing in the new amount and selecting the "Edit" button under the "Accounts" box. If you have a value other than 0.00 when you create a new account, this amount will be used as the starting balance for the account you create.

For transaction types, you must associate each type with a "+" or "-" sign. A "+" sign indicates that this type of transaction (such as a deposit) will add money to the account. A "-" sign, conversely, indicates removal of money from the account (such as a withdrawal).

A "Presets" button is provided in the "Types" box to assist in building the transaction types list for customized accounts. Simply select "Presets" and then "Standard Types" and choose from the list of types to add. The "Sign" for each preset type will be set correctly using this method. Then, just press the "Add" button and (assuming the type is not already in the list) the type will be added for the account selected.

The "Deposit," "Withdrawal," and "Transfer" types cannot be edited or removed, and must exist for each account to allow transfers to and from all accounts and various other reasons.

The "Credit / Refund" type is optional, but it is recommended you use this type as it is the only positive cash-flow type that can be used to credit expense categories. The requirement on this type or any name similar to credit or refund is that the sign be positive.

Use the "Categories" and "Sub-Categories" editors to customize your budget to include income and expense areas pertinent to your life.

Certain categories are fixed: "Income," "<SPLIT>", "Transfer," and "Debts." These are deemed to be necessary for various reasons. You can, however, edit subcategories for "Income" and "Debts".

The "Debts" category has special meaning. Any subcategories here will show up on the "Debts" tab. You can use these to create amortized pay-off schedules for any debt in the list.

Each category is assigned a "Class" which appears in the option menu in the "Categories" box. The class lets the program know how to treat transactions entered for each category as well as where to place the categories within the "Estimated Budget" tab. "Income" and "Special" classes are reserved for the "Income," "<SPLIT>," and "Transfer" categories.

You may specify a category to be a "Net Deduction" (default) or a "Gross Deduction". Net deduction categories are budgeted against your net spendable income, whereas gross deductions are subtracted from your gross income to obtain net spendable income.

Usually, categories such as taxes, tithes, and payroll deductions fall under the "Gross Deduction" class. Most monthly living expenses are under the "Net Deduction" class, but this is up to the user and can be changed at any time using the Category editor's "Class" option menu.

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Merging Accounts and Categories

As mentioned earlier, you have the option to transfer all transactions from an account (or type, category, or sub-category) that you are deleting to a different account rather than purging them.

For example, if you have an account named "Bob's Account" that you no longer have in reality, and you wish to transfer all of its transactions to "Bob's New Account," which already contains its own transactions, select "Bob's Account" and press "Rem" on the "Accounts" listbox. Then press "No" to transfer the items. Select the destination account "Bob's New Account" on the same listbox and press "OK."

The program will automatically create any new transaction types that need to exist in "Bob's New Account." For instance, if you had a transaction type called "Direct Deposit" in "Bob's Account" but did not have it in the new account, it will be created in "Bob's New Account" when the transfer occurs. Any transfers to or from "Bob's Account" will now show up as "Deposits" and "Withdrawals" within the appropriate accounts.

This method is a good way to merge accounts, categories, etc. Your net balance should stay the same in all other accounts, but your income allocation total may change based on half of every transfer getting converted to a "Deposit."

Remember, if you feel you have made an error, simply exit the program and DO NOT SAVE the database.

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