*00
Welcome to CoSTa!

I hope you find this program useful, I certainly
do.

It is SHAREWARE and as such should be registered.
Registering will ensure that you receive a latest
version as and when it becomes available, support
via letter or e-mail.
Later versions will probably have functions
disabled until a key is entered.

To register, please see the manual, or e-mail me
at gary@the-gap.demon.co.uk.

The fee is 6 UK Pounds.

*10
Main call display window.

This shows the day, date, time, duration in minutes,
and cost of each call, along with the telephone
number and the program that made the call. ie. NOS.

Also shown are the total number of calls, total time
spent, and total cost in pounds.

These are either the totals of unpaid calls or the
totals of all calls known to the program, depending
upon the setting of the Include Paid Calls menu item.

Double clicking on a call takes you into the edit
window, where details can be changed.

*20
Pay Phone Bill

This window allows you to flag all calls upto
and including the entered date as paid.

These calls will then be excluded from the main
display UNLESS 'Include Paid Calls' is checked.

Also displayed is a list of all the previous bills
that have been paid.

*30
Maintain Costs

This window allows you to define various costing
parameters used in the calculation of call costs.

*30
Peak Hours Start Time/End Time

This defines the starting and ending time of
weekday peak hours. ie. 08:00:00 to 18:00:00
from Monday to Friday.

*30
VAT Rate

If costs are set up as excluding VAT, then the
current VAT rate should be set up here.

*30
Minimum Cost

This is the minimum cost of a call.
Once a call cost has been calculated, if it
is less than this cost then it will be
rounded up to this minimum value.

*30
List Of Telephone Numbers

Telephone numbers and their costs can be defined
here.
The default '*' cannot be deleted and should 
always be set up.
In this way, you do not have to define EVERY
telephone number that you dial.

*31
Telephone

This is the telephone number. Blanks are ignored.
The default cost is represented by a '*' in this
field.

*31
Description

ie. Fred's BBS

*31
Peak Cost

This is the cost of a call from Monday to
Friday during the peak time defined above.

*31
OffPeak Cost

This is the cost of a call from Monday to
Friday outside of the hours defined as Peak.

*31
WeekEnd Cost

This is the cost of a call at the special
weekend rate applicable from midnight Friday
to midnight Sunday.

*40
Preferences

This window allows you to define the preferences
for operation of this program.

*40
Backup NOS Log File

Once CoSTa has extracted call information from
the log file. This file is renamed to *.hst so
it will not get processed again.
This does not happen with MiNTnet.

Two options exist for the creation of the *.hst
file.

Append means that the contents of the current
log file are added onto the end of any existing
'*.hst' file, hence it grows and represents
a complete history.
This file will get very large and will need
deleting/archiving from time to time.

Overwrite means that any existing *.hst is
deleted, and the current log renamed to *.hst,
hence *.hst only contains call details from
the very last extraction. Call details prior
to that are lost, but the disk space required
is always minimal.

*40
Auto Extract On Startup

If this option is set to 'Yes', then CoSTa will
automatically perform an extraction whenever
it is called ie. on program startup.
This makes the process of call extraction
completely transparent to the user. Simply
run CoSTa and it will automatically know about
all your calls.

*40
GMT Adjust

Time details written to the log files by NOS
and ICE are in GMT and as such may not be the
same as your local time. ie. BST.

Define the time offset to be applied to log
times. ie. for BST, select 1 +.

It is important that this is set up correctly
and cancelled when BST ends etc. as calls are
costed according to the local time.

*40
Show Costs including VAT

This sets the default display of costs to either
include VAT or exclude it.

This can be overridden with the menu option.

*50
Output

This window allows you to output a report of
calls to either the printer or the clipboard.

The calls that are output are conditioned by
the 'Include Paid Calls' and 'Filter' options.

*60
Edit A Call

This window allows you to edit the details of a
call. This could be useful if your clock was
wrong when you connected to the internet.

Date, time, duration, cost and telephone number
can all be edited.
If you change the date or time, but not the cost
be sure to click on 'Recost' to recost the call.

Click on 'Ok' to update the call.

A call can be deleted by clicking on 'Delete'.

*70
Purge Calls

This window allows you to delete (for ever) old
previously paid call details. Only paid calls can
be deleted in this manner.
Old bill details can also be deleted.

All paid calls (and bills, if selected) up to 
and including the entered date will be deleted.

*80
Paths

This defines the paths used to access the log
files that will be processed for call details.

Click on a the text next to a path or the path
itself and a file selector will allow you to
select the log file required.

In order for this log file to be picked up
during 'extraction' the check box next to
the path must be hilighted also.

*90
Duration Offsets

Most log files do not accurately record a call
duration. They miss out the modem negotiation
time which means the call tends to be 10-20 
seconds short in CoSTa than appears on the bill.

This window allows you to define a number of
seconds that will be added on to the length
of each call when recorded in CoSTa, thus
making CoSTa more accurate.

*A0
Filter Calls

The filter allows you to only display calls that
match specific criteria. ie. you can see just the
calls made via CoNnect, or just calls over 10p.
etc, etc.

The filter works in conjunction with the 'Include
Paid Calls' menu setting.

The filter also determines which calls are output
via the 'Output' menu option.

If the filter is active then a check mark appears
against the 'Filter Calls' menu option.
