MicroCheck .10 by Clayton Walnum MicroCheck is a home-finance program that helps organize and handle your checking account. Using MicroCheck, you can enter and edit checks and deposits, as well as reconcile your account each month. MicroCheck also prints your check data, so you can file hard-copy records of your transactions. Both the current window or the entire check register can be printed. Finding a specific transaction is a snap with MicroCheck. MicroCheck's search function can find any range of amounts, check numbers, dates, payees, and memos. ----------------- COPYRIGHT NOTICE: ----------------- This program and its accompanying documentation are copyright 1992 by Clayton Walnum. All Rights Reserved. MICROCHECK is shareware, and while it may be distributed freely, if you enjoy the program, you should send a $20 registration fee to the author at the address given in the REGISTER.TXT file. Your support of shareware programs is greatly appreciated. Thank you. This program and documentation may be distributed only as an ZIPped file containing the files MICROCHK.EXE, MICROCHK.TXT, and REGISTER.TXT in unmodified form! The ZIP file must be named MICROCHK.ARC. ----------------------- MicroCheck is Shareware ----------------------- MicroCheck is a shareware program. This means that you may try the program in order to determine whether it is something you want to use regularly. If after the trial period (in MicroCheck's case, the trial period is two weeks), you decide that you'd like to continue using the program, you must register it by sending a $20 registration fee to the author at address found in the REGISTER.TXT file. ------------------- System Requirements ------------------- To run MicroCheck successfully, your system must meet the following requirements * IBM compatible computer * EGA or better graphics * Windows 3.x * A Mouse * Optional: Printer --------------------- Installing MicroCheck --------------------- Before you can use MicroCheck, it must be installed on your system. Although the program can be run from a floppy disk, it is recommended that you install MicroCheck on your hard drive. This will greatly increase the speed at which MicroCheck can access your data files. Follow the instructions below to install MicroCheck onto your hard disk: 1. Log onto your hard drive by typing C: at the DOS prompt and pressing Enter on your keyboard. 2. From the DOS prompt, type CD \ and press Enter. This ensures that you are currently in your disk's root directory. 3. Type MD MICROCHK and press Enter to create a directory for your MicroCheck files. 4. Copy the MicroCheck files into the MICROCHK directory. (UnZIP them first, of course.) 5. Run Windows 3.x. 6. Select the window into which you wish to place the MicroCheck program icon, by clicking the window's name in the list found in the Program Manager's Windows menu. 7. Select the New... option in the Program Manager's File menu. 8. In the dialog box that appears, click on the Program Item selection, and then click the OK button. 9. When the Program Item Properties dialog appears, type "MicroCheck" into the Description text box, and type C:\MICROCHK\MICROCHK.EXE into the Command Line text box. 10. Click on the Program Item Properties OK button. The MicroCheck icon appears in the window you selected. If you want to run MicroCheck from floppy disk, you need do no more than ensure that the MICROCHK.EXE file is on the floppy disk you want to use. Then keep this disk in your drive throughout your entire MicroCheck session. ------------------ Running MicroCheck ------------------ To run MicroCheck from your hard drive, double-click the MicroCheck icon. When the program has loaded, most of the screen is filled with a window. It is here that your check data is displayed. At the very top of the window is the title bar, which contains the program's name and the name of the currently open file. Before you load a file, the file name is shown as "No account open." Below the title bar is the menu bar. MicroCheck's various functions are accessed by selecting them from this menu or by pressing the equivalent keystroke commands. (The keystroke required is shown next to each item in the menu. Hold down your keyboard's CTRL key, and press the appropriate letter key.) Immediately under the menu bar are the quick-select buttons, which allow you to use your mouse to select MicroCheck's most frequently used functions without having to access the menu bar. These buttons are inoperative until you load an account file. The MicroCheck main window contains scroll bars and arrows that allow you to see information that doesn't fit in the window. You use these in the normal Windows fashion, by clicking or dragging them with your mouse pointer. (If you're not familiar with Windows 3.x's operating procedures, please consult your Windows manual for more information.) ---------------------- Starting a New Account ---------------------- Before you can use MicroCheck, you must create a new account. This procedure creates all of the files the program needs to keep track of your checking activity. You must complete this process only once for each account you want to start. To create an account, select New... from the File menu or press CTRL-N. The New Account dialog box appears, prompting you for the personal information the program requires. Type your name and address, using your keyboard's tab key to move from one field to another. (The name and address you enter will appear in the Check Entry dialog box, simulating the appearance of an actual check.) After entering your name and address, enter the starting balance for your account. If you're setting up an account for an already existing checking account, the best time to determine the starting balance is right after you receive your bank statement and have balanced your account. Finally, you must enter your account's "base filename." MicroCheck uses this filename as the starting point for creating the files needed for your account. You can use any name, up to six characters, for this file name. If your last name is Smith, for example, you might want to name your account "SMITH." When you've entered all the information properly, click on the New Account dialog's OK button to proceed. At any time, you can click on the Cancel button to abort the new-account function. When you click the OK button, MicroCheck creates a file for each month, named XXXXXX0.DAT, XXXXXX2.DAT, XXXXXX3.DAT, etc., where "XXXXXX" is the file name you entered into the New Account dialog box. The program also creates a file named XXXXXX.MCK, which contains the other information that you entered in the New Account dialog box. ------------------ Opening an Account ------------------ The account-creation process described above need be done only once for each account you wish to use. However, every time you run MicroCheck, you must open the account on which you want to work. To open an account, click on the Open... selection of the File menu or press CTRL-O. The File Open dialog box appears, showing whatever .MCK files (MicroCheck data files) are present in the MICROCHK directory. Double- click on the .MCK file for the account you wish to open. The New Month dialog box appears. Select the month on which you want to work, by clicking the appropriate option button with your mouse and then clicking on the OK button. (Click on the Cancel button to abort the Open function.) The data in the selected month loads, and the title bar shows the name of the file. If the month you chose contains no transactions, MicroCheck's main window will show no data; only the file's name in the title bar will be shown. --------------- Entering Checks --------------- Once you open an account, you'll probably want to begin entering checks. To do this, click on the Enter... entry of the Checks menu, press CTRL-E on your keyboard, or click on the Enter quick-select button. The Check Entry dialog box appears. The Check Entry dialog contains fields for all your check's data, plus three buttons across the bottom. You can move between the check fields by using your keyboard's Tab key. To move forward, press the Tab key. To move backward, press Shift-Tab. To jump quickly to a specific field, click on the field with your mouse. The "#" field is the check number. This field automatically advances by one each time you enter a check; so if you're processing your checks in order, you won't have to type anything in this field after the first check has been recorded. Note, however, that there are two reserved check numbers that you may not use for your normal checks: 0000 and 9999. You should use a check number of 0000 for any transaction (other than a deposit) that was performed without a written check. For example, you might withdraw money from your checking account using an ATM (automatic teller machine). Although you haven't actually written a check, you must nevertheless record this transaction. You do this by giving it a check number of 0000, and then filling in the rest of the check normally. The check number 9999 is reserved for deposits. Any time a transaction credits your account, this check number signals MicroCheck to add the amount of the transaction to your balance rather than subtract it. When you've entered all the information for a check, you must click one of the buttons along the bottom of the Check Entry dialog--or simply press Enter to enter the current check and set up the dialog for the next. Clicking on the Next button has the same effect as pressing Enter. Clicking on the OK button enters the current check, and then closes the Check Entry dialog. Clicking on the Cancel button closes the Check Entry form without adding the current check to your account data. --------------- Editing a Check --------------- If you find that you must edit a previously entered check, use your mouse to double-click the check's entry in the window. The Check Edit dialog appears. This form is identical to the Check Entry dialog, except the Next button is no longer functional. When the dialog appears, make whatever changes you wish to the check's data, and then click on the dialog's OK button. If you click on the Cancel button, the check entry remains unchanged, even if you changed fields in the Check Edit form. If you make changes to the amount of the check, your balance is, of course, updated to reflect those changes. -------------------- Searching for Checks -------------------- If you need to locate a check or group of checks, you can use MicroCheck's search feature. To access this function, click on the Search... option of the Checks menu, press CTRL-H on your keyboard, or click on the Search quick-select button. The Search Parameters dialog box appears. Each search-parameter field in this dialog contains default values. If you were to use all of the default values, you would search for every check in your account. Fill in the parameters for the search, using the Tab key or your mouse to move between the dialog's fields. When you've filled in your search parameters, press Enter to begin the search, or click on the dialog's OK button. During a search, the parameters you entered are compared to the data found in each record of your account. If the transaction matches every criterion in the search, MicroCheck adds it to the check list. Note that both of the text fields in the search parameters, Payee and Memo, allow partial matches--that is, a payee search parameter of "Ta" matches checks with such payees as "Tammy Brooks," "Tabitha White" and "Tadbury Lumber." To find every check with a payee field beginning with "G," enter "G" as the payee parameter. Also note that the search function is not case sensitive. To MicroCheck, the letter "G"" and the letter "g" are the same value. Finally, note that the string "ANY" in the Payee or Memo fields matches any entry. When the search is complete, the Check Search dialog appears, showing the first transaction that matches your search parameters. This dialog is identical to the Check Entry dialog, except the OK button is disabled. To see the next check that matches your parameters, click on the Next button or press Enter on your keyboard. To abort the search, click on the dialog's Cancel button. Note that, although the Check Search dialog's edit fields allow you to change the displayed data, there's really no point in doing this, because any changes you make will not be saved to the file. In other words, you can't edit checks during a search. --------------------- Selecting a New Month --------------------- Often, when entering transactions, you may have to move from one month to another. To close the current month and move to another, click on the New Month... entry of the File menu, press CTRL-M on your keyboard, or click on the Month quick-select button. The New Month dialog appears. To select a new month, click on the appropriate month button. Then click on the dialog's OK button or press Enter on your keyboard. To exit the dialog box without selecting a new month, click on the Cancel button. When you select a new month, MicroCheck saves the currently open month's data to your disk (if necessary), and then opens the new file. MicroCheck then displays the new file's transactions in the window and changes the file name in the window's title bar. ------------------- Printing Check Data ------------------- MicroCheck provides two methods of printing your checking account. In the File menu, you will find the selections Print Window and Print Register. The former prints only those checks in the current window; the latter prints the entire account. Click on the appropriate menu selection, or press CTRL-P or CTRL-G, respectively. ---------------- Canceling Checks ---------------- When you receive your statement from the bank each month, you must go through your account and mark those transactions the bank has processed. This is the first step in "reconciling" your account, a process that ensures that your figures match those of your bank's. To enter MicroCheck's cancel mode, click on the Cancel... entry of the Checks menu, press CTRL-L on your keyboard, or click on the Cancel quick-select button. The Cancel Mode message box appears, informing you that you are now in the cancel mode. Press Enter or click the OK button to close the message box. Now, to clear a transaction, double-click the transaction in MicroCheck's main window. An asterisk appears next to the transaction. To remove the asterisk, double-click the transaction again. When you're finished canceling transactions, quit the cancel mode by clicking on the Cancel... selection of the Checks menu, pressing CTRL-L on your keyboard, or clicking on the Cancel quick-select button. The Cancel Mode message box appears again, informing you that the mode is now off. ------------------------ Reconciling Your Account ------------------------ Once you've gone through your statement and canceled all cleared transactions, you may reconcile your account. To do this, click on the Reconcile... entry of the Checks menu, press CTRL-R on your keyboard, or click on the Reconcile quick-select button. The Reconcile dialog box appears, requesting your account's ending balance as shown on your bank statement. When you've entered this amount, click on the dialog's OK button or press Enter on your keyboard. MicroCheck then reads through your check files and, after making calculations, displays a final report. If the amount shown at the bottom of this report is zero, then your figures agree with the bank's (always a great feeling). Otherwise, either you or your bank made a mistake. Press Enter to exit the Reconcile Report dialog box. ---------------------- Adjusting Your Balance ---------------------- Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you simply cannot get your account to agree with your bank statement. Usually this means you've made a mistake somewhere in your account (maybe a check is made out for a different amount than what you recorded) that you have not been able to find. Although you should always try to reconcile your account properly, there may be times when you have to give up. In those cases, the best you can do is adjust your account's balance to agree with your bank's. To make this adjustment, enter a dummy check or deposit transaction for an amount that will bring your balance into agreement with the bank's. When entering a dummy check, use the number 0000. These dummy transactions should be canceled, just as if they had appeared on your statement. ------------------------------- Displaying Your Account Balance ------------------------------- MicroCheck ordinarily displays your account balance on the right side of the quick-select button bar. You may, however, want to keep this information more confidential. If so, you can turn off the balance display, by selecting the Show Balance selection of the Options menu or by pressing CTRL-B on your keyboard. When you select this command, MicroCheck removes the balance line from the screen. It also removes the checkmark next to the option in the menu. To turn the balance display back on, select the Show Balance command again. ------------------------- Saving Your Checking Data ------------------------- You can save your checking data at any time, by selecting the Save... option of the File menu or by pressing CTRL-S on your keyboard. When you do, the data in the currently opened file is saved to disk, after which you can continue working on the account. -------------- Closing a File -------------- MicroCheck allows you to open only one account at a time. If you'd like to switch to a different account, you must first close the active one. You don't need to exit the program to do this. Instead, use MicroCheck's Close command. To select this command, click on the Close entry of the File menu or press CTRL-C on your keyboard. If you've made changes to the current account, you'll be asked if you want to save the changes. If you've made no changes to the account, MicroCheck removes the account's window from the screen, after which you may open another account. ------- Exiting ------- You may exit MicroCheck by selecting the Exit entry of the File menu or by pressing CTRL-X on your keyboard. Like Close, the Quit selection is a safe way of closing your account. If you've made changes to the current account, you'll be asked if you want to save the changes. ------------------- Starting a New Year ------------------- MicroCheck's calendar runs from January to December. That means that, come January 1, you must clear out the old files and start anew. Before you do this make sure you have backed up your MicroCheck data! If you fail to do this, you will have no way to refer to the previous year's files! Before you can set up a new year, you must close the account you have open (if any). Then click on the New Year... entry of the Utilities menu or press CTRL-Y on your keyboard. MicroCheck asks whether you really want to create a new year. If you click on the Yes button, MicroCheck asks if you've backed up your files. If you select the Yes button, MicroCheck asks a final time, just to be sure--remember, this function destroys existing MicroCheck files on your disk. Finally, a File Open dialog appears. Click on the .MCK file for the account you wish to set up for the new year. MicroCheck then goes through your entire account, deleting all canceled transactions and moving uncanceled transactions into a special file called "Month 0." The Month 0 file can be manipulated just like any other month's file and is simply a place where unprocessed transactions from the previous year are stored until your bank statement shows that they have been processed. When you get your bank statement, you should go through Month 0, canceling checks as you would for any other month. When the New Year process is complete, your account contains check data only in Month 0 (and only then if you had uncanceled transactions in your account, which is likely); all other months are cleared. (You made that back-up, right?) ----------------------------------------------- Tips on Using a "Computerized" Checking Account ----------------------------------------------- In order to use a home-finance program like MicroCheck effectively, you need to adopt some new habits. For example, it's not practical to load the program every time you write a check. Instead, you should set aside a time every week when you enter, in one sitting, all the checks you've written that week. A "computerized" checkbook's biggest advantage is not the ease with which you can enter checks into your account, but rather the way it simplifies such activities as reconciling your account, printing reports, and finding specific checks. Norton Desktop for Windows 1.0 users: Due to a bug in the way Norton Desktop for Windows 1.0 adds its own entries to system menus, it is not fully compatible with programs written using Borland's Turbo Pascal for Windows. MicroCheck was written using Turbo Pascal, so to run it under Norton Desktop 1.0, you must make changes to your Norton Desktop configuration. To do this, click on the Preferences entry of Norton Desktop's Configure menu. The Configure Preferences dialog box appears. Now, turn off the three options listed in the Control Menu box, and then select the dialog's OK button. Finally, so that the new options take effect, exit and restart Windows. If you'd like to avoid the above work-around, you can call Symantec, the publishers of Norton Desktop. They are aware of the incompatibility with Turbo Pascal for Windows and will send you new, updated Norton Desktop disks. ---------------- IMPORTANT NOTE!! ---------------- This is the first version of MicroCheck and, as such, should be considered to be in "beta" condition. In other words, although the author has tested the program carefully, there may be small bugs that he missed during the development and testing of the program. If you experience problems or discover a bug in the program, please inform the author, by writing to the address found in the REGISTER.TXT file. Please include as much information as possible when reporting a bug, in order to make it easier to track down. If shareware contributions make it feasible, newer versions of MicroCheck will be released periodically. Therefore, if you have suggestions for future versions, please feel free to write. ----------------------- BOOKS BY CLAYTON WALNUM ----------------------- THE FIRST BOOK OF MICROSOFT WORKS FOR WINDOWS (Sams): If you're new to Microsoft's wonderful Works for Windows, this book will get you up and running as quickly as possible. Everything you need to know to get the most from Works is included in this plain-English manual. Dozens of screen shots and step-by-step instructions transform you into a Works pro faster than you can say "Microsoft Windows." Price: $18.95 PC PICASSO (Sams): The kids in your family will go wild over this computer graphics kit that even includes its own program disk featuring a full-scale paint program for your PC. From the basics of computer graphics through to the creation of signs, greeting cards, and awards, PC Picasso takes your child on a fascinating journey through the wonderful world of computer graphics, a journey that he or she will remember for years to come. Price: $19.95 (includes disk). BEYOND THE NINTENDO MASTERS (Hayden Books): Nintendo fans won't want to miss this chance to learn the secrets of 17 of the most popular video games ever produced. Includes player's guides for Zelda II, Dragon Warrior, Ultima, Shadowgate, Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and many more. Price: $9.95. MASTER POPULOUS (Sams): Anyone who has ever played Populous knows that, not only is it one of the most intriguing games ever written, it's also one of the most complex. This complete guide to Populous includes hands- on experiments that reveal the inner workings of this award-winning foray into a bizarre fantasy land. Playing a god is never easy, but Master Populous will put you one step ahead of the other deities in your neighborhood. Price: $16.95. Please see the REGISTER.TXT file for ordering information. If you like, you may contact MicroCheck's author via email on any of several online services, at the addresses that follow: CompuServe: 70303,3633 GEnie: C.WALNUM1 Delphi: ANALOG4 America OnLine: CLAYWALNUM