Using As-Easy-As for DOS with Windows XP

[chasmoran]

Hello!

Here we go again...
In the course of doing my own first Budget Reconciliation with this version of the system (matching the budget with actual bank records), I discovered a simple error and a few more complicated problems, which made yet another revision of the Moneystar worksheet and Guide unavoidable. These I therefore did, and attached.

There was also a problem, for me at least, with the system that mirrors transfers between current and savings accounts. Some transfers seemed to have been omitted. However, I'm convinced the system works in principle, and that it is I who did something wrong!

If anyone out there is actually trying to use the system and has encountered a similar problem, please let me know.

Cheers,
Charlie

[chasmoran]

Hello again!
Would you believe it? A real schoolboy error in the bank reconciliation function. And another, more grownup one. Both fixed in the latest revision.
The few members who have been downloading these attachments (you know who you are!) please don't be shy. Message me and let me know if you've succeeded in using the system, and with what results?
Cheers,
Charlie

[hayden]

I have AsEasyAs 4 for DOS running right now in DOSBOX for Linux. I also have the prehistoric printed manual. It looks like this program assumed a plain text printer or something akin to the dot matrix printer that came with the IBM PC. So, unless you still have one of those, direct printing may be problematic. The good news is that the program seems to default to palin text (and if not you can adjust that) and it also has the option to print to a file (which would be a plain text file -- we hope;-) So I just did that and got a useful text file containing everythng in the spreadsheet. You can open that in Notepad or whatever, tweak it, and print it on any modern operating system or printer, including USB.

[chasmoran]

Hi there,
I haven't been on the forum for a while, as I hadn't found any further corrections or modifications needed on the Moneystar worksheet - until now. Apart from fixing a couple of potentially confusing but non-critical errors, I've - for anyone familiar with the system - changed the financial targeting formulae so that FIXED targets now rise automatically to mirror manual additions to specific kitties (budgetary funds) but do NOT drop automatically when the kitty's content is reduced. On-screen help has been amended, as well as the Guide document.
Cheers,
Charlie

[chasmoran]

Hi yet again,

Please (in case you planned to) don't download the very latest version of Moneystar with the targeting changes!! Using it reminded me why I tried the modification before and didn't like it - it didn't work properly! Specifically, it didn't let the user make up shortfalls in fixed targets, adding to the target automatically the amount added to the kitty contents. Shortly, I'll re-post the earlier version with the couple of minor corrections I mentioned but without the other modifications. Then I'll have a think about whether I can fix the new target formulas...
Cheers,
Charlie

[chasmoran]

Hello again,

I've now (subject to long-term testing!) fixed the budget targeting problem so that if a kitty's content exceeds its target, the target will rise automatically to match it. However, a target may only be lowered manually. This new version also fixes a few minor bugs, improves the budget reconciliation procedure, and adds the facility to enter urgent income from credit card advances or Payday loans into the present week's budget - not because they're a good idea (they're a dreadful idea), but just because they exist! The Guide has also been revised in line with these changes.

I still live in hope that someone out there who's downloaded (and used?) the system will let me have some feedback...!!

All the best,
Charlie

[chasmoran]

Oops! Hello again...
Maybe it's just old age, but I let a couple of simple errors through in the last version, and the Guide revision wasn't quite up to the mark, so... files attached!
Cheers,
Charlie

[chasmoran]

Hi yet again,
A couple more little bugs fixed!
Being positive about it, all the main macros and formulas appear bug-free: these are minor omissions from the most recently-added function (incorporating emergency income into the budget).
The Guide has NOT been modified since the last upload but I've included it again in the attachment, rather than have the latest versions of the two files in separate attachments.
Cheers,
Charlie

[chasmoran]

Hi,
It was only yesterday, when I tried to enter my credit card payment as expenditure from the Credit Card reserve that I found that a recent modification, made to fix something else, had caused the loss of my selected payment method. The attached version fixes that!
Cheers,
Charlie

[chasmoran]

URGENT:
Please do NOT use the most recently uploaded version (19)! It's quite amazing how much trouble can result from missing a single character out of a macro, as I did, in the last modification! The error affects the saving and retrieval of content and target data for the Credit Card Reserve kitty and some of the previous week's Occasional Income data. Please let me know if this has caused you a problem. Missing character has been inserted into the attached file!
Cheers,
Charlie

[chasmoran]

PS:
If version 19 has caused a problem: the previous week's Occasional Income will correct itself at the next update, when replaced by the current week's data. I have written a single-use worksheet "Moneystar Fix" to clean up the part of the data file relating to the Credit Card Reserve. It cannot recover the current content and target, but these can be reconstructed manually with relative ease. I will upload the fix and post instructions on recovery separately, if there is a need.
Cheers...

[chasmoran]

Hi,
Moneystar Worksheet Oddities...
I've just noticed a couple of eccentricities in the budget which I thought I'd mention, just out of interest:
If, one week, extra money is allocated to a targeted kitty, then, in the same week, money transferred out (leaving the target at the same increased level), the target shortfall will not be the full amount transferred out, as might be expected, but that amount minus the previous additional allocation. Example: additional allocation £5.00, then £10.00 transferred out = target shortfall -£5.00.
Although cheque payments cannot be made from (as far as I'm aware) any savings account but must come out of the current account, they are classed in the budget as the same expenditure type as online payments (Type 3), which can come out of any account. Consequently, payments by cheque out of savings kitties should be automatically adjusted to be debited from current, which currently does not happen. I'm working on a way around this, meanwhile such payments would have to be accompanied by a general budget transfer, to the same value, done manually from current to savings.
I realise this won't mean anything to anyone not familiar with Moneystar: I hope it's not too confusing for those who are!
Cheers...

[StevePeters]

That's indeed weird and confusing! I guess they don;t really want customers to understand what is going on

[StevePeters]

PS:
If version 19 has caused a problem: the previous week's Occasional Income will correct itself at the next update, when replaced by the current week's data. I have written a single-use worksheet "Moneystar Fix" to clean up the part of the data file relating to the Credit Card Reserve. It cannot recover the current content and target, but these can be reconstructed manually with relative ease. I will upload the fix and post instructions on recovery separately, if there is a need.
Cheers...

Have you considered re-writing this whole package for a modern spreadsheet program?

[chasmoran]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your post! I'd like to, but I simply don't have the skill-set to do it. I've tried teaching myself Visual Basic but lack of free time, and my age - 60 - are against me on that. I'd be happy to cooperate, though, with anyone who does know how to write for modern platforms, to produce an up-to-date product. Are you a programmer, by chance?

Cheers,
Charlie