Easy Money Frequently Asked Questions
Answers
When I double-click on the Easy Money icon nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?
This just means that Easy Money has been unable to open something during its startup processing and has terminated. Unfortunately I did not build any error messages into v1.00, so instead of the program telling you what is wrong, it simply shuts down without giving any visual indication that it has done anything. This has been corrected in v1.10.
If you have started the Easy Money recently and it is now refusing to start, it is likely that you have forgotten to shut down the previous instance. Check that you have not moved the Easy Money screen into the background and forgotten about it.
If you are running version 1.00 you can either upgrade to v1.10 or you can try the Test_Startup program, both of which are available on the downloads page. Test_Startup will perform exactly the same startup procedure as the full program and will display an error message detailing what has gone wrong.
If you are running version 1.10 there is no need to use the Test_Startup program. All the same error messages are now built into the main program. In order to see any of the messages from either program you will need to run it from the command line. Hopefully these messages will help you locate and fix the problem.
The items Easy Money needs to open are listed in the following table.
| intuition.library | version 36 or above | Should be built into the OS ROM |
| graphics.library | version 36 or above | Should be built into the OS ROM |
| gadtools.library | version 37 or above | Should be built into the OS ROM |
| asl.library | version 36 or above | Should be stored in your libs: directory |
| utility.library | version 36 or above | Should be built into the OS ROM |
| icon.library | version 36 or above | Should be built into the OS ROM |
| topaz.font | 8 point | Should be built into the OS ROM |
| the screen | 640 x 256 x 3 (PAL) | You might need to free some chip memory |
Unfortunately Easy Money was designed to be used with a fixed screen size of 640 x 256 which is a PAL format screen. This has caused problems for people using an NTSC based machine because the PAL sreen mode is not available. If this appears to be the problem you might be able to use some screen mode promotion software to trap the request for the PAL screen and create and NTSC screen instead. If that fails then you will not be able to run Easy Money. Sorry. This was done to keep things simpler for me and I didn't realise would be a problem when I first designed the program. By the time I realised, it was too late to fix it.
What is the difference between a "Current Account" and a "Credit Account"?
Very little. When printing or displaying the account summary, the two types are treated slightly differently. However, for all the calculations a "Current Account" is just a "Credit Account" with a credit limit of 0.00.
In general "credit accounts" will have a credit limit less than 0.00. This means that you can spend more than you have before Easy Money will warn you that you are overdrawn. For example, a credit card with a £1000 limit should be set up as a credit account with its limit as a 1000.00 Debit.
However, setting the credit limit as a credit (positive) value can be just as useful. For example, you could set the limit at 100.00 Credit to warn you when your current account drops below £100. This might give you the extra warning necessary to prevent you from overdrawing your account and thus help avoid all those bank charges.
What do "Checked" and "Deferred" mean?
"Deferred" means that the transaction is not used when calculating the account balance. This is mainly used for the automatic reconciliation, but might be used for other reasons, for example, if you want to keep a record of a cancelled cheque.
"Checked" indicates that the transaction has been checked against a bank statement. Checked transactions will not take part in the automatic reconciliation process.
What do the different colours mean on the transactions screen?
The colour scheme differs slightly for each screen. The various meanings are as follows.
The Transactions Screen.
- Yellow means that the transaction has been checked.
- Green means that the transaction has been deferred.
- Blue means that the transaction has been checked AND deferred.
- Red means that the account balance after adding the transaction is below the credit limit for that account.
- Yellow, green and blue will override red.
- Black means that none of the above apply, i.e. the balance is above the credit limit and the transaction is not deferred or checked.
The Standing Orders Screen.
- Red means that the standing order is a negative amount, i.e. a debit.
- Black means that the standing order is a positive amount, i.e. a credit.
- Yellow means that the standing order has expired, i.e. the end date has already passed.
The Account Summary Screen.
- Red means that the account balance is below the credit limit, i.e. the credit left is less than zero.
- Black means that the balance is greater than the credit limit.
On the standing order frequency button, what does "Lunar Monthly" mean?
Lunar monthly means that the payments will occur every fourth week. This makes thirteen payments a year.
What happens if I try to add a new transaction when I have already reached the limit set for that account?
If a new transaction is added when the limit has been reached the value of the first transaction will be added to the account's start balance and the first transaction will be deleted. This means that the account will still be accurate, but only the last set of transactions will be kept.
If a new standing order is added when the limit has been reached Easy Money will automatically delete a standing order that has expired and replace it. If no existing standing orders have expired you will be asked if you want to increase the limit or cancel the operation. If you choose to increase the limit you will have the option to add 1, 5 or 10.
How do I remove the limits on transactions and standing orders for a particular account?
To remove the limits simply set the values to zero in the account attributes window. You can easily change the limits at any time.
When I merge two files what will happen if they both have an account with the same name?
The account in the second file will be renamed by adding a number to the end and the two accounts will remain separate. This applies even if the name already ends with a number.
If the new name has already been used the number will be incremented by one.
For example, ACCOUNT will be renamed to ACCOUNT1. If ACCOUNT was then merged again the new name would be ACCOUNT2. However, if you merged ACCOUNT1 again, the new name would then become ACCOUNT11.
What happens to the transaction list when I change the date?
If you set the date to sometime in the future all the accounts will have new transactions added to reflect the new situation (according to the standing orders). This will delete transactions from the start of the list if the limit is exceeded (although the account balance will remain accurate), so it is best to save the file first.
If you set the date to sometime in the past all accounts will have all automatic transactions after the new date removed, even if they have since been edited manually. By "automatic transactions", I mean those which have been created by a standing order. Transactions that have been created manually will be unaffected.
Changing the date can result in a loss of information as described above. For this reason it is best not to change the date unless you have saved the file first. You have been warned.
If I set up a monthly standing order for 31/01/06, what will happen in February?
Monthly, Quarterly, Half-yearly and Annual standing orders will always occur on the same day of the month if possible. If this is not possible then the transaction will be added on the last day of the month.
For the example above, the transactions will occur on 31/01/06, 28/02/06 (29th will be used for leap years), 31/03/06, 30/04/06, 31/05/06, 30/06/06, 31/07/06, etc.
