Statement of account Calling all Amstrad users - get your finances sorted out with this program by D G Shedden Before buying the CPC 464 I used a very comprehensive Spreadsheet program on another well known micro to build up a complete system for recording all my banking transactions. I naturally thought the same could be achieved with Easi Amscalc but this was certainly not the case. I looked at the various accounting programs available for the Amstrad but was too mean to pay £20 or more for a commercially available package. The next stage was to examine what was available in printed form and I found what appeared to be a suitable program in an excellent book - The Working Amstrad - by David Lawrence and Simon Lane. This was very good but not suitable for other than a very basic form of Statement. Nevertheless, this short program was the basis of my Bank Account program which is now 20K (after excluding Rents). Despite the length there is more than adequate memory on
the computer to hold enough data for normal domestic use. This data can be saved either on tape or disc. As written the program will hold all transactions for any 12 month period and allows up to 60 entries in each month with up to 20 Standing Orders which can be at any frequency from once every month to once per year. These are automatically posted to the account when due. You are also allowed to identify up to 18 categories of expenditure in which you may be interested, in cumulative amounts through the year. This is the amount of information that can be displayed in the text file and does not take a noticeable amount of time for checking entries. A useful feature is the section for reconciliation with the Official Bank Statement. How often have you received this dreaded document and think you are much better off than you are because some major expenditure has not yet hit your account? A printer option is available (if connected) at all relevant stages, but you are not annoyed by being asked for the print option if there is no printer. For clarity Mode 1 is retained for all screen displays but. for the Display Account Option the full width of the printer is used allowing full entries to be displayed instead of the truncated descriptions in 40 columns. The screen display does, however, show debits in red and credits in black. Now off to the keyboard. All Rem lines can be omitted but please do not be tempted to renumber until the program is complete. Each section is a separate subroutine and can be entered in any order. If you try out these in turn enter Goto 20000 to restart or some very strange effects will result. Program notes - Lines 1 to 920-Contain various subroutines used regularly in the program such as error reports, checking if Standing Orders are due, checking if the entry just made is one in which you are interested in running totals, sorting routines and validation of dates.
- 1000 to 1180-Handle initialisation and declare sizes of arrays, etc. If a different size of account is required then the alterations should be made here. If all the available space is not used there is no loss in saving and loading times because only occupied areas of the arrays are saved.
- 2000 to 2180-Main menu section. You return here after all the subroutines and variables used are returned to standard conditions. You are not allowed to call options unless they can be satisfied, for example, you cannot display the account until details have been loaded or entered.
- 3000 to 3640-Display the statement. On the screen display debits are shown in red and credits in black. To keep to 40 columns the details are shortened but appear in full on the hard copy. This is the only routine to have separate parts to carry out the two forms of display. A complete check on all previous months is made to ensure that brought forward balances are correct in case there have been any retrospective entries.
- 4000 to 5580-This section handles the reconciliation section. A marker is added to each entry made and changed if the entry has been cleared. It makes no difference to the data length whether or not this option is ever used. Reconciliation is effected by displaying each entry in turn and responding y/n to the prompts.
- 6000 to 6260-Allow examination or deletion of entries. Alteration was considered but rejected because of the complexity for what it hoped will be a rarely used option. If an error has got through the check before entry it must be deleted and re-entered.
- 8000 to 8400-This is the input section. Having determined the month you are invited to enter the date and details of the entry. A check is made for valid date - eg, 31st June. If any Standing Orders are due before this date then they will be posted. To exit, an entry of '99' is requested so all remaining S.O.s are entered.
Finally entries are sorted into date order before returning to the menu. Projected cashflow can be achieved merely by entering the Input Data mode and then leaving it. - 9000 to 9600-These save and load the Data files. As written the program will handle any number of accounts, but if only one is to be used the following procedures will save time. Add to Lines 9050 to 9530,, File$. Delete 9500 and 9510 and make 9520 into 9500.
- 10000 to 11720-Handle the creation of the Standing Orders file. These can either be displayed individually showing all months each is payable or alternatively which S.O.s are due in any month. These can be added to or deleted at any time.
- 12000 to 14580-Create the special category entries. Once established, any debit or credit entry or standing order with the same name will be added to a running total. It pays to spend some time considering your interests before entering any data since changes are only possible by deleting and re-entering details.
The remainder of the program consists of instructions and an autosave line. PopularComputingWeekly850516 |
