


                         DPBank manual



                         Daniel Pfund
            http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/8130/


                         October, 1996
               version 1.4 (c)1995/1996 Daniel Pfund



Contents


1  Foreword                                                    2


2  Introduction                                                2


3  Distribution                                                3


4  Uses                                                        3


5  Features                                                    3


6  Installation                                                5


7  Memory requirements                                         6


8  Using the program                                           6
   8.1 Transaction dialog  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :   7
   8.2 Moving around  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :    7
   8.3 New accounts  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :   8
   8.4 Transfers   : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :   8
   8.5 Currencies : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :  8
   8.6 Auto descriptions  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :  9
   8.7 Categories  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :   9
   8.8 Standing orders  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :  9
   8.9 Editing transactions  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :   9
   8.10Evaluating transactions  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 10
   8.11Copy / Insert transactions  : : : : : : : : : : : : :  10
   8.12Reconciling transactions  : : : : : : : : : : : : : :  10
   8.13Deleting transactions  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 10
   8.14Archiving transactions  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :  11
   8.15Exporting transactions  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :  11
   8.16Sum up transactions  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 11
                               1


   8.17Viewing global amount and balances  : : : : : : : : :  12
   8.18Preferences  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 12
   8.19Password protection  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 13
   8.20Compression   : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :  13
   8.21Useful info : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :  13
   8.22Printing  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :  13
   8.23Diamond key  : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 14


9  Registering DPBank                                         14


10 Limitations and bugs                                       14


11 Technical                                                  15


12 Future                                                     15


13 Thanks to                                                  16


14 Legal stuff                                                16


15 Author                                                     16


                           Summary

       This file contains all the necessary information to use and
install the DPBank bank accounts tracking program.



1    Foreword


For those who never completely read the documentation files: just read
the section 6 "Installation" and install the online help file which you
can delete later when you're used to the program.
   If you are upgrading from a previous version, I suggest you read the
file HISTORY.TXT for a list of changes. All version 1.x files are
compatible with this version so you don't need to change anything. You
do however need to need to copy the new application file as well as a
language file and a help file if you want help. See the "Installation"
section for details.



2    Introduction


DPBank is a program designed to help you keep track of your bank
accounts. The program is written in OPL and will only work on a Psion
Series3a palmtop.
   It lacks all the bells and whistles of the "big" shots (like "Banker"
or "S3aBank") but on the other hand, it offers rudimentary bank account
track- ing possibilities to those still using a 256/512k RAM Psion
Series3a (and all others who care about their precious little RAM ;-) .

                               2


   The objective of this program wasn't to try to compete with such
"monsters", but give users with lesser needs an easier to use and learn
alternative.
   If you need more than a simple bank account tracking program, I
suggest you opt for one of the above, otherwise take a look at section 5
for a list of available features.



3    Distribution


DPBank is distributed under the terms of shareware. You can try it
freely during a test period of 30 days. After this test period, if you
still like and/or use DPBank you must either register it or delete all
the files associated to DPBank from your Psion. See the file
``REGISTER.TXT'' for more details.
   The program can be distributed freely by any electronic means
(anonymous FTP sites, BBSes, packet radio . . . ) provided the file
"DPBANKxx.ZIP" (where the "xx" is the version number) stays intact (see
section 6 "Installation" for the file's contents).
   Software distributors can freely distribute this program on their
shareware disks, provided that:


   1.You don't charge more than $5 for the service.

   2.The file "DPBANKxx.ZIP" stays intact (see section 6 "Installation" for
     the file's contents).

   3.You don't make any money out of it.


   Steve Litchfield has specific right to change the ZIP file contents
to accomo- date his disk's space needs.
   If you have any technical questions or comments of any kind
(good/bad), do, by all means, contact me (Email prefered)!



4    Uses


DPBank is one of the most useful programs on my Psion (of course,
otherwise why would I have written it ;-). It helps me keep track of my
bank accounts and I can now have an overview of my bank situation at all
times. I've added the possibility to "see" into the future for all those
who use a lot of standing orders (up to 90 days). I myself am only a
(poor) student and I must admit that I don't have hundreds of monthly
transactions on my accounts, so this option is not very useful for me.



5    Features


o Foreign currencies supported with exchange rates in either local or
  foreign form



                               3


o Accounts can be held in foreign currencies

o Automatic transaction descriptions supported (avoids unnecessary typing)

o Budget categories supported

o Shows "Global" value (sum of your selected accounts)

o Supports unlimited transactions

o Supports unlimited monthly standing orders

o "Forecast" possibility of up to 90 days

o Automatically deletes counter part of a deleted transfer (unless it is    already reconciled)

o Automatically increments cheque number (if account uses cheques)

o Supports useful information for each account

o Programmed system conform, ie: interacts with the System screen for file
  changes, exit ...

o Optional password protection

o Dynamically edit transfers

o View specific balances, ie: debit/credit/reconciled...

o Possible archive of selected transactions

o Export of selected transactions to Quicken, ASCII, pure Psion DATA

o Printing to either parallel, serial or file (but NOT with PsiPrint!)

o Possibility to Sum up transactions with same descriptions or same cate-
  gories (view or replace transactions)

o Possible to evaluate amount (ie: enter 100+23+45 or even use calculator
  memories!)

o Possible warning when reaching user defined limit

o Possible automatic monthly interest rate calculation

o Optional cache memory

o Optional help system

o Nice graphic user interface
                            4


6    Installation


Here is a table showing you what files are in the ZIP archive and where to put
them on your Psion:

File        Directory   Required Description
DPBANK.OPA  \APP        Yes      Executable
LANGS01.OPO \APP\DPBANK Yes*     UK language file
LANGS10.OPO \APP\DPBANK Yes*     US language file
HELP01.RSC  \APP\DPBANK optional UK help file
HELP10.RSC  \APP\DPBANK optional US help file
INSTALL.BAT -           -        Install file for RCOM (installs UK files)
DPBANKxx.TXT-           -        Documentation in English, ASCII (DOS) format
REGISTER.TXT-           -        Registration details in English, ASCII format
HISTORY.TXT -           -        History of program, ASCII format



   *only one language file is necessary! (EITHER langs01.opo OR langs10.opo
but not both!)
   As you can see, only the executable file and one language file is
necessary for the program to run. These files can be placed on any drive
(A, Internal, or B) of any media type (Internal RAM, Stat RAM, or Flash)
as the files do not need modifying.
   Here are the language codes used for the language and help files:

   o 01: UK English

   o 02: French (available seperately, look for the file "DPBxx_FR.ZIP")

   o 03: German (available seperately, look for the file "DPBxx_DE.ZIP")

   o 08: Norwegian (available seperately, look for the file "DPBxx_NO.ZIP")

   o 10: US English (check instead of cheque)

   If for example you own a UK Psion but want to use another language
file, this is still possible by overiding your Psion's preference with
the help of the LANGS.USR file (included in the different locale files
but NOT in this english distribution file). This file must be an ASCII
file with only the language number you want to use (from the above list)
as the first (and only) line of the file. I've included a sample file
(for french) in the distribution file so you can see what this means.
   For a more permanent change of language for your Psion (including the
keyboard), I suggest you take a look at Konstantin I. Saliy's KbdMap
program.
   To install DPBank, simply copy the required files to your Psion or
use the RCOM installation script. On you Psion, go to the system screen
and choose the menu option "Install" from the "Apps" list (or just press
Psion-i for a shortcut). Simply choose "DPBank" and that's it! You will
then see the DPBank icon I have drawn.



                               5


7    Memory requirements


DPBank requires about 50k of disk space (storage memory). When running,
DPBank will need about 30k free (process memory). As you can see, the
program was really optimized for people with small memory space. Of
course, the counter part of this is that you lose in speed.
(Programmer's axiom ;-) Although I tried to make a suitable compromise
between space and speed, if you find DPBank too slow, contact me and
I'll see what I can do.
   It may happen that you don't have this memory free if you're really
low on mem. The program will warn you of it and act in consequence. This
version now greatly improves the memory checking problem and it should
not happen that DPBank exits without warning you that your memory is too
low.
   Of course, if DPBank is running and then you open other applications
that require a lot of memory, be sure to close them again before coming
back to DPBank otherwise it may happen that DPBank simply closes.



8    Using the program


The first time you will run DPBank , the program will ask you on what
drive you want to make the DPBank directory (\DPBank). This directory
has to be on RAM disk as it will contain all the necessary files to keep
your accounts (it will not allow you to select FLASH disks anyway).
These reason is that the account files will change each time you use
DPBank , so a Flash card would not be recommended!
   Here is a small tutorial for getting the "feel" of the program.
   Once the program has started, you will be asked to enter some
information. I will describe the procedure now.

   1.Account group name: this is the name that will appear under the DP-
     Bank icon on your System screen. The default is simply "Accounts";

   2.Small shareware nag reminder (the one and only, rest assured);

   3.Currency file: you need to define your home currency symbol you want
     to use (up to 5 numbers or characters, but please make sure that this is
     correct, since it is the only thing you cannot change later!) and any other
     foreign currencies you plan on using (not necessary for the moment). The
     default is the System currency you set;

   4.Accounts: enter your most used account first since DPBank will always
     show this one on start. You then need to enter the real opening balance,
     it's currency, as well as the date of this balance.  Make sure that the
     currency is correct, since you cannot change this later on. After that you
     can enter some useful information for this account (especially if you use
     cheques, choose yes in the "Uses cheques?" line!).


                               6


   Now that you have entered everything, you are welcomed with your
first account in the form of a "card". This is just like a filing card
and each account you add, will appear to the right of this one (no
re-ordering for the moment, but see section 12 "Future" for features
planned for next versions).
   You see the first transaction which is always the "opening balance"
with the balance you entered. To add a transaction, simply press the
space bar (or Psion-n). You will see the transaction dialog which I will
describe now.



8.1   Transaction dialog

The first line asks you for a description. It is not mandatory to enter
a descrip- tion, since if this line is left blank, the auto description
will be used (unless of course you don't have any auto descriptions!)
   The second line is the auto description choice (select with TAB). If
you want to select an auto description, be sure to leave the description
line blank! Note that this line only appears if you have entered at
least one auto description.
   The third line is the amount and the fifth asks for the currency of
this amount (select with TAB to expand the choice).
   The fourth line asks if this transaction is a credit or a debit in
your account (ie: if you give money to the bank or take back from them).
I've put it here so you don't need to move around with the cursor too
much in order to enter a new transaction.
   Finally, your are asked for the date of this transaction. You can
enter future transactions. For this example, do not change this since it
automatically defaults to today's date. Just enter an amount and a
description or use the auto description to see how it works. The date
defaults to the date of the highlighted (selected) transaction or to
today if you're on the last transaction.
   If all goes well (if you entered enough information), you will see
this transaction appear on the last line in reverse characters
(highlighted).
   You can now move up and down on the two different transactions. Once
you get some more items entered, you will be able to move from page to
page, below are the commands you can use to move.



8.2   Moving around

   o right/left: moves from one account to another

   o up/down: moves from one transaction to another

   o shift up/down: equivalent to page up/down; moves 10 transactions at a
     time

   o Psion-shift up/down or Psion-left/right: equivalent to home/end;
     goes to first/last transaction of this account

   You can also press the first letter of the account you want to jump
to. If more than one account has the same first letter, pressing the
first letter a second time will jump to the next and so on.



                               7


8.3   New accounts

Now press Psion-shift-n (for new) or choose "Add new" from the
"Accounts" menu choice. You will be asked for the new account's name as
well as it's balance (with the corresponding date and currency) and some
useful information (just like the first one actually . . . ). You then
see that a new "card" appears. You can now move between between the
accounts with the cursor right/left.



8.4   Transfers

Now that you have two accounts, you can make a transfer from one to the
other. Choose "Transfers" from the "Transaction" menu choice or press
Psion-t for a shortcut.
   You are then shown the Transfer dialog. It is quite straight forward,
and I don't believe you need instructions ;-).



8.5   Currencies

The strong point of this program is its currency management. I was
looking at some of the other bank account programs for the Psion
Series3a but I haven't found one that allowed me to do what I wanted
very easily: see my bank account in my local currency, but allow me to
enter transactions in foreign currencies (when I travel) for my credit
card for example (well, of course, other "monsters" could do that... but
I didn't need the rest!). If you've always looked for such a feature,
then here you have it!
   To go to the currency maintenance, press Psion-shift-u or choose
"Curren- cies" from the "Special" menu choice.
   You will be asked if you want to add/delete/modify a currency (unless
you don't have any currencies in which case you go directly to the add
section). Select add and you will be prompted with a dialog. The only
thing that needs some details is the conversion rate. You can enter the
rate in both ways, this means that you can enter for example: 1$ = xx
amount in your local currency, or 1 amount of your local currency = xx
$. This is up to you and actually depends on your country's money
strength. . . Just be sure to enter the correct choice in the "Rate is
for 1 unit of" by choosing foreign or local (as in the above example).
   Deleting and modifying currencies is quite intuitive, just try it.
Note that you cannot delete a currency which is currently being used in
a standing order or as base currency for an account (including global).
   Just a quick note here: all currency conversion are made through your
home currency. It might not give you the exact direct conversion rate if
say for example you have UKP (home currency), USD and CAN$, when you
enter a USD amount into an account kept in CAN$ since the program will
transfer USD to UKP then to CAN$ .
                               8


8.6   Auto descriptions

If you're really in a hurry (and you usually are ;-)), auto descriptions
can greatly simplify your life. If you want to add or delete an auto
description, press Psion- shift-a. You cannot edit an auto description,
so delete it first, then add a new one.
   If you delete the last auto description, you will not get the
"autodescription" line in the "transaction dialog" anymore (that was
just in case you didn't need them).
   Auto descriptions are limited to a maximum comma seperated list of
255 characters (internal OPL limitation). Thus you can have many small
auto descriptions, but only a few (well 9) of 25 characters (maximum I
have allowed per auto description).


8.7   Categories

For each transaction, you can assign it to a category. This field is
usually used for budget categories, but you can actually use it for
anything you like (maybe to remember where the money came from/who paid
if the account is shared between several people/...)! For each category
you must assign a "short code" (2 letters/numbers max) that will be
displayed on the screen.
   Categories display can be toggled on/off in the preferences.
   If you intend to export to Quicken, be sure to enter the same
category names that you use in Quicken (in the long name field of
course).


8.8   Standing orders

Standing orders are transaction which happen every month (like payments
or your salary . . . ). You can enter these in the standing orders
dialog which is called with Psion-shift-o. Choose whether you want to
add/delete/modify a standing order. If no standing orders are entered
yet, you are defaulted to the add option. You will be asked to enter
some details and when everything is correct, it will save the standing
order to disk. As soon as the chosen day comes around, you will see the
standing order appear. You can also make future standing orders appear
by changing the preferences (see section 8.18 "Preferences").
   For the time being if you want to make a standing transfer, you will
need to make two different standing orders.
   Just a word of caution though: once the standing order has appeared,
do not delete it, as it will not come back again during that month!
Please be careful with future standing orders! See also section 11
"Technical" for more information on how the program works.


8.9   Editing transactions

Press Psion-e or simply Enter to edit the current (highlighted)
transaction. As usual, the dialog is quite intuitive and looks quite
like the "New transaction" dialog.



                               9


   Note: if you have deleted the original currency the transaction was
made in, you will get the conversion into your account's main currency
with the last rate you used. Otherwise you will get the foreign currency
and amount (what else did you expect ;-).



8.10   Evaluating transactions

When in the transaction dialog, you can evaluate an amount automagically
simply by entering the string to evaluate in the amount line. You can
even use the calculator memories! For example, if you have 100 stored in
the M1 calc memory, typing "m1+25" will result in a transaction with an
amount of 125.



8.11   Copy / Insert transactions

You can copy a transaction into the memory buffer with Psion-c.
Alternatively, when you delete a transaction, it will be put into the
memory buffer as well for safety reasons. Just press Psion-i as in all
"normal" Psion applications to insert the transaction again.
   Notes:


   o This does NOT work with transfers; you would only get back the trans-
     action from the current account.

   o You can copy/insert transactions over different accounts and even different
     groups.



8.12   Reconciling transactions

You can check the transactions which have appeared on your bank
statement when you receive it at the end of the month; this is called
"reconciling". It is only useful if you keep back transactions from
other months, so you can see up to where you have already checked. I
usually delete old transactions once the statement has arrived.
Individual reconciliation is done with Psion-m. Reconciled transactions
are marked with a check mark at the far right.
   You can reconcile up to (and including) the current (highlighted)
transaction with Psion-shift-m. This might take some time, depending on
the amount of transactions you have in your account, so please be
patient.



8.13   Deleting transactions

Just press Psion-d or the delete key to delete current (shown in
highlight) trans- action. In case you've mistakenly deleted a
transaction, you can get it back by pressing Psion-i (for insert).
   Note: deleting single items does NOT affect the balance, even if the
transac- tion is cleared. By this I mean that it will not issue a new
"Opening Balance". It will of course set the balance to the correct
state in itself.

                              10


   You can delete up to (and including) the current (highlighted)
transaction with Psion-shift-d or more simply shift-delete. This on the
other hand, WILL update the balance and put a new "Opening Balance" as
the first transaction. This is used at the end of the month when you
have reconciled all your trans- actions with the bank's statement.



8.14   Archiving transactions

You can archive any transactions (you have the choice of dates and types
of transactions) to another file by either selecting "Archive" from the
"Group" menu choice or pressing Psion-a directly. This file will be a
"regular" group file and appear under the DPBank icon on your System
screen.
   To open it again, simply choose "Open group" from the "Group" menu
choice or simply press Psion-o.
   Note: for the time being you cannot append transactions to another
file. You must either overwrite it or make another archive file.



8.15   Exporting transactions

Pressing Psion-E lets you export any transactions from the current
account into either a pure ASCII (TXT) file, a Quicken (QIF) file or to
a Psion database (DBF) file. If you don't define a complete filename
with an extension, the program will set the default extension for you.
You have the choice of which transaction type (reconciled, unreconciled,
...) you wish to export and the record seperation character you wish to
use in the ASCII export. If you use the ASCII export, you'll get a file
with each line representing a transaction. Each field in a transaction
will be delimited with whatever character you've chosen. The fields are
in this order:


   o Date (in whatever format your Psion uses, be sure to set the correct format
     for Quicken files in the Time application, ie: DD/MM/YY for Europe and
     MM/DD/YY or YY/MM/DD for USA)

   o Description

   o Local amount (in terms of what currency the account is held in)

   o Balance associated with that transaction (may not be correct if you don't
     export all transactions!)

   o Cleared flag (0=uncleared)



8.16   Sum up transactions

This option is accessed with Psion-S. It allows you to sum up various
transactions which start with the same description or have the same
category. This allows you to use the auto descriptions and then make a
new transaction at the
                              11


end of the month with that transaction's amount being the sum of all the
same transactions and the date being the last date of the summed up
transactions.
   Sounds a little complicated, but it's real easy to use, just try it.
   You can also only view the result without modifying any transactions;
this is particularly interesting for use with categories for example.



8.17   Viewing global amount and balances

It is quite straight forward: just select the appropriate choice from
the menu or use the shortcuts Psion-g (for global) or tab (for
balances).



8.18   Preferences

Press Psion-q to go to the preferences menu. You can choose the number
of days that are displayed from future transactions in the future view.
The future view is obtained by pressing the diamond key. This is only
useful if you have lots of standing orders and would like to do a "what
if" choice.
   You can choose if you want to see warnings (when deleting
transactions for example) or not. I suggest you leave them on for some
time until you get comfortable at using the program.
   You can also choose the currency used in the "Global" window.
   Here you can also select the amount of memory you want to use for the
cache (ie: set aside for keeping procedures in memory instead of always
loading/unloading them). For OPL programmers, this is the CACHE
xxx,yyy command.
   If you don't understand the technical nature of all this, just set it
to 2000 (which is the minimum it will use if you allow any cache size
below this anyway) and you will see a considerable speed increase
already in the screen refreshing. A cache size of 2000 will need about
3k of extra memory.
   I've allowed this option because DPBank was originally intended for
people with low memory possibilities (256/512k Series 3a still exist you
know ;-). It was thus highly optimized for memory usage and not speed.
(Unfortunately, you have to choose between the two.) On the other hand,
people with 1/2Mb Psions felt a little "slowed" down... so hopefully
this will please everyone now.
   The "allow big amounts" option allows you to enter bigger amounts
than those normally allowed. You can enter amounts up to 999 999 999
999.99 with this option. Hopefully this will be enough for all of you
now; if not, just transfer me a significant part of it ;-)
   The downside to this is that you will not be able to see the
"Balance" column anymore on the screen (it would have made it too
clogged). On the other hand, the amounts will be displayed with triad
separation (if you allowed this from the System preference of course).
To see the balances, you can still press Psion-b or more simply TAB.

                              12


8.19   Password protection

To use password protection, press Psion-w or select "Password" from the
"Spe- cial" menu choice. You will have the choice of asking for the
password only on startup or also when you switch back to DPBank if you
leave it open. The procedure is quite easy to understand and similar to
the System's own password.
   A word of caution here: password protection does not mean that the
files are encrypted! If you have sensible data to be kept on your Psion,
don't rely on any password to keep your thief away from it. Even the
System password is bypassable!
   Also, be sure to remember your password since forgetting it means
that you will not be able to access your bank data any more . . .
   Be careful if you want to password protect your accounts group when
switch- ing to DPBank, not to leave DPBank in a menu or a dialog when
you switch from it! If you do, it will not be able to ask for the
password and anyone can then look at your accounts.



8.20   Compression

The files are automatically compressed each time you switch accounts or
when you exit DPBank. If you leave the program running for a long time
and have made lots of changes to transactions, it may be wise to
compress the file to gain some disk space. This is simply done with
Psion-k.



8.21   Useful info

For each account you can save some useful information. Press Psion-u for
the dialog. Here you can also change the name of the account. You can
enter text details like the account number and telephone number of the
bank by choosing "Enter more details". The other options are self
explanatory so just take a look at them.



8.22   Printing

To print, you need to first use the "Print Setup" (Psion-y) dialog to
fix the num- ber of lines per page as well as the printer device. You
can select either parallel, serial or file printing. Printing does NOT
work with PsiPrint and there's noth- ing planned in that direction
(because it would mean a major investement for me and would use up quite
some memory). If you want to print to your PC's printer, you should
choose a remote file to PRT: or LPT1: or whatever is suit- able (but NOT
the serial device!). Printing is then accessed with Psion-p as usual and
it's quite straight forward... why am I writing all these docs in the
end? ;-)
   Categories will be printed if you have them displayed, otherwise
they'll not be printed.


                              13


8.23   Diamond key

The diamond key lets you switch between actual and future transactions
display. Let me explain this: if you want to enter future transactions,
you will not see them unless you are in the future transactions view and
you've set the number of future days in the preferences.
   There is no status bar on the right of your screen for screen space
reasons. If you want to see one temporarily, just press Psion-Menu.
Alternatively, if you don't know which view you're in, just press the
diamond key and read what the program displays in the bottom right
corner of your screen.



9    Registering DPBank


This program is now shareware since it took quite a considerable amount
of time to make. If you don't like this idea, fine: either use version
1.0 of this program or write your own ;-) I don't believe it's really
worth it for such a small fee . . .
   In any case, please read the file ``REGISTER.TXT'' for details of how
to register and the cost.
   The future of this program depends if enough people like it and
register it.



10    Limitations and bugs


   o Only 6 accounts can be tracked

   o Only days 1-28 are allowed for standing orders

   o It can get quite slow when a lot of transactions are kept in the file

   o DPBank will now work if you use the comma as decimal seperator when
     you start the program; but do NOT change the decimal seperator once
     you've created a group, otherwise DPBank will not start anymore.

   o When reconciling foreign amounts, sometimes the amounts are too big
     and you can only see the end of the local amount in the dialog (when
     the amount is automatically displayed); simply press cursor left to
     see the beginning of the local amount.

   o NEVER leave the remote link on! Due to some obscure Psion problem
     (bug?) it might trash your files!

   o A lot of bugs have been found during beta testing (and have of course
     been fixed). I can't garantee you that the program is completely bug free
     (and I suppose there still must be the odd one lurking around in there;
     programmer's axiom: there are always at least 2 bugs in a program ;-). If
     you do find one, please report it to me! See section 15 "Author" for my
     address.

   And remember: the best cure is prevention! Always keep a backup copy
of your vital data (and I do suppose your bank account is vital data,
no?).



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11    Technical


The program uses several files. It uses four common files for each group
(preferences, currency, categories, and standing orders) and two files
for each account (the real data and the information).
   If you want to delete a whole group, you must delete all the files
with the same name (but different extensions). This means that for each
account you must delete 2 files (the Data and the Info).
   The currency and the categories file are the same for all the groups
on the same drive. All other files are independant of each other and can
be changed from group to group.
   Each account file is a seperate DataBase file (although you cannot
open it using DATA because it contains fields which are not alphabetical
strings). It is compressed each time you switch accounts but if you do a
lot of transactions on one account without switching to another, you can
also manually compress the file with Psion-k.
   Actually, the hardest part is understanding the standing order
technique. Each time you write or modify a standing order, it is written
to the standing order file. The standing orders are checked when you
change the number of future days shown or if the date changes (you can
leave the Psion off; the next time you run DPBank , it will check for
standing orders by itself). If there are any standing orders that need
to be written to an account, then it will "transfer" a copy of it to the
actual account and write a record into it. It will then change the date
in the standing order file on which the next SO must next appear. Thus,
if you delete or modify a standing order, it may not immediately take
effect if you are showing future days. Especially if you modify a SO
that has already appeared once, it will appear again under the new name,
so you have to manually delete the old occurences . . .



12    Future


I plan on adding these features for future versions:


   o Re-ordering of accounts

   o More localisation of the whole program (german is catered for at the mo-
     ment, is there a volunteer to translate only the program and/or the doc-
     umentation into other languages?)

   o Better standing orders

   o More accounts

   o Show conversion rate when reconciling foreign currencies . . .

   o Sorting of auto descriptions/categories


   Quite a long list, and so many other things to do :-(



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13    Thanks to


I would like to particularly thank Philippe Lebreton, Jason Savage,
Simon Wallace, Arnaud Weil and Konstantin I. Saliy for beta testing
this program and giving me some new ideas. My biggest thanks must go to:


   o Arnaud for having translated the whole documentation and program into
     french (for which I was too busy myself).

   o Espen Joranger for the Norwegian translation of the program.

   o Karsten Weisbauer for the German translation of the whole documenta-
     tion, program and help file!


   Also a very special thanks to Anne-Laure, my girlfriend, for having
supported me while I was programming and for having showed me that you
can never make a fool proof program however hard you try!
   And last but not least, all the users which have already registered
the program since version 1.1 (you know who you are!), thank you!



14    Legal stuff


DPBank is provided "as is". This means, it does what it does, and I
cannot be held responsable if it crashes your system, or causes any
other dammages. If however you do have a problem with it, please report
it to me and I will try to help you out to fix it.
   You are not allowed to reverse translate this program and/or use any
part of it in your own programs without my prior consentement.



15    Author


                           Snail mail:
                          Daniel Pfund
                         19, ch. Tirelonge
                         CH-1213 Onex
                           Switzerland


   You can also reach me via Email (preferred !):
"Pfund3@uni2a.unige.ch" or if this address doesn't work anymore (stops
on 11th of October 1996) you can still write to me at:
"Pfund@POBoxes.com" or "101743.775@compuserve.com".
   If you have World Wide Web access, I strongly suggest you check out
the DPBank page at: "http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/8130/" for
any up- dates/bug reports.
   [End of DPBank documentation]



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