If you have a computer at home, get a home accounting program. There's one that'll do nearly everything you'd like.
Readers have been asking about software for keeping home accounts for seven years. Until now, we've found the programs more time consuming and less rewarding than old-fashioned pen and paper. That's changed! Some of these packages also keep accounts for small offices. We'll report on those programs next.This week our hats are off to Practical Software, a tiny company in Clearwater, Fla. They make two home accounting programs they can be proud of.
BankMate is for folks who just want to keep a checkbook balanced. It installs quickly on a hard disk or a floppy.
You can begin writing checks as soon as you set up your bank accounts, which takes about five minutes. A blank check comes onscreen and you fill it in just as you would a paper check. The computer keeps track of today's date and knows your next check number.
On to the next check? Not yet. A window comes onscreen listing more than 50 categories such as utilities, hardware and vehicle expenses. You choose one category to which this check applies. If none fit, add what you need right now. The system will keep track of up to a hundred categories.
One keystroke prints the check (on special computer check forms you buy separately) and saves the information. Then the next blank check pops onscreen.
If you write checks away from your computer, you enter them in almost the same way. You can also re-cord electronic transfers, withdrawals, bounced checks - in short, your complete bank account activity.
You can set up repeating payments (monthly mortgage, weekly paycheck). To enter them each time takes a few keystrokes.
Need to split a payment? Bank-Mate lets you split it into 10 categories. (Can't add? There's a pop-up calculator built in.) Entering deposits is just as easy. You can set up three bank accounts and record cash payments and withdrawals. You can also record purchases and payments for up to 15 credit cards.
Unlike earlier home banking programs, BankMate lets you add a reference line telling what each transaction is for. On a check you have five or six words to note that it's for Dan's teeth or the cat's shot. On other transactions you can type up to 60 characters.
Besides tracking income and outflow, and helping balance your checkbooks, BankMate can show (and print on dot matrix printers) graphs showing dramatically what you paid each month of the year for gas, phone calls or any other category.
You can also print out how much you've paid for tax-related things like non-taxable interest on a mortgage. For mouse lovers, it mouses. All this for $30! BankMate won't keep track of stock portfolios. It won't prepare statements of your net worth or your yearly profit and loss. It won't set up a budget and show you how much you're off.
For that, you need BankMate's bigger sister, $70 MoneyMate. Mon-eyMate has everything BankMate has, only more. It can keep track of 10 bank accounts and 25 credit cards. It allows 200 expense and income categories and its built-in list of over 100 includes all that most families need.
It prints almost anything you'll ever need to know, from businesslike statements of Assets and Liabilities, Net Worth and Cash Flow Projections to bank account summaries, check registers and credit card activity summaries. A Budget Performance Report keeps your spending in line. You can assign tax reporting codes and sort them into lists that'll help you at tax preparation time.
It doesn't prepare taxes, but you can export reports of tax-related items into any spreadsheet or to Tur-boTax, a popular tax preparation program.
MoneyMate lets you enter money earned and spent before you began using the program: useful for comparing this year's figures with last year. It also keeps track of marketable securities and prints a Securities and Commodities Gain or Loss Report.
Practical Software's manuals for both BankMate and MoneyMate are among the most helpful accounting manuals we've ever seen. They accept the fact that we all make dumb mistakes and they tell us how to correct them. You'd be surprised how many expensive business accounting programs don't tell you what to do if you make a booboo!
If you want to start with the basics and add more features later, it's also nice to know that you can transfer your BankMate files into Money-Mate's program at any time.
Practical Software has been battling distribution problems for years. For a while, they convinced game and educational software maker Mindscape to distribute BankMate, and business accounting software maker RealWorld to handle Money-Mate. But those makers didn't do much to promote the programs, either. Now they're back in their maker's hands.
The result is that your local computer store probably won't have the programs on its shelves. You'll have to pester them to special order. (If they don't know how, tell them to phone (813) 447-3100.) But take our word for it: they're worth the trouble.
Both programs are only out for IBM compatible computers. Apple II and Macintosh owners can use Quicken, which is also available for IBM type computers. Because it can be used for either home or business accounting, we'll tell you about it next time.
Frank and Judi want to be your hosts March 28-30 at The Business Computer Live!, co-sponsored by The Deseret News at Utah State Fairpark, where you can hear them, see vendors, and get ready for the 1990s. Copyright 1990 P/K Associates Inc., 3006 Gregory St., Madison WI 53711-1847.