Ma Tirelire "Money is like women: to keep it you must look after it well... otherwise it will go and make someone else happy..." Édouard Bourdet, Les Temps Difficiles

I wrote Ma Tirelire (My Piggy Bank) because I needed it. No other Palm application corresponded to my requirements for bank account management. Along with a friend, we put together a rather complete specification containing all that we needed for the management of our bank accounts. I have to admit that I took certain liberties, but I haven't yet been reproached for that! All that I want to say is that at the moment Ma Tirelire is the ideal software for managing your bank accounts on the Palm. You only have to try it, it is free after all... Ma Tirelire is therefore a bank account management application. Each account has a name and is composed of transactions sorted by increasing chronological order. Each transaction has the following attributes:

• A positive (credit) or negative (debit)sum of money;
• A date and a time;
• A description;
• Information on the status of the transaction (cleared or not), which allows you to keep up to date with respect to your bank statements (a cleared transaction is therefore a transaction of which the money has been withdrawn from your account);
• A mode of payment (credit card, debit card, cheque, direct debit, etc.);
• A type (bills, shopping, health related etc.) which is used for the statistics;
• An alarm (Ma Tirelire (Ma Tirelire reminds you when your bills need paying !);
• A flag (which allows addition of intermediary sums on the main transaction list screen);

The Transaction List

The transaction list screenshot:

And now, because a picture says a thousand words, we're going to describe the functions with the help of some screenshots:

The padlock, when it is selected, prevents clearing or flagging of transactions by tapping on the amount. The icon DOWN1 positions the screen at the first non-cleared transaction and the icon DOWN+ moves the screen to the next non-cleared operation. Very practical, for use when you receive your bank statement.	This popup menu allows you to select the account you wish to check. With the "Edit" function you can create new accounts.
There is one transaction by line and one line per transaction. The date is on the left, the description in the middle and the transaction amount on the right (note the scroll bar on the right, not a single pixel wasted!) The double arrows allow to go directly to the beginning of the list. The bottom ones to the end, logic...
These buttons are used for the creation of new transactions. The minus sign is for debits, the plus sign for credits. Have you made a mistake? Don't panic you can change this in the transaction edit screen...	A popup menu allows you to select a method to calculate the transaction total (the corresponding total is displayed on the right). In this example the transaction type is "All", that's to say that the amount displayed corresponds to the total value of all the transactions of the account. It's as simple as that. The different methods of transaction addition are detailed later in this manual.

But I can hear you saying, "I don't understand, there are dates in bold, not bold, with an inverted background, with a triangle...", so let me clarify the date display:

From top to bottom... 03/07 When the date is in bold it means that it has passed. That means that all the dates before today will be displayed in bold. The little triangle in the left bottom corner indicates that the transaction amount was withdrawn from the account on a different date from the date when the transaction was physically made; 04/07 This date is in bold, which means it has already passed. Very straightforward; 05/07 The bold, colour inverted date indicates today's date; 06/07 I'm sure that you've already worked out that dates in the future are not in bold.

These different displays allow the date presentation to be clarified. Visually it jumps off the screen because no one ever knows what today's date is (after all, it does change every day). With this display there are no problems... Believe me, it's very practical.

Note: the dates are formatted day/month, day-month, day.month or vice versa depending on what your system preferences are.

Tip: Do you want to change the date without opening the transaction edit screen ? No problem ! Draw a line from the description field to the date field... ...and let the application guide you.

So, we're clear about the dates, but what about the amounts, how do they work, hmm ? Well, it's very simple...

From top to bottom... -100,00 An amount that is colour inverted signifies that the transaction has been cleared; -125990 And what about an amount in bold without the pennies (or Euro cents) ? This means that is it greater than or equal to 100000. Don't worry, the cents (or pennies) have not been lost ! To make more room for the description they are suppressed in the list view. By the way, you'll have also noticed that this transaction is cleared; -3250,00 Oh, it's perfectly normal; 1750,00 The small, colour inverted triangle at the bottom right indicates that the transaction has been flagged. And while we're at it, the transaction has also been cleared. Note that for credited amounts the plus sign is not displayed; -332,24 Still the small, colour inverted triangle at the bottom right, therefore this transaction has also been flagged.

Since the amounts show the cleared or flagged status of the transaction it is to be expected that these attributes can be set directly without having to edit the transaction. And would you believe it, it's true ! A tap on the right of the number (in the pennies display) toggles the flag attribute of the transaction and a tap anywhere else on the number toggles the cleared attribute.

And we mustn't forget the description:

From top to bottom... CCP -> CCP commun A description displayed in bold indicates a transfer to another account. If the description is too long to be fully displayed, it is indicated by "..." at the end of the description; Fromages A description which is totally normal; Carte Orange The "repeat" icon is displayed and yes, you've guessed it, this transaction is repeated.

We don't have an example here but a transfer to another account can be repeated. In this case we will see the "repeat" icon followed by the description in bold. All very logical.

We don't have an example of this either, but a transaction containing an alarm will have the "alarm" icon displayed at the beginning of the line. It's very practical to see all the different alarms that are coming up.

Tip: Do you want to copy or delete the transaction without using the transaction editing screen ? No problem ! Draw a line from the date field to the description field this time... A contextual menu appears ! And if it that's not powerful enough for you then contact me, I think we need to have a chat... With this menu you can Copy, Delete, Modify the Date, Modify the Hour, Edit, toggle Cleared and toggle Flagged directly.

Following the general philosophy of Palm, Ma Tirelire allows you to edit your transactions by tapping on their line directly (in fact by tapping on the date or the description, remember that tapping on the amount toggles the cleared attribute). To see how to edit a transaction, see the Transaction Editing Screen.

Tip: Do you want to see the transaction details without editing it ? No problem ! Tap and hold on the transaction concerned... the transaction details appear while the tap and hold is continued. In this way you can quickly and easily see the transaction details.

So all that's left is the total menu and the total value calculation itself. When you change the type of total in the menu the total at the bottom right of the screen changes immediately in accordance with the selection. Let's have a look at the different types of total:

From top to bottom... All All the amounts of all the transactions of the account are totalled; At Worst All the amounts of all the transactions of the account are totalled, except those which are positive AND not yet cleared. It is the worst case scenario with all of your expenses being cleared and none of your incoming payments are credited. If you are still in the black then you will never be overdrawn; 05/07 Today's date. All the amounts of the transactions up to and including today are totalled. The date is displayed in the format set in the system preferences (05/07, 05-07, 05.07, 07/05, 07-05 ou 07.05); Cleared All the amounts of cleared transactions in the account are totalled. This sum should correspond to the total written on your last bank statement; Flagged All the amounts of flagged transactions in the account are totalled. This type of calculation allows small additions to be made without having to open the calculator application. In selecting this operation all the transactions already flagged will be automatically added; Cl./Flag A mix of the two last types of totals, all the cleared and/or flagged transactions are totalled. This type of calculation is useful with the wonderful pre-clearing function that will be discussed later; 01/08 and 20/07 These two dates are definable by tapping on the Dates... menu entry (see two lines below in the menu items). All the amounts of all the transactions of the account between these dates inclusive are totalled; This Date... This allows the calculation of the total to be made at a particular date. A small dialogue box appears at the bottom of the screen... ...initialised at today's date. A tap on the date allows the total to be calculated at a new date without having to reopen the menu. A tap on the left arrow closes the dialogue box. The up and down arrows permit to increase or decrease the date of one day; Dates... Displays the following screen... ...which configures the two dates discussed above, in this case the 01/08 and the 20/07. The "Sum on N in current month" configures the first date (the next day N is in the current month if N is less than today's date and in the next month if greater than today's date) and the "Sum today +N days" the second date;

Note: If the totalling type is Cleared, Flagged or Cl./Flag. and you change the status of transactions in the list then the total changes instantaneously.

Tip: Tip: Do you need to quickly edit a transaction ? No problem ! Just tap on the amount and the transaction edit screen will automatically appear. If you have defined a macro in the predefined description editor then you can also just graffiti the shortcut letter to get to the transaction edit screen. Believe me, this is the quickest way to create a new transaction ! But you have to wait a little bit, the use of macros is described later...

Note: Note: the type of totalling method is saved. If you often use the "cleared" totalling method then if you quit Ma Tirelire with this selected at the next start up it will be still selected.

So, we've done the rounds of all the screen functions and the transaction list. All that's left in this section is the menu bar, which I'm going to explain right here. Note that all the menu items that finish with "..." have an associated dialogue box (for example to confirm your choice).

	The Accounts menu A to Z... Pre-clearing... Access to the pre-clearing function; Purge cleared... Delete all the cleared transactions of the account except the first, which has its' amount added to the deleted transactions' total. The amount in the account stays the same but there are less transactions visible. This function is useful for people who use Ma Tirelire to manage their account between bank statements. Once the transactions have been deleted it is no longer possible to retrieve them. The difference between this function and the deletion of flagged transactions is that cleared from the currently selected account are deleted leaving those of the transfer account orphaned; Delete All... Empty the currently selected account of all its' transactions. This action is irreversible; Export... Export the transactions of the currently selected account; Local currency -> Euros..., Euros -> Local currency... Converts all transactions of the currently selected account into Euros or local currency. Transactions involving a transfer to another account are also converted but the currency of the transfer account is not taken into account. Of course, you could convert both accounts at the same time. *** ATTENTION*** If you edit a transaction which has a transfer between accounts TEMPORARILY in different currencies, if the "OK" button is tapped (or the UP/DOWN or transfer buttons), the converted sum will be treated as explained above. On the other hand, a transaction will be added to correct for rounding errors. The description will be "Local currency/euros conversion round". This should be done at the arrival of your next bank statement. Note that the rounding rules are followed to the letter and this makes the operation difficult to reverse accurately. Ma Tirelire manages the 12 European local currencies where the conversion rate has already been fixed. See the preferences to chose the correct currency.
	The Flag menu from A to Z... Flag the page, Un-flag the page Flag or un-flag all the displayed transactions; Un-flag all Un-flag all the transactions in the account; Flagged -> cleared Transform all the flagged transactions in the account to cleared status. Transactions transformed in this way are then marked only as cleared and not flagged; View flagged... Access the screen listing all flagged transactions; Delete flagged... Deletes all flagged transactions in the account. This function allows the selection of a number of transactions in the list without having to delete each entry separately in the Transaction Edit Screen. It should be noted that if the flagged transactions are transfers the corresponding transaction in the transfer account will also be deleted. This is the same functionality as if you use the delete button in the Transaction Edit Screen. Once transactions have been deleted it is not possible to recover them.
	The Go to menu from A to Z... First flagged, Next flagged Positions the screen at the first flagged / next flagged transaction; First not cleared, Next not cleared Positions the screen at the first non-cleared / next non-cleared transaction; Date... Positions the screen to display transactions from a specified date. If no transaction is present on that date then the first transaction after this date will be shown; First, Last Positions the screen at respectively the first or last transaction of the list.
	The Misc menu from A to Z... Sum Copy Even though the account total at the right bottom of the screen cannot be modified it can be selected. If all or part of the total is selected then this is copied into the clipboard when this function is activated. If none of the total is selected then the whole total is copied into the clipboard; Descriptions... Edit the predefined descriptions and therefore the macros; Modes... Edit the payment modes; Types... Edit the transaction type; Statistics... Access the Statistics Screen. Accounts... Access to a screen showing all the accounts; Preferences... Configure the application preferences; Compute repeats For example: if you select a transaction from a month ago and enter a monthly repeat, when you return to the main screen the repeated transaction will not yet show up. To view this transaction Ma Tirelire allows you, via the Preferences Screen, to refresh the repeats at each application launch but it does not take into account updates whilst in the application. This menu item allows you to visualise the new repeat without having to quit and launch the application; About Ma Tirelire I'll let you work that one out for yourself.

Pre-Clearing

The Pre-Clearing Screen:

This unprecedented function is pretty simple while being very useful.

The total displayed in the dialogue box is the total amount for the cleared or flagged transactions. Based on those that you've selected, Ma Tirelire looks for transactions that have not been cleared or flagged. The total of these transactions are added to the "Cleared and/or Flagged" total and compared to the account total. This function is very useful when used between bank statements, for example:

1. On your last bank statement: 1000.00 euros (total of cleared or clear/flagged transactions);
2. in Ma Tirelire 3 transactions are neither cleared nor flagged: -200.00 euros, -150.00 euros and -70.00 euros;
3. When you check your balance at an ATM your account balance is shown as being 730.00 euros. The totals shown by Ma Tirelire and your bank are therefore not in line;
4. in Ma Tirelire, in the Pre-Clearing Screen (initially showing 1000.00) you enter 730, the real account balance;
5. Then you tap the "Compute" button...
6. the Transaction Screen reappears and the transactions of -200.00 euros and -70.00 euros have been flagged;
7. Now the cleared amount is still 1000.00 euros, but the amount cleared/flagged is 730.00 euros, just as the intermediate balance given by the ATM !!!
8. The item "Flagged -> cleared" on the "Flag" menu then transforms the flagged transactions to cleared transactions in one fell swoop which is pretty handy when you get your next bank statement.

Transaction Editing

The Transaction Edit Screen:

In detail:

The title of this window is either "Debit..." or "Credit..." depending on the action being made. If the sign of the amount changes then the window title will also change. The account will calculate based on this selection. You can change it, that's what it's there for. If this button is ticked then an alarm is set for the configured date and time. That's very useful if you don't have direct debits set up ! By default the dates and times of a new transaction are set to the current date and time. You can change them, both for new and old transactions. The up and down arrows permit to increase and decrease the date of one day. A description is attached to each transaction. Predefined descriptions can be configured. To use them tap on "Desc" and select one ? Not what you're looking for ? The edit lines are there for that and a scroll bar will appear if you use more than two lines of text. You can also jump a line if you want. The transaction amount and its' sign. Note that if you use the drop down list to change the sign then the title of the window changes. Everything has been designed to be very clear. You can use a decimal point or a comma (European symbol) but the point is much easier to Graffiti. The box is ticked if the transaction is cleared. When you create a new transaction the first payment mode in the list is selected by default. It's very practical if you use your Visa for most of your payments then just put Visa at the top of the payment mode list. Adding a payment mode is very simple. Tap "Edit..." and voila !. Underneath the payment mode entry you can enter the cheque number or let Ma Tirelire do it by itself by tapping on #. See the Tip below. A date on which the money was withdrawn can also be entered. By default it's the "same day" as the transaction date. In the Tip below you'll see how to associate a mode to the withdrawal date: a change to the mode will automatically change the withdrawal date ! The up and down arrows permit to increase and decrease the date of one day. This transaction is flagged, it's easy to tell because the box is ticked... ;-) The transaction type allows you to file the transactions for future use for the statistics. Just tap on the menu to "Edit..." them. Currently the repeat choices are: weekly Every one or two weeks; monthly Every 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th or 12th month or at the end of each month. If this transaction is a transfer, this is where you select the account to or from which you want to make the transfer. A transaction will be created automatically in that account. We don't need to discuss this in great detail, just be aware that when you create a new transaction the "Delete" button will not be visible.

Note: The UP/DOWN buttons scroll through the transactions as configured in preferences. If the transaction has been modified before the use of the UP/DOWN buttons the transaction will be saved.

Tip: Here are the payment modes that I currently use... "Carte Bleue" (debit card) is at the top because most of my purchases are made with it and Ma Tirelire always uses the item at the top of the payment mode list as the default. Handy. Note that the input "Chèque *" (cheque) has an asterisk next to it. The reason is quite simple and is linked to the "n°" button in the Transaction Edit screen. When I make a purchase by cheque I tap directly on the "n°" button. Ma Tirelire automatically selects the mode "Chèque *" (because of the asterisk) and enters the cheque number based on the preceding cheque transaction. Obviously you have to enter the cheque number by hand the first time every time you change cheque book. And what do you think of the "Carte Brico" entry ? What's the 25-1 doing underlined ? Well, it's a shortcut for the withdrawal date. The "Carte Brico" is a differed debit card, that's to say that all purchases preceding the 25th of the month are debited on the 1st of the following month. There are two possible shortcuts on the withdrawal date: Cheque +2 calculates the withdrawal date of the transaction at the transaction date + 2 days. Note that + and +0 are possible, they reset the withdrawal date to the transaction one; Delay Debit Card X 25-3 calculates the withdrawal date as follows: if the transaction date is less than OR EQUAL TO the 25th, the withdrawal date is set to the 3rd of the following month; if the transaction date is GREATER THAN the 25th, the withdrawal date is set to the 3rd of the month after next. Delay Debit Card X 25=31 calculates the withdrawal date as follows: if the transaction date is less than OR EQUAL TO the 25th, the withdrawal date is set to the 31rd of the transaction date month; if the transaction date is GREATER THAN the 25th, the withdrawal date is set to the 31rd of the following month.

If you edit a transaction which is also a transfer you will see:

The account being transferred to is framed and a tap in it will take you directly to the linked transaction in the other account. And vice versa. The "trash" button lets you delete the link. Neither of the two transactions is deleted, but the "transfer" no longer exists...

The menu bar changes in this screen, therefore we're going to look at it in more detail.

	The menu "Go To" lets you scroll through the account transactions while remaining in the edit screen. If a modification is made to the transaction, before the next transaction is opened the current transaction is saved. Previous, Next opens the previous or next transaction; Previous not cleared, Next non cleared opens the previous or next non cleared transaction; Previous flagged, Next flagged opens the previous or next flagged transaction;
	The "Edit" menu from A to Z... Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Select all all work on the field which is currently selected; Copy transaction... makes a copy of the current transaction, either keeping the same date or with today's date; Local currency -> Euros, Euros -> Local currency converts the transaction amount into Francs (or your local currency) or Euros. See the Tip below. Ma Tirelire manages the 12 European currencies which already have their rates of conversion with the Euro fixed. See the preferences to chose your currency;
	The "Misc" menu from A to Z... Preferences... here you configure the application preferences; About Ma Tirelire You already know that, don't you ?

Tip: Do you have a Euro bank account but still make purchases in your local currency ? Or the other way round ?! Don't panic, you'll remember the "Edit" menu... So you manage your account in Euros but you take out 100 FF at an ATM. Write 100 in the amount field followed by Command-E as indicated by the shortcut in the menu... Command-E because you want Euros. It's pretty practical isn't it ? In the opposite case you do Command-L because you want local currency, logical isn't it ? (note that the screenshot is from a previous version, versions pre 1.0.5 have Command-F)

Before looking at how to write your own descriptions/macros, let me tempt you with a list of the predefined descriptions I currently use. This menus appears when you tap on "Desc". All the descriptions here are macros. You can recognise them because of the entry on the right which is underlined. Note that on the left some of the entries have a letter underlined. This is the letter you need to Graffiti in the transaction list to execute the macro to create a new transaction.

A macro will automatically fill in the description field, the transaction amount, whether it's a debit or credit transaction, the payment mode and the transaction type. You can set which of these fields it will fill in. For example:

If this entry is selected from the description drop down menu or selected by Graffiti-ing an "s" in the transaction list, Ma Tirelire will fill in the description field with "Salaire" (Salary) set the transaction to "Credit" (without putting anything in the transaction amount field), select the first payment mode starting with "vir" (virament = credit transfer) and the first transaction type starting with "paye" (pay), the amount in this case not being added.

Descriptions/Macros

The descriptions/macros edit screen:

To get to this screen you can either use the menu in the transaction list ("Misc" then "Descriptions...")or via the drop down menu "Desc", "Edit...", in the transaction edit screen.

Now that we know where we are, let's have a look at the specifics of what you can do with it:

Moves the selected description one place up the list. This button is absent if the selected description is already at the top of the list.
Deletes the selected description. This button is absent if there is no description present in the list.
Moves the selected description one place down the list. This button is absent if the selected description is already at the bottom of the list.
"Save" lets you quit the window while saving all the modifications you have made. "Cancel" lets you quit the window without saving the modifications you have made. "New" adds the contents of the edit field (below the list box) to the list as a new description. The new description will show up at the bottom of the list. "Rename" renames the description currently selected in the list and displayed in the edit field below the list box.

Note: if the edit field has been modified and the "Save" button is tapped then Ma Tirelire displays a dialogue box...

And now, since we know how to add, modify, delete and order the description, we can now look at the macro function.

If you have have been following closely you should already have an idea of how macros work and how to build one yourself.

The contents of the macro is written between brackets at the end of the description. The contents is divided into four parts separated by a semicolon. The three last sections of the macro are purely for additional information and can be left empty:

• (XXX;XXX;XXX;XXX) all the fields are filled in: amount, payment mode, transaction type and transfer account;
• (XXX;XXX;XXX) as it was until version 1.0.4, that's to say without the transfer account;
• (XXX;XXX) the amount and payment mode only;
• (XXX) amount only;
• (;XXX;XXX) payment mode and transaction type only;
• (;;XXX) transaction type only;
• etc.

1. the amount field, in this case +, contains a sign (non-essential, by default the application assumes a debit) followed by a number (equally, non-essential). This field can be empty. Lets looks at some examples:

   +
   -
   100.25
   +1523
   -56,58

   When you launch a macro, Ma Tirelire selects "Debit" ou "Credit" and checks the amount of the transaction;
2. the payment mode field, here vir. When you launch a macro, Ma Tirelire looks for the first payment mode which starts with the text entry and selects it. If this text ends with an asterisk "*" the cheque number will be automatically filled in;
3. the transaction type field, here paye. When you launch a macro, Ma Tirelire looks for the first transaction type which starts with the text entry and selects it.
4. the transfer account field. Here there isn't one, which shows that it is also non-essential. The tip will show you an example of this.

Tip: Do you want the cheque number to be filled in automatically when you use a macro ? No problem ! Finish the payment mode field with an asterisk and Ma Tirelire will do all that's necessary, as long as you have at least one transaction in the account with a cheque number. Note that here the transfer account field is filled: "com". Ma Tirelire therefore selects the first account starting with "com" as the account for the transfer.

Note: the tilde "~" lets you specify which letter you wish to use as the macro shortcut in the transaction list screen. This letter will appear both in the list and the drop down "Desc" menu in the transaction edit screen. Two macros may have the same shortcut. In this case when you launch a macro using the shortcut from the transaction list a pop-up menu will show the different macros (up to 12). And that's magic !

A circumflex "^" may also be used to specify the macro shortcut to be used in the transaction list. The difference between "^" and "~" is that when you use the "^" the shortcut letter does not appear in the description line of the macro. This is practical when you've created a macro that has an empty description field.

Tip 1: If you put two spaces before the opening bracket of the macro, when the macro is executed the cursor will be placed at the end of the description field rather than in the amount field in the transaction edit screen. Tip 2: If the amount entry of the macro starts with a "0", when the macro is executed the cursor will be placed in the amount field in the transaction edit screen, but on the left. This is idea if you want to just change the cents/pennies part of the amount entry. Try the following macro: ~Tickets (00) In the transaction list screen Graffiti "t"...

Modes and Types

The edit screens for the payment modes and transaction types:

In the same way as the description edit screen, these two screens are accessed via the menu bar in the transaction list or in the transaction edit screen.

The basic functionality of these edit screens is the same as that of the description edit screen, so we won't go into detail again.

Just note that like in the macros in the description edit screen, the withdrawal date values in the payment modes screen are entered between brackets at the end of the entry. Refer to the famous "Carte Brico" example above.

To remind you, there are two types of shortcuts in the payment modes screen to automatically enter the withdrawal date:

• Cheque (+2) positions the withdrawal date of the transaction at the transaction date + 2 days. Note that + and +0 are possible, they reset the withdrawal date to the transaction one;
• Debit Card X (25-3) calculates the withdrawal date as follows:
  • if the transaction date is LESS THAN the 25th, the withdrawal date is set to the 3rd of the following month;
  • if the transaction date is greater than OR EQUAL TO the 25th, the withdrawal date is set to the 3rd of the month after next.
• Debit Card X (25=31) calculates the withdrawal date as follows:
  • if the transaction date is less than OR EQUAL TO the 25th, the withdrawal date is set to the 31rd of the transaction date month;
  • if the transaction date is GREATER THAN the 25th, the withdrawal date is set to the 31rd of the following month.

The accounts:

This screen lets you see all of your accounts in one fell swoop. The total type is the one that is currently selected: if the total type currently selected is "Cleared", then all the account totals will the totals of the cleared transactions in those accounts.

The total type used is present in the top right to prevent any confusion as to what you're looking at.

The short drop down menu allows you to change the total type: All adds all the totals, it's the default; Select. only adds up the selected totals; Non select. only adds up the totals that AREN'T selected. So how do you select a total ? Simply tap on the total you want to select and tap again to deselect it. It's like when you clear a transaction in the transaction list.

A tap and hold on the account name brings up a window showing the number of transactions in the account and a short tap takes you to the transaction list of that account, it's all quite logical really.

The "Return" button obviously lets you quit this screen.

Statistics

The statistics:

The statistics are calculated over a selectable time period for the account currently selected. The totals displayed are not altered by the total type selected in the transaction list.

To select the date tap on "Between" in the Statistics popup window to bring up the following menu:

From top to bottom... Current month select the current month; Last month select the month before the current month; Last but one month select the last but one month; Current year select the current year, from the 1st January to the 31st December; Last year select the year before the current year; Week begin/end takes the nearest Monday (or Sunday, depending on your preferences) to the selected start date and the nearest Sunday (or Saturday) to the selected end date; All the start date is set to the date of the first transaction in the account, and the end date to the date of the last operation in the account.

The type of statistics required can be selected in the "By" pick list. The menu items are as follows:

From top to bottom... Transaction type Shows the statistics by transaction type; Payment mode Shows the statistics by payment mode; Week Shows the statistics week by week for the selected period; Two weeks Shows the statistics fortnight by fortnight for the selected period; Month Shows the statistics month by month for the selected period; Quarter Shows the statistics by quarter for the selected period (January-March, April-June, July-September and October-December); Year Shows the statistics year by year for the selected period.

Finally, the sign of the transaction amount can be used as a sort criteria by using the "On" pick list. The menu items are as follows:

From top to bottom... All transactions all transactions are included; Debits only only debit transactions are included, very useful for checking your outgoings; Credits only only credit transactions are included.

The results screens are similar to the accounts screens, but some additional functions are also available.

A tap and hold is still used to have more information on the selected line. A single tap lets you dig further into the statistics. Try it and you'll see, it's pretty simple...

Export

Export window:

This screen lets you export the contents of an account in CSV format. This includes the descriptions, payment modes and/or the operation types in a memo.

The "Export name" lets you enter a name for the memo.

This way all (or part) of an account can hotsynced and manipulated within another desktop programme that recognises the CSV format. Attention this is not an automatic function:

• chose a file name, for the example let's use "Test", and select the time period over which you which to export data;
• the result of this export is a memo in the "Unfiled" category of the Memopad (on your Palm) called "Ma Tirelire - Test";
• Now hotsync with your PC;
• On your PC launch Palm Desktop (or the programme you use to manage you hotsyncs with Memopad), click on the "Memopad" icon, and select "Ma Tirelire - Test";
• the contents of the memo will be displayed. "Select All" and then "Copy";
• In the (wind*ws) Start menu -> Programmes -> Accessories -> Notepad, paste using Ctrl-V or Edit->Paste menu item: the contents of your memo will appear in Windows Notepad;
• All you have to do then is save this file to your hard drive as Test.csv before opening it, for example in Excel...

Attention: The transaction types and the payment modes are indexed. If you add new types/modes via the modes and types screens then the index position of the existing modes and types will change which may lead to incorrect data at the next export. If you always add new types/modes to the end of the list then you won't have any problems. Try this for yourself.

There is no import function available yet.

The next version will most likely feature an import function. You should note that Jean-Noël CASASSUS has designed a conduit for Windows that you can find at the following address: http://MaTirelire.Conduite.free.fr.

Preferences

Ma Tirelire lets you configure certain things to make the application easier for you to use. These preferences are saved by the application.

Preferences screen General tab

Left hand mode

This allows to put the scroll bars at the left of elements. Note that one have to quit the application and re-run it to apply this change on all screens;

Local currency for Euros convert

lets you define the local currency to use for all conversions to and from the Euro in Ma Tirelire (that's to say, in the transaction list and in the transaction edit screen.

Access code:...

This allows to set an access code to enter the application. About this access code, you have to know some things:

• it is the access code screen that is called when "Enabled" or "Disabled" is tapped,
• when a code is already entered, it is required before changing it,
• a new code must always be entered twice to confirm it,
• as long as one stay in the preferences screen, it is always the old code (the code that was official before entering this screen) that is the official one when the access code is required.

Auto lock after:...

when Ma Tirelire runs and no human action occurs during this time (in any screen), the access code screen will appear to protect the application. This line disappear if the code is disabled.

Preferences screen Transaction tab

The descriptions replace

Once an entry is selected in the menu item "Desc" of the transaction edit screen, the predefined description is inserted into the "Desc" field at the cursor position (box non ticked), or replaces the contents of the "Desc" field completely (box ticked).

Action of up/down keys in edit

lets you change the action of the UP/DOWN keys of the palm in the transaction edit screen. In all cases the scroll keys let you move from transaction to transaction but constraints, such as non-cleared or flagged, can be set here.

OS>3.0 time selector

The choice is only visible if you have Palm OS higher than OS 3. This option lets you configure the system window used for selecting the transaction time:

time selection box for Palm OS 3 and below (or that shown if the box is not ticked) Note that if the button "No time" is selected, Ma Tirelire sets the time for midnight.

time selection box for Palm OS greater than 3 and the case where the box is ticked

Préférences screen DBase tab

Compute repeats on startup

repeats calculated when Ma Tirelire launches, automates the process of having the programmed repeats appear in good time. At each launch, Ma Tirelire reads all the transactions in all the accounts to see if there are new transactions to create based on a pending repeat.

View repeats 20 days before date

when Ma Tirelire detects a repeated transaction the new transaction is only created when the date reaches today minus n days (here 20). For example, if a transaction repeats every 25th of the month, each new repeated transaction will be displayed from the 5th of the current month.

Warning if overdrawn account

a warning dialogue box is displayed on opening an account that is overdrawn, and again when the account is no longer in the red.

Use the conduit

tick this box if Ma Tirelire is being used in conjunction with Jean-Noël Casassus's conduit (http://MaTirelire.Conduite.free.fr). In this case, when a transaction is deleted from Ma Tirelire a trace is kept to alert the conduit at the next Hotsync. If this is not done the conduit could never trace the deleted transactions made on the Palm.

Access code

Access code:

This screen permits to type a code that can contain up to 8 characters. It is used to protect the appliction and when one need to change the code in the preferences screen. You can note that I wrote "characters" and not simply "digits" even with this nice numeric pad. However as you can type digits with the graffitti area, you can not type letters. It's simply because an access code can contain palm hard keys (date book, address book, to do list, note pad and the UP key). Why not the DOWN key? That's because it equals to a tab on the "OK" button. Do you understand where I want to come to? Read the next tip...

Tip: You want to protect the Ma Tirelire access, but just to consult your balance, you don't want to take your stylus to type the code. And you think perhaps the digit pad keys are too small. There is a solution: You can simply create a code that contains only palm hard keys. ("Date book", "Note pad" and "UP" for example). As the "DOWN" key submit the code, you can enter the application with only one hand: Date book  Note pad  UP  DOWN ...that's all!

Some little tricks...

The Palm Tungsten 5-Way Navigator is supported in the list screens (transactions list screen, statistics results screens, accounts list screen...) in the following way:

• No line selected:
  • UP/DOWN, scroll a page up/down,
  • RIGHT, on the transactions list screen, popup the accounts list,
  • SELECT, select the first line.
• A line is selected:
  • UP/DOWN, move the selection one line up/down,
  • LEFT, deselect the line,
  • SELECT, valid the line.

The Sony Clié Jogdial is supported too in the list screens:

• UP/DOWN, select the last/first line then move the selection one line up/down,
• SELECT, if a line is selected then valid it, else on the transactions list screen, popup the accounts list,
• UP/DOWN pushed, scroll a page up/down,
• RETOUR, if a line is selected then deselect it, else apply the default action.

The same rules apply for the HandEra Jogdial except for the UP/DOWN pushed actions.

Ma Tirelire conforms to Palm OS, under which it runs. That means that the Palm find function will work with Ma Tirelire. All the transactions containing the search string will be displayed with their description. In addition, there are certain tricks you can use to search for transactions more preceisely:

Search String	These transactions are found...
-100	the amount is equal to -100.00 (debit); the description includes the string "-100".
+100	the amount is equal to 100.00 (credit); the description includes the string "+100".
100	the amount is equal to -100.00 (debit) or 100.00 (credit); the cheque number (if present) is strictly equal to 100; the description includes the string "100".
>100	the amount is greater than 100.00 (if credit) or less than -100.00 (if debit); the cheque number (if present) is greater than 100; the description includes the string ">100".
<100	the amount is less than 100.00 (if credit) or greater than -100.00 (if debit); the cheque number (if present) is less than 100; the description includes the string "<100".
>+100	the amount is greater than 100.00 (credit); the description includes the string ">+100".
>-100	the amount is a debit (< 0) but is greater than -100.00 (therefore between 0 and -100); the description includes the string ">-100".
<-100	the amount is less than -100.00 (debit); the description includes the string "<-100".
<+100	the amount is a credit (> 0) but is less than 100.00 (therefore between 0 and 100); the description includes the string "<+100".

After each Hotsync Ma Tirelire checks and repairs (if needed) the account database. Older versions of the conduit or Ma Tirelire could lead to some errors that are not noticed by the user. This new function prevents this from happening in the future. On that note, it is possible that at the first use of the version 1.0.5 (or later) this repair function could go off automatically. In this case it's best just to let it run, it won't hurt and you'll feel better afterwards...

Ma Tirelire - Copyright © 2001-2003 Maxime Soulé.

Translated from french by Claire Nurcombe