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| Money In Your Pocket |
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Windows CE July 2001 • Vol.7 Issue 7 Page(s) 75-77 in print issue |
Money In Your Pocket Find Financial Balance With Microsoft Money | ||
 Imagine going out on a business trip and not having to collect scraps of paper for every meal you purchased, tip you left, or toll you paid. Microsoft Money gives you an easy, paperless way to track your purchases and withdrawals from petty cash. The Pocket Money program that came with your Windows CE Pocket PC can do all of this and much more to help you square away finances. If you have used Microsoft Money or Quicken on your full-size PC, you will find Pocket Money's format familiar. Pocket Money concentrates on the most important aspects of money management and, because of its conciseness, is easy to set up and learn. To start Pocket Money, tap Start, Programs, and Microsoft Money. Of course, you can also assign Pocket Money to a spot in the Start menu. If you own a hard-to-get Compaq iPAQ or selected other Windows CE devices, you may not find Pocket Money. Rather, you will find Microsoft Money. Don't worry; they are the same program with different names. Microsoft Money is just the branded version of Pocket Money; it works the same way.  Configure Pocket Money. Pocket Money has two main options, found in the Tools menu under Options, for you to set. AutoComplete+ makes finishing entries easier as Pocket Money, based on prior entries, completes the entry you're typing. Use Large Font makes reading the accounts easier by making the typeface bolder and a little bigger. In the Options screen, you will also see a tab for Proxy Server. You only use it if your Pocket PC is connected to the Internet so that you can manage and monitor your investments. You must also decide if you are going to password-protect your data. To password-protect Pocket Money, tap Tools and then Password. Use the keyboard to enter a password. You must enter the password twice for confirmation's sake. Passwords are case- sensitive, and you cannot start Pocket Money or access your data without the password. If you forget your password, you must use ActiveSync to reset Pocket Money. However, this function erases every bit of your data, including the accounts you have set up and all the transactions you have entered. To avoid this, take preventative steps by setting your password first and then close Pocket Money after setting the password. Reopen the program and double-check the password. If there is a problem and Pocket Money won't take the password, you will not yet have entered any data so you can use ActiveSync to reset Pocket Money without losing any data. Accounts & Categories.
To create an account, tap New in the Pocket Money menu. The next screen will ask you to enter account information such as the Account Name. If you will be sharing information with Microsoft Money 2000 on your desktop PC, accounts you create should have the same name in both programs. Account Type tells Pocket Money how to treat the account. For example, a checking account gets a sequential check number while a credit card account has purchases applied against a credit limit. The choices are Cash, Checking, Credit Card, Line Of Credit, and Savings. The cash or credit balance that exists before you make transactions is called the Opening Balance. The transactions you enter after creating the account are applied against this balance. For credit card and line of credit accounts, Credit Limit is the maximum balance. For other accounts, the balance is irrelevant. The Interest Rate is the percentage you are charged on credit accounts or paid on checking and savings accounts. If you want to enter information past the basics, tap the Optional tab. You can enter the Account Number for your checking, savings, or credit accounts. A space is allotted for the Institution Name and the Contact Name of the person you deal with at that institution.
To edit or delete an account once it is created, switch to Account Manager view and tap and hold the account to edit. A menu will appear giving you two options: editing and deleting. Editing simply lets you alter any of the information you entered in creating an account. Deleting is trickier. Once an account has been synchronized with Money 2000 on your desktop, the account must be deleted from there. If an account has not been synchronized, you can delete it from Pocket Money; however, you must close Pocket Money and restart it before it will allow you to delete the account. In addition to accounts, you can set up categories to track your transaction. It is a good idea to set up several categories to itemize your spending as you go along. If you have an expense account, you will naturally want these categories to mirror the statement you file with your company. Otherwise, set up the categories in any way that makes sense to you. You do not have to make all the decisions at first. As you use Pocket Money, you can easily set up new categories anytime the need arises. To set up categories, tap the View drop-down menu at the Pocket Money home screen. This lets you switch between five functions. Account Manager lists all of your accounts with their balances. It also lets you create new accounts. Account Registry lists all of the transactions for a given account. Categories, what we're focusing on, shows all of your filing categories along with their balances. Investments contains your investments and their current values. All the people you pay money to are listed in Payees. To create a new category, switch to the Categories view and select New. You then enter information about the category. Along with the Name, enter the Type of category. An Income category brings in money while an Expense category pays out money. Decide whether you need a Category or Subcategory. Most of the time you create categories, but you could create a Travel category and then use subcategories under it like Gas, Hotel, and Tolls. Memo rounds out the options. To edit an existing category, double-tap it. To delete it, tap and hold it until the Delete option appears. Enter Transactions. To enter a transaction, switch to Account Register View. If you have created more than one account, use the drop-down menu on the right to select the appropriate account. To enter a new transaction, tap New from the menu. This brings up the transaction screen. At the transaction screen, you enter the Type of transaction, such as a withdrawal or deposit; to which Account to apply the transaction; the Payee to whom the money was paid or came from; the Date of the transaction; and the Amount of the transaction.
After you have entered a transaction, you may discover that you entered something incorrectly. To correct the mistake, simply double-tap the transaction. This will take you back to the transaction entry screen where you can correct the mistakes. However, you are not allowed to change the account or type. To change these, you must delete the transaction and re-enter it. To delete a transaction, simply tap and hold the transaction. A single menu item will appear, giving you the opportunity to delete that transaction. Track Your Investments. Pocket Money has the ability to track your investments and even log on to the Internet to get up-to-date quotes. However, investment information is not synchronized to your desktop copy of Microsoft Money. To track investments, you select the Investments View and enter the name, stock symbol, last price, and number of shares into the computer. Share Data With Money 2000. If you have Microsoft Money 2000 on your desktop PC, you can share data between Pocket Money and Money 2000. To do this, select Money as one of the synchronization options by selecting it in the Options menu of ActiveSync. You will want to set up Money 2000 first before installing ActiveSync because the procedure is complex if you try to install Money 2000 after ActiveSync. For more information, see the Readme.txt file on your ActiveSync CD. While your Pocket PC can synchronize with multiple computers, Pocket Money will only synchronize with a single copy of Money 2000. In addition, Pocket Money cannot share data with Quicken. While limited in its abilities, Pocket Money is a powerful tool for collecting financial data on the go and transferring it back to Money 2000 on your desktop.  by Ronny Richardson |
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