Planning of domestic finance – To count or Not to count that is a question...

“Don’t count my money!”. This phrase was said probably by each person whom someone tried to stop from buying of some thing which in this “someone’s” opinion was completely useless or excessively revalued. And I am not an exception. I was awfully furious when somebody planned or counted something for me especially my money. But one day it happened that it was a lot of time till the end of month and getting of salary but I had no money. On the next month this situation repeated. Then it repeated again… And what is more I did not know where my money went! Here I became thoughtful… It was necessary to change something and very fast. Initially I tried to write down everything in a separate notebook but my patience was enough only for a week and at the end of month some unknown expenses appeared again.

A friend of mine advised me to try domestic finance planning program. I decided to read firstly what this program is. Typing in Google «domestic finance planning» and voila! Foreign colleague of our Yabdex gave me result of 140 pages. I began to read. Principle of all programs offered by benefactors was generally the same. All of them are oriented on systemizing and planning of the expenses and incomes. But the main feature of these programs was that all of them are assigned for non-specialists, i.e. for ordinary computer users who have no special knowledge and skills in the field of economics and accountancy.

As I understood today the most popular programs are: Family 2009б Domestic finance, MoneyTracker, Domestic finance accounting, Money of Cyril and Methodius, Microsoft Money, Domestic accountancy, Decart 2.9, 1С:Money, WinBlack 3.0, Private finance accounting, X-Cash: Family budget, Scrooge, CashFly 2.0, ReadyCash, Domestic finance and tens of similar ones.

Such programs are very popular abroad for a long time. The most frequently used ones are: RichOrPoor 3.20, Budget Advisor 2.33, Budget Tracker 2.0, Jigsaw Budget Manager 2.0, tdf Budget 001.001, APSW Budget Planner V4 Enterprise 3.3.19.0, Checkbook Ease Freeware 2.1, ProjectBudgetManager 3.1.

Cost of native ‘domestic accountants’ begins from 300 rubles and higher. But also many manufacturers offer demo-versions which may be downloaded on the site free of charge. Principal difference of demo-version from usual one is not limitation of expiration date but limitation of program’s functions. Rates on the foreign programs begin from 10 dollars though you can find free utilities such as Budget Tracker 2.0, tdf Budget 001.001 and so on.

Usually such programs operate on the various platforms of Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000 / XP / Vista. In descriptions of foreign manufacturers frequently you can see Linux.

As usual utilities take a little space – 2-3 megabytes totally and their demands are not high. But you can meet real giants sometimes. So for example to install Jigsaw Budget Manager 2.0 needs 256 MB Ram, 200MB HDD and the utility costs 5 thousands dollars itself. But such programs are very rare.

Though it seems to cost not so much – 400 rubles people strenuously search for cracks and it cannot but make glad. It means that however people are interested in such utilities and finally our users begin to look closely to the products of labor made by bourgeois and capitalists.

I began to read description to the programs.

To tell the truth this description gave me not so much information. For example see below:

WinBlack 3.0. Easy to use but powerful per its functions program allows monitoring:

• movement of cash money,
• transactions with bank accounts and credit cards,
• status of debts and credits,
• to plan incomes and expenses,
• to break down operations per items and projects,
• formation and printing of various reports per private finances.

The program operates with platforms of Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000 / XP.

Designer: Greensoft Ltd.
Web-site: www.greensoft.ru
Distribution disk: 2.8 megabytes
Distribution conditions: Shareware (2400 rub.)

The program is available free of charge as well but here is some limitations. So for example free version of utility provides for making not more than 64 records.

Or for example, Domestic finance Pro v.1.2.6.1.

The program functions are:
• Accounting of domestic finance for several family’s members,
• Planning of private budget,
• Using of a great number of money depositories (particularly, “Cash”, “Credit card”, “Bank account” and so on),
• Fixation of debts
• Possibility to operate with simple business transactions.

Platforms: Microsoft 98/2K/XP/2K3/Vista.

All of above listed are fine words in which I understand nothing. For a start I decided to download a demo-version. The program “Domestic finance” caught my eye. To tell the truth I expected something like a table in excel format and was surprised at what I had downloaded.

I was impressed by that but however there was necessity to examine it.

First of all it is worth saying that this program is for the whole family. There may be several clients in it. For example such clients as Householder, Wife and Children already exist in the program. In addition there is possibility to create groups, subgroups and to edit the existing ones.

You can manage accounts from the insert "Accounts" or from menu’s item "File – General data". Accounts are classified per several levels as well such as Create, Edit and Delete. It provides for item “Currency” which allows keeping savings in several currencies.

Also it provides transfer of money from one account to another and it is conducted by special form of program which can be activated by means of the button "Transfer" in the panel of program’s quick startup. There is an internal conversion where exchange rate is specified by you.

To start working I had to input profit-and-loss balance and to begin to make different operations. Principally all the rest was enough simple. To learn program itself I spent about an hour and lion’s share of time was spent on entering of the various data. Except incomes and profits I input planned expenditures, existing loans and debts.

And of course there is a section of statistics and reporting where after generating a concrete request you can get a detailed report per requested period. You may look through graphic diagrams which demonstrate visually the whole picture. The reports in the program are presented in Excel format.

3 months passed. And whatever skeptically I was I found out wonderingly that for several months I had enough money for everything and moreover I have possibility to save some money which I input in the magic program as well.

In fine I drew a conclusion that money likes to be counted even in computer. Be lucky in planning of your budget!

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