$CHANGE$ Accounting

CHANGE is an acronym for "Comes Hard ANd Goes Easy"
CHANGE also refers to money

March 25, 2000

This is a pre-Alpha release.  The reason I am releasing $CHANGE$
to the public is for feedback purposes only, at this time.

I have wanted to developing an accounting application for several
years, and finally decided to tackle the project.  My inspiration
for the basic design was an old DOS app I used to use called
MoneyCounts from Parsons Technology.  Parsons was bought by 
Intuit and of course killed MoneyCounts.  But I liked its operation.
For several years I've been using an OS/2 app, but it wasn't the
same. I ran MoneyCounts again after Y2K to see what would happen.
As old as it is, it ran fine, but it's not OS/2.

Presently, I've just finished the basic engine for $CHANGE$ - you
can conduct basic transactions (I do mean basic) for testing 
purposes, such as make deposits, enter checks, pay expenses, etc.

In its present state it makes heavy use of the mouse, so there aren't 
keyboard shortcuts.  For moving from account to account the mouse
is the best anyway.

$CHANGE$ uses double-entry accounting just like MoneyCounts.  For
instance, if you write a check for your electricity payment, the 
other side of the transaction would be the account you create as
an electrical Expense account.

There's no online help at this time.  Basic operation should be
pretty easy anyway.

With all the interaction capabilities between accounts, there are
very likely to be plenty of bugs as well.  Reporting of bugs is
not my primary goal at this time.  What I'm after is feedback on
the interest there would be in $CHANGE$.  I realize that many, many
features need to be added, but the basic operation is what I like
about $CHANGE$.  If others like the basic operation as well, I will
try to release $CHANGE$ at Warpstock in Sept.  If no one likes it,
then I simply won't persue it any further and continue to use my
present OS/2 accounting app.


************************ Installation **************************

$CHANGE$ is developed with VisPro/Rexx and Object Rexx.  If you
wish to try $CHANGE$, you'll need to switch from Classic Rexx
to Object Rexx by running x:\OS2\SWITCHRX.CMD.  For those of you
using Object Desktop like I do, Object Rexx is fine, just don't 
run WPSINST.CMD, it's not needed.  Don't forget to reboot.

Just create a directory anywhere and put the files in it.  Just
run CHANGE.exe.  I've included a few basic accounts already.  You
can delete then, make your own, or just delete $CHANGE$ if you
simply hate it.

At this time I haven't checked it out on different screen
resolutions, so it could be very ugly on some systems.

If you try $CHANGE$ and wish for further development, please send
me an e-mail.  Believe, my wife can find a zillion others things
for me to do.

Terry Norton
ccsten@usa.net

OS/2 user since version 2.0