WISH Checkbook 2009 is a simple, quick, lightweight program for home finance management, written entirely in the Tcl/Tk programming language. To run the program from the Linux/Unix command line, enter wishcheck & . WISH Checkbook probably will also run on any other operating system that has the Tcl/Tk (WISH) interpreter installed, but I haven't tried it.
The features of WISH Checkbook are intended to be as easy as possible to understand. In case you need help with any of them, here are some explanations. (To search for help in this User Help Guide, enter text to search for in the text-entry box at the top of the User Help window; then click the Find button or press the accelerator key, F2. To see if you can get any more help, do it again. First, though, you might check the links directly below this paragraph to see if there's a link for the topic you want.)
MAIN WINDOW
New Account
Used Account
Junk Account
HELP
Color Display
QUIT
ACCOUNT WINDOWS
MINI-TOOLBAR
Copy
Transfer
Schedule
See Sched
Categories
Cancel
Delete
Find
Deselect
Backup
Clear
Balance
Close
FILE MENU
Backup
Backup As
Export .tsv (text-tab-text)
Export .csv (text,text)
Export .html (HTML table)
Roll Over to New Account
Close
EDIT MENU
Add Transaction
Edit Transaction
Edit Copy of Transaction
Transfer
Schedule
See Schedule
Cancel Transaction
Delete TransactionSchedule
SEARCH/SELECT MENU
Find
Select Category
Deselect All
SORT/BALANCE MENU
Sort by Date
Sort by Number
Sort by Transaction
Sort by Category
Sort by Date
Mark Cleared
Balance Statement
MAIN WINDOW
New Account: This button will open an entry box for the name of a new account. Enter the name and click "OK" to create the new account, or "No" to give up on it.
If you click "OK," a new account window will open up and you'll be prompted to enter the opening stated balance. For checking, savings, and any other accounts where you have a positive balance (you hope), enter the closing balance from your most recent bank or credit union statement, if you're confident that it's correct. For loans, credit cards, and anything else that has a negative balance for you to pay off, enter the stated balance preceded by a minus sign, e.g., " -100000.00 " . Don't use dollar signs, commas, or anything else that isn't a numeral, a minus sign, or a decimal point. WISH Checkbook will automatically insert " .00 " if you enter a number with no decimal point. The opening stated balance will immediately be saved after you hit Enter, and you'll be ready to enter some transactions.
Used Account: The names of all the accounts you have created will appear in the main list window. Double-click or right-click an account name to open the account without using this button, or else single-click the account name and then click this button.
Junk Account: If an account is no use any more, select it and click this button to trash it.
HELP: You are here, but only if there's something you really can't figure out on your own. With any luck, you'll never have to see this help guide (well, hardly ever).
Color Display: This button will open up a "WISH Color Picker Plus" box to let you determine what colors will appear in the program's windows. In the box, you'll see sliders to change the proportions of red, green, and blue, and a button to display the color. The sliders go from 0 (none) to 255 (maximum). There's also a listbox containing color names; you can right-click or double left-click to select a color, and then modify it with the sliders if you wish. The "PICK" button displays the selected color, with its name or hexadecimal (base 16) code in black letters if the color is light, or white ones if the color is dark. For example, if you select a color with 255 parts red, 204 parts green, and 153 parts blue, the hexadecimal code (displayed in black letters) will be "FFCC99" because "FF" in hexadecimal numeration means 255, "CC" means 204, and "99" means 153.
To the right of the color names, there's a label that says "CHOOSE COLOR TO CHANGE," followed by a bunch of things you can change the color of (e.g., window background, buttons, boxes, labels, and more). On each line here, there's a radiobutton, then the name of something to change the color of, and finally a little button displaying the current color and name or code of that thing. Click a radiobutton to select a line; then click the big "PICK" button, or a little color button on another line. The color from the button you click will be copied to the color button on the selected line. The change won't show up elsewhere until you click the "Apply Picked Colors" button below the color-name listbox.
Near the bottom left corner of the box, there's a color-scheme listbox with an entry line for adding or changing color-scheme names. Some names of sample color schemes should be in the listbox. (They come from a subdirectory of your home directory, "/home/[you]/.wishes/colorschemes"; the code for each color scheme is kept in a separate, human-readable file.) To apply a color scheme, select it and then click "Apply Color Scheme" (you can also just right-click or double-click the color name). To create a new color scheme, pick the colors for the scheme and click "Apply Picked Colors"; then put a name for the scheme on the entry line and click "Name This Color Scheme" or hit Enter. To revise an existing color scheme, change some colors and enter the scheme name on the entry line (if it isn't already there); then hit Enter or click "Yes" in the box that will ask whether to revise the color scheme. Obviously, click the color-scheme name and "Delete Color Scheme" to delete a color scheme. Finally, click OK to save the currently applied colors as your preferred colors, or Close to close the color-selection box without saving.
QUIT: At once. All account data will already have been automatically saved.
MINI-TOOLBAR
Copy: Single left-click an existing transaction and then click this button to edit a copy of it, while leaving the original intact. Do not click this button after you've edited the copy; that would delete the edited copy from the entry line. Hit Enter instead to add the edited copy as a new transaction.
Transfer: To record a transfer from one account to another, click this button. A list of accounts will open; right-click, double-click, or single-click and click OK to select the account to receive the transfer. Then, in the Transaction box on the entry line, you'll see "Transfer [date] ([number])," e.g., "Transfer 2008/11/25 (2)." The number in parentheses is just to identify the transaction uniquely in case it needs to be edited or deleted; it doesn't matter if one of these numbers gets skipped now and then (like if you cancel a transfer rather than enter it). The "Category" box will have "Transfer: [receiving account]." Don't change this, but you can add a comment after the number in parentheses in the Transaction box.
Schedule: Single-click an existing transaction and click this button to add the transaction to the list of scheduled transactions (very useful for making sure you don't forget to pay bills on time). You'll be prompted to enter the next due date, and to specify whether it should recur in some number of months, weeks, or days. Click OK and it will be added to the list--which you won't see until you click the next button:
See Sched: This will open a box full of scheduled transactions, each one on its own entry line, followed by "Add," "Defer," and "Delete" buttons. Edit a transaction on this entry line if you want to change how it will regularly appear on the schedule in future. If you don't want to, then click "Add" to put the transaction on the entry line in the account window (and remove it from the box until next time, and minimize the box so you can see the account window). This will allow you, if you wish, to make a temporary change that won't show up next time. Whether you make any changes or not, hit Enter as usual to add the transaction to the account list. To defer the regularly scheduled time of a transaction, spin the date for that transaction to the desired later date, and click "Defer." To un-schedule a transaction, click "Delete." Click "Close" at the bottom of the box to put off doing anything about the remaining scheduled transactions.
Categories: Unlike some other financial programs, WISH Checkbook won't force you to enter anything at all in the "Category" box for a transaction. If you do, though, WISH Checkbook will keep track of the categories you've entered, and show them to you in a box when you click this menu item. Right-click, double-click, or single-click and click OK in the box to select a category and enter it in the "Category" box.
Cancel: Get rid of any unsatisfactory transaction on the entry line that hasn't been recorded yet.
Delete: Get rid of one or more unsatisfactory transactions that have already been recorded in the account list. Hold down Control while left-clicking to select more than one individual transaction; hold down Shift and left-click to select an entire block of transactions between a previously selected one and the one you shift-click on.
Find: Find one or more transactions by all or part of the transaction name, category, date, or check number. Hit Enter or click Find after specifying what is to be found; all matching transactions will be highlighted in the list.
Deselect: Un-highlight any highlighted transactions.
Backup: Save all existing accounts to a backup directory specified by you. If you've already selected a backup directory, it will use the same one again without prompting; if you haven't, it will prompt you to select a backup directory.
Clear: Mark one or more selected transactions as cleared, after seeing them show up on the statement from your bank, credit union, or whatnot. Select more than one, if you wish, with Control-click or Shift-click.
Balance: After you've marked all the transactions shown on your statement as cleared, click "Balance" to see whether the bank, credit union, or whatnot agrees with you about how much money is in the account. You'll be prompted to enter the statement closing date and the official closing balance from the statement. Then click "BALANCE" or hit Enter, and proceed to pull your hair out or not, depending on whether your total isn't or is the same as the official closing balance.
Close: Close the account window, but don't quit the program.
FILE MENU
Backup: Does the same thing as the "Backup" button on the mini-toolbar.
Backup As: Lets you specify a new backup directory, and then backs up a selected account (not all the accounts at once) to that directory.
Export .tsv: Exports list contents as a tab-delimited text file, in case you want to (1) read the contents in a text editor without running WISH Checkbook, or (2) import the contents into another program.
Export .csv: Same, except you get a comma-delimited text file.
Export .html: Exports list contents as an HTML table, in case you want to (1) read the contents in a browser without running WISH Checkbook, or (2) print the contents from a program that will print HTML tables.
Roll Over to New Account: Highlights uncleared transactions and asks if you want to roll them over to a new account. If you do, you'll be prompted to enter a name for the new account; the new account will then be created, with only the uncleared transactions in it, and only the cleared transactions will remain in the old account. When the process is complete, the window for the new account will appear and the old one will disappear (but it will still be available from the list of accounts).
Close: Same as the "Close" button on the mini-toolbar.
EDIT MENU
Add Transaction: If hitting Enter to add a transaction to the account list doesn't appeal to you, you can use this menu item. Bet you won't.
Edit Transaction: Ditto. Hit Enter after you've edited a transaction, don't waste time with this menu item.
Edit Copy of Transaction: Guess what. Hit Enter, unless you insist on using menu items whenever possible.
Transfer: You may be getting the impression that not too many menu items in WISH Checkbook do things that you can't do faster in another way. Correct. Use the "Transfer" button on the mini-toolbar.
Schedule:
See Schedule:
Cancel Transaction:
Delete Transaction:
Why belabor the obvious? Use the "Schedule," "See Sched," "Cancel," and "Delete" buttons on the mini-toolbar.
SEARCH/SELECT MENU
Find:
Select Category:
Deselect All:
Here we go again. Use the "Find," "Categories," and "Deselect" buttons on the mini-toolbar.
SORT/BALANCE
Sort by Date:
Sort by Number:
Sort by Transaction:
Sort by Category:
At last, some menu items that do things you can't do with buttons. Right?
Wrong. Click the Date, Num, Transaction, or Category button at the top of the corresponding column to sort the list by the contents of that column. Note well, however, that the balances won't be correct unless the list is sorted by Date. That's why--after, um, a couple of mistakes in this regard--I made the program automatically sort by Date before it proceeds to balance a statement (see below).
Mark Cleared: Use the "Clear" button.
Balance Statement: Use the "Balance" button.
To send me inquisitive or helpful messages with no flames in them, e-mail me at <mcclamrock@locl.net>. Especially, please let me know if you find any bugs or omissions, so I can correct them in the next version of the program. I hope you like this program, or find it useful, or both!
David McClamrock
November 2008