Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!rutgers!att!whuts!homxb!homxc!nms
From: nms@homxc.ATT.COM (N.SCRIBNER)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Personal money management??
Keywords: money
Message-ID: <5484@homxc.ATT.COM>
Date: 10 Feb 89 22:43:21 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T BL Holmdel NJ USA
Lines: 28

I'm trying to decide IF I should get
a  personal money manager program for my MAC+.????
My requirements are:

1. The program should reduce the amount of time I spend doing checks and
reconciling my check book--about 20 checks/mo., 3hrs./mo., which time
includes cross checking some things like credit card statements.
The descriptions of the programs which "write" checks sound attractive,
but I'm not convinced that I would not save any time because:
	a. I would need to load each check laboriously into the Imagewriter.
	b. Much of the time of reconciliation is spent in correlating
		the bank's list with mine--the program would have to
		provide some clever help for this chore.
An interesting glitch is that both my wife and I write checks from checks
with a different series of numbers and we also use ATM machines for cash.

2.  Support basic budget management including 10-15 flexible categories
for debits, about 5 for credits, a way to subcategorize credit card
purchases without double counting the total, a method to mark entires for
tax purposes.

3. Importing and exporting data for compatibility with other applications

4. Modest cost(< $150).

Any advice or suggestions?

Neal Scribner (...homxc!nms)