help

Overview

First, this is a summary of how CheckMATE works to let you know how much money you can spend from your checking account! When money goes into CheckMATE, it goes into a spending category named “Unallocated.” You transfer money to the spending categories you set up. When money comes out, it is subtracted from the category you designate. A simple report shows you how much money you have in each category.

Now, if your car payment is due in two weeks, you will still know if you have enough money to buy new clothes. There is no more nagging feeling wondering if you’ll have enough to pay the rent or house payment when it’s due! CheckMate tells you exactly how much you can spend!

Setting up CheckMATE

The first time you run CheckMATE, you will be asked to enter your beginning balance.  You can get this number from your online bank’s web site (preferred) or from your check register.  You will also be asked to enter your last check number.  After that, just press the OK button.  You’ll get a confirmation message and be prompted to establish your spending categories.

Establishing your spending categories

The Establish Spending Categories form is so simple. Just enter a category that you use and need, then press the OK button. For example, most people have a category called “Groceries”. You may want to think about how and where you spend your money. Alternatively, you can set up categories as you spend money. There are three important things to keep in mind:

1. Everyone has a spending category named “Unallocated.” This category is required and cannot be changed. You’ll see how it is used when you learn how to make a deposit. This is what this screen looks like when you first open this screen:

   

2. You may have up to 99 categories or as few as you want. You may name them anything you like! It’s up to you.
3. You can always go back and add another spending category!

The spending category names are tied directly to the amounts you deposit and spend. Therefore, an existing category name can’t be changed (unless you want to start over with a new setup — and that’s easy to do — more about this later.)

Here is an example of how this form looked after I added spending categories for our family:

When you are finished adding categories for now, just press the “X” at the upper right hand corner to close the form and return to the main screen.

Make a deposit

This is so easy! Open the form, change the date, if necessary, enter the deposit amount (be sure to enter a valid number with two decimal places and no comma) and press “OK” to save. The deposit is saved and added to the spending category named “Unallocated.”

Post a payment

There is just a little more in this form. Open the form and either accept or change the date.

Next, you’ll have a drop down list box with three options. Select “Debit”, “ATM” or “NextCheck”.

If you select “NextCheck”, your next check number will appear next to the transaction type drop down list box. You may override this number if you need to do so.

Next, enter the payee (the person or business to whom this payment should go) and the amount. Be sure to enter a valid amount with two decimal places and no comma.

Now, use the drop down list box to select which category this payment belongs to. You can see an example here:

Finally, if this is a tax-deductible item, select “yes”, otherwise just accept the default “no”. Press OK to save and you’re done!

Transfer funds between categories

This is another super simple form. When you select a category to transfer from, the amount in that category will display under that category’s text box. The same happens with the category to transfer to.
When you add your beginning balance to CheckMATE and every time you make a deposit, you can transfer funds from the “Unallocated” category to any category you like. You can also transfer funds from any other category to a new category. You are always in control of how you’d like to allocate your money.

Browse check register

You can see your transactions in this form. You’ll see the beginning balance you entered, all other deposits and the payments you’ve made.

If you made a mistake or need to change the amount of a transaction, you may change it here. Please notice that you can also change the column named “cleared” to “yes” once your transaction has cleared the bank.

As was stated in the “Establish categories” section, the categories cannot be changed. If they were to be changed, the amounts of money in each column could not add to their correct totals.

This screen does have one known issue. After you change the value in a column, you have to move your cursor to another row on the grid before it saves your change. I’m sorry you have to do this extra step. We tried and tried to come up with a solution but that’s the price of doing a system like this so inexpensively.

Speed Buttons

You will notice several speed buttons on the main form. These will display a hint if you hover your mouse over them. They’ll help remind you of their functions if you prefer using them to the traditional menu. Left from right, the speed buttons are just an alternate way to get to the make a deposit, post a payment, view the “Available to Spend” report and transfer funds between categories forms.

Available To Spend Report

When you click on this menu item, the report displays automatically. You will see the amount you have on hand to spend for each category. The last line shows the total amount of funds available in your checking account. There are several buttons at the top of this report that will allow you to print, set up your printer, save and close this report.