So, you want to go for a little test drive? Want to see how/if this thing works? Want to send me a 21inch monitor or the DOS drivers for my ancient Sony PAS16-SCSI cdrom drive? Well, read on ...The following procedure will lead you through the process of creating a new account, importing some data, editing transactions, and balancing your account.
First, here is the ``one-paragraph'' version of this manual. To use CBB, first make a directory where you would like to keep your group of accounts. Then, go to this directory, run cbb, and make your account(s). Optionally you could choose to import the default categories, but this can be done at any time. Next, load the desired account (if it is not already loaded) and create, delete, and edit transactions to your hearts content. When your statement arrives in the mail, balance your account. Mean while, you have been printing some reports, viewing some graphs, maybe setting up some recurring transactions, and hopefully managing your money better than before you started using CBB!
Ok, so you've just ftp'ed the compressed tar file. I'll just assume
you know how to uncompress/untar it. Now cd to the newly created directory. If
you have perl installed in /usr/local/bin/perl and wish installed in /usr/local/bin/wish4.0, then there is no need
to install at this point. You can run the entire tutorial from the
cbb-[version] directory. Just make sure cbb and wrapper.pl have executable permissions. If you are having problems
running cbb out of the distribution directory, type make install
and answer the questions.
Now that you have created an account it is time to import some data. (This is to save your fingers from the brutalities of typing.) It also speeds things up. The distribution comes with some sample data just for this tutorial!
Now, that you have some data to play with, try editing a transaction. Then try creating new transactions. Try playing around with ``splits'' and specify more than one category for a transaction. Play around with things until you get the hang of it. You can refer to Section 4.2 for a more detailed description of transaction editing.
Now, lets pretend you just received your bank statement in the mail and you want to reconcile. Lets also pretend that you didn't mess thing up too bad back in Section 3.4.
When your next statement arrives and you run the balance routine, you will only be presented with ``uncleared'' transactions to select. This is a good way to check for old checks that never were cashed ...such as your mortgage payment that got ``lost in the mail.'' Note: by balancing your checkbook in this manner, two good things happen. The first is, when your brother finally cashes that check for $100.00 16 months after you wrote it your bank balance doesn't suddenly drop -$100.00 from where you think it should be. That transaction was always entered and subtracted out of your bank balance. The second good thing is that it is easy to spot these sorts of situations so that you can call up your brother and pester him to cash the check.