Budget 3.2 - Advanced envelopes

Springfield, VA and Minneapolis, MN -- October 17, 2002 -- Ron Hooper and Kyle Hammond announce today that Budget 3.2 for Mac OS X is available for immediate download. Budget is a personal finance application that helps people plan where their money is going and track how well they stick to their plan. Budget also provides a powerful checkbook management capability.

Since version 3.1, more than a dozen new features have been added to Budget. Version 3.2 also fixes several bugs that were present in earlier versions. Some examples of the new features are user defined accounts that can be grouped and rearranged on screen easily, extensive data backup options, enhanced statistics display for both single accounts and groups, and better saving of window positions between launches of the application.

The 'envelope' methodology used by Budget is a much more effective way of budgeting than the 'register' method. "Other programs feature the checkbook register and have budgeting as a side issue. With Budget the focus is in the correct place for planning and sticking to a budget," said Ron Hooper, lead programmer for Budget. "Budget allows the user to pre-allocate where funds are needed to pay their bills. This gives the user a much better insight into where there money goes. Put simply, Budget is proactive rather than reactive."

"I closely monitor email to the tech support address," continued Ron, "and usually respond within 24 hours or less to user's questions and comments. The response we have received about Budget shows the real need for this type of quality software. It's rewarding to hear the users say how much Budget has helped them."

"Version 3.2 has seen us undertake a major rewrite of the account grouping code. Now that 3.2 is complete, we'll be adding more new features that have been requested by our customers," said Kyle Hammond, user interface programmer for Budget. "One of the areas we'll be working on is extending the groups into the investment section of Budget, as well as allowing multiple levels of nested groups. This should be very straight forward due to the flexibility of Apple's Cocoa programming environment."

Budget is US$24.95 shareware and is available for download immediately from . Version 3.2 is a free upgrade for registered users.

Some of Budget's major features are:

Envelope Method - A proactive method of budgeting - set aside money to pay your bills BEFORE they're due.
Define Pay Source(s) - Set up your regular income to automatically distribute funds to various "envelopes".
User Defined Accounts - Set up your account structure (envelopes) according to your needs. For example, group your home utility accounts together to see total statistics for all utilities.
Checkbook Management - Write checks, enter deposits, and balance your checkbook - no need for a "register".
Print Checks - Print personal or business checks, including an image of your signature, on any printer.
Reports and Statistics - See how well you are keeping within your budget.
Powerful Search Capability - Find any transaction using a combination of different criteria.
Savings and Investments - Manage your savings accounts and track your investment portfolio.
Reminders - Repeating transactions, such as monthly bills, can be set up as reminders.

About the authors:
Ron Hooper's career in the Information Technology field spans 30 years; now that he is retired he does programming in his spare time. Ron has been distributing Budget for more than four years. For the rewrite for Mac OS X, Ron enlisted the help of Kyle Hammond. Kyle has been programming applications on the Mac OS for more than 8 years. Ron resides in Springfield, Virginia, and Kyle lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Any questions or comments regarding Budget should be directed to info@snowmintcs.com.