S2E06 Thorn EMI Home Financial Management

This episode features Home Financial Management, originally released in 1982 by Thorn EMI.

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Box and Supplement Scans

Scan of the liner for the plastic case:

Home Financial Management in Action

Setup Program

Booting the setup program:

Entering the date (it is not Y2K compliant so use a day compatible year such as 1987 for 2015):

Pre-menu menu. Set the start fiscal month, or reset data for a new year:

Seeing the first budget (fiscal) month:

Setup main menu:

Module 1 – List categories

Listing of selected categories. Income categories are denoted with + and expense (cost) categories with a -:

Module 2 – Enter or change budget

Changing a budget involves selecting the category, and tying the new amount. To span all months from the currently displayed through end of fiscal year, precede input with a *:

Module 3 – Delete, change, enter or select category

First choose the function from the sub menu:

Delete a category by selecting it and pressing DELETE. There is no confirmation, so be careful:

Change a category by selecting it, typing the new name, then choosing Income or Cost:

Adding (Entering) a new category is just like changing one, except you type the new name on the blank line at the top. Choose Income or Cost after pressing RETURN to accept the name:

Selecting categories for inclusion is done by selecting each one and press RETURN to select it. An ATASCII circle will appear next to each one that is selected:

Module 4 – Change opening balance

Change the opening balance by typing the new balance in. After pressing RETURN you can repeat the process or use ESC to return to the menu:

Module 5 – Clear categories

Wow, a confirmation prompt. Confirmations are used sparingly in this program. Press Y to clear all the selected categories:

Module 6 – Finish Run

When completing setup, use this to save your budget and category data. First give your data set a name:

Prep the cassette tape:

After the save completes, the program dumps out (at least in emulation), but not to BASIC. It appears to disable the cartridge before exiting:

Main Program

Booting the main program:

Enter the date (not Y2K compliant, must use a day compatible year in the accepted range: 1987 for 2015):

Prepare to load your data:

Loading your data:

Main Menu:

Module 1 – List Categories

Lists all selected categories. Income categories denoted with +, expense (cost) categories denoted with -:

Module 2 – Enter or change actual

Changing actual amounts for categories. Do this once a month after calculating your totals with some other method (calculator). Defaults to current month:

Adjusted amounts for a month:

Module 3 – Enter or change budget

This is the same as the budget definition in the setup program. Defaults to the current month:

Module 4 – Delete, change, or enter category

The submenu for delete, change or enter:

Delete, select and press delete. No confirmation so be careful:

Changing an entry name. Select and start typing. After RETURN is pressed, choose I for Income, or C for Cost (Expense):

Adding a new category. Just start typing on the blank line. After pressing RETURN, press I for Income or C for Cost (Expense):

Module 5 – Change opening balance

Just start typing to change the opening balance. After pressing RETURN, the balance is updated, and the prompt remains so you can re-enter it if needed:

Module 6 – Analyse Data

There are 7 options for analyzing data (reporting), presented through a sub menu:

1 – Income by month and category:

First choose to send output to screen or printer:

Select month:

2. Report showing difference in dollars:

3. Report showing difference in percent:

2 – Income for year to date:

First choose to send output to screen or printer:

Showing the difference in dollars:

2. Showing the difference in percent:

3 – Costs by month and category:

First choose to send output to screen or printer:

Showing the difference in dollars:

2. Showing the difference in percent:

4 – Costs for year to date:

First choose to send output to screen or printer:

Showing the difference in dollars:

2. Showing the difference in percent:

5 – One category for 12 months:

Choose type of report:

2. Enter the category number. Prompt will appear when you start typing or if you press ESC:

3. Showing the difference in dollars for each month:

4. Showing the difference in percent for each month:

4. Choosing a bar chart. Data is sorted first:

5. Bar chart is presented:

6 – Cash flow:

Choose type of report:

2. Showing the difference by month in dollars:

3. Showing the difference by month in percentage:

4. Showing the data in bar chart form:

7 – Balance by month:

First choose the type of report:

Showing the difference in dollars by month:

2. Showing the difference in percent by month:

3. Showing the data in bar chart form:

Module 7 – Finish Run

First give a name for the data to be saved. It is not a filename, but is written into the data that is saved as an identifier. Don’t overwrite the tape you loaded from in case you want to revert a change: