Bank Genie
Software for Managing Bank Accounts

by Ideas for Gardens.com
User Guide - Applies to Bank Genie 4 and Bank Genie Pro 4
Last updated: 28th February 2018

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Index

Introduction

Getting Started

Setting Up

Preferences

User Guide Options

Bank Accounts

Bank Groups

Categories

Category Groups

Tags

Manage Transactions

Standing Orders

Process Standing Orders

Online & Downloads

Transaction Analyser

Net Worth

P&L Years and Groups

P&L Reports

Invoices

Password Protection

Database Protection

Quick Backups

Backups (with history)

Create a New Database

Open another database

Restore

Pack

Importing Data

Broken Transfers

Where is everything?

FAQ

Glossary

Common Controls

Index by Program Name

Acknowledgements

About us

Product support

Sponsored Links

Gardening Software
Ideasforgardens.com

 

 

Bank Genie User Guide

Setting Up Bank Genie to your preferences
 

In this section
Choosing your interface - Classic or Treeview mode
The Main Menu and starting programs
The TreeView Program Selection Menu
Changing the photo displayed in Treeview mode
Changing the background for text (Treeview mode)
Treeview Favourites
Treeview Favourites and the Show Program Names Option
Renaming Programs in the TreeView
About Resizing and Repositioning screens
About Resizing and Repositioning the Main Menu
About Window Shading
About Program Versions
Users
Preferences

Choosing your interface - Classic or Treeview
Bank Genie allows you to choose from two interfaces (i.e. what you see on start up):

  • Classic
    This option provides the same look and feel as Bank Genie 3
  • Treeview
    This new alternative allows you to expand and collapse the program options, and more

In both cases, the Menu is ever present at the top of the startup screen.
You can choose your Interface in Preferences and you can change from one interface to the other at any time

The Main Menu and starting Programs
The Main Menu appears along the top of the screen.
Click on a Menu tab, then click on an option in the drop down list to select and start a program.

Note: The Bank Genie application is made up of a suite of individual programs.

Unlike the TreeView Program Selection Menu (below) programs (options on the Menu tabs) cannot be hidden.

When you are running one program, you can click on the Menu Tab (or the Treeview) to select and run another program.
i.e. You dont have to close the first program before opening the second.

If you run a program and click buttons which open sub screens, these screens are said to cascade.
You dont have to close cascaded screens in reverse order.
You can click on any visible screen in the cascade. Screens lower in the cascade close automatically.


The TreeView Program Selection Menu
The TreeView Program Selection Menu is positioned on the left of the Initial Screen when you start Bank Genie using this option.

The Items with + icons correspond to tabs on the Main Menu
Click on a + sign to expand the options, then click an option to run a program.

Changing the photo displayed in Treeview mode
Use the arrow keys below the Treeview to browse through the images supplied with Bank Genie.
Screenshot
Use the Set button if you wish to make your selection the default.

Using your own photos with Bank Genie
You can personalise the system with your own photos.
The instructions are explained on this page

Changing the background for the text shown on the Image in Treeview mode
Three lines of information are shown at the top of the screen, on top of the image
Screenshot

  • Data Source
  • The name of the Active User
  • Information about the Database Security settings

The text is shown on a transparent background on top of the image.
If the text is difficult to read on your preferred image, simply move the mouse over the bottom line of text.
The text is then displayed on an opaque Blue background, until you move the mouse away.
To make the blue opaque background persist, right click on the bottom line of text.
See this Screenshot

TreeView favourites
You can personalise the Treeview by hiding Programs which you rarely use.

Clicking on Choose (the button beside Favourites) takes you to screen MainFrm2
In that screen, doubleclick on a line to select/deselect programs, thus personalising the list of programs displayed in the Tree View. The changes are saved each time you doubleclick.
When you close screen MainFrm2, ONLY items prefixed ***Favourite*** are shown in the treeview
You can click Choose and change your Favourites at any time.

Note: The Main Menu options are NOT affected by the selections you make in choosing Favourites.

Favourites and the Show Program Names option
For support purposes, each program in the Bank Genie system has a short  5 character program name.
This program name is preferred when discussing topics in the forum, and is required when contact ideasforgardens.com for support.
You an opt to hide it (as a suffix) in the TreeView.
Click on Choose (the button beside Favourites) to open screen MainFrm2
Check or Uncheck the Show Program Names checkbox as you prefer.

Renaming Programs in the TreeView.
You can change the text element of Program Names to your own preference.
On the main menu, click the Translate tab and start the program:
Menu Options - BS357
Screenshot

  1. Check the checkbox Allow changes to ENGLISH text
  2. Click on the Menu Option you wish to change in Menu Options list
  3. The Menu Option text is placed in the edit regions.
    Edit the text in the ENGLISH text box.
  4. Click the Save Changes button

The changes are immediately effective (You may have to collapse and expand the node containing the Program Name)
The changes made apply to all Users of the system.

When referring to a program in communication, please use the 5 digit program name e.g. BS421
Do not quote your own names for programs.

About Resizing and Repositioning screens
All screens in Bank Genie programs are resizable and can be dragged to any position.
When you resize a screen, or reposition a screen, the settings are saved on closing that screen.
Thus, next time you run a program, the sizes and settings are applied.

Since sub-screens cascade as you open them, you can organise them in any manner you prefer.
We recommend you do this when you start a program:

Click and hold on the Title Bar, then drag to position the initial screen
Position the LEFT of the initial screen so that the Treeview is visible.
Position the TOP of the initial screen so that the left of the screen leaves the Treeview visible.

There are three ways you can resize windows.

  • Click on the extreme right edge of the window so that a small 2 headed horizontal arrow appears
    Drag to make the screen wider or smaller if necessary.
    Make sure the screen is wide enough to see all the columns.
  • Click on the extreme bottom edge of the window so that a small 2 headed vertical arrow appears and drag to change the height of the window.
  • Click on the bottom right corner of the window so that a 2 headed arrow appears at 45 and drag to change both the height and the width of the window in one move

Note: If you click outside the window, the window will close. Restart the program and try again.

Heres an example showing screen BS421S01
In  this particular screen, it is important that you make the screen wide enough so you can see the running totals in the extreme right column.

Using the previous program screen as an example, a new window will open when you double click on a line to edit a transaction. The new (child) window cascades from the parent (initial screen) and you get something like this:
Screen BS421S03 before repositioning

Heres a tip.
Note how you can see both the Cancel button on the child screen and the Close button on the parent screen in this screenshot.
That can be a little confusing.
Reposition and/or resize BS421S03 so that the screen hides the Close button on the parent screen like this:
Screen BS421S03 after repositoning

About Resizing and Repositioning the Main Screen
For purposes of this discussion, the Main screen is what you see when you start Bank Genie.
In Windows, developers design their applications to start in one of two modes:

  • a) Normal mode
    The application may or may not fill the entire screen of the monitor on start up
  • b) Maximised
    The application fills the entire screen of the monitor on startup

Due to the behavior of Dual Screen Monitors, Bank Genie ALWAYS starts in Normal mode.

Initially, the size is the full screen size on a monitor set to 1024 x 768 pixels, so even the default size will be fine.
You can make the Bank Genie Main screen larger - recommended if you set Bank Genie to display your data with large font sizes (see Preferences) or if you have a wide screen monitor.

The method to make the Main screen larger depends on your hardware configuration.

In either case, this Main Screen setting is saved when you exit the program.
When you restart Bank Genie:

  • The program will open in Normal mode (ALWAYS!)
  • However!!
    the Main Screen size and position will be as you set it last time you used Bank Genie.
  • The settings are stored for each user
  • If you add a new user, the new user can adjust the Main Screen size to his/her own preference.

Please note:
When you open programs within Bank Genie, they are “contained” within the boundaries of the main Screen. Some screens in Bank Genie need to be dragged quite wide to allow you to see all data columns. The larger the font size you select in preferences, the wider the screen needs to be.
In such cases, you may need to resize the Main Screen again to best work with the data.
For these reasons, we advise that you don’t make the Main screen smaller than the default.
A matter of experimentation!

About Window Shading
Using the previous screen as an example, have you noticed how the parent screen was shaded when you opened the child window?
The idea is that the child window stands out clearly from the parent.

Window shading is optional.
You can switch it On or Off in Preferences

Window shading does have a very slight “overhead” in that the program needs a very short amount of time to create the shading before displaying the child window.
If you don’t like this effect, or you find this to be a problem on your computer, try switching Window Shading OFF in Preferences.

About Program Versions
The Program Version is always shown in the title bar of the INITIAL screen of each program in Bank Genie.
In this example screen, the Program version is indicated as Prog.Version:- 7
It is important that you know how to determine program versions so you can keep up to date with Program Updates on the Product Support Website.

Users
When installed, Bank Genie is in a simple form, suitable for the vast majority of customers.
When you start Bank Genie for the first time, you view the system using default settings and preferences. These default settings are associated with a User Profile - known simply as Admin.
After you have become familiar with Bank Genie you can personalise the system
e.g. you can change the name Admin to your own name and change the default settings to your own preferences (Font sizes etc).

Preferences
On the Setup tab on the Main Menu, start the program Preferences - BS498
Set your preferences and click Save Changes
 

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