NANY 2010 Release: Piggy Banks

[skwire]

NANY 2010 Entry Information

Application Name	Piggy Banks
Version	v1.0.4
Short Description	Simple fund tracker
Supported OSes	All Windows OS
Web Page	Piggy Banks
Download Link	Zip file (portable)
System Requirements	Windows OS
Version History	Changelog
Author	Profile
Screencast (courtesy of mouser, thanks!)	Here YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGb59DuVZBk

Description
Original idea from mouser here: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=20595.0

Piggy Banks makes it easy for you to keep track of 'fund' accounts where a little money is put away each day.  For example, your family might decide that every day $1 will be put aside to help pay for a new board game.  Piggy Banks will make it easy to see how much money is saved up in the board game fund at any time.

Features

• Track as many funds as you would like.
• Real-time updating of funds and projected completion dates as you adjust the data.
• Export to CSV option.
• Icon turns from a silver medal to a gold medal when your fund completes.  Wooo.

Planned Features
I cater to the people so suggest something.  

Screencast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGb59DuVZBk

Screenshots



Usage
Installation
Unpack the archive to its own folder and run PiggyBanks.exe.

Using the Application
1. Right-click the list (or use the toolbar buttons) and choose "Add fund" from the menu.  A new fund will be added to the list with some default values.  You will see a silver medal icon as well.  This signifies that the fund hasn't been met yet.
2. Name the fund whatever you'd like and change the values as needed using the fields at the bottom.
   a. Goal amount -- This is the target goal of the fund.
   b. Daily accrual -- This is how much you expect to put away daily for this fund.
   c. Kitty -- This is for any extra amount that you want added into the fund.
3. All values are calculated in realtime as you adjust the numbers.  You will also see a projected completion date based on the current values.
4. Once you reach your target goal, via daily accruals and the money in the kitty, the medal will turn gold.
5. Go buy your prize!

Uninstallation
Delete the folder you unpacked the archive to.  Nothing is written to the registry.

Known Issues
It wouldn't be software if it didn't have issues.  Let me know if you find any.

[MilesAhead]

Looks good skwire.  My only suggestion would be some projection for the average rate of inflation for that item.  As example, A Tank of Gas.  Your car holds how many gallons, gallon of gas currently costs $x,  seed money you start with as Mouser suggested.  daily/weekly/monthly chip in amount =   nevermind! I'm walking to work from now on!!

[MilesAhead]

Actually I was only joking a little bit.  If it is to be a long range planner it might be a good idea to have a variable for projected price increase/decrease.  As in some items may inflate quickly whereas electronics/computers may have a predictable price drop over time.  There may be some index somewhere that has that kind of info for consumer items?

[skwire]

Looks good skwire.  My only suggestion would be some projection for the average rate of inflation for that item.  As example, A Tank of Gas.  Your car holds how many gallons, gallon of gas currently costs $x,  seed money you start with as Mouser suggested.  daily/weekly/monthly chip in amount =

The seed money is handled by the kitty field.  You can enter in any static amount there to be added to the fund.

Actually I was only joking a little bit.  If it is to be a long range planner it might be a good idea to have a variable for projected price increase/decrease.  As in some items may inflate quickly whereas electronics/computers may have a predictable price drop over time.

I'm not certain that the intention of this app is to be a hardcore planner or predictor of prices.  If the price of an item comes down, one can easily change the target goal amount, no?  Is this along the lines of what you meant?

[Target]

not sure if this is useful feedback or if it's going beyond the intentions of this app but...

is there any value in incorporating some sort of debit field to this?

I realise this is venturing into the realms of ledgers and the like but it seems like sometimes you might want/need to legitimately debit a fund.  I realise you could do this by modifying the kitty, but there's no details of the transaction so you won't know the who/when/why - this may not be important, but it was one of the first things I thought of when i saw mousers original post

[Stoic Joker]

Can you add a date check so that if fund line item X is a day (or so) behind its goal it changes color and/or resorts itself to the top of the list? (gentile reminder sort of thing)

[skwire]

is there any value in incorporating some sort of debit field to this?
I realise this is venturing into the realms of ledgers and the like but it seems like sometimes you might want/need to legitimately debit a fund.  I realise you could do this by modifying the kitty, but there's no details of the transaction so you won't know the who/when/why - this may not be important, but it was one of the first things I thought of when i saw mousers original post

Hmmm...I think this might be a bit out of scope for this little app. 

Can you add a date check so that if fund line item X is a day (or so) behind its goal it changes color and/or resorts itself to the top of the list? (gentile reminder sort of thing)

To clarify for me, you would like some notification that a fund is about to be met, right?

[Stoic Joker]

Can you add a date check so that if fund line item X is a day (or so) behind its goal it changes color and/or resorts itself to the top of the list? (gentile reminder sort of thing)

To clarify for me, you would like some notification that a fund is about to be met, right?

Not quite, I was thinking it might be nice to draw attention to a fund that has been missed. So if yesterday's deposit wasn't made it would gently remind the user by changing color, or re-sorting, or something like that.

Just a thought
Stoic Joker

[skwire]

Not quite, I was thinking it might be nice to draw attention to a fund that has been missed. So if yesterday's deposit wasn't made it would gently remind the user by changing color, or re-sorting, or something like that.

Oh, I gotcha.  The app automatically assumes you will put the money into the envelope, so to speak.  It just computes a current fund total and completion date based off of the provided numbers.

[MilesAhead]

I'm not certain that the intention of this app is to be a hardcore planner or predictor of prices.  If the price of an item comes down, one can easily change the target goal amount, no?  Is this along the lines of what you meant?

What I meant was if the item price variation could be projected, then you could set it and forget it.  IOW, what's the point of having a planner where you keep adjusting the parameters?  Just use a calculator.   If the inflation/deflation factor is not predictable then 1.0 could be used. If you know HDTV sets are going to drop in price approx. 25% a year and it's going to take you 4 years to save up for it, why not have a way to program it in?
I just figured for long-term save-up it would make sense.

[Target]

Hmmm...I think this might be a bit out of scope for this little app. 

I figured as much, implementing this feature was what stopped me looking at this one...

but it was worth mentioning...

[skwire]

Website | Download
v1.0.2 - 2009-12-31
   ! Column order and widths weren't being saved properly.

[Ath]

The only features that I missed so far are:
- Set a starting date in the past, for the sums I already saved up
- Select a different interval, f.e. every Sunday, or the first or last day of each month
In the last case, then the projected arrival date should be in the same magnitude, I presume.

I may be over-bidding, but I'm saving for a new compiler, and my monthly sum doesn't fit well in a daily accrual  

[Perry Mowbray]

Found a write up at Elite Freeware:
http://elitefreeware.blogspot.com/2010/01/nany-2010-entry-piggy-banks.html

[VictorM]

I'd like to see this ported as a mobile phone application to track things on the move.

[skwire]

@Perry: Hey, cool.

@VictorM: Somebody else will have to do a version like that.  I don't have a phone capable of anything like that. 

[skwire]

Website | Download
v1.0.3 - 2010-01-10
    * Made the "Added Date" an adjustable value.  (Thanks, Ath)

[Deozaan]

I'm just coming across some of your apps for the first time and this one looks cool.

Forgive my ignorance, but what does a cat have to do with "seed" money?

[Deozaan]

I just tried it out. It's very nice. I noticed a couple of things that you may want to fix up:

v1.0.2 - 2009-12-31
   ! Column order and widths weren't being saved properly.

In both the changelog.txt and the built-in changelog from the Help -> About menu, the above version info doesn't be saved properly.

Heh, it would be funny to see a changelog where the only update was correcting a mistake in the changelog. So I suppose it's a good thing I found a couple other issues:

The Help -> Contents dialog is oddly formatted. Lots of indentations and early newlines. Specifically parts 1 and 3.

[attachthumb=#]

And finally, the Help -> About window size is a little a bit too small to read without scrolling horizontally, and when I drag to resize the window, it doesn't save the window size for the next time I bring it up.

Can you tell I'm just looking for a way to use the awesome built-in Check for Updates option?  

[mouser]

Forgive my ignorance, but what does a cat have to do with "seed" money?

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Kitty
"a pool or reserve of money, often collected from a number of persons or sources and designated for a particular purpose specified by the contributors. "

[skwire]

Can you tell I'm just looking for a way to use the awesome built-in Check for Updates option? 

v1.0.4 - 2010-03-21
    * Moved the help contents to a text file.  (Thanks, Deozaan)
    ! Fixed typo in this very file.  Gasp!  (Thanks, Deozaan)