How to get report into Excel and print a hard copy
of Handy Finance data?

Q: I used the Hi-Finance for my personal needs for 2003. I loved the way it worked on my Palm, I was frustrated in trying to export it to Excel and/or print a hard copy. Do I need another version to do this? I would like to continue using it in 2004 but would like to be able to print a hard copy report of my expenses, transactions, etc.

A: Use Handy Finance Desktop:
http://handysolution.com/FinanceDesktop.zip
This is free lite version of a desktop, it can't edit data and have no install support.

It can view all financial data from palm and save transactions for Excel. Use menu "File - Export report" and select file type "csv", Excel will understand it.

Also take look here:
Hot sync help. I want to sync financial data with my desktop.

Q: One problem that I'm having is that I cannot get the desktop to load on the computer. No icon is created and therefore I can't run the program. Thus, I cannot put the key's in.

A: Download installation package for the advanced desktop from:
http://handysolution.com/FinanceDesktopSetup.exe and run it. During installation program will offer to create shortcuts on desktop, quickbar and program menu.

Q: I worked around and got the desktop to load, but there seems to be two problems:

1. There is no way to export the monthly account balances to excel to keep them

A:

• Import data from Palm.
• Go to the Transactions sheet.
• Enter apropriate date infront of "To" checkbox. This date should be the first day of next month. Then check "To" box. Total will display amount at the end of current month. Also you may check "From" box with apropriate date (beginning of the month). Doing this you will see pure balance of current month.
• Then select "File\Export report", and from file type select "csv". This csv file can be picked up by Excel. It will contain both selected transactions and total. You may drag useful rows to the beginning of the table before saving report, the order will be preserved in csv file.

2. There doesn't seem to be a way to clear out the transactions in order to zero out the account balances for the new month.

A: You may use "Actions\Delete filtered" menu item on Palm. Set beginning and ending date from filters on Palm. Ending date should be last day of the month. Then you will see balance for selected month. By using "Actions\Delete filtered" you will delete selected transactions. Also you may then create resulting transactions with months balance.

Q: Following what you said on the Transaction sheet provides me only an exported report of all transactions. I just want an exported report of all the accounts with their time-sensitive balances (that is to say, their balances for the period of time selected).

What I want to do is dump the data from the accounts into a spread sheet each month, and then clear out the data from HandyFinance. I'll then let the spread sheet keep up with the results on a month by month basis. Is there any way to do this?

A: Exported report provides both transactions and total. You may sequentially save reports for each account and then manually gather totals from different accounts in one sheet. Is this good for you?

Also you may set date filters on Palm for current month. Then select "all accounts" in Transactions table. Then go to the Reports table and select "to account" report. You will see monthly totals for all accounts. Then you can manually type them into Excel sheet.

In next versions of desktop I'll think about advanced reporting features.