Roll Your Own: PocketBalance Application

[Brad Isaac]

One of the best ways to learn about programming is to load and work with someone else's code. If you find yourself in the category of programming student, or you simply just need a way to 'predict' your budget from month to month, the PocketBalance Application project might be the answer. The author Chris Cavanagh created and posted the source code + demo to The Code Project.
"PocketBalance is a bank balance forecasting utility. I wanted something that could tell me what my account balances would be next month, without having to put in much effort to keep it up to date.
I’d tried a few commercial money packages some years back, but my bank was a bit backward and it was a pain to integrate the two. I had to manually enter stuff and regularly reconcile things to keep it happy. In the end it was too much bother, and I had more success crawling out of debt with a simple Excel worksheet )
All that’s needed to keep PocketBalance happy is a list of recurring transactions (utility bills, salary etc) and an occasional snapshot of the current balance. It can:
• Manage multiple accounts (checking/current, savings, credit)
• Automatically apply recurring transactions (daily, monthly, fortnightly, annually etc)
• Automatically apply regular credit card payments (for both “pay in full” and “minimum percentage” terms, based on a previous statement balance)
• Show a balance graph you can click on to locate transactions"
Might be a good project for a Saturday Afternoon! Any Comments?

[bkbroil]

I wanted something that could tell me what my account balances would be next month, without having to put in much effort to keep it up to date

I don't need a PPC application to tell me what my account balances will be next month...I'm married....I know what they'll be, next month and every month until the day I die..... ZERO!