User Guide - Ascendo Money - Personal Finance Manager for BlackBerry - Version 3

Chapter 1 - Overview

Ascendo Money helps you manage your personal finances by allowing you to track income and expenses across several accounts. Ascendo Money provides numerous tools to set budgets, analyze spending, reconcile accounts and forecast balances so you can achieve your financial goals.

Ascendo Money for BlackBerry can be used with Ascendo Money Desktop to combine the advantages of on-the-go data entry with full screen financial planning. The BlackBerry and Desktop components of Ascendo Money contain similar features. You can synchronize data between the two or use them independently of each other.  

Ascendo Money allows you to create an unlimited number of accounts such as Checking, Savings, Debit Card, Credit Card, Retirement, Investments, etc. You can set the currency and starting balance of each account. Ascendo Money will calculate the sum of account balances so you can determine your net worth. 

Each account includes a transaction register to track deposits, withdrawals and expenditures. For example, you could create a personal checking account and record entries for salary deposits, checks you write or debit card purchases. The transaction register displays running and ending balances to help you avoid overdrafts.

You can record several pieces of information for each transaction including the date, amount, payee, payment method, status, category and type. Several advanced features assist you in entering information quickly. For example, as soon as you start typing a payee name, Ascendo Money will suggest payees starting with the same letter, then automatically complete the name and enter default values for other fields.

Transactions can be classified in Categories such as clothes, meals, utilities, etc. You can set up budgets based on the categories you create. For example, you may want to budget $400 per month on groceries. Ascendo Money will calculate the actual amount you spent on groceries and tell you if you are under or over budget. In addition, you can create Types such as business expenses, personal expenses, etc. for more detailed analysis of your spending.

Some transactions occur repeatedly, such as salary deposits or mortgage payments. To avoid entering the same transaction over and over, Ascendo Money enables you to schedule recurring transactions for a payee based on the frequency that you specified.

Reconciling bank statements with transaction registers can be useful to determine if there are fraudulent charges or expenditures that you forgot to make note of. Ascendo Money provides an account reconciliation feature for this purpose. You simply enter the beginning and ending date of the period you want to reconcile. Ascendo Money calculates beginning balance, ending balance, sum of reconciled transactions and the difference, or un-reconciled amount.

Ascendo Money allows you to forecast account balances at future dates. This can be helpful to adjust your spending until the next payday. Ascendo Money will calculate your balance at any date based on your current balance and scheduled transactions.

Analyzing your account activity can give you important insight into your spending habits. Ascendo Money provides numerous reports to facilitate the task. Pie charts and bar charts further your understanding by giving you an intuitive representation of your data.

Ascendo Money includes many other features described in this user guide. Links at the bottom of each page allow you to navigate between chapters or return to the Table of Contents. More up-to-date information and trouble shooting tips may be found on our Frequently Asked Questions page.