http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ Ratface Studios Forums: Last 35 Posts en Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:11:17 +0000 http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=30#post-70 Sun, 06 Sep 2009 09:29:27 +0000 bao 70@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>With the release of the new version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard, Apple has removed one of the components that is required for Cashcow to work. It is a fundamental component of the application and there's no way of making Cashcow Snow Leopard compatible.</p> <p>If you are planning on upgrading to Snow Leopard, please export the data you have saved in Cashcow first so that you may continue to have access to the data you have built up.</p> <p>I'm sorry for this situation. I am certainly disappointed with this change in Snow Leopard.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=29#post-69 Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:00:14 +0000 bao 69@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi Rick,</p> <p>I'm glad you've decided to try Cashcow out.</p> <p>The idea behind having defined budget periods is so that Cashcow can automate the administration tasks usually involved with spreadsheets. This includes things such as copying over the categories, clearing the previous expenses etc.</p> <p>Cashcow currently has common budget periods of weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly, and also monthly. Everytime you start Cashcow, it checks to see if it should create a new budget based on the current date and the budget period you choose. This eliminates the need for the user to have to worry about setting up new budgets.</p> <p>An advantage of having commonly defined budget periods is simplicity however it has the drawback you mention that you don't have fine tuned control.</p> <p>In your particular situation, the best way is to export your data from Excel as a comma separated file (csv), and then import it into Cashcow.</p> <p>To do this, open a new spreadsheet in Excel. In the first column, paste in the date information (make sure it has the month as a number not a word). In the second column, paste in the amount information. In the third column, paste the description. In the fourth column, paste in the category information. Now save the spreadsheet in the csv format.</p> <p>Back in Cashcow, we should start from a blank slate. To do this, select the File menu, then choose Delete all records. If you have any records you wish to keep, make sure you back it up by choosing File -&gt; Export records (do this before deleting all records). Now that we're starting from a blank slate, you can choose File -&gt; Import records, and choose the csv file you saved with Excel. This will actually popup a dialog where you can choose the start date and end date. In the popup, the budget duration is set depending on the option you chose in the menu Budget -&gt; Change budget duration.</p> <p>The instructions above should allow you to move your data from a spreadsheet into Cashcow.</p> <p>There is a way to track taxable items (although it may not be ideal depending on your perspective). If you add the word taxable to the description, the search option will be able to find it.</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=29#post-68 Sat, 20 Sep 2008 07:21:38 +0000 rickmahmoud 68@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi B,<br /> I just downloaded the trial version. I do appreciate the amount of work it has gone into creating Cashcow to satisfy purpose but also simplicity. Now, one thing that I am not able to do is to be set budget by months or to choose begin and end date for a budget. My spreadsheet has very limited database capabilities but I can set the budget anytime and for any period I want. For example I can do it on a four-week basis on Cashcow (some months have more than 4 weeks) but the program doesn't let me choose the beginning date and end for the budget.</p> <p>For example, I installed the program today, Sep 20 and I would like to grab (even manually) all what has been going on from Sep 1 and copy it to Cashcow and so tomorrow I can continue on Cashcow and abandon excel. But if I choose 4 weeks (closest to the month) Cashcow lets me create a budget from Sep 20 to Oct 18. It seems that even if I want to start a new budget from Oct 1, I better not forget to start it that day, otherwise Cashcow won't let me back date it.</p> <p>Even if I choose monthly, it would be great to choose any begin and end date, even if it's in the past or the future in the calendar. By having date choosing flexibility I can even set a quartely or semestral budget.</p> <p>Also, on the transaction column where the date for the expense appears, I cannot change the date, past or future for that expense.</p> <p>Additionally, I would like to be able to have more columns on the right for commentary on specific expenses (for example: I can write taxable) and then search and track for expenses that are tax deductible.</p> <p>Thanks!</p> <p>Rick </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=27#post-67 Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:04:42 +0000 bao 67@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hello,</p> <p>Reoccuring bills has been on my todo list. I just have to figure out how to integrate it with the user interface. My idea is to have it as a category, and whenever a new period starts, the amount assigned to the category is automatically marked as spent.</p> <p>Anyway, this will probably be added in the next release.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=10#post-66 Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:02:34 +0000 ladylove 66@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>how about reoccurring bills? </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=27#post-65 Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:01:53 +0000 ladylove 65@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Your program would have been perfect if you just had a feature for reoccurring bills. People now have auto billing for everything and need a way to not overspend on that too! ARG<br /> Frustrated and back to square one for program picking </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=28#post-64 Fri, 30 May 2008 06:59:10 +0000 bao 64@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi,</p> <p>Thanks for such great feedback!</p> <p>Your ideas sound very good to me and I will try to incorporate at least some of them into a future version of Cashcow. I also have some ideas for things I want to add to the program but it's going to be a matter of balancing what I can do and how much time I have available. Expect a few changes in the future. And as always, any updates will be free of charge.</p> <p>Thanks,<br /> Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=28#post-63 Thu, 29 May 2008 17:34:48 +0000 Jonny123 63@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi Bao,</p> <p>Love what you've done with this software. I'm still testing it out to see if it fits my needs, though from the looks of it I think it will.</p> <p>I was curious about the Overview Screen, more specifically whether or not you had any plans to expand upon the graph detail at the bottom? Overviews are extremely helpful to anyone trying to watch their expenses. And graphical analysis makes for some easily digestible information.</p> <p>Any thoughts as to introducing an alternate graph view into the overiew screen (or even adding another section to Cash Cow such as "Reports" or "Analysis")? Maybe a pie chart would suit some people better? Or just a straight text table of categories and expenses...</p> <p>Either way, I think just giving the user the ability to set their own specific variables for the graphs would be a huge help (spending for 1 month, 1 day, 1 week).</p> <p>Again, love what you have so far...just throwing out some food for thought! I'd love to hear what you think. </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=27#post-62 Wed, 14 May 2008 20:51:34 +0000 bao 62@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi,</p> <p>I'm pleased to release version 1.2.1 of Cashcow. See <a href="http://cashcow.ratfacestudios.com/release_notes.html">what's new</a>.</p> <p>You can grab it <a href="http://www.ratfacestudios.com/cashcow/downloads/cashcow_1.2.1.zip">here</a> or just open Cashcow and it should automatically update itself.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=24#post-61 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:19:04 +0000 bao 61@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Thanks for the positive feedback ;)</p> <p>I'm happy I could make Cashcow better for those that use it. If you have any other suggestions feel free to let me know.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=24#post-60 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:22:10 +0000 ilya 60@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>hola bao,<br /> i just open the program and i am impressed, everything what i wanted is updated. thks again<br /> ilya </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=24#post-59 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:04:04 +0000 bao 59@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi Ilya,</p> <p>As you know v1.2 of Cashcow has been released which allows monthly budgets now and it works as you specified by starting on the 1st and ending on the last day of the month.</p> <p>To fill out expenses from the beginning of the year, just go back to Jan 1 using the Calendar and add a new category. This should automatically create a budget in January. Once you setup all your categories for Jan, you can go to Feb and click on the Budget menu and then click on Create new budget based on previous budget. This will copy over all the categories you have setup for Jan.</p> <p>I am hoping to add more articles/tutorials to the website in the near future to show how to use all the features of Cashcow.</p> <p>Until then, if you have any more questions just let me know.</p> <p>Thanks,</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=22#post-58 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:59:08 +0000 bao 58@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Just an update,</p> <p>v1.2 of Cashcow has been released which makes unlocking Cashcow as easy as clicking on a link.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=23#post-57 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:58:26 +0000 bao 57@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi Ilya,</p> <p>I've just released v1.2 of Cashcow which displays the remaining column in the correct currency now.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=26#post-56 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:57:31 +0000 bao 56@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi,</p> <p>I'm pleased to release version 1.2 of Cashcow. See <a href="http://cashcow.ratfacestudios.com/release_notes.html">what's new</a>.</p> <p>You can grab it <a href="http://www.ratfacestudios.com/cashcow/downloads/cashcow_1.2.zip">here</a> or just open Cashcow and it should automatically update itself.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=25#post-55 Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:34:38 +0000 bao 55@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Paypal is now working without delays again. Ratface Studios can now send out registration emails without delay.</p> <p>Thanks for your patience.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=25#post-54 Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:43:29 +0000 bao 54@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Paypal is currently experiencing delays in sending notification of payments to our processing systems (see <a href="http://www.paypaldeveloper.com/pdn/blog/article?blog.id=mts_updates&#38;message.id=186#M186" rel="nofollow">http://www.paypaldeveloper.com/pdn/blog/article?blog.id=mts_updates&#38;message.id=186#M186</a>). As such there might be delays between when you have paid for Cashcow and when the registration email containing the license key is sent out.</p> <p>Paypal expects this issue to be resolved within the next 12 hours.</p> <p>I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and I will post again here once this issue has been resolved.</p> <p>Thanks.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=24#post-53 Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:18:40 +0000 ilya 53@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>it sounds great , i am looking fwd for it . it would be great from month to month, january ,february....<br /> thks ilya </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=24#post-52 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:32:39 +0000 bao 52@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi again Ilya,</p> <p>I will try and include all your suggestions into the next version of Cashcow. Hopefully I can release it by the end of the week.</p> <p>Thanks for your suggestions.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=24#post-51 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:17:44 +0000 ilya 51@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>hi again, i read on the forum regarding to have the option of a monthly budget. i would be great from the first till the end of the month. doing it according the calender, budget of january,februray etc.....<br /> another question it is possible to go back to the beginning of the year , 1 of january and , i woud like to fill out my expenses from january till now.<br /> thks ilya </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=23#post-50 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:49:32 +0000 bao 50@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi Ilya,</p> <p>Thanks for your post. I do see the problem. I will try to have a new release out by the end of the week (or earlier if possible) to fix this.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=23#post-49 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:38:42 +0000 ilya 49@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>hi , i just bought cashcow, i am trying to change the currency, i want everything in euros and remaing colum is in us dollar.<br /> my english is not pretty good, i am from oversees.<br /> thks<br /> ilya </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=22#post-48 Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:25:33 +0000 bao 48@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hello,</p> <p>If you are having problems unlocking Cashcow once you have received your registration details, please keep reading...</p> <p>First of all, sorry for any incovenience caused. I'm currently looking at options to automate the unlock process so that the whole experience can be improved. Hopefully you will be able to just click on a link to register the program once you receive your registration email.</p> <p>For the time being though, can you just double check that you're entering your email address and license key into the correct fields.</p> <p>The Registered to: field should contain your email address and the Registration key: field should contain the license key. The click on the Register button. Please see the example screenshot at <a href="http://ratfacestudios.com/cashcow/images/unlock_screenshot.png" rel="nofollow">http://ratfacestudios.com/cashcow/images/unlock_screenshot.png</a></p> <p>Of course, if you still have any problems feel free to shoot me an email at &#98;&#97;&#111;&#64;&#114;&#97;&#116;&#102;&#97;&#99;&#101;&#115;&#116;&#117;&#100;&#105;&#111;&#115;&#46;&#99;&#111;&#109;</p> <p>Thanks.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=5#post-47 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:57:46 +0000 bao 47@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi Lynne,</p> <p>Cashcow was designed to help you track your spending and to keep to a budget. As such it doesn't focus much on income and there is no place to enter your various income sources.</p> <p>If you could expand on what exactly you would like to do, I might be able to help further.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=5#post-46 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:03:09 +0000 lynne 46@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>I need help entering income correctly. </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=21#post-45 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:16:39 +0000 bao 45@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi Scott,</p> <p>I don't think it would be the version of Stuffit that would be the problem. For some reason, Cashcow is not starting up properly otherwise the Cashcow folder in the Application Support folder should be created. And your version of Mac OS X is pretty up to date.</p> <p>Could you please start up Cashcow from the terminal and let me know if there are any messages displayed in the terminal. If Cashcow has trouble starting up for some reason, this should give us some clues as to why. To start Cashcow from the Terminal, open up the Terminal program which you can find in /Applications/Utilities. Then go to the folder that contains Cashcow (for example if you downloaded Cashcow to your desktop, type in 'cd ~/Desktop'). Startup Cashcow by typing 'Cashcow.app/Contents/MacOS/Cashcow'. If Cashcow can't startup properly, there should be some messages displayed in the Terminal. If so, can you post the messages here.</p> <p>Thanks for your patience and hopefully we can resolve this soon.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=21#post-44 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:30:06 +0000 scottbanks123 44@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Thanks for the feedback. There was no folder named Cashcow in the application support folder.</p> <p>I am running OSX10.4.11</p> <p>All menus are inactive/grayed out except the ones in the main navigation bar</p> <p>Is it possible that my version of stuffit is too far out of date and the file is unzipping and installing improperly?</p> <p>-scottbanks123 </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=21#post-43 Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:47:25 +0000 bao 43@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi Scott,</p> <p>That's something strange. Can you please try again by doing the following:</p> <p>NOTE that doing the following removes all the data you have entered. I'm assuming you haven't been able to enter any data otherwise if there's anything you want to keep skip the 2 steps below.</p> <p>1. Delete the folder named 'Cashcow'. You'll find this if you go to your home directory, open the 'Library' folder, and open the 'Application Support' folder. The 'Cashcow' folder should be in the 'Application Support' folder.</p> <p>2. Try launching Cashcow again.</p> <p>If you still have problems after this could you let me know what version of Mac OS X you're using (to check, click on the Apple menu in the top left hand corner, and select 'About this Mac'. The version number should appear in the dialog that pops up.</p> <p>Also could you let me know if there is a file called Cashcow.log in the '/&lt;username&gt;/Library/Application Support/Cashcow' folder.</p> <p>Could you also specify which menu items in particular are grayed out?</p> <p>Thanks.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=21#post-42 Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:59:09 +0000 scottbanks123 42@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>I'm trying to try the demo, but most of the menus are grayed out. It won't allow me to add any content or import a sample file. </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=20#post-41 Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:11:40 +0000 bao 41@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hello,</p> <p>Sure, a monthly budget option sounds easy to add. Could you just explain how it works in a bit more detail? Do you get paid on the same day (e.g. the 1st) of every month regardless of how many days are in the month?</p> <p>Currently Cashcow has the option to set the budget duration to four weeks. I'm guessing this is different from what you mean by monthly?</p> <p>Thanks</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=20#post-40 Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:01:29 +0000 jheiseweb 40@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi,</p> <p>I am living in Europe. We get paid on a monthly base. To be able to use your nice program , I would need this option to be added. </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=19#post-39 Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:40:10 +0000 bao 39@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi,</p> <p>I'm pleased to release version 1.1 of Cashcow. See <a href="http://cashcow.ratfacestudios.com/release_notes.html">what's new</a>.</p> <p>You can grab it <a href="http://www.ratfacestudios.com/cashcow/downloads/cashcow_1.1.zip">here</a> or just open Cashcow and it should automatically update itself.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=7#post-38 Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:38:28 +0000 bao 38@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi,</p> <p>I've just uploaded version 1.1 of Cashcow which allows you to edit dates in the spending screen (if it's in the same budget) among other things. Grab it <a href="http://www.ratfacestudios.com/cashcow/downloads/cashcow_1.1.zip">here</a> or just open Cashcow and it should automatically update itself.</p> <p>Thanks.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=18#post-37 Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:35:32 +0000 bao 37@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hi Matt,</p> <p>I've just uploaded version 1.1 of Cashcow which allows you to rearrange the categories by drag and drop among other things. Grab it <a href="http://www.ratfacestudios.com/cashcow/downloads/cashcow_1.1.zip">here</a> or just open Cashcow and it should automatically update itself.</p> <p>Thanks.</p> <p>Bao </p> http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/topic.php?id=7#post-36 Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:59:50 +0000 bao 36@http://www.ratfacestudios.com/forums/ <p>Hello,</p> <p>Thanks for the feedback.</p> <p>I'm currently putting together a few enhancements to release a minor update. I will definitely look at incorporating your first suggestion into this.</p> <p>As for your second suggestion, it will require thought on how to streamline it into the existing interface without taking away the simplicity which is the goal of the software. Most people would only have one source of income which is their salary, and the application displays the total budget so some quick calculations would suffice. However, if there is enough requests for this feature I will definitely include it sometime in the future. Sorry if this isn't the answer you might be hoping for.</p> <p>In regards to the reports, Cashcow uses Safari to displays the report inside the application. Does Safari display Pdf's ok on your system? If you would like to send me a few screenshots at <a href="mailto:bao@ratfacestudios.com">bao@ratfacestudios.com</a> I might be able to assist further. Also be sure to let me know what version of Safari you're running (to check the version, click on the Safari menu and select About) and what version of Mac OS X. Bear in mind I'm off to celebrate Easter so I may not be able to respond quickly. Depending on what version of Mac OS X you're running, I found the following pages using Google which may or may not be helpful:</p> <p><a href="http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070404013904547" rel="nofollow">http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070404013904547</a><br /> <a href="http://www.eduplace.com/pdf.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.eduplace.com/pdf.html</a></p> <p>Happy Easter!</p> <p>Bao </p>