Debt Management Software Tool: Online Help and Guide

Debt Management Software Tool Help

Debt Management Tool is a software program designed to help people in debt manage and understand their financial situation. By entering in your income, debt, and expenses, you can compute your debt situation and figure how long it will take to pay off your debt. By checking off expenses as either "needs" or "wants" you can determine how much quicker you can pay off your debt by making some sacrifices in your monthly expenses.

All the data is organized by month. You enter in monthly expenses, monthly income, and current loans or credit card debt along with the interest rate. The program will sum the totals and tell you how long it will take you to pay off all your debt and become completely debt free. You can include or not include expenses into the "needs" total by checking and unchecking the "needs" box.

All of the names or labels for expenses and loans/debt can be customized to fit your needs. For example, you can change "rent" to "mortgage" or if you don't have school costs, you can change "school" to "movies" if you spend a lot of money on movies. There are 30 customizable expense items and 10 customizable debt/loan items. If you need more you can combine items.

Disclaimer: TSI and www.debtmanagementtool.com are not responsible for any errors or bugs in this program. TSI is not responsible for any loss of any kind by the use of this program. This program is given away as is and is to be used for educational or study purposes. TSI is not a financial advisor and the Debt Management Tool should not be use as a financial advisor. Please consult professional help when needed. Please see our full disclaimer in the License and Terms file that was included in this software package.

Creating Custom Field Names in Debt Management Tool

Debt Management Tool allows you to change the field/label names for both the expense entries and the debt entries.

This is done by selecting "Custom Labels" from the main menu and then "Set Up Custom Expense Labels or "Set Up Custom Debt Labels". From the Set Field Names window you can change any of the field names to your own designator. When you are finished making changes, select the OK button and the changes will be made throughout the program and printouts. To go back to the original names, select the "Reset to Defaults" button and all of the names will be reset.

There are some necessary limitations to this feature however. These include:

1) All of the names must be 9 characters or less. This will allow most names to fit in the space provided under most circumstances. There may be some instances where the name will not fit and the screen text or printout will not look right. 2) The basic function and structure of the field will not change.

Handling Debt Management Tool Files

Backing Up Your Files

Always be sure to back up your data. To back up your data to a diskette or CD rom follow these steps. Have the data that you want backed up on open on your screen. Use the 'File' menu. Select 'save Debt Manager file as'. A window will pop up the default file name *.dmt. Replace the * with your new file name. Select the 'a' or 'e' drive and click okay. You have now successfully backed up your data. Note: We are not responsible for lost data.

Creating a New File

To create a new empty Debt Manager file, pull down the "File" menu and click on "New Debt Manager File".

In the standard file selection dialog box titled "Create New Debt Manager File", select the disk drive and folder to receive the new file. Then enter a file name. It is normal, but not necessary, to use an extension of .dmt. If you have named a file that already exists, you will be asked whether you want it replaced with a new empty Debt Manager file. If you answer "No", the process is abandoned and the existing file is unharmed. If you answer "Yes", the existing file is deleted.

Opening an Existing File

To open a different Debt Manager file, pull down the "File" menu and click on "Open Debt Manager File".

In the standard file selection dialog box titled "Open a Different Debt Manager File", select the disk drive and folder and filename of the Debt Manager file you wish to process. This dialog box requires you to name an existing file that was created by Debt Manager. You can abandon the process by pressing the "Cancel" button or the "Close Window" icon.

Renaming a File

To save a Debt Manager file under a different filename, in a different folder, or on a different disk drive, pull down the "File" menu and click on "Save Debt Manager File As"

In the standard file selection dialog box titled "Save Debt Manager File As", select the disk drive and folder to receive the renamed file. Then enter a file name. It is normal, but not necessary, to use an extension of .dmt. If you have named a file that already exists, you will be asked whether you want it replaced with the renamed Debt Manager file. If you answer "No", the process is abandoned and the existing file is unharmed. If you answer "Yes", the existing file is deleted.

After the file is saved into the new filename, Debt Manager redirects all new changes to the new filename.

Printing a Summary Report in the Debt Management Tool

The Debt Management Tool allows you print a summary report of your current debt entries.

To access the report select Report from the main menu. Then select Print Main Report.

You will then be shown a sample screen of the summary report. If you are satisfied that the report is correct press the printer icon and the report will print.

Printing: The report should automatically print to the default Windows printer. How this works may vary from computer to computer. Depending on your network set up, this may not work when printing to a networked printer.

Running the Debt Management Tool for the First Time

The first time you use Debt Management Tool, it will open the Example file called Example.dmt. If the example file is not found, the program will automatically create a new file for you called "NewFile.dmt". To rename this file just go to the File Menu and do 'Save Debt Manager File As'. After you have created your first file, Debt Management Tool remembers the last file you were using.

Once you get a file open, enter in any data you would like into the text boxes. You can enter in as many or as few of the fields as you would like. The data from each entry is automatically saved in the current open file when you exit the program or select another entry.

There are three main sections to the main screen 1) Monthly Expense 2) Monthly Income 3) Debt. Enter in as much data as you want into each section.

Tip: Be sure to have the file opened that you want to make changes to.

The Debt Management Tool Main Screen

There are three main sections of the Debt Management Tool's main screen. Each of these sections allows you to enter different types of data on your debt and monthly expense situation. They are described below:

Monthly Expense Section

The monthly expense section is where you can enter all your expenses. There are 30 total entries. The name of each entry can be changed to match your expenses via the "Customize Labels" menu at the top of the screen. You can check off if you consider your expense a need or a want. By checking off an expense as a need it will be caculated in with all the "need" totals in the program. This allows you to check and uncheck items to see how they impact your ability to become debt free.

The bottom of this section gives you your expense totals for all your needs, wants, and your total expenses (needs and wants together).

Debt Section

In the debt section, you enter in all your current loans, mortgages, credit cards, etc. You can enter in the balance and the interest rate allowing you to see your total debt as well as the amount you are paying per month for interest alone.

Income Section

The income section is where you put your monthly income. You should enter what you bring home after taxes and any other deductions. This section also shows the totals for what you have left over from your income after the needs and wants you entered into the Expense Section. It then shows how many months it will take you pay off your debt considering the left over income. Note: if the number is in () then it's a negative number and you need to go back and take a harder look at your needs.

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