[moneytalks] Re: Beta: thoughts on speeding up clearing transactions while reconciling on telephone
- From: "Robert" <rrehahn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <moneytalks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 09:48:37 -0400
Hi,
Steve here,
I ment it would be like pressing control plus enter then control plus h. There
may be other little typos in my message, but I think it is clear. And with the
old DOS Talking Check book, it was the page up and page down keys to move
between uncleared transactions, not the up and down arrow keys.
Man, I thought I had proof read my message. <grin>.
Steve
----- Original Message -----
From: Robert
To: moneytalks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 11:41 AM
Subject: [moneytalks] Beta: thoughts on speeding up clearing transactions
while reconciling on telephone
Hi Rob and MT folks,
Steve here.
I've found it almost impossible to do real time clearing of transactions
while using the bankings telephone system. Usually you get about five seconds
per transaction before the next one is verbalized over the phone. I can use
the .qif downloads, and sometimes I do that, but I have the following ideas for
improving clearing transactions while using the telephone.
First let me preface by saying while I was using the old DOS based Talking
Checkbook program, a nice one for it's time btw, it had one big advantage over
mt in clearing transactions. All you needed to do was use the up or down arrow
keys to listen to uncleared transactions, and you'd automaticaly hear the check
number, if it was a check, the amount and date. You'd know right away if this
was the transaction you wanted to clear and you'd press the correct keystroke
to clear that transaction. If it wasn't the one you wanted, you'd press the up
or down arrow again to find the next one. And once it was cleared from the
list, you'd not run across it again during that clearing session, it would
automatically be removed from the uncleared list. I was able to clear
transactions on the fly using the telephone system. I'm not able to do it with
money talks, at least when more than about four or five transactions appear. I
slowly fall behind.
Right now, you'd use shift plus x to jump to the status column, or or I think
it's alt plus v then u. After displaying only uncleared items, you may have to
quickly jump to the item field and type the check number if a check, and clear
it, and since you are now restricted to just one transaction, you have to press
escape to open the full register view, and then start over again. And on it
goes. If restricting in the amount field , you have to press a minus key or
plus key for negative or positive amounts, and if you have more than one result
in the restriction, you need to up or down arrow to locate the one you want
before clearing it, press escape and start again.
Here are my notions:
1. Create a special hotkey in the restrictions menu or whatever, with its
corresponding lettter in the status column. This hot key would restrict the
view to only uncleared transactions, and hitting escape will not open the view
to the full register. You must again press the hotkey to get out of this mode.
You'd go into this mode when you are reconciling your account over the
telephone.
2. In this mode, when you restrict the view to only one result, for instance
typing a check number in the item field, after you clear the transaction, the
program also hides the transaction from the currently restricted group of
uncleared transactions. It would then re-display the remaining list of
uncleared transactions. It would be like hitting ctrl plus e followed by ctrl
plus h. Remember, pressing escape will not be needed at this point. In fact,
escape will do nothing. Option 3D below, about the chime, would also apply.
3. While restricting in the amount field to search for a given transaction:
A. simply type keys on the number row to restrict to negative, (that is
debit), values. No need to type the minus key first before typeing numbers.
Example: instead of typing minus, one, three, decimal point to restrict to all
debit transactions in the $13 range, you'd just type one, three, decimal point
in the amount field.
B. To restrict to positive (credit amounts), in the amount field preceed the
numbers with the press of the space bar. In other words, replace the plus sign
with the space bar. Easier to do and quicker.
C. If there were a way for the program to search in either the amount field
or the item field when you restrict using numbers, this would mean you wouldn't
have to press shift plus A, or home key, to first go to the amount field, or
shift plus I to go to the item field before typing in digits. This may not be
as simple to do though. On second thought, if the only viewable columns in
this special clearing mode were the amount, payee/payer, date and item, then
you'd just press the home for the amount field and the end for the item field.
Maybe this restricted view could be an option check box. Some people might
still want to see the memo and cat, and subcat fields, even in this mode.
D. If it turns out that your typing results in one restricted transaction,
the program could automatically speak the transaction so that you'd know you
have but one transaction. No need to use the up or down arrow keys to
determine if the restriction you are viewing is the only one, or part of a
group. Or if this isn't possible, because of the nature of the speech program
or keyboard speech interruptability issues, then MT could emit a musical chime
when the restricted view only shows one match. You'd know audially that there
are no others and you won't spend time searching for other possible matches
that aren't there. You'd know right away to clear the transaction and move on,
saving time and keystrokes. Maybe this musical note could be a general feature
of MT when you have but one transaction in a restriction. If this idea could
be implemented across the program, regardless of working in this special mode
or not, that would be good. As I write this I think that might require the
need for two sounds to occur at times, for example, the click sound for
uncleared items and the musical note for only one transaction in view. Maybe
it might prove easier to do this only in this special telephone clearing mode.
E. Clearing this transaction would hide it from the list, leaving you with
the remaining uncleared transactions.
4. When finished in this mode, press the hotkey to leave it. Or the program
automatically leaves the mode when you've cleared the last available
transaction. But some kind of audio indication of leaving the mode might be
good, especially if the program auto-exits the mode. Just thought of this.
Maybe a certain musical pattern when entering the mode is played and the
reverse pattern is played when leaving. This part could be overkill.
Just some thoughts.
TIA,
Steve Zielinski
"I purr, therefore I am"
-- Descates
1596-1650
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