Budget 3.1 - Better statistics and advanced backup options

Springfield, VA and Minneapolis, MN -- August 1, 2002 -- Ron Hooper and Kyle Hammond announce today that Budget 3.1 for Mac OS X is available for immediate download. Budget is a personal finance application that helps people plan where their money is going and track how well they stick to their plan. Budget also provides a powerful checkbook management capability.

Version 3.1 of Budget adds several new features and fixes some minor bugs. Account statistics can now be viewed in either tabular, line or bar graph modes. Automatic backup files can be saved on a user specified hard drive or in the same location as the original file. The account transaction history windows can be sorted by a number of different criteria such as date or amount of the transaction. Changes have been made to ease localization into other languages for future releases.

Ron Hooper, lead programmer for Budget, is greatly involved in providing tech support to the users of Budget. "You just can't get this kind of support from programs like Quicken," said Ron. "I closely monitor email to the tech support address and usually respond within 24 hours or less to user's questions. I want to provide the best tech support possible to our users so they can experience the full capability and usefulness of this great application."

Kyle Hammond, user interface programmer for Budget, is capitalizing on Cocoa's ease of use for developers by adding new features that are a bonus for the user, such as spring loaded envelopes. "We are able to add new features using Cocoa faster than with any other development environment I've used," said Kyle. "We have big plans to enhance Budget in the future."

Budget 3.1 is US$24.95 shareware and is available for download immediately from . Version 3.1 is a free upgrade for registered users.

Some of Budget's major features are:

Envelope Method - A proactive method of budgeting - set aside money to pay your bills BEFORE they're due.
Define Pay Source(s) - Set up your regular income to automatically distribute funds to various "envelopes".
Checkbook Management - Write checks, enter deposits, and balance your checkbook - no need for a "register".
Print Checks - Print personal or business checks, including an image of your signature, on any printer.
Reports and Statistics - See how well you are keeping within your budget.
Powerful Search Capability - Find any transaction using a combination of different criteria.
Savings and Investments - Manage your savings accounts and track your investment portfolio.
Reminders - Repeating transactions, such as monthly bills, can be set up as reminders.
"To Do" system - Keep daily lists of things that need to be done.

About the authors:
Ron Hooper has been distributing Budget for more than four years. Ron is retired and does programming in his spare time. For the rewrite for Mac OS X, Ron enlisted the help of Kyle Hammond. Kyle has been programming applications on the Mac OS for more than 8 years. Ron resides in Springfield, Virginia, and Kyle lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Any questions or comments regarding Budget should be directed to info@snowmintcs.com.