By Jim McCarthy
QMate is a portable financial tracking solution for the PalmPilot available in English, French and German. It allows you to maintain your Quicken accounts on the PalmPilot in an organized, easy-to-navigate interface. In addition, QMate offers functions including memorized and quick-fill transactions, importable Quicken categories, split transaction between multiple categories, multiple accounts of bank, cash and credit types, and complete synchronization between your PalmPilot and your desktop Quicken. QMate is also compatible with Quicken 98, MS Money and the new Palm OS3. This article assumes you're familiar with Quicken.
Using QMate
QMate's simple interface will you allow to quickly open an account and track your finances without investing a lot time reading user manuals and help documents (even though it's a good idea to read them anyway).
When you first start Qmate, you will create a new account and select its type; either cash, credit or bank. You will also establish an account name, as shown in Figure A, and an opening balance. This account will store your QMate transactions for synchronization with your desktop Quicken, and allow you to navigate between multiple accounts.
FIGURE A
This is the screen you will see when establishing a "New Account".
Now you're ready to start recording transactions with QMate. The fastest way to open an account is by double-tapping on the title of the account you have just created in the Accounts screen. You can also highlight the account's name and balance by tapping on the account title once. Then tap the transactions button. Either method will display QMate's transaction register for the account selected, as shown in Figure B.
FIGURE B
This screen displays your transactions for a specific account.
Recording your first transaction is as simple as clicking New. Upon tapping this button to create a new transaction, QMate's New Transaction screen will appear.
The screen is designed to feel much like your checkbook register and Quicken's desktop interface. The first field is the date, followed by the check number and Payee, proceeded by the transaction or deposit amount, and then the category and memo. Splitting a transaction between multiple categories is as simple as tapping the Split button. This will display the Split Transaction screen, as shown in Figure C.
