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Household accounts on the PC
Managing household expenses and income, knowing whether there are funds to tackle new projects or if it is time to tighten your belt, and organising the larder, are all tasks which can be performed using the PC.
There are many computer applications for managing household accounts. Practically all companies in the sector have products for managing household finances, preparing budgets, being on top of when payments are due, and knowing the volume of expenses and income by month. It is not necessary to be a numbers expert to learn how to use these applications; your children can help you if you are not confident in front of the computer. They are part of the technology generation and will intuitively understand any instruction or language.
In general, all of the applications are similar. They usually include lists of expenses and income so that you can fill in the relevant amounts in each column. They also include entries with the total amounts, grouped by months, so that you can view the differences between one month and another, which will enable you to identify which are the months when you receive the most bills, and to plan your household finances accordingly. Some applications have calendars displaying payment due dates and solutions which alert you to outstanding payments so that by having a quick look at the beginning of the month, you will know the forecast for the coming weeks.
The Excel spreadsheet
Excel is one of the office management solutions making up Office, from Microsoft, and is the most commonly used application in the world for managing household and business accounts. It is very easy to learn. Within a week you can familiarise yourself with the basic concepts such as cells, rows, columns and ranges, and you can start to perform basic spreadsheet operations. You will learn how to insert cells and rows, to combine them, to view the sections from an overall perspective using the pull-down menus which form part of the application, and to print the spreadsheets correctly.
Microsoft has just released Office Home and Student 2007, which includes Excel 2007. It enables you to create up to a million rows and 16,000 columns, as well as viewing tables much more quickly and efficiently, in order to draw conclusions and carry out the pertinent analysis.
Databases
Databases are a very useful tool to complement spreadsheets. They allow you to order and organise all kinds of household products. Microsoft’s solution for this utility is Access, a perfect application for organising books and CDs by author, theme or publisher, as well as storing menus or recipes by ingredient, calorie content, preparation time, etc.
The 2007 versions of Access and Excel have improved graphics, offer greater data storage capacity and more functionality to enable you to access the information using more categories or variables, and have improved ordering and filtering tools compared to previous versions.
If you decide to purchase one of these applications, we recommend that you speak to a sales professional or to a friend that uses them. It is important that you do not go for products which are overly complex or sophisticated if your needs are basic. The latest versions are not always the most appropriate for people who are not used to working with a PC. In such cases, it may be better to go for older versions which cover your needs perfectly and are easier for you to use. You should also assess the reputation of the tool you purchase and its compatibility with other PC applications, as well as the performance an older version has given. Address all of these issues and choose the one which most suits you.
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