############## WARNING ######################

********** ALPHA DEVELOPMENT RELEASE ********



THIS IS VERSION 1.1, WHICH IS AN ALPHA RELEASE,

AND VERY, VERY BROKEN.  IT IS FOR DEVELOPERS ONLY!!



IF YOU WANT TO USE XACC, USE VERSION 1.0 INSTEAD!!

##############################################





X-Accountant

------------



xacc is a program to keep track of your finances.  It is similar in

concept to Quicken(TM).  Although xacc still lacks the advanced

features of quicken, it does have the basic functionality.  Some

of the features of xacc are:



  - Multiple Accounts

  - Each account keeps a running balance and

    a reconciled balance, so you can keep track

    of the checks that have clear your account.

  - A simple interface.  If you can use the

    register in the back of your checkbook,

    you can use xacc.

  - QuickFill... if you begin typing a description

    in the description fields, and it matches an

    previous transaction, hitting <TAB> will copy

    the previous transaction.  Handy if you have

    similar transactions on a regular basis.

    (such as depositing your paycheck every week :)

  - Stock/Mutual Fund Portfolios.  Track stocks

    individually (one per account) or in portfolio

    of accounts (a group of accounts that can be 

    displayed together).  

  - Quicken File Import. Import Quicken Version 3.0 

    QIF files.



Advanced Features

-----------------

X-Accountant offers some features not usually found

in simpler accounting programs.

  - Sub-accounts: A master account can have a hierarchy

    of detail accounts underneath it.  This allows similar

    account types (e.g. Cash, Bank, Stock) to be grouped 

    into one master account (e.g. Assets).

  - Double Entry: 

    Every transaction can appear in two

    accounts; one account is debited and the other is 

    credited with exactly the same amount.  With 

    double-entry, a transaction edited in one window 

    will be automatically updated in all other windows 

    showing that transaction, and in both of the 

    accounts.

  - Income/Expense Account Types (Categories).   

    When used properly 

    with the double-entry feature, these can be used 

    to create both Balance Sheet and Profits &amp; Losses

    reports.  For example, savings account interest,

    stock dividends, or paychecks can be marked as 

    both a deposit in a bank account, and as income in 

    an Income account type, using the double-entry 

    (transfer) feature.  Similarly, credit card charges

    can be noted in the credit card account, as well 

    as in a corresponding expense account.

  - General Ledger: Multiple accounts can be displayed 

    in one register window at the same time.  This can

    ease the trouble of tracking down typing/entry errors.

    It also provides a convenient way of viewing a

    portfolio of many stocks, by showing all transactions

    in that portfolio.



Home Page:

----------

http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~rclark/xacc





Running:

--------

The binary-only distribution includes two files: 'xacc' and

'xacc-static'. The former requires a Motif shared library;

the latter has Motif statically linked in.  If you have Motif,

then just run xacc.  If you do not have Motif, then copy 

'xacc-static' to 'xacc'.



Access to the on-line help documentation requires the that

the environment variable XACC_HELP be set to the 'Docs'

directory.  For example, for csh/tcsh, 



% setenv XACC_HELP /usr/local/share/xacc/Docs



or, for bash/bsh/ksh/sh



% set XACC_HELP=/usr/local/share/xacc/Docs

% export XACC_HELP



You can then start xacc at the command-line, with

"xacc" or "xacc <filename>", where <filename> is an

xacc account file.  Sample accounts can be found in 

"data" subdirectory.  *.dat files are xacc accounts that can 

opened with the "Open File" menu entry.  *.qif files are

Quicken Import Format files that can be opened with the 

"Import QIF" menu entry.





Building & Installing:

----------------------

These steps does not apply to binary distributions; only to

source distributions.



Normally, to build and install xacc, all you have to do is:



  # ./configure

  # make depend

  # make

  # make install



You can also build xacc in a seperate directory, which is

useful if you are compiling for several platforms from a

single copy of the source tree:



  # mkdir BUILD

  # mkdir BUILD/debug

  # cd BUILD/debug

  # ../../configure --enable-debug

  # make depend

  # make

  # make install



sorry, no "make install" yet.







Status:

-------

As of version 1.0b11:



xacc is known to work in the following configs:

Linux 2.0.x -- Intel  w/ RedHat Motif

Linux 2.0.x -- Intel  w/ Lesstif v0.81

SGI IRIX    -- 



xacc seems to be having problems with:

Solaris -- Sparc  -- won't compile due to va-args in XmHTML

Linux 2.0.x -- Intel w/ Lesstif v0.82





That's all folks!





Credits:

--------

Robin Clark <rclark@hmc.edu> for original xacc

Linas Vepstas <linas@lins.org> for extensive enhancements

Tom Kludy <tkludy@csd.sgi.com> for SGI Irix port