(Last edited Feb 25, 2008)

If you are self-employed or require to keep track of your expenses, especially if you travel a lot for business, there’s a Palm application that can help you keep track of how much you’ve spent.

The Expense Application helps organize your expenses by allowing you to categorize and set a type for each entry. You can add further details to it by adding a note, specifying the payment type, currency, vendor, place, and much more.

This application is geared for business executives who need to keep track of business expenses, mileage, purchases made in various currencies. Again, although it seems like a good starter application for tracking expenses, the features are quite limited and soon, you find that it falls short of features that you would expect from an expense tracking application.

The Expense program doesn’t allow a running total of how much has been spent, neither for all expenses nor for specific categories. Without such a feature, there’s no way to keep stay on track of expenses and prevent overspending. As well, for anyone wishing to be able to get a good grasp of their spending, this may not be the application you are looking for. Surprisingly the Expense console on the Palm Desktop application does have a running total feature. Huh? Maybe I’m missing something on the Palm version because I was trying it out in the simulator and it doesn’t look like it has that feature. If anyone figures out that there is something I’m missing, please let me know. As far as I can see and test in the simulation (I don’t really want to start Expense up since it tends to load a lot of files in RAM and then have to find a way to get rid of it), I can find the running total feature in the Palm application.

The Expense application seems more like a limited database type application where you can enter data in and categorize them, but there is limited sorting or calculating capabilities. Without them, this application, very much like many of the other default Palm applications, falls short. But, you can still take advantage of the Palm Desktop program in Windows to print out the contents of the Expense application.

Missing Expense program

Many Palm users have recently been complaining that they suddenly have lost their Expense program on both their Palm Desktop and in their Palm. I may not have an exact answer to this but this is what I’ve found out.

Many Palm users will not hesitate to upgrade to the newest version of Palm Desktop or Palm OS, some resorting to beaming applications from a newer device to their older one. Although sometimes it works, it can also create a lot of hassles. With each newer Palm OS, there are changes in the coding and programming and some programs may conflict or not work with an older version. I would advise against trying to get the newer upgrade or application on an older device for that main reason.

Anyway, for whatever reason, many Palm users may decide to download and upgrade their Palm Desktop software and download the latest version to their computer and install it. Only, to discover days later, that their Expense program or Media or whatever is missing in their Palm Desktop or Palm device. The easiest solution is to remove the newer Palm Desktop that you’ve downloaded from the Palm website and re-install the older version obtained from your install CD which is specifically for your particular device. Many users have claimed that installing the older version gets things back. Some even say that if they have the older version and don’t uninstall it but just install the newer version on top that they still have the Expense program.

Apparently, the Palm Desktop 4.1.4E, which is only meant for a new installation for the newer devices (and not as an upgrade for older devices) does change settings in the registry, hotsync conduits, which may cause the deletion of the Expense and other program and files. If you need to download and install an older Palm Desktop version, check out the Palm Desktop download page.

Remember that the Palm Desktop available from Palm is a generic version since many Palm handhelds have different applications that are device specific. For example, the Photos application in the Zire 71 is specifically for the Zire 71. The Zire 72 has a different Media application. Your best source for the Palm Desktop software is your installation CD.

Also, if you have previously deleted the Expense program from the Palm and wish to get it back, you will need to go back to your install CD and go through the Palm Desktop installation and Expense will be re-loaded back. Check out Palm’s article on re-installing Calc and Expense

Simulation of creating an Expense entry

Alternative links: Photobucket

This simulation shows the creation of several Expense entries, showing the various screens and the ability to type and categorize and add notes to each entry.

The simulation will play through to the end unless I’ve inserted a pop up note for specific points.

To continue playing the simulation, press the button.

To go back to a previous paused segment, click on the button.

To pause the simulation at any time, press the button. To continue after it’s paused, press the button again.

To scroll forwards or backwards in the simulation, click anywhere on the left (to go back earlier in the simulation), or right (to go forward in the simulation) on the progress bar.

In this simulation, we create an Expense entry of $24.98, of type Supplies, under a newly created Category of Business Trip. We set it as a Mastercard payment, adding details of the vendor purchased, the city it was made, and adding a note to the Expense entry.

Simulation of creating a mileage entry in the Expense application

Alternative links: Photobucket

This simulation shows the creation of several mileage entries. This is a way to track the mileage from one point to another for business expense billing purposes.

In this simulation, we create a mileage entry of 100 miles under a newly created category of Los Angeles. Next, we create another mileage entry of 50 miles also categorized under Los Angeles. Finally, we change the display preference of kilometers from miles.

I will have to continue this topic in the next posting where I will show the various menus of the application via screenshots.

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