You probably have many types of transactions where the exact same payment amount is transferred on a regular basis. Some examples of this are a weekly direct deposit of your paycheck, a monthly rent/mortgage payment or an automatic transfer to a retirement account. Instead of retyping these duplicate transactions over and over again, you can type them just once using the Transfer screen, then have them entered automatically to your Account Ledger with the Update Transfers utility.

How to enter regular transfers

1. Select the account where the transaction will occur from the Show: menu.

2. Touch {Trans icon}

3. The Regular Transfers window appears. Press New Entry on your Zaurus keyboard to bring up the New Transfer window.

4. Enter the date of the first transfer. Z-FINANCE automatically inserts today's date on the screen. To change the date, touch the Date screen button. A calendar appears on the screen. Touch the left and right screen arrows to set the correct month. Then touch the date to enter it.

5. Type in the name of the person or institution receiving the payment in the box titled Payee.

6. If you are paying by check, type in the check number in the box titled Check No. {?}

I assume {?} highlights the point that Check No. is not very applicable to a transfer. The check no field can be used as any reference number or text (Quicken works like this, even though labeling the field Check No). Either explain in manual, or advise me on this as a bug fix (perhaps just changing the field prompt will suffice).

7. Type in the Amount of the transfer. Do not try to enter negative numbers in this field. Amounts are added or subtracted from your account's balance based on the Debit/Credit field (below). You do not have to enter decimals if the amount is a round number. (Example: if the amount you are adding is $150.00, simply type "150.")

8. Touch the Period Type screen button to choose the unit of time for the transfer. (Examples: If the transfer is made once a month, select Month. If the transfer is made every two weeks, select Weeks. If the transfer is made every 4 days, select Days.)

9. Type in the Period No. of the transfer. (Examples: If the transfer is made once a month, type 1. If the transfer is made every two weeks, type 2. If the transfer is made every 4 days, type 4.)

10. Touch the Debit/Credit screen button to switch between "Debit" and "Credit." If the transfer is a payment from your account, choose "Debit." If it is a deposit to your account, choose "Credit."

11. Touch the Payment screen button to specify the type of payment used to make the transfer. Touch the appropriate method of payment. If this is a summary of several transfers touch "summary." (For more information about summarizing transfers, see Chapter 8: Balancing Your Account.)

10. Touch the Category screen button to specify the budget category of the transfer. A list of all your budget categories appears on the screen. Touch the appropriate category to select it.

11. If you like, you can type in a comment of up to 25 characters in the box titled Comment.

12. When you are finished entering the transfer information, touch Done. The new transfer will appear on the list of Regular Transfers.

13. To add another regular transfer, repeat steps 3-12. If you are finished, touch Done to close the Regular Transfers window.

How to edit an existing transfer

1. Touch {Trans icon}

2. Find the transfer line you wish to edit. Touch the transfer once to highlight it, and a second time to open the Edit Transfer window.

3. Edit the necessary information, then touch Done.

How to automatically update transfers to your account ledger

To maintain account accuracy, scheduled transfers are only added to your account ledger after you confirm that you wish to update this information. To add scheduled transfers to your account ledger:

1. From the Account Ledger screen, touch {Utils icon}

2. Select Update Transfers from the menu.

3. A window will appear prompting you to specify the update date. All transfers scheduled to take place on or before that date will automatically be inserted into your account ledger. Z-FINANCE automatically inserts today's date as the update date. If today's date is acceptable, touch Done. To change the date, touch Change.

4. To enter the date up to which you want your account updated, select the month on the on-screen calendar, then touch the date.

5. Touch Done.

6. All regularly scheduled transactions will appear in the Account Ledger on your screen. Repeat this step for all of your accounts.