• General questions
• Reporting questions

• General questions
• Is this program free?
• No. it's shareware. Fairly cheap shareware - only $15.00. You can evaluate a lot of the features, but if you want to really make use of it and use it long term, you're obligated to register. If you properly handle and pay down your debts, you can easily save hundreds or thousands of dollars and shave years off your payments. Surely $15.00 is worth that, right?
• I can't run a report more than 3 months into the future. What gives?
• Unregistered users can only run reports 3 months into the future. Register to unlock and run reports until your debts are paid off.
• I can't add more than 4 debts! What gives?
• Unregistered users cannot have more than 4 entries. Register to unlock the ability to have unlimited entries.
• How do I register?
• Multiple ways. Go to the application's preferences and hit the registration button. Or click on the included web shortcut.
• How much will upgrades cost?
• Nothing. Upgrades are free for the life of the product.
• I'm a registered user of Debtinator 1.0. Why doesn't my registration code work?
• The registration scheme was changed, please contact me at jim@bassetsoftware.com for a new registration code. Please note that there is no auto-migration of data - you'll have to do that manually yourself. (Sorry. But hey, this is a major league upgrade that's free, right? That softens the blow, right?).
• Why doesn't Debtinator update my account information automatically?
• Too much can go wrong. Say you punch in your data in May, and don't launch the application again until October. Try as we might, you probably won't follow the payment schedule exactly. Or maybe you made an extra charge on a credit card that wouldn't be reflected. It's best to just manually update these things yourself.
• I'm paid twice a month - on the 15th and the 30th, how can I enter that?
• As of 2.1.5, this is easy - just set this up as a custom repeating item. Show me how
• I have seasonal income. I shovel snow in the winter, and mow lawns in the summer. How can I enter that?
  My business' income is seasonal. I always have more sales in the fall than any other time of the year. How can I enter that?
  My heating bill goes up in the winter and down in the summer. How can I enter that?
  
• As of 2.2.4, this is easy - just set this up as a custom repeating item. Show me how
  Note that the defining bit of information is the dollar amount. So if your gas bill is $100/month in the winter and $25/month in the summer, you'd need to set up two different items for it - "Gas - Winter" and "Gas - Summer", for example. Then set each of those for the appropriate dollar amounts and the appropriate time periods.ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd
• I'd like to have a multi user license. How do I purchase one?
• For that, you'll need to email me separately to arrange it, but I'll be happy to provide one.
• I'd love to see (insert cool feature) in the program!
• That's awesome. Please let me know. Email me at jim@bassetsoftware.com. Naturally, I can't promise that all requests will make it into the application, but I'd certainly love to hear them. The more ideas I get, the better the program can become for everyone. Definitely send 'em in.
• What's with the save item in the File Menu? Don't you autosave?
• Debtinator will auto-save your data when the application quits, when you run a report, or when you create a graph. If there are any errors, you'll be prompted to correct them (in the case of quitting the app, you can quit without making corrections, but your changes will not be saved).
  
  Otherwise, you can manually save by using the option in the File Menu any time you'd like for safety's sake, but it's not required for the app to function. It's just due diligence in case there's a power failure while you were in the middle of filling in your data.
• I need to set up maximum payments, right? Otherwise, I'll run out of money, right?
• Actually, maximum payments aren't required to keep you from going bankrupt, the program's smart enough to pay as much as it can, but never so much that it can't cover the future.
  
  If you set a maximum payment of $500, but can actually afford $600 w/o going bankrupt, the app will still only send $500 and keep that extra $100 in the bank.
  
  If you can only afford $400 in a month, it'll only send $400, regardless of the max.
  
  I put in the maximum payments option for cases where you have a debt in the middle of a reporting option that you want to "skip over".
  
  For instance, your mortgage may have the 3rd highest interest rate of your debts, but you don't want to overpay on it ever, figuring that your money is better invested elsewhere. So you can set a maximum payment on the mortgage and then it'll get skipped over when a report is determining who to overpay. That way, you can run any report you want and it won't be overpaid.
  
  But to keep you from going bust? Maximum payments aren't necessary in that case.
• My minimum fee is interest + a percentage of the balance. Can I do this?
• Yes. On the debt screen, go to the complex view (the little gear button in the lower left). Choose the minimum payments tab, and then click on the checkbox for "Interest accrued". When that box is checked, it will include whatever interest accrued in your payment.
  
  You can then select "Sum of" and add in a percentage of the balance.
• Can I password protect my files?
• Yes...but not from within Debtinator. This is something that's on my list of neat features that might be good to implement, but in all seriousness I'm in the debt management business, not the encryption business, and I don't know if I want to try to implement security in this manner. If there's a huge public outcry in favor of it, I could be persuaded to bump it up.
  
  In the interim, here's a reasonably easy way to protect it (and anything else you want). Open up Disk Utility (Appilcations -> Utilities) and create a new disk image. Make it whatever size you think is appropriate and enable encryption. Then just copy whatever files you want onto the disk image and delete the originals.
  
  To "lock" it, just eject the mounted disk image. Then, to re-access the files, double click on the image file and it'll prompt you for your password. And then you're good to go. Very standard, well implemented, solid encryption and password protection.
• "Typical" monthly income/expenses/minimum payments/free cash? What does that mean?
• Options vary in how they repeat, so we try to estimate what happens in a typical month. If your actions repeat once a month, then your typical month reflects a real month as well - everything happens once, so you're set.
  
  Otherwise, it can get trickier. Say you have an expense that's $30/week for gas. Most of the time, you'll spend $120/month (4 weeks in a month), but some of the time you'll do it 5 times in a month and spend $150. So the value used in the typical screen is $120.
  
  Say you have property tax of $1500 due once a year. Most of the time, you won't be spending anything on property tax, so it won't be added in to the typical month expenses. 11 months out of the year, that's correct - it's just that last month that causes the balloon.
  
  To emphasize, these fields are just used to help you visualize and get a quick, rough approximation of how money is flowing in a given month. However, these estimated values are not used in the calculation of reports - those are much more accurate and truly reflect exactly when and where money is coming and going from and to.
• Is there anything else I can do to manage my debt more effectively?
• You betcha! Call your creditors and negotiate lower rates. That is the #1 best thing you can do. If you have a credit card at 25% and you can knock it down to 14%, you've just saved a ton of interest. You may even end up restructuring how you pay your debts as a result. It never hurts to ask. The worst that will happen is they refuse, and if that happens you can always call back in 6 months and try again. Or, if possible, you can take your business elsewhere. Lending is a negotiation and everything is always subject to change. Just ask.
• I can't type in values greater than $999. What gives?
• You're using a foreign currency format.
  
  This is Apple's bug, not mine. One of their developer technologies is called "Bindings" (don't worry about the specifics), but there's a bug in the implementation regarding bindings in conjunction with some international number formats. Basically, if you're using a currency format that uses spaces for your thousands separator (in the US it would be "$1,000", you may be using "$1 000"), it'll choke and refuse to use it. I've filed a bug report but have yet to get any reply. Other developers have also complained about it and also gotten nowhere. Hopefully it'll be fixed sometime.
  
  You can go into System Preferences and then International and choose English as your language, United States as your format, and US Dollar as your currency and the problem with go away. You may need to do this anyway, because other apps certainly can have this issue.
  
  Alternativley, you can set an option to shut off currency localization only within Debtinator. Make sure Debtinator isn't running, and then open up Terminal (Go to your Applications Folder, and then Utiltiies, and then Terminal). From there, type in:
  
  defaults write com.bassetsoftware.Debtinator usCurrencySeparators 1
  
  That option makes Debtinator always use commas for your thousands separators and periods for your decimal separator. It shouldn't affect your currency symbol. Clearly not ideal, but it gets around Apple's bug.
  
  To shut it off, make sure Debtinator isn't running, and then go back to terminal and type in:
  
  defaults write com.bassetsoftware.Debtinator usCurrencySeparators 0
• My mortgage escrows taxes. How do I store this?
• On the debts screen, switch to the complex view. From there, choose the "Advanced Options" tab and then enter the escrow amount. There are additional report columns that are good to enable if you're using escrow values - it will break down the payment (say $1,000), and then how much went to escrow ($200), and how much went to your loan ($800).
  
  I'll be honest here - I don't escrow my taxes. If features are missing for escrowing, please let me know.
• I bought a license, but it's still telling me I need to register! What gives?
• You need to type in your license once you receive it. Launch Debtinator, then go to the Debtinator menu, and choose Registration. Type in your name and code there.
• I bought a license but it says the code is invalid! I want a new one!
• The code is fine. Just make sure that you type in your name and code exactly as listed in the registration email. I recommend cutting and pasting.
• The program doesn't launch, it just bounces in the doc and quits immediately. What gives? Is this a bug?
• Please pay attention to the system requirements. Debtinator requires MacOS X 10.4 (Tiger) or better. You're trying to run on an earlier version and it's bombing out as a result. Upgrade your operating system or run on a different machine.
• I want my money back!
• Sorry, this is just too ripe for abuse, so we have a strict no refunds policy. You have plenty of opportunity to try out the app before you buy it, so make sure you're making the right decision. If you find any bug or have any problem, we're happy to work with you to isolate the issue and turnaround a fix. Bugs are normally fixed within hours of their being reported, so there's never much downtime. In short, don't worry, you won't be abandoned.
• Questions about reports
• Why does this report take so long? Why do the graphs take so unbelievably long?
• You've entered a lot of data. Debtinator will have to analyze it, extrapolate it, crunch it, and whatever other metaphor you like. But there's a lot of processing involved in it, so it can take a while. Just sit back and relax, maybe go get a cup of coffee while it runs. We do recommend either printing out or exporting your report data once it's been run, so you don't need to sit through it again. Graphs need to crunch even more data, so they take much longer. For instance, a graph that contains all 7 report types needs to run all 7 reports. Much more processing time, much longer run time. You can always use Debtinator to budget in money to upgrade your computer! :-)
• Debtinator said that next month my credit card would have a balance of $994.68. The bank says it's $997.22. Is there a bug in your program?
• No. The bank is simply compounding the interest differently than Debtinator is. Right now, we compound using the last balance (which is usually the average daily balance), over the timeframe specified. Your bank may use a different balance (highest, lowest, average, median, etc.), or compounding schedule (bills monthly, compounds biweekly; compounds continuously, etc.). Just update Debtinator from time to time with official statements and you should be okay. Future versions will support more compounding options.
  
  Rounding errors may also add up (for example, if Debtinator rounds and then adds and your bank adds and then rounds, there can be slight variance). So slight variance is to be expected.
• Isn't this program 100% accurate?
• No, but it's close enough. We're talking about large quantities of money calculated various ways over multiple years. There will be some difference between the way Debtinator calculates vs the way the bank calculates. Also, Debtinator assumes you'll be doing things like paying "$26.18" to a given credit card. Realistically? You'll probably pay a whole value like "$26.00" or even "$25.00". So that will also cause slight variation.
  
  It's still going to be close enough. When it comes down to it, if after 5 years you have to pay $75 more than you were originally expecting, you probably won't be that concerned.
• My minimum payment varies from month to month. How do I handle that?
• Choose the complex debt screen and edit the minimum payment as appropriate. Show me how.
• I set up a payment schedule yesterday and it worked, but today it says that I have insufficient funds. What gives?
• One of your actions probably occurred yesterday. Debtinator will automatically advance all actions into the future if they have already passed. So if you got paid yesterday, Debtinator won't enter that item in the report, it will skip to the next payday. Besides, you got paid yesterday, you should update your account balance to reflect it.
  
  When the sheet pops up when you open the document, it'll tell you that payday occurred and asked if you want to apply the amount. Hit "Apply" and Debtinator will automatically add it into your bank account. Otherwise, you'll need to manually update yourself.
• Sometimes my reports (or graphs) are lightning fast, and sometimes they take a while. What gives?
• Starting with v2.0.6, Debtinator will cache reports once they're run, since there's no need to redo the work all the time. But, the cache only remains valid so long as you make no changes to your data. Note that any changes will invalidate the cache - if you go back and change an account name, the cache is flagged invalid. It doesn't need to be only related to the numeric data.
• The even split report doesn't evenly split! The first debt got paid an extra $500, and the second only got paid $375! What gives?
• I honestly haven't decided if I want to call this a bug or a feature, but the even split report calculates the percentage of money at that moment in time. So let's say you have 4 debts, and $2000 in surplus cash. The first debt is due on the 5th of the month, and the report will hit it and evenly divide the funds and send it an extra $500. The next debt is due on the 8th of the month, but by that point you only have $1500 in surplus cash. So it once again divides up the money and sends it an extra $375. You now have $1125 in the bank, so the next debt would get an extra $281.25, and so on.
  
  Extra expenses or income in the middle just complicates things and decreases the excess further. So file this under "known, expected behavior", but it may change in the future.
• My report says I ran out of money! What gives?
• It means you ran out of money, but don't worry! You know about it now, so you can deal with it. Check the Report troubleshooting section for some suggestions on what to look for.
• How can I create an amortization table?
• Debtinator isn't quite the best tool to use for this, but nonetheless can create a table for you. To do it, go to the reports screen and run the "Minimum Payments Plan" report. Click the eyeball next to the go button and choose "Include none". Then, click it again and select the debt you wish to view. This will now be an amortization table of how long it'll take the single debt to be paid off. You can then customize any report columns you'd like to see.
• Hey! I had a credit card that was owed $700, and I had $10,000 in the bank and it didn't pay it off! What gives?
• Your credit card doesn't meet the criteria to be paid off first. For example, you may be running the highest interest payment plan, but your credit card is the second highest. So it gets skipped in favor of paying off the later debt.
  
  It usually evens itself out after a month or so. In exceptional circumstances, you may want to try moving up the due date of later (and higher interest!) debts to ensure that they get attacked and paid down first, but that only applies for unique combinations of data. If you think a report is inaccurate or you're paying too much, please drop me a note (jim@bassetsoftware.com) and I'll try to help you work through how to make it more efficient.
  
  I'd really love to include some fancy FAQ based solution for how to fidget the data to even out minor hiccups like this, but it varies so much it needs to be addressed individually.
• Debtinator rarely pays my account down to $0, so I've just got wasted money sitting in my account. Isn't it always supposed to? Why doesn't it pay towards my debt?
• There are two things going on here. First of all, Debtinator will budget for the future. For example, say that you have to pay property tax on your house once a year, and to make the math easy it's $1200. Roughly on a per monthly basis, Debtinator will keep an extra $100 in your account instead of putting it towards your debt, because it needs to save that money up to pay for the tax bill at the end of the year. So that will keep your account from going down to zero.
  
  The other thing is a known slight inaccuracy in the program, and I'll be honest - we haven't gotten it fixed quite right just yet. Note "quite right", there's a hidden key you can set to enable more accurate reporting. Make sure Debtinator isn't running, and then open up Terminal (Go to your Applications Folder, and then Utiltiies, and then Terminal). From there, type in:
  
  defaults write com.bassetsoftware.Debtinator moreAccurateReporting 1
  
  That option will enable Debtinator to always pay down to $0 more frequently and will save you some money. So why isn't this option on by default? Well, it comes at a cost - it will drastically slow down reporting. A report will typically take 3-4x longer to complete when this option is enabled, and over the life of your debt payment history, the savings will be minimal. In testing, it typically looks like if you're paying $100,000 in interest on all your debts, this option may save you $500 or so. But to save that $500, you've gotta spend 3-4x as long running your reports. If that extra time is worth it to you, then by all means use it. If you'd rather finish quickly, then leave it off. Also note that graphing reports with this option enabled is a very time consuming and tedious process, so expect it to take a while.
  
  To shut it off, make sure Debtinator isn't running, and then go back to terminal and type in:
  
  defaults write com.bassetsoftware.Debtinator moreAccurateReporting 0
• Highest interest? Highest possible interest? What's the difference?
• There are some variations on a few of the reports, such as "highest interest payment plan" vs. "highest possible interest payment plan", they sure sound similar and they are pretty close a lot of the time. The variation is that the "regular" version looks at the current value, whereas the "possible" version looks at the highest one that could hit in the future, assuming the current balance hasn't decreased.
  
  Examples help. Let's say you have two debts, a credit card at a 5% interest rate, and a second credit card with a 3% teaser rate that lasts for the next 6 months but then escalates to 20%. The highest interest payment plan will pay credit card #1 because it's currently at 5%, whereas the second card is at 3%. 6 months from now, it will re-allocate its funds to pay down the second card when the rate shoots up to 20%.
  
  If you run the highest interest possible report, Debtinator will realize that the second card will go up to 20% in the future, so it will start paying it off immediately and keep the 5% card at the minimum.
  
  On a related note, say that the first card is 5% forever, and the second is 5% but increases to 20% in 6 months. Starting with v2.2.1, Debtinator is smart enough to realize that even though both cards have the same rate right now, it should focus its money towards the second card to cut it down as much as possible before the higher rate hits.
  
  If your interest rates are fixed, that is if you have two cards that are both at 5% forever, then there will be no difference between the "regular" and "possible" plans.
  
  As always, your mileage may vary, so we recommend trying both out and seeing which one's more useful to you.
  
  
• What's the difference between Final Account Balance and Total Available Funds?
• Final Account Balance is the money you have in the account from which you're paying the debt. So if you're paying your mortgage out of your checking account, this is the amount of money left in checking when you're done.
  Total Available Funds is the amount of money you have in all accounts (your checking account and savings account, for example)
• What's the difference between Lowest Balance Payment Plan and Lowest DOLP score payment plan? They sound the same!
• DOLP stands for "Dead On Last Payment". It's a way to order your payments based upon payoff order if you'd only sent the minimum payments. For example, say you have two debts:

  Name	Balance	Interest Rate	Minimum payment	Number of payments required (DOLP score)
  International Credit Card	$1,000	0%	$5	200
  Store Credit Card	$5,000	0%	$500	10

  
  
  I cheated and made the math easy by giving them both 0% interest rates. If you paid off in Lowest Balance order, excess money would be sent to the International Credit Card and pay it off first. If you pay off in Lowest DOLP score order, excess money would be sent to the Store Credit Card, since that's the one you'd be paying off first anyway.
• Why do I have to include the minium payment plan when graphing bank account balance over time?
• It makes my life easier. The minimum payments plan is guaranteed to be the farthest out in the future, so we use that as the date to normalize against. Otherwise, we'd only run the plans until they finish (like the other graphs), and we'd end up stopping them short. It doesn't really work to compare how much money you'd have on June 6th, 2010 with the highest interest plan vs how much money you'd have with the minimum payment plan in 2039.
  
  Note that your bank account will always increase fastest with the minimum payment plan, but the other approaches will catch up and overtake it, hopefully quickly.
• Transferring all available funds makes my report run really really slow. What gives?
• It's a known issue - we're working on it.
• "Pay off out of order when possible"? What's that mean?
• Optionally, you may choose to pay off debts out of order when possible. This is usually a bad thing. But say you're running the highest interest report and your credit card with the 3rd highest interest rate is due with a balance of $500 and a minimum payment of $25. You have $1,000 in the bank, so you can pay it off and stop worrying about it. That's what this checkbox does. Please note, most of the time, this will cost you money. But sometimes, depending upon the report, it's a smart thing to do. It can really come in handy with the minimum payment report. Also, depending upon the data you have, it may work out for you. As with all things, it varies from person to person and it's tough for me to generalize. Try it out and see what works best!

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