Configuring TrackLoan
Starting TrakLoan
To start TrakLoan:
- Click the Windows ‘‘Start’’ button.
- Click ‘‘Programs.’’
- Find the TrakLoan icon
 and click it. If a password has been activated, the Login screen (Figure 2) will appear.
Figure 2 Login Screen
- Enter the supervisor’s or the agent’s password and click [OK]. The TrakLoan main screen (Figure 3) will appear. If no password has been activated the main screen will appear without requiring a login.
Figure 3 TrakLoan Main Screen
The Read Me Page
The first time you start TrakLoan you should use the Help | Read M e menu se- quence and examine the Read Me page. Read Me may contain information on changes or improvements made in TrakLoan after this manual was produced.
Configuring TrakLoan for Your Company
There are two things you need to do to set up TrakLoan for your company: (1) select a printer and font for your reports, (2) tell TrakLoan what company name to use on your reports and what information to use when printing IRS forms 1098.
You may also want to give TrakLoan a password to reduce the chance of inadver- tent damage to your databases, tell TrakLoan to show your loan lists in alphabetic, instead of numeric order, set up a default backup path, or tell TrakLoan always to expand its principal screens to the full size of your monitor.
Finally, once you’ve configured TrakLoan to your satisfaction you need to (1) create loan types and (2) set up your accounts.
Setting Up the Printer
Before you go on you need to choose the printer and font that TrakLoan will use for its reports. Unless you change printers, you need do this only once.
Use the File | Setup | Select P rinter menu sequence to bring up the Printer Setup screen (Figure 4).
There are three things you must do while you’re in this screen: (1) Choose a printer,
(2) Choose a font, and (3) Specify the height of the margin at the bottom of the page.
Choosing a Printer
If you’ve defined only one printer for your computer in Windows, the Using Printer list box probably will display the name of that printer. If the name in the Using Printer box is the name of the printer you want to use with TrakLoan, go on to the next section, ‘‘Choosing a font.’’
Fiigure 4 Printer Setup Screen
Section 1 Getting Started 6
If you’ve defined more than one printer, or if you have fax software on your com- puter, the printer name in the Using Printer box may not be the correct one.
To change the printer:
- Click the down-arrow on the Using Printer box to open the printer list.
- Click the name of the printer you want to use with TrakLoan.
Choosing a Font
- The Using Font list box works the same way as the printer list.
- Click the down-arrow to open the font list.
- Click the name of the font you want to use with TrakLoan.
Times New Roman and Arial are very satisfactory fonts for use with TrakLoan. Some fonts won’t work properly. If you choose an unusual font do some testing before you commit to it.
Specifying Page Limit
Once you’ve selected a printer and a font, you need to set TrakLoan’s logical bottom margin.
Most printers have a ‘‘non-printing” zone or “skip over perforation’’ feature that causes the page to eject before printing reaches the bottom of the physical page. The size of the non-printing zone varies from printer to printer. If TrakLoan’s logical page length extends into your printer’s non-printing zone, the page will break auto-matically before it’s supposed to. Page Limit defines the size of the logical bottom margin and decreases TrakLoan’s logical page length.
To set TrakLoan’s logical bottom margin:
- Begin by printing a test page. To print a test page, make sure the printer you’re going to use is turned on and on-line. Click the [Print Test Page] button on the Printer Setup screen.
- TrakLoan will print calibration lines at the bottom of a page. Set Page Limit to the value of the first mark you can see at the bottom of the page.
When you’ve finished selecting a printer, font, and page limit, click [OK].
If you find that some pages on your reports come out without their headings, come back to the Printer Setup screen, increase the Page Limit by about 100, and try again.
Setting Company Data
You need to give TrakLoan some information about your company. To do that use the File | Setup | Company Data menu sequence from the Main screen to dis- play the Company Data screen.
Figure 5 Company Data Screen
Enter the Company Name for Reports. This name will be used in the titles on your printed reports.
If you intend to use TrakLoan to print IRS Forms 1098 (Section 3.12, Page 28), fill in the Company Name, Address, and Telephone Number for 1098’s block. Use <Enter> between lines. The entry should be exactly as you want it to appear in the ‘‘RECIPIENT/SENDER’S name, address and telephone number’’ block on the 1098
form. Enter your company’s Federal Identification Number.
If your company is a local development company you won’t need to change the fiscal year end. If your company is some other type of loan agency and your fiscal year ends in a month other than December, click the correct month in the Fiscal Year Ends box.
Changing Passwords
TrakLoan can accept two different passwords. The ‘‘supervisor’’ password gives you access to all of the program’s features. The ‘‘agent’’ password lets you enter and delete payments, make backups, compact the database, select a printer, set the account sort order, list the journal, make a payout calculation, and check overdue accounts.
To set or change passwords, make sure you’re logged in as supervisor and use the File | Setup | Change Passwords menu sequence.
If no password is in effect, the Change Passwords screen will look like Figure 6.
If a password is already in effect, TrakLoan will ask for the supervisor’s password before allowing you to make changes.
Figure 6 Password Entry Screen
Enter each password twice so that TrakLoan can confirm that you didn’t mis-type the password.
If you enter an agent’s password you also must enter a supervisor’s password.
WARNING! Passwords in TrakLoan are NOT satisfactory se- curity features. They are there to help you separate data entry tasks between the various people in your organization. Anyone with a little knowledge and the right tools can defeat TrakLoan’s pass- word system. If data security is a problem in your organization, keep your databases locked up.
Changing the Sort Order
By default, TrakLoan displays lists of loans sorted by loan number. To change the default sort order to an alphabetic sort by loan name, use the File | Setup | Sort by Name menu sequence. This menu entry is a toggle. Click it once and it changes the default sort order to alphabetic. Click it again and it changes the default sort order back to numeric.
Setting a Default External Backup Path
Before you post the journal, recover a backup, or compact the Journal TrakLoan automatically makes a backup of the database in the Windows folder where Trak-Loan lives. For security against a hard drive crash or computer failure though, you need to back up to some external medium.
When you tell TrakLoan to back up to an external medium, it assumes you want to back up to floppy drive A:. You can change the destination of the backup at the time you make it, but if you regularly back up to a network drive or a writeable CD ROM, you may want to change TrakLoan’s default assumption about the backup destina- tion.
Figure 7 Default Backup Path Screen
To change TrakLoan’s default backup destination:
- Place a floppy disk in the A: drive. This is necessary so that TrakLoan can access the drive while it’s the default.
- Use the File | Setup | Set Backup Path menu sequence to bring up the Default Backup Path screen (Figure 7).
- Use the Drive and Folder boxes to browse to the location you want to use for your default backups. If the location is a network address you must first map a network drive on your computer to the location.
- Click [OK].
Setting Screens To Always Expand
You can expand TrakLoan’s principal screens to fill the area of your monitor with the Windows expand button in the upper right corner of each screen. To set Trak-Loan to always expand screens to the maximum when you enter them, use File | Setup | Use Expanded Screens. This entry is a toggle. If there’s a checkmark next to it, TrakLoan will always expand your screens. Click it once to set the checkmark and again to remove the checkmark.
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