BudgetTracker not only will track financial information as well as life information such as tasks, contacts, etc. but we also give you the tools necessary to design your own applications. This allows you to track almost anything you can think of. To get started, first you’ll need to go to the Beta Applications page by clicking Beta Applications from the Navigation menu and choosing “Update Applications”. If your Navigation is in Simple mode, select Other > Beta Applications.  On the left hand side under My Applications, choose the link “Create Application”.  Then click the link titled “Add Entry Fields” to open up all available options. The checkboxes going down the left side of the page represent which fields you would like turned on when users of your application (including you) fill out a new form. The textbox next to each checkbox is what the caption will say next to the item when filling out a new form. To the right of the textbox is gray text explaining which type of HTML element will be shown. Once you’ve selected all the fields you want to use in your application, choose an icon to represent your application and hit submit. If approved, this application will become available for all users to use. Below is an example of creating a Tasks application:

For Tasks, I’m going to want to check off the following fields

  • Title – Rename this to Subject
  • Description – Rename this to Notes
  • Group – This will allow users of the application to group different entries together
  • Start Date – Change this to Due Date. In this application I want users to be able to tie the task date with the My Calendar page and checking Start Date will automatically accomplish this for us.
  • Color – This will allow users of my application to color code their entries.
  • And finally by default, all applications have a built in Completed/Uncompleted feature to allow users to mark entries as finished.

And thats it! I’ve just built a task application without writing any code. Its that easy. Below are some other handy features available when creating your own applications

  • Recurrence -Users will see a dropdown to select monthly, weekly, etc. This will also automatically tie in with the Calendar.
  • Type – Allows you to show a selectbox with some pre-defined entries such as Withdrawal and Deposit in a Transaction form.
  • Amount and Quantity will allow you to generate totals off of user entries. The last selecting allows you to even calculate certain aspects of your amount and quantity fields.
  • Details – allows you to define up to 10 sub fields that tie to each entry. Think of this like entering a new contact. That contact will have sub information such as address, company, website, etc.
  • Tie to Transactions – Instead of using the default completed checkbox, this will only complete an entry when an actual BudgetTracker Transaction has been entered. Users must click a “make payment” link from the application when entering a new transaction similar to how you mark Bills as paid from the My Bills page.

We hope this give you a little more insight into how to create your own applications. If you need a feature that isnt available, please enter in a message on our Message Board requesting a new feature being added and we’ll look into making it available to you.