Fiscal Pro

Advanced Financial Problem Solver

By Bil. Alvernaz

LandWare touts Fiscal Pro as an "advanced financial problem solver for Windows CE." They should have included "simple and easy to use." Fiscal Pro is a "forms-based financial problem solver." That means that all of its applications are presented as simple forms. Plug in the numbers and Fiscal Pro pops out the answer. It's a snap.

Tap on Fiscal Pro's Applications menu and a drop-down list shows you the different forms available. You've got Time Value of Money (TVM), Interest Conversions, Amortization, Cash Flows, Business %, Conversions, Date Calculations and a simple Calculator. Tap on the desired application and the form appears.

The layout of the forms and the tab key make it easy to fill in data. For example, Fiscal Pro's Amortization form lets you figure out the payments you'd make on a purchase over time. Fiscal Pro assumes you'll be making 12 payments per year. Hit tab and fill in the total Number of payments. Hit tab again and enter the Interest rate. Hit tab one more time and enter the Remaining balance. Fiscal Pro calculates the payment, interest portion and other useful information automatically.

The data fields are arranged in logical order and the tab and arrow keys take you from one to the other. Use the number keys to enter values and press the spacebar when you're ready to solve the formula. You don't need to remember any obscure keystrokes or keyboard commands. You can focus more on "what if" calculations to get the information you need.

It's obvious that a lot of thought went into Fiscal Pro's built-in help feature. The purpose and functioning of each of Fiscal Pro's applications is described in a brief, but well-organized manner. Help gives you tips on using the applications and explains various concepts such as Time Value of Money, Irregular vs regular cash flows, Investment analysis, etc. Help also provides step by step examples for each calculation. Whenever you need help, you can get answers fast ­ it's a help feature you can actually use. Added support is provided in Fiscal Pro's user manual, a well-written document that provides over 50 calculation examples. Set up is so easy that you probably won't need the manual.

Fiscal Pro was designed from the ground up for the Windows CE platform. It's fast and uses only 90K of the H/PC's precious memory resources. It comes built-in on Hewlett-Packard's HP 620LX and an installable version is on the CD-ROM that comes with the HP 360LX. Users of other H/PCs can buy a commercial version that will run an any Windows CE 1.0 and 2.0 device. Localized versions are available in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bil. Alvernaz works as a consultant and writer for a wide variety of companies. He has written for USA Today, United Feature Syndicate, PC Magazine and other trade publications. Bil. runs the Windows95/98 Forum on MSN. His email address is bil@alvernaz.com