BeFolio
Command Reference
The active portfolio can be chosen from the drop-down menu at the top of the screen. The total value for the active portfolio is always displayed to the right
of the portfolio selection menu.
In addition to the main menu descibed below, there are four buttons: Add, Print, Chart, and Update which can be used to add an investment, print a portfolio, chart a portfolio, or update share prices for a portfolio.
The following menu commands are available:
- The File menu
- Settings - use this command to change various program operational parameters. Currently, only the Password setting can be set. The password is used to force the user to enter a password before BeFolio will start. This is meant to prevent unauthorized persons from accidentally viewing your portfolio information. Note that this does not, in any way, represent a secure system.
- Quit - use this command to exit the program. Note that all file operations are saved as you work within the program. As such, you do not need to "Save" your work before exitting.
- The Portfolio menu
- Add - use this command to add a new portfolio. A dialog box will appear that allows you to enter the name of the new portfolio.
- Edit - use this command to change the name of a portfolio.
- Del - use this command to delete a portfolio. Caution: deleting a portfolio will delete all data for the investments that the portfolio contains.
- Chart - use this command to chart you portfolio. The following charts can be viewed:
- Value by investment
- Value by ticker
- Value by type
- Value by category - the category is either fund, stock, or other and is determined automatically from the investment Type.
- Value by risk
- Value by retirement
- Shares by investment
- Value over time
- Print - use this command to print your portfolio.
- Update prices - use this command to update the share prices, and thus the portfolio total value, for all investments in the active portfolio. Note that you must have a live connection to the Internet in order to use this function. You will notice various icons in the left column of the portfolio investment list. These icons indicate how the latest share price compares with the previous price. The icons may be:
- A green up arrow indicates that the current price is greater than the previous price.
- A red down arrow indicates that the current price is less than the previous price.
- A blue equals sign indicates that the current price equals the previous price.
- A red question mark indicates that the previous price is not known. This will happen after an investment has been added to a portfolio but before the prices have been updated.
- A yellow and black hatch pattern indicates that BeFolio was unable to retrieve current prices for a specific investment. This usually occurs as a result of intermittant Internet errors or when a quote server is down or when your connection has failed. Wait a little and try again...
- The Investment menu
- Add - use this command to add a new investment to the active portfolio. A dialog box will appear which allows you to enter:
- Name (i.e. "Be, Inc.")
- Ticker (i.e BEOS). This field is required in order to update share prices from the Internet.
- Type - Use the drop-down menu to choose the type or enter your own text (i.e. "Technology stock" or "Agressive growth fund"). The investment Type is important in that it lets the program know whether an investment is a stock or mutual fund. This is required since the share price for stocks is represented as fractional dollar amounts (as in 34 3/8) whereas the share price, or net asset value, for a mutual fund is represented as a decimal value (as in 26.45). To indicate that an investment is a stock, make sure the Type description has the word "stock" somewhere in it. To indicate that an investment is a mutual fund, the Type description should include the word "fund",
- Number of shares
- Share price - When you add a investment, you can enter whatever is the most recent value you can recall. Once you perform and Update, this value will be brought up to date.
- Risk - your assessment of the risk associated with this investment. Choose either Low, Medium, or High from the drop-down menu.
- Agent - Use the drop-down menu to choose the agent or enter your own text (i.e "E*Trade" or "Schwab"). This field can be left blank.
- Retirement plan - Check this box if the investment is part of a retirement plan such as a IRA or 401(k). This is used for charting purposes.
- Edit - use this command to edit the currently selected investment. Not that you can also double-click on an investment to edit it.
- Del - use this command to delete the currently selected investment(s).
- Cut - use this command to cut the currently selected investment(s) to the clipboard.
- Copy - use this command to copy the currrently selected investment(s) to the clipboard.
- Paste - use this to paste all investments in the clipboard to the active portfolio.
- The Help menu
- Help - use this command to access this help file.
- Register - use this command to register your copy of BeFolio. See Registering the software.
- About - use this command to display the software version information.
Back to main page
Tutorial
|