Q. How can I track the money we are receiving from our in-laws to help offset our wedding costs? - Heidi L. - Palo Alto, Ca

A. The easiest way to track incoming funds is by creating a 'Blank' template. This can be done by going to File>New>Blank. What appears is a template titled 'Create Your Own.' Right-click over the title and choose 'set name'. Enter a name for your template (we suggest using the name 'Contributors') and click OK. Your blank template is now renamed. Add a page to track contributions by selecting Edit>Add a Page. Enter the name of a contributor for the name of the new category. Click OK. This creates the category. Select the tab across the top row of your newly named category. What you see is a blank page. Using your mouse, right-click on the blank page and select the 'add line item' option. Name this new line item and enter in the amount. For example: if you were given $500.00 towards flowers from Uncle Norman, you might consider naming the 'category' Uncle Norman and and name the line item 'flowers.' Flowers is instantly entered onto the page which allows you to select the item (by checking the box) and changing the amount of the item from 0.00 to 500. Click your enter/return button on your keyboard and the calculator automatically starts tracking Uncle Norman's contributions. If he gives additionally, simple keep adding line items and entering a price. Other contributors can easily be entered as an additional category (Edit>Add a Name) to keep a running total of all those who have contributed. You can enter how much and itemized it you wish.

Q. We really love how easy this tracked our wedding expenses, can we use it for other projects besides wedding parties, etc.? - Jordan S. - Las Vegas, Nv

A. Absolutely. One of our customers used the 'Blank' template to manage a remodeling project. Each category tracked an aspect and expense right to the penny. They used categories like fixtures, paint, plumbing, electricity, contractors and more. Then they added and priced the individual line items (paint brushes, rollers, tape, tarps, etc.) as they spent. They marveled how easy it was to tell when they went over budget! Let us know how it works for you.

Q. In response to Heidi from Palo Alto's question about tracking donations, we used your suggestion and took it a step farther. We created a new blank template and made sure our target budget graph is viewable (edit>show target) We then entered the amount of donations we hoped to receive into the Target Budget box. As the donations came rolling in, the percentage graph automatically showed us how close we got to our goal. Awesome, huh? Can you pass this this information to Heidi and others? P. S. We love your software. Hecka easy to use. Grace & Tom - Detroit, MI

A. Thank you, Grace! Excellent observation and we are happy to pass on your idea.