MISTRO Finance 5 has been designed for ease of use as well as for its ability to handle a wide range of physical and financial operations. At all times the program will show you where you are within your bookkeeping files, and it will give you clear options for proceeding with your current task, moving to another file, task or program, or exiting the program altogether.

 

When using MISTRO Finance 5, you will be faced with a screen page consisting of several sections (See Figure 1)

 

 

The top section (the bar at the top of the page) will display the name of the file which is currently open, and the version of the program that you are currently using. This bar will remain visible at all times the program is in operation.

 

 

The three tabs at the right end of this bar allow you to make instant changes to state of the program. If you wish to remove the MISTRO Finance 5 window from the screen while keeping the program open, click the “–“ tab. If you wish to exit MISTRO Finance 5 (and automatically save all current data) click the “X” tab. The central tab indicates the programme is occupying the full screen. 

 

The next section (the second top bar) is the main menu for MISTRO Finance 5. This section also remains visible at all times the program is in operation. It contains one tab for each of the program’s main compartments or functions. When one of these tabs is clicked with the left button of the mouse, a window with the corresponding compartment or function is opened.

 

MISTRO Finance 5 is designed to allow you to have more than one window open at any one time. For instance, while you are entering new transactions (and have the Transaction window open), you can also open the Category window to check your list of categories, or even enter a new one.

 

All windows which you have open at any one time are listed in a series of tabs which appear in a fourth section of the window (in a row immediately below the Favourites Toolbar if you have it enabled). Each of these tabs can be clicked at any time to have its operating window re-appear on screen.

 

You have two toolbars which you can choose to have visible or not by choosing Customise from your menu and placing a tick next to them.  The two toolbars are your Favourites Toolbar and your Reports Toolbar. 

 

Your Favourites Toolbar runs directly under your Main Menu and gives you the opportunity to create a toolbar with shortcuts to the areas of MISTRO Finance 5 which you use the most. 

 

You can add and delete items from your Favourites Toolbar by clicking the drop down arrow to the far right of the toolbar and then clicking Add or Remove Buttons.

 

 

To add an option to the toolbar click on it.  A tick will appear next to it, and it will now be displayed on your toolbar.

 

To remove an option from your toolbar click on an option that currently has a tick next to it.  The tick will be removed, and the option removed from your toolbar.

 

Moving your mouse over the downward pointing arrow at the bottom of the list will display more options.

 

The next and largest section of the page (screen) contains the particular window in which you are currently working – the operation of which is described in the following chapters of this manual.

 

The Windows task bar at the base of the screen displays one tab for each of the programs that are currently open in your computer. It will highlight the particular tab naming the program you have on screen. Windows allows you to click any one of these tabs to display and operate the program concerned while keeping all other tabbed programs open.

 

Whenever you wish to exit any of MISTRO Finance’s windows you can click the Close or Cancel tab on the window concerned, or click the small “X” at the top right corner of the window.

 

Whenever you wish to exit the MISTRO Finance 5 program itself, you can use one of the two following options:

·         Click the small “X” tab at the top right corner of the screen; or

·         Click File in the main menu, then click Exit; or

Note: Whenever you exit MISTRO Finance 5, all current data in all windows is automatically saved in your data files.