The Sections

In lieu of documentation, here's an explanation of the fields of the main user interface, the database summary screen for a particular user, in this case, me!

Balance

This part just shows how much money the user owes. In this case, I have borrowed $17.20 from the various members of the pool, so I now owe.

Unconfirmed transactions

This is a multi-user database, so other users can charge me money if that's appropriate. In this case, I went to Applebees for lunch with Dan Tanguay, and he has charged me for my share of the bill. I can click on the transaction ID if I want more information, or I can confirm the transaction.

New transaction

This is the part where I can charge other people money. (I can give money, by entering negative values, but that doesn't happen often.) I have two options here. I can enter peoples' userIDs into the text box (which is faster) or bring up a list of users to select (which is easier). Then more dialogs follow.

History

I can look at the past transactions here. Once again, more detail is obtained by pressing one of the transaction ID buttons.

Totals

Possibly the most interesting part. You get to see other users debts and credits to the pool. Positive numbers owe money, negative numbers are owed. This view makes it obvious how the pool works. Whenever I owe money (a plus), someone else gets owed (a minus) and the table always adds up to zero. When the numbers get huge, people with large debts can just make cash transactions to those with large credits. But more often, people with large debts just pay for dinner or something, and that helps equalize debts without ever swapping cash.

Statistics