Almanac

Install guide

About five minutes, once. Your computer warns about any program from a small maker it has not seen before; the steps below say exactly what it shows and what to click.

Windows

  1. Open the file you downloaded, the one ending in Setup.exe (in Downloads, or at the bottom or top of your browser).
  2. A blue box says Windows protected your PC. Click More info, then Run anyway. It asks only this once.
  3. The installer asks where to put it and whether you want a desktop shortcut; the choices it offers are fine. It needs no administrator password. Click Install, then Finish.
  4. It opens by itself the first time; afterwards, open Almanac from the Start menu or the desktop.
  5. A black window appears with a few lines of text, and then your browser opens on the program. The black window is the program running: leave it open while you use it, and close it when you are done.

Mac

  1. Open the file you downloaded, the one ending in .dmg. A window shows the app and your Applications folder: drag the app onto Applications.
  2. Open Applications and double-click Almanac. The Mac says it cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified (or that it cannot check it for malicious software). Click Cancel or Done, never Move to Bin, which deletes it.
  3. Open System Settings, then Privacy & Security. Scroll down to the line about Almanac and click Open Anyway, then Open Anyway again and your password if asked. It asks only this once.
  4. A Terminal window opens with a few lines of text, and then your browser opens on the program. The Terminal window is the program running: leave it open while you use it, and close it when you are done.

Using it

  1. Your firm's details, once. Your firm's details, at the foot of the menu, takes the firm's name, your name and the logo the client brief and the verification pack print at their top.
  2. Enter the client's figures. The program opens on a form: the client and their partner, if any, their pay, pensions, savings, property and spending. Each box says what it is for.
  3. Run it before the meeting. How long a projection takes depends on the computer. The plan as it stands appears first; the changes it works out follow on Your plans as each is ready.
  4. Try a change in the meeting. Move a slider with the client and every page shows what it does.
  5. Keep the files. Client brief, in the menu, opens the plan in a few pages in your firm's name: print it or save it as a PDF for the client. Under For checking, the verification pack opens the same way, with its data file for a spreadsheet, for the client's file.
  6. Save the client's answers from the form, to open them again at the next review.

The trial and the licence

Everything works for 30 days from the first time you open it; a line at the top of the page says how many days are left, and the brief and the pack say they were made in a trial. After that the program shows your computer's licence ID, 32 letters and numbers. To keep using it, email that ID to , and paste the licence that comes back into the box on the same page. The program checks it on your computer; nothing is sent anywhere.

If something goes wrong