You need java 5.0 to run the program. You can download the java environment at java.com. Once java is installed, click on the smiling face to install and run Friendkeeper.
The current version of friendkeeper is 1.5. It was released 2006-10-29.
Friendkeeper is a tool to keep track of the current financial situation within a group of people, i.e. to keep track of who owes who. If we had studied economics we might have been talking about things like accounting, debit and credit.
To get started with FriendKeeper you have to create a sheet for the group of people and situation that you want to use FriendKeeper. Once you've done that you can start adding events for the financial transactions that occur. At the bottom of the application there is a table that sums up the current situation. Negative amounts are written in red so you know who to feel bad for :).
When you are done updating a sheet you save it as a file on your local disk.
This dialog is used to create a new sheet. You have to enter at least two names.
This dialog is used to open an existing sheet.
This dialog is used to save the current sheet.
This dialog is used to save the current sheet to a different file.
This dialog is used to add a new person to the current sheet.
This dialog is used to edit the names of the current persons.
This menu item shuts Friendkeeper down.
The six menu items below are also available through the popup menu.
This dialog is used to create a new event.
This wizard is used to balance the current sheet. It results in an event that sets everyone to zero. Also the note contains a suggestion to who should pay who.
This wizard is used to create a event where one person takes the whole expense. The person that takes the expense is selected together with the amount of the expense.
When the single expense is not evenly divisible by the number of persons, the expense is adjusted upwards. If, for example, 9.99 is to be shared among four people, the amount is adjusted upwards to 10.00.
This wizard is very similar to single expense, the only difference is that one person gets an income instead of taking an expense.
This dialog is used to edit an existing event.
This menu item is used to delete the selected event. If no event is selected, the first event is deleted.
This dialog gives information about the version of FriendKeeper.
Friendkeeper is completly free, no strings attached. But if you appreciate the program we are more than happy to receive support in any of the following ways.
If you find any bugs, have any suggestions or want to mail us an encouragement, you are more than welcome to do so at friendkeeper@snakebunk.com
Friendkeeper is listed at several download sites. Feel free to give Friendkeeper a nice review or rating on any of these sites:
If you are a couple of people arranging a party, FriendKeeper can be used to keep track of who paid for what. If the guests share the cost you can note the money you get as an income using the Single Income wizard.
FriendKeeper is an excellent tool for people that are living together but don't share their economy. Whenever you buy food or anything that belongs to the common household, just make a note in FriendKeeper.
Maybe you take turns on who's to buy lunch? Again, FriendKeeper is there to take care of the situation.
This use case is where the idea got started. We were on vacation and after a few days didn't remember who had paid for what. We started using pen and paper to sort it out and realized that although it worked a computer program would do the job much better. Whether or not you want to bring a computer on your vacation is of course another issue :).
In addition to the versions described here bug fixes are released whenever they are corrected.
2006-01-14
2005-11-21
2005-11-09
2005-11-01
2005-10-25
2005-10-09
2005-05-24
This was the first version of Friendkeeper.