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FasTip! Documentation

FasTip! is a program that allows you to quickly (i.e. fast) compute tips and multipayer splits using just your fingers, which can be an advantage when you're at the payment counter to take care of your bill, or for use with credit cards where the totals get added up for you automatically. Manage your money, your tips and your time at meals better! and Don't Pay Tips on Taxes!

Features: Buttons are large so you can use your fingers Decimal point is assumed, no need to waste keystrokes. If you need to enter $15.89 you simply press 1, 5, 8, 9. Automatically computes 15% tip (or any user set percentage) while you enter your values. This feature can be turned off! Computes 10%, 15% and 20% tips at the press of a button. Tips are automatically rounded up to the next penny. Support for a minimum tip is also available, if you never want to tip less than $1.00 for example. Tip percentage used in calculations is displayed on the screen. Split the total (with or without tip) 1 to 999 ways for multipayers. You can split the total multiple times, for example split by 5, then split it by 4 to see the difference. Amount of split error is displayed for informational purposes. Split Error is the result of totals not being evenly divideable by the number of payers, so the Split when multiplied by the number of payers will be larger than the original total by the displayed error amount. Want to see the difference between 15% and 20%? Press the Percentage button and tip and total are recalculated. If you had previously split the total, the previous split is remembered and recalculated too. Once tips or splits are calculated, the program is in automatic reset mode, meaning if you press any of the digit keys 0 through 9, the program is automatically reset so you can enter a new value. This saves a step from having to press the Clr (clear) key. If you make a mistake entering data you can use the Backspace (left arrow) key, or Clr key. Enter a tax amount that the tip doesn't get computed on, but the total is updated, and you can also split the total including tax by multiple payers (up to 999 ways). Automatically clears previous results after a 5 minute inactivity period upon use. This saves 1 keystroke between uses of the program, since pressing the CLR key is not required.

Operation

The program is designed to be simple to use. It wouldn't be any good if it was cumbersome and slow to use, so steps were taken to make sure the program "flows well".

For example, let's say you have a meal and drinks total of $15.89 as displayed on the example screen above. Simply press the buttons 1, 5, 8, 9 and the default tip of 15% will be computed ($2.39) as you enter the amount, and the Total ($18.28) will be updated. Four keystrokes and your done for most cases!

Note: In this calculation, a tip is calculated on the tax included in the entered total. On the example screen above, notice that with a 9% tip being subtracted from the tip calculation you save $0.20! No point in overtipping unless you're feeling generous!

Now lets say the tax is actually a separate line item, and you don't want the tip calculated on the check total and tax, but just on the meals and drinks portion. Again, take the example of $15.89 for your meals and drinks total, enter that. Then press the Tax button, and let's say the taxes were $2.30, so you press 2, 3, 0 (for taxes, like the check amount the decimal point is assumed saving a keystroke). Now, after you let go of the zero, the new Total amount ($20.58) is displayed. Press the Tax button again to take the program out of Tax Entry "mode". A T will be displayed on the main screen whenever you're in Tax Entry mode.

Want to pay a 10% or 20% tip instead, press the appropriate percentage button and the Tip and Total are updated. Or, if you'd like to see this bill without any tip, press the word Tip on the display and the tip gets set to $0.00 and the totals updated. Pressing a percentage key will cancel Tax or Split entry mode.

Now with the amount on the example screen above, let's say you have a party of 3 and you want to split the total evenly between you, press the Split button, and then 3 and the Split amount ($6.86) is computed and displayed. Make a mistake and mean to split by 4? That's ok, just press the backspace key and then press 4. Need to split by larger amounts, like 21? Just keep entering numbers, up to 999 to compute splits. Press the Split button again to take the program out of Split Entry mode.

What if you entered the wrong tax? That's ok too, just press the Tax button and enter a new tax, everything including the Split will be recalculated.

Setting Program Preferences

Access the program preferences by pressing the Menu icon, and then select Options and then Preferences. Tip % - Allows you to set the automatically calculated tip percentage. Set this to 0.0000 to turn off the automatically calculated tip. This is useful in areas where no tip is required for most purchases, or if you'd rather use the tip buttons. Valid values are from 0.0000 to 99.9999. Min $ - Allows you to set the minimum tip added to the total. Set this to the minimum amount you want to tip. For example, you may never want to tip less than $1.00. Set this to $0.00 to turn off the minimum tip rule. Tax % - Set the amount of tax added to your check total. Enter a 0 to make the program work like prior versions and not automatically calculate the Tax. Add Tax - check box to change how tax is computed. If not checked, then the amount of tax included in your total bill is computed and displayed as a "negative" value and the tips are then calculated on the total you entered, plus the negative tax amount. This prevents you from having to pay Tip on Taxes in addition to your meals and drinks. Taxes in my area are 9% and adding Tips on top of taxes really adds up! If checked, then the amount you enter is assumed to NOT have any taxes in it, a positive tax is computed, and added to the total, but again, the Tip is calculated on the portion that doesn't include Tax. Split - allows you to automatically calculate a split for whatever amounts you enter. You can still compute other splits by using the split button, but this makes it even simpler if you always split by the same amount. Enter a value of 0 to turn off automatic split calculations.

History

• 2003 May 1 - Version 1.5
  • Added Help menu structure.
• 2003 March 25 - Version 1.4
  • Updated the layout of the preferences screen.
  • Five minute automatic clear timer. If the program isn't used for more than five minutes, the next keypress in the program, such as a number, automatically clears the previous results, resulting in a 1 keystroke savings.
  • Fastip! has been made OS 5 compliant.
• 2001 June 27 - Version 1.3
  • Auto add to check, or subtract from total the amount of tax so that tips are computed on just the meal and drinks.
  • Automatic split capability.
  • Splits up to 999 ways can now be entered.
• 2001 June 20 - Version 1.2
  • Added preferences screen to allow turning off automatic tip percentage, or for setting a custom tip percentage.
  • You can set a minimum tip.
  • You can easily remove the currently calculated tip by pressing the word Tip on the display.
  • Program remembers where you left it if you leave it and come back to it (i.e. it saves it's state).
• 2001 June 19 - Version 1.1
  • Autocompute 15% tip while you enter initial amount.
  • Allows a separate tax figure to be entered that gets added into the total, but the tip isn't computed on that portion.
  • A bug with "splitting by 1" was corrected that caused the split to sometimes be off by $0.01. Not that this was a critical issue.
• 2001 June 17 - Version 1.0