For those of you who may be newer to the DISboards and are not familiar with my programs:
I currently have two programs available for download now: DVC-Planner and DVC-Chart.
DVC-Planner is a full planning program that allows you to create and print out a plan, or do what if's. For example you can put in a vacation date, and with a click of the mouse, see a chart showing how many points that vacation would be for every possible DVC resort/room combination there is. You can check your banking deadlines, view
point charts, schedule multiple reservations for the same dates, etc. The main page is a color coded calendar showing relative point requirements by Disney season. You select your vacation by clicking directly on the calendar dates. The animated GIF in my signature below cycles through a few (also very tiny) screen shots of the DVC-Planner program
DVC-Chart is mostly a DVC
point chart, color coded by seasons. It uses an algorithm to calculate future years using Disney's patterns of adjusting points around the Easter and Thanksgiving holidays. It shows point charts through 2054. The algorithm was originally developed in 2001 and has been 100% accurate each succeeding year as DVC released new charts. It also shows the major holiday dates for all years through 2054, so if you want to know when Easter is in 2007, a quick click gets you there. It llets you put in your own 'family dates' that will self increment annually if you want. For example if you put in Bobby's birthdate as 10-10-2000 you can set it up to display "Bobby's 5th Birthday" this year, and it will automatically display "Bobby's 6th Birthday" next year. It also has an 'alarm' feature to let you know when you are within a selected timeframe of a special date.
DVC-Tracker is still in development and not ready for distribution. Originally it was going to be an add-on to the DVC-Planner program, but has since developed into it's own full fledged program. Beta 1.1 is currently in test by several volunteers, and they'll be getting Beta 1.2 in a few days. If all goes well, I would hope to have a release copy ready by the end of the year.
If interested, just go to
Caskbill.Com to download either DVC-Planner and/or DVC-Chart. You can also preview 4 of the screens that are currently in DVC-Tracker to get a glimpse of what some of it looks like.
DVC-Tracker will be the most sophisticated DVC point tracking program there is anywhere. For example, you may have several Membership Numbers, numerous Add-On's, any combination of banked/borrowed points, or even holding points or reservation points. When you want to make a reservation somewhere DVC-Tracker will present all your point choices on one screen and you can select and choose any combination you want for your reservation. The program will NOT let you choose incorrect points such as trying to use Reservation points for a DVC-Resort, or trying to use OKW points for BWV at 10-months, or trying to use points from your 2005 December Use Year for your November 2005 vacation. Since the program knows your use year month for every contract you own, it checks your vacation dates and automaticallly knows which use year's points you can use. It does all this, and much much more
It handles banking/borrowing/transfers, and keeps track of your banking percentage windows. It has an active countdown display for your next vacation check-in. It handles reservation cancellations, and automatically restores points correctly, maintaining their resort, use year and original status (banked/borrowed) or reassigns them to holding, reservation, or even forfeit depending on the date of reservation cancellation. If you sell one of your contracts it will handle that too. And if you buy a resale contract, it'll walk you through the set-up so you can get all the starting points correct such as banked, borrowed, used points, holding points, or reservation points. Did you give points back to Disney as part of a Magical Beginnings purchase. Easy. Or maybe you bought SSR and got some incentive points. Also Easy. If you want, it optionally will keep track of your financial transactions including recording all purchase or sale information, and if you want, you can keep track of your annual dues, including keeping records for the breakdown such as taxes. (It currently will not track a financed purchase for payments or interest, and does not have any type of amortization schedule, but those may be future enhancements).
You'll be able to generate a variety of reports, and even show some things graphically. Want to see a pie chart showing what percentages of all your DVC vacation days were in a Studio, 1-B/R, 2-B/R or GV? Or instead of by days, how about by points. Or how about a pie chart by Resort? That's all possible.
Follow the link in the signature below.
Bill
