Where to begin... I might as well start from the beginning so you'll know where we're coming from with this.
What happened:
Back in September we were hosted on a really bad host that had horrible down time. Back then, we had about 300 members using the site. We got featured on LifeHacker.com and our traffic blew up overnight. Unfortunately, the server also blew up (not literally, figuratively) so we were forced to switch servers and spend hours making sure the transition was painless. We finally got settled into our new server and things were going great.
Over the next 6 months our traffic grew very fast as we approached 2,600 active members. This afternoon, ClearCheckbook was featured on the "Tips for Life" blog DumbLittleMan.blogspot.com and our traffic shot out the roof. In keeping with tradition, our new host couldn't handle the traffic and shut us down... literally. They simply pulled the plug on our site and said "you've outgrown a shared hosting plan."
By now I've grown livid as I can't stop thinking about everyone who is now trying to access their finances and is getting strange errors and is unable to do so.
Acting quickly, I contacted a friend who has a Virtual Private Server (VPS) that we could set up shop on for a week or so until we can buy a new dedicated server. So over the last 4 hours, we've been scrambling to transfer everything over to the new server, test everything to ensure it's working properly on the new site, set up email accounts, make sure CheckBot is still active, etc.
What we're waiting on now is for the DNS servers to update so everyone will see the site on the new server.
Lingering Issues:
Because our old host abandoned us and our dedicated IP address, the SSL certificate isn't working properly. We set up a new certificate, but it's going to ask you to accept it before you can use the site. Please know that your information is still being encrypted and is completely secure.
Reports are taking a lot longer than usual to generate. If you don't need to generate your reports right now, please hold off for a while until we get a few more things situated. (CSR 342 students, please be patient when generating your reports. There were a few issues with them earlier, but right now expect to wait upwards of 2 minutes... just be patient :) )
What's next?
Over the next week or two, we will be searching out a new Dedicated Server plan. This means we will be the only site on the entire server and means you will see an extreme improvement in load times.
Buying a Dedicated Server is not cheap, so we're doing our research on finding the right one for the right price. If anyone knows of a great host, please post about it in the comments.
Again, I can't express how sorry I am that this had to happen again. I give you my word that once we're on our own server, things will be soooooo much better.
The contest is over now per the rules posted in their blog.
Yes, you heard me right. Financial blog Dumb Little Man is holding a contest where they're asking for everyone's methods for managing their money and personal finance.
Here's a quote from their post:
"On your website or blog, create a new post with your absolute best personal finance advice. This could be something that pertains to credit cards, mortgages, budgeting, etc. It doesn't matter, but it has to be a new post with 250+ words. We are not mandating that you link to Dumb Little Man in your post but it would certainly be appreciated so your readers know about the contest. Maybe they want in!"
If you have a blog of your own and 5 minutes to spare, you should take the time to write about ClearCheckbook and how it's helped you manage your money. Who knows, maybe you'll win the $100 or an iPod Shuffle. The deadline for submission is February 23, 2007 at midnight EST.
If you do decide to enter the contest, post a link to your blog post here in the comments so we can see!
The reminders system is a great tool for helping you remember those recurring monthly bills or any other event you think is important. With the different settings, you can set ClearCheckbook to send you an email between 1 and 7 days before your event occurs to help remind you. In addition to the email, a message will appear on your main accounts page keeping you informed of your upcoming event.
To use the reminders, log into ClearCheckbook and click on Tools. When the tools page loads, click on Reminders. This will bring up the main reminders page. Here you will see two calendars on the left plus some instructions and reminder box on the right.
Adding a Reminder
To add a new reminder, click on the "Add" link in the reminder box. Here you can enter the date the event will occur. You can also click the "Repeating" checkbox to bring up some options on how the event repeats through the week, month, or year. Another great feature with the reminders is the ability to set a stop date when you repeat an event.
The next option when you're adding a reminder is the ability to set a notification. You can click on the "Notify Me" checkbox to bring up the options. To set a notification, select the number of days before the event occurs that you would like to be reminded. This will make a message appear on your main accounts page. In addition to that message, you can also have us send you an email by clicking on the "Also, email me" checkbox. All emails are sent at 7:00am EST.
When you are finished with the settings, click the "Add Reminder" button and your reminder will be added. If it is set to happen within the next two months, the calendars on the left will update to show you your reminders.
Editing / Deleting a Reminder
To edit or delete a reminder, use the calendars on the left to move forward or backward through the months to find the event you want to edit. Each day that has a reminder will have a yellow background. If you move your mouse over the day it will tell you how many reminders are occuring on that day. To edit the reminder, click on the day and the reminders box on the left will load that reminder. From here, you will see an Edit and Delete action. If you want to delete a reminder, click on the Delete link. A pop up message will appear asking if you want to delete this specific reminder or all of them. This is a good way to modify events that might not have a weekly or monthly recurring rate. When you make your choice it will remove the specified reminder from the system.
If you would like to edit the specific reminder, click on the Edit link. This will bring up the same box that you saw when you added a reminder. You can change any of the information you desire and then click the "Edit Reminder" button to save it. This will save the changes for every reminder if it's repeating.
It's that easy. All you do is tell us when you want to be reminded and we set everything up for you. If you haven't tried the reminder system and have some monthly bills (like the credit card, rent, loans, car payment, etc) give it a shot and we're sure you'll love it.
If you use the reminder system, let us know what you think in the comments!
Last semester the CSR 342 course was the first to use ClearCheckbook as part of the course curriculum. The Professor and I had a few meetings to discuss how it could be used and it fit in very well with the exercise on spending.
It appears that they are using ClearCheckbook again as several Purdue students are registering. Last semester the course held around 300 students and I'm assuming this semester will be the same.
So, welcome CSR 342 students from a December 2005 Purdue Alumni. I also took CSR 342 in the Fall of 2005 before ClearCheckbook was even open to the public and for my personal use.
If any of you have any questions on how to use the site, please post here in the comments or send us a message by clicking the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of every page.
In order to use the Credit page, you need to have at least one credit card set up on the site. To do this, go to the "Settings" tab and click on "Manage Account Types" and make sure one of your accounts has the type "Credit Card."
When you make purchases on your credit card and add them to the site, they will show up on the "Credit" page. To get to the "Credit" page, click on "Accounts" and then click on "Credit." This page will list all your credit card purchases. If you have multiple credit cards, you can use the drop down box to select a specific one.
The main goal of the Credit page is to allow you to "pay off" your credit card bill and identify which purchases were included on this bill. To do this, when it comes time to pay off your credit card bill, select the check box next to each payment listed. When you have selected all the payments on the bill, click the "Pay Purchases" button.
This also serves an additional purpose of making sure that all entries on your credit card statement are accounted for. There's nothing worse than trying to track down some purchase you don't remember making. Keeping track of everything in ClearCheckbook will help reduce these headaches.
After you click "Pay Purchases" it will take you to an "Add Entry" type page that automatically fills in the total amount of your bill (assuming you're paying it off in full) as well as all the payments included on this bill.
You can enter the rest of the information, like the description, account you're paying with, etc. When you are done, click "Pay Card" and it will archive all the credit card purchases for that bill and replace it with your payment.
If you want to go back and see what purchases were included on any payment, go to the "Credit" page and there is a section that says "Paid Credit Card Purchases." This section will list all your paid payments and you can click on the name of the payment to see all the purchases that were paid off for that specific bill.
This is a really powerful feature that helps a lot of people, but I know that some people are often confused and don't know how to use it. Hopefully this helps clear some things up and you can start using the Credit page to help you manage your credit card payments.
