Apr 22, 2018
Matthew McGinley, Elite Personal
Accountant
Matthew McGinley was the creator and publisher of Elite
Personal Accountant, financial management software for the Atari
computer. He released it in mid-1985 after working on it for
several years.
The review of Elite Personal Accountant by Stephen Roquemore
in Antic magazine said, "This new program from a small company has
just about every capability built into it that anyone could dream
up. And the manual is one of the finest I have ever encountered.
... Elite Personal Accountant will handle 79 categories divided
into income, expense, asset, and liability groups. As many as nine
credit cards are handled separately, but counted as liabilities.
There are 17 different transaction codes available. The reporting
capabilities go well beyond the competition, with an option that
allows you (within limits) to design your own reports."
I found Matthew through an
eBay listing, where he is selling the source code disks,
printouts, and development notes.
This interview took place on April 10, 2018.
"Being stuck on certain routines that would give me an error,
and I knew there must have been a simple answer. So I'd be going
off to sleep, and I'd wake up two hours later. My mind was — ah,
that's it! "