Appendix C Page 213Appendix CCreating a CustomExpense ReportThis section explains how to modify existing Expense applicationtemplates and how to create your own custom expense reporttemplates for use with the Expense application.Note: This section assumes that you are familiar with MicrosoftExcel or a similar spreadsheet application. If you are notfamiliar with Microsoft Excel, consult your company’sInformation Services department or another experienced user.About mapping tablesBefore creating or modifying an Expense template, it’s important tounderstand the function of the Palm™ Desktop software Expenseapplication. In simple terms, the Expense application is designed tomove Expense data from your organizer into a Microsoft Excelspreadsheet. Each Expense item stored in your organizer represents agroup of related data. You can associate the following data with anexpense item:n Category n Payment Currencyn Date n Vendorn Expense Type n Cityn Amount n Attendeesn Payment Method n NoteWhen you perform a HotSync ® operation between your organizer andPalm Desktop software on your computer, the Expense data is storedon your computer (in a file named Expense.txt). When you open theExpense application in Palm Desktop software, an Excel macro starts,and populates an expense template with your data based on the rulesspecified in a spreadsheet file named Maptable.xls.The Maptable.xls file is an editable spreadsheet that functions as a“mapping table.” The function of the mapping table is to guide theExcel macro in extracting the Expense data. The mapping table tellsthe Excel macro how large the spreadsheet is and provides the data-cell layout of the Excel template used for the Expense Report.
