Daily Counter

If you're making a daily count of calorie intake, activity, steps or distance walked, money spent or just about anything else, then Daily Counter is for you.

Daily Counter allows you to keep track of four separate counters, each with its own tab at the top (initially labelled Count A through to Count D).

For each counter, you specify a name, a description, the units of measurement (e.g. Calories, points, minutes, km or dollars), and a target or average number of these units that you're trying to achieve each day. You also need to specify whether you are in general trying to minimize the total (e.g. for Calories when weight-watching, or money expenditure) or maximize it (e.g. for activity, steps or distance walked). You can also choose whether you wish to allow a carry-over, so that if your count is over or under your target on some days, you can compensate for this on other days. In other words, you would allow a carry-over if you're more concerned with the longer-term average than with achieving the daily target.

Once you start the counter, you can associate any number of individual counts for a day, and let the Daily Counter calculate the total count for that day. You can also record a brief comment to remind yourself what a count was for. The time at which you enter the count is also recorded to help you remember the context.

You have a complete week open at any time, which means you can enter counts not only for today, but also for any of the 6 previous days (as long as they are after the start of the count).

Daily Counter shows you the counts for the 7 days on a coloured background (green if you've achieved your daily target or red if you haven't). To the right of the daily total is shown your overall surplus or shortfall at that time compared to your target. If you've allowed a carry-over this will, of course, be compared with your expected total over the complete period; in contrast, if no carry-over is allowed, this will be simply the difference between the daily count and the daily target. Again, the red or green coloured background indicates whether or not you are achieving your target on or by that date. You can also choose to see the total count from the time the counter was started, the average over this time, and the minimum and maximum counts entered for any day.

Each count may be reset at any time, which means that you can reset totals, averages etc. to zero, ready to start the count again. This can be useful if you also make an associated count over a longer period, and this period has come to an end (e.g. you might be counting weight-watching points on a daily basis, but also allow a certain number of additional points over the full week). You might also use the reset feature when you wish to change your target, or when you have deviated so far from your intended average that you wish to forget about the past and start again. Alternatively, you might use the reset feature to replace this counter with a completely different one.