RVers Notebook by IV Software is a small utility for vacation tracking. It is built around MS Access, and includes MS Access 2000 viewer as part of the install.
There is a setting in the Tools section for choosing the default country (United States or Canada). Presumably this is to determine use of American or metric measures. However, this is pretty hit and miss, and generally US measures are used throughout no matter what the default. Individual sections can be reset, but even those are sometimes incomplete.
Sections of the RVer's Notebook Vacation Travel Software
Following a splash page cover, the user interface is set to resemble a spiral bound notebook, with section headings down the left margin. Each section is a small utility within the larger travel tracker.
One feature that was confusing at first is the lack of a “Save” or “OK” button on any section screen (such controls are present on popup dialog boxes). RVer's Notebook Saves the main page automatically whenever you leave. Quick and handy, actually.
Home
The Home page is shown on opening, or on clicking the Home button. It displays list of events for the current month.
Tracking RV and Generator Service and Hours
Tabs in this section show information about the RV (motor home) or Vehicle (Tow vehicle or truck with camper), the RV chassis, and the generator. The generator section also provides service alerts which will be only as accurate as the RVer has been faithful in entering hours-run data.
RV Weight and Safety
The weight section only seems to work in pounds, so a GVWR in kilograms isn't going to work. This section needs some homework and data was not available for this test, so the accuracy of the weight analysis and problem sections was not determined.
RV Service Records
RVers Notebook maintains service records for the RV, the vehicle, and the generator. Although the generator section provides service alerts, it appears that the only functions of the RV/vehicle records is to track costs and provide service records on sale of the vehicle or unit.
Tracking Vacation Expenses
The Notebook contains a simple expense tracker organized by RV or vehicle. In addition to a basic set of editable expense categories, the user can add up to nine additional categories.
Fuel economy calculations were interesting – even though the default was set for CA, the fuel consumption dialogue came up in miles and US gallons (old-fashioned Canadians who still think in Imperial measure are completely out of luck.) Even after that, the fuel consumption was measured in kilometres per litre, instead of the more customary liters per hundred kilometres.
There was no way to specify payment method; debit, cash and credit card payments are all considered the same. There is a small notes section that can be used for details of a purchase, including payment type.
The expense section was also a constant source of error messages. While none of these crashed the program, they were annoying and required that a particular expense be re-entered several times
Expenses for camping and vehicle/RV/generator service are entered through those sections but are summarized here. Accidentally clicking camping or auto service as a category while entering an expense pops up a message saying that such expenses are entered from another section – but also dumps the data, necessitating re-entry.
Address Book
This simple address database will store and sort by business, campground, or personal – but be sure to set this first because once set, it can't be changed. If the campground owner happens to be a personal friend, pick one – only one.
RV Campground Tracker
Record details of a campground visit, including photos, for ratings and reports. This data can be sorted and filtered in a variety of ways to answer questions such as “What campgrounds in Texas had wi-fi?” or “What was our favorite campground in Calgary?”
RV Vacation Trip Log
Once the first entry is in , a carryover function brings the final odometer reading of one trip in as the start of the next log entry. But each trip starts anew (tip: Log in the first trip as being out of the driveway with 0.0 km)
Record the Vacation in a Scrapbook
A general-purpose tool for storing notes or photos. “A great use of the scrapbook is to copy information from the internet about your specific RV [or for campgrounds, tourist attractions, or any other item] and paste it in the text section. Add a keyword to help you store the information by topic and the find feature will retrieve your information. Find will also search the text for any words or phrases.”
Vacation Planner and Calendar
A monthly planner lets the RVer enter events on a one-time or recurring basis. Those from the current month appear on the home page as reminders when the program opens.
"Where Have We Been?" Map
The map of North America is not particularly useful, but is fun for someone who plans to visit every state and/or province. Click on a state to change its color and show that it's been visited. To make this really useful, the developers could link it to one of the online mapping systems such as MapQuest or Google Maps.
RV Reports
Well-laid-out MS Access reports on a wide variety of topics.
Tools
The Tools section is used for setting defaults that determine how the other sections operate. File locations, alerts management,
Exit
Closes the program and saves entries on the last-viewed screen.
Conclusion
For RVing in America, this will work well. Those RVing through Canada will find it quirky and while it will work, it's far from perfect. Those in any other part of the RV world are out of luck.
Thomas Alan Gray - Tom has been writing for over 30 years; curiosity leads him to dig into a wide variety of topics.
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