Copyright: BS/1 Small Business version 1.0


BS/1® Small Business
BS/1 Small Business

A fully integrated, network-ready, accounting system.  Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and General Ledger.  Simple enough for a home business, yet powerful enough for a medium-sized corporation.  Prints invoices, cheques and user-defined financial statements.  Completely international, multi-bank, multi-currency and multi-tax (user-defined).

Getting Started

Accounts Payable

Accounts Receivable

General Ledger

General Info

How to Register (Purchase)

Technical Support


How to Register (purchase a license)

This program is distributed as a single-user demo/evaluation version with a limit of 30 transactions until the program is registered.

Details are available at www.dbsonline.com

Or e-mail: info@dbsonline.com

Or fax: (604) 462-0199

Current prices (subject to change):

•	Single user - $49 US

•	3 user network - $385 US

•	6 user network - $750 US

Payment by credit card or check (equivalent in your currency).

Fill out our registration form at http://www.dbsonline.com/register/


Getting Started

When BS/1® Small Business is started for the first time a welcome screen displays.

You can choose to look at a sample company first, which is a quick way to explore BS/1® Small Business. This screen displays every time you start BS/1® Small Business until you choose to delete the sample company and set up your own.

When you choose to delete the sample company and set up your own, a Getting Started Wizard will assist you to enter the basic information required to use BS/1® Small Business.

The wizard adds a sample chart of accounts, and sets up 1 bank, 1 currency, and 1 sales tax. You can then add, modify, or delete GL accounts to suit the needs of your company. You can also add more bank accounts, currencies and taxes.

The wizard also sets up 1 salesman “House Account” and 1 customer type “General”. And again, you can add more, if required, when you are ready.

After setting up any additional banks, currencies, taxes, etc. your next step is to enter your vendors, customers, and items.

You are now ready to use the Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and General Ledger.


Accounts Payable

Vendors

AP Invoices

AP Cheques


Vendors

File -> AP -> Vendors

Quick Start

On the "Vendors" screen click the "New" button.

Under the Address tab:

1. Enter a vendor number or let the system assign one for you.

2. Enter the address information.

Under the Terms, etc. tab:

3. Enter the terms as dictated by the vendor, e.g. 2% 10 days, net 30 days.

4. Enter the default number of days to due date (the number of days to add to the invoice date to arrive at the due date).

5. Select the currency of the vendor (all of this vendor's invoices and payments will be processed in this currency).

6. Click OK to accept the information.

** Note: Click the “3 dots” button if you need to add a new currency to the drop down list.


AP Invoices

File -> AP -> Invoices

AP invoices are entered, then posted.  Prior to posting, they may be edited or deleted.  Posting updates vendor balances and creates general ledger journal vouchers.  These JV’s must be posted separately in the GL system in order to update account balances and GL history.  Posting JV’s is a separate job because in a multi-user environment it is possible for this to conflict with other GL jobs such as printing financial statements.  This minimizes the chance of the AP posting job being unavailable. JV’s created by the AP system cannot be modified or deleted even prior to posting in the GL.

Initially only “outstanding” (unpaid) invoices are shown.  To see all invoices toggle the outstanding option on the View menu or use the shortcut Ctrl+O.

When entering an invoice, the sum of the GL amounts must equal the invoice amount, otherwise an error message displays.  This is to ensure the GL amounts are entered correctly.

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts


AP Cheques

File -> AP -> Cheques

AP cheques are entered, printed, then posted.  Prior to posting, they may be edited or deleted.  Posting updates vendor balances, invoice balances, and creates general ledger journal vouchers.  These JV’s must be posted separately in the GL system in order to update account balances and GL history.  Posting JV’s is a separate job because in a multi-user environment it is possible for this to conflict with other GL jobs such as printing financial statements.  This minimizes the chance of the AP posting job being unavailable.  JV’s created by the AP system cannot be modified or deleted even prior to posting in the GL.

Note: Cheques must be printed prior to posting.  Hand-written cheques should have the cheque number entered.  Presence of a cheque number indicates that the cheque has been printed or hand-written.

Initially only “outstanding” (not reconciled) cheques are shown.  To see all cheques toggle the outstanding option on the View menu or use the shortcut Ctrl+O.  To reconcile a cheque (i.e. denote that it has appeared on a bank statement) use the Records menu or the pop-up menu available via the right mouse button.

Cheques can be entered manually or created automatically using the “Single Cheque” and “AutoCreate Batch” options.  AutoCreate Batch automatically creates cheques based on selected currency, vendor, due date, cheque date, and period.  These can later be modified or deleted prior to printing and posting.

When entering a cheque, the bank defaults to the 1st bank whose currency matches the vendor. This also applies to auto-created cheques.  The cheque amount is calculated (rather than keyed) based on the invoice payment amounts.

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts


Accounts Receivable

Customers

AR Invoices

AR Payments

Salesmen

Customer Types

Items

Taxes


Customers

File -> AR -> Customers

Quick Start

On the "Customers" screen click the "New" button.

Under the Address tab:

1. Enter a customer number or let the system assign one for you.

2. Enter the address information.

Under the Terms, etc. tab:

3. Select the currency of the customer (all of this customer's invoices and payments will be processed in this currency).

Under the Sales tab:

4. Select the applicable taxes from the drop down lists.

5. Select a salesman from the drop down list.

6. Select a customer type from the drop down list.

7. Click OK to accept the information.

** Note: Click the “3 dots” button if you need to add a new tax, salesman, or customer type to the drop down lists.

Ship-to customers can have can have up to 2 applicable taxes, so there is a maximum of 2 taxes on any invoice.  Each tax has a matching exemption number, presence of which means the tax is not applicable.  This feature is optional and merely provides a way to store tax exemption numbers.  Tax is applied on an invoice when an item tax code matches a tax code for a tax defined for the ship-to customer.

Salesmen

Customer Types


AR Invoices

File -> AR -> Invoices

AR invoices are entered, printed, then posted.  Prior to posting, they may be edited or deleted.  Posting updates customer balances and creates general ledger journal vouchers.  These JV’s must be posted separately in the GL system in order to update account balances and GL history.  Posting JV’s is a separate job because in a multi-user environment it is possible for this to conflict with other GL jobs such as printing financial statements.  This minimizes the chance of the AR posting job being unavailable.  JV’s created by the AR system cannot be modified or deleted even prior to posting in the GL.

Note: Invoices must be printed prior to posting.  Hand-written invoices should have the “printed” checkbox checked.

Initially only “outstanding” (unpaid) invoices are shown.  To see all invoices toggle the outstanding option on the View menu or use the shortcut Ctrl+O.

When entering an invoice, the invoice amount is calculated (rather than keyed) based on the item totals and any taxes.

Items

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts


AR Payments

File -> AR -> Payments

AR payments are entered, then posted.  Prior to posting, they may be edited or deleted.  Posting updates customer balances, invoice balances, and creates general ledger journal vouchers.  These JV’s must be posted separately in the GL system in order to update account balances and GL history.  Posting JV’s is a separate job because in a multi-user environment it is possible for this to conflict with other GL jobs such as printing financial statements.  This minimizes the chance of the AR posting job being unavailable.  JV’s created by the AR system cannot be modified or deleted even prior to posting in the GL.

When entering a payment, the bank defaults to the 1st bank whose currency matches the bill-to customer.

For each invoice to be paid, the payment amount, discount, and any write-off amount are entered.  This is most easily done by clicking the right mouse button on each invoice to display a pop-up menu with the following options

•	Pay + no discount

•	Pay + take discount

•	Pay + take discount if eligible

•	Write-off

The sum of the payment amounts must equal the cheque amount, otherwise an error message displays. This is to ensure the payment amounts are entered correctly.

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts


Salesmen

File -> AR -> Other -> Salesmen

Salesmen are assigned to ship-to customers.   This facilitates printing sales analysis reports sorted and/or summarized by salesman such as may be used to determine sales commissions, etc.

Note: BS/1 Small Business currently does not include Sales Analysis.  However, sales reporting can be achieved via a 3rd party product such as Crystal Reports, Paradox, or MS Access.  BS/1 Small Business tables are Paradox format.

Quick Start

On the "Salesmen" screen click the "New" button.

Under the General tab:

1. Enter the salesmen's name, title, phone numbers, etc.

2. Click OK to accept the information.


Customer Types

File -> AR -> Other -> Customer Types

Customer Types are used to group ship-to customers for sales analysis.  Example: Food Service, Government, Distributor, etc.  This facilitates printing sales analysis reports sorted and/or summarized by customer type.

Note: BS/1 Small Business currently does not include Sales Analysis.  However, sales reporting can be achieved via a 3rd party product such as Crystal Reports, Paradox, or MS Access.  BS/1 Small Business tables are Paradox format.

Quick Start

On the "Customer Types" screen click the "New" button.

Under the General tab:

1. Enter the name of the customer type.

2. Click OK to accept the information.


Items

File -> AR -> Other -> Items

Items can be goods or services for sale.

Quick Start

On the "Items" screen click the "New" button.

Under the General tab:

1. Enter the item number.

2. Enter the item description.

3. Enter the unit price.

4. Enter the applicable tax codes for this item.

Under the GL Accounts tab:

5. Select the GL account from the drop down list that will be storing the sale of this item (e.g. Account no. 4000 - Sales).

6. Click OK to accept the information.

** Note: Click the “3 dots” button if you need to add a new GL account to the drop down list.

Items can have up to 3 tax codes for applicable taxes.  Example: PG  (PST and GST).  Tax is applied on an invoice when an item tax code matches a tax code for a tax defined for the ship-to customer.


Taxes

File -> AR -> Other -> Taxes

Taxes are added to AR Invoices for taxable items based on the taxes defined for the ship-to customers.  Tax is applied on an invoice when an item tax code matches a ship-to customer tax code.

Quick Start

On the "Taxes" screen click the "New" button.

Under the General tab:

1. Enter the name of the tax.

2. Enter the tax rate (e.g. 7 for 7%)

3. Enter the tax code (the tax code prints on the invoice beside each taxable item e.g. G for GST, V for VAT)

4. Enter the tax description (the tax description prints on the invoice footer beside the tax amount)

5. Select the GL Account for the tax from the drop down list.

6. Click OK to accept the information.

** Note: Click the “3 dots” button if you need to add a new GL account to the drop down list.

Within each tax category, such as federal or state/province, you set up a tax record for each tax you collect.

Example (Canadian):

Tax Name	Rate	Code	Description (category)
GST - Federal	7%	G	GST
PST - Ontario	8%	P	PST
PST - BC	7%	P	PST

Tax Name is used when choosing the applicable taxes for a customer.

Tax Code prints on the invoice detail lines for items taxable for this customer.

Tax Description prints on the invoice footer beside the tax amount.

Customers can have can have up to 2 applicable taxes, so there is a maximum of 2 taxes on any invoice.  Each tax has a matching exemption number, presence of which means the tax is not applicable.  This feature is optional and merely provides a way to store tax exemption numbers.

Items can have up to 3 tax codes for applicable taxes.  Example: PG  (PST and GST).  Tax is applied on an invoice when an item tax code matches a tax code for a tax defined for the ship-to customer.


General Ledger

GL Accounts

Journal Vouchers

Budget

GL Balances

GL History

Financial Statements


GL Accounts

File -> GL -> Accounts

This screen is used to enter GL accounts. This is often referred to as your chart of accounts and is used to record the increases and decreases of your assets, liabilities and owner's equity.

Examples of GL accounts

Sample Chart of Accounts

Quick Start

On the "GL Accounts" screen click the "New" button.

Under the General tab:

1. Enter the account number.

2. Enter the account name.

3. Use your mouse to select the account type... asset, liability, revenue, expense or retained earnings.

4. Click OK to accept the information.

Tip: To display balances for an account: select it, then menu View -> Balances or right-click to display a pop-up menu.


Examples of GL Accounts

A business uses a number of accounts in recording its transactions. These accounts may vary from one company to another but the following types of accounts are common.

Asset Accounts

Cash - It includes coins, currency, cheques, and postal and bank money orders. The balance shows both the cash on hand and that on deposit in the bank.

Accounts Receivable - Goods and services are often sold to customers on the basis of a promise of future payment. Accounts receivable are increased by sales on credit and are decreased by customer payments. Since it is necessary to know the amount currently owed by each customer, a separate record must be kept of each customer's purchases and payments. As well, the total of all those increases and decreases is kept in one account called Accounts Receivable.

Inventory - Items purchased for resale.

Equipment - Increases and decreases in such things as computers, desks, machinery, etc. are commonly recorded in accounts called Computer equipment, Office equipment, Machinery and Equipment etc.

Liability Accounts

Accounts Payable - An account payable is an amount owed to a creditor. Accounts payable result from the purchase of merchandise, supplies, equipment, inventory, and services on credit. Since it is necessary to know the amount owed each creditor, an individual record must be kept of the purchases from and the payments to each. As well, the total of all those increases and decreases is kept in one account called Accounts Payable.

Taxes Payable - Income tax and sales taxes collected on behalf of your government.

Retained Earnings Account

Capital Account - When a person invests in a company of his or her own, the investment is recorded in an account carrying the owner's name and the word Capital. In addition to the original investment, the capital account is used for any permanent additional increases and decreases in owner's equity.

Revenue Accounts

Sales - Goods or services sold to your customers.

Expense Accounts

Telephone, Courier, Office supplies, etc. - These are examples of expenses that might be incurred while doing business.

Sample Chart of Accounts


Sample Chart of Accounts

Account no.	Name	Type
1006	Bank	Asset
1112	Accounts Receivable	Asset
1113	Exchange on Foreign Receivables	Asset
1200	Inventory	Asset
1721	Equipment	Asset
1821	Accumulated Depreciation Equipment	Liability
2032	Accounts Payable	Liability
2034	Exchange on Foreign Payables	Liability
2040	Sales Tax Payable	Liability
2050	Income Tax Payable	Liability
3110	Proprietor’s Capital or Retained Earnings	Retained Earnings
3111	Proprietor’s Withdrawals or Salary	Expense
4000	Sales	Revenue
4999	Cash Discounts	Revenue
5000	Cost of Goods Sold	Expense
5110	Auto Supplies	Expense
5111	Office Supplies	Expense
5112	Courier	Expense
5113	Telephone	Expense
5114	Postage	Expense
5115	Banking Charges	Expense
5116	Meals and Entertainment	Expense
5117	Travelling	Expense
5118	Professional Fees	Expense
5119	Business Taxes and Licenses	Expense
5120	Charitable Donations	Expense
5121	Courses and Training	Expense
5122	Dues and Memberships	Expense
5123	Magazines and Books	Expense
5124	Promo and Gifts	Expense
6000	Rent on Building	Expense
6001	Business Use of Home	Expense
6002	Electricity	Expense
6003	Insurance	Expense
6004	Water	Expense
6005	Property Taxes	Expense
7121	Depreciation Equipment	Expense
7130	Gain/Loss Disposal of Assets	Expense
7820	Misc Income and Expense	Expense
9020	Gain/Loss Foreign Exchange	Expense
9110	Income Tax Current Year	Expense
9025	Bad Debts	Expense
9030	Purchase Discounts	Expense


Journal Vouchers

File -> GL -> JV’s

Journal vouchers are entered, then posted.  Prior to posting, they may be edited or deleted.  Posting updates account balances and GL history.

Journal vouchers are also automatically created by posting AP invoices, AP cheques, AR invoices, and AR payments. These JV’s must also be posted in the GL system.  Posting these JV’s is separate job because in a multi-user environment it is possible for this to conflict with other GL jobs such as printing financial statements.  This minimizes the chance of the AP and AR posting jobs being unavailable.  JV’s created by other systems cannot be modified or deleted even prior to posting in the GL.

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts


Budget

File -> GL -> Budget

The budget may be entered by either keying the opening balance and net change for each period or by moving the slider controls.  Changing a slider position updates the corresponding amount and vice-versa.

The sliders are normally moved with the mouse, but can also be adjusted via the arrow keys for fine tuning.  The scale is initially set to $10,000 max, but is adjusted based on the amounts entered if you go back to edit an account.

As expense and asset accounts are normally debits (entered as positive amounts), the slider controls start at zero and increase as you move them to the right.  To enter a credit you must key the amount, rather than use the slider.

As revenue, expense, and retained earnings accounts are normally credits (entered as negative amounts), the slider controls start at zero and decrease as you move them to the right.  To enter a debit you must key the amount, rather than use the slider.


GL Balances

File -> GL -> Balances

This screen shows the balances for each period for each GL Account.  These can be sorted by account number or name.

Tip: To display history for an account you can double-click on it or select it and press Enter.


GL History

File -> GL -> History

This screen shows all the transactions posted to the General Ledger.  These can be sorted by account number, account name, JV number, amount or date.

Tip: To display the source (AP Invoice, JV, etc.) of a transaction you can double-click on it or select it and press Enter.


Financial Statements

File -> GL -> Reports

To set up a statement, you should first enter the title, select a format, and enter the line headings.  Then you can set the Detail Properties (such as accounts to include) via the >> button, or by double clicking on a detail line, or via the pop-up menu accessed by right-clicking anywhere on the grid.

You do not need to close the Detail Properties window in order to move to another line.  It is often useful to maximize the main window with the Detail Properties window on top.  You can maximize or reset a window by double-clicking the titlebar.

Detail lines have a “line type” of Heading, Detail, or Total.

Tip: If you type the 1st letter of line type, the rest will be filled in.

•	Heading lines are printed with a bold font style.  Use these for headings or blank lines.

•	Detail lines are indented by approximately 4 characters.

•	Total lines are indented by approximately 2 characters and print totals preceded by underlines.

You can change the sequence of the lines by using the arrow buttons at the right.  To insert a line you would add a new line (Ctrl+Insert or right-click), then move the line to the desired position with the “up” button (or Ctrl+U or right-click).

The Detail Properties window has 2 tabs for Accounts and Totals.

Accounts Tab: Accounts to include in this line are specified via ranges from/to.

Totals Tab: Here you specify which (previously entered) total lines are to receive data from this detail line.


General Info

Your Company

Banks

Currencies


Your Company

File -> General -> Your Company

This form is for entering info related to your company, such as the name of your company, current fiscal year and preferences.

Quick Start

Under the General tab:

1. Enter your company name.

2. Enter your current fiscal year.

3. Click OK to accept the information.

Current fiscal year must be specified prior to entering invoices and JVs, etc.  After entering transactions, you can only change the fiscal year by clicking the Year-End button.

No period-end processing is required.  The system will allow transactions to any period in the current fiscal year or beyond.  However, to prevent accidentally entering data to the wrong period, you can specify

•	Default period.  This is automatically entered for new transactions.

•	"Warn if before/after" range.  The system warns if period is outside this range.

•	"Error if before/after" range.  The system doesn't allow a period outside this range.

Getting Started


Period-End and Year-End

No period-end processing is required.  The system will allow transactions to any period in the current fiscal year or beyond.  However, to prevent accidentally entering data to the wrong period, you can specify your company preferences

•	Default period.  This is automatically entered for new transactions.

•	"Warn if before/after" range. The system warns if period is outside this range.

•	"Error if before/after" range.  The system doesn't allow a period outside this range.

Year-end processing is done via the Your Company Year-End button.  This carries forward GL balances for asset and liability accounts, and creates an opening balance for the retained earnings account based on the retained earnings closing balance plus the net of the revenue and expense accounts.  This allows financial statements to be run for the new year.  After this, you have an option to close the current year.  Leaving the current year open allows more transactions to be entered for the old year.  You can then re-run the year-end when you are sure there will be no more transactions.  Closing the year ensures that no transactions are accidentally entered to the old year.


Banks

File -> General -> Banks

At least one bank must be defined for you to be able to use the AP and AR features.  If you deal in more than one currency you will need to set one up for each currency.  A “bank” here refers to a bank account, so if you have multiple accounts at a bank you should set up a separate bank record for each account.

Quick Start

On the "Banks" screen click the "New" button.

Under the General tab:

1. Enter your bank account name

2. Select the GL account from the drop down list.

3. Select the currency from the drop down list.

4. Click OK to accept the information.

** Note: Click the “3 dots” button if you need to add a new GL account or a new currency to the drop down lists.

Bank Name	example: The Royal Bank
GL Account	The GL account for this bank account.
Currency	The currency of this bank account.


Currencies

File -> General -> Currencies

At least one currency must be defined for you to be able to use the AP and AR features.  Each time you set up a new vendor, bill-to customer, or bank you must specify the currency.  You can set up a default currency for Your Company so that this information is entered automatically for new vendors and customers.

Quick Start

On the "Currencies" screen click the "New" button.

Under the General tab:

1. Enter your domestic currency name e.g. Canadian

2. Leave the exchange rate blank. (to set up a foreign currency see notes following)

Under the GL Accounts tab:

3. Enter the account numbers or select the accounts from the drop down list for Accounts Payable, AP Discounts, Accounts Receivable, AR Discounts and Default AR write-off.

4. Click OK to accept the information.

** Note: Click the “3 dots” button if you need to add a new GL account or a new currency to the drop down lists.

Next we need to set this as our default currency.

5. Click File -> General -> Your Company

6. Use the drop down list to select your default or domestic currency.

7. Click OK to accept the information.

When entering AP cheques or AR payments, you specify the bank.  The currency of the bank must match the currency of the vendor or bill-to.  The bank defaults to the 1st bank whose currency matches the vendor or bill-to customer.

Currency Name	example: Canadian
Exchange Rate	Leave exchange rate blank if this is your domestic currency. This is the factor by which to multiply foreign currency to convert it to your domestic currency.  example: 0.72  to convert Canadian to US.  Revenue, expense, discounts, and write-offs are converted to domestic currency when posting to the GL.  The difference goes to the AP and AR exchange GL Accounts.  The exchange rate should be updated periodically to the current exchange rate so as to keep the conversion as accurate as possible.
GL Accounts	Accounts Payable, AP Exchange, AP Discounts, Accounts Receivable, AR Exchange, AR Discounts, Default AR Write-Offs.


Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts

To	Press

Increase a date	+

Decrease a date	-

Display a pop-up calendar	Ctrl+Enter   or   Double-click

Display GL Account or Item Search	Ctrl+Enter   or   Double-click

Advance to a grid (items on an invoice, etc.)	Page Down

Advance to a new row on a grid	Page Down (on grid)

Insert or delete a line on grid	Right-click to display a pop-up menu

AR Payments: enter payment amount, etc.	Right-click to display a pop-up menu

Display a drop down list	Alt + Down arrow


Technical Support

Support is available to registered users by email at support@dbsonline.com. The first incident is free, after which a support plan must be purchased in advance.

Details are available at www.dbsonline.com

Or e-mail: info@dbsonline.com

Or fax: (604) 462-0199

Current prices (subject to change):

1 year or 6 incidents - $60 US

Payment by check (equivalent in your currency).

The DBS web site www.dbsonline.com contains...

•	Additional product information

•	Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs)

•	A list of known bugs

•	A form on which to report a bug

•	Latest versions available for downloading