Business Shareware/Business Shareware.iso/start/finance/medlin/pc-ar.doc

Text File | 1992-12-29 | 31KB | 613 lines

                                      PC-AR
                                   Version 4.2
                          Copyright 1992 by Jerry Medlin


        PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

             PC-AR is an accounts receivable and sales analysis program
        for small and medium size businesses.  The program runs on a IBM
        PC or compatible computer, with one disk drive and at least 256k
        memory.

             PC-AR is a Shareware program.  You are encouraged to give
        copies to anyone who might use it.  If you like the program and
        find it useful, please contribute $35 to:

                       Jerry Medlin
                       1461 Sproul Ave.
                       Napa, Ca.  94559

             To order using Master Card or Visa, call [phone].

             Your contribution entitles you to a copy of the latest
        version of the program and limited telephone assistance, should
        you require it.  You also receive a program which allows you to
        customize some features of PC-AR.  A complete description of the
        customizing program is contained at the end of this manual.

             When inputting information, the plus <+> key has the same
        effect as the return or enter key.  Numerical information is
        entered "calculator style".  The decimal point is placed
        automatically.  The minus <-> key enters a negative number.  This
        makes using the numeric key pad even easier.

             To run the program, simply type "PC-AR".  If you want to
        specify a drive and path for your data, add the drive and path
        description after the program name.  i.e. type "PC-AR B:" to use
        the B drive for data files.

             A menu is then displayed for operator selection:

                  Enter or Change Sales Codes
                  Enter or Change Customers
                  Enter or Change Charges & Payments
                  Print Mailing Labels
                  Print Charges & Payments Listing
                  Print Accounts Receivable Ledger
                  Print Statements
                  Print Sales Summary
                  Print Customer Activity Report
                  Start a New Month
                  Print Customer Listing
                  Save Data and End

             PC-AR is fast because it works with data in random access
        memory, but the capacity is limited by available memory.
        Available memory is shared by the data.  With more customers on
        file, fewer charges and payments can be entered and vice-versa.
        PC-AR allows 4000 customers and 4000 charges and payments per
        month with, 640k of memory.  With 256k, the capacity is reduced to
        about 200 customers and 200 charges and payments.

             Each time the menu is displayed, the number of charges and
        payments that can be added is printed at the bottom of the screen.
        The approximate number of customers that can be added can be
        obtained by dividing the number by 2.

             Since a power interruption results in loosing all the data
        currently entered into the program, you should occasionally save
        your data back to the disk.  This is done by selecting End
        Processing from the menu.  The current data is saved to the disk,
        then you are asked "Do you want to end ?".  Answer with an "N" and
        you may resume processing.


        THE PROCESSING CYCLE

             Accounting is done on a monthly cycle.  At the end of each
        month, all charges are added to the customer's balance, and all
        payments are deducted from the customer's balance.  The new
        balances are used as the starting balances for the next month.

             Each time the program is run, all customer data is loaded
        into memory.  Also, any charges or payments entered for the period
        are loaded into memory.  You may also have the program
        automatically enter a fixed billing amount and late charges for
        each customer.  When all of the charges and payments for the
        current month have been entered, begin printing reports.  Reports
        may be printed in any order, and as often as desired.  If you
        discover an error in any of the reports, you may correct the
        problem and reprint the report.  At any time, you can stop
        processing by choosing the End Processing selection from the menu.

             The last step in processing is to apply the charges and
        payments to customer balances.  This is done by choosing the Start
        a New Month selection on the menu.   This selection does three
        things:

        1) Ages the customer balances.  All current due amounts become 30
           day due, all 30 day balances become 60 day, etc.

        2) Deducts the payments from the customers balance due, starting
           with  90 day and proceeding to current due.

        3) Adds the charges to the current balance.  You may then proceed
           with the next month.

        ENTER OR CHANGE SALES CODES

             In addition to being an accounts receivable program, PC-AR is
        also a sales analysis program.  Each charge or payment is posted
        to a sales code.  The Enter or Change Sales Descriptions selection
        allows you to enter up to 200 of these sales codes and their
        corresponding descriptions.  The sales description is also printed
        on the various reports, including the statement.

             Enter a three character sales code (alphabetic or numeric
        characters are allowed), and up to 21 characters for a
        description.  If you enter a dollar value for each sales code, the
        value is entered automatically each time you enter the sales code.
        For most applications, the amount should be zero.

             You may add new sales descriptions, codes and amounts at any
        time, but don't change or delete sales codes once charges or
        payments have been entered.  Wait until the charges and payments
        have been applied to customer accounts, and you are ready to start
        a new month, before deleting or changing sales codes.

             At least one of the sales codes, and it's corresponding
        description should be for payments on account.  Payments received
        from customers should then be posted to this code, as a negative
        amount, using the minus <-> key instead of the enter key.

             If you plan to charge late charges or interest, you should
        enter a sales code for this purpose.


        ENTER OR CHANGE CUSTOMERS

             Customer information is entered and changed using this
             selection from the menu.  Enter the following information for
             each customer:

             Customer name - Two lines of 31 characters each are
             available.

             Customer Code - This is a ten character code used to sort
             customers, and also to post charges and payments to the
             customers account.  In most cases, you want to enter the
             customers last name, followed by as much of the first name as
             will fit in the remaining characters.  For instance, if the
             customer's name is Jerry Medlin, the customer code would be
             MEDLINJERR.  Notice all capital letters are used.  If you
             enter lower case letters, they are changed to upper case
             automatically.  Also, notice no spaces are included.
             The program will prevent you from entering a previously used
             customer code.  If a customer code includes a tilde character
             (~), the customer will be deleted when the account is paid.
             This allows you to enter one time customers and have the
             program automatically delete them when they are no longer
             active.

             Street Address - Up to 31 characters for the street address.

             City State & Zip - Up to 31 characters for the city, state
             and zip code.

             Telephone or Memo - Up to 48 characters for the telephone
             number or any other important information about the client
             you wish to keep.

             Late Charge % - Enter the desired late charge for this
             customer as a percentage.  If you are on a monthly cycle and
             you wish to charge an 18% annual rate for balances overdue,
             you would enter 1.5 (18 divided by 12 months.).  If you don't
             want to charge late fees to this customer, press <Enter> to
             enter a zero.

             Auto Bill Amount - Dollar amounts entered here may be posted
             to a customers account automatically each month.

             Balances Due - You may enter the current balance, the 30 day
             balance due, the 60 day balance due, and the 90 day balance
             due.  For new customers with no opening balances, press
             <Enter> to enter zero.

             Pressing the Escape key during entry takes you back to the
        previous field.  Pressing the Escape key at the first name entry
        takes you to the command mode.  The command mode allows you to
        scroll up and down through the customer names, delete customers,
        change customer information and do a quick check on the balances
        due for all customers.  Pressing the Escape key from command mode
        takes you back to the menu.

             The acceptable commands at any point are printed at the
        bottom of the screen.


        ENTER OR CHANGE CHARGES AND PAYMENTS

             This selection allows you to enter charges and payments for
        the current month.  Charge amounts are entered as positive numbers
        using the plus <+> or enter key and payments are entered as
        negative numbers using the minus <-> key (enter the number, then
        press the minus key).

             Before any charges and payments can be posted, you must have
        at least one sales description entered, so you have a sales code
        to post to.  The following information is entered for each charge
        or payment:

             Customer Code - The 10 character code for each customer is
             used to post a charge or payment.  Pressing <Enter> at the
             beginning enters the previous customer code.  As you enter a
             customer code, all of the possible matching customer codes
             are displayed at the bottom.  You need enter only as much of
             the customer code as necessary to distinguish it from any
             other code.  With each additional character entered, the list
             shrinks.  Pressing return at any time, accepts the customer
             code at the top of the list.  The customers name is then
             printed at the bottom of the screen so you can be sure you
             are posting to the correct customer account.

             Date - Enter the date of the charge or payment as in MODA
             form.  The date of June fourth is entered 0604, with no dash
             or slash.

             Invoice number - Up to 12 characters for the invoice number.
             Alphabetic characters are allowed.  Pressing the plus <+> key
             adds one to the previous invoice number, and clears the
             invoice total shown on the screen.  Pressing <Enter> gives
             you the same invoice number as the previous line, and does
             not change the invoice total.

             Sales Code - Enter one of the sales codes.  Sales codes and
             their corresponding descriptions should be setup using the
             Enter or Change Sales Descriptions selection of the menu.
             The possible sales codes and descriptions will be displayed
             at the bottom of the screen as you enter the number.
             Pressing <Enter> at the beginning, defaults to the sales code
             for the previous entry.

             Amount - Enter the amount of the charge or payment.  Payments
             should be entered as a negative number.  A negative number is
             entered by using the minus (-) key instead of the Enter key
             after the number is typed in.

             Pressing the <Enter> key on any entry except the amount,
        defaults to the previous value.  This allows you to make multiple
        entries for an invoice with the same customer, date and invoice
        number.  Pressing the plus <+> key for the invoice number
        increments the previous number by one.

             Two numbers are printed at the top right of the screen.  The
        top number is the total of all charges or plus entries and the
        bottom number is the total of all payments or minus entries.  Use
        these numbers to check your input data.  The screen also displays
        the total for the current invoice.  This total is reset to zero
        each time you enter a new invoice number, and should be checked
        against the invoice total.

              Pressing the Escape key during entry takes you back to the
        previous field.  Pressing the Escape key at the first entry
        position takes you to the command mode.  The command mode allows
        you to scroll up and down through the entries, delete entries and
        change entries.

             From the command mode, you may press the <A> Auto Bill key to
        automatically post the auto bill amount entered for each customer.
        You are asked to enter a date and invoice number and amount for
        the automatic postings.  Normally the amount should be zero.  If
        you enter an amount greater than zero, an invoice is created for
        EVERY customer for  that amount, even if the customer has no auto
        bill amount entered.  You may also calculate sales taxes on auto
        bill amounts by entering a negative amount.  The number will be
        used as a percentage to calculate and enter the sales tax for
        every auto bill amount.  Be sure to have a sales code available
        for sales tax.

             Pressing the <L> Late Charges key will calculate and enter
        the late charges for all customers.  Late charges are calculated
        on the balance brought forward for the month that remains unpaid
        at the end of the month.

             Pressing the <Q> Quick Save key will save all of your
        customer and invoice data to the disk.  Occasional power failures
        are a fact of life, so it is a good idea to use quick save every
        15 minutes or so.

             Pressing the Escape key from command mode takes you back to
        the menu.  All the available commands are printed at the bottom of
        the screen, and are chosen by a single keystroke.


        ENTERING LATE CHARGES

             PC-AR will calculate and enter late charges for customers who
        have not paid their previous month's balance due.  Before printing
        reports, select the <L> Late Charges selection from ENTER OR
        CHANGE CHARGES AND PAYMENTS.  The late charge percentage entered
        for each customer is multiplied by the unpaid balance carried over
        from last month, and entered as a transaction to the sales code of
        your choice.  If you enter an amount, that amount is used as a
        minimum late charge.


        PRINTING REPORTS

             The first time you choose a printed report from the menu, you
        are asked to enter a report date.  This date is used on all
        reports.  If you want to change the report date, end processing
        and start over; otherwise the same report date is used on all
        reports printed during a posting session.

             On some reports, before you start printing, you are asked to
        enter beginning and ending customer code.  Press the <Enter> key
        to start at the first customer.  Press <Enter> again to print to
        the last customer.  This feature allows you to print partial
        reports, and is handy when your printer eats the 598th of 600
        statements.

             When printing more than 20 statements or mailing labels, you
        are asked if you want to sort the customers by zip code.  If you
        answer Y (yes), the statements or mailing labels are printed in
        zip code order.  This allows you to take advantage of the cheaper
        bulk mailing rates.

             Next, you are asked to choose if you want to print the report
        to the printer <Enter>, to the screen <S> or to a file <F>.  If
        you choose to print to a file, you are asked for a file name.  The
        report is then saved as an ASCII file.  These files are not
        readable by PC-AR, but can be viewed and changed with a text
        editor; and used by other programs that can read ASCII files.  The
        report is printed to a file exactly as it is printed to a printer.


        PRINT MAILING LABELS

             As long as you have all this customer information on your
        computer, you might as well use it to print mailing labels.  You
        can print labels for all the customers, or only one customer, and
        you can sort them by zip code, if you wish.  Labels are printed on
        standard peel off labels, with one inch spacing between labels.
        To align the printer, use the selection process to print a single
        label.


        PRINT CHARGES & PAYMENTS LISTING

             To provide an adequate audit trail, this report must be
        printed and retained, before closing out the month.  It lists all
        the charges and payments entered for the month, and the total of
        charges and payments.

             You are asked to enter a starting and ending invoice date.
        Pressing the <Enter> key twice defaults to the first and last
        date, and all invoices for the period is printed.  You can use
        this date feature to print only the invoices entered for a single
        day, or a group of days.


        PRINT ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE LEDGER

             This report prints each customer's opening balance, all
        charges and payments for that customer, any late charges added and
        the closing balance.  Customers with no activity and no opening or
        closing balances are skipped.  The report should be printed and
        retained at the end of each month.  Since PC-AR is a "balance
        forward" accounts receivable program, the Accounts Receivable
        Ledger is your best source of information, several months from
        now, on how a customers balance got that way.

        PRINT STATEMENTS

        Customer statements are printed on a common statement form from
        New England Business Services (NEBS).  The form can be ordered pre
        printed, with your company name and address, by calling NEBS at
        800-388-3810.  The form number is 9060, and the mail code number
        is 95111.

             If you don't want to use forms preprinted with your name and
        return address, you may have the program print your name and
        address on blank forms.  To do this requires the program ARCONFIG
        which is available to all registered users of PC-AR.  The ARCONFIG
        program allows you to enter your company name and address, which
        will print on plain statement forms or on plain 8 1/2 by 11 paper.

              To test statement alignment, use the start print feature to
        print a single statement, then adjust the alignment accordingly.


        PRINT SALES SUMMARY

             This is a listing of all charges and payments by sales
        category, followed by a one page listing of total sales by
        category.  If you choose, you can omit the detailed listing, but
        you should print it at the end of the month for audit trail
        purposes.

             You are asked to enter a starting and ending invoice date.
        Pressing the <Enter> key twice defaults to the first and last
        dates used, and all invoices for the period are printed.  You can
        use this date feature to print a daily summary of sales.  By
        assigning separate sales codes for paid by check, paid by cash and
        paid by credit card, you can even print a list of checks to go
        with your bank deposit for the day.


        PRINT CUSTOMER ACTIVITY REPORT

              The Customer Activity Report summarizes all the transactions
        posted to a customers account for the past 6 months.  It looks at
        current transactions and the transaction files on your disk named
        AR1.INV, AR2.INV, AR3.INV, AR4.INV, AR5.INV and AR6.INV.  It then
        prints all the transactions made to the selected customer code.


        START A NEW MONTH

              When you have printed all the reports you need and all is in
        order, you can start the next month.  Important - Do not start a
        new month until all reports, including monthly statements, have
        been printed!


             All charges, payments and late charges are applied to
        customer balances. The customers balances are updated to agree
        with the balances shown on the statements, and the Accounts
        Receivable Ledger.  The charges and payments are saved, so later
        you may review all the transactions posted to an account for the
        past six months using the Print Customer Activity Report selection
        of the menu.


        PRINT CUSTOMER LISTING

             This report is a printout of all customer information on file
        including aging information.  The balances shown include any
        charges or payments made since the beginning of the month.

             You may choose to omit customer addresses, and to omit
        customers with no activity, when you print this report.


        EXPORT CUSTOMER DATA

             This selection creates a file on the logged drive and
        subdirectory called PC-AR.PRN, which can be read by programs like
        Lotus 123 and Reflex.  Text data in the customer file is
        surrounded by quotation marks.  You can then read the data into
        Lotus 123 by using the /File/Import/Numbers command.  Be sure no
        names or addresses in your customer file contain quotation marks,
        before trying to export customer data.


        SAVE DATA AND END

             When processing is completed, exit the program using this
        selection.   Do not end processing by turning off the computer,
        because you lose any data entered since the last save operation.
        If you  want to save the current data to the disk without ending,
        you may answer "N" to the question "Do you want to end
        processing?", and you are returned to the menu.


        USING THE CONFIGURATION PROGRAM

             The configuration program (ARCONFIG.EXE) is provided free to
        all registered users.  It allows you to change certain features of
        PC-AR.  The ARCONFIG.EXE program and the main program (PC-AR.EXE)
        should both be on the same disk drive when you configure your copy
        of PC-AR.  Run the program by typing ARCONFIG at the Dos prompt.
        Use the up and down arrows to move the pointer, and then press <C>
        to change an item.  You are allowed to change the following
        information:

             Display Colors - If you have a color adapter and monitor, you
             can change the colors for screen borders, program prompts,
             data, and background.  Allowable colors are from 0 to 15
             (except for background color which can only be from 0 to 7).
             The display is instantly updated as you enter the new colors.

             Laser Printer? - You may also change the way PC-AR starts a
             new page.  Usually, PC-AR starts a new page by counting
             lines, until the page total equals 66 lines.  If you enter a
             "Y" for the laser printer question, PC-AR starts a new page
             by issuing a form feed command.  This works on most other
             printers too, but requires you to set the top of form, before
             you start printing.

             Disk Drive and Path - Enter a drive and path designation for
             PC-AR data.  If you want the program to read data from the B
             drive, enter B:.

             Printer for Reports (1 or 2) - If you wish to print reports
             to a printer attached to LPT2 change this number.

             Printer for Statements (1 or 2) - If you wish to print
             statements to a printer attached to LPT2 change this number.

             Months to Save - The PC-AR program saves charges and payments
             on your data disk for later review with the Customer Activity
             Report.   Normally, the paid invoices for the previous six
             months are saved.  You may modify this number to be anywhere
             from zero to 16 months.  Remember, the more month's data you
             save, the more room you need on the data disk, and the more
             time it takes to review a vendor's activity.

             Plain Paper Statement - If you change this to a "Y",
             statements can be printed on plain 8 1/2 x 11 paper.  A "N"
             answer prints on pre printed 6 1/2 x 7 forms.  The default
             setting is "N".

             Statement Heading - If your company name and address is not
             pre printed on the statement forms, you may enter up to 5
             lines for a statement heading.

             Statement Footer Message - You can enter a message to be
             printed at the bottom of the statement form.  This is a good
             place to enter your payment terms, or a short advertising
             message.

             Print Ageing on Statements - Changing this from Y to N
             prevents the 30, 60, 90 day aging information from being
             printed on the statements.

             Invoice Details on Statements - Changing this from a Y to a N
             causes only the totals for each invoice to be printed on the
             statements.  This allows you to have a detailed breakdown of
             sales on the sales summary, but prints only invoice totals on
             the statements.  All adjacent entries with the same invoice
             number are totaled on the statement with "INVOICE #" for a
             description.  For this option to work properly, multiple
             entries with the same invoice number, must be together in the
             charges and payments listing.  It is a good idea to sort by
             Invoice number before printing the statements.

             When you have finished making your changes, press the escape
        key to exit the program.  You will be asked if you want to save
        the changes.  If you answer with a Y, a configuration file (PC-
        AR.CFG) will be created on the disk.

        DATA FILES

             Data files are created automatically by PC-AR.  If you wish
        to back up data files only, copy these files to another disk using
        the DOS copy or BACKUP command.

        PC-AR.CUS      Customer data file with balances.
        PC-AR.INV      Current period payments and charges.
        PC-AR.DES      Sales codes and descriptions.
        PC-AR.CFG      Configuration data created by ARCONFIG.
        AR1.INV, AR2.INV, AR3.INV, etc. contain the previous period
        payments and charges.  AR1.INV is the most recent.

        HELPFUL HINTS

             The escape key is always used to go back to the previous
        operation.  From anywhere in the program, if you continue to press
        the escape key, you will eventually return to the main menu.

             When printing reports, you may pause the printing by pressing
        any key.  To resume printing, press any key again.  To quit
        printing, press the escape key after pausing.

             Each customer must have a unique customer code for posting.
        If you use numbers, the program won't object, if the numbers are
        all the same length.  Customer number 1 should be entered as
        00001, for instance.  But, you should at least try the method
        suggested earlier in the manual.  Use a customer code made up of
        the customers last name plus as much of the first name as the 10
        character limit allows.  Jane Smith would then have a code of
        SMITHJANE (Notice there are no spaces).  This method allows rapid
        posting of invoices, without looking up customer numbers.  The
        searching method allows you to quickly examine the codes for all
        of the Smiths, by typing SMITH when asked for a code.

             The first 6 times you start a new month, more disk space is
        required for historical files.  If you have a large business and
        you are using floppy disks for data storage, you could run out of
        disk space.


        CONVERTING DATA FROM EARLIER VERSIONS

             If you have been using version 3.7 or higher, no conversion
        is necessary.

             If you are changing from a version of PC-AR beginning with 2
        (a very old version) you need to convert your customer data.  A
        program called CONVERT.COM is available for this purpose and is
        free to all registered users.  Run the program and follow the
        directions on the screen.

             If you have been using a version prior to 3.7, you must
        rename your earlier charges and payments files for use with this
        program.  Contact us to receive instructions on how to rename your
        earlier data files.

             Starting with Version 3.9, late charges are handled the same
        as any other charge or payment.  You must enter a sales code to
        receive the late charges and, each month, you must choose the <L>
        Late Charges option to calculate and enter late charges.  This
        method requires only a few seconds per month to enter the late
        charges, and provides increased flexibility and improved audit
        trail.

             PC-AR is written in Turbo Pascal.  The source code is
        available for $95.