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Text File | 1992-12-01 | 37KB | 702 lines

@706 CHAP ZZ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ I N S T R U C T I O N S F O R │ │ │ │ U S I N G T H E │ │ │ │ S M A L L B U S I N E S S A D V I S O R│ ├──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┬──┤ ├──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┤ ├──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┤ ├──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┤ ├──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┤ ├──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┼──┤ └──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┴──┘ SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: This program is designed to operate on IBM-compatible personal computer systems (other than the PCjr.) using DOS 2.0 or higher. A minimum of 384K RAM is required. A hard (fixed) disk is recommended; however, the program can also be run from a single high-density floppy disk drive, as follows: . A 1.2 MB high-density (5.25 inch) floppy disk drive; or . A 1.44 MB (3.5 inch) floppy disk drive. If your computer has only 360K and/or 720K flop- py disk drives and you do not have a hard disk, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RUN THIS PROGRAM ON IT. The program is text-based, so it should run properly on almost all monitors, whether or not you have a graphics adapter. If you have a color, the program will take ad- vantage of the color capability, but it will also run on most monochrome or black-and-white monitors. We have at- tempted to make the program functional for virtually any IBM PC-compatible, DOS-based platform. (However, it will not run on an IBM PCjr.) I. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING THE PROGRAM: There are several general pointers that it may be helpful for you to remember, when you are using the Small Business Advisor program: 1. Remember that "HELP" is always at your fingertips when you are at any of the menus in the program. Before you press <ENTER> to select a command from any of the menus, press the "F1" key if you see "F1-HELP" at the bottom left hand corner of the screen, and a help screen will appear in the Dialog Box, describing the use of the selection highlighted on the menu. 2. Remember that when you want to get out of a text file you are viewing or from any other operation, and to return to the last menu you were in, just press the <ESCAPE> key. Or, in other words, when in doubt, press <ESCAPE> to stop what you are doing. 3. You can print out any text file or checklist that appears on the screen in the large "TEXT VIEWING WINDOW." Simply press <ESCAPE> (once) and a small box will appear in the middle of the screen offering you 3 choices: (a) Press <ENTER> to continue viewing the current text file; (b) Press <ESCAPE> again to exit to the menu; or (c) Press "P" to print the document. (If you are editing one of the 3 worksheets or the STARTUP Checklist, a 4th option will be offered: To press "S" to save the worksheet or checklist on disk.) 4. F6 Function Key -- Press the F6 key to exit from the program (temporarily) to DOS, if you wish to use any DOS functions for any reason, locate files, format diskettes, etc., or even to briefly run another program, if your system has sufficient memory to do so while hold- Small Business Advisor in RAM. Once you are ready to re- turn to Small Business Advisor, type the command "EXIT" at the DOS prompt and press <Enter>, and you will be back in Small Business Advisor, right where you left off. 5. F10 Function Key -- Press the F10 key to exit from the program, whenever you see "F10 - Quit" as the bottom of the screen. Any information you have entered about your business by using the "DATA" command has al- ready been saved on disk and will automatically be loaded into memory the next time you run the program, so there's no need to save anything before pressing F10 to exit from the program. PART II. SUMMARY OF FEATURES OF THE "SMALL BUSINESS ADVISOR" PROGRAM: The following is a brief overview of the various commands and functions in the ADVISOR program. For a more complete description of any menu command when running the program, go to the menu where that command appears, use the cursor keys or space bar to move the highlighted menu bar to that command on the menu, and then press the F1 key (Function Key 1). If you are in the TAXES Submenu (where you can do income and estate tax calculations and projections), you can also select the HELP command on that menu for a more detailed description of the tax calculation commands. M A I N M E N U - - - - - - - - ┌───────── MAIN MENU ────────┐ ▄▄│NEW Latest laws, developments│ ██│DATA Enter data about company │ ██│INDX Quick scan of topic index│ ██│KEY Search for key words │ ██│TAXES Tax Calculations Submenu │ ██│TEST Entrepreneurs' self-test │ ██│SCRN Screen colors and texture│ ██│USER User manual, general help│ ██│XPERT Consult EXPERT for advice│ ██└───────────────────────────────┘ █████████████████████████████████ NEW command. This menu selection will give you a quick overview of recent tax, legal, and other changes that have been made in the program since most previous quarterly edition of the program was released. It will give all users an idea of recent developments and, for a user who owned a copy of a prior release, a quick thumb- nail sketch of new features that have been added to the program in the last 3 months. This text file also gives you a preview of new features that are currently in pro- cess, and that will be added in forthcoming quarterly up- dates of Small Business Advisor. DATA command. Use this command at any time to change or enter information about the business you oper- ate (or plan to start). When you select this command, the program will proceed to ask you the name of your firm and a number of other questions about your business. Most of the questions require simple "Yes" or "No" responses (by entering "Y" or "N"). When it finishes asking you all the necessary questions, a detailed checklist of tax and legal pointers tailored to your particular business will be displayed on screen. After you exit the DATA command, you can view this check- list again at any time by switching to the "Checklists" Menu and selecting the "START" command on that menu. Or, at any time you wish, you may select the "DATA" command once more and enter a different set of answers about your business (or perhaps about a different business, if you wish). This set of data about your business, as last mo- dified by you, is automatically loaded into memory by the program each time you start it up. However, when using the XPERT consulting menu, the program does not use the saved information. Instead it will ask much more detailed questions about your business (or other businesses which you may also own or be considering). INDX command. This command displays (in a "Dialog Box") a broad and comprehensive index over 100 business subjects in an alphabetical list. You can rapidly scan through this list by using the up or down arrow (cursor) keys, space bar, or the "Page Up" and "Page Down" keys. You may also press any letter, from A to Z, to skip to the alphabetical listing of subjects be- ginning with the letter you pressed. A small triangle points at the last index item displayed in the dialog box. To see information on any subject listed in the index, just place the pointer in front of the item and then press <ENTER>. You will find many timely subjects listed in the Index, such as "CUSTOMS REBATES" (tips for exporters for getting rebates from the U.S. government); information on the "WARN" Act rules regarding plant clos- ings and layoffs; telephone "hotline" numbers to get free advice from various government agencies that assist small firms; "PASSIVE LOSS" restrictions; and many other items that can be very useful to you to explore. KEY command. This is similar to the INDX command above, except in this case you can simply type in one or more key words, and the program will instantly search an expanded index for the key word(s). If the program finds a subject you want, it will display what it has found, and you can press "Y" to see the text file on that subject, or enter "N" to tell the program to continue the search. TEST command. Use this command to give yourself a quick test as to whether you have the attitudes needed to be relatively successful in starting your own business. This is adapted from a multiple-choice test created by the U.S. Small Business Administration. When you have answered all the questions, you are given a numeric score and evaluation. SCRN command. Use this command to toggle on or off the "textured" background screens when viewing the menus. While the textured backgrounds have a nice look on EGA and VGA color displays, they may look a little bit strange on some older CGA and monochrome monitors. Select various color combinations and your choice of tex- tured or non-textured backgrounds for the main screen. To select, just keep pressing <Enter> to page through all of the various color and texture combinations. USER command. Selecting this menu item loads the User's Manual you are now viewing. Press the <Esc> key and then "P" if you wish to print out this manual in hard copy format. XPERT command. Select this menu item if you wish to go to the Consulting Submenu, which provides a number of complex subject areas on which you can receive "expert system" help from the program, based on your particular business's situation. The results of any such "consulting session can either be printed out as hard copy as well as saved to disk in ASCII format for further editing or for- matting with a word-processing program. TAXES command. Enter this command to go to the TAXES Submenu to do various tax calculations. This Submenu contains the following commands: ┌───── Tax Calc SUBMENU ──────┐ ██│ENTR Enter individual tax data │ ██│ITAX Compute indiv. income tax │ ██│CTAX Corporate income tax calc.│ ██│WILL Estate plan, estate taxes │ ██│HELP General help for tax calcs│ ██│MAIN Exit back to MAIN MENU │ ██└───────────────────────────────┘ █████████████████████████████████ ENTR command. Use this command to scan a list of personal income tax items (wages, dividends, medical expenses, etc.) and enter amounts for each that applies to you for your 1992 individual income tax. While using this command, you can press the "F3" function key at any time to do a quick re-calculation of your approximate tax liability. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ CAUTION: THE TAX CALCULATION FEATURES OF │ │ THIS PROGRAM ARE NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR TAX │ │ ADVICE FROM A PROFESSIONAL TAX ADVISER, OR │ │ FOR A FULL-FLEDGED TAX PROGRAM. INSTEAD, │ │ THIS PROGRAM PROVIDES A "SIMPLIFIED" CALC- │ │ ULATION OF YOUR APPROXIMATE 1992 TAX LIA- │ │ BILITY. IN ORDER TO MAKE THE PROGRAM EASY │ │ TO USE FOR PERSONS WHO AREN'T TAX EXPERTS, │ │ IT MAKES NUMEROUS "SHORT-CUT" ASSUMPTIONS │ │ ABOUT MANY VERY TECHNICAL TAX RULES. IF │ │ YOU ARE A PERSON WHO HAS CERTAIN COMPLICA- │ │ TED TAX SITUATIONS, THE PROGRAM WILL N O T │ │ CALCULATE YOUR TAX PROPERLY. ACCORDINGLY, │ │ ASSUME THAT THE RESULTS YOU GET FROM RUN- │ │ NING THE TAX CALCULATION COMMANDS IN THIS │ │ PROGRAM ARE, AT BEST, AN APPROXIMATION. │ │ WHILE IT WILL DO SOME HEAVY NUMBER CRUNCH- │ │ ING FOR YOU, BASED ON A RELATIVELY SMALL │ │ NUMBER OF ENTRIES, BE AWARE THAT THE PROG- │ │ RAM ONLY COVERS FAIRLY "TYPICAL" KINDS OF │ │ TAX SITUATIONS. (HOWEVER, WE THINK YOU │ │ WILL FIND ITS INSTANT TAX CALCULATIONS │ │ QUITE USEFUL, PARTICULARLY IN LIGHT OF THE │ │ 1992 TAX LAWS, WITH THE NEW "PHASEOUTS" OF │ │ VARIOUS ITEMS, SUCH AS OF PERSONAL EXEMP- │ │ TIONS AND MOST ITEMIZED DEDUCTIONS, ABOVE │ │ CERTAIN AGI LEVELS.) │ │ │ │ THERE IS A VERY GOOD REASON WHY THE INCOME │ │ TAX CODE AND REGULATIONS TAKE UP THOUSANDS │ │ OF PAGES.... COMPLEXITY! OBVIOUSLY, FOR A │ │ TAX PLANNING PROGRAM TO ASSURE A HIGH DE- │ │ GREE OF ACCURACY, IT WOULD HAVE TO ASK YOU │ │ HUNDREDS OF ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL QUESTIONS │ │ IN ADDITION TO THE ITEMS YOU ENTER IN THIS │ │ SIMPLE TAX CALCULATOR. FOR EXAMPLE, IF YOU │ │ ENTER AN AMOUNT AS A BUSINESS LOSS, THIS │ │ PROGRAM WILL NOT ASK YOU WHETHER THE LOSS │ │ IS ALLOWABLE UNDER THE HOBBY LOSS, BASIS, │ │ PASSIVE ACTIVITY, AT-RISK, OR OTHER RULES │ │ THAT MIGHT DISALLOW THE LOSS. IT WILL SIM- │ │ PLY TREAT THE LOSS AMOUNT AS DEDUCTIBLE, │ │ ASSUMING YOU HAVE CORRECTLY MADE THAT DE- │ │ TERMINATION.... WHICH MAY BE A VERY WRONG │ │ ASSUMPTION, CONSIDERING THE INDECENT COM- │ │ PLEXITY OF THE TAX LAWS. │ └────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ITAX command. Once you have used the ENTR command to input your income tax data, use this command to display a more detailed summary of the results of the tax calculations. Use the cursor keys and "Page Up"/"Page Down" keys to scan through this summary. CTAX command. This command simply computes the federal corporation income tax on an amount of taxable income you enter. This is simply a handy way to calculate the tax on corporate income according to the corporate tax rate schedules in the Internal Revenue Code. Tax credits, corporate alternative minimum tax, etc., are not taken into account. (The program assumes that the corporation is NOT one of a group of affiliated corporations under common control, which would affect the tax calculation.) The Environmental Tax of 0.12% on the Alternative Minimum Taxable Income in excess of $2 million is not computed, since no ordinary mortal can accurately compute corporate Alternative Minimum Taxable Income. WILL command. This command allows you to either (1) compute the federal estate tax (before credits, other than the "unified credit") on a single estate in 1992; or (2) compute estate tax on estates of a husband and wife on different dates of death for each. The latter computation is mainly an illustration of the estate tax that can be saved by leaving up to $600,000 of assets to someone (children?) other than the surviving spouse when the first spouse dies, or in a "credit shelter" or "bypass" trust, rather than leaving the whole estate to the surviving spouse. In both cases, the program assumes that the full "unified credit" is available, and has not been used up to any extent during the lifetime of the person in question, by gifts, etc. You will need an attorney to tell you whether such a "bypass" trust is appropriate in your situation, and to set one up for you if it is. We have included this feature in the program mainly because we have found that many people do not realize that they can, in many cases, save amounts well into six figures with a "bypass" trust built into their wills or by other very basic and fairly simple estate planning techniques. Once you see the potential savings, we believe you will be motivated to consult a good estate planner. HELP command. This command gives you a more detailed (but by no means complete) description of some of the kinds of situations that the tax calculation commands in this Submenu will not deal with, such as foreign tax credits, certain charitable contributions that are subject to a 20% or 30% of AGI (rather than the usual 50%) limitation on such deductions, etc. Read the text file that is summoned by this command before using any of the tax calculation commands. MAIN command. Enter this command to exit back to the Main Menu from the TAXES Submenu. B U S I N E S S S T A R T U P M E N U - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ┌─── Business Startup MENU ───┐ ▄▄│MONY Money sources for startups│ ██│ENTY Selecting the legal entity│ ██│PLAN Develop a business plan │ ██│MARK Marketing feasiblty. study│ ██│HIRE Hiring & personnel policy │ ██│BUY Buy an existing business? │ ██│TRAP Traps in buying a business│ ██│FRAN Franchises---pros and cons│ ██│NEG Negotiating the purchase │ ██│CLOS Closing deal--legal points│ ██└───────────────────────────────┘ █████████████████████████████████ This menu provides a number of commands to call up text files with advice on various aspects of starting or buying a business. It also contains 3 commands (PLAN, MARK, and HIRE) that allow you to create worksheet documents (Business Plan, Marketing Feasibility Study, or Personnel Policies) that you can save on disk or print out (or do both). MONY command. Select this command to see advice regarding sources of financing for a new business, such as the SBA, venture capital, etc. ENTY command. This command loads a text file that discusses many of the pros and cons of each of the major legal entities you may select as forms of business organization (proprietorship, partnership, C corporation and S corporation). While reading this text file, note that certain key words are highlighted. Press <ENTER> to see a more in-depth discussion regarding any such key word, without losing your place in the main text file you are viewing. When you have finished viewing any such cross-referenced file, press the <ESC> key (twice) to return to your place in the main text file. PLAN command. Helps you to create a basic business plan document, which you can either print out (after deleting the instructions in the sample outline) or save on disk (file name "PLAN.SBE") if you prefer to finish formatting it on your word processor. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ NOTE WHEN USING ANY OF THE 3 WORKSHEET │ │ COMMANDS ("PLAN", "MARK" AND "HIRE" COM- │ │ MANDS): If you are running the program │ │ from a floppy disk drive you MAY not have │ │ room on the diskette to save a worksheet │ │ you create. Thus, you should have a blank │ │ FORMATTED diskette ready before starting │ │ the program, on which you can save your │ │ worksheet files. (The program will prompt │ │ you to insert a diskette in Drive A or B.)│ └────────────────────────────────────────────┘ MARK command. Use this command to load and edit a worksheet that guides you through the process of doing a relatively simple market feasibility study for a new product or new business. The worksheet you create can either be saved on disk (file name "MARK.SBE") or printed out. HIRE command. Use this command to load and edit a personnel policies summary for your new business, establishing the policies you will follow regarding such matters as overtime work, sick leave, fringe benefits, working hours, etc. The worksheet you create can either be saved on disk (file name "HIRE.SBE") or printed out. BUY command. This command calls up a text file with advice regarding the pros and cons of buying an existing business vs. starting a new business from scratch. TRAP command. Outlines some of the major traps to avoid when considering the purchase of an existing business. FRAN command. Discusses pros and cons of buying a franchised business operation. NEG command. Offers advice regarding negotiat- ing the purchase of an existing business, if you go that route. CLOS command. Outlines various legal and tax matters that you should consider before and after closing the purchase of a business. T A X I N F O M E N U - - - - - - - - - - - ┌─────── Tax Info MENU ───────┐ ▄▄│INTX Income tax, estimated tax │ ██│WITH Withholding income taxes │ ██│FICA Social Security (FICA) tax│ ██│UNEM Unemployment taxes │ ██│S/E Self-Employment tax │ ██│EXC Excise taxes │ ██│SALE State sales and use taxes │ ██│PROP Real & pers. property tax │ ██│INFO Information returns (1099)│ ██└───────────────────────────────┘ █████████████████████████████████ This menu provides you with current information on a wide variety of business taxes that may apply to your firm. Each command in this menu calls up information on a different category of federal and/or state/local taxes. INTX command. Gives you timely information on business income tax requirements relating to proprietorships, partnerships and corporations, including current tax rates and returns that must be filed, if any. If you have entered data (using the "DATA" command) about you firm, indicating that your firm is set up as an "S corporation," this file will discuss the pros and cons of S corporations; otherwise, when referring to corpora- tions, it will only discuss "C corporations." WITH command. Information on current federal withholding tax requirements, when and how tax deposits must be made, and various withholding and information returns that must be filed with regard to wages paid and taxes withheld. FICA command. Information regarding current FICA (Social Security Tax) rates, withholding and payment requirements, tax return filing rules, and tax planning suggestions for reducing FICA taxes. UNEM command. Information and advice regarding FUTA (Federal Unemployment Tax) and state unemployment taxes, experience ratings, and tips on reducing your state unemployment tax costs. S/E command. Discusses basic tax rules for calculating, paying, and avoiding (if possible) the federal self-employment tax on your profits from an unincorporated business. EXC command. Summarizes all of the numerous federal excise taxes that apply to various types of small businesses. SALE command. Discusses state sales taxes in general, how states that you don't do much business in may still try to tax you, whether your state imposes a sales tax (or similar gross receipts tax) and specific information on the sales tax law in your state (for some states). PROP command. Information on real property taxes and on business personal property taxes that may apply in the state you have told the program you are doing business in. INFO command. Provides guidance regarding all of the major kinds of federal tax "information returns" (1099's mainly) that you may be required to file, when you are exempted from filing certain forms, and which ones you must file with the IRS in "magnetic media" format, rather than filing the actual paper forms. L E G A L M A T T E R S M E N U - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ┌───── Legal Matters MENU ─────┐ ▄▄│LIC Licensing requirements │ ██│NAME Business name registration│ ██│COMP Workers' Compensation laws│ ██│WAGE Wage-hour, child labor law│ ██│OSHA Safety & Health regulation│ ██│EBP Employee ben. plans--ERISA│ ██│FAIR Fair employment laws │ ██│IMMI Immigration laws -- hiring│ ██│SEC Securities law/regulations│ ██│LEND Truth-in-Lending and usury│ ██└───────────────────────────────┘ █████████████████████████████████ This menu, as the name suggests, provides you with a concise, current, and useful overview of laws and government regulations that are likely to apply to your small business, other than tax laws. LIC command. This command provides you with information on federal, state, and local licensing requirements that may apply to your small business. NAME command. Covers various aspects of the name you use for your business or product, including registration of fictitious business names, tips on selecting a name, and federal trademark protection. COMP command. Discusses Workers' Compensation laws as they apply in the various states, how the Workers' Compensation system operates, and whether employers are required to obtain Workers' Compensation insurance coverage in your particular state. WAGE command. Provides you a summary of federal minimum hourly wage, overtime pay and child labor laws. Also covers state minimum wage laws, where the state minimum wage differs from the federal, and other miscellaneous state labor laws that may apply in your state. OSHA command. Covers federal Occupational Safety and Health Act ("OSHA") basic requirements that apply to small businesses. EBP command. Discusses and provides extensive charts of IRS, Dept. of Labor and other legal and reporting requirements that your business must meet if you provide employee fringe benefits or pension plans for your workers. FAIR command. Discusses federal (and some states') fair employment or anti-discrimination laws that apply to employers, EEO filings, and certain exemptions for small employers. IMMI command. Gives you up to date information on the new requirements you must comply with every time you hire a new worker, under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, and warns you of the huge penalties that can apply if you fail to comply with this new law. SEC command. Gives you a concise overview of SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) regulations (and exemptions) that may apply when you offer to sell stock or securities in a new corporation or partnership in order to raise capital. Also discusses state "blue-sky" law requirements applicable to sales of securities. LEND command. This command gives you informa- tion on state and federal laws that may restrict you if you engage in lending money or extending credit, such as the federal Truth-in-Lending Act and state "usury" law limits on the interest you may charge. C H E C K L I S T S M E N U - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ┌────── Checklists MENU ──────┐ ▄▄│LEASE Signing a business lease │ ██│ACQ Acquire existing business│ ██│EVAL Evaluating a franchise │ ██│START Startups: Your checklist│ ██│CTRL Internal finan. controls │ ██│FLOW Maximizing your cash flow│ ██│INDEP Independent contractors? │ ██└───────────────────────────────┘ █████████████████████████████████ This menu, as you might guess, provides a number of checklists that will be helpful to a new or existing business. START command. This startup checklist may be one of the most useful features in this program. Selecting this command causes the program to create a detailed and lengthy tax/legal checklist for your new or planned business, tailored to your situation by use of artificial intelligence techniques. To create this "Startup Checklist," the program uses the information you have previously entered about your business, such as the state in which you do business, the number of employees, the amount of your gross sales, type of business, whether you export, whether yours is a franchise, whether you are incorporated or not, and other information. As you scan through the checklist, you will see a pointer which points to each item listed and asks "MORE ?". If you want more detailed information on such item, simply press <ENTER> and a text file will be loaded with background information on that subject. When you have read the background file, just press the <ESCAPE> key (twice) and you will return to where you were in the Startup Checklist. You may print out the entire checklist (or any text file you are viewing) on your printer, if you wish. Simply press <ESCAPE> (once) and select the "P" (for Print) option in the small box that appears on the middle of the screen. Or, if you wish to save the checklist on disk as an ASCII file, for further editing by your word processor program, or for incorporation into a larger document, press "S" (for "SAVE") instead of "P" and you will be prompted for a filename under which you may save the checklist text file. LEASE command. This command provides you with a checklist of points you need to consider before entering into a business lease agreement. ACQ command. If you are acquiring an existing business, this checklist will give you a lengthy checklist of legal, tax and practical matters you need to consider before concluding such a deal, including some new tax compliance requirements that can cost you some horrendous penalties if you fail to file the required forms with the IRS regarding the purchase price allocation. EVAL command. A comprehensive checklist for evaluating a franchise opportunity. CTRL command. An internal financial controls checklist, to help you to determine whether your internal controls are sufficient to reduce risks of employee fraud. FLOW command. A cash flow checklist, with a number of proven ways of projecting, controlling and maximizing your business's cash flow, which can be vital to business survival. INDEP command. Provides guidelines and an ex- tensive checklist (used by the IRS) for determining for tax purposes whether a worker is an employee or an "independent contractor," which can have serious legal and tax ramifications if you make a wrong determination.