<><><>¢ SMALL BUSINESS SYSTEMS¢ Made By: Black Moon Systems¢ A Review by Dennis Kline, member¢ of the OL' HACKERS AUG, N.Y.¢¢ THE SEARCH¢¢ Over the years I have tried many¢ well written programs to incorporate¢ an accounting system that would¢ handle my Air-Freshner Service¢ business. I have tried many including¢ Visicalc, Accounts Receivable, The¢ Bookkeeper, The Color Accountant, The¢ Home Accountant, Peach Tree¢ Accounting and the list goes on and¢ on. Each of the aforementioned¢ programs either had some bugs in them¢ or just took too long to go to the¢ listing I was addressing. Time was of¢ the essence, and the frustration was¢ growing on my nerves. I tried mixing¢ programs, and modifying them for my¢ needs, however,it just did not work.¢ The best of them all was "Peach¢ Tree", but you had to keep on¢ swapping several disks even though I¢ modified the programs for (3) disk¢ drives. Then came "Syncalc",which was¢ good but again still frustrating.¢¢ LOOSING A FRIEND¢¢ I was at a point of changing to¢ an IBM Computer which was really¢ against the grain, for my first love¢ is the Atari. I have been an Atari¢ user since its inception going from¢ the early"Atari 800" model to my¢ "XL800", modified to 256K, with¢ (2)Happy 1050 drives,and (2) plain¢ 1050's. Then one day I was reading¢ the OL''HACKpRS (N.Y.) newsletter an¢ 8BIT club to which I have been and¢ still am a member even though I now¢ live in Florida. There was a write up¢ about a new business program written¢ about "Black Moon Systems", by one of¢ our members and which seemed in¢ reality to be just what I was looking¢ for. The price was right,and I had¢ nothing to lose so I ordered the¢ program. To my surprise when I loaded¢ the program for the first time I¢ could not believe the Menu. My first¢ thought was this an IBM program¢ loading on my Atari computer. To my¢ delight I started playing with the¢ program and found all my frustrations¢ gone forever. The program was user¢ friendly in that it would run my¢ entire business without having to¢ make any modifications. It had just¢ about everything I wanted except it¢ was missing "Accounts Receivable¢ Reports". I found I could live with¢ this problem, however I wrote to Ben,¢ the writer of this program, only to¢ find that he was working on an up¢ grade which would include the¢ Accounts Receivable Reports. Ben said¢ he would let me know when it was¢ completed. It took about a year for¢ the new revision of SBSV1.4 to come¢ out.¢¢ THE GAMBLE¢¢ I quickly sent a small payment¢ for the up-grade which was worth¢ waiting for. Again, when loading the¢ new revision I could not believe what¢ his program could do. The central¢ office for which I bought my¢ distributorship uses (3) IBM Main¢ Frame computers that were recently¢ up-graded at the cost of $12,000.00,¢ when I showed them what my out dated¢ Atari XL800 computer could do at its¢ low cost price, they could not¢ believe it, they said I must have an¢ IBM. Therefore, I had to actually¢ bring them to my house and run "SBS"¢ before they would say 'I don't¢ believe what I am seeing'.¢¢ THE WINNER¢¢ The capabilities of the "SBS"¢ had features that their expensive¢ program did not have. My Invoices was¢ exactly like theirs except I could¢ add things that they could not. A few¢ examples #- Thank you for your¢ order.: - Merry Christmas &¢ Happy New Year.,or anything else that¢ I wanted to add.¢¢ FEATURES TO MAKE LIFE EASIER¢¢ The SBS program has so many new¢ features that I have had no free time¢ to check them all out. This SBS¢ program was like finding water in the¢ hot dessert, it has everything. To¢ give you an idea, for those who have¢ not tried this great program, let me¢ give you a run down. First of all¢ this is an inexpensive program which¢ comes with very easy to follow¢ documentation in a loose leaf binder.¢ If you have several different¢ business's you set-up different data¢ disks. Some examples would be if you¢ were managing a building, you could¢ record rental income and expenses.¢ Also, it could be used for your own¢ personal income and expenses, note¢ that this a tax deductible expense if¢ you use it to help keep records for¢ Income Tax time.¢ Everything you run comes off the Main¢ Menu which allows you to choose¢ from:¢ -ORDERS¢ -REPORTS¢ -INCOME ENTRY¢ -EXPENSE ENTRY¢ -INVENTORY¢ -UTILITIES¢ -CHANGE DEFAULTS¢¢ Note, if you should want to get back¢ to any part of the menu just Hit the¢ Escape Key.¢¢ A LOVE AFFAIR¢¢ What I like the most about the¢ SBS is its ability to produce¢ INVOICES, PURCHASE ORDERS, and¢ QUOTATIONS with autonumbering. Having¢ the latter, especially with my¢ Service type business helps me keep¢ tract of monthly payments. Also,¢ under Reports, I can print out my¢ Accounts Receivables so I always know¢ at an instant who owes me and for¢ what period of time. To give you an¢ example of A/R Report, this will show¢ Invoices still due. All you have to¢ do is specify a name or partial name¢ as a search string. Then before your¢ eyes you get a total amount and a¢ breakdown with tax and shipping. The¢ only snare here is if you want an¢ accurate balance report you must edit¢ out balances as they are paid. This¢ can be done using ASCII compatible¢ word processor and then make sure you¢ make changes to your data disk.¢¢ MORE FEATURES¢¢ Also, the other Reports that can¢ be generated are as follows:¢ R❎@R SBS REPORTS MENU¢ -EXPENSE REPORTS¢ -REVENUE REPORTS¢ -PROFIT/LOSS REPORTS¢ -SALES and TAX REPORT¢ -CHART OF ACCOUNTS¢ -CHANGE DATA PATH¢ -EXIT to MAIN MENU¢¢ WHAT, EVEN MORE?¢¢ The best of all is the Label¢ Master and Multi-Column Lister. With¢ this program which comes on a¢ separate disk I can print out¢ customers labels up to (6) lines by¢ (34) character area. Therefore, I can¢ send out a mailing list to my¢ customers without having to keep a¢ separate program. With the Multi-¢ Column Lister, it allows you to print¢ out your Label Master data files on¢ labels from one to six across, and¢ can work with any printer.¢¢ The SBS is written in Atari¢ Basic so that it can be customized¢ anyway you want. The program also can¢ be run with the ICD RTIME8, although,¢ I have not had the chance to use it.¢ I hope to use it as I am a user of¢ Spartdos. After compiling all my data¢ I can print my information using (5)¢ different form choices.¢ An example would be plain paper 8 1/2¢ X 11, or tractor feed, with or¢ without a company letterhead.¢¢ ***IN SUMMARY***¢ The SBS is a very easy program¢ for people just starting out with¢ this program because of the ease of¢ just pressing a key and following the¢ prompts. For those who are more¢ advanced with the computer it has¢ advanced features.¢¢ <<<EXAMPLES>>>¢ The program has "SPEEDKEYS" used in¢ Reports and Expense Entry.¢ A=Advertising¢ B=Bank Charges¢ C=Contributions¢¢ and the list goes on and on.¢¢ ---RAMDISKS---¢ Which is available for Reports¢ programs where you can save wear and¢ tear on your disk drive.¢¢ ===CHANGE DEFAULTS===¢ This menu choice will ask you to¢ enter in the default pathnames the¢ other programs will use to find your¢ datafiles.¢¢ +++PROGRAM PATCHES+++¢ A patch is a listed group of line¢ numbers that when entered into a¢ Business Program will overwrite the¢ existing line and change the¢ program.¢¢ In my recent conversation with¢ "Black Moon Systems", I found that a¢ further revision is the works with¢ new surprises (I cannot wait).¢¢ Therefore, any questions, comments,¢ suggestions, orders, etc. should be¢ directed in writing to the address¢ below:¢¢ BLACK MOON SYSTEMS¢ P.O. Box 152¢ Wind Gap, PA 18091¢ As for myself when ever I had¢ questions about the program the¢ company was quick to respond.¢¢ Please note that if you need the¢ following: Forms,Labels and¢ Stationery for the SBS Programs you¢ can obtain them from the following:¢ NEBS¢ 500 Main Street¢ Groton,MA 01471¢ 1-800-225-9550¢¢ NEBS, has the Moonsoft Software¢ programs listed in their Directory of¢ Software (DOS) Business Forms¢ Reference. In ordering use Mail Code¢ #95818 so that the 8Bit Atari gets¢ the credit and hopefully it will help¢ keep Moonsoft products in their¢ catalog.¢¢ At the present time the only¢ dealer in the USA handling the "SMALL¢ BUSINESS SYSTEMS SOFTWARE" is:¢ B&C Computer Visions¢ 2730 Scott Blvd.¢ Santa Clara, CA 95050¢ (408) 986-9960¢ FAX:(408)986-9968¢¢ To sum up, Small Business¢ Systems is a uniquelly versatile¢ program applicable to a wide variety¢ of uses and users. If I had to grade¢ SBS from A to F, I would give it an¢ "A"., and it is highly recommended as¢ an excellent investment.¢¢ REVIEWED by:¢ Dennis Kline¢ <><><> ¢¢
