PsL Monthly 1994 June/PSL Monthly Shareware CD-ROM (June 1994) (Public Software Library).bin/reviews/ab_01

Text File | 1994-02-23 | 23KB | 497 lines

AB-01: General Ledger Programs


Bare Bones Accounting 1.00 [BAREBONE]
   Funsten, J.W.
   $55
   #12667 (12-93 CD)
is a double-entry bookkeeping system. It can handle up to 100 different
projects in the same database. Combined project reporting is supported.
Up to eight bank accounts may be shared by all projects.

This program is ideal for fund accounting, where there are several funds
being operated jointly, and separate statements and balance sheets are
required for each fund. It is useful for contractors operating several
projects jointly, but requiring cost breakdown. It also is useful for
charities, condominium associations and other non-profit organizations
or for real estate accounting where a balance sheet is required.


Call Master
   Micro Data Assist
   $129
   #7091/1770 [2 disks]
is a service call scheduling system with a fully integrated accounts
receivable system and general ledger journal listing of all sales information.

With this system you can set up service contracts, maintain your call
schedule, post invoicing and payments, print statements and aged receivables,
print reports, envelopes, rolodex cards, labels and many more functions.

This program is ideal for Pest Control, Air Conditioning, Lawn Services, Pool
Maintenance, Janitorial, etc. Requires 512k and a hard disk.


C-A-S-E Accounting
   Forester, John
   $75
   #7091/1588
is an accounting program for consultants and small businesses. It includes a
general journal, sales journal and payroll journal. Information files contain
cases or projects, invoices and credit sales, payables, employee's pay,
capital equipment and depreciation, income statements and balance sheets.
Numerous reports are available.

A unique feature allows up to four partners and four independently allocated
profit centers, plus overhead, and separate dollar value inventories for each
profit line and overhead. The screen for choosing the set of accounts to use
(this year's, last year's, company A's, company B's, etc.) shows the list of
of accounts so the user doesn't have to remember the initials that he
assigned.

The financial history and totals of any case or job may be both displayed and
printed. You may also move directly to any specific set of accounts when
starting the program. A mail merge system for sending letters to all or a
designated few, of clients, debtors or creditors is included, and much more.
Requires 456k, 2 drives.


CPA-Ledger
   Tronolone & Foster
   $0
   #7091/1724 [2 disks]
is a double-entry general ledger system for small businesses. It is completely
menu driven and gives you the ability to post transactions, prepare unadjusted
and post-closing trial balances, prepare an income statement, print a listing
of all transactions posted to your bank account for any period you wish,
search for previously entered transactions based on multiple criteria,
reconstruct specific general ledger accounts for any period that you wish,
print a chart of accounts that summarizes all debits and credits posted to
each account, and add new accounts to your general ledger.

This version will not print a balance sheet or selective income statements and
many output options have to be printed out and cannot be viewed on the screen.


CheckMate Plus
   Custom Technologies ASP
   $60
   #7003/821 [2 disks]
is a double-entry, checkbook based, accounting program for home or business.
It's forte is a slick, easy-to-use interface. Those who value efficiency of
use as much as ease of use will find that CM doesn't measure up to the
retail-only program Quicken or the shareware programs Cash Control and Ultra
Check, all of which have a one-screen approach to data entry, editing and
review.

On the other hand, for a large number of users, computers are already too darn
efficient. These users will appreciate the way CM's pull-down menus, pop-up
windows and plentiful on-screen information guide you through each step.

Other features include budgeting, a pop-up calculator, easy memorization and
recall of repetitive entries, graphical analysis, loan-amortization
calculator, and pre-defined reports such as balance sheets, income statements,
and budget comparisons, as well as user-defined reports.

CheckMate Plus is powerful and flexible enough to be used by a business
(although it lacks modules for receivables, payables, payroll, etc.), but is
easy enough to be used by novices at home.


Medlin Accounting 4.2
   Medlin, Jerry ASP
   $25-$35/module
   #7003/006
is a double-entry general ledger program with accounts receivable, payroll and
payables modules.

Of all the general ledger programs in the library, we personally feel like
this one is the easiest to use. The reason is that that entries are scrolled
up the screen as you make them and you can easily move up the screen to
correct or change an earlier entry. The author's approach also allows
virtually unlimited "splitting" of a check, charge, receipt or whatever to
multiple accounts.

PC-AR is the accounts receivable module. It allows a maximum of 2000 customers
and 1500 charges per accounting period.

PC-INV is a module which works directly with the accounts receivable module to
generate invoices and post them to PC-AR. It will multiply quantity times
price and insert the total and calculate sales tax.

PC-PR, the payroll module, includes the 1991 payroll tax tables. It allows a
maximum of 500 employees and 1000 payroll checks per accounting period.

PC-AP, the accounts payable module, can sort invoices by due date and will
print checks.


PC-Deal 2.61 [PCDEAL26]
   Marshall, Robert S. ASP
   $40
   #7003/004 (02-94 CD)
is a double-entry cash accounting program for personal or small business use.
It will maintain transaction journals and account ledgers for a period of
thirteen months, the twelve month accounting period and the first month of the
next year.

The next year's transactions are carried over into next year's ledger at year
end closing. Reports include the usual financial statements plus bar graphs.
Data can be exported in seven different formats. Allows up to 300 general
ledger account categories and you can to add or edit transactions over a
period of up to 12 months.


PRO PC-Accounting(PSS)
   Pro Systems Software
   $90
   #7003/1102
is a completely integrated accounting program. From one menu you can select
accounts receivable & billing, accounts payable & payments, general ledger &
checkbook, price list & inventory and customer & client invoicing, or print
journals, special reports & lists. The set-up part of the program lets you
define such things as billing terms, four levels of hourly rates and more.

We added the company's initials, (PSS), to the name to avoid confusion with
PC-Accounting II by another company. In general, we think PSS's program is
somewhat better than PC-A II, but PSS's does have several relatively minor
problems. After installing the program, we had to edit our CONFIG.SYS file to
remove some duplicate lines added to it by the Install. We also discovered
(after a brief moment of panic at wondering what had blown up) that our PATH
had been changed to A:\, explaining why our system utilities were no longer
working.

The program's input routines do offer default responses most of the time,
which is admirable, but you cannot return to a prior field to correct an entry
without going all the way through the entry first, which is a technique that
most programs have (thankfully) long abandoned. And when we tried to use the
TAB key, while still hoping to get back to a previous field somehow, the
screen started scrolling up and away instead, leaving us blindly trying to
exit the program. The program also prompts for all input at the bottom of the
screen rather than at the appropriate field on the screen. This type of data
entry has never made sense to us, but it isn't really a problem.

The program comes with very limited documentation, but the on-screen help
should be sufficient for most people to get through the program. In summary,
our complaint