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ACCOUNTING 101 Version 2.01 SHAREWARE CONCEPT ....................................... 1 REQUIREMENTS ............................................ 2 INSTALLING ON YOUR SYSTEM ............................... 2 GETTING STARTED ......................................... 5 HELP FILES .............................................. 6 BASIC RULES ............................................. 6 DATA FILES .............................................. 9 TYPICAL ACCOUNTING CYCLE ................................ 9 DEPOSITS ................................................ 10 JOURNAL ENTRIES ......................................... 13 ACCOUNTS PAYABLE ........................................ 13 SAVING AND RECALLING TRANSACTIONS ....................... 14 PRINTING CHECKS ......................................... 15 END OF MONTH ............................................ 15 CLOSING ................................................. 16 UTILITIES ............................................... 17 AMENDING CHART OF ACCOUNTS .............................. 17 INSPECTING THE TRANSACTION FILES ........................ 19 OTHER UTILITY MENU ITEMS ................................ 19 SOME QUESTIONS .......................................... 20 LIMITS .................................................. 21 LACK OF WARRANTY ........................................ 21 Accounting 101 ACCOUNTING 101 Version 2.01 Accounting 101 is a simple easy-to-use double-entry accounting system suitable for individuals and small businesses. It does not contain a separate payroll module nor an accounts receivable module. If you need these features, then Accounting 101 is not for you. It is easy to set up and use the program since a sample balance sheet comes with the program. Just amend it to suit your individual situation and you are ready to go. It is beyond the scope of this document to explain accounting principles, but just remember that double entry accounting is nothing but a reflection of the basic equation that: ASSETS = LIABILITIES + EQUITY Anything that increases your assets increases your equity and vice versa. Anything that increases your liabilities decreases your equity. Assets are placed on the debit side of the ledger and liabilities and equity are placed on the credit side of the ledger, so credits equal debits. Now you are like the fellow who said, "Two weeks ago I couldn't spell expert and now I are one." Income and expense accounts are eventually reflected in your equity accounts but they are not posted directly to your Net Worth or Accumulated Earnings accounts until the end of your accounting year. When you deposit a check consisting of income two things happen. Your bank account increases, so it is debited, and one of your income accounts increases,(which eventually increases equity) so it is credited. When you write a check for an expense item two things happen. Your bank account decreases, so it is credited, and one of you expense accounts (which eventually reduces equity) increases, so it is debited. SHAREWARE CONCEPT: This program is distributed under the Shareware concept. The program is copyrighted and may be copied and distributed only under certain conditions. It is not public domain property. Under the Shareware concept you are free to test the program as long as you wish without charge. You are trusted to pay the author if you decide to use the program. Remember that the program took many thousands of hours to write. 1 Accounting 101 You are free to make and give copies to other parties under the following conditions: 1. No more than a nominal charge is made for the copy. 3. This documentation file must accompany the program file. 2. No alterations are made in the Accounting 101 program file nor in the documentation file accompanying the program. Help make the Shareware concept work. With your support we can all benefit. You get to test programs at little or no charge and are able to purchase the programs you select at bargain prices. The author gets a reasonable return for his work without the attendant costs of distribution. If you decide to use the program you should send your check to : Iddo L. Enochs 403 Cherokee Drive Mc Comb, MS 39648 The price of this program is $25.00. I would appreciate any suggestions for making the program simpler and easier to use or for adding features that would prove useful. I will also try to answer any written questions from contributors. REQUIREMENTS: In order to run the program you will need an IBM PC, XT, AT or compatible computer with 512K of memory with either a monochrome or color monitor. INSTALLING ON YOUR SYSTEM: The following files should be on the Accounting 101 disk: 101.EXE This is the Accounting 101 program file. ACCTFILE.DAT This is the accounts data sample file suitable for personal use. ACCTFILE.BUS This is an accounts data sample file suitable for small business use. {Rename this file to Acctfile.dat if you decide to use it} INSTALL.EXE This is a program which will install the Accounting 101 program on your system. HELP1.FIL HELP2.FIL {Help files} HELP3.FIL 2 Accounting 101 HELP4.FIL HELP5.FIL README This is the documentation file you are now reading. You can have the installation done automatically by using the Install program file on the diskette. With the diskette in drive A just get into drive A and then type and enter "Install"(without the quote marks). After that just answer the queries and follow directions. Incidentally, if you get to a point in the installation procedure and wish to go no further, just press Control C or Control Break in order to abort the Install program. However, you are asked if you wish to proceed at several points in the procedure. The installation program checks to see if the Acct subdirectory already exists on your hard disk and, if so, it copies the 101.exe program and the Help files to the Acct sub-directory and quits. If the Acct sub-directory does not already exist it then creates the 101 sub-directory under the Acct sub-directory and copies the data files thereto. If you use the Installation program to install on your hard disk, you will be asked if you wish to make a second sub- directory named "Demo" for use with practice sessions. I would suggest doing so. The sample data files will also be copied to this sub-directory. After you become proficient with Accounting 101, you can delete the Demo sub-directory and its related files. If you wish to do your own installation and wish to install the program on your hard disk you should copy the 101.EXE program file and the Help files to the sub-directory of your choice and you should then make a sub-directory of this sub- directory with the name "101". I would suggest using the name "Acct" for the sub-directory in which the 101.EXE will reside. Then copy the Acctfile.dat , the Depcode.data and the Vendcode.dat sample files to the sub-directory named "101" under the Acct subdirectory. Your hard disk might look something like this: 3 Accounting 101 \(root dir) ┌───────────┐ │ files │ └────┬──────┘ │ ┌────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ \Acct \Sub Dir 2 \Sub Dir 3 ┌───────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │ 101.EXE │ │ files │ │ files │ │ Help1.fil │ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ │ Help2.fil │ │ Help3.fil │ │ Help4.fil │ │ Help5.fil │ └────┬──────┘ │ \Acct\101 ┌────────────┐ │Acctfile.dat│ └────────────┘ The Acctfile.dat file is a sample data file for personal use. The Acctfile.bus file is a sample data file for business use. You might also wish to make another sub-directory called "Demo" and copy the data files to it. You can then use this sub-directory for practice sessions and you can delete it and its files after you become proficient with Accounting 101. Incidentally, if you do not have the command "prompt $p$g" in your autoexec.bat file, I would suggest that you do so. This command sets the DOS prompt so that it shows the current directory of the default drive plus the > character and I find this extremely useful in keeping track of where you are in your subdirectories. You may enter the command from the DOS prompt if you wish. I would suggest doing so now so that you can see where you are in your directory hierarchy at all times. See your Dos manual for details. To use on a floppy disk system you should copy the 101.EXE file to a floppy disk which has been formatted with the /s option (see you DOS manual) so that it will have the DOS system files installed on the disk. You should then copy the AcctFile.dat and the VendFile.dat files to a second formatted disk. There is no need to have the DOS system files on this second disk. The install program will also install the Accounting 101 program on your floppy disk system. Just type and enter "Install" with the disk in drive A and then answer questions and follow directions. However, have two formatted floppies on hand before you start, one of which has the DOS system files on it. 4 Accounting 101 GETTING STARTED: Remember that the Escape key will return you from most any part of the program. With a floppy disk system you should have the 101.EXE file on a disk in drive A and the data files on a disk in drive B. Now make drive A the current drive. Then type and enter "101 b:". Be sure there is a space between the 101 and the b. The "b:" tells the program to look in drive b for the data files. Make an extra copy of your data files on another floppy disk and use this extra copy for practice sessions. With a hard disk system you simply make the sub-directory in which the 101.EXE program resides the current directory and then type and enter "101". If you have installed the extra sub-directory named Demo and you wish to run a practice session then type and enter "101 Demo". This will tell the program to look to the Demo sub-directory for the data files. If your hard drive is drive C, for example, and the 101.EXE is in the Acct sub-directory, you type and enter the following : C: {this will make drive C the current drive} cd\acct {this will make the acct sub-directory {the current directory } 101 {this will run the 101.EXE program } cd\ {this will return you to the root } {directory } If you wish to run a practice session, just type and enter "101 Demo" instead of "101". Incidentally, you can keep as many sets of books as you wish with this program. With a floppy disk system you would just have a separate data disk for each set. With a hard disk system just create as many subdirectories of the sub- directory in which the 101.EXE program resides as you wish and then copy the sample data files to each these subdirectories. Then when you want to use a particular sub-directory just type and enter "101 ABC", as an example, if the sub-directory you wish to use is named "ABC". This tells the program to look to the sub-directory "ABC" for the data files. You will then be asked to select the month on which you are working. This will permit the program to select the proper deposit, journal and check data files all of which have an extension name indicating which month they cover. These extensions will be 'jan', 'feb', 'mar', etc. You will then be asked for the year on which you are working. This information is for the purpose of correctly identifying 5 Accounting 101 the various reports which can be printed, and for selecting the proper cumulative transaction file. You will then be presented with a menu from which you may select the various parts of the program for execution. With this version of the program you may either use the arrow keys to move to your selection and then press the enter key, or you may enter the selection number itself. The title of the Menu will show you which sub-directory you are using for your data files. If you are in the 101 sub-directory, the Menu heading will show "101 Menu for Jan", for example. After you have set up your accounts I would suggest printing the Chart of Accounts so that you will have it for reference. Remember that to run the program using the data files in the 101 sub-directory just type and enter "101" when in the Acct sub-directory. HELP FILES: Help is available from most parts of the program by merely pressing the F1 key. When the Help screen is active pressing the F1 key again will bring up the help index for that help file. BASIC RULES: The following are the rules for the operation of the program: 1. There are five categories of accounts: Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income and Expenses. All Asset accounts must start with the numeral 1. (1, 111, 103,1976, for example) All Liability accounts must start with the numeral 2, all Equity with the numeral 3, all Income with the numeral 4 and all Expense with the numeral 5. This rule must be followed in order for the program to work properly ! 2. When the trial balance or the balance sheet statement is printed out, all accounts which are normally debit items, that is Assets and Expenses, will be shown in the debit column. If one of the Asset or Expense accounts happens to have a credit balance, it will be shown as a minus figure in the debit column. Conversely, all Liabilities, Income, and Equity accounts, which are normally credit items, will be shown in the credit column regardless of whether they have credit or debit balances. 3. When you select item 4 from the main menu, "Amend Chart of Accounts", all Assets and Expenses will be shown as positive amounts if they have debit balances 6 Accounting 101 and minus amounts if they have credit balances. On the other hand, all Liabilities, Income and Equity accounts, which are normally credit items, will be shown as positive amounts if they have credit balances and minus amounts if they have debit balances. Just remember that all amounts are shown as positive amounts if they have debit balances when they are normally debit items and if they have credit balances when they are normally credit items. All of this may be a bit confusing at first, but this arrangement will keep you from having to contend with a large number of minus figures. 4. Number the checking account on which you normally draw checks number 111 and your equity account to which you want your earnings accumulated number 33. Number your savings or money market account 112. The equity account would probably be named "Net Worth" if the program is for your personal use or "Retained Earnings" if the program is for business use. These are the default values used by the program. You can use different numbers if you change the default values by selecting "Change Defaults" from the Utility Menu of the program. However, it will simplify things if you will follow this suggestion. 5. Use the sample Acctfile.dat file which is supplied and the details mentioned in paragraph 4 are automatically taken care of. 6. There are two types of accounts, the Summary account and the Detail account. The Summary account summarizes the amounts in the sub-accounts which report to it. If an account is to be broken down into more than one sub-account then it is should be made a Summary account. For example, if you have an account named "Current Assets" which is a collection of all of the current assets then the account is obviously a Summary account. You may make as many sub-accounts of the "Current Assets" account as you wish. Of course a summary account can have another summary account as a sub-account in the level below it. See the example in paragraph 9. Incidentally, the amounts in the Summary accounts are updated each time there is activity in the accounts. All of the amounts in the detail accounts which report to a Summary account are totalled and shown in the Summary account. 7. You cannot post to a Summary account. You must post to the Detail accounts which then report to a Summary account in the level above. 8. There are four levels of accounts from level 1 to 7 Accounting 101 level 4. A sub-account should be one level below the level of the Summary account to which it reports. To put it another way, a summary account must be one level above the accounts which it summarizes. 9. The following will give you an idea of the way in which Summary and Detail accounts work: Num Acct Name Level Type Sum Acct --- ------------------ ----- ------- -------- 4 Income 1 Summary 0 41 Interest 2 Summary 4 411 Taxable Int. 3 Detail 41 412 Tax Free Int. 3 Detail 41 42 Miscellaneous 2 Detail 4 As you can see, the Income account is broken down into two sub-accounts, the Interest account and the Miscellaneous account. The Interest account is further broken down into two sub-accounts. The "Sum Acct" number shows which summary account that an account reports to. As you can see, Account 41 summarizes accounts 411 and 412. If an account does not report to an account in the level above it then show a 0 as the General Account to which it reports. See the Income account in the example above. 10.Although you can use any numbering system you wish consistent with the rules in paragraph one, I find it easier to number sub-accounts with the same number as the Summary account to which they report with a numeral added on at the end. See the example in paragraph 9 above. In this connection, you should decide whether you will have 10 or move sub-accounts at the time you start subdividing an account. If you will have less than 10, you can start numbering the sub-accounts by adding a 1 at the end of the number of the Summary account number. As you can see in the example above, the Interest sub-account is numbered 41 since there will be less than 10 sub-accounts of the Income Summary account. Had there been more than 10 sub-accounts, the Interest account could have been numbered 401 instead of 41. 11.When you "close" a month the monthly transaction files are now saved with extensions of "01", "02", "03", etc. Also, a procedure has been added to the Utility Menu so that you can reset the posted signs in the transaction files if you wish to do so. The reason the monthly transaction files are now saved and the resetting of the posted sign procedure has been added is to give you as much flexibility with the program as possible. Assume that in June your cumulative transaction file gets 8 Accounting 101 wiped out for some reason. If you have a copy of your January 1 account file, you could go back and rename the monthly transaction files from "01", etc. to "jan", etc., reset the posted signs, post the various months, close the months, and thus reconstruct your cumulative transaction file. DATA FILES: The data files are all kept in a subdirectory under the Acct subdirectory, normally the 101 subdirectory. The Account data file is named Acctfile.dat. The transaction files will be named Check.jan, ChkItem.jan, DepItem.jan, and JrnItem.jan for January. The extentsions for the transaction files will be jan, feb, etc. before closing and 01, 02, etc. after closing. The cumulative transaction file will be named Tran91.dat for 1991. The code files will be named DepCode.dat, JrnCode.dat and VendCode.dat. TYPICAL ACCOUNTING CYCLE: The normal accounting cycle will consist of the following routine : 1. Enter your transactions during the month in as many sessions as you like. The transactions will be recorded in data files with the extension "jan" for January, "feb" for February, etc. The names of these files will be changed when the particular month is closed. When you select the month on which you are working you tell the program to look for the data files with the extension for that particular month. 2. Print your checks when you wish to do so. The program will not keep you from printing a particular check more than once. That is your responsibility. 3. After all transactions are entered for a month you should print out the transaction journals. 4. After all transactions have been entered, go to the End of Month Menu and post your transactions. Posting will enter the amount of your transactions in the Current Month column of your various accounts. If you have to go back and enter another transaction after posting, then do so and post again. Posting twice will not duplicate the posting of any transactions. Transactions can be recalled amd amended before posting but not afterwared. 5. After posting you may print out the trial balance to see that everything is in order. This step can be skipped if desired. You may also print out the Account Activity Report if you wish to see transactions grouped by Account number. 9 Accounting 101 6. If everything is in order you can then print the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet for that particular month. 7. If everything is in order you should then close that particular month. Closing a month will transfer all amounts from the Current Month category to the Previous Months category. 8. It is a good idea to back up your data files on a regular basis. At a minimum you should do so after each month is closed. This is done from the END OF MONTH menu. 9. You are now free to begin entering and posting transactions for the next month. Incidentally, you can begin entering transactions for a following month before closing a current month as long as the transactions for the following month are not posted. 10.After closing the month of December (if you are on a calendar year) you should close the year. Closing the year will transfer the net amount of all of your income accounts less your expense accounts to your Net Worth or Retained Earnings account. All of your income and expense accounts will be set to zero so that you are ready to start a new accounting year. Also, the transaction files which were saved during the year with extensions of ".01", ".02", etc., will be deleted so that new files can be created during the next accounting year. Since closing the year is rather a drastic step, you are asked to confirm the closing by typing in "yes" before the closing will be effected. DEPOSITS: Using the Deposit portion of the program is extremely simple. You will be presented with a menu from which you can elect to record deposits, print the deposit journal, display the deposit journal on the screen, print out the deposit codes, delete deposit codes, or return to the main menu. To get started with the Deposit procedure just select item one from the main menu. When you select the "Deposits" item, the default deposit number will be one if no other deposits have been recorded and the deposit number will be the number after the last deposit number if other deposits have been recorded. If you select a transaction number which has been previously recorded, that transaction will be recalled. If the transaction has not been posted, it can then be amended. However, if it has been posted, you cannot make any changes 10 Accounting 101 in the transaction. Whether or not the transaction has been posted will be indicated on the lower left of the screen. As you begin a deposit transaction you are prompted for the Deposit Code. If you do not wish to use this feature just press the Enter key. Be sure to read the topic SAVING AND RECALLING TRANSACTIONS which will explain the use of Deposit codes. The program will automatically recall the current date from the computers memory and will enter this date. Of course if you wish to override this date, you are free to do so. Once you enter a date different from the current date, the new date becomes the default date. You may press the + key to increment the month, day or year or the - key to decrement the same. You will notice that account number 111 will automatically be entered on the first account number entry space on the form. As mentioned earlier, this is the default checking account number. This account number can be overridden if you so desire. However, be sure that the first debit or credit item is used to debit one of your bank accounts. You will only be allowed to debit this first item since a deposit is always recorded as a debit to your bank account. Once the account number has been entered, and only existing account numbers will be accepted, the account name will appear automatically. This will help you be certain that you have the correct account number. You can then enter a comment about that particular transaction. You then enter the amount of the deposit. If you don't know the total amount of the deposit, you can press the enter key (0.00 is the default amount) for the time being. You can then begin itemizing your deposits. You may enter up to a total of thirteen debit or credit items. After the first debit or credit item (which must be debited), you are free to either debit or credit the other entries as you wish. If you wish to make a debit entry you just enter the amount when prompted. If you wish to make a credit entry, press the Enter key when prompted for a debit amount and the cursor will automatically position itself for a credit entry. Version 1.02 and later versions of the program have a feature which should prove to be very helpful. When you are prompted for an account number for a transaction, you may either enter the number itself or up to six of the first six letters of the account name. The program will determine whether the entry is a number or name and act accordingly. If you are making a deposit to account number 47, Salaries, you may either enter the number 47 or you may enter the name "salari". The name entry is not case sensitive so you may use either capital or lower case letters. You may use as few 11 Accounting 101 letters in the name entry as are unique. In other words if you have an expense account named " Zen lessons" and that is the only account name which starts with the letter "Z", then you may enter the letter "Z" alone to recall that account. Version 1.03 and subsequent versions have another feature which will make the entry of the proper account number for each debit or credit item even easier than before. If you enter an account number which is not valid you will be taken to a window with a list of the various account numbers from your account file. The cursor will be positioned alphabetically at the number closest to the number which you entered. You are then free to move up or down the list to select the correct account number for your debit or credit item. Only detail account numbers will be shown since you can only debit or credit detail accounts. The account numbers are listed alphabetically since that is the way they are arranged in the sample account files which accompany this program. On the other hand, if you attempt to enter an account name instead of a number, and the entry is incorrect, a window will appear and the account names will be listed alphabetically so that you can move to your choice of accounts. When attempting to enter an account name in this manner you will need to be careful to select the proper account since all detail accounts will be listed and Income and Expense Accounts, for example, will not be separated. The selection of the proper account number for each debit or credit item, which is the most time consuming part of an accounting program, has been made as simple and direct as possible. This version of Accounting 101 has another feature which should prove to be useful when you are making deposits, making journal entries or writing checks. You may now go directly from any one of these procedures to the Amend Accounts part of the program. Let us say that you are making a deposit of a check from XYZ oil company and this will be a new source of income to you. You have neglected to create a new income account for XYZ oil company but you are now in the middle of making the deposit entry. You may now press the F8 key which will take you directly to the Amend Accounts part of the program where you may create the new income account. You then return directly to the Deposit procedure where you allocate this income to the new income account you have just created. You then go through the same process on the next line and subsequent lines until you have completed your entry. The instructions at the bottom of the form are pretty well self explanatory. The shift and tab keys pressed at the same time will move the cursor to the prior entry position so that you can make corrections. F3 deletes a transaction. The 12 Accounting 101 F4 key will save a transaction for later recall. The F5 key will bring up a list of your Deposit Codes. If you have entered the amount of the deposit on line one of the debit and credit items, use of the F9 key will automatically enter a debit or credit at the current position so that the debit and credits balance. On the other hand, if the amount on line one of the debit and credit items has been left at 0, then use of the F9 key will act as an adding machine and will total the amount of your deposit. F10 processes the transaction and prepares for the next transaction and the Escape key will process that transaction and return you to the Deposit menu. By selecting item 3 from the Deposits Menu you can display the deposits on the screen. The debit to your bank account will be highlighted for each transaction. You may use the Arrow and the Page Down and Page Up keys to move through your deposits. You may press the F2 key to display the deposit totals to your checking and your savings accounts. JOURNAL ENTRIES: Using the Journal Entry part of the program is almost exactly like the Deposit entry part of the program. The only difference is that the Journal Entry part of the program does not default to your bank account number for the first debit or credit entry. Also, you may either debit or credit the first item in your journal entry. In version 1.03 and later versions you may save and recall Journal Entries. Be sure to read the topic SAVING AND RECALLING TRANSACTIONS. ACCOUNTS PAYABLE: The Accounts Payable part of the program is very similar to the Deposit Entry part of the program with a few special additional features. Versions prior to version 1.03 saved the Vendor Code information in a file named Vendfile.dat in the 101 sub-directory. Version 1.03 saves the Vendor Code information in a file named VendCode.dat. If you have been using previous versions and have saved several Vendor codes it will be necessary to save the transactions again. Be sure to read the topic SAVING AND RECALLING TRANSACTIONS. The other feature is the printing of checks. Since most of the information for the checks has to be entered anyway, it certainly saves time to print your checks with the program rather than to write them out manually and then enter the information. The printing of checks will be covered in a separate topic. If you have not already done so you should read the part of 13 Accounting 101 this document on Deposits to find out about the new feature for entering account numbers. You may now either enter the account number itself or up to the first six letters of the account name in order to recall an account number. You should be certain that you enter the Account Number of one of your bank accounts in the space on the check which appears on your screen. When you enter the amount of the check you are writing, this amount will appear as a credit to your bank account on line one of the list of debits and credits at the bottom of the screen. You are then free to allocate the amount of the check as you see fit. There are a total of seven lines allocated to making account entries for each check you write. You can use as few as two debits and credits and as many as seven. Selecting item 4 from the Accounts Payable Menu will display the Check Journal on the screen. The debits to your bank accounts will be high-lighted and the total of debits and credits will be shown at the bottom of the screen. If you press the F2 key when the Check Journal is displayed, the total of your deposits to your checking and your savings accounts will be displayed. SAVING AND RECALLING TRANSACTIONS: If the transaction you are entering recurs periodically, then you should save it for future recall. Doing so will save you a great deal of time. After you have entered the information for a deposit, a journal entry or a check, just press the F4 key in order to save the transaction. You will be prompted for a Code name which will be used for recalling the transaction. Use some name which will remind you of the transaction; SALA for the deposit of your salary or MAST for the check you write to pay your Mastercard bill, for example. If the amount of the transaction will vary each month, then do not enter any amounts prior to saving the transaction. You can then use the Shift and Tab keys to back up and enter the amount of the transaction for the current month before recording the transaction. The use of codes is not case sensitive. The next month when you wish to enter a transaction which has been saved, just enter the code name when prompted. If you cannot recall the code name, press the F5 key in order to bring up a window with a list of all codes. If you enter an improper code name, you will be taken to the code window from where you may move around and select the code you wish. The cursor will be positioned nearest alphabetically to the code name you entered. When in the code window you may delete any codes by pressing the F3 key. You will be asked to confirm the deletion. 14 Accounting 101 If you wish to display the Code information for the Deposit procedure, for instance, prepare to make a deposit and then press the F5 key to call up the Code window. Then select the Code for which you wish to examine the information. The Code information will be recalled. If you wish to recall other code information, just continue to press the F5 key and call up the Code information until you are finished. Then you can press the F3 key to delete the transaction information last recalled before pressing the Escape key to exit the procedure. PRINTING CHECKS: The check procedure is designed to print checks which are made for the DAC Easy Accounting program. They can be obtained from Deluxe Computer Forms & Supplies by ordering check form Number 091077. Their toll free number is 1-800- 328-0304. Other check forms seem to work also. You may print checks at any time after the check information has been entered. The program will list all of the check numbers and will allow you to select the check numbers you wish to print. Align the top of the check with the top of the print head on your printer. You can print the first check only at first to be sure that the alignment is proper. If not, void the check and reprint it. Also, you can print the check information on a plain sheet of paper and check the alignment by holding the paper and a blank check up to the light at the same time to see that everything fits. Remember that you have the responsibility to see that checks are not printed twice or more. END OF MONTH: With this version of Accounting 101 all of the procedures you normally perform at the end of the month are grouped together in one menu. After entering all of your transactions for a month and printing out the journals, you should then go to the END OF MONTH menu, post the transactions, reconcile your bank account, print the Income Statement, print the Balance Sheet, and then close the month. You may also print a Trial Blance, and an Account Activity Report and back up your data files if you wish. The first thing you should do from the END OF MONTH menu is to post your transactions. Until they are posted, the transactions are not reflected in your accounts. Posting will record the various transactions in the appropriate Current Month column accounts. This may seem to be an unnecessary step. However, it enables you to enter transactions for June, 15 Accounting 101 for example, before you have closed the month of May. If you do not post the June transactions, they will not show up in your May statements. Transactions may be amended before posting but not afterward. If for some reason one or more of the account numbers in the transactions of one of your journals is incorrect, that journal will not be posted and you will be so advised. This is highly unlikely since each account number is checked for validity as you enter transactions. However, if you delete an account after entering transactions but before posting(a real no no) it is possible. If this does happen, print out the transaction journal, carefully examine the account numbers therin to find the incorrect number or numbers, correct the transactions and then re-post. After posting, I would suggest reconciling your bank account to be certain that you and the bank agree on your balance. Just mark the outstanding transactions to reconcile your book balance with the bank balance of your bank accounts. Next, you may wish to print out a Trial Balance but this is optional. You may also print out an Account Activity Report which contains the same information as printed out in the three Journals but the information is grouped by Account. This is also optional. Next you should print out your Income and Balance Sheet statements. Next, if everything is in order, you may Close the month in order to prepare for the following month. Be sure to establish a regular back-up pocedure of your data files. Mark the files you wish to back up with the plus key. As a minimum you should back up the Acctfile.dat, the transaction (Tran91.dat for example), and the current month data files(Check.05, Chkitem.05, Depitem.05, Jrnitem.05, for example). Also, you should back up the various code files when they are altered. You might wish to back up data files after all transactions are entered but have not been posted and then again after closing the month. CLOSING: If you inspect the accounts using item number 1 from the Utilities menu you will see that each account has a current month column and a previous months column. When you post the transactions for a particular month, those debit and credit amounts are transferred or "posted" to the appropriate current month accounts. Be sure that all monthly transactions are posted before closing a month. "Closing" a month will simply transfer the amounts in the 16 Accounting 101 various current month accounts to the previous months accounts. When you close a month the transaction files are saved with extensions of 01, 02, 03, etc. At the end of the accounting year these files will be deleted unless you opt otherwise. "Closing" a year will accumulate the total of the income accounts, subtract the total of the expense accounts, and transfer the resulting net amount to equity Account number 33, Net Worth or Retained Earnings. After closing the year, previous months income and expense accounts will be set to zero. Be sure that you don't close a year before you have closed the final month in the year! UTILITIES: Under the Utilities item in the main menu you may : 1. Amend the Chart of Accounts. 2. Permit Changes in the amounts in the Chart of Accts. 3. Change the Defaults. 4. Print out the Chart of Accounts. 5. Inspect the Transaction file. 6. Change the Month on which you are working. 7. Check the Income and Expense. 8. Check Debits and Credits. 9. Switch to Color. 10.Switch to Monochrome. 11.Reset the Posted Signs. 13.Return to the main menu. AMENDING THE CHART OF ACCOUNTS: Select item number 1 from the Utility Menu to amend the chart of accounts. This is probably the first thing you will wish to do if you decide to use this program. It will be your most important and time consuming chore when setting up your accounting program. However, it has to be done only once, so take a little time and thought so that you do it properly. Using the sample account data file supplied with the program 17 Accounting 101 will save you a great amount of time and trouble. You will be warned when you begin the Amend the Chart of Accounts procedure not to make any inadvertant changes. It would be a good idea to print out the Chart of Accounts before amending so that you can have the printed list for reference. If you use the sample account data file with the program you can change the names of any accounts as you wish, delete accounts you do not need and add any accounts you would like to have. However, most of the work of setting up an account file will have been done. Remember to number your checking account on which you normally draw checks number 111 and your Net Worth or Accumulated Earnings account number 33. Also, number your savings or money market account, if you have one, 112. Be sure you understand the basic rules listed above. Enter your accounts in the order you wish them to appear in the various statements. Group all of the assets together, all of the liabilities together, etc. Most of the data files are sorted before they are stored but the account files are not. You will see a column titled "Sum Acct" as you use this part of the program. You should enter the Summary Account to which this account will report. If it does not report to a Summary Account, then you should enter a zero. Remember that the account to which an account reports must be a Summary Account and must be one level above. If this is not the case with the "Sum Acct" that you enter -- that is the summary account to which it reports -- then the program will not work properly. You normally are not allowed to enter amounts in the various accounts when using this part of the program. If you are entering starting balances in your accounts, for example, you should enter them by making journal entries since this will leave an audit trail which can be saved and checked at a later time. However, by selecting item number 3 from the Maintenance menu you will free yourself to make changes in the amounts when using this part of the program. You should do so with the greatest caution since there will be no record of these changes. This feature can be used when setting up your books for the first time so that you do not have to make so many journal entries. However, again, you will not have an audit trail for these entries. If you do use this procedure, be sure to check the total of debits and credits to see that they are in balance. The names of the accounts will be indented on the screen based upon the level of the account. Level 1 accounts will not be indented. Level 2 accounts will be indented 2 spaces, level 3 accounts 4 spaces and level 4 accounts 6 spaces. This arrangement will enable you to visualize the heirarchy of the 18 Accounting 101 accounts. The instructions on the uses of various keys at the bottom of the screen should be pretty well self explanatory. The F3 key will delete the account at the cursor. You will be asked to confirm any deletions. The F4 key will insert an account at the cursor. The F5 key will add an account at the end of the list of accounts. If you use the F5 key to add an account you will be taken to the end of the account list so that you may see this addition. The Num Lock will automatically be set to the off position when you select this part of the program. If you wish to use the numerical pad to enter numbers, just toggle the Num Lock key. Unless you are entering a lot of numbers, I would suggest that you leave the Num Lock off and use the numbers across the top of your keyboard for data entry so that you will not inadvertantly renumber an account. You can use the F1 and F2 keys to page through the accounts and the tab and shift tab keys to move up and down on the screen when the Num Lock is on. When the Num Lock key is toggled off you can use the arrow keys and the Pg Up and Pg Dn keys to move around the list of accounts. In order to avail yourself of the feature which allows you to enter up to the first six letters of an account name when you are prompted for an account number, I would suggest that you be sure to make the first six letters of each account name unique. If you would like to have one account named "Current Assets" and another "Current Account", then you might change the former to "Curr. Assets" in order to make it unique. INSPECTING THE TRANSACTION FILES: Beginning with version 1.02 a transaction file is now maintained with all of the transactions for the entire year. When a month is closed all transactions for the month are written to a file. The transactions for the entire year for any particular account can be listed on either the screen or the printer for your inspection. This should come in handy at the end of the year when you may wish to have a breakdown of all transactions in various accounts for either tax purposes of just for your information. With version 2.01 you can enter either the name or the number of the account. If you happen to get the name or number wrong, you are taken to a window from which you may make the proper selection. OTHER UTILITY MENU ITEMS: The other Utility Menu items are fairly simple to use and don't require much explanation. You may change the default Checking Account number and the default Net Worth or Accrued Earnings account number. However, it would simplify things if you leave them as they 19 Accounting 101 are in the sample Account files. The printer control code numbers are used when printing checks. The form length is set to 7 inches when printing checks and to 11 inches otherwise. If the control codes are different for your printer, you should enter the information and save it in a file. The default file is now kept in the sub-directory in which your 101 program resides. If for some reason you are unable to have the program set the form length properly when printing checks you can resort to manually setting the printer for 7 inch form length before running the program and printing checks. To check the total of debits and credits select item number 9 from the Utilities menu. A list of all of the accounts will be shown on the screen as well as the total of debits and credits. You may print out a list of account numbers for handy reference. You may check the totals of income and expense and the net income at any time. SOME QUESTIONS: The following are questions that might come up as you use the program: 1. What happens if I have closed a month and I then find that I have forgotten to enter a certain transaction? Answer: Reopen the month, enter the transaction, post it and then re-close the month. Be sure to use a different transaction number than were used in prior entries. 2. I want to keep a separate set of books for the XYZ company. How do I go about doing so? Answer: If the 101.EXE file is in a sub-directory named Acct, create a sub-directory under the Acct sub-directory with the name "XYZ". Then copy the sample data files to this sub-directory. When you want to work on the XYZ accounting files just type and enter "101 XYZ" when in the Acct sub-directory. 3. What happens if I delete a Summary account without deleting the Detail accounts under it. Answer: The program will not crash. However, the Balance sheet and the Income statements may not properly reflect the proper amounts. 4. Can I obtain the source code for the program? 20 Accounting 101 Answer: No, it is not available. 5. In what language is the program written? Answer: Turbo Pascal (c) version 5.0. LIMITS: As already mentioned, this is a basic program and it necessarily has some limitations. The use of arrays for the operation of data restricts the size of the data files which can be used. This should not be a problem with the small accounting jobs used by the 101 program. Some of these limits are as follows: 1. You can have no more than 150 accounts in the data file. 2. You can normally write no more than 100 checks with up to 300 debit or credit items in one accounting period. However, you can get around this limitation by writing the limit of checks in one or more sessions and by then printing your Check journal, posting your checks and then closing the month. Then you can reopen the month and write up to the limit of the checks again. However, the monthly income statements will not be correct. 3. You can normally make no more than 300 deposit items. Each debit or credit is considered a deposit item. 4. You can normally make no more than 300 journal entry items. Each debit or credit is considered a journal item. LACK OF WARRANTY: I have used this program extensively for some time and it seems to work properly. However, before using this program you should understand that I cannot warrant or guarantee that it will work properly under all circumstances. You should check to see that it performs as you want it to, but I will not be responsible for any mistakes in your accounting records caused by the program. If this is not agreeable, then don't use the program. Thanks for helping to make the Shareware system work. Feel free to give copies of this program and documentation to your friends and associates as outlined above. 21