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go General Ledger version 1.31 (c) Copyright 1985, 1986, 1987 garMark Software _ YOUR GO GENERAL LEDGER LICENSE GO GENERAL LEDGER is the copyrighted property of garMark Software. You are hereby granted a limited license to use GGL subject to the following conditions. Users may make copies of this program for trial use by others on a PRIVATE NON- COMMERCIAL BASIS. Even though the program is shareware, and can be freely copied, there are still some limitations to protect the quality of the distribution of the program and to support future development. The shareware concept is described in Appendix B of this manual. Under this license, you may NOT: 1) Distribute a copy of the GGL programs that has been run on any computer. This is to protect the recipient, because GGL adjusts itself to the computer running it and remembers the adjustments. However, it may be freely distributed in its original, not run and unmodified form. 2) Distribute the program in connection with any other product or service without first receiving approval from garMark Software. 3) Charge anything for GO GENERAL LEDGER. An exception is made for registered user groups who may charge a cost-based fee (not to exceed $10) to cover their own costs. By accepting and using this software, you acknowledge that it may not suit your particular requirements or be completely trouble-free. With proper application it will perform as described. However, garMark Software is not responsible for your specific application or any problems resulting from its use. This software and its included documentation is distributed with no represent- ations or warranties, either real or implied. Any implied warranties are specifically disclaimed. Those distributing this software shall have no liability whatsoever for any claim for damages suffered by the users or others, whether incidental, consequential or otherwise, caused or alleged to have been caused by use of the software or supporting documentation. _ TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Installing & Operating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Familiarization Lessons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Enter Check Register or Other Transactions . . . . . . . . 10 Examine Account Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Print Financial Reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Post Accounts for Next Month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Choose/List Selected Account Transactions. . . . . . . . . 14 Revise Chart of Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Set-up or Revise Defaults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Data Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 File Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Version Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 In Case of Difficulty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Appendix A - REVISION HISTORY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Appendix B - THE SHAREWARE CONCEPT . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Appendix C - REGISTRATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 _ INTRODUCTION GGL is a conventional double entry accounting ledger with special features. This version has better printed reports, including those for selected accounts, simplified start-up procedures with elimination of the GGL.DFT file with some bugs, and many other less apparent improvements. Some of the special features are: > Automatically configures the operating system if necessary. > Easy to use by both new- and old- timers to computers. > No more unfound sheets of paper with account names and account numbers. > Account Symbols are always available on the screen when entering Transactions, and entry of account numbers is unnecessary. > Transaction entry includes the ability to Reconcile Bank Statements; the means for recalling Repeaters, such as withholding each month; and automatic indexing of Check Numbers. > Program functions and Accounts often may be selected simply by tapping one key. > Accounts are set-up by entering the account name and current amounts with a full-screen editor utilizing WordStar-like controls. > Full year's listing of all transactions in selected accounts. > A five year audit trail for all accounts. Also, transactions may be reproduced from as far back as there are disk files. > Multiple sets of books can be maintained with one program. Many computer accounting programs require that you first read a huge manual and do extensive calculations to set-up the files before running the program. This one requires none of that. It is among the fastest and most convenient avail- able. We have made it nearly self-documenting. Any needed documentation is on the disk. It is assumed that you are familiar with double entry bookkeeping, financial statements, your computer, and the DOS operating system. GGL operates with PC/DOS or MS/DOS version 3.0 or greater, and your computer must have at least 200k of RAM available for applications. This software can be used with either fixed or floppy disk drives. An 80-column Monitor is required. Epson-type printer control codes are used. The main financial reports use Compressed (132 column) characters, and the listings of selected accounts use Normal (80 column) characters. _ INSTALLING & OPERATING The few start-up instructions needed are given in the READ_ME.1ST file, a part of which is reproduced here for reference. It is very important to make a backup copy of this software BEFORE running it the first time! After copying all of the files to a working disk, copy protect your original diskette and put it away for safekeeping. If necessary, refer to your DOS Manual for instructions on how to use the COPY command. If you want to print the GGL Manual first, run the program called SEE_MAN.COM; otherwise if you have: > Fixed Disk & Floppy Disk Drive(s) - Make a sub-directory for the programs, perhaps called LEDGER. Then, log on to this sub-directory, and copy all of the files on the GGL disk to this sub-directory. Once copied, type "GGL" then Enter, and GGL will handle things from there. > Only Floppy Disk Drive(s) - After copying all of the files from your original disk, place your working copy into the logged drive, either A: or B:, and type "GGL" then Enter. GGL will instruct you from there on. When you run GGL for the first time you will first see our Logo and Disclaimer, then you will have another chance to print the Manual. If you select "C", GGL will then proceed to configure itself, and any needed instructions will appear on the monitor screen. During this installation GGL will sense the configuration of your computer system. Then, it clones to remember that configuration. After this first run, if you should later change the drive or sub-directory location of the programs or change the type of monitor on your system, the program will automatically go through the installation process again. If our Logo does not appear, the configuration has been completed and is satisfactory. Your operating system must have properly configured itself through the use of a CONFIG.SYS file. If you want to understand more about the use of CONFIG.SYS files, see your DOS manual, but that's not necessary to operate this program. If there is no CONFIG.SYS file in your computer, GGL will automatically create one. If you have been using a CONFIG.SYS file, it should be checked to be sure it contains these statements: BUFFERS=20 FILES=20 The numbers used here are not critical; but, generally, they should be greater than 16. The only problems with GGL reported to date have involved the first time start- up. Consequently, the initialization part of the program has been completely rewritten. The process has been made easier and nearly automatic. We believe the installation problems have been completely eliminated; however, should you have trouble, refer to the section called In Case of Difficulty on page 23. Since you are reading this we will assume you have already printed the Manual and that the Defaults are on the monitor screen. We suggest that only read the Defaults at this time, and make no changes until later when you are more familiar with the program. You may leave Defaults by use of the Esc key. If there is not a printer installed with your system, it will not be possible to produce the reports. _ MAIN SELECTIONS You will be presented with ten choices each time the main selection panel appears. These are: Enter Check Register or Other Transactions - E Examine Account Status - A Print Trial Balance - T Print Balance Sheet - B Print Statement of Income - I Print Changes in Financial Position - F Post Accounts for Next Month - P Choose/List Selected Account Transactions - C Revise Chart of Accounts - R Set-up or Revise Defaults - D The item highlighted by the yellow or bright line may be selected by pressing the Enter key, or you may make a selection with the indicated letter. To move the yellow or bright line use the Up/Down Arrow Keys, or the Space Bar and the Backspace, or +/-. A series of lessons for familiarization is given in the next section. That section is followed by detailed descriptions of each of the above selections. _ FAMILIARIZATION LESSONS This section is provided to enable you to become familiar with GGL quickly and easily. After completing it you should have a good general idea of how to operate the program and keep your financial records the easy way. There is a very simple Chart of Accounts with 4 Transactions previously entered for the Accounting Month of November 1986 on the disk you received. All of these transactions are Repeaters. More will be said about Repeaters later. If you have questions as you go through the following lessons, the thing to do is read ahead. If you get in trouble, read the section called In Case of Difficulty on page 23. You can stop and leave GGL between lessons, but please do them in the order given. 1. Print all four financial reports in sequence by selecting "T", "B", "I", & "F" from the Main Selection Panel. When printing the Trial Balance, select "T" to include the transactions. When the Statement of Income printing has completed your printer should beep at you. This indicates that the statement is out of balance, and the balances are shown at the bottom of the statement. If you want a challenge you might analyze the Statement of Income and read ahead to see if you can correct the ap- propriate accounts. Hint: You will need to go to the section on printing the financial reports. But, perhaps it would be better to leave them alone. These are only Sample accounts, and you can redo them whenever you want. And, what will happen when you carry the unbalanced income accounts forward and post into December, then into a new Fiscal Year? 2. With "P", post the accounts to the month of December. After posting, use Esc to exit the program. At the DOS prompt type DIR and look at the directory on the disk to observe the new files. You should see five new files: ACOUNT-A.126, ACOUNT-S.126, ACOUNT-G.126 TRANCT-D.126, TRANCT-S.126 These are the new data files for December 1986. 3. Go GGL and, again, print all reports - study the differences in the two sets of reports. Did you get another printer beep? 4. Try Selection "A" from the Main Selections briefly to see what it does. Choose the BANKA symbol. Notice it takes only one key to get that account and that the balance now is 17060.00, then try the choices given there. Use of the Esc key will return you to the Main Selections. 5. From the Main Selections choose "E" to Enter Transactions; then enter the following for December: a. Use the Enter key to get the repeaters. Change the date to 12/ 1/86, and accept them all - do not Delete any repeaters. The line at the top of the screen will keep you advised on the total number of transactions entered and the number of repeaters remaining. At the right on the second line you will see a running balance for trans- actions. Notice the asterisk in the 'C' column. Generally, they are used in all repeaters; however, with the BANKA account it would not be used if the pay check is normal- ly received after the bank's statement closing date. Also, notice the '+' as the first character in the description column for MY SA. This tells the program to save that entry in a special, selected account file called MY_SA.'86. The next time you look at the disk directory you will see that this file has been created. More will be said about these selected account files later. b. Now, assuming your checkbook and latest bank statement are in hand, you're ready to make additional entries for December. Press Enter to choose "+" and start reconciling the BANKA statement. Suppose your latest statement from BANKA is dated 12/10/86, that it shows a balance of $18,805.00, and that there is one check dated 11/27/86 for the amount of 5.00 that has not cleared the bank. This outstanding check would have been entered into GGL in November, but is not on the bank statement. Use these values to answer the questions asked. If you make the entries correctly, an amount of 18800.00 will appear in the Bank Statement Balance window in the top left part of the screen. (18805.00 - 5.00 = 18800.00) c. There were only two checks written in December. Check number 101 was written on 12/ 5/86 to Safeway for groceries in the amount of $60.00, and it appears on the bank statement. As you enter data in a transaction line you will be able to use the Back Space while within a Column, but cannot Back Space to the previous the previous Column. See the Data Entry section on page 19 for more information. Your entries should be made like this: 'C' Column * because this check has cleared 2nd Column 101 3rd Column 12/ 5/86 date of check 4th Column 60 the amount of the check 5th Column groceries at Safeway When you press Enter after the 5th Column is completed a window with the Expense account Symbols will appear. 6th Column FOOD Now, look at Transaction Balance at the top of the screen. 'OK?' Column the Enter key will indicate acceptance If that line is not OK use the "N" key. Then the cursor will return to the beginning of the line, and you will be able to change any entry as you go through the line again. THERE IS NO WAY TO CHANGE A LINE AFTER IT HAS BEEN ACCEPTED. If you discover an error after the line has been accepted, the only way to correct the error is to make a compensating entry. After acceptance notice that the BANKA statement balance has not changed, because the check has cleared. Check number 102 was written on 12/15/86 to cash in the amount of $200.00. It has not cleared the bank, so press the Space Bar in the 'C' Column and make these entries: 102 12/15/86 200.00 cash for Christmas CASH Y CASH is not an expense account, so the symbol is not in the symbol window. If a symbol is in the chart of accounts, the program will accept it even though not shown. By tapping the Space Bar, or other keys as indicated on the screen the window will rotate through all of the account groups, i.e. Assets, Liabilities, Capital, Revenue and Expenses. When entering tran- sactions, the mathematical sign of the Liabilities, Capital and Revenue amounts are reversed. This completes the entries from your checkbook. The BANKA Statement Balance should now be 18600. d. Select "-" in the C column to end the statement. Let's suppose your checkbook stub balance is 18700, and you enter it. You will be shown a discrepancy of $ -100. Is the checkbook wrong, or the computer accounts, or the bank statement? The first thing to do is to leave Transactions Entry and select "A" to look at the BANKA account. Woops! You can't leave until the transactions are in balance, so enter the following: bal 12/31/86 -260.00 balance Transactions BANKA Now, when you examine the BANKA account, it shows a current balance of $18600, so there's probably an arithmetic error in the checkbook. 6. Use Esc to leave GGL and examine the directory on the disk again. Notice that a new file called MY_SA.'86 was created. You may want to use the TYPE command to examine the contents in any of the following files: CATALOG.'86, SALAR.'86, IN_TA.'86, CONTR.'86, BANKA.'86, and MY_SA.'86. These are called Selected Accounts. There is also a file called SSSSS.'86. This is a special test file that will be used later. 7. Go GGL and Print all four financial reports again. Compare these reports with the ones obtained earlier. 8. The next posting will be different, because this is the end of a fiscal year. Before posting press "C" to list the selected accounts, then "P" to print all of the transactions in these accounts. You will not be able to select SSSSS.'86, because it is not in the Chart of Accounts. After this, you are ready to post the Accounts to January. 9. Print the reports a fourth time to observe effects of Year End closings. Since no transactions have been entered for January, the date of the Consolidated Balance Sheets should be 1/ 1/87, and the amounts will be the same as they were on 12/31/86. However, the amounts for Jan 31, 1986 will be for the end of that month. Did the printer beep this time when the Statement of Income finished? If you have difficulty understanding any amount in the reports, select "A" to examine the detailed entries for the account in question. 10. Exit from GGL and look at the directory on the disk again. You will see a new set of ACOUNT.017 and TRANCT.017 files as well as new selected account files for 1987. While the numbers in this example are completely fictitious, they show the effects on the accounts if a person quit renting and bought a house in early January 1986. Even though you have completed the initial lessons there are other things you should do before setting-up your own accounts. The first thing to do is to reset the Accounting Month back to December 1986. While in Defaults you might want to set the Experience Level to 1 and see what happens; then try adding a new Symbol # account symbol to have an additional selected account. Before leaving Defaults set the Experience Level back to 0 because there are Help messages throughout the program that appear if it is set to 0. You have now used all of the Main Selections except for "R" to revise the Chart of Accounts. Try it. Rename an account, or add one, or delete one, or change some numbers as you desire to test various functions. You may want to go back and see if you can determine why the Income Statement does not balance. Select "E", and try to delete or add a repeater. Experiment with all of the choices throughout the program to see what they do. If you unbalance the accounts, or want to go back to the original accounts and balances, select Defaults and reset the Accounting Month to 11, then Post again. This will restore everything except the repeaters. You will have to make the entries to get the repeaters the way you want them. With this familiarization, you are now ready to change the Defaults to those required for your own General Ledger, to change the existing Chart of Accounts to the ones you use, and to go into more detail as necessary. Before doing this copy the program files to a new disk or directory. An easy way to do the copying is with a DOS command similar to: COPY GG??????.* B: If you need need more information on the files read the section called File Summary. _Enter Check Register or Other Transactions - E With this selection you will see a screen divided into four parts. The top two lines are the first part, and give summary information such as the number of transactions entered, the number of repeaters available, and the transaction balance. The transaction balance must be 0 in order to Exit transactions. If it is not zero, make another transaction entry to bring it to 0, then you can exit transactions with Esc. The next part of the screen is a six line window into which you enter trans- actions. The third part is the command line which reminds you of actions that may be taken. And, finally, the bottom part of the screen will show you the account symbols by groups when you are ready to enter a symbol. The mathematical sign of the Liabilities, Capital and Revenue accounts are reversed. There are six entries possible on each transaction line. The column headings are: C - Refer --- Date --- Amount -- Description -- Account - OK? See the section on Data Entry for instructions on controlling the cursor. The last column on the right, OK?, is for final approval of a line. Once an erroneous line is accepted, it must be corrected with a compensating entry. But, you can correct a line by pressing "N", keep it as a repeater by pressing "<", or accept it by pressing any other key. After you have entered six lines in the transaction part of the screen, it will start scrolling, so you may enter any number of transactions. The left column is the control, or "C", column and is used to: (a) Discontinue entries - exit with Esc (b) Start-Stop a Bank Statement Reconciliation (c) Recall repeaters To start a bank statement reconciliation, use "+". You will be asked for the symbol of the Bank Account, the most recent statement balance and the amounts of any outstanding checks from months previous to the current accounting month. A second reconciliation cannot be started before the first one has been ended. The bank statement balance in the computer is separate from the account and transaction balances. Each time you (+)start a statement reconciliation, the program checks the REPEAT.ERS file to see if any of the repeaters carry the symbol of the bank being reconciled. If it is there and if the transaction has not cleared (no *) it is applied to the statement balance. This enables you to control whether or not the amount in that line is applied to the statement balance, to have repeaters for more than one bank account, and to reconcile each bank statement separately. As you enter each transaction from your check register, use "*" if the check has been cleared. If an asterisk appears in the "C" column or if REPTR appears in the Refer column then the amount on that line is NOT included in the Bank Statement running total (that bank's repeaters have already been included in the total). Finally, after all the check stubs for the month have been entered, use "-" to end the reconciliation for that bank, and you will be shown a projected balance that is consistent with the latest statement from the bank. You may then enter your check stub balance, and you will be advised of the difference, if any. If you exit from transactions before (-)ending the reconciliations, the bank symbol and statement balance will be saved on the data disk in a temporary file called BANK.$$$. You will be shown the balance when you return to trans- actions. When the reconciliation is (-)ended, or when the accounts are posted at the end of the month, this file will be erased if it exists. The "C" column may also be used to recall a transaction line which has been saved as a repeater, but before recalling repeaters you must have saved some. To keep a line for repeated use, press "<" under OK? at the end of the line. Then, when you enter transactions the next month, pressing ">" under "C" will return that line. DO NOT EXIT FROM TRANSACTIONS UNTIL ALL REPEATERS HAVE BEEN RETRIEVED. For example, suppose an income tax payment is routinely withheld by your employer. Enter the data on a line, then at the end of the line press "<" to save that entry and keep it as a repeater for subsequent months. When keeping a repeater, carefully consider whether or not the Control Character should be an asterisk,"*", or not. If you need to change a repeater, press "N" under OK? and make the change. A delete function is also provided to remove repeaters with a special use of the "|" key. Any corrections or deletions will be handled automatically by the program. When you use ">" to bring in the repeaters you are shown the number of repeaters used in the upper-right corner of the screen. After all repeaters have been used, an advisory message appears in this same location. If, after you get all the repeaters, you exit from transactions and go back to it again, you will not be able to recall the same set of repeaters again until the next accounting month. If there is no use for the "C" column, the Space Bar will simply leave it blank. The Refer column may be used for check numbers, or any other references you want to keep. It will accept both numbers and letters. If you start a numerical sequence of check numbers, then the numbers will be increment by one after each line is entered. If you have entered "cash" in this column and want to start a numbering sequence beginning with 11, then enter "00011". The highest number allowed is 32767. When entering a line that you intend to (<)keep as a repeater DO NOT put REPTR in the Refer column. The program will automatically add REPTR in this column at the appropriate time. Use of the Date and Amount columns should need no explanations. The largest amount that may be entered is 9999999.99 - almost $10 million. The Description column allows 32 characters to be entered. If the first char- acter in the Description is a "+" then that transaction line will be saved in an SSSSS.'yy file which uses the Account Symbol as its name. Use of these files is described later. The Account column is for the 5 character SymbolKey. It is always in upper case. Use of Esc in any column will usually return you to the beginning of the line. _Examine Account Status - A This selection will allow you to do an on screen review of all amounts in all Individual Numerical Accounts, and all transactions for the current month associated with an Account. _Print Financial Reports - T B I F As you learned in the familiarization lessons, report printing is virtually automatic; however you may need the following details on the internal cal- culations. You may adjust the left-right position of the reports on a page by use of the Printer Margin Offset in the defaults. Account balances are carried forward when printing the first three financial reports. If any statement is not in balance the printer will honk. The totals are made in different ways in different reports. By doing this the internal sub-totals are also checked. With the Trial Balance the debit and credit totals are always printed. These totals are accumulated by adding the amounts in the Individual Numerical Accounts, not the Sub-totals. For the Consolidated Balance Sheets and Statements of Income, the totals are printed only if they are not in balance. These totals are accumulated by adding the Sub-totals. If the printer honks after a Trial Balance is printed, carefully check the amounts in the Individual Numerical Accounts. If it honks for one of the other reports, check the Sub-totals or the This Year's Revenue and the NET REVENUE accounts. All amounts may be changed by going to Revise Chart of Accounts -R, which is explained later. _Post Accounts for Next Month - P When you select "P" the program will automatically close the books for the current month, increment to the next month, and create new data files. There are confirmations you must provide before the posting actually starts. The current accounting month and closing date in Defaults are changed accordingly. If there is insufficient space on your data disk for the new accounts, the program will return you to the operating system. While posting a temporary file called HOLD is used, then erased. _Choose/List Selected Account Transactions - C When preparing income tax returns a list of all transactions for the year in certain accounts is often needed. For example, if you have an account called "Contributions", being able to list all the transactions for the year would reduce tax preparation time. Such lists may be obtained with this selection if the program has been set-up for it. These lists are in the SSSSS.'yy files You may create and update these files in two different ways. As described in Enter Transactions, if the first character in a transaction description is "+", then that transaction line will go into the file with the name of the Account SymbolKey. The SYMBOL # Defaults may also be used for this purpose. If the SymbolKey appears in these Defaults, then ALL transaction lines with that Symbol will be recorded on the disk irrespective of whether there is a "+" in the description or not. This means that if you go back and reenter transactions for a particular month then an entry may be recorded twice. These are text files, so they may be corrected or changed with any editor. There is an experimental function within this selection. It is designed to compute the Average Annualized Rate of Return for an Asset account based upon a current Net Worth which you will have to enter. It operates independently from the normal accounting functions and utilizes the SSSSS.'yy files. To demonstrate how it may be used let's set-up a hypothetical case. Suppose there's a savings account, and that the latest statement from the bank for this account indicates an interest rate of 6% and shows a balance on 3/31 of 10000. Also, suppose the transactions in this account are: 1/ 1/86 +Beginning Balance 9000.00 1/ 1/86 +Part of Salary Deposited 1000.00 1/31/86 +balance Transactions -800.00 2/ 1/86 +Part of Salary Deposited 1000.00 2/28/86 +balance Transactions -700.00 3/ 1/86 +Salary Deposited 1000.00 3/31/86 +balance Transactions -652.15 Notice that the monthly interest received on the account has NOT been included in this file. Since we know all the conditions in this simple example, let's compute it by hand: 1/ 1/86 +Beginning Balance 9000.00 1/ 1/86 +Part of Salary Deposited 1000.00 10000.00 ( 10000 x 0.06 x 31/365 = 50.96 ) 1/31 Interest to 1/31 50.96 10050.96 1/31/86 +balance Transactions -800.00 9250.96 2/ 1/86 +Part of Salary Deposited 1000.00 10250.96 ( 10250.96 x 0.06 x 28/365 = 47.18 ) 2/28 Interest to 2/28 47.18 10298.14 2/28/86 +balance Transactions -700.00 9598.14 3/ 1/86 +Salary Deposited 1000.00 10598.14 ( 10598.14 x 0.06 x 31/365 = 54.01 ) 3/31 Interest to 3/31 54.01 10652.15 3/31/86 +balance Transactions -652.15 10000.00 This example is on the disk you received in the file called SSSSS.'86. If you choose "C" and include the Rate-of-Return, you will see that the computed rate is 6.1%. Don't expect the computed rate to always be this close to that given by the bank. They seldom will agree, because checks will not clear the bank on the same date they were written or entered in your GGL accounts, and the bank may compute interest differently than this program. Interest calculations in the program are compounded continuously. While the calculated Rate-of-Return may not agree exactly with those computed by your Bank, the computer calculates all consistently, so they could be of use in comparing the rates from different banks. The value of some Asset accounts will vary from month-to-month with market conditions. For example, suppose you have an account with a Brokerage Firm and this Firm provides you with a monthly statement which gives the net worth of the account. The net worth will probably be very fluid from one month to the next, and you will not want to enter it into your GGL account each month. If you use the "+" in a description only when you deposit or withdraw cash from the GGL account, you may then have this function compute the annualized rate of return at a particular point in time. We would be interested in hearing whether or not you think this Rate-of-Return function is worth keeping in the GGL program. It has not been thoroughly tested _Revise Chart of Accounts - R CAUTION: When you use this selection, you may enter any amount and the program does no checking. YOU MUST insure that the accounts are in balance. Account Names are used for Titles, Individual Numerical Accounts, and Totals. They are grouped as follows: Asset Accounts - A normal balance + Liabilities - L normal balance - Capital - C normal balance - Revenue - R normal balance - Expenses - E normal balance + From the names a SymbolKey, which you will use to select an account, is devel- oped. Also, a GroupKey is created and used to tell the computer how to handle each account mathematically and to categorize them in the reports. If the account name does not contain a space, the SymbolKey is the first five characters of the name. If there are two words separated with a space in a name, the SymbolKey is made up from the first two characters in the first word followed by a space and the first two characters in the second word. As examples, the SymbolKey for an account named "BankAmerica" is BANKA, and for an account named "Accounts Receivable" it is AC RE. When you enter a symbol and the program searches for the account it samples each character one at a time in all the SymbolKeys from left to right until a unique one is found. If BANKA is the symbol for the only account in the chart of accounts beginning with "B", then you could select this account with only one keystroke. On the other hand, it there are accounts named "Accounts Receivable" and "Accounts Payable", it will take at least four keystrokes to retrieve one of these accounts. Judicious choices of account names will enable you to select accounts with a minimum number of keystrokes. The GroupKey is composed from the account group letter, given above, and the first two characters in the account name. The two characters from the account name are used to indicate the purpose of that account. A "<" indicates that the name is a Title, and a ">" indicates a Total. If the first character is not one of these a less-than or more-than symbols, then the name is for an Individual Numerical Account. If there is a "<" or ">", the program then checks the second character. For a Title, '<', if the second character is "*", the title will be printed double width and centered on the page. Otherwise, if the second character is a number, that Title will be offset in Financial Reports by a number of spaces equal to the number in the second character. A ">" marks a Total, and the second character tells the program how to accumulate totals in the Financial Reports. There are several conditions that must be met in order for totals to be correct. These are: (a) The last account in the Capital, C, group and the last account in the Expenses, E, group must be a total with a "+" as the second character. You can give them any names you choose, but the names must be preceded by ">+". (b) In the Asset, A, group, the first occurrence of ">1" should be TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS, and the last account, TOTAL ASSETS, should marked with ">2". (c) The first occurrence of ">2" in the Liability, L, Group should indicate TOTAL LIABILITIES. (d) In the Capital, C, group, Net Worth, or whatever you want to call it, should immediately precede >+This Year's Revenue. (e) The grand total of all Expense, E, categories should be indicated with a ">2" prefix. The easiest time to set-up a new accounting system is at the beginning of a fiscal year, because at this time all income accounts are zero and all you must enter are current balances in the balance sheet accounts. If you want historical information, past year values must also be entered. If you are setting-up a new Chart of Accounts, or revising an old one, then choose "Add to or Revise Names". With this selection, you will have access to all data in all accounts. The number of accounts is limited only by the amount of space on your disk. When you Add/Revise Names, an "*" can be used to Insert a new account in the middle of the chart, or a "-" to delete an account. If an account is deleted be sure to adjust the current amounts in other accounts to keep them in balance. When an account is deleted it is shown as deleted in the Revise Accounts listing; however, it will not appear in the Financial Reports. It will be erased from the new ACOUNT files when the accounts are Posted to a new month. When you change an account name, the amounts in Current Year, Budget, Past Year, and Past 5 Years will remain as they were unless you change them. The second choice, "Change amounts in existing accounts" provides sequential access to all Individual Numerical Accounts and Totals. This may be used for a mass up-date of a particular type of data in all accounts. Again, no checks, so your numbers must be in balance. You may never need to use it, but a third choice allows you to have a crude listing of all accounts with their SymbolKey, GroupKey, and some data. As discussed in Version Conversion, later, this choice will convert SymbolKeys to those required by this version. _Set-up or Revise Defaults - D The Defaults contain data or conditions which the program uses. When you make a change in a Default, it becomes effective immediately. You have no input control over the first Default. It shows the location of the GGL programs. To change it you must copy the GGL programs as described earlier to another disk or directory, make it the logged drive or directory, and run the GGL from there. The second Default, DATA [path], is the first you change and it must be related to the Company Name. It shows the location on a disk of the data associated with that company. As an example, with two floppies, place the GGL programs on a disk in drive A: and a formated disk in drive B:. Then set DATA [path] to B: and the data will be on drive B. With a fixed disk, a separate data directory could be set-up with DATA [path] set to C:\LEDGER\DATA. Set the Accounting Month and its ending date as desired. If the Accounting Month is the first month in the fiscal year set it to 1. Once an Accounting Month is set, a date will appear. This date can be changed to allow for variable accounting periods. It should be the last day for that accounting period. The next four Defaults allow you to set the Company Name, Address and Tele- phone for the accounts you are working on. When you set the Experience Level to a character other than 0 two things happen. The instruction or help windows will no longer automatically appear, and an additional ten SYMBOL # defaults will appear. If you want to use the Selected Account feature, enter the SymbolKeys of the accounts for which you want SSSSS.'yy files created into the SYMBOL # defaults. If you are not using the Choose/List function these defaults may be left blank. Since people set-up their printers differently, Printer Page Offset has been provided. It allows you to adjust the left-right position of your reports on the printed page. By changing the Defaults you can easily maintain multiple sets of books. If you are keeping several sets of books the DATA [path], Company Name and Addresses will have to be changed frequently. _ DATA ENTRY Whenever the program needs a one-character entry from the keyboard, the allowable responses are shown on a command line usually shown at the bottom of the screen. In addition to the responses shown you may use Esc at any time to return to the previous screen or exit. Six other keys on your keyboard will sometimes have special meanings and uses throughout the program. They are +, -, *, <, > and |. Most of these special uses have already been mentioned; however, when effective, they are shown on the command line. When more than one character is needed from the keyboard, the number of characters or numerals allowed is shown by a series of small, solid squares. Esc is also effective here to exit that screen. You may enter fewer characters than indicated if you want, but never more than shown. If the program needs a numeric entry, it will not accept a letter. There are special entry sequences for dates and decimal numbers. To enter a number simply type it as you would write it from left to right. If there is no decimal point, type Enter when you have finished. If there is a decimal, just type it when you get to it, then the cents and Enter. When entering decimal numbers the "+" and "-" keys may be used instead of "Enter" at the end of a numerical sequence. If a date is needed the entry screen will appear like this: mm/dd/yy and the cursor will be on the day. If you need only to change the day, type its number and Enter--the month and year will stay the same. If you need to change the entire date, use the Backspace to go to the beginning of the entry. Whenever the program is asking you to input data, the numeric key-pad is set to numerals, so the cursor control arrows are not available. To enable you to control the position of the cursor, certain WordStar-like editing features have been included. In the summary that follows, ^S means that you hold the Ctrl key down, then press the S key. ^S will move the cursor one position to the left. This is a duplicate of Backspace. ^D will move the cursor one position to the right. ^A moves the cursor to the starting position. ^F moves the cursor to the end position. ^G deletes the entry at the current position. Data will be recorded on the disk as shown on the entry screen. There are several alternatives if you make a mistake during data entry. The first thing to try is to use the editing features given above. If this does not work, and if you are asked OK?, then answering with a "N" will take you back to the start, and you can go through the entries again. If all else fails, you can use Esc to leave the entry screen, except when entering transactions, with no recording of data and can start over again. _ FILE SUMMARY You are now reading the text file called MANUAL.GGL and are probably using the file called SEE_MAN.COM to read it. Once you have the necessary documentation these two files will no longer be needed. There are six program files on the disk. They are called: GGL.COM GG1.CHN GG2.CHN GGL.000 GG1.000 GG2.000 Main Selections -E, -A, and -D are in the files called GGL; -C and -R are in GG1; and -T, -B, -I, -F and -P are in GG2. These files will occupy almost 200,000 bytes of disk space. Whenever you want to transfer the program files these are the files to copy. There will be five data files created for each accounting month. The size of these files depends upon the number of accounts and the number of transactions. These files are created automatically by the program. If the program is un- able to locate the account file it is seeking, you will be advised and given the option of either creating new files or exiting the program. Sometimes this is caused by an incorrectly set DATA [path] or Closing Date in the Defaults, so be sure to check these first. If new files are created, a mini- Chart of Accounts will be set-up. The first three data files are called: ACOUNT-A.mmy ACOUNT-S.mmy ACOUNT-G.mmy The first one contains the account data, and the other two are key files used to find this data. The other two are called: TRANCT-D.mmy TRANCT-S.mmy These are similar to the account files, except they hold transactions. When posted to a new month, new TRANCT files are created, but they have no data. In addition to these five standard data files, your actions may cause other data files to be created. If you use the transaction repeat function a file called REPEAT.ERS will be created. This file, of course, contains the transactions you want to repeat. It is not recreated each month but is self-maintaining. Any number of other data files may also be created depending upon your use of Selected Accounts in Defaults and the '+' in Enter Transactions. When these are used, the first file is named CATALOG.'yy where the extension 'yy is the year of the current fiscal year. The names of the other files created will follow the form of SSSSS.'yy where SSSSS is the symbol of the account. If the account SymbolKey is AB XY, then the file name will be AB_XY.'yy. All of these yearly files will be in ASCii(text) form which means that you can list them using the TYPE command, or change them with an editor. If you change one of these files with an editor keep the spacing between date, description and amount as in existing files. _ VERSION CONVERSION If you are using GGL for the first time there is no need to read this section. Some earlier versions of GGL created and used symbol keys of the form AB-XY. With later versions, including this one, this same symbol would be of the form AB XY. This change was made because the Space Bar is much quicker and easier to find on the keyboard. If you have been using an earlier version and setup a Chart of Accounts then you need to make a conversion. The time to convert to this version is im- mediately after you have posted the accounts to a new accounting month. After posting, select "R" to revise accounts; then "L" to list. This will auto- matically change all of the account symbols in the ACOUNT files for the new month to those used by this version. The SymbolKey ties the ACOUNT, TRANCT and REPEAT.ERS data files together. Consequently, data files used with earlier versions are not compatible with those created with this version. However, if you simply need to print the financial reports for those months done with an earlier version, it can be done with this version. If you have Repeaters and if symbols are of the form, AB-YZ, you will have to use "N" at OK? when that repeater is recalled, and reenter the symbol to obtain a correct one of the form AB YZ. An alternative would be to have the repeaters on paper, then erase the file called REPEAT.ERS, and reenter them as you did originally from Enter Transactions. _ IN CASE OF DIFFICULTY GGL has been tested with several IBM look alikes, and many checks or error- correcting routines are included in your program; yet there is a remote chance that something could happen to upset the program. For example, the power could fail at an inappropriate time. Or, maybe the operating system CONFIG.SYS file is set incorrectly. This section indicates how you may correct some such problems. If you have been unable to get through the initial start-up and to obtain the Main Selections, try this last-ditch procedure. Format a new disk using the /S option which will make it a system disk. Copy all of the GGL program files to the new disk. Using a wildcard file name like this "GG??????.*" will get them. If you want the example data you will also have to copy *.116, *.'86 and *.ERS to the new disk. Reset your computer with Ctrl-Alt-Del with the new disk in drive A:. Then, try running GGL again. If a run-time(R/T) or an input-output(I/O) error occurs, your data files could be contaminated. If this happens, the data for that month may be lost. However, it can be corrected by setting the accounting month in Defaults to the previous accounting month; Posting the accounts again; and reentering the Transactions for the lost month. Also, if you get totally confused and a bank or some other balance does not check there are several corrective actions that may be chosen. One is as indicated in the previous paragraph; another is to make compensating entries in Transactions; and, finally, if all else fails, you can use Revise Accounts. _Appendix A - REVISION HISTORY version 1.0 - Original program. 1.1 - Changed defaults and eliminated some bugs. 1.2 - Changed SymbolKeys. New Choose/List Function. Added -SYMBOL# defaults, selected account transactions. Standardized special function keys. Save statement balance when exit transactions without end statement reconciliation. 1.3 - Must have DOS 3.0 or greater Creates a CONFIG.SYS file if there is not one present. Eliminates the GGL.DFT file by cloning. Format of all printed reports, including those for Selected Accounts, improved. Checks for the presence of and availability of a printer. Changed name of SEE.MAN to SEE_MAN.COM to allow a separate printing of the Manual. _Appendix B - THE SHAREWARE CONCEPT The shareware concept (often referred to as "freeware" or "user supported software") is an attempt to provide software at low cost. The cost of promoting and advertising a new product by conventional channels is staggering, and hence dissuades many independent authors and small companies. Shareware software is an attempt to develop a new marketing channel, where products can be introduced at low cost. If shareware works, then everyone will benefit. The user will benefit by receiving quality products at low cost, and by being able to "test drive" the program thoroughly before registering it. The author benefits by being able to enter the commercial software arena without first needing large sources of venture capital. But it can only work with your support. We're not just talking about GGL here, but about all shareware. If you find that you are still using a program after a few weeks, then pretty obviously it is worth something to you, and you should pay for it. GGL is distributed under this shareware concept. It is also available from us, garMark Software, at a registration fee of $33.00 plus $5 shipping and handling, or a total of $38.00. We ask you to help us distribute GO GENERAL LEDGER by sharing your original copy with others. It must not have been run on your computer. We also encourage you and those to whom you have distributed the program to register your copy. Registration has a number of benefits to you: 1) You will receive the most recent version of the program if you do not already have it. 2) Your name and address will be placed on our mailing list to receive notices of future updates. 3) We will answer your questions and provide technical consultation on the program if you telephone (303) 542-7065. 4) You will be supporting the concept that allowed you to receive GO GENERAL LEDGER in the first place. Only through user support can we continue to improve this program and perhaps develop other products. By supporting the authors who release valuable programs as shareware can you encourage others to do the same. _Appendix C - REGISTRATION You may register your copy by filling out the following form and mailing it to the listed address along with $38.00 (shipping and handling included). If needed, you will promptly receive the latest version of GGL. We will also place you on our update list so that you will automatically be notified of future updates, and we will be available for consultation. In addition, you will be supporting software distributed under the shareware concept and will be contributing to the further development of this and other software products. Mail To: garMark Software GGL Registration 59 Villa Drive Pueblo, CO 81001 NAME: _________________________________________________________ ADDRESS: _________________________________________________________ CITY/STATE/ZIP: _________________________________________________________ TELEPHONE: _________________________________________________________ My Version Number of GGL is: __________________ How did you first learn about, or where did you first obtain a copy of GO GENERAL LEDGER, or what else would like to see in it, or any other comments? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________