Shareware Overload/ShartewareOverload.cdr/busi/pc_acct.zip/PC-GL.DOC

Text File | 1986-11-06 | 28KB | 672 lines

                              PC-GL MANUAL
                              Version 2.9



PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

     PC-GL is a double entry accounting program which will allow a
small to medium size business to rapidly and accurately pay bills and
produce financial reports.  The program runs on a IBM PC or compatible
computer with at least one disk drive and requires at least 128k
memory.

     PC-GL allows a maximum of 800 items in the chart of accounts and
4000 transactions per accounting period.  With 128k of memory the
number of transactions is reduced to about 300 per accounting period.

     PC-GL is a user supported program.  Your are encouraged to give
copies to anyone who might use it.  If you use the program please send
$35 to:

              Jerry Medlin
              310 S. Jefferson St.
              Napa, Ca.  94559

      Your contribution will entitle you to a copy of the latest
version of the program and a telephone number for limited telephone
assistance should you require it.  You will also receive a program
which will allow you to customize some features of PC-GL.  A complete
description of this customizing program is contained at the end of the
manual.

     The system consist of three files.

     PC-GL.COM - The compiled program written in Turbo Pascal.

     PC-GL.COA - A standard chart of accounts to use or modify for
     your purposes.

     PC-GL.DOC - This documentation in ASCII form.

     The program makes liberal use of the PC's numeric key pad both
for numbers and commands.  You can have the Num Lock on all the time
even when using the arrow keys for commands.  When inputting
information, the plus <+> key has the same effect as the return or
enter key.  The minus <-> key enters a negative number.  This makes
using the numeric key pad even easier.

     To run the program, simply type "PC-GL".  If you want to specify
a drive designation and path for your data just add the drive and path
description after the program name.  i.e. type "PC-GL B:" to use the B
drive for data files.  If you are going to use the standard chart of
accounts, be sure the file PC-GL.COA is on the specified drive and
subdirectory.








     Each time you run the program, a menu is displayed for operator
selection:

              Enter or Change Chart of Accounts
              Enter or Change Transactions
              Print Chart of Accounts Listing
              Print Transaction Listing
              Print General Ledger
              Print Income Statement
              Print Balance Sheet
              Print Account Summary Report
              Year End Update
              End of Processing

     Selection is made by using the up or down arrows to highlight
the desired function, then pressing <return>.


THE PROCESSING CYCLE

     Usually, accounting is done on a monthly cycle, but the PC-GL
program will allow you to use any length of accounting period.  Each
time you run the program, you will be asked "Do you want to start a
new accounting period? (Y/N)".  If you answer with a "N" the latest
transactions will be loaded and you may add additional entries.  If
you answer "Y" the current period balances will be set to zero and you
may begin entering a new batch of transactions for the new period.

     Checks and journal entries for the accounting period are entered
using the second menu selection. (Enter or Change Transactions)
Debits are entered as positive <+> numbers and credits are entered as
negative <-> numbers.

     When the transactions have been entered and checked you may
begin printing reports.  Reports may be printed in any order and as
often as you desire.  Reports may be printed to the screen first to
check their accuracy.  Should you discover a posting error after
examining the reports, you can correct the error and rerun the reports.

     The only report that must be printed to the printer each period
is the General Ledger Report.  If the General Ledger Report has not
been printed to the printer (not just the screen), you will not be
allowed to end an accounting period and start another.  The General
Ledger Report shows the opening balance for each account, all of the
transactions posted to the account for the accounting period followed
by the closing balance for each account.  Once you start a new
accounting period, the printed General Ledger Report will be your only
audit trail.  To start a new accounting period without printing the
general ledger would leave no trace of how an account arrived at its
present balance.  Since organizations like the IRS want to know how
you arrived at those numbers on your tax return, the General Ledger
Report is required.  If it hasn't been printed the program will never
ask "Do you want to start a new accounting period?".












DOUBLE ENTRY ACCOUNTING

     Double entry accounting requires that the total of all debit <+>
entries must be the same as the total of all credit <-> entries.  It
does not mean that there must be a credit for every debit, only that
all entries must add up to zero.  Each accounting period consist of a
series of balanced entries with equal pluses and minuses.

     For example, all of the checks written during a month are posted
to the various expense accounts as debit <+> amounts.  The total of
all of those checks is then posted to the CASH IN BANK account as a
single credit <-> amount.  The net of all the transactions posted is
therefore zero, making a balanced series of entries.  All income
amounts are entered as credit <-> amounts and a corresponding debit
<+> entry is made to the Cash in Bank account or to Accounts
Receivable.  The PC-GL program helps you when posting transactions by
displaying the balance of all transactions posted at the upper right
of the screen.  When all of the transactions for the accounting period
have been posted, the balance displayed should be zero.

     If you are unfamiliar with double entry accounting, it is beyond
the scope of this manual to completely cover the subject.  However,
all is not lost.  The PC-GL system can also be used as a simple single
entry system.  Just enter all your expenses and income to the proper
account and run the system normally.  Expenses are entered as positive
<+> amounts and (this is important!) income amounts are entered as
negative <-> amounts.  To enter a negative amount, first enter then
number then press the minus<-> sign.



SETTING UP THE CHART OF ACCOUNTS

     A standard chart of accounts is provided with the program.
Although any sequential numbering scheme will work with the general
ledger program, the one provided is in common usage by accountants.
To use the standard chart of accounts, simply run the program with the
file PC-GL.COA on the data disk drive.  Be sure to make a backup copy
of PC-GL.COA first.

     The chart of accounts can be added to at any time during the
processing period.  All chart of accounts setup and modification is
done using the <Enter or Change Chart of Accounts> selection on the
menu.  This section allows you add new COA items, delete or change
existing ones, or examine the COA by scrolling up and down the
screen.  All commands are listed at the bottom of the screen and are
selected by a single keystroke.  Upon entering this section you may
immediately begin adding items to the chart of accounts or, by
pressing the Escape key, you may go to the command mode and insert,
delete or change items in the chart of accounts.  You will not be
allowed to delete an account with a balance or change balance
amounts.  Changing amounts is done by posting transactions to the
account.  That way you have that all important audit trail.  Upon
exiting the chart of accounts section, the chart of accounts is
automatically sorted in account number order.












     Each chart of accounts item contains the following information:

1)    ACCOUNT NUMBER - A three digit number between 000 and 998 that
     will be used for posting transactions.

2)    ACCOUNT CODE - A two digit number which determines how, and on
     which reports, the item will be printed.  (See the section on
     COA coding for details.)

3)    PRIOR YEAR % - This number will be printed on the income
     statement and is for informational purposes only.  If no prior
     year % is desired just press return for this entry and none will
     be printed on the income statement.  The prior year % is updated
     automatically at the end of the year by the Year End Update
     procedure.

4)    ACCOUNT DESCRIPTION - Up to 27 characters are allowed for the
     account description.

5)    CURRENT AMOUNT - The balance of all transactions entered to this
     account for the current accounting period.  If an asterisk <*>
     is entered during setup this chart of accounts entry will be
     treated as a title account on reports.  Title accounts are used
     to provide headings and totals on reports.  Transactions cannot
     be posted to a title account.  Press any other key during setup
     to enter a zero beginning balance for current and year to date.

6)    YTD AMOUNT - The balance of all transactions entered to this
     account for the current year.  Opening account balances cannot
     be entered when the chart of accounts is set up, they must be
     posted as transactions.

     Just remember to look at the bottom of the screen when in
doubt.  Your options will usually be printed there.

     The first item in the chart of accounts should contain the name
to be printed on all reports.  If you are using the standard chart of
accounts, just change the description of the first account from
STANDARD CHART OF ACCOUNTS to the name you want printed on your
financial statements.

     Once the chart of accounts has been setup, you won't be using
this section except to occasionally add new items to the chart of
accounts or delete items with zero balances no longer in use.


ENTERING TRANSACTIONS

     All checks and journal entries for the accounting period are
entered using the <Enter or Change Transactions> selection of the
menu.  This selection also allows you to examine entries by scrolling
up and down the screen and to insert, delete or change entries.  All
commands are listed at the bottom of the screen.  You may also obtain
a total of all the amounts posted to an account during the current
posting session.












     Each transaction contains the following information:

1)    DESCRIPTION - Up to 21 characters are allowed to describe the
     entry.  Just pressing <return> or <+> will cause the previous
     entry to be repeated.  To enter a blank description, press the
     space bar then <return>.

2)    CHECK NO. - A five digit check or reference number.  Numbers or
     letters may be used. Pressing <return> will cause the previous
     number to be repeated.  Pressing <+> will enter a number equal
     to the previous number plus one.  (This is useful when entering
     a series of checks with sequential check numbers.)

3)    DATE - The date must be entered in MODA form.  i.e. 0108 for
     January  eighth.  Pressing <return> or <+> will repeat the
     previous date.  Any day of the month higher than 31 will cause
     the transactions to be posted to the year to date balance only.
     (In other words, a transaction with a date of 0185 would not
     affect current balances when posted, only year to date balances.)

4)    ACCOUNT NUMBER - A three digit account number must be entered.
     Once the account number has been entered, the program will check
     to see if the number is a valid account number.  If not, you
     will be asked to reenter the account number.  Once a valid
     account number has been entered, the corresponding account
     description from the chart of accounts will be displayed at the
     bottom of the screen.  If you don't remember the account number,
     enter the number 999.  You will then be able to use the up and
     down arrow keys to search the chart of accounts for the correct
     account number.

5)    AMOUNT - The amount is entered calculator style without using
     the  decimal point.  Debit entries are entered as positive
     numbers and credit entries are entered as negative numbers.  To
     enter a negative number, enter the number in the regular manner
     followed by the minus <-> sign instead of the enter or plus <+>
     sign.

     The balance of all the transactions posted for the period, and
the total for the current check number are constantly displayed at the
upper right of the screen.  The check balance will help when posting a
single check to multiple accounts.

PRINTING CHECKS

     Checks may be printed at any time from the command mode.  Just
use the up and down arrows to point to the check you want to print
then press <P>.  You will then be asked to enter the following
information:

     >Check date - Enter the check date as MO/DA/YR or press return
     to enter the month and day you entered for the check and the
     system date year.
     >Pay to - Enter the name you want the check made out to or press
     return to enter the name you used for the description.
     >Street Address and City State & Zip - Enter the address you
     want printed on the check or press return for no printed address.








     For most checks this means that all you do to print a check is
point at the check, press <P>, then press the return key four times.

     If you have distributed a check to several accounts by making
multiple entries with the same check number, the program will total
all of the amounts for the selected check number before printing the
check.  If you press the <P> by mistake, the escape key will get you
out.  After you enter the City State & Zip, the check will print.

     Checks are printed on standard preprinted accounts payable
checks.  Set the printer to begin printing under "DATE" on the first
page of the check form.  The checks may be ordered from a number of
suppliers including NEBS (New England Business Services).  The NEBS
form number is 9020.


PRINTING REPORTS

     To print any of the available reports just select the report
from the main menu.  First you will be asked to input a report date to
be printed on the report.  Alphabetic and numeric dates are
acceptable. i.e. January 31, 1984.  Pressing return will enter the
system date for the report date.  After a date is entered you will be
able to choose printing to the printer, the screen or to a file.

     If you choose to print to a file you will be prompted for a file
name.  The program will print the report to that file exactly as it
would have been printed to the printer.  These files are regular ASCII
files and can be read by most word processors.  Specifying a file name
of LPT2: will allow you to print to a second printer.

YEAR END CLOSEOUT

     At the beginning of a new accounting year all profit and loss
account balances are set to zero using this selection.  In addition,
the prior year percentages are updated to reflect the year just
ended.  The program will ask for the account number of your capital
account, then the profit or loss for the year just ended will be
posted to that account.  If you are using the Standard Chart of
Accounts, the capital account would be account number 465.  This
section should be used only once a year and cannot be done unless the
General Ledger has been printed.


END OF PROCESSING

     When processing is completed you must exit the program using
this selection.  You will be asked if you want to end processing.  Any
answer other than "Y" will return you to the main menu.

     If you have entered any transactions, you will be asked to enter
a three month abbreviation for the month just processed.  The only
acceptable answers are one of the three character month abbreviations
or the number 13.  The number 13 is for use by those organizations
that use a 13 month accounting year.  If you had just completed the
month of February you would enter FEB.  The program would then save
three files to the disk:

               PC-GL.COA - The latest chart of accounts
               PC-GL.TRN - The latest transactions
               FEB.TRN   - A backup copy of the transactions






    The last file saved is saved so that later you may review all the
transactions posted to an account for the past year using the Print
Account Summary Report selection of the menu.  Until you have at least
one month's data saved to the disk, the Print Account Summary Report
will not have any transactions to summarize.

     If you only close out the General Ledger quarterly, you should
use only the abbreviations for the months that end a quarter.
(normally MAR, JUN, SEP and DEC)  This will prevent you from
duplicating the data read by the Accounts Summary Report.



CHART OF ACCOUNTS CODING

     If you use the standard chart of accounts or a modified version
of the standard chart of accounts, it is not necessary to be familiar
with chart of account coding.  Just delete the unwanted chart of
account items. This information is provided for those who want to use
their own chart of accounts or produce special reports.

     The first number of the two digit code is a number from 1 to 9
which determines the account type.

              1.  ASSETS
              2.  LIABILITIES
              3.  INCOME (OR SALES)
              4.  COST OF SALES
              5.  GROSS PROFIT
              6.  OPERATING EXPENSES
              7.  OTHER INCOME
              8.  OTHER EXPENSES
              9.  NET PROFIT

     The GROSS PROFIT (#5) and PROFIT OR LOSS (#9) are generally used
only once in each chart of accounts for totaling purposes.  The COST
OF SALES (#4), GROSS PROFIT (#5), OTHER INCOME (#7) and OTHER EXPENSES
(#8) can be omitted if your applications doesn't require those
categories.


     When printing the income statement and balance sheet, the sign
for the balances of accounts with odd numbered account codes is
reversed.  For instance income amounts (#3) normally have credit
balances and are carried as minus numbers in the general ledger.  When
printed on the income statement they will be printed as positive
numbers.

     The second number of the two digit code determines the totaling
level for an account on the income statement and balance sheet.  The
total level is used to determine what totals and subtotals appear on
reports.  Each higher total level totals all previous lower account
numbers.  The best way to understand how the totaling level works is
to experiment.  Just change the number and reprint the report to see
how it looks.  Chart of account coding can be changed at any time
without causing problems.











Total Level:

0    The balance and description will print only on the general
     ledger report.  When printing the balance sheet or income
     statement, the balance (if any) will be totaled and printed into
     the next higher number.  i.e. The total for a series of 0 coded
     accounts will print into the next account numbered 1 or higher.

1    Used for most accounts.  On the balance sheet the account
     balance will be printed in the first column.

2    Prints total of all previous 0 and 1 accounts.  Prints in the
     middle column of the balance sheet.

3    Prints total of all previous 0, 1, and 2 accounts.  Prints in
     the right hand column of the balance sheet.

4    Used for subtotal accounts such as TOTAL ASSETS, OPERATING
     PROFIT etc.

5    Used for the NET PROFIT account on both the balance sheet and
     income statement.  If the balance sheet does not contain a level
     5 account, the balance sheet will not balance.

     On the income statement and balance sheet, any number higher
than 1 will be preceded by a blank line.  The number 9 will cause the
printer to start a new page.  The use of a 9 is be restricted to title
accounts with no balance.

     Accounts used only for totaling the balances of previous
accounts or for printing titles on a statement are title accounts.  A
title account is created by entering an asterisk in the current
balance column of an account.  You cannot post any transactions to a
title account.  Most accounts with a totaling level higher than 1 will
be title accounts.


HANDLING BEGINNING AND ENDING INVENTORY

     If your application doesn't require that beginning and ending
inventory show on the income statement, you should skip this section.
It discusses a commonly used but somewhat confusing technique to
properly display beginning and ending inventory on a computerized
income statement.

     Any transaction with a date that contains a day of the month
higher than 31 will be posted as a year to date transaction only.  It
will not affect the current period balance.  This is moderately useful
for making adjustments to the year to date balances, but it's
principal value lies in making the beginning and ending inventory work
properly on the income statement.

     If we assume that the inventory at the beginning April was
$25000.00 and the inventory at the end of April was $29000.00, the
following series of entries would be required:












Description          Ref #        Date      Acct #       Amount
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Inventory           GJN04         0430       151        29000.00
Inventory           GJN04         0430       151        25000.00-
Beginning Inv.      GJN04         0430       601        25000.00
Ending Inv.         GJN04         0430       696        29000.00-
Ending Inv.         GJN04         0484       696        25000.00
Beginning Inv.      GJN04         0484       601        25000.00-


     Notice that the last two entries are year-to-date entries
because the day of the month is higher than 31.  If the beginning and
ending inventory accounts start at zero (as would be the case at the
beginning of the year), the last two year-to-date entries should be
omitted.


USING THE CONFIGURATION PROGRAM

     The configuration program (GLCONFIG.COM) is provided free to all
registered users.  It allows you to change certain features of PC-GL.
The GLCONFIG.COM program and the main program (PC-GL.COM) should both
be on the same disk drive when you configure your copy of PC-GL.  Just
run the program by typing GLCONFIG at the Dos prompt.  Use the up and
down arrows to move the pointer and then press <C> to change an item.
You will be allowed to change the following information:

     Display Colors - If you have a color adapter and monitor, you
     can change the colors for screen borders, program prompts, data,
     and background.  Allowable colors are from 0 to 15 except for
     background color which can only be from 0 to 7.

     Disk Drive and Path - Enter a drive and path designation for
     PC-GL data.  If you want the program to read data from the B
     drive just enter B:.

     Income Statement Heading - You can change the default heading
     printed on the income statement report.  You will probably need
     to start with some blank spaces to line up the heading
     correctly.  Sometimes trial and error is the best way.

     Balance Sheet Heading -  You can also change the balance sheet
     headings.

     Income Statement and Balance Sheet Footers - A "footer" is a
     short comment inserted at the end of a report.  An example of a
     footer would be a statement like "Prepared without benefit of
     audit", or any other meaningless comment your attorney tells you
     to put on your financial statements.

     Laser Printer? - You will also be able to change the way PC-GL
     starts a new page.  Usually, PC-GL starts a new page by counting
     lines until the page total equals 66 lines.  If you enter a "Y"
     for the laser printer question, PC-GL will start a new page by
     issuing a form feed command.  This would work just fine on most
     other printers too, but requires that you set the top of form
     before you start printing.








     When you have finished making your changes, press the escape key
to exit the program.  You will then be asked if you want to save the
changes.  If you answer with a Y, both the configuration program and
PC-GL will be changed until you run the configuration program again.


HELPFUL HINTS

     When using the <C> Change selection to change a chart of account
item or a transaction, you don't have to reenter each field.  Just
press the return key to skip to the next field.

     The <T> Total selection for transaction entries is useful for
checking balances.  It can also be used to add up all the purchases so
you can make an ending inventory calculation based on a desired cost
of sales.

     It is helpful to remember that PC-GL uses data that has been
loaded into random access memory.  New data is not saved to the disk
until you end processing or select the <S> Save option from the Enter
or Change Transactions section of the program.  This also means that
if you make a mistake on the opening question (Do you want to start a
new accounting period?) you can just boot the computer and start
over.  Your previous data is still on the disk.

     The Account Summary Report will summarize all the transactions
posted to a particular account number for the past 12 months.  It will
look at all the transaction files on your disk that start with a three
character month abbreviation.  In other words, it will look at
JAN.TRN, FEB.TRN, MAR.TRN etc. and print all the transactions made to
the selected account number.  If you only start a new processing
period every three months, you should only use those months as dates
for saving transactions.  So, you would only use MAR, JUN, SEP or DEC
as names for transaction files if you were using PC-GL to run
quarterly financial statements instead of monthly.

     You can use this report each January for summarizing payments
for 1099 forms.  The 1099 is that form the government wants every year
reporting payments to individuals of over $600.

     In addition to the configuration program, registered users of
PC-GL will also receive a program called ANNUAL.COM.  ANNUAL will
allow you to print a single General Ledger report for the entire
year.  The program reads all the monthly transaction files, but does
not modify any files.

     The "Zero Balances" selection in the chart of account command
mode will set ALL chart of account balances to zero and delete any
transactions entered for the period.  There are only two reasons to
ever use this command.

1)  When you first start using PC-GL you might want to practice a few
times before you really get started.  You would then use "Zero
Balances" to get a fresh start.

2)  If you want to use an existing chart of accounts setup on a new
application, you could zero the existing balances after copying the
chart of accounts file PC-GL.COA to the disk for the new business.


     PC-GL is written in Turbo Pascal.  The source code is available
for $95.







     TO PRINT THIS MANUAL:
Turn on your printer and set it to the top of the page.
Enter  COPY PC-GL.DOC LPT1: