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PC-GL
Version 3.4
Copyright 1989, Jerry Medlin
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
PC-GL is a double entry accounting program which allows a
small to medium size business to rapidly and accurately produce
financial reports. The program runs on a IBM PC or compatible
computer with at least one disk drive, and requires at least
256k memory.
PC-GL is a Shareware program. You are encouraged to give
copies to anyone who might use it. If you use the program,
please send $35 to:
Jerry Medlin
1461 Sproul Avenue
Napa, Ca. 94559
Your contribution entitles you to a copy of the latest
version of the program and a telephone number for limited
telephone assistance should you require it. You also receive a
program which allows 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 two files.
PC-GL.EXE - The compiled program written in Turbo
Pascal.
PC-GL.COA - A standard chart of accounts to use or
modify for your purposes.
To run the program, simply type "PC-GL". If you want to
specify a drive designation and path for your data, 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
Make a selection by using the up or down arrows to
highlight the desired function, then press <return>.
PC-GL allows a maximum of 800 items in the chart of
accounts and 6000 transactions per accounting period. With 256k
of memory, the number of transactions is reduced to about 500
per accounting period. The number of additional transactions
you can enter is printed at the bottom of the menu screen. This
number is limited by either disk space or memory available, and
is subject to an absolute maximum of 6000 transactions.
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.
THE PROCESSING CYCLE
Usually accounting is done on a monthly cycle, but the PC-
GL program allows you to use any length of accounting 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 desired. Reports may be printed to the screen first
to check their accuracy. Should you discover a posting error
after examining the reports, 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 are not 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 is your only audit
trail. Starting 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 never asks "Do you want to start a new accounting
period?".
To start a new accounting period, you must answer "Y" to
the question "Do you want to start a new accounting period?".
The question is asked immediately upon running PC-GL, if you
printed the General Ledger Report during your last processing
session. If you answer with a "N", the latest transactions are
loaded and you may add additional entries - continuing on with
the old period. If you answer "Y", the current period balances
will be set to zero and the transactions for the previous period
are saved for later review. You may then begin entering
transactions for the new period.
DOUBLE ENTRY ACCOUNTING
Double entry accounting requires the total of all debit <+>
entries to be the same as the total of all credit <-> entries.
It does not mean there must be a credit for every debit, only
that all of the entries must add up to zero. Each accounting
period consist of a series of balanced entries with equal pluses
and minuses.
All of the checks written during a month are posted to the
various expense accounts as debit <+> amounts. Then 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 the 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.
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 to 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. This 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.
The following information is contained in each chart of
accounts:
1) ACCOUNT NUMBER - A three digit number between 000 and
999 which 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 - This is 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 - This is 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.
Remember to look at the bottom of the screen, when in
doubt. Your options are 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, 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 use
this section, except to occasionally add new items to the chart
of accounts or delete unwanted accounts with zero balances.
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. You may also obtain a total for a particular
account and you can search all of the transactions for any
string of characters. All commands are listed at the bottom of
the screen.
Each transaction contains the following information:
1) DESCRIPTION - Allows up to 21 characters to describe
the entry. Pressing <return> or <+> causes 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> causes
the previous number to be repeated. Pressing <+> enters 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 <+>
repeats the previous date. Any day of the month higher
than 80 causes the transactions to be posted to the year to
date balance only. (In other words, a transaction with a
date of 0185 does not affect current balances when posted,
only year to date balances.)
4) ACCOUNT NUMBER - You must enter a three digit account
number. Once the account number has been entered, the
program checks to see if the number is a valid account
number. If it is not, you are asked to reenter the account
number. Once a valid account number has been entered, the
corresponding account description from the chart of
accounts is displayed at the bottom of the screen. If you
don't remember the account number, enter the number 999.
You are then able to use the up and down arrow keys to
search the chart of accounts for the correct account
number.
5) AMOUNT - Enter the amount 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.
If you press the <Return> key without entering an amount,
an amount is entered equal to the net of all of the
transactions for the period, but with the opposite sign.
In other words, a balancing entry is created. If the net
of all of the transactions so far is +1234.56 and you press
the <Return> key without entering an amount, 1234.56- is
entered. This feature is especially useful for those users
who want to enter a debit for each credit.
The net amount of the current check, and the net of all the
transactions posted for the period are constantly displayed at
the upper right of the screen. The check balance is useful when
posting a single check to multiple accounts. For double entry
accounting, the net amount of all transactions should be zero
when you finish with posting for the period.
When using the <C> Change selection to change a chart of
account item or a transaction, you don't have to reenter each
field. Press the return key, to skip to the next field.
The <T> Total selection for transaction entries is useful
for checking balances. It can, for instance, be used to add up
all the purchases, so you can make an ending inventory
calculation based on a desired cost of sales.
If you are using the PC-AP Accounts Payable program and
have ended a PC-AP accounting period, you will have an
additional menu item available at the bottom of the screen. <R>
Read PC-AP Transactions allows you to read all of the checks
written by PC-AP into the PC-GL program. Transactions from PC-
AP are not posted to PC-GL until you select <R> Read PC-AP
Transactions.
PRINTING REPORTS
To print any of the available reports, select the report
from the main menu. First, you are asked to input a report date
to be printed on the report. Alphabetic and numeric dates are
acceptable. i.e. January 31, 1987. Pressing return enters the
system date for the report date. After a date is entered, you
can choose printing to the printer, the screen or to a file.
If you choose to print to a file, you are prompted for a
file name. The program prints the report to this file exactly
as it would have been printed to the printer. These files are
regular ASCII files, and are read by most word processors.
Specifying a file name of LPT2: allows you to print to a second
printer. You may optionally leave off the report headings, when
you print to a file, so that the data can be easily imported
into a spread sheet or data base.
ACCOUNT SUMMARY REPORT
Each time you start a new accounting period by answering
"Y" to the question "Do you want to start a new accounting
period?" at the beginning of the program, the transactions for
the prior period are saved. Eventually, up to 12 accounting
periods (months) are saved. The most recent transactions are in
a file named GL1.TRN, and the oldest transactions are in a file
named GL12.TRN. The account summary report allows you to print
a summary of transactions for a single account. You can also
sort the transactions, before they are printed by description,
date, check number or account number. You will be asked for an
account number and the number of months to go back. Inputting
zero for the number of months will look at only the current
period. If you enter ALL for the account number, you may also
print a General Ledger Report going back up to 12 months.
This is a useful report to print at the end of the year so
that you can review the year's activity with one General Ledger
Report instead of having to look at 12 individual reports.
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 asks for the account number of
your capital account, then the profit or loss for the year just
ended is posted to that account. If you are using the Standard
Chart of Accounts, the capital account is 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 are asked if you want to end
processing. A yes "Y" answer saves the chart of accounts, and
all of the current transactions. Any answer other than "Y"
returns you to the main menu.
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 don't
require those categories.
When printing the income statement, the sign for the
balances of accounts with odd numbered account codes is
reversed. So, income amounts (#3) which normally have a credit
balance and are carried as minus numbers in the general ledger
are printed on the income statement 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. 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) is totaled and printed into
the next higher number. i.e. The total for a series of 0
coded accounts prints into the next account numbered 1 or
higher.
1 Used for most accounts. On the balance sheet the account
balance is 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.
For complex income statements, an additional total level
(6) is available.
The second digit is also used to control paging, spacing
and underlining. Any number higher than 1 will be preceded by a
blank line. A 9 in the second digit causes the printer to start
a new page. The use of a 9 to start a new page should be
restricted to title accounts.
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 are title accounts.
You can print an extra blank line on the income statement
or balance sheet by entering a title account with a blank
description.
Underlining on the income statement and balance sheet is
accomplished by entering an account, with a non-numerical
character in the second digit of the two digit code. (Non-
numerical means something other than 0 through 9.) The
character will be used to print a line under the last number
printed on the income statement or balance sheet. So, an
account code ending with a dash <-> prints a single underline
and an account code ending with the equal sign <=> prints a
double underline. The account's only purpose is to print the
underline. The account should be a title account, and it's
description will be ignored.
USING OTHER PROGRAMS FROM JERRY MEDLIN
There are three other programs available from Jerry Medlin:
PC-AR - a balance forward Accounts receivable program.
PC-PR - a payroll writing program.
PC-AP - an accounts payable and check writing program.
The only program which integrates directly with PC-GL is
the accounts payable program: PC-AP. You must have PC-GL in
order to use the accounts payable program. All of the checks or
invoices entered in PC-AP are automatically posted to PC-GL.
PC-AR and PC-PR are "stand alone" programs and do not
automatically post to PC-GL. (To do so would require all of the
payroll checks and all of the sales entries to be added to the
transactions in PC-GL.) You must post the totals from the
accounts receivable program and the payroll program with a short
series of journal entries each month, which usually takes no
more than a few minutes each month. This provides greater
control and flexibility to the whole accounting process.
The details of the journal entries from PC-PR and PC-AR to
PC-GL depend on your particular situation, but might look
something like this:
Check Account Check
Description Number Date Number Amount
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Cash Received on Acct GJN01 0131 103 22345.67
January Sales GJN01 0131 511 22345.67-
January Gross Pay GJN01 0131 708 2045.43
January Fed W/H GJN01 0131 331 190.00-
January FICA GJN01 0131 332 146.26-
January SDI W/H GJN01 0131 333 24.53-
January State W/H GJN01 0131 334 14.70-
January Net Pr GJN01 0131 103 1669.94-
The first two entries are from the accounts receivable
program and the last 6 entries are from the payroll program.
The entries would vary depending on cash or accrual basis and,
of course, the amounts and accounts involved.
PRIOR PERIOD CORRECTIONS
You cannot change prior period transactions with PC-GL,
even though prior period transactions are saved on the disk in a
series of files. Changing prior period transactions creates a
number of accounting problems related to the audit trail, and is
simply not possible. If you find an error in the previous
period and you have not yet started a new accounting period, you
can answer "N" to the new accounting period question at the
beginning of the program and rerun the period. If the error is
from an earlier period, you must make the correction to the
current period.
You can enter the correction without affecting current
period balances, by using a day of the month higher than 80. A
date such as 0187, for instance, would tell the program to enter
the transaction only in the year to date column, and not post as
a current transactions.
HANDLING BEGINNING AND ENDING INVENTORY
If your application doesn't require the beginning and
ending inventory to show on the income statement, you can 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 containing a day of the month
higher than 80 is posted as a year to date transaction only. It
does 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 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 are required:
Description Ref # Date Acct # Amount
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Inventory GJN04 0430 151 29000.00
Inventory GJN04 0430 151 25000.00-
Beginning Inv. GJN04 0430 610 25000.00
Ending Inv. GJN04 0430 696 29000.00-
Ending Inv. GJN04 0484 696 25000.00
Beginning Inv. GJN04 0484 610 25000.00-
Notice the last two entries are year-to-date entries,
because the day of the month is higher than 80. 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 are omitted.
USING THE CONFIGURATION PROGRAM
The configuration program (GLCONFIG.EXE) is provided to all
registered users. It allows you to change certain features of
PC-GL. The GLCONFIG.EXE program and the main program (PC-
GL.EXE) should both be on the same disk drive and sub directory,
when you configure your copy of PC-GL. Run the program by
typing GLCONFIG at the Dos prompt. The previous configuration
of PC-GL will be displayed. Use the up and down arrows to move
the pointer and then press <C> to change an item. The following
information may then be changed:
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).
Laser Printer? - You can also 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 starts a new page
by issuing a form feed command. This also works on most
other printers, but requires you to set the top of form
before you start printing.
Zero Balances on Statements? - If you don't want accounts
with zero balances to print on the income statement or
balance sheet, change this to a "N".
Months to Save - The program normally saves the past 12
months of transactions so that they can be reviewed with
the Account Summary selection. You can change this time
period to any number from 1 to 30. A smaller number
requires less disk space, and speeds the new period
processing by a few seconds.
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, 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.
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, PC-GL is
changed, until you run the configuration program again.
DATA FILES
Data files are created automatically by PC-GL. If you wish
to back up data files only, copy these files to another disk
using the DOS copy or BACKUP command.
PC-GL.COA Chart of account listing with balances.
PC-GL.TRN Current period transactions.
GL1.TRN, GL2.TRN, GL3.TRN etc contain the previous period
transactions. GL1.TRN is the most recent.
HELPFUL HINTS
Opening balances are entered as transactions, using the
Enter or Change Transactions selection. If you enter the
opening balances using a day of the month higher than 80 (for
example 0189), the opening balances do not affect the current
period totals.
It is helpful to remember that PC-GL uses data 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
if you make a mistake on the opening question (Do you want to
start a new accounting period?), you can boot the computer and
start over: your previous data is still on the disk.
If you do not get the question "Do you want to start a new
accounting period?" when starting PC-GL, it is because you
didn't print the General Ledger report to the printer. Changing
even a single transaction convinces PC-GL you have not printed
the General Ledger report, and prevents the new period question
from appearing.
The first 12 times you start a new accounting period, more
disk space is required for historical files. If you have a
large business and you are using floppy disks for data storage,
you could run out of disk space. Reduce the number of periods
saved using the GLCONFIG program.
You can use the Account Summary Report each January to help
in summarizing payments for 1099 forms. The 1099 is the form
the government wants every year which reports payments to
individuals of over $600.
The "Zero Balances" selection in the chart of account
command mode sets ALL chart of account balances to zero and
deletes 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. Use "Zero Balances"
to get a fresh start. If you have run a number of test months,
and wish to delete all of the Account Summary data: exit to the
disk operating system and type: ERASE GL*.TRN.
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.
This version of PC-GL is completely compatible with all
other versions of PC-GL except for the method of saving and
recalling old transaction files. If you have been using a
version number lower than 3.0 (version 2.9 or lower), you need
to convert the historical data if you want to use it with this
program. Contact us for instructions on how to convert the old
data.
PC-GL is written in Turbo Pascal. The source code is
available for $95.