The Essential Home & Business Collection/The Essential Home & Business Collection.iso/03/3/1/MEDLIN.ARC/PC-AR.DOC

Text File | 1990-10-19 | 26KB | 610 lines

                             PC-AR
                          Version 4.0
                 Copyright 1989 by Jerry Medlin


PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

     PC-AR is an accounts receivable and sales analysis program
for small and medium size businesses.  The program runs on a IBM
PC or compatible computer, with one disk drive and at least 256k
memory.

     PC-AR is a Shareware program.  You are encouraged to give
copies to anyone who might use it.  If you like the program and
find it useful, please contribute $35 to:

               Jerry Medlin
               1461 Sproul Ave.
               Napa, Ca.  94559

     To order using Master Card or Visa, call [phone].

     Your contribution entitles you to a copy of the latest
version of the program and limited telephone assistance, should
you require it.  You also receive a program which allows you to
customize some features of PC-AR.  A complete description of the
customizing program is contained at the end of this manual.

     When inputting information, the plus <+> key has the same
effect as the return or enter key.  Numerical information is
entered "calculator style".  The decimal point is placed
automatically.  The minus <-> key enters a negative number.
This makes using the numeric key pad even easier.

     To run the program, simply type "PC-AR".  If you want to
specify a drive and path for your data, add the drive and path
description after the program name.  i.e. type "PC-AR B:" to use
the B drive for data files.

     A menu is then displayed for operator selection:

          Enter or Change Sales Codes
          Enter or Change Customers
          Enter or Change Charges & Payments
          Print Mailing Labels
          Print Charges & Payments Listing
          Print Accounts Receivable Ledger
          Print Statements
          Print Sales Summary
          Print Customer Activity Report
          Start a New Month
          Print Customer Listing
          Save Data and End

     PC-AR is fast because it works with data in random access
memory, but the capacity is limited by available memory.
Available memory is shared by the data.  With more customers on
file, fewer charges and payments can be entered and vice-versa.
PC-AR allows a maximum of 2000 customers and 4000 charges and
payments per month with, 512k of memory.  With 256k, the
capacity is reduced to about 200 customers and 200 charges and
payments.

     Each time the menu is displayed, the number of charges and
payments that can be added is printed at the bottom of the
screen.  The number may be limited by either disk space or
memory available, and is subject to a maximum of 4000.  The
number of customers that can be added can be obtained by
dividing the number by 6.

     Since a power interruption results in loosing all the data
currently entered into the program, you should occasionally save
your data back to the disk.  This is done by selecting End
Processing from the menu.  The current data is saved to the
disk, then you are asked "Do you want to end ?".  Answer with an
"N" and you may resume processing.


THE PROCESSING CYCLE

     Accounting is done on a monthly cycle.  At the end of each
month, all charges are added to the customer's balance, and all
payments are deducted from the customer's balance.  The new
balances are used as the starting balances for the next month.

     Each time the program is run, all customer data is loaded
into memory.  Also, any charges or payments entered for the
period are loaded into memory.  You may also have the program
automatically enter a fixed billing amount and late charges for
each customer.  When all of the charges and payments for the
current month have been entered, begin printing reports.
Reports may be printed in any order, and as often as desired.
If you discover an error in any of the reports, you may correct
the problem and reprint the report.  At any time, you can stop
processing by choosing the End Processing selection from the
menu.

     The last step in processing is to apply the charges and
payments to customer balances.  This is done by choosing the
Start a New Month selection on the menu.   This selection does
three things:

1) Ages the customer balances.  All current due amounts become
   30 day due, all 30 day balances become 60 day, etc.

2) Deducts the payments from the customers balance due, starting
   with  90 day and proceeding to current due.

3) Adds the charges to the current balance.  You may then
   proceed with the next month.


ENTER OR CHANGE SALES CODES

     In addition to being an accounts receivable program, PC-AR
is also a sales analysis program.  Each charge or payment is
posted to a sales code.  The Enter or Change Sales Descriptions
selection allows you to enter up to 200 of these sales codes and
their corresponding descriptions.  The sales description is also
printed on the various reports, including the statement.

     Enter a three character sales code (alphabetic or numeric
characters are allowed), and up to 21 characters for a
description.  If you enter a dollar value for each sales code,
the value is entered automatically each time you enter the sales
code.  For most applications, the amount should be zero.

     You may add new sales descriptions, codes and amounts at
any time, but don't change or delete sales codes once charges or
payments have been entered.  Wait until the charges and payments
have been applied to customer accounts, and you are ready to
start a new month, before deleting or changing sales codes.

     At least one of the sales codes, and it's corresponding
description should be for payments on account.  Payments
received from customers should then be posted to this code, as a
negative amount, using the minus <-> key instead of the enter
key.

     If you plan to charge late charges or interest, you should
enter a sales code for this purpose.


ENTER OR CHANGE CUSTOMERS

     Customer information is entered and changed using this
     selection from the menu.  Enter the following information
     for each customer:

     Customer name - Two lines of 31 characters each are
     available.

     Customer Code - This is a ten character code used to sort
     customers, and also to post charges and payments to the
     customers account.  In most cases, you want to enter the
     customers last name, followed by as much of the first name
     as will fit in the remaining characters.  For instance, if
     the customer's name is Jerry Medlin, the customer code
     would be MEDLINJERR.  Notice all capital letters are used.
     If you enter lower case letters, they are changed to upper
     case automatically.  Also, notice no spaces are included.
     The program will prevent you from entering a previously
     used customer code.

     Street Address - Up to 31 characters for the street
     address.

     City State & Zip - Up to 31 characters for the city, state
     and zip code.

     Telephone - Up to 12 characters for the telephone number
     and assorted dashes.

     Late Charge % - Enter the desired late charge for this
     customer as a percentage.  If you are on a monthly cycle
     and you wish to charge an 18% annual rate for balances
     overdue, you would enter 1.5 (18 divided by 12 months.).
     If you don't want to charge late fees to this customer,
     press <Enter> to enter a zero.

     Auto Bill Amount - Dollar amounts entered here may be
     posted to a customers account automatically each month.

     Balances Due - You may enter the current balance, the 30
     day balance due, the 60 day balance due, and the 90 day
     balance due.  For new customers with no opening balances,
     press <Enter> to enter zero.

     Pressing the Escape key during entry takes you back to the
previous field.  Pressing the Escape key at the first name entry
takes you to the command mode.  The command mode allows you to
scroll up and down through the customer names, delete customers,
change customer information and do a quick check on the balances
due for all customers.  Pressing the Escape key from command
mode takes you back to the menu.

     The acceptable commands at any point are printed at the
bottom of the screen.


ENTER OR CHANGE CHARGES AND PAYMENTS

     This selection allows you to enter charges and payments for
the current month.  Charge amounts are entered as positive
numbers using the plus <+> or enter key and payments are entered
as negative numbers using the minus <-> key (enter the number,
then press the minus key).

     Before any charges and payments can be posted, you must
have at least one sales description entered, so you have a sales
code to post to.  The following information is entered for each
charge or payment:

     Customer Code - The 10 character code for each customer is
     used to post a charge or payment.  Pressing <Enter> at the
     beginning enters the previous customer code.  As you enter
     a customer code, all of the possible matching customer
     codes are displayed at the bottom.  You need enter only as
     much of the customer code as necessary to distinguish it
     from any other code.  With each additional character
     entered, the list shrinks.  Pressing return at any time,
     accepts the customer code at the top of the list.  The
     customers name is then printed at the bottom of the screen
     so you can be sure you are posting to the correct customer
     account.

     Date - Enter the date of the charge or payment as in MODA
     form.  The date of June fourth is entered 0604, with no
     dash or slash.

     Invoice number - Up to 12 characters for the invoice
     number.  Alphabetic characters are allowed.  Pressing the
     plus <+> key adds one to the previous invoice number, and
     clears the invoice total shown at the top of the screen.
     Pressing <Enter> gives you the same invoice number as the
     previous line, and does not change the invoice total.

     Sales Code - Enter one of the sales codes.  Sales codes and
     their corresponding descriptions should be setup using the
     Enter or Change Sales Descriptions selection of the menu.
     The possible sales codes and descriptions will be displayed
     at the bottom of the screen as you enter the number.
     Pressing <Enter> at the beginning, defaults to the sales
     code for the previous entry.

     Amount - Enter the amount of the charge or payment.
     Payments should be entered as a negative number.  A
     negative number is entered by using the minus (-) key
     instead of the Enter key after the number is typed in.

     Pressing the <Enter> key on any entry except the amount,
defaults to the previous value.  This allows you to make
multiple entries for an invoice with the same customer, date and
invoice number.  Pressing the plus <+> key for the invoice
number increments the previous number by one.

     Two numbers are printed at the top right of the screen.
The bottom number of the two numbers is the net total of all the
entries entered this month.  Use this number to check your input
data.  The top number is the total for the current invoice.
This total is reset to zero each time you enter a new invoice
number, and should be checked against the invoice total.

      Pressing the Escape key during entry takes you back to the
previous field.  Pressing the Escape key at the first entry
position takes you to the command mode.  The command mode allows
you to scroll up and down through the entries, delete entries
and change entries.

     From the command mode, you may press the <A> Auto Bill key
to automatically post the amount entered for each customer, as
an auto bill amount.  You are asked to enter a date and invoice
number for the automatic postings.  If you enter an amount other
than zero, an invoice is created for EVERY customer for that
amount.

     Pressing the <L> Late Charges key allows you to enter the
late charges for all customers.

     Pressing the Escape key from command mode takes you back to
the menu.  All the available commands are printed at the bottom
of the screen, and are chosen by a single keystroke.


ENTERING LATE CHARGES

     PC-AR will calculate and enter late charges for customers
who have not paid their previous month's balance due.  Before
printing reports, select the <L> Late Charges selection from
ENTER OR CHANGE CHARGES AND PAYMENTS.  The late charge
percentage entered for each customer is multiplied by the unpaid
balance carried over from last month, and entered as a
transaction to the sales code of your choice.  If you enter an
amount, that amount is used as a minimum late charge.


PRINTING REPORTS

     The first time you choose a printed report from the menu,
you are asked to enter a report date.  This date is used on all
reports.  If you want to change the report date, end processing
and start over; otherwise the same report date is used on all
reports printed during a posting session.

     On some reports, before you start printing, you are asked
to enter beginning and ending customer code.  Press the <Enter>
key to start at the first customer.  Press <Enter> again to
print to the last customer.  This feature allows you to print
partial reports, and is handy when your printer eats the 598th
of 600 statements.

     When printing more than 20 statements or mailing labels,
you are asked if you want to sort the customers by zip code.  If
you answer Y (yes), the statements or mailing labels are printed
in zip code order.  This allows you to take advantage of the
cheaper bulk mailing rates.

     Next, you are asked to choose if you want to print the
report to the printer <Enter>, to the screen <S> or to a file
<F>.  If you choose to print to a file, you are asked for a file
name.  The report is then saved as an ASCII file.  These files
are not readable by PC-AR, but can be viewed and changed with a
text editor; and used by other programs that can read ASCII
files.  The report is printed to a file exactly as it is printed
to a printer.  If you use LPT2 for a file name, the report is
printed to your second line printer.


PRINT MAILING LABELS

     As long as you have all this customer information on your
computer, you might as well use it to print mailing labels.  You
can print labels for all the customers, or only one customer,
and you can sort them by zip code, if you wish.  Labels are
printed on standard peel off labels, with one inch spacing
between labels.  To align the printer, use the selection process
to print a single label.


PRINT CHARGES & PAYMENTS LISTING

     To provide an adequate audit trail, this report must be
printed and retained, before closing out the month.  It lists
all the charges and payments entered for the month, and the
total of charges and payments.

     You are asked to enter a starting and ending invoice date.
Pressing the <Enter> key twice defaults to the first and last
date, and all invoices for the period is printed.  You can use
this date feature to print only the invoices entered for a
single day, or a group of days.


PRINT ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE LEDGER

     This report prints each customer's opening balance, all
charges and payments for that customer, any late charges added
and the closing balance.  Customers with no activity and no
opening or closing balances are skipped.  The report should be
printed and retained at the end of each month.  Since PC-AR is a
"balance forward" accounts receivable program, the Accounts
Receivable Ledger is your best source of information, several
months from now, on how a customers balance got that way.


PRINT STATEMENTS

Customer statements are printed on a common statement form from
New England Business Services (NEBS).  The form can be ordered
pre printed, with your company name and address, by calling NEBS
at 800-388-3810.  The form number is 9060, and the mail code
number is 95111.

     If you don't want to use forms preprinted with your name
and return address, you may have the program print your name and
address on blank forms.  To do this requires the program
ARCONFIG which is available to all registered users of PC-AR.
The ARCONFIG program allows you to enter your company name and
address, which will print on plain statement forms or on plain 8
1/2 by 11 paper.

      To test statement alignment, use the start print feature
to print a single statement, then adjust the alignment
accordingly.


PRINT SALES SUMMARY

     This is a listing of all charges and payments by sales
category, followed by a one page listing of total sales by
category.  If you choose, you can omit the detailed listing, but
you should print it at the end of the month for audit trail
purposes.

     You are asked to enter a starting and ending invoice date.
Pressing the <Enter> key twice defaults to the first and last
dates used, and all invoices for the period are printed.  You
can use this date feature to print a daily summary of sales.  By
assigning separate sales codes for paid by check, paid by cash
and paid by credit card, you can even print a list of checks and
to go with your bank deposit for the day.


PRINT CUSTOMER ACTIVITY REPORT

      The Customer Activity Report summarizes all the
transactions posted to a customers account for the past 6
months.  It looks at current transactions and the transaction
files on your disk named AR1.INV, AR2.INV, AR3.INV, AR4.INV,
AR5.INV and AR6.INV.  It then prints all the transactions made
to the selected customer code.


START A NEW MONTH

      When you have printed all the reports you need and all is
in order, you can start the next month.  Important - Do not
start a new month until all reports, including monthly
statements, have been printed!


     All charges, payments and late charges are applied to
customer balances. The customers balances are updated to agree
with the balances shown on the statements, and the Accounts
Receivable Ledger.  The charges and payments are saved, so later
you may review all the transactions posted to an account for the
past six months using the Print Customer Activity Report
selection of the menu.


PRINT CUSTOMER LISTING

     This report is a printout of all customer information on
file including aging information.  The balances shown do not
reflect any charges or payments made since the last month ended.
Only the Start a New Month selection actually changes customer
balances.

     You may choose to omit customer addresses, and to omit
customers with no activity, when you print this report.


EXPORT CUSTOMER DATA

     This selection creates a file on the logged drive and
subdirectory called PC-AR.PRN, which can be read by programs
like Lotus 123 and Reflex.  Text data in the customer file is
surrounded by quotation marks.  You can then read the data into
Lotus 123 by using the /File/Import/Numbers command.  Be sure no
names or addresses in your customer file contain quotation
marks, before trying to export customer data.


SAVE DATA AND END

     When processing is completed, exit the program using this
selection.   Do not end processing by turning off the computer,
because you lose any data entered since the last save operation.
If you  want to save the current data to the disk without
ending, you may answer "N" to the question "Do you want to end
processing?", and you are returned to the menu.


USING THE CONFIGURATION PROGRAM

     The configuration program (ARCONFIG.EXE) is provided free
to all registered users.  It allows you to change certain
features of PC-AR.  The ARCONFIG.EXE program and the main
program (PC-AR.EXE) should both be on the same disk drive when
you configure your copy of PC-AR.  Run the program by typing
ARCONFIG at the Dos prompt.  Use the up and down arrows to move
the pointer, and then press <C> to change an item.  You are
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).  The display is instantly updated as you enter the
     new colors.

     Laser Printer? - You may also change the way PC-AR starts a
     new page.  Usually, PC-AR 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-AR starts a new
     page by issuing a form feed command.  This works on most
     other printers too, but requires you to set the top of
     form, before you start printing.

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

     Months to Save - The PC-AR program saves charges and
     payments on your data disk for later review with the
     Customer Activity Report.   Normally, the paid invoices for
     the previous six months are saved.  You may modify this
     number to be anywhere from zero to 16 months.  Remember,
     the more month's data you save, the more room you need on
     the data disk, and the more time it takes to review a
     vendor's activity.

     Plain Paper Statement - If you change this to a "Y",
     statements can be printed on plain 8 1/2 x 11 paper.  A "N"
     answer prints on pre printed 6 1/2 x 7 forms.  The default
     setting is "N".

     Statement Heading - If your company name and address is not
     pre printed on the statement forms, you may enter up to 5
     lines for a statement heading.

     Statement Footer Message - You can enter a message to be
     printed at the bottom of the statement form.  This is a
     good place to enter your payment terms, or a short
     advertising message.

     Print Ageing on Statements - Changing this from Y to N
     prevents the 30, 60, 90 day aging information from being
     printed on the statements.

     Invoice Details on Statements - Changing this from a Y to a
     N causes only the totals for each invoice to be printed on
     the statements.  This allows you to have a detailed
     breakdown of sales on the sales summary, but prints only
     invoice totals on the statements.  All adjacent entries
     with the same invoice number are totaled on the statement
     with "INVOICE #" for a description.  For this option to
     work properly, multiple entries with the same invoice
     number, must be together in the charges and payments
     listing.  It is a good idea to sort by Invoice number
     before printing the statements.

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


DATA FILES

     Data files are created automatically by PC-AR.  If you wish
to back up data files only, copy these files to another disk
using the DOS copy or BACKUP command.

PC-AR.CUS      Customer data file with balances.
PC-AR.INV      Current period payments and charges.
PC-AR.DES      Sales codes and descriptions.
AR1.INV, AR2.INV, AR3.INV, etc. contain the previous period
payments and charges.  AR1.INV is the most recent.


HELPFUL HINTS

     The escape key is always used to go back to the previous
operation.  From anywhere in the program, if you continue to
press the escape key, you will eventually return to the main
menu.

     When printing reports, you may pause the printing by
pressing any key.  To resume printing, press any key again.  To
quit printing, press the escape key after pausing.

     Each customer must have a unique customer code for posting.
If you use numbers, the program won't object, if the numbers are
all the same length.  Customer number 1 should be entered as
00001, for instance.  But, you should at least try the method
suggested earlier in the manual.  Use a customer code made up of
the customers last name plus as much of the first name as the 10
character limit allows.  Jane Smith would then have a code of
SMITHJANE (Notice there are no spaces).  This method allows
rapid posting of invoices, without looking up customer numbers.
The searching method allows you to quickly examine the codes for
all of the Smiths, by typing SMITH when asked for a code.

     The first 6 times you start a new month, 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.


CONVERTING DATA FROM EARLIER VERSIONS

     If you have been using version 3.7 or higher, no conversion
is necessary.

     If you are changing from a version of PC-AR beginning with
2 (a very old version) you need to convert your customer data.
A program called CONVERT.COM is available for this purpose and
is free to all registered users.  Run the program and follow the
directions on the screen.

     If you have been using a version prior to 3.7, you must
rename your earlier charges and payments files for use with this
program.  Contact us to receive CONVERT.COM or for instructions
on how to rename your earlier data files.

     Starting with Version 3.9, late charges are handled the
same as any other charge or payment.  You must enter a sales
code to receive the late charges and, each month, you must
choose the <L> Late Charges option to calculate and enter late
charges.  This method requires only a few seconds per month to
enter the late charges, and provides increased flexibility and
improved audit trail.

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