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CheckMate-GL (tm) -- Introductory User's Guide Version 1.70A Released July 28, 1988 Copyright 1987, 88 by Custom Technologies All Rights Reserved 1-800-541-6234 (Orders Only) (719) 282-0402 (Support) Warranty and License Agreement CheckMate-GL (tm) is a trademark of Custom Technologies. - Warranty CheckMate-GL, and this manual, are provided AS IS without any warranty, expressed or implied, including but not limited to fitness for a particular purpose. CUSTOM TECHNOLOGIES SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES. IN NO EVENT SHALL CUSTOM TECHNOLOGIES BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFIT OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR OTHER DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THIS PRODUCT. - License The CheckMate-GL software is the property of Custom Technologies. You are granted a limited license to use this software for evaluation purposes. If you wish to continue using CheckMate-GL after evaluation, you must register your copy. CheckMate-GL may not be used on a continuous basis in any location (home, business, school, or governmental agency) without registering. If you wish to use CheckMate-GL in multiple locations concurrently, you should register one copy for each location. You are free to make as many copies as you wish and may distribute CheckMate-GL freely (in its original form, including documentation). Recipients of copies you make are granted a limited license to use CheckMate-GL on a trial and evaluation basis. If the recipient wishes to use CheckMate-GL on a continuous basis, he should register his copy. You may not sell or ask any consideration for this product. SIGs and BBSs may ask a nominal fee to cover their copying and distribution costs. OEMs wishing to bundle CheckMate-GL with other products should contact Custom Technologies for details. This manual may be reproduced and distributed only in conjunction with CheckMate-GL, and may not be used for any other purpose without the expressed written consent of Custom Technologies. Table of Contents Introduction 0.1 Greetings.................................................I-1 0.2 The CheckMate Concept.....................................I-1 0.3 Features..................................................I-1 0.4 Shareware Support.........................................I-2 0.5 Other Products............................................I-2 Chapter 1: Installing CheckMate-GL 1.1 Hardware Requirements.....................................1-1 1.2 Disk Operating System.....................................1-1 1.3 File Paths................................................1-1 1.4 Printer Installation......................................1-1 Chapter 2: Things You Need to Know 2.1 The Bottom Line...........................................2-1 2.2 The Pull-Down Menu System.................................2-1 2.3 The Help System...........................................2-1 2.4 Pop-up Chart of Accounts..................................2-1 2.5 Pop-up Calculator.........................................2-2 2.6 Date Formats..............................................2-2 2.7 Editing within CheckMate-GL...............................2-2 2.8 Searching and Filtering the Database......................2-3 2.9 Printing Reports..........................................2-3 2.10 Backing Up Your Data......................................2-4 2.11 Quick-Look Reports........................................2-4 Chapter 3: Getting Started 3.1 Setting Up Your Chart of Accounts.........................3-1 3.2 General Setup.............................................3-4 3.3 Company Information.......................................3-4 3.4 Generating Custom Reports.................................3-4 3.5 CheckMate Interface.......................................3-5 3.6 Setting Up Your Standard Transactions.....................3-6 Chapter 4: Daily Activity 4.1 Entering Daily Journal Transactions.......................4-1 4.2 Expensing Checks and other CheckMate Transactions.........4-2 4.3 Editing Journal Transactions..............................4-3 Chapter 5: End-of-Month Routines 5.1 Generating Pre-Post Reports...............................5-1 5.2 Posting Journal Transactions to the General Ledger........5-1 5.3 Generating After-Post Reports.............................5-2 Chapter 6: End-of-Year Routines 6.1 Generating End-of-Year Reports............................6-1 6.2 Closing Revenue and Expense Accounts and Transferring Balances.....................................6-1 Appendix A: An Accounting Primer....................................A-1 Appendix B: Sample Chart of Accounts................................B-1 Appendix C: Defining and Modifying Custom Reports...................C-1 Appendix D: Technical Description...................................D-1 Introduction 0.1 Greetings Welcome to CheckMate-GL, our full-powered, multiple entry general ledger package designed to integrate with CheckMate (tm), our popular personal financial system. CheckMate-GL is packed with features and was created to be the friendliest and easiest to use accounting system on the market... period. The business user knows that proper accounting is a must for survival and success. The home user who simply wants to track his budget and expenses will find that true accounting is not beyond his reach after all! CheckMate-GL operates on the principles of classical accounting. We have made no compromises nor have we developed a "bastard" and non- standard system of budgets and categories. We realize that "debits", "credits", "double entries" and the like are subjects that are unfamiliar to most non-accountant users. What we have done with CheckMate-GL is implement these concepts into a slick, user-friendly environment. If you are not interested in tracking your expenses and revenues completely, then CheckMate-GL is overkill for you, and you should stick to using CheckMate alone. If you manage a business, or if you are a personal user with a desire for total control over your financial status, CheckMate-GL will help you harness all the power of true accounting. If you are unfamiliar with accounting principles, look at appendix A (a short primer to help you get started). 0.2 The CheckMate Concept CheckMate-GL and CheckMate are each stand-alone programs. We recommend that you use them together, however. The two programs have a unique interface. CheckMate becomes, in effect, a cash disbursments journal for CheckMate-GL. What is special is that you can operate your day to day finances with CheckMate, and not worry about accounting or expensing your checks except at specific times (once a week, for instance). We surveyed local small businesses and home users, and determined that this is a natural and comfortable way to operate. We call this "idea" the "CheckMate Concept." Another advantage to this concept is that you can isolate your day to day work and personnel from the more critical accounting data. Only yourself, or your accounting professional need have access to CheckMate-GL, while your secretary or clerks interact only with CheckMate. Home users will discover that you need only run CheckMate- GL once a week or so and can quickly update your records. You won't have to worry about continually struggling with accounting every time you want to write a check! 0.3 Features - Uses intuitive pull-down and pop-up menu system - Fully implemented "classical" general ledger system for both home and business use - Integrates with CheckMate (tm) Personal Financial Software - Supports up to 256 accounts simultaneously - Powerful search and filter routines available for all Introduction I-1 databases and reports - Unique "Quick-Look" reports (including pre-posting) - Flexible pre-defined reports with output flow control - Unique and powerful "custom" report command language for the power user with automatic generation for the novice - Fully editable journal entries allowing pen and ink corrections (no reverse entries!) prior to posting - Allows 50 predefined journal transactions that can be called up at a keystroke - Pop-up chart of accounts for quick reference - Pop-up accountant's calculator with rolling tape - Includes extensive, context sensitive on-line help We suggest that you make good use of the HELP system by pressing the <F1> key (note that some help screens have multiple pages, use <PgUp> and <PgDn> to move back and forth through the message). We hope you enjoy CheckMate-GL! Tim Bougan President, Custom Technologies 0.4 Shareware Support CheckMate-GL, like many other fine "shareware" products, has been released by its authors to the public for evaluation. We allow and encourage free copying and distribution of the program (in its un- altered original form). We are committed to supporting and improving CheckMate-GL, as well as developing additional products. Ifyou find CheckMate-GL useful, you should register your copy. The shareware concept is meant to provide a full working copy to the user for evaluation, and NOT to give away the author's hard work. If you choose not to register, then erase or pass your copy on to someone else. You can register by sending $39.95 (plus $3 shipping and handling). For registering you will be placed on our mailing list and will receive a complete, illustrated User's Guide with a comprehensive discussion of the use and functions of CheckMate-GL. The manual includes documentation on writing and customizing report definitions and has special appendices. Make checks payable to Custom Technologies. Colorado residents please add 3% sales tax. Send your registration and all other correspondence to: Custom Technologies PO Box 62118 Colorado Springs, CO 80962-2118 (719) 282-0402 1-800-541-6234 (Orders Only) MasterCard, VISA, COD Accepted Introduction I-2 0.5 Other Products We have also released CheckMate... a powerful financial management program for home and small business. CheckMate integrates with CheckMate-GL to become a cash disbursments journal. CheckMate is designed to help you keep an accurate track of your personal financial activity... no more will you have to "guess" at your balance, or labor furiously to make your checkbook match your bank statement. CheckMate will record and maintain your transactions, with full editing capabilities at your fingertips. It will sort and print reports, search for selected items, help you reconcile your statements, and even print your checks for you. Your balances are automatically updated and reported, and your records are accurate to the penny... guaranteed! -- Features - Uses intuitive pull-down menu system - Supports up to eight accounts simultaneously (total number of accounts is limited only by disk space) - Supports Checking and Savings accounts - Up to 32,767 transactions may be active per account - Prints reports in standard format or in Borland Intl's Traveling SideKick (tm) format - Reports and Checks may be printed in PICA, ELITE or CONDENSED print - Transactions may be edited or printed and search criteria may be specified on ANY field in the transaction - Check printer supports continuous feed AND standard checks (YOU define the check printing in the Check Set-Up form and can use your own checks!) - Allows 100 predefined transactions that can be called up at a keystroke (such as mortgage payments, utility bills, etc) - Provides a financial calculator for quick figures on loans, regular deposit accounts, and compounding - Helps you reconcile your accounts when your statements arrive, and prints a complete report of outstanding transactions - Includes extensive, context sensitive on-line help You can order CheckMate by sending $29.95 plus $3 shipping and handling. Introduction I-3 Chapter 1 -- Installing CheckMate-GL 1.1 Hardware Requirements CheckMate-GL will run on an IBM PC/XT/AT/jr (or compatible) with at least 256K of memory and 2 DSDD floppy disk drives. It supports all IBM compatible displays including the EGA. 1.2 Disk Operating System CheckMate-GL supports (and requires) DOS 2.0 or above. Also, since CheckMate-GL maintains and manipulates several files simultaneously, you must make provisions to insure that DOS is properly configured. You should have a file called "CONFIG.SYS" on your boot disk. This file feeds key information and requirements to DOS (see your DOS Reference Guide). We recommend the following entries in your CONFIG.SYS file: FILES=20 BUFFERS=12 If you do not have a CONFIG.SYS file or have not declared an adequate number of file handles, CheckMate-GL will abort when you try to run it and give an error message (I/O error 243). 1.3 File Paths You can specify the files paths for which CheckMate-GL will look for its overlay and data files with CMGLINST.COM. If you are using a hard disk, you can put CheckMate-GL's program and overlay files in one directory and its data files in another. If you include the program file path in a DOS "PATH", you can run CheckMate-GL from any drive or directory. If you are using a floppy disk system, you should put you data files on drive B and your program files on drive A. If you are using floppies but have a good sized RAM disk, CheckMate-GL's performance will increase significantly if you copy its program files to the RAM disk. Run CMGLINST (make sure that CMGL.COM is in the default directory first) and set up your paths. CMGLINST will first display the current default paths and then prompt you to enter new ones. In order to save disk space, CMGLINST is a simple program and does not include CheckMate-GL's editing features. Note that entering only a <CR> at the prompts will cause CMGLINST to clear the file paths (and CheckMate-GL will use the default directories when run). Before you do run CheckMate-GL, make sure that the paths you selected are valid (you may need to create them). Chapter 1 1-1 1.4 Printer Installation The "printer Setup" function (under the "Setup" menu) allows you to designate five printer control strings. It is important to note that any changes made here are temporary unless you use <F10> to write the changes to disk. Saving the changes requires the presence of CMGL.COM on the program file path, and you must not change the name of the file! The printer control codes can be found in your printer manual. You have five available strings that you can enter. The format for entry is \<decimal code>\<decimal code>\.... The back-slashes delimit the codes. Below is an example: \27\85 This string represents an <ESC> 'U'. (That's an escape-capital- U). This is a popular means of defining printer codes. CheckMate-GL comes pre-installed for an IBM graphics printer. The PICA, ELITE, and CONDENSED Pitch strings should configure your printer to the correct pitch. The Printer Setup and Exit strings are optional and provided for your convenience. The Printer Setup and Exit strings are used by CheckMate-GL when printing any report (both pre-defined and custom). The PICA, ELITE, and CONDENSED strings can only be used within the custom reports. Refer to appendix C for a discussion on how to use these strings to configure your reports to your liking. Chapter 1 1-2 Chapter 2 -- Things You Need to Know This section discusses some of the "basics" of CheckMate-GL's operation. 2.1 The Bottom Line As you run CheckMate-GL, the bottom line of the screen summerizes the functions that are available to you. It is always present, and should speed your use of the program as you become familiar with its many capabilities. Most of CheckMate-GL's functions are activated by the PC's function keys. The bottom line identifies the operation of these keys (and others). 2.2 The Pull-Down Menu System CheckMate-GL uses the popular "pull-down" menu system as its primary user interface. After your start CheckMate-GL, you will see a row of four "choices" for you to choose from. You may select any of the choices in one of two ways: first, by moving the highlighted bar to the item of your choice (using the left or right arrow keys) and then pressing "return" (which we will also refer to as <CR>), or, by pressing the starting letter of your choosing. Either method will instantly produce a secondary menu (with a bar that moves up and down instead of left to right). Select individual functions in the same manner. 2.3 The Help System CheckMate-GL includes built in on-line help. Just press <F1> at any time while running CheckMate-GL for instant help. Some help screens have multiple pages, so use <PgDn> and <PgUp> to move through the message. The help screens are contained in the file "CMGL.HLP" and this file must be present in the program file path at runtime. The program file path is set with CMGLINST.COM. 2.4 Pop-Up Chart of Accounts Accounting systems typically work with numbered accounts, and in most instances, you will need to use an account's NUMBER instead of its name. This can involve constantly referring to a print-out of your chart, especially for accounts that you do not use often. CheckMate-GL addresses this problem by providing a "pop-up" chart of accounts. Just press <F2> anytime while in CheckMate-GL and your accounts and account numbers will appear. You can quickly scroll through the chart with the arrow keys and the <PgDn> and <PgUp> keys. For you WordStar (tm) users, ^C and ^R will also page up and down through the display. When you have found the account that you were looking for, press <ESC> to return to CheckMate-GL. Chapter 2 - Things You Need to Know 2-1 2.5 Pop-Up Calculator Strictly for your convenience, we have implemented an accountant's style calculator inside of CheckMate-GL. Pressing <F3> anytime will pop the calculator up. The calculator has a rolling tape to help you keep track of your math, and you can even direct the output to the printer! When using the calculator, be careful to notice when the calculator expects an operation and when it expects a number. The data entry field will be reverse video when the calculator is expecting a number. Otherwise, an intermediate result is displayed and any numbers entered will be rejected. In any case, pressing 'C' (for clear) will zero the total and set the calculator up to accept a number. If you want to use the printer, make sure that it is ready before you press 'P'. If it is not, DOS will report a critical error. 2.6 Date Formats One of the most annoying aspects of many programs is rigid data entry, especially DATES. We built a "free-format" date entry into CheckMate-GL. Whenever CheckMate-GL calls for a date to be entered, you can key it in almost any fashion you choose. Dates like 7-12-84, 3/5/86, 12 Sept 82, and so forth are all valid. So long as you include some delimiter between the month, the day, and the year CheckMate-GL should figure out what you mean. A delimiter can be a space, a dash, a slash, or virtually any non-number or non-letter. You can even leave all or part of the date out, and CheckMate-GL will use defaults (the DOS date). 2.7 Editing within CheckMate-GL All data entry fields within CheckMate-GL are fully "editable." The following control-key combinations are defined within CheckMate-GL: Control Key Alternate Key Function ----------- ------------- ----------------------- Control-D right-arrow move one character right Control-S left-arrow move one character left Control-F move one word right Control-A move one word left Control-E up-arrow move up one field Control-X down-arrow move down one field Control-G DEL delete character at cursor Control-T delete word right Control-K delete field right Control-Y delete entire field Control-H BACKSPACE delete character left INS toggle INSERT/OVERWRITE Chapter 2 - Things You Need to Know 2-2 Notice that the control sequences closely resemble those of MicroPro's WordStar (tm). We chose these combinations because of WordStar's popularity. For your convenience we have also imple-mented the PC's standard editing keys as alternatives. 2.8 Searching and Filtering the Databases Throughout CheckMate-GL, you will have the ability to examine and edit the various databases. In every instance, you will have a powerful search function available to help you quickly locate items of interest. Simply press <F5> while editing any of the files and a "search window" will appear. From this window you can specify information that will be used as a "pattern" to match against the available data. Once you have set the criteria, you can then "filter" the data so that only the item or items that you are interested in will be accessible. If you use CheckMate, this will be a familiar feature. It is so useful that we have incorporated it wherever possible inside of CheckMate-GL. After you have entered the criteria that you want to match, you have two options. Pressing <F5> will force an EXACT match. That means that "text" strings must match the actual records exactly. (Upper or lower case is NOT important). If you desire a more powerful and flexible search, press <F6> instead. In this case, the text string need not be complete but can match if it appears ANYWHERE in the field. For instance, the word "bat" will match only the word "bat" if you press <F5>, but will match "bat cave", "battle", or "combatant" if you choose <F6>. Any field that you leave blank is a wildcard and matches anything. You can clear all the fields by pressing <F9>. Many of the reports also allow you to "filter" your data. You can use this feature, for instance, to separate specific journals out of your general journal. Simply specify the account numbers that you are interested in and let CheckMate-GL do the work! 2.9 Printing Reports The ability to produce reports is the reason we expend the effort to maintain an accounting system in the first place. We have put together a powerful report package and include a lot of options. This section discusses some features common to the various printable reports available in CheckMate-GL. Each report allows you to enter two key pieces of data that will be printed on the report itself. The first is the report date. This date is primarily for your reference, but as you will see, it can be significant on certain "custom" reports. The date can be entered "free-format" (as discussed above). Just pressing <CR> here will cause the report to use the default date. The next piece of information that you can enter is a report title. Like the date, this title will be printed at the top of every page in the report. Most reports will already have a "default" title, but you can modify it directly at print time. If you press <F4> while in the print report form, a menu will appear with three choices. This menu will let you select which device Chapter 2 - Things You Need to Know 2-3 you want to direct your output to. You may send the report to the screen, the printer, or a disk file. If you choose the screen or the printer, you may also specify whether you want to "pause" between pages (to change paper or to view the screen). If you choose a file, you must enter a valid file name. CheckMate-GL fully supports the DOS 2.0 and above directory structure and you may indicate a path name with the file name. If the file already exists, CheckMate-GL will overwrite it, so be careful! While the report is printing, you can pause output at anytime with the space bar (<SPACE BAR>). Once paused, you can continue to print by pressing <CR>. Or, pressing the <SPACE BAR> again will cause a single line to print. You can abort printing at any time by pressing <ESC>. NOTE: Many printers have memory buffers, and you may not be able to pause or abort the printing immediately. The pausing feature will be particularly useful when printing to the screen. 2.10 Backing Up Your Data All of the data files in an accounting system are related to the other files in the system. In some cases, this relationship is critical. We recommend that when you back up your data files, you back up ALL of your data files, even your report definitions. That way you can be assured of consistent backups in case you need to restore your data from your backup files. 2.11 Quick-Look Reports CheckMate-GL includes another unique and useful feature... the ability to take a "quick-look" at the two most critical accounting reports. Under the "Reports" menu, you will see options for two "quick" reports, a "quick Balance sheet" and a "quick P/L statement". Selecting either one of these options will bring up another menu with four additional options. These choices give you a chance to look at data from four different points of view. As you will see later in this manual, your reports are generally classified as either "pre-post" or "after-post". The pre-post reports operate only on the journal entries, while the after-post reports reflect the status of the ledger only. The quick reports, however, give you the opportunity to "merge" the two. In effect, you can do a "pre-posting" of your journal entries (without ACTUALLY posting) to get a clearer idea of your current and up-to-date financial status. The four options are listed and described below: 1) Current Month: reports on UNPOSTED transactions for the current month (DOS date) only 2) Specific Month: reports on POSTED transactions only (for the month you specify) 3) Year to Current Month: reports on the total balances of accounts up to the current month (POSTED transactions only) 4) Year to Date: reports on ALL available data, posted and unposted. This is the most up-to-date report available Chapter 2 - Things You Need to Know 2-4 We have included the discussion of these reports in this section because they are "extras" that are not necessary to maintain your accounting system. You may find them useful for immediate feedback, but they are NOT intended to replace the more complete and informative hard-copy reports! Chapter 2 - Things You Need to Know 2-5 Chapter 3 -- Getting Started This chapter discusses the steps you must follow to set up your accounting system under CheckMate-GL. 3.1 Setting up your Chart of Accounts 3.1.1 Philosophy Most people are anxious to set a new piece of software to use at once. With accounting systems, however, it is necessary to generate a Chart of Accounts before you can input data. You need to resist the urge to breeze through this step, since a well thought out chart of accounts is ESSENTIAL to successful accounting. We have provided sample charts (for both home and small business) to help you get running as quickly as possible. You can use these samples as guides, or you may simply modify them to meet your needs. If you are unfamiliar with what a chart of accounts is, refer to appendix A for a brief tutorial on accounting principles. In CheckMate-GL, you may have two different types of accounts. These are SUMMARY accounts and ENTRY accounts. An ENTRY account is one in which you may post journal transactions. A SUMMARY account merely "summerizes" the balances of accounts "underneath" it, and you may NOT post transactions to such an account. The accounts that you enter will all be ENTRY accounts. The SUMMARY accounts, numbered '1' through '5', are created for you. To correctly identify which accounts must sum to higher accounts, CheckMate-GL uses a "parent-child" system. While you define your accounts, you must indicate a "parent" for each one that you create. The only accounts that will not have parents are the five predefined accounts (ASSETS, LIABILITIES, OWNER'S EQUITY, REVENUE, and EXPENSES). These accounts are at the top level, and are the "parents" to all other accounts. For instance, all of the balances from the accounts under "ASSETS" will sum together to form the total "ASSETS" balance. In most cases, an account will be the same Debit/Credit type as its PARENT. For instance, since ASSETS is a debit account, its children will most likely be debit accounts as well. (In advanced accounting, this does not have to be the case. You may, for instance, have CONTRA accounts. CheckMate-GL supports these types of accounts. See a good accounting text for details if you wish to use CONTRA accounts). CheckMate-GL will order your accounts (in your chart of accounts and on reports) by number. To have a logical order on your accounts and reports, you should adhere to the standard numbering sequence. Note that the numbers are ordered alphabetically and not sequentially. This means that the number '111' comes BEFORE the number '2', but after the number '11'. You could number your accounts as such: Chapter 3: Getting Started 3-1 Number Account Name ------ --------------------------- 1 ASSETS 10000 Bay Bank and Co. 10001 Security Federal 10010 Land 10011 Buildings 2 LIABILITIES 20000 Accounts Payable 20001 etc... The indentions are meant to illustrate the PARENT/CHILD relationship between the accounts. For style and information, all SUMMARY account names are written in all capital letters. You will find that CheckMate-GL will force you to begin each account number with the same number as its parent. This means that an all LIABILIBITY accounts must start with the number '2', for instance. This is necessary to insure proper grouping on your reports and your chart of accounts. For a more complete example see the sample chart of accounts in appendix B. 3.1.2 Generating Your Own Chart of Accounts With the above information in mind, you should now sit down with the sample chart (appendix B) and draft your own chart of accounts. Try and be as complete as possible, but you can easily add or modify the accounts later. Be careful to note whether each account should be a debit or a credit account. If you have previous accounting data, you should have that ready as well (to enter previous years' balances or budgeting data). 3.1.3 Entering Your Chart of Accounts From the main menu, select "Files". From the pull-down menu select "Chart of accts". From the pop-up menu you may select either "Enter new accounts" or "eDit existing accounts" depending on whether you are modifying existing accounts or adding new ones. 3.1.4 Entering New Accounts If you are entering new accounts, the first thing that you must enter is the account number. Remember to use the numbering scheme discussed above. If you have forgotten where you are in the sequence, press <F2> and your current chart of accounts will pop-up. CheckMate- GL will not let you save any account with a duplicate account number. Next you must specify the account's PARENT. Only level 1 accounts do not have parents, and since the level 1 accounts are created automatically, you MUST specify a valid parent (numbers '1' through '5'). After entering the parent, you need to specify whether the account carries a debit or a credit balance. Most of the time the account will have the same type balance as its parent. CheckMate-GL will default to the this type, but make sure you have this correct Chapter 3: Getting Started 3-2 before you save the account! Next, you may then enter previous years' balances and an optional budget. No changes will be written into the general ledger until you press <F10> to save the account. If you have made any critical errors in the account entry, CheckMate-GL will display an error message and abort the saving process. You may then correct the errors and re-save. SPECIAL TIP: Most people set up there accounting system after they have already started doing business. This is almost certainly the case for home users. When you entered your accounts, you could directly enter previous years' balances, but not CURRENT balances! This is necessary since CheckMate-GL must perserve the integrity of your account balances. To make these initial enteries, you should use journal transactions. The method is straight-forward... simply make a single transaction for each account that reflects its current balance. The balancing entry should be to an account under OWNER'S EQUITY. "Capital" or "Initial Capital" is a good name for this balancing account. When you have made and verified all of the initial entries, you will need to POST them to the general ledger (see section 5.2). It is also good practice to run the end-of-month reports here for a record of your initial inputs. These routines are also discussed in chapter 5. 3.1.5 Editing Existing Accounts You may edit accounts if you wish to modify one of the sample charts or if you need to correct mistakes made while entering your own accounts. All the same rules that applied for entering accounts still apply for editing them. There are some additional restrictions, however. If you have already posted some transactions to an account, then that account will have a current balance (and so will its parent, and its parent's parent, etc). There are certain items which you may not change for any account that has a current balance (since that would corrupt your books). These items are: 1) the debit/credit type 2) the account's PARENT You may modify the account's name, number, previous balances, and budget and any time. (NOTE: you may not modify the PARENT accounts AT ALL!) For these reasons, it is important that you double check your chart of accounts before you do any posting. It is especially critical for you to ensure that the debit/credit type is correct for each account. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN MODIFYING AN ACCOUNT'S NUMBER, SINCE UNPOSTED TRANSACTIONS MAKE REFERENCE TO THESE NUMBERS! If you have open transactions and change an account's number before you post them, you may lose some of the data! In practice, it is a good idea not to change account numbers after you have started using the system. As you edit accounts, you may press <F5> to bring up a search and filter window. You can use this function to quickly find the accounts you need to modify. Refer to section 2.8 (Searching and Filtering the Databases) for information on how to use this very powerful function Chapter 3: Getting Started 3-3 throughout CheckMate-GL. Also note that pressing <F7> and <F8> will let you move back and forth through your accounts. You may delete an account with <F4>. Remember that you must save the changes with <F10> before any of the changes will become permanent! 3.1.6 Printing Your Chart of Accounts You can use the "chart of Accounts" function under the "Reports" menu to print out your chart. As with all reports in CheckMate-GL, you have several options regarding where you want your report to go and can control the report output. Refer to 2.9 (Printing Reports) for more details on printing reports. The search window is available to filter your output. Press <F5> to pop it up. When you are ready to print, press <F10>. 3.2 General Setup Once you have created your chart of accounts, you are ready to proceed with the configuration of your accounting system. You will do a good bit of this under the "Setup" menu. Start with the "General setup". In this module, you will first enter the account to which you will clear all Revenue and Expense balances at the end of the accounting year. This account should be under Owner's Equity and is usually called "Retained Earnings" or "Profit/Loss". Enter the correct account number (CheckMate-GL will then display the account name). Remember to press <F10> to save your selection. You will not be able to run the End-of-Year routines until you have specified this account. The next two options are for personal preference. You may instruct CheckMate-GL to display commas in dollar values (or you may have the commas omitted). Generally, the commas make the numbers easier to read. One reason why you may want to turn them off, however, is that due to limited screen space many of the display fields are restricted to 12 characters. This is adequate to display values ranging from -999,999.99 to 9,999,999.99. For most users, this will be more than adequate. You can get another digit or two of range without the commas. The last option lets you decide between displaying negative values with minus-signs (the way most of us do it) or with parentheses (the way accountant's prefer). In order to keep the columns in line, you sacrifice one additional digit of display range while using the parentheses option. Remember that none of your selections will be permanent until you press <F10>! 3.3 Company Information In the "company Information" module you can enter data to be printed at the top of reports. You will probably want to enter your company or personal name on line 1 as that line is also displayed in the upper right corner of the CheckMate-GL screen (to remind you whose files you are working with). You may also enter address, phone numbers and slogans on the additional lines. The information will be Chapter 3: Getting Started 3-4 automatically centered at the top of the reports. Again, you must press <F10> to save your entries! 3.4 Generating Custom Reports The two basic reports produced by an accounting system are the Balance Sheet and the Profit and Loss Statement. These reports are specific to a chart of accounts and therefore will vary from user to user. CheckMate-GL has a very powerful custom report facility that will let you define and customize up to ten different reports. Unfortunately, this level of flexibility makes defining the reports somewhat difficult, even for experienced computer users. BUT DON'T WORRY! As we did with CheckMate, we are dedicated to making CheckMate-GL painless and easy to use. Toward this end, we have implemented a "generate Reports" option in the "Setup" menu. When you select this option, you will see a menu with three choices. These choices correspond to the three different reports that CheckMate-GL will let you generate automatically. They include a balance sheet and two variations of the profit and loss statement. Generating the reports is simple. First pick the report that you want to generate from the menu. Next, you will be prompted for a number between 0 and 9 (remember that you can have ten different reports). Then press <F10> and CheckMate-GL will create the report design for you! Once your reports are created, you can run them from the "Reports" menu (this is discussed in detail later in this manual). The reports generated are standard ASCII text files, and you can modify them (to summerize your data or add features). This is an advanced step (see appendix C for details). If you choose a number that is already in use, CheckMate-GL will prompt you for confirmation of your intentions. This is to prevent you from inadvertantly over-writing your reports. IMPORTANT! Your reports are generated around your chart of accounts. If you modify your chart of accounts, you should re-run this procedure to ensure that your report definitions are up-to-date! 3.5 CheckMate Interface The "Checkmate interface" module is where you give CheckMate-GL pertinent information about your checking and savings accounts. If you are using CheckMate in coordination with CheckMate-GL, you need to tell CheckMate-GL where to look for your CheckMate files and into which accounts to expense your CheckMate transactions. Start by matching your CheckMate account numbers to account numbers in your general ledger. CheckMate allows up to 8 different checking and savings accounts. They are numbered 1 through 8. For example, if your first CheckMate account is "Bay Bank", you would look at your chart of accounts and see which general ledger account you have set up as "Bay Bank". You would enter this number next to the CheckMate "Account 1." If you can not remember the account numbers, press <F2> to view your chart of accounts. Repeat this procedure for all the CheckMate accounts you wish to integrate into CheckMate-GL. After you have coordinated your CheckMate and CheckMate-GL account numbers, you need to tell CheckMate-GL about the environment you are operating in. If you are using a hard-disk (and you keep your data files on the hard disk) answer YES to the "Hard-Disk System?" Chapter 3: Getting Started 3-5 question. Then specify the directory in which CheckMate-GL should look for the CheckMate files. If you are using floppies, then answer NO to the question and specify the CheckMate Data File Path to be the same drive as your CheckMate-GL PROGRAM disk. CheckMate-GL will prompt you to switch disks at the appropriate times. It is important to note that your CheckMate-GL and your CheckMate data files MUST BE AVAILABLE TO THE SYSTEM AT THE SAME TIME! Don't forget to press <F10> to save your entries! At this point you can run CheckMate-GL on a daily basis and begin keeping accurate accounting data. You may wish to go directly to the next chapter, "Daily Activity", and begin using the system. The rest of this chapter is devoted to discussing the setup and use of "Standard Transactions" (a unique and powerful time-saving feature of CheckMate- GL). 3.6 Setting up your Standard Transactions 3.6.1 Philosophy The most tedious job in accounting is making the day to day journal transactions that reflect the cash flow of your home or business. Proper accounting procedures demand that you account for every penny that comes in or goes out... and that you make double entries to properly document the flow! Fortunately, much of the tedium can be relieved when you recognize the fact that many of the entries that you make during a month will be similar to those that you made last month. In a manner similar to CheckMate's "PayTo" menu system, you may record up to 50 "standard" journal transactions that will pop-up at the touch of a key. Think about this for a minute, and you will begin to see what a tremendous time and work-saver this feature will be. You will not need to remember or look up account numbers or names. The number of keystrokes you make will be substantially reduced. But even better, you will not have to "re-think" how to distribute the transactions between your accounts each month. An enormous amount of the effort involved in maintaining a good set of books has just dropped into the proverbial "bit-bucket"! 3.6.2 Entering Your Standard Transactions Selecting "Standard entries" from the "Files" menu will cause a pop-up menu with three choices to appear. From here, you may enter or edit the standard transactions, or you may rebuild the standard transactions file. Select "Enter standard transactions" to input new entries. The first field that you are prompted for is the name of the standard transaction. This name will appear on the pop-up menu (in alphabetical order). It is important that you make a good descriptive entry here to help you while you are inputing your journal entries. If you leave this field blank, you will have a blank line on your menu. Next you make your actual journal entries. You need only enter the account numbers, as CheckMate-GL will fill in the names for you. CheckMate-GL incorporates a substantial amount of error checking at Chapter 3: Getting Started 3-6 this level to prevent you from making illegal entries. Once CheckMate-GL has filled in the account name, you may enter a description and amount. Each line of the transaction may have either a debit or a credit (but not both). Note that you can leave the description blank and the amounts zero and enter them later (as you make your actual journal entries). You may also alter any of the pre- defined fields during actual entry. Obviously, these transactions do not have to balance at this time. You may leave many parts of the transaction unfinished. You should complete as much as is practical, however, to minimize your work later. Press <F10> to save your transaction. The <F9> key will clear the entry. It my also be handy to note that you may press <F6> to bring up a menu of transactions that you have already defined. You may incorporate any of these into the one that you are working on! SPECIAL NOTE: If you are using CheckMate to keep track of your bank accounts, you will notice that CheckMate-GL will fill in the first line of the transaction for you (see the "eXpense checks" section in the next chapter). For this reason, you will want to leave that line out while defining standard transactions (which will save you even more work!). 3.6.3 Rebuilding the Standard Transactions file This feature is included for maintenance. You may repair corrupted index files or reclaim disk space released by deleted records. Chapter 3: Getting Started 3-7 Chapter 4 -- Daily Activity 4.1 Entering Daily Journal Transactions The secret to keeping abreast of your financial status is to make frequent and timely entries into your general journal. If you let your cash flow transactions build up, and do not enter them regularly into your journal, you will soon have an accounting nightmare on your hands. Large businesses typically maintain bookkeeping personnel that will make many journal entries each day. For the small business and the home user, however, weekly or even monthly entries may be sufficient. If you use CheckMate to keep track of your bank accounts, CheckMate-GL provides an exceptional mechanism to help you in your periodic journal entries (see the "eXpense checks" section below). For those transactions not covered by your bank accounts, CheckMate-GL sets a new standard of "user-friendliness" in journal entries and maintenance. 4.1.1 Entering Journal Transactions After selecting this function from the "Activity" menu, you will find yourself in a powerful data entry window. CheckMate-GL facilitates classical journal entries (allowing multiple entries per transaction and a separation of debit and credit totals). The first field you need to enter is the date. We anticipate that you may be making your entries in "batch", so we initially leave the date blank. As any date field in CheckMate-GL, you may key it in free format leaving all or part of the date out. If you make your entries every day, you can simply press <CR> here and CheckMate-GL will use the current DOS date. Now you may make your individual entries. You can move up and down through the lines with the arrow keys. A <CR> will cause the cursor to move forward through the fields on each line. You may make up to ten entries within each transaction. You must indicate the account number for each account represented in the transaction. Notice that CheckMate-GL fills in the account name for you. You may also note that CheckMate-GL performs a great deal of error checking throughout this module to protect you from inadvertant or illegal activity. After supplying the account number, you can input a short description of the transaction. You should make an effort to use this space wisely, as your general journal will in many cases be the primary record of your financial activity. The columns following the description are for the amount of the entry. CheckMate-GL will let you set the debit OR the credit, but not both. Remember that the totals of the debits and the credits for the entire transaction must be equal! CheckMate-GL will not let you save the transaction until this is the case. As always, you must press <F10> to save your data. TIME SAVERS: The built-in editing features of CheckMate-GL alone make it more friendly and useable than any other package on the market, and we have added even more features to help you along. One very powerful feature Chapter 4: Daily Activity 4-1 is the ability to automatically complete a transaction at the touch of a key. Pressing <TAB> causes CheckMate-GL to total and modify an entry so that the entire transaction is in balance. Pressing the <TAB> key affects only the line that the cursor is on, and it is particularly useful in entering the last line of the transaction. CheckMate-GL boasts a revolution in accounting packages with its "CheckMate-style" pop-up standard transactions. Since most of your journal entries will periodically repeat, you can record them under the "Files" menu and save yourself mountains of work. Simply press <F6> while entering transactions to bring up a menu of pre-defined entries. You can have up to fifty of them, so use <PgUp> and <PgDn> to scroll through the available choices. For a discussion on defining these "standard transactions", see the previous chapter ("Getting Started"). 4.2 Expensing Checks and other CheckMate Transactions If you use CheckMate to keep track of your bank account activity, then you have already done much of the work necessary in maintaining accurate books. Select the 'eXpense checks' option to enter this module. If you have a floppy disk only system, you will first be prompted to exchange your CheckMate-GL PROGRAM disk with your CheckMate DATA disk. At this point, both your CheckMate-GL and your CheckMate data disks are available to the computer simultaneously. You should also be aware that since you no longer have your CheckMate-GL program disk available, you can not use the <F1> key to access the help file. If you have a hard disk system, or if you keep your CheckMate-GL and your CheckMate data files on the same disk, you will not be prompted to switch disks and help will continue to be available. You make CheckMate-GL aware of your operating environment with the "Checkmate interface" function located under the "Setup" menu. Now you are ready to begin processing your bank account transactions. You will first need to indicate a starting date. There is no reason why CheckMate-GL should have to search through your entire CheckMate file searching for transactions to expense. You will save this search time by indicating a starting date for CheckMate-GL. The default is the DOS date, so you will probably want to set it back a few weeks. Each CheckMate account should have a corresponding account in your general ledger. The appropriate GL account should appear underneath the CheckMate account name. You can specify the relationships between these accounts in the "Setup" menu, or you can enter them manually at this stage. CheckMate-GL automatically sets up your first active CheckMate account to process. If all is well, you should see that account displayed on the screen. The <F4> key will pop-up a menu of available CheckMate accounts. When you have selected the account that you want to process, press <F10>. Make sure that you have a valid and appropriate GL account specified and have entered an appropriate starting date! After you press <F10>, CheckMate-GL will open the CheckMate file and look for un-expensed transactions. If you get a "No Transactions Found!" error, it means one of three things: Chapter 4: Daily Activity 4-2 1) there are no transactions in the file, or 2) all the transactions are already expensed, or 3) you did not properly specify the starting date Remember that CheckMate-GL will look for transactions entered after the starting date that you enter. Assuming that you have successfully entered the transaction entry form, you will notice that you now have a split screen. The top of the display shows the CheckMate transaction, and CheckMate-GL has filled in the first line of the general ledger transaction. You now proceed in the same manner as you did while entering normal transactions. All of the editing and time-saving features are still available. You will not, however, be permitted to modify the top line of the transaction (the one that CheckMate-GL provides). Once you save the transaction with <F10>, CheckMate-GL will update your CheckMate file and mark the CheckMate transaction as expensed. You can move back and forth through the available transactions with the <F7> and <F8> keys respectively. 4.3 Editing Journal Transactions No matter how careful we try to be, we are bound to make mistakes from time to time. For this reason, and so you can easily examine your transactions, we have built a powerful search and edit facility into CheckMate-GL. Select "eDit transactions" from the "Activity" menu to access this function. The screen that you will see looks much like the transaction entry form. CheckMate-GL will automatically position you at the latest entry. You can browse back and forth through the entries with the <F7> and <F8> keys. To search for specific entries or to "filter" the data file, press <F5> to bring up a search window. This feature is particularly powerful in the transaction edit module. You can specify search and filter criteria for multiple accounts (and therefore quickly zoom in on the transactions of interest). Section 2.8 (Searching and Filtering the Databases) describes in detail how to use the search and filter functions throughout CheckMate-GL. You can edit any part of the transaction, but you must adhere to the same rules you did while entering them. CheckMate-GL will not let you save illegal transactions. You may change any or all entries, and the <F6> (standard transaction) menu is available. Your changes will not be permanent until you press <F10>. You may also delete the transaction by pressing <F4>. In either case, CheckMate-GL will prompt you for confirmation before proceeding. SPECIAL NOTE: You may edit ANY transaction fully, including entries made while expensing checks. You must take care while editing these transactions, as changing the debit or credit entries could cause CheckMate-GL's account balances to disagree with CheckMate's! Chapter 4: Daily Activity 4-3 Chapter 5 -- End-of-Month Routines At the end of each month you will generate several reports and POST your transactions to the general ledger. These are the reports that make all the hard work of maintaining an accounting system worthwhile. The reports CheckMate-GL produces can be divided into two distinct categories: pre-post and after-post reports. The pre-post reports operate on the general journal, while the after-post reports summerize the general ledger balances. It is important that you generate them in the proper order! 5.1 Generating pre-post reports The posting process removes transactions from the general journal and transfers their balances to the ledger. It is crucial, therefore, that you run the pre-post reports prior to posting, since they will be UNAVAILABLE afterwards! The two pre-post reports are: 1) Activity Report 2) Transaction Report Both of these reports are available under the "Reports" menu. The "activity Report" is equivalent to what many accountants call a trial balance. We don't call it that since CheckMate-GL will not let you make journal entries that don't balance (so theoretically your accounts CAN'T be out of balance). What the report does is summerize the activity of each account. You can filter the output by bringing up the search window (the <F5> key) to narrow your report around specific dates and/or accounts. Section 2.8 (Seraching and Filtering the Databases) discusses the use and operation of the search and filter function. You also have a number of options available to you to control the destination and output flow of your report. As these options are consistent throughout CheckMate-GL, we have summerized them in section 2.9 (Printing Reports). The "Transaction report" produces the same data as the activity report except that the transactions are displayed just as they were entered (rather than summerized by account). This report is a permanent record of your journal activity and should be kept in a safe place! Like the activity report, you can filter your output with the search and filter function (see section 2.8) and you have the same printing options (see section 2.9). Both of these reports are useful for isolating and correcting errors in your accounting procedures. In practice, you should print these out and examine them closely BEFORE you proceed with posting your transactions. After posting, do not discard these reports. They are valuable records! 5.2 Posting journal transactions to the general ledger After you have printed your pre-post reports, you are ready to take a rather drastic step: POSTING your journal transactions to the Chapter 5: End-of-Month Routines 5-1 general ledger. This step is irreversible. This is a GOOD time to make a back up copy of ALL your data files! Posting involves transferring the account activity from the journal to the ledger. After this is done, the transaction is deleted. Before you post, you may edit your journal transcations directly. To correct an error AFTER posting, you will have to make a reverse entry. You access this function by selecting "Post transactions" under the "Activity" menu. You must then enter the month and year that you want to post. Only the transactions dated in that month will be posted, so you may have other periods open and active and still post. For instance, you may have already made journal entries for February before posting January. This is OK. You may even make entries for January 1987 before posting January 1986 (but be careful! You must run the End-Of-Year routines before subsequently posting the 1987 transactions). Once you have selected a month and year, press <F10>. CheckMate-GL will prompt you TWICE to be sure of your intention. REMEMBER TO RUN YOUR PRE-POST REPORTS PRIOR TO POSTING! As your transactions are posted, you can see the number of active transactions decrease. If CheckMate-GL detects any errors, you will be prompted and the posting process will abort. 5.3 Generating after-post reports After you have posted the month's transactions, your general ledger accounts will contain up-to-date balances. You can now run your after-post reports (which are your "custom" reports). Select "Custom reports" from the "Reports" menu and you will see a menu listing the available reports. (If this menu is blank, proceed to the "generate Reports" option under "Setup" to create them.) Pick the report that you want to print, and the report form will appear. You have several options at this point concerning both the output destination of the report and the flow of the output. Refer to section 2.9 (Printing Reports) a general discussion. When you are ready to print the report, press <F10>. The most common reports that you will print here are your balance sheet and your profit/loss statements. CheckMate-GL will create these reports for you (see section 3.4 -- Generating Custom Reports). CheckMate-GL will generate your balance sheet and TWO versions of your profit and loss statements. The first is a cumulative total P/L statement and is labeled YTD (year-to-date). The second one is for a specific month. You decide which month you want to report on by specifying the "Report Date" while printing out the report. Remember that even though CheckMate-GL generates these reports, you can modify them to fit your specific needs and desires. See appendix C for a detailed discussion concerning the creation and modification of custom reports. Chapter 5: End-of-Month Routines 5-2 Chapter 6 -- End-of-Year Routines The end of the accounting year is a special event. This is the time when accounts clear all expense and revenue accounts and generate cumulative, yearly reports. You may notice that unlike some less- friendly accounting packages, CheckMate-GL does not force you to start your accounting year in January. You may start and end in any month that you wish! 6.1 Generating End-of-Year reports To close out a year, all revenue and expense accounts must be zeroed and their balances transferred directly to Owner's Equity. Additionally, all monthly balances in ALL accounts must be cleared and current balances copied to last year's balances. Last year's balances will be moved to year before last's balances, and the year before last's balances will be discarded. Consequently, you want to run your end-of-year reports BEFORE you close the year. Your primary end-of-year reports will be a cumulative profit and loss statement and a final balance sheet. Use the YTD profit and loss report and the balance sheet you generated under the "Custom reports" menu. Be sure to post your final month's transactions before you run these yearly reports. 6.2 Closing Revenue and Expense Accounts and Transferring Balances To perform all of these tedious tasks of transferring balances in one easy step, proceed to "end Year routines" beneath the "Activity" menu. CAUTION! BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE END-OF-MONTH PROCEDURES FOR YOUR LAST MONTH BEFORE YOU CLOSE OUT THE YEAR! ALSO, THIS IS AN EXCELLENT TIME TO MAKE A BACK UP COPY OF YOUR DATA! When you are ready to close the year, press <F10>. As this is a pretty drastic step, CheckMate-GL will prompt you twice before actually executing the procedure. If you have not specified a valid account to transfer the expense and revenue balances to, CheckMate-GL will not let you close the year. If you get an error message, look at section 3.2 (General Setup). Congratulations! You have now completed an accounting year, and are all set up to start a new one! Chapter 6: End-of-Year Routines 6-1 Appendix A -- An Accounting Primer This short tutorial is intended to give you a start into the world of classical accounting. It is by no means exhaustive, but it should get you going. If you run a small business, this primer will help, but you should still obtain a complete text or hire an accountant (or bookkeeper) to help you with some of the more difficult subjects. Since CheckMate-GL follows standard accounting rules, virtually any accounting text will be compatible. If you are a casual or home user, don't be frightened if this primer makes things seem complicated! For home use, the rules of accounting can be can be greatly relaxed. What is Accounting? Accounting is the term we apply to the discipline of maintaining complete and accurate financial data. Over the years, some well defined practices and conventions have developed. Adhering to these conventions will make your accounting data compatible with other people's data, and consequently it will be easier for others to understand. This is what we refer to as "classical" accounting. For business, proper accounting can spell the difference between success and failure. The fruits of the accounting system are the reports that you can generate. These reports can help you analyze your cash flow and make decisions based on past and present performance. Having these reports available can you give you the competitive edge that you need to succeed. Also, most banks, as well as the IRS, will want to see your balance sheet and income statements before doing business with you! To start, we must divide your holdings, debt, expenses and income. We will group these items under 5 categories: ASSETS, LIABILITIES, EQUITY, REVENUE, and EXPENSES. What are ASSETS? Assets are money, land, items, etc that you have in your possession. Essentially, they are anything that holds any value. You do not have to own something for it to be an asset. For instance, the bank may hold the deed to your home while you pay off the note. But since the use of the home is under your control, it is still an asset to you. We will see below how we can balance this asset with a corresponding debt (or liability). Assets can take many forms. If someone owes you money, for instance, then you have an asset in the form of a note or an IOU. What are LIABILITIES? Liabilities are any debts that you owe. In the example above, we have an asset (our home). But we also owe money against the home, and that is a liability. Not all liabilities need be bank loans. In a business, money that we owe to our employees (in the form of pay) is a liability. Income tax that we owe the government is also a liabilty, as is rent due, etc. In short, any time that we owe money or services Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-1 we have a liability. What is EQUITY? Equity is the difference between our assets and our liabilities. The equity in your home, for example, is the difference between the value of your home (your asset) and the money that you owe (your liability). Your total net worth, then, is the delta between all of your assets and the total of your liabilities. The Accounting Equation It is the above relationship that forms the principle behind classical accounting. We can state that relationship as such: ASSETS - LIABILITIES = EQUITY If we do a little math, we can rearrange the above equation: ------------------------------------ | ASSETS = LIABILITIES + EQUITY | ------------------------------------ This equation is referred to as the ACCOUNTING EQUATION. Remember it... it is important! The principle of this equation is clear. If you increase your assets, then something else has to change to keep the equation true. Let's say you buy a car, and hence increase your assets (you now have a car). To keep the above equation true, you must do one of three things: 1) Decrease another asset (pay cash or trade for the car) 2) Increase a liability (borrow the money for the car) 3) Increase your equity The first two options are straight-forward and are easily understood. The last option is a little more difficult to understand until we further explore how we can make changes to equity. What are REVENUE and EXPENSES? The three categories that we discussed above describe your financial status in a "static" way. There is no way to either increase nor decrease your net worth (equity) by merely adding assets or liabilities. Revenue and expenses provide this avenue. Revenue is money that you take in, usually in exchange for goods or services. Revenue has the characteristic of INCREASING your equity. That is, an asset will increase (such as cash) with NO corresponding increase in a liability. Not all money that you take in is revenue. Money that you receive in payment of a debt, for example, increases an asset (cash) but also decreases another asset (the note you hold). The net effect is that your equity is unchanged. In the above example, you could obtain the new car by working for it, or maybe by winning it in a Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-2 contest. In either case, we have increased our equity by the same amount that we have increased our assets (the price of the car). Expenses reduce your equity. A good example is your power bill. You pay the bill with cash, and your assets are reduced. But you did not reduce a liability, and you did not increase another asset. The electricity was consumed! Whether or not goods or services are "consumed" is one good way to tell expenses apart from liabilities. In the case of a business or a corporation, you can increase or decrease the company's equity in another fashion. When you sell stock, you DIRECTLY increase the equity in the company. But it is not YOUR equity in the company that has increased, but the person who bought the stock. In fact, a company can have many, many owners. That is why we will often refer to equity as OWNER'S EQUITY. But lets' get back to revenue and expenses. There is yet another relationship that we should document here. This one is more familiar: -------------------------------------------- | PROFIT (or LOSS) = REVENUE - EXPENSES | -------------------------------------------- Notice that that if expenses exceed revenue, we have incurred a LOSS. Let me take a minute to point out that (LOSS) here is in parentheses. Accountants typically do not like to use negative numbers, but rather indicate a negative amount by enclosing it in parentheses. In CheckMate-GL, we give you the option of using either convention. In either case, the difference between revenue and expenses will tend to either increase or decrease our equity. Also notice that if equity changes, then either assets or liabilities must change. Let's say we incur a loss, and equity decreases. To make the accounting equation remain true, we must either draw on assets (maybe take cash to pay the loss) or increase liabilities (perhaps borrow money to make up for the loss). Revenue and expenses are actually only extensions of equity. We give them their own categories since it is useful to treat them separately while computing profit or loss. How does it all work in real life? To try and tie the above principles together, let's hypothesize a small company, called XYZ Shoes, Inc. We will draw on this example throughout the remainder of this primer. What are ACCOUNTS? Accounts are the accountant's method of separating and detailing individual items under each of the above categories. You can think of an account as the dollar value of each item. We will give each account a descriptive name, as well as an account number. Accounts are logical entities, and it may be difficult to physically separate them from one another. This is OK, because we don't need to... we merely need to track the current value of each Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-3 account. Things may be starting to seem confusing. An example here is in order. Consider our ASSETS category. We will use accounts to break down and detail the assets of the XYZ Shoe company: ASSETS of XYZ Shoe Company -------------------------- Cash : $ 450.35 Checking Account: 1,300.25 Building : 78,000.00 Inventory : 4,875.00 Pickup Truck : 6,500.00 Office Furniture : 1,200.00 Office Equipment : 3,200.00 Accounts Receivable : 880.00 Each item that we listed has become an account. The total of all the listed accounts will be the total assets for XYZ. Now lets' list the liabilities and equity accounts: LIABILITIES of XYZ Shoe Company ------------------------------- Accounts Payable : $ 1,345.00 Salaries Payable : 850.00 Sales Tax Payable : 242.25 Income Tax Payable : 0.00 Mortgage : 65,000.00 EQUITY of XYZ Shoe Company -------------------------- Initial Capital : $ 28,968.35 Profit/Loss : 0.00 We are assuming (for the purpose of this example) that the above data was true on Jan 1, 1987. Profit/Loss is zero, since we have incurred no expenses nor made any revenue in the new year. We will follow the example and see how the profit builds. If you total the amounts above, you will see that the accounting equation is satisfied. But don't bother just yet... we will prove it in a minute. Now lets construct our "Chart of Accounts", which is simply a listing of all our accounts. We will also add our REVENUE and EXPENSE accounts while we are at it. Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ XYZ Shoes, Inc PO Box 0000 Anytown, USA (555) 555-5555 "Our Shoes Smell Good" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mar 22, 1987 Chart of Accounts page 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Acct# DB/CR Account Name ----- ----- ----------------------------------- 1 DB ASSETS 10000 DB Cash 10001 DB Checking Account 10002 DB Building 10003 DB Inventory 10004 DB Pickup Truck 10005 DB Office Furniture 10006 DB Office Equipment 10007 DB Accounts Receivable 10008 DB Purchases 2 CR LIABILITIES 20000 CR Accounts Payable 20001 CR Salaries Payable 20002 CR Sales Tax Payable 20003 CR Income Tax Payable 20005 CR Mortgage 3 CR OWNER'S EQUITY 30000 CR Initial Capital 30001 CR Profit/Loss 4 CR REVENUE 40000 CR Sales 40001 CR Misc Income 5 DB EXPENSES 50000 DB Cost of Goods Sold 50001 DB Salary Expense 50002 DB Utilities Expense 50003 DB Interest Expense 50004 DB Misc Expense We used CheckMate-GL to print the chart. See the account numbers? The five major categories are numbered '1' through '5', and each account under them begins with the same number. This is a common and logical way to number and group your accounts. The 'DB' and 'CR' stand for 'debit' and 'credit'... we are just about to get around to that... What are DEBITS and CREDITS? It makes sense that when you use cash to pay a loan, you decrease an asset (cash) and decrease a liability (the loan). It is easy to Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-5 visualize, but not so easy to document. Accountants use a system of 'debits' and 'credits' to document the flow of value. Also, remember that accountants avoid the use of negatives wherever possible. Every account has a balance. We saw that the sum of the asset accounts must equal the sum of the liability and equity accounts. We will say, arbitrarily, that assets have DEBIT balances and both liabilities and equity have CREDIT balances. Therefore, the total debit balance equals the total credit balance. Whoa! You may well be wondering how we decided to assign "types" to the balances. It is strictly a way of looking at the data. If we say that assets have debit balances and both liabilities and equity have credit balances, we have merely transformed the accounting equation into this form: ---------------------- | DEBITS = CREDITS | ---------------------- Take a minute and let this sink in. The concept is the same... we have just changed the notation. When you understand the difference between a debit and a credit, you will be over a major hurdle in understanding the basic premises of accounting. Now lets transform this notation into practice. An asset carries a debit balance. This means that when we wish to INCREASE the asset we must DEBIT the account. So, if I start with $50 in an account, and I make a $100 debit, I now have $150 in the account. Most people unfamiliar with accounting may scratch their head at this point. Does it seem backwards? After all, when the bank DEBITs my account, my assets DECREASE, not increase. True, BUT the debit is from the bank's point of view, not yours! The debit did increase the bank's assets (at your expense!). For those of you who use CheckMate... that is why we refer to the transcation types as BANK DEBITS and BANK CREDITS, so there is no confusion on whose point of view is prevailing. Conversely, we will credit a liability or equity account to increase it. Can you see that when we want to DECREASE a liability that we will debit it? Let's look at the payment of a loan again. We have two accounts... one called 'CASH' and one called 'LOAN'. CASH is an asset (debit) account and LOAN is a liability (credit) account. When we make payments on a loan, both accounts must decrease (cash is obviously less, and now we owe less). Let's see it work: Pay $50.00 cash (credit CASH $50) Lower loan $50.00 (debit LOAN $50) See what we have done? We have credited CASH and debited LOAN, and the sum of the debits ($50.00) equals the sum of the credits ($50.00). It may still not be crystal clear, but give it a little time. What we have documented above is a TRANSACTION. The transaction affects the balances of our accounts. As always, we MUST make sure that the accounting equation is satisfied. To do this, the transaction must not disturb the overall balance of the equation. Hence, all debit entries in a transaction must equal all credit entries in the transaction! Incidently, here is how CheckMate-GL would document the trans- Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-6 action. Notice that the sum of debits and credits do indeed equal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Mar 22, 1987 Acct# Account Name Description Debit Credit ----- ------------------ ----------------- ------------ ------------ 10000 CASH Payment to LOAN 0.00 50.00 20000 LOAN Reduce LOAN 50.00 0.00 ------------ ------------ 50.00 50.00 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The above transaction is a "double-entry" transaction since we made two entries (to show how the money flowed from one account to another). Now you can see why people call true accounting systems "double-entry" systems. In real life, however, money often flows to and from many accounts in the same transaction. CheckMate-GL will let you make up to TEN entries per transaction. Let's see how this would work. Assume that Mr. Jackson walks into XYZ's showroom and wants to buy a pair of alligator skin boots with inlaid gold and ruby trim. The price on the shoes (on sale) is $999.95. Mr. Jackson has good credit, and decides to pay $200 cash and make the rest in weekly installments of $50. How would this transaction be recorded? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Mar 22, 1987 Acct# Account Name Description Debit Credit ----- ------------------ ----------------- ------------ ------------ 40000 Sales Mr. Jackson 0.00 999.95 20002 Sales Tax Payable 5% sales tax 0.00 50.00 10000 Cash Down Payment 200.00 0.00 10007 Accounts Receivabl On Credit 849.95 0.00 ------------ ------------ 1,049.95 1,049.95 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In a single transaction, we have made four entries. We have increased (debited) two assets, CASH and ACCOUNTS RECEIVEABLE. We have also increased (credited) a liability (SALES TAX PAYABLE) and a revenue (SALES). Mr. Jackson has paid $200 and still owes $849.95 for a total of $1049.95 (including sales tax). You should take a moment to see how future transactions will develop. Every time that Mr. Jackson makes a payment on his boots, we will debit (increase) CASH and credit (decrease) ACCOUNTS RECEIVEABLE. Also, when we pay the state our sales tax due, we will credit (decrease) CASH and debit (decrease) SALES TAX PAYABLE. For you folks in business... notice how the sales tax never found its way into either revenue or expenses? It shouldn't, since the collection and paying of sales tax does not affect our profit or loss! Speaking of profit and loss... how much profit did we make when we Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-7 sold the boots? Well, the cost of the boots falls into the account COST OF GOODS SOLD. But rather than calculate profit on every sale, XYZ uses the End-of-Period Adjustment method. At the end of each month, XYZ will take an inventory of all shoes in stock. The difference between the current (closing) inventory and last month's (opening) inventory is entered into the journal. (We do this by crediting INVENTORY with last month's value and then debiting it with the current value). As we make purchases during the month, we enter them into an account called PURCHASES. At month's end we will transfer our PURCHASES to INVENTORY while we calculate the COST OF GOODS SOLD. The difference between the two is COST OF GOODS SOLD for the month. To illustrate, suppose that XYZ had $3,000 worth of shoes at the end of February. At the end of March they had $2,750 worth of shoes in stock. During March, they bought $3,200 worth of new shoes. What is the COST OF GOODS SOLD during March? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Apr 1, 1987 Acct# Account Name Description Debit Credit ----- ------------------ ----------------- ------------ ------------ 10003 Inventory At End of Feb 0.00 3,000.00 10008 Purchases Purchases (Mar) 0.00 3,200.00 10003 Inventory At End of March 2,700.00 0.00 50000 Cost of Goods Sold For March 3,500.00 0.00 ------------ ------------ 6,200.00 6,200.00 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) for March was $3,500. I realize that this is kind of a whirlwind approach to accounting methods. Remember that this is a simple primer designed to get you started off. There have been entire volumes written on accounting, and we can't hope to cover all the subjects here. If you need to do serious business accounting, we heartily recommend that you get yourself a good book or an accountant to help you! Hopefully you now can visualize this subject of debits and credits. We also hope that you have a grasp on the concepts of profit and loss. We will now persue that topic in more detail. Accounting Reports You saw above how you make daily entries into something we call a JOURNAL. In CheckMate-GL, we maintain a GENERAL JOURNAL (since we make all journal entries into a common database). Your chart of accounts, on the other hand, makes up the GENERAL LEDGER. You will notice that after you save your journal entries that NOTHING HAPPENS to your accounts! The balances do not change. And they will not, until you POST your journal entries to the ledger. Accountants maintain the journals separate from the ledgers because it helps them detail activity in a particular period and because they can make adjusting entries and corrections to the journal before they post. That's a mouthful. Suffice it to say that Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-8 CheckMate-GL behaves properly and follows these rules. Therefore, you must eventually POST your journal transactions to your general ledger. Usually you will post at the end of each month. Before you post, however, you will make some reports that are based on the journal. These are your ACTIVITY REPORT and your TRANSACTION REPORT. For you accountants, the ACTIVITY REPORT is very similar to a trial balance. In short, the activity report lists all accounts sequentially and the debit and credit summary of each. If you make end-of-month adjustments (like the one discussed above for COST OF GOODS SOLD), this report will help you collect the figures that you need. The other report, your TRANSACTION REPORT, details all entries for the month and serves as your permanent record that these entries were made. Once you have made these reports, you will POST the month's transactions to the ledger. This involves transferring all debits and credits for each transaction to the corresponding accounts in the ledger. This can be tedious and long! Thank goodness the computer (and CheckMate-GL) will do it for us. After posting, your ledger is up to date! Now comes the most ben- eficial aspect of accounting... your accounting reports. The Balance Sheet Remember the accounting equation? The way we ensure that we have followed all the rules is through our BALANCE SHEET. The balance sheet can be very detailed or very general. CheckMate-GL will generate a balance sheet report definition that will list ALL of your asset accounts and show how they balance against ALL of your liability and equity accounts. This is a very detailed balance sheet. If we summerized the data (which you can do by customizing your reports), you could produce a general balance sheet. The balance sheet is a snapshot of the company's holdings and debt at a given instant. It does not reflect the passage of any time, but rather shows an entity's current worth. An example is worth a thousand words. Below is an example for XYZ Shoes. Notice that the total of assets does indeed equal the total of liabilities and equity. Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ XYZ Shoes, Inc PO Box 0000 Anytown, USA (555) 555-5555 "Our Shoes Smell Good" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Apr 1, 1987 Balance Sheet page 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ * ASSETS Cash 1,685.11 Checking Account 1,642.69 Building 101,987.88 Inventory 9,251.11 Pickup Truck 13,000.00 Office Furniture 4,400.00 Office Equipment 7,550.85 Accounts Receivable 3,114.71 Purchases 3,100.00 -------------- Total Assets 145,732.35 -------------- -------------- * LIABILITIES AND OWNER'S EQUITY Liabilities Accounts Payable 1,345.00 Salaries Payable 3,150.00 Sales Tax Payable 487.25 Income Tax Payable 0.00 Mortgage 84,055.80 -------------- Total Liabilities 89,038.05 Owner's Equity Initial Capital 54,430.43 Profit/Loss 0.00 plus REVENUE 12,808.79 less EXPENSES 10,544.92 -------------- Total Owner's Equity 56,694.30 -------------- Total Liabilities + Equity 145,732.35 -------------- -------------- Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-10 The Profit & Loss Report The Profit and Loss Report, on the other hand, does reflect a change from earlier period to the present. It is simply the difference between REVENUE and EXPENSES for a given period. You can create monthly, quarterly, and yearly reports, and, like the balance sheets they may be very general or very specific. CheckMate-GL will let you automatically create very detailed reports for monthly and yearly reports. An example (for XYZ shoes) is presented below. The data is all hypothetical. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ XYZ Shoes, Inc PO Box 0000 Anytown, USA (555) 555-5555 "Our Shoes Smell Good" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mar 31, 1987 Profit/Loss Statement (Month) page 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ * REVENUE Sales 12,488.79 Misc Income 320.00 -------------- Total Revenue 12,808.79 * EXPENSES Cost of Goods Sold 8,803.00 Salary Expense 1,200.00 Utilities Expense 125.33 Interest Expense 128.59 Misc Expense 288.00 -------------- Total Expenses 10,544.92 -------------- Total Profit (Loss) 2,263.87 -------------- -------------- These reports are produced at the end of an accounting PERIOD, usually a month, and are called End-of-Period Reports. CheckMate-GL assumes an accounting period to be a month, and generates end-of-month reports. With CheckMate-GL's powerful report customizing features, however, you can define quarterly or semi-annual reports, or any report in any format that you choose! See appendix C for more details. You Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-11 will also want to create end-of-year reports, which are essentially reports created after your last month and BEFORE you do your end-of- year maintainance (discussed below). These reports offer a wealth of information. As you produce reports each month, you can draw additional information by comparing new reports with old. These reports will also be helpful while filing taxes (or surviving an audit) and when negotiating with the bank for loans. Home users have the opportunity to see trends in their spending and to quantify their net worth. Few individuals or families REALLY know where they are financially. CheckMate-GL can help you make your dollars go farther by showing you where they went in the past! Where does it all end? We aren't quite finished yet. There is still one more topic to cover... ending the accounting year. At some point we want to consolidate cumulative data and "reset" our books. This is the end-of- year routine. First, we want to transfer our current balances to LAST YEAR'S BALANCE (a figure we keep for history and comparison). We also transfer LAST YEAR'S BALANCE to the YEAR BEFORE LAST. We do NOT zero out our current balances. Rather, at the start of any year, our current balance for each account should equal the last year's balance for that account. This makes sense, when you think about it, but there is an exception. Remember that REVENUE and EXPENSES are actually sub-sets of EQUITY? We keep them separate during the year so that we can quickly assess our profit/loss picture. At the end of the year, however, we want to zero the revenue and expense accounts and start with a clean slate. Anytime that we change an account's balance we must make a corresponding change to another account (remember the accounting equation!). In order to "zero" our revenue and expenses, then, we must make balancing entries to some other appropriate account. This balancing account is usually called "Profit and Loss" or "Retained Earnings." Since the profit (or loss) for the year is the difference between revenue and expenses, these names are both appropriate. For this discussion, lets call the account PROFIT/LOSS. This account, by the way, is an EQUITY account. So what do we do? Well, we simply transfer the balance of each revenue account to PROFIT/LOSS. Since revenue accounts are CREDIT accounts, we do this by DEBITING each revenue account and CREDITING PROFIT/LOSS. So debits and credits are equal, and all revenue accounts now have a current balance of zero. Now repeat the process with all expense accounts. Our debits and credits are reversed now, however, since expenses are DEBIT accounts. Can you see that PROFIT/LOSS now holds the DIFFERENCE between revenues and expenses? CheckMate-GL automates the end-of-year routines as well. Now we are ready for a new year and can track our profit and loss situation independently of previous years' data! Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-12 Tying It All Together Let me fininsh this primer with a diagram for creating and main- taining your accounting system with CheckMate-GL: ------------------------- | Install CheckMate-GL | | Chapter 1 | ------------------------- | V ----------------------------- | Create Chart of Accounts | | Chapter 3 | ----------------------------- | V ---------------------------------------- | Additional Setup | | (Company info, P/L interface, etc) | | Chapter 3 | ---------------------------------------- | |<------------------------------------------------------ V ^ ^ ^ ------------------------------- | | | | Daily Journal Transactions | | | End | | Chapter 4 |-------- | -of- | ------------------------------- End-of-Month | Year | | =NO | = | ------ | NO | | End-of-Month=YES | | V | | -------------------- ----------------- ------------------ | | Monthly Pre-Post | | POST | | Monthly After- | | | Reports |---->| Transactions |---->| Post Reports | | | Chapter 5 | | Chapter 5 | | Chapter 5 | | -------------------- ----------------- ------------------ | | | End-of-Year=YES | | ------------------------------------------- | | | V | ------------------------ ------------------------- | | End-of-Year Reports |---->| End-of-Year Routines | ------------- | Chapter 6 | | Chapter 6 | ------------------------ ------------------------- Final Thoughts I certainly hope that this primer has been of some use. It is NOT meant to be a substitute for formal education, since it is much to Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-13 brief to cover many of the aspects of accounting that you will encounter as you run your home or business. It should give you a push, however, and perhaps make talking to your bookkeeper a little easier. I would like to have put more effort and examples into this tutorial, including more discussion on using CheckMate-GL in the home environment. But time and space are lacking. The disk based manual is already 100K+, and there are many CheckMate users eager for the release of CheckMate-GL. I CAN promise that we are working on expanded tools, including a workshop for the home user. HOME USERS: When you register, you will be placed on our mailing list, and will be notified when our "Home-User Workshop" is available. BUSINESS USERS: If the response is positive, we are considering putting together a workbook that takes a novice bookkeeper through the basics of accounting for business, with examples and exercises based on and using CheckMate-GL. This will be a "hands-on" workbook. When you register, give us feedback on this project (since it is significant). We will keep you informed by placing you on our mailing list. EDUCATIONAL USERS: Both packages we mention above would be suitable for classroom use. We are considering an "Educational Program" that would make copies of the Home-User Workshop and Business Workbook available in quantity and at reduced prices for students and instructors. Mention your interest when you register, and we will keep you informed of our progress. Note to UNREGISTERED Users: CheckMate and CheckMate-GL represent our livelihood. A significant investment in talent and time have been made and will continue. We are proud to release the products as shareware for your evaluation, but it would be unfair to us and to our registered users to provide you with support and enhancements (including the packages mentioned above). If you use CheckMate and/or CheckMate-GL, then we expect you to register and support the shareware concept and our efforts to provide quality software. Both products are priced significantly below competing commercial products since we have reduced advertising and distribution costs. This is to your advantage. Support shareware and register today! Appendix A: An Accounting Primer A-14 Appendix B -- Sample Chart of Accounts We have listed two sample charts of accounts for your reference. The first chart is for a small business, the second one is for a home. Both charts are for reference only are may not represent all the accounts that you need for your particular application. -- Simple Chart of Accounts for a Small Business ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Business Name Here Address Address Phone Number Slogan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mar 31, 1987 Chart of Accounts page 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acct# DB/CR Account Name ----- ----- ----------------------------------- 1 DB ASSETS 10001 DB Your Bank 10002 DB Accounts Receivable 10003 DB Inventory 10004 DB Equipment 10005 DB Furniture and Fixtures 10006 DB Property - Land 10007 DB Prepaid Expenses 10008 DB Accumulated Depreciation 2 CR LIABILITIES 20001 CR Accounts Payable 20002 CR Salaries/Benefits Payable 20003 CR Commissions Payable 20004 CR Income Tax Payable 20005 CR Sales Tax Payable 20006 CR Line of Credit 20007 CR Credit Cards 3 CR OWNER'S EQUITY 30001 CR Shareholder's Equity 30002 CR Profit/Loss 4 CR REVENUE 40001 CR Sales 40002 CR Services Sold 40003 CR Misc Income 40004 CR Interest Income 5 DB EXPENSES 50001 DB Cost of Goods Sold 50002 DB Returns and Allowances 50003 DB Power 50004 DB Telephone 50005 DB Water/Sewer 50006 DB Gas 50007 DB Salaries/Benefits Appendix B: Sample Chart of Accounts B-1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mar 31, 1987 Chart of Accounts page 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acct# DB/CR Account Name ----- ----- ----------------------------------- 50008 DB Travel & Entertainment 50009 DB Depreciation Expense 50010 DB Bank Fees 50011 DB Office Supplies 50012 DB Interest Expense 50013 DB Advertising Expense 50014 DB Postage Expense 50015 DB Insurance Expense 50016 DB Misc Expense 50017 DB Rent Expense 50018 DB Income Tax Expense Appendix B: Sample Chart of Accounts B-2 -- Simple Chart of Accounts for a Home ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Name Here Address Address Phone Number ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mar 31, 1987 Chart of Accounts page 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acct# DB/CR Account Name ----- ----- ----------------------------------- 1 DB ASSETS 10000 DB Your Bank #1 10002 DB Your Bank #2 10003 DB Home Value 10004 DB Your Car #1 10005 DB Your Car #2 10006 DB Life Ins Policies 10007 DB Bonds 10008 DB Prepaid Expenses 10009 DB Household Goods 2 CR LIABILITIES 20001 CR Income Tax Payable 20002 CR Car Loan #1 20003 CR Car Loan #2 20004 CR MasterCard 20005 CR Visa 20006 CR Home Mortgage 3 CR OWNER'S EQUITY 30001 CR Savings 30002 CR Home Equity 4 CR REVENUE 40001 CR Salary 40002 CR Interest Income 40003 CR Misc Income 5 DB EXPENSES 50001 DB Electricity Expense 50002 DB Phone Expense 50003 DB Water/Sewer Expense 50004 DB Gas Expense 50005 DB Mortgage Interest 50006 DB MasterCard Interest 50007 DB Visa Interest 50008 DB Car Loan #1 Interest 50009 DB Car Loan #2 Interest 50010 DB Federal Income Tax 50011 DB State Income Tax 50012 DB Sales Tax 50013 DB Social Security 50014 DB Food Expense Appendix B: Sample Chart of Accounts B-3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mar 31, 1987 Chart of Accounts page 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acct# DB/CR Account Name ----- ----- ----------------------------------- 50015 DB Maintenance Expense 50016 DB Entertainment Expense 50017 DB Auto Insurance 50018 DB Home Owner's Insurance 50019 DB Term Life Insurance 50020 DB Misc Expense Appendix B: Sample Chart of Accounts B-4 Appendix C: Defining and Modifying Custom Reports This appendix is included in the full, 90+ page, illustrated CheckMate-GL User's Guide (included when you register). Appendix C: Defining and Modifying Custom Reports C-1 Appendix D: Technical Description This appendix is included in the full, 90+ page, illustrated CheckMate-GL User's Guide (included when you register). Appendix D: Technical Description D-1