Prophet (c) Apricote Studios 1991/4 Version 1.44 3.9.1994
Welcome to the Prophet Demonstration Disc.
The only parts of the full program which have been excluded are saving and the final accounts/profit loss sections.
The full version consists of two discs (which include various example files), a function key strip and a ring bound illustrated 188 page manual and slip case. A utility program called !Transfer is also supplied (see the 'pps' at the end of this file). The manual includes a full reference, tutorial, a hints & tips section and an extensive index. It is impossible to include the complete text with this version due to disc space, but the opening chapter and a brief tutorial and summary follows.
(From the manual) Accounting: an overview
The word 'Account' is a very liberal word when applied to a business. It can refer to a book in which you write your income and expenditure, a monetary account (such as a bank, cash, or building society account), a list of transactions pertaining to a particular person (such as a supplier or customer account), or a list of transactions pertaining to an object or objects such as a capital account (which records the buying and selling of major items eg. a motor vehicle) or an expense account (which refers to items associated with the general running or overhead costs of your business eg. postage).
An 'Account' therefore can consist of many individual accounts of the types mentioned above. This is why a record of the income and expenditure of a business is often referred to as a 'set of accounts' or a 'set of books'.
There are only two main reasons for keeping a set of accounts. The first is to help you analyse your business so you can maintain or increase profitability, keep track of your money and produce reports such as VAT returns. The second is for use by an accountant or the Inland Revenue who will then be able to calculate your tax liability (if you don't keep a set of books for your business, your tax bill will be estimated and you may end up paying more tax than you need to).
These 'accounts' of your business can be written manually into a book or ledger, or alternatively entered into a computer program such as Prophet.
The advantages of using a computer to keep your accounts are many, but the main advantage has to be the computers ability to automatically total your transactions. Incorrect addition of entries is one of the most common faults found in a set of manually written accounts. Prophet is the result of many years experience of both accounting and computers and the aim has always been to make both user-friendly - especially to non-accountants.
To this end Prophet is somewhat different to the 'average' accounts program which is usually a 'double-entry' system where an account has to be set up for each type of transaction and every credit has a corresponding debit and vice-versa, 'Audit Trails', 'Trial Balances', 'Contra' and 'Journal' entries are the norm as is the ruling off or closing down of your accounts on a regular basis which makes it impossible to correct even the simplest of mistakes. If you are confused by any of the jargon used in this paragraph or are simply fed up with double entry accounting systems in general then Prophet will come as a breath of fresh air:
Rather than opening an 'account' for each aspect of your business, Prophet uses analysis headings which show you at a glance exactly how your business is doing. Your transactions are entered one after another into fully editable scrolling windows. There are three such entry windows (or ledgers) named the Sales (and income) Ledger (1), the Purchase (and expenditure) Ledger (2) and the Bank Ledger (3).
(1) ALL YOUR INCOME (and credit sales), whether they are from selling a product or service, receiving money in the form of a loan or interest, or selling a capital item (such as a motor vehicle) are recorded in the Sales Ledger.
(2) ALL YOUR EXPENDITURE (and unpaid bills), whether they are for paying for goods or services, paying off a loan, buying capital items or drawing money for your wages are entered in the Purchase Ledger.
(3) The Bank Ledger is used to record all transfers of money. This includes your bank receipts (what you pay into the bank) and paying off credit card accounts as well as transfers of money from your bank to a petty cash or deposit account.
You can view, edit and produce reports on any aspect of your business whenever you want and for any period. If you want a sales report you only need open the sales ledger and select 'Sales Reports' from the menu - you do not need to go through dozens of different sales accounts. The same applies to the purchase/expenditure side of your business. By utilising Prophet's user-definable 'analysis headings' you will also be able to see an instant up to date summary of your business at the click of an icon.
To see how all this comes together a slightly more in depth (but brief!) view of Prophet and accounting is necessary.
The idea of analysis headings is very simple. On the Income or sales side, typical headings would be 'Work Done' and 'Others'. 'Work Done' means what it says - income resulting from work you have done. 'Others' refers to money received from some other source such as a bank loan. The difference is that entries marked as 'Work Done' refer to taxable or earned income and 'Others' refers to non-taxable or unearned income. It is important to make the distinction when entering money earned or received in the sales ledger.
On the Expenditure or purchase side, it is just as, if not more important to breakdown your entries into certain categories or headings. (The tutorial in the full version gives you many examples). The reason for breaking down your payments in this way is two-fold. Firstly it will help you analyse the overheads or costs of your business and secondly it will help you compile your final or end of year accounts more easily.
The analysis headings given here are only examples, and you can use other names instead to suit your type of business. For instance the 'Others' heading used in the sales ledger could be changed to 'Bank Loan'. The point being that it is fairly obvious that this is money received which is not connected with WORK you have DONE.
As long as you make entries in the Sales Ledger for all money you have received or are owed, and entries in the Purchase Ledger for all money you have spent or owe you will be 'accounting' for your business.
You will know how much you have taken, how much you have spent and therefore whether or not you are making a profit. You can print your account summaries and even calculate your tax liability thus enabling you to present your accounts direct to the Inland Revenue.
As already mentioned Prophet has many features which will not only help you compile your accounts but also make your business easier to run. After a short while, using Prophet should become second nature, and we hope, even enjoyable.
(Not from the manual!) TUTORIAL : ACCOUNTS Income/Sales: All your income is entered into the Sales Ledger. It can be entered via the Retail Sales option, the Invoicing option, directly into the sales ledger or any combination of the three.
Before entering any data you should set up the income (Sales) analysis headings with suitable descriptions. The most common headings are 'Work Done' and 'Others' or something similar. Basically any income you receive from selling something or carrying out a service should use the 'Work Done' heading and any other income such as a loan or interest from a deposit account should use the 'Others' heading. The reason for using two or more income headings is to differentiate between income which is taxable and income which is not. The income analysis headings can be found by clicking on the 'Headings' option under 'Accounts' in the main menu, then clicking on 'Sales'.
Each income entry should also have an account associated with it. The account should be called 'Cash in Hand'. This account serves two purposes. Firstly it is used in the Profit & Loss figures at year end, and secondly it will tell you how much money you should have 'floating' around which is either ready to be banked or used for another purpose. If you always bank all you receive you will find this account very useful.
To set up a 'Cash in Hand' account, select the 'Bank Accounts' option under 'Accounts' in the main menu, and name account 'L' as 'Cash in Hand'. Whilst in this section, name any other monetary accounts you may have as well (such as Bank, Building Society, Petty Cash or Credit Card Accounts). There are 12 available in this version.
Any PAID entries you make in the sales ledger will then show up as a total in the 'Cash in Hand' account. The sales analysis headings will also show the total as well, but this time split up under different headings.
Therefore the 'Bank Accounts' window shows your current financial position, and the 'Sales Headings' window shows where this money came from.
If you open the 'Sales Ledger' window, you can enter a transaction and if you leave the headings and bank accounts windows open you will also see the immediate effect the entry has on your balances.
To make a sales entry, type in the date (using a full stop to differentiate between day/month and year ie. 21.5.1993). Pressing the RETURN key without entering a date will insert the current date, or copy the previous entries date if there is one. Prophet has many automatic features like this within it to speed up entries. Prophet is date intelligent and will automatically correct any wrong dates such as the 31st April to, in this case, the 30th. Semi completed dates will be corrected using the current or previous entries date as a template, so to enter transactions on different days of the same month only the day need be typed in (don't forget to press the RETURN key afterwards).
The next field, the tax point, will be entered for you. It is used in the VAT return, and having a separate tax point allows you to alter the main date without fear of the entry being included on more than one return. This has specific use for credit (ie. unpaid) entries, where, on being paid, the entries original date will be updated to the paid date. If you use the 'Cash Accounting' scheme, there is an option in another part of the program to use the main date instead. If you are not VAT registered then you can largely ignore the tax point.
There are 3 ways of entering a customer in the next field. If you are not using the customers database then enter the customers name. If you are (select 'Customer' under 'Invoicing' from the main menu and type in your customers details) then an abbreviation of the name can be used. In fact the search is called an in-string search, which means it will try to find any match (typing in 'smith' will find and insert customers from the database called 'John Smith' or 'Smithsonian Institute' or 'Blacksmith & Co' etc). The more of the name you type in the more likely you are to find the customer first time. Alternatively, click the menu mouse button in the field and select the customer directly from there.
The customers name field can be used as a description instead (ie. 'Takings') it all depends on your type of business.
Type in the account in the next field ('L' for 'Cash in Hand' if you are following our guidelines) and then a reference (this could be an invoice number for instance). Clicking the menu button in the 'Cd:' part of the account field will show a menu reminding you of the codes and clicking SELECT on one of them will place it in the field. Make sure the mouse pointer is in the correct entry before clicking the menu button.
The total is next. This is the total including VAT. If you don't know what the VAT amount is, Prophet can calculate it for you. Enter the total followed by the VAT code and press the RETURN key ie. '117.5A' you will see the total being formatted to 117.50, followed by the VAT code A being inserted into the next column, the VAT amount will also be inserted in the following column and the caret will move directly to the 'Paid' field.
If you do know the VAT amount then this can be entered directly into the 'Cd' and 'VAT' fields. If you're not VAT registered then the fields can be ignored.
If the entry is paid, there is no need to type the amount in again, simply type in 'P' and press RETURN. If it is unpaid, leave it blank. This is known as the entries status. It can be in one of 3 states: Reconciled, Paid or Unpaid. The entries status appears in full in the last field to remind you.
Reconciled simply means that you have double checked the entry, usually against a statement of some kind, ie. it is not only Paid but has been confirmed as going through the account since it appears on a bank statement, a typical example would be income paid by direct debit to your bank account.
Prophet has very comprehensive reconciling facilities and to make the best use of them, all entries which WILL NEVER appear on a statement supplied by a third party (ie. 'Cash in Hand' entries) should be marked as 'Reconciled' immediately on entry assuming it is paid. In fact ALL PAID SALES entries which are going to the Cash in Hand account can be reconciled immediately on entry (since you wont be receiving a statement to check them against). To reconcile an entry, type in an 'R' in the PAID field and press RETURN.
Many people do not bother checking (or 'Reconciling') their bank statements with their accounts until the year end which can cause major headaches and many hours of wasted time. By doing it regularly with Prophet you will find your end of year finalising is greatly speeded up. The rule is: whenever you receive a statement, check it immediately with the books. Tick the items on the statement that match with the books and mark the entries in the books with an 'R' status. If the account balance (select 'Bank Accounts' under 'Accounts' in the main menu) does not agree with the statement then produce a report from the account searching for all 'Paid' (ie. un-reconciled) entries and the mistake(s) will be obvious and can then be rectified. Leave the bank accounts window open while reconciling and you will see the statement balance changing as you alter the status of each entry.
The next field is the heading. If this is earned income then use the 'Work Done' heading you previously set up by typing in the analysis code. If it is non-earned income (ie. a loan) then use the 'Others' heading. Again, click the menu button in the 'Cd:' part of this field to select from the menu which appears if you can't remember what the codes are.
Finally enter a comment if you wish to clarify the entry further.
Although in this version of Prophet you cannot produce or print out a report, you can still see the report window. Press the menu mouse button in the ledger window and select 'Report' from the menu which opens.
The other option in the menu is 'Find'. This can be used to locate and go directly to specific entries. It is used primarily for reconciling since it will find by clicking on a single icon each un-reconciled entry in a specific account, one after another.
To change an entry from paid to reconciled, place the caret in the paid field and type in an 'R'. Pressing RETURN after this will update the status field at the right to confirm the change. There is actually no need to press the RETURN key, and not doing so makes the process of reconciling very easy indeed, since you can leave the caret in the paid field and click on the 'Search Forward' icon, typing in an 'R' on each relevant found entry. Don't worry about the entries status not changing immediately, the program will update it in it's own time (pressing RETURN merely forces it to update the screen display immediately).
Part and over paid entries can also be reconciled, but if you don't want the amount to change, always type the 'R' at the END of the amount (ie. 123.50R). If the PAID amount is blank you can type in a 'P' for Paid or an 'R' without the need to insert the amount.
Although you can only see five entries on screen, the display automatically scrolls whenever it is full, and you can look at and alter earlier entries by scrolling back up. There are many ways to do this. The 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' keys can be used to scroll 5 entries in any direction. The function keys F5 to F11 can be used to scroll by differing amounts backwards and forwards, and the up and down arrow cursor keys scroll the entries one at a time.
If you are looking at an earlier entry, the 'Insert' key will take you directly to the first free entry.
Your entries can be inserted in any date order, and anywhere within the ledgers. They will be sorted automatically by date when the window is closed.
Other facilities included in the ledgers are the ability to automatically insert and increment cheque and invoice numbers in the reference field simply by pressing RETURN if the field is blank (it will copy and increment any number which appears in the first previous entry which uses the same account - even if the number is within a reference which contains text).
There is also a facility to automatically increment voucher numbers using the comments field. 'Voucher Numbers' can be used to tie up invoices and receipts with your entries.
The account and heading fields also have a similar (but non-incrementing!) feature. This makes it very easy to enter a number of related items (ie. entering cheques from the same account in the purchase ledger - simply press RETURN in a blank 'account' field and the previous account will be copied for you).
Looking at the sales headings analysis window will give you an immediate view of your current state of affairs regarding the money received and the amount owing to you. Looking at specific customers in the database will also show the aged debt of that particular customer (and how much they have spent in total), and a report of all monies owing by age and customer can also be generated from the customer database (though you will need the full version to see this).
The NET figures in the analysis headings represent this years figures. The 'Opening' fields are for the previous years unpaid figures.
Payments and purchases are entered in the 'Purchase Ledger' (select 'Purchase Ledger' under 'Accounts' from the main menu). All monies spent whether to buy stock, pay for services or pay wages and personal drawings are entered in the purchase ledger.
It is almost identical to the sales ledger and has the same features and a similar set of analysis headings (select 'Headings' under 'Accounts' from the main menu, then select 'Purchase' from the menu which appears).
Your payments can be broken down (in the same manner as the sales ledger) by filling in the analysis headings. Typical headings are 'Stock', 'Expenses', 'Capital' (such as 'Fixtures & Fittings' and 'Motor Vehicles'), 'Wages' and 'Drawings'. Use the main headings to group related sub headings. So your 'Expenses' main heading can consist of sub headings entitled 'Postage', 'Stationery', 'Electric/Gas', 'Rent/Mortgage', 'Insurance' and so on. You have 8 sub headings per main heading, so use two or more main headings with the same name if you need more sub headings.
Under which headings you put your payments has a direct affect on your final accounts, so do not mix purchases of stock with expense payments such as stamps. A word with a friendly accountant will be worthwhile if you're not sure about this, but using the suggested headings above will help (the full manual goes into far more detail on breaking down your payments into useful headings).
Looking at the purchase headings analysis window will show how much you have spent and how much you owe your creditors. Like the sales ledger, the suppliers database (select 'Suppliers' under 'Stock' in the main menu) can be used for the purchase ledger and from there you will be able to further breakdown and produce a creditors listing by amount and age.
The last ledger is the bank ledger. This is used for all transfers of money between one account and another. A typical transfer is a bank receipt entry. When you pay money into the bank you will be transferring money from your 'Cash in Hand' account to your bank account, so the entry will be FROM account 'L' going TO account 'A' (if you have named account 'A' as your bank account), and a look at the bank account window will confirm the transaction by debiting 'Cash in Hand' and crediting your bank account.
Other typical transfers include paying off a credit card account and transferring money into a deposit or building society account.
This ledger, although slightly different in layout to the other two, has similar features and find and report options (click the menu mouse button in the ledger). Look-a-like individual bank statements can be produced which include bought and carried forward figures (bought and carried forward figures are included in the sales and purchase ledger reports too). The bank ledger report window also has the facility to report on all 3 ledgers within the same report so cash flows can be produced.
If you were to make use of the comments field within any entries that pertain to a particular project then an individual cash flow for that project could be produced by telling the report window to search on the comments field.
By looking at the sales and purchase analysis heading windows and the bank accounts window an exact appraisal of your current financial situation can be seen. Like most aspects of Prophet this can also be printed or exported to another application by clicking the menu mouse button in either of the windows.
There is another window which resembles the sales & purchase ledgers. It is the standing orders window (select 'Standing Orders' under 'Miscellaneous' from the main menu).
Standing orders, or direct debit templates are set up here. They can apply to income as well as payments and any period can be covered from once a day to once every 999 years.
Hopefully most of the fields are self explanatory, but the main control field is headed 'Num P F'. 'Num' is the number of insertions, 'P' is the period - D for days, M for months and Y for years, and 'F' is the frequency. A monthly standing order lasting for 25 years would have this field set to 300M1 - that is, 25 years at 12 payments a year=300, M for monthly and 1 for a frequency of once a month. A continuous weekly standing order would be '999 D 7'.
To check your 'Num P F' algorythm fill the following statement with whatever you have typed into the Period and Frequency fields: "Insert once every F P" - so a period of M with a frequency of 12 = "Insert once every 12 months" and a period of Y with a frequency of 1 = "Insert once every 1 year" - although both these examples mean the same thing, a yearly standing order (a credit card annual charge for instance), it hopefully demonstrates the flexibility you have.
The date field is the start date of the order, and finally there are two icons associated with each template at the right which tell the system whether the entry is to be inserted in the sales or purchase ledger. By using two of the templates you can create a standing order to pay off one account with another - ie. paying off a credit card from your bank account. Because the standing orders are automatic (they are inserted every time you LOAD your file) you can use them for regular income or payments regardless of whether they are 'real' standing orders or direct debits. As soon as they have appeared in the ledgers you can edit the ledger entries as much as you like so it doesn't matter if the amount specified in the template is not correct or has changed (eg. a mortgage payment).
To delete a template, delete the start date and press RETURN.
If you run out of ledger space, this can be increased (or decreased) by altering the settings in the preferences window (select 'Preferences' under 'Miscellaneous' in the main menu). In order for any changes in size to have effect, the file will need saving and re-loading. However, on loading a file Prophet checks how much space you have and if there isn't much will automatically increase the preferences (subject to memory), so in practice you will probably never need to adjust the preferences window.
To save your work for the first time, select 'Save' from the main menu and drag the save icon to any destination (ie. a floppy disc window or your hard drive window). You can also give the file a name in this window (such as 'Accs91/92' but remember that file names in general must not include spaces and can only be 10 characters long).
The preference window has two features incorporated which will automatically save your work every xxx minutes and/or save your work on quitting the program. These features can be toggled on or off and a warning window can also be toggled on or off. However they will not work until you have saved your work for the first time since Prophet wont know where to save it to.
Prophet can only operate on one set of accounts at the same time (it is known as a single document editor with multiple views - as opposed to a Desk Top Publishing program for instance which is usually a multiple document editor with single views), so to re-load a file, quit Prophet if it is running and double-click on the new file you want to load.
If you only have a floppy disc drive, and you keep your work files on a separate disc, then insert your Prophet disc first and click on the drive icon before inserting your work disc and double clicking on the file. This only applies when first turning on the computer, and it basically tells the computer where it can find Prophet in order to load both it and your file.
To quit Prophet, click the menu mouse button over Prophet's icon on the icon bar and click on the quit option which appears in the menu.
You will be warned if you have added or altered any entries without saving the file before quitting, so click on 'No' if you want to save it first, or 'Yes' to quit and lose any changes.
STOCK CONTROL Select the 'Stock' icon under the 'Stock' heading from the main menu. This opens the stock database window. Most of the fields should be self explanatory. The window shows a single stock card, with all the relevant information relating to the product. This includes information on how well the product is selling - see the 'Sold Current' and 'Sold Previous' fields. Obviously these will be blank until you start selling your products, but as time goes on they will give you up to date information on which items are doing well (and which are not!). In the main menu there is another option 'Best Sellers' which compiles this information by quantity and profit across your entire range of products, giving invaluable information for future trends and growth.
Like the 'Sold' fields the 'Description' field also has an associated main menu option - 'Stock Index'. By including key words in related stock cards, the index can be used to compile instant lists of related products, and by clicking in the index the relevant stock card can be displayed showing full information. This is invaluable for comparing products and giving telephone quotes. The 'Location/Ref' field can be used to record the whereabouts of an item for instant retrieval (especially useful in a warehouse situation) and the re-order minimum and quantity levels will ensure you always have the stock available when used with the automatic re-ordering facilities within Prophet.
The function key icons at the bottom of the window (or the function keys themselves) are used to move around the stock cards and together with the 'Find' option and the stock index any card can be found with ease. The 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' keys can also be used to step through the records, and to speed up the process of entering your stock initially, pressing the RETURN key after entering the (optional) heading will automatically step to the next record. The 'Insert' key as in all areas of Prophet will take you straight to the next free card.
The supplier field can be filled in either by typing in the supplier's name or a part of it or selecting one from the menu (press the menu mouse button with the pointer in the 'Supplier' field). If a supplier is not in the database you are given the option of allocating a new supplier record without the need to open the suppliers database window.
If you alter a suppliers name in the database, all related stock records will also change accordingly, this also applies to the customers database and all the ledgers, so should a supplier or customer change their name (or you need to correct a spelling mistake) everything will be updated for you.
The List and Cost prices can be input up to 4 decimal places and the Cost and Retail price is intelligently linked to the List price, so a change in List will automatically adjust the Cost and Retail (but both can be over-ridden if necessary).
Up to three suppliers can be associated with each record hence the extra fields for different supplier order numbers, cost prices and re-order qauntities.
A stock record can also consist of other stock records (this is known as a stock macro). To change a record from an ordinary record to a macro highlight and click on the 'On Order' field just above the 'Find' icon. A warning message will appear, just click on 'OK' (this appears because this feature of Prophet is somewhat powerful and some thought is necessary before you experiment!). The field to the right is where you tell Prophet which records this macro consists of. If it consists of record 2 then type a '2'. If it consists of more than a quantity of one of record 2 then enclose the quantity in brackets after the record number, ie. 2(5). If it includes more than record then separate each record with a comma, ie. a macro which consists of:
Record Quantity
1 4
5 1
7 2
10 50
type: 1(4),5,7(2),10(50) in the macro field. (If the quantity is 1 there is no need to use the brackets).
Fractions can also be used as quantities, ie; if record 1 contains wine sold by the case and you only want half a case then type a quantity of 0.5 (the '0' isn't necessary but is used here to show the decimal point).
When you sell a stock macro (when invoicing), all the parts that make it up will then have their current stock adjusted to reflect the macro quantities.
Although a macro connot consist of other macro's which contain individual records it can consist of another macro which has a blank macro field. The point of this is the ability to include a service charge within the cost (the cost price is automatically calculated from the cost of the component parts). The point of using a record to show the service or labour charge and making that record a macro is because macro's are not included in the stock valuation explained next.
Clicking on the 'Valuation' icon gives you an instant stock valuation which can be used for insurance and end of year figures. The valuation does not include any macro's since the value of these will have already been accounted for by the individual records which make it up.
The 'Delete' icon will delete the stock record (but only if there is no stock left and it is not 'On Order').
If you are entering new products with very similar features, there are short cut keys which enable you to copy parts of or complete records from one card to another. Pressing the SHIFT and COPY keys together will copy a single field from (see the 'Copy From' icon) one record to another, and pressing the CTRL and SHIFT and COPY keys together will copy a complete record.
The stock database menu (click menu in the window) gives you options to print labels for information or pricing purposes and stock lists for stock taking and catalogue purposes.
The full version of Prophet has many extra features regarding stock control: multiple suppliers/cost/re-order quantities/stock numbers for each record, sorting by different fields, editable purchase orders (you can even order items not in the stock database), stock macros where selling a single item will update other related stock cards, exporting of the database to produce catalogues and back ordering of fast selling stock.
PURCHASE ORDERS An important feature of Prophet is its use of the RiscOS printer drivers for printing. Purchase orders, Invoices, Statements, Credit and Delivery notes can be set up exactly as you want them. Each element can have a different font, font size, justification and position. Unwanted elements (such as VAT for non-registered users) can be turned off.
Prophet can also print direct to your printer in text mode if necessary, so even though you wont have the control associated with using the RiscOS printer drivers, the speed will be very much quicker - in fact as fast as your printer is capable of going.
Although you can't print with this version of Prophet, you can still set the templates up which are used for printing. They are displayed and edited in 'WYSIWYG' format which means What You See (on screen) Is What You Get (when printed). Certain elements are shown with a print position border (and editable heading) since the data will only be known and inserted when the document is printed.
To see the purchase order template, select 'Order Notes' under 'Stock' from the main menu, then select 'Template' from the new menu which appears.
In order to use different fonts (other than the system font) you will need both some fonts and the outline font manager. These are available from Acorn and most dealers. If you have RiscOS 3 installed then you will already have these.
When the window has opened click the menu button anywhere in a BLANK area of the window. This brings up a general menu, giving you control over the paper size, a starting font, the area for the actual stock data being re-ordered to be printed in and 'View with' options.
Clicking menu WITHIN an element in the template brings up an individual menu from where the font, font size, justification and position can be set. Your details (ie. company name and address etc) will be inserted as soon as you have filled them in in the 'User Details' window selected from the main menu (under 'Miscellaneous').
Each element can also be dragged around the window by pressing and holding down the 'Select' mouse button then dragging the mouse and releasing 'Select'. The other templates can be found by selecting 'Invoice/Credit' and 'Statements' both under 'Invoicing' in the main menu.
Purchase orders can be produced individually or en-masse with automatic safety features to ensure items are not re-ordered accidentally. The 'On Order (or macro)' field is used to remind you that an item has been ordered and will show the order number and any extra back orders. The order number can be edited any time you want by clicking on 'Order Notes' under 'Stock' in the main menu and then 'Order Number' from the menu which appears. Like invoice numbers these are automatically incremented and can include text as well as numbers, so generally speaking, once set, they can be ignored.
When an order is received the stock records can be updated by adding in the new stock to the 'Current Stock' field in the stock database. To make this easy the plus and minus keys can be used, so if the 'Current Stock' is 57 and you receive a further 168 then put the cursor in the field and type in +168 and press RETURN.
INVOICING and STATEMENTS Prophet has the most extensive invoicing facilities of any computer program yet produced. At first sight this can seem quite daunting, but after a little practice it becomes second nature. Select 'Invoice/Credit' from the main menu, then 'New/Edit' from the newly opened menu.
Before you can produce an invoice, a customer needs to be selected from the customers database. If you produce one-off invoices or receipts a single record in the database can be used to temporarily hold the customers name and address (since you will have to type it in somewhere we have used the same method for both one-off and general credit customers).
To select a customer click menu in the 'Customer' field or type in the whole or part of the name and press RETURN. Remember, because of the in-string search routines used in Prophet, typing in a single letter will find any customers name which contains it, therefore it is best to type in more than one character or use the menu. Having said all this though, by far the best method of invoicing is to open the customer database, find or type in a new customer and click on the Invoice icon (or press function key F1). This opens up a current invoice to this customer ready to go. You can then use the first method to continue invoicing different customers without referring to the database again.
Both discounts and commission or royalty payments can be included on individual items within the same invoice, VAT rates can be mixed (and the resulting sales ledger entries cope with it automatically), early settlement discounting and surcharging are provided for (with the option to exclude individual items - particularly useful for excluding carriage charges from discounts). An overall discount can also be used by specifying the discount in the customers record in the database.
You have the option to have the VAT calculated on the discounted value (as in the U.K.) or the full value and this option can be toggled off at any time (so any change in the U.K. rules can be reflected in the program without the need for an upgrade - this naturally also applies to the VAT rates and VAT return - currently set for the January 1993 UK return - Prophet can also produce EC sales lists if you export to the EC).
Items within an invoice can be selected directly from the stock database by record or stock number (with the sold figures updated there and then) or typed in without any relation to the stock database. The latter lets you issue invoices for services which can consist of lengthy multiple line descriptions followed by a price. Both can be freely mixed in the same invoice and the invoice itself can be tailored to include only the elements you want printed and at the positions you want them printed - from a full record to simply a description starting on the left with a price on the right (perfect for service or non VAT businesses).
Prices selected from the stock database can be at 'Cost' 'List', 'Retail Exclusive' or 'Retail Inclusive' by clicking on the relevant icon. The three options can also be mixed within the same invoice. Alternatively, the price of an item can be typed in separately or altered. The 'Retail Inclusive' option can be very useful to service businesses such as hotels who generally quote VAT inclusive prices. Because of VAT rounding, selecting 'Retail Inclusive' will force a final total to be inserted despite 'how many' of a certain item you are invoicing - ie. 5 nights at £20 inclusive (£17.02 x 5 + VAT) will result in a total of £99.99 because of VAT rounding, but using the inclusive price will give the correct result of £100 (the extra penny is always allocated to the VAT amount to satisfy Customs & Excise).
Invoices can be printed individually or en-masse, and ALL your invoices can be saved COMPLETE for later re-printing or viewing. Invoices can also be put on hold until a later date giving you the flexibility of entering an invoice but not printing it when doing an invoice run until the goods are ready for shipping.
Credit notes can be produced (with the values entered as positive figures - unlike many programs which require a negative value invoice to be issued) and they can be included in a general invoice run as well if necessary. If you need to issue a credit note which relates directly to a previously issued invoice, the old invoice can be converted into a credit note by clicking on the INVOICE icon at the bottom right of the invoice window. Old invoices can be recalled for editing or re-printing by clicking the mouse button in the 'Inv Num' field. The list produced applies to the current customer.
The invoicing section can also be used for issuing Quotes & Estimates or general work sheets. Both of which can be converted into a real invoice whenever you want. The beauty of this is that you can send a quote, convert it to an invoice and even change it into a credit note having only ever entered the original details once, and since like everything else in Prophet it is always editable any mistakes can be rectified and the whole thing re-issued with very little fuss.
Statements can be produced individually or en-masse and they are compiled directly from the sales ledger, with control over your credit terms and automatic inclusion of user-definable overdue messages relating to the age of the debt. To update an unpaid invoice is simply a case of altering the entry in the ledger (there is no need to alter the original invoice). Clicking on the 'Account' icon in the customers record in the database is another way of updating unpaid items and will also show you the customers account details including how much they have spent and how much they owe.
VAT RETURN This is extremely comprehensive. It is also programmable so changes to the rules can be implemented easily. As stated earlier Prophet comes ready set up for the latest U.K VAT return (as at Jan 1993) including the two new EC boxes, all you may need to adjust are the start month and period. Selecting 'VAT Return' under 'Miscellaneous' in the main menu opens the window, and clicking the mouse Menu button in the window opens up the control window where you can select which VAT period you want to see including the current one. Although you cannot print out the listing and summary in this version you can still view the totals by clicking on the 'Totals only' icon. Unlike most accounting programs (including all the others available for the Archimedes) you can view old or current returns whenever you want. EC sales lists are available as a report from the sales ledger. Prophet has been approved by Customs & Excise for VAT purposes.
GENERAL NOTES Prophet does not use a nominal ledger since the sales/purchase and bank ledgers cover everything. It is unusual in that there is no need to set up an accounting period. ALL your entries are kept and all reports can be compiled at any time relating to any period. ALL input can be edited at all times, so you can correct a spelling mistake, or change an account or heading without the need for an extra correcting entry, this is of major benefit and few accounting programs allow (or more to the point can even handle) this.
Because Prophet can print invoices directly you have the choice of fast printing by using your printers internal fonts or graphics printing using the RiscOS printer drivers.
Prophet is compliant with all versions of RiscOS including 2,3 and the current RiscPC.
If you are not a limited company (ie. you are a sole trader or partnership) Prophet's final accounts section will enable you to draw up your accounts ready to be submitted directly to the Inland Revenue, cutting out the expense of using an accountant - obviously this does depend a little on how complicated your tax affairs are, but if you have not dealt directly with the Inland Revenue before, Prophet's manual goes a long way into explaining the procedures and reports you will need and how to compile them.
Many independant book-keeping services (and accountants) use Prophet as it has two main advantages over all other available accounting software for the Archimedes and RiscPC range, firstly all entries are editable at all times - so you can enter a complete years worth in one go and then edit any mistakes you subsequently find, and secondly you can open as many sets of accounts as you wish.
Finally we hope you enjoy this version of Prophet and if you wish to get in contact please telephone or fax us on: O1354 68O432 or write to:
Apricote Studios
2 Purls Bridge Farm
Manea, Cambs
PE15 OND
ps. Using our !Transfer program you can copy any fields in Prophet to other fields both in Prophet and many other RiscOS applications (eg. to copy a name & address from Prophet to a D.T.P program when writing a letter). £18.95 (this is supplied free with the full version of Prophet).
ps. If you are not an accountant you will be pleased to know that 'accounting lingo' in the manual has been kept to the minimum, and those words that are used are explained IN ENGLISH.
KEYBOARD SHORT CUTS:
Ctrl + A Select Calculator
Ctrl + C Copy previous record/entry (if current blank)
Ctrl + D Deletes current entry
Ctrl + F Opens search/find windows
Ctrl + I Selects current invoice from customer record or existing invoice
Ctrl + K Deletes whole page of entries (5)
Ctrl + Q Select Main Menu
Ctrl + R Replaces/undoes last copy/delete/replace
Ctrl + S Swap case of character at cursor
Ctrl + U Delete field contents
Ctrl + V Paste field above current field into current field (all ledgers)
Home Go to first record databases/ledgers/find first match in FIND window
Print Activate printer in any print page
Insert New sale in retail sales window
" New record in database
" New entry in ledgers
" New customer when invoicing
Delete Delete character to left of cursor
Copy Delete character to right of cursor
Page Up Move back a record (databases), back a page (ledgers), FIND window: previous match
Page Down Move to next record (databases), next page (ledgers), FIND window:next match
Cursor left Move caret left one character
Cursor right Move caret right one character
Cursor up Move to field above
Cursor down Move to field below
Shift + left Move to field left
Shift + right Move to field right
Shift + Copy Copy single field from xxx to current record
Ctrl+Shift+Copy Copy complete record from xxx to current
Tab Move to next field
Shift+Tab Move to previous field
#+number Select supplier/customer record
Escape Close current window/Abort printer or report operation
Function Keys
Key +Shift +Ctrl +Shift+Ctrl
F1 Open current invoice Customers Database Toggle Inv/Crd Note Stock/rec num
F5 Move to first rec/entry Suppliers Database Unpaid/Account details
F6 Back 100 recs/25 ents Purchase Ledger Purchase Reports
F7 Back 10 recs/5 entries Purchase Headings
F8 Back 1 record/1 entry Stock Database Stock Index
F9 Forward 1 rec/1 entry Bank Ledger Bank Reports
F10 Forw. 10 recs/5 entries Bank Accounts Profit & Loss
F11 Forw. 100 recs/25 ents Last record/entry Passwords Preferences
F12 Command Line Closedown
!!!STOP PRESS!!!
Version 2 of Prophet will be available from November 1994 onwards. This has many new features as well as a re-designed front-end (or user-interface to use the jargon). Please contact us for details. (Tel/Fax: O1354 68O432)
If you want to print this file, assuming you are viewing it in !Edit, simply press the Print key on the keyboard.
