Business Heaven

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Business Heaven / Business Heaven.iso / accnting / sgl / sgl.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-06-17 | 28KB | 631 lines

S.G.L. GENERAL LEDGER Version 1.3 This general ledger application is for those small businesses not needing a full accounting and complex application to maintain their business needs. It will not generate payrolls, invoices, checks, etc. It's a back to basics small business double entry general ledger application. If you are still using a hand posting system because everything you have seen for computers is so complex that you would rather do it by hand, then take a close look at this application. It may be just what you have been waiting for. The above is not intended to give you the impression that this program is somehow limited...not for it's intended purposes. Unless you consider about a million accounts limited (999,999 to be exact). Three data entry modules are included for Cash Disbursements, Cash Receipts and General Journal entries. It's ability to maintain many income and cost centers also makes it a very powerful application. Allowing for this many accounts is one thing, maintaining them is another. By assigning each account to groups and categories, reports can be more compact and still meaningful. Since accounts with no activities can be ignored, as many accounts as may be needed can be added in case of future needs. This also allows you to keep up with many small detailed accounts which otherwise would not be feasible. You may have some subsidiary ledgers to maintain some of these details that this application can eliminate. An example could be your notes payables. Creating an account for each note and simply assigning it to a category called "Notes Payable". This would allow you to maintain each note balance and yet print reports only reflecting the total of these accounts. This application will also allow you to print a report of a single category which is essentially a printout of a subsidiary ledger. Other useful examples are discussed in the accounts set up below. Following are instructions in the use of the application. A sample set of accounts is included to get you going. You can change, add or delete accounts as needed. One note however, the program will not let you delete accounts that have amounts posted to them...if they have any debit or credit balances. Requirements for this application is at least 512k computer memory and a hard disk. A color system is highly recommended as the program makes use of color extensively. A proper CONFIG.SYS file is also required. If you get an error message of "too many files" or "cannot open file" see CONFIG SYS title below. You are allowed up to 100 bank accounts (or cash accounts). Since you are able to simply enter as many distributions as you wish, this eliminates any limitations as to how many amounts can be distributed by a check disbursement or receipt. Simply keep using the same check number and the printed journal will total the amounts for your records. Make sure to experiment with the reference field in the General Journals as well...since each is subtotaled in the journals, many entries can be entered for special purposes. For example, a "Sales" or "Purchases" reference could be used to keep up with those totals. You may also find them useful for departmental needs. When journals are posted to the general ledger accounts, the final journals are also printed. This allows you to make sure you have a final hard copy of what was posted. Your accountant will want you to keep these for your records, as well as for your record purposes. It's your only way to find out how some crazy amount is showing up on your financial reports. This is also what's called an audit trail (a way to track back an account's history). It's important that you understand the use of the keyboard keys in the use of this application. Following is a brief description of their uses. Otherwise, you may not know how to add new checks or receipts, etc. If you have a color system and the program does not display in color, try entering MODE CO80 just prior to running it. Some applications leave your system set in a mono mode. To run the program, copy all the files into a new directory on your hard disk. For data entries, enter SGL which will run the data entry program. For reports, enter SGLRPT to execute the report program. These are identified as the SGL.BAT and SGLRPT.BAT files. Please feel free to make copies of this application for anyone you think may have need of it. If you like it and would like to use it, it's registration cost is 35.00. You will then be sent the registered version. It has the added capabilities of maintaining a history file of all transactions and reports to view them. You will also be sent an index file rebuilder should you ever have need of it. Feedback is welcome. Your support is appreciated. I. J. Smith 9795 Rustling Oaks Baton Rouge, LA 70818 FUNCTION KEY USAGE The following keyboard keys are used throughout the program. For example, when a table of records is displayed, pressing the INSERT key will pop up a window to allow entry of a new record. An informational line will appear at the top with a message such as 'This record will be added' or 'Press ENTER to delete'. You can press the ESC key to cancel or in the case of the deletion, press ENTER and the record is then removed. You may find it easier to add records by being situated where you want to add the record... thus the use of the INSert key. KEY FUNCTION ------- --------------------------------------------- INSert Used for adding new records. Record will automatically be inserted in proper position. Use this key to add new checks, receipts, journal entries, accounts, etc. DELete Used for deleting highlighted records. You will also be prompted to press Enter or ESC to cancel the deletion. ENTER Used for changing highlighted record or for selections in prompts. When you are prompted for a choice, the Enter key will only choose that choice...otherwise it allows you to make changes to that record. ESC Cancel or exit. ARROW KEYS These keys are used to scroll thru the records one at a time. PgUp Displays previous window of records. PgDn Displays next window of records. CTRL PgUp Displays records from beginning of file. CTRL PgDn Displays records from end of file. LOCATOR Locator fields are used to locate records more quickly. As you enter the number desired, the program will highlight the nearest record found. These are located in the upper left corners of the record table windows. Make sure you try these out as they will make data entry much quicker with large files. The data entry windows are fairly straight forward. You simply add or change data as needed with the INSERT or ENTER keys. Use of the ESC key also allows you to back out of entries. Lookup fields are also used in some of the tables. By simply entering one digit at a time, the table will scroll towards the number of the record you are looking for. When choosing file entry options, if there are no records in the file, a record entry window will automatically appear for your entry. Simply press the INSert key for further additions. SCREEN BLANKER The program has a built in feature that will blank the monitor screen after 10 minutes of inactivity. This feature is to help protect your screen from burn in. Simply press one of the arrow keys to refresh the screen display. THE MAIN MENU All of the options from this menu will present another menu of options corresponding to that description. The Cash Disbursements, Cash Receipts and General Journal options each have four options. The first option "Entries" will present a table. If their are no previously unposted items, a window will automatically appear for the first entry. The second line is a message line and will read "Record will be added". This message line will appear on all data entry windows to let you know if the record is to be changed, added or deleted. Once an entry appears on the table, you must use the INSert key to add more entries. If you only want to change a previously entered record, simply highlight it and press Enter...check the message. Please read the following for entering Cash Disbursements since the Cash Receipts are entered in a similar fashion. Many defaults are used to make your data entries easier...if the proper date is displayed then simply press the Enter key to accept it, etc. The Cash Disbursements and Cash Receipts "Entries" option will present the bank (or cash) accounts to choose from for your current entries. Highlight the account to use by using the arrow keys and then pressing Enter. A second prompt will with the name of the account and allow you to proceed or pressing the ESC key to cancel and reselect. If you enter disbursements for different bank accounts by ESCaping and re-entering the "Entries" option, feel free to do so. The printed journal will total each account individually for you. The program allows you to use up to 100 bank or cash accounts. This could be useful to perhaps track your Petty Cash disbursements as well. Unlike some check book type programs, do not enter minus amounts except for specific purposes. You can enter minus amounts with the minus key but this should only be used in such cases as wanting to offset a previously entered item...such as a check which was later voided. While the other data entry modules will not allow zero amounts, the Cash Disbursements data entry screen will allow it. This gives you the capability of entering voided checks so as to maintain a record of all of your check numbers. CASH DISBURSEMENTS: Your first prompt will be for a number which is obviously intended to be a check number. You can use the same check number as many times as needed. This allows for unlimited account distributions of a check. The printed journal also acts as an edit register so that you can check your entries prior to posting them and making changes as needed. The journal will also total each check individually so that you can make sure your check totals out properly. Your next prompt is for the date of the check. The third prompt is for the payee or name that the check (or cash) is being disbursed. Your next prompt is for the amount being disbursed. Keep in mind that you will have to enter what portion you want to charge a specific account. Your next prompt will automatically present the Accounts Table of records for you to choose which account you want this amount to be applied. You can use the arrow keys, PgUp or PgDn keys, or enter the number desired. Once the proper account is highlighted, press the Enter key. Keep in mind that if you press the INSert key, you are allowed to enter new accounts. Once the selection is made, you can then enter a brief memo description for this disbursement. While it is not mandatory, a small note of some kind can be very helpful months later when you are looking through your journals for a specific entry. As noted above, to add the next disbursement entry, press the INSert key or ESC key to return to the menu. The second menu option will print a journal for you to check your entries. If you know your entries are correct, the next option will also print a final journal. The third menu option "Post Entries" will post and print a final journal for your records. CASH RECEIPTS: As described above, these entries are similar to the cash disbursements...except that the bank account chosen will be debited and other accounts credited. GENERAL JOURNAL The general journal differs from the above by allowing for a reference rather then a check or deposit number. Since the printed journal will total by reference, this allows for grouping like entries such as Sales, Purchases, etc. You will be presented with the accounts table for both accounts... the account to be debited and the one to be credited. Again, the use of the memo field is urged for brief descriptions and record purposes. FILES MENU Use this menu to maintain your master data files. Listings are also available so that you can keep hard copies for reference. The Accounts, Groups, Categories and Owners files are readily accessible from this menu. Obviously, one of the first things you will want to change is the owner's name. Try to center the name in the field allowed. You can use the insert and delete keys to make this easier. ACCOUNTS It's important to understand the account numbering system and the use of the Groups and Categories used in this program. Since the accounts are posted by their numbers, no two identical numbers are allowed. If you attempt to delete an account with any debit or credit amounts posted, the program will only allow you to change it. You will notice that only beginning balances are allowed when entering or changing accounts. This is done to maintain an audit trail of the period and year to date amounts. In other words, these amounts can only be changed through the journal entries. It's your only way to find out how an unexplained amount is showing up on your financial statement or trial balance...assuming you have kept your final printed journals filed away. Besides, your accountant would not like this program if it did otherwise...makes his job easier... to say nothing of the IRS. Bank or cash accounts to be used in the Cash Distribution and Cash Receipts entries are restricted to the first one hundred numbers. While this limits the accounts to 100, it also makes it easier to choose the proper account when entering the Cash Disbursement or Cash Receipts "Entries" menu options. The following numbering system must be used to properly reflect amounts in the Balance Sheet and Income Statement reports. IMPORTANT ACCOUNT NUMBERING Bank and Cash accounts 1 - 100 Other Asset accounts 101 - 299,999 Liability and Capital accounts 300,000 - 499,949 Retained Earnings account 499,950 - 499,999 Income and Expense accounts over 500,000 It's highly recommended that you keep your account numbering similar to the furnished sample accounts until you become familiar with their uses. The financial reports will clear up their many uses. You may want to contact your accountant for proper setup. It's very important to understand the way that the program sorts and makes use of them. During journal entries and accounts maintenance, you will be selecting accounts by their numbers. Therefore, you need to assign ranges of numbers to be used in each category and group. Many of the reports will print in the order of group, category, and then by account number. If you experiment with the sample files and print the various reports, the concepts will be much clearer. While the program does not have a job cost module, many users will find the use of categories to be all they need...see examples in the furnished sample chart of accounts. The single category report can be used for reports of single jobs and the single group report for all jobs. As you may have noticed in the sample chart of accounts, you are allowed up to 999 categories per group. Used properly, many income and cost centers can be created. Once you are satisfied with the program, simply recopy the sample files over your present ones. It's a good idea to remove all accounts that you will not have need of. This will help eliminate the chance of posting amounts to these accounts by mistake. From the files menu, select the accounts. Simply highlight the account you want to remove, press the DELete key and then the Enter key. It's just that easy. You will probably want to change some of the groups next, and then the categories before adding your new accounts. I hope that the above gives you a good perspective of the programs features and power. With just a small set of accounts, a small business can get started and add as needed...knowing that this is an application that can grow with the business. GROUPS: These are the main titles or groupings used in the financial statements such as ASSETS, LIABILITIES, CAPITAL, etc. Again, see listing of the sample groups furnished with the program. Since you are not likely to need many of these, upper case letters A to Z are used for numbering them. CATEGORIES: These are the ones you want to use for the grouping of your accounts so that their totals will print as one on various reports. Each is assigned to a main group above. You will be automatically prompted for the group that the category will be assigned to. You are allowed up to 999 categories numbered 1 thru 999 per group. The use of the groups, categories, and account numbering can be much clearer after entering sample data into the sample data files furnished; and then trying the various reports from the reports menu. It's recommended that you copy all the files into a test directory and then experimenting with them. After you are satisfied and familiar with the concepts used, simply re-copy the original files over the test ones and you are ready to go. OWNERS: You are allowed to have different owner records if desired. However, they will only be of use for the name to appear on the reports described below. It's recommended that you only use one record for this purpose. You must also assign the retained earnings account to the record...see numbering system above. REPORTS PROGRAM MENU The reports furnished should be familiar to those knowledgeable of basic accounting principles. Since these reports are designed to print the name of the company, you will be prompted for the company name to use for the reports. The Trial Balances are used to provide a record of the total amounts of the various accounts. The Period trial balance is included for those wanting to check the amounts posted for the period only. This should be printed prior to starting a new period from the Period Ending menu. Income statements are provided for both the period and year to date. Again, the period statement should be printed prior to starting a new period from the Period Ending menu. The Balance Sheet will print the total amounts to date. The single category report gives you the capability of printing all the accounts and their balances assigned to a category. You will be prompted for the category desired. PERIOD ENDING MENU Use this menu to reset the period or year (start a new period or new year). The "Start New Period" option will post period amounts to the year to date amounts and set the period amounts to zero. As the name implies, use this to start a new period (usually a month). The "Start New Year" option is a more final re-setting of accounts. It will reset all period and year to date amounts to zero and place the income or loss amount to the retained earnings account. Make sure you have printed all needed reports before choosing these options. A period trial balance will automatically be printed with these options. Since the new year option will reset all accounts with numbers over 499,999 to complete zeroes, you should print a trial balance to date and review it prior to this option...you may wnat to enter a few adjusting entries first. You may also want to make a backup of the files in case you see somthing later. Since the registered version maintains a history file of transactions, this step may not be as critical since you can always go back and reconstruct. CONFIG.SYS file As stated above, the program will not work without a proper CONFIG.SYS file in your root directory. It should contain lines of code such as: files=30 buffers=24 You can use your editor to check for these lines of code. You can check for it's existence by simply entering TYPE CONFIG.SYS at the prompt of your root directory. If DOS returns a file not found message, you can copy the CONFIG.DTA file included with this application. Make sure it is in the root directory and you must rename it CONFIG.SYS. You must restart your system for this file to take effect. If you get a message stating "too many files" when trying to run the program, it's almost certain to be the lack of a proper CONFIG.SYS file. INITIAL SET UP SAMPLE DATA HAS BEEN PLACED IN THE FILES SO THAT FIRST TIME USERS CAN SEE THE MANY CAPABILITIES OF THIS PROGRAM. TO CLEAN OUT THIS DATA, CHOOSE THE YEAR END RESET WHICH WILL PLACE THE DATA TO BEGINNING BALANCES. THEN PRINT A TO-DATE TRIAL BALANCE. YOU CAN THEN STEP THROUGH THE ACCOUNTS WITH BALANCES AND SIMPLY ZERO THE AMOUNTS. YOU ARE NOW READY TO ADD, DELETE OR CHANGE ACCOUNTS FOR YOUR PARTICULAR NEEDS. REMEMBER, IF AN ACCOUNT DOES NOT APPEAR IN YOUR REPORTS AS EXPECTED, SIMPLY CHANGE THE ACCOUNT AS DESIRED. - - - This program is a major application and is designed to make use of 512k ram memory of your computer. Avoid the use of shells or menuing programs that rob your computer memory. If you have any problems with the program, run it from the DOS prompt or a BAT file. - - - - - - - - This file can be sent to your printer by typing the following at the DOS prompt: COPY SGL.DOC PRN The shareware concept can be great for all. When in doubt about shareware programs, contact the authors. Many distributors of shareware applications may also be able to vouch for the validity of the authors. The absence of any complaints of an established author gives you peace of mind that your check will get a response. ================================================================ DISCLAIMER ---------------------------------------------------------------- USER ASSUMES ALL LIABILITIES IN THE USE OF THIS APPLICATION. DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS PROGRAM AND THE MANY VARIOUS COMPUTERS AND OPERATING SYSTEMS BEING USED, IT IS THE USER'S RESPONSIBILITY TO INSURE THE FITNESS OF THE PROGRAM FOR IT'S INTENDED PURPOSE. THE APPLICATION HAS BEEN TESTED. HOWEVER, IT IS STILL THE USER'S RESPONSIBILITY TO UNDERSTAND AND USE IT PROPERLY. NO WARRANTIES ARE EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. AS WITH ALL COMPUTERS, BACKUPS OF ALL IMPORTANT DATA FILES SHOULD BE MADE PERIODICALLY. ================================================================ Some other programs in this series by this author you may want to try out also: EASY INVENTORY Business inventory program SALES LOG Optional interfacing version to Easy Inventory EIMS Equipment Inventory & Maintenance Scheduler BID-BIZ Powerful Estimating - OTHERS AVAILABLE - ORDER FORM Company Name: _____________________________________ Address: _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ Program: SGL DISK FORMAT DESIRED 5 1/4 360k _______ 5 1/4 1.2 HD _______ 3 1/2 760K _______ 3 1/2 1.4 HD _______ Foreign orders: Please add 5.00 for shipping. Check must be made payable on U.S. bank...otherwise add 10.00 for bank collection fees.