Black Box 4/BlackBox.cdr/finance/page112d.arj/README.111

Text File | 1991-09-12 | 26KB | 543 lines

V1.11 ENHANCEMENTS SINCE V1.06
==============================

01) Altering a customer despatch postcode during sales invoicing forces
    capital letters.

02) The customer file "UK-Home" prompt is changed to "VAT-liable".

03) If the customer address is altered in the customer file program, there
    is a prompt to alter the despatch address too.

04) The Sales Monthly Transactions report aborts fully on escape.

05) The customer delivery address program keeps the customer code in memory,
    as a prompt for the next sales ledger program.

06) The Sales Analysis by Invoice allows search by credit note properly.

07) Sales Analysis by Category shows quantity as well as value (with a shorter
    item  description).

08) Sales Analysis by Customer is now sortable by that customer's orders (i.e.
    by date).

09) An are-you-sure message appears before deleting Sales Analysis.

10) There is an option in Utilities/Various to disable Sales Analysis (and
    Purchase Analysis) recording. This makes invoicing appreciably faster, and
    leads to much saving on disk space.

11) Purchase Invoicing allows abort just before entering the supplier's
    invoice number.

12) Purchase Monthly Transactions report aborts fully on escape.

13) Purchase Ledger remittance advices show the cheque number, if entered.

14) Stock is now valued by AVCO (Average Costing). This shows on the record
    card along with the Current (Replacement) item cost. Replacement cost is
    still used in B-O-M and Job Costing, as generally preferred. Data from
    Page versions before v1.07 will be converted with unit AVCO equal to the
    current cost. If you must have a genuine AVCO immediately, do a stock
    adjustment to make an item's quantity in hand zero, then adjust the stock
    level back in, when you can enter the item's AVCO.

15) Stock reports selected by category have been speeded up.

16) Stock adjustment allows cost entry, if the previous quantity-in-hand was
    zero. This is especially used if received stock must be put into stock
    regardless of whether an invoice has yet been received.

17) Stock allocated in Sales Order Processing is shown on the stock record.

18) Stock turnover values, month-to-date and year-to-date, are shown on the
    stock record screen.

19) B-O-M now optionally allows you to force the execution of an assembly,
    even when the stock system reports itself out of stock of components.

20) B-O-M assembly report states at the end whether the assembly was executed,
    or whether it is just a non-executed report.

21) There is a new B-O-M disassembly program on the B-O-M menu.


22) There is a new option on the B-O-M menu for multi-line sales invoicing.
    This specialised parts-explosion does not (repeat not) interact with the
    rest of the B-O-M programs. It is a specialised and simplified system for
    sales invoicing. A "Kit" may be set up, containing various quantities of
    up to 12 different stock items. When you invoice out a kit, the invoice
    program checks that there are enough parts in stock. If the invoice can
    be done, an itemised invoice is produced with one line for the kit header
    and one line for each part. If you enter a price for the kit, then that
    price is used or the whole kit, and part lines are not priced. If you
    have put in a zero price for a kit, then the RRP (undiscounted prices)
    for all the parts are added and printed. This system is typically useful
    for garages who may sell parts of exhaust systems, or who may equally
    sell complete exhaust systems made from the same parts.

23) If the Trial Balance has totals over £1,000,000, then the final totals
    will print onto 2 lines.

24) The manual entry of N/L account balances (permitted before any vouchers
    or journals have been entered) no longer gives a worrying "arithmetic
    wrong" message in the Account History, despite the balance not being
    supported by journals.

25) In multi-user mode, journal (voucher) entry occasionally gave Error 666
    the next time the system was run. This is now corrected.

26) The N/L Yearly Transaction report, and the Account History, have now
    been speeded. (The historic vouchers are now added in real-time.)

27) The N/L analysis (used both for Profitability Ratios, and also for VAT
    net analysis) is now done by an extra A-X code rather than by using just
    the account number. The pre-set Sage(tm)-like codes expected numbers 1-
    999 to be Balance Sheet, numbers 1000-1999 to be Sales, etc. This turned
    out to be a very dangerous system for many users who either did not
    really understand the principles of a Nominal Ledger, or who had not
    read the Page manual thoroughly, or who did not have a strict discipline
    on creating new accounts (i.e. it was dangerous for just about everyone,
    including the publishers of Page!) A system has now been created that is
    both much safer, and also more flexible. Each nominal account has an
    analysis code. This code can only be set when creating the account. If
    the code is entered wrongly, a whole new correct account must be created,
    the balance journalled out of the wrong account, and the wrong account
    deleted at year end. The Analysis Codes are:

    A Costs of Sales attributable               P&L
    B Bank/Cash in hand (or overdraft)                 B/S
    C Creditors (Trade) i.e. Purchase Ledger Total/VAT B/S
    D Debtors (Trade) i.e. Sales Ledger Total/VAT      B/S
    E Equity/Capital invested                          B/S
    F Fixed Assets (Plant/Vehicles/Buildings)          B/S
    I Income (other than sales, e.g. bank interest)    P&L
    K Stock in Hand (Purchases and Revaluation)        B/S
    L Long-term debtors and finance                    B/S
    N Non-purchased Overheads (Depreciation etc.)      P&L
    O Overheads Purchased                              P&L
    Q Liquid assets not detailed elsewhere             B/S
    R Raw Materials/Work in Progress valuation         B/S
    S Sales (Net values)                               P&L
    T Corporation Tax (Owed/Provisions)                B/S
    U Stock Usage (used in sales/shrinkage)            P&L
    W Wages and Salaries                               P&L
    X Profit and Loss Reserve Carried Forward          B/S


    The P&L or B/S notes naturally refer to Profit-and-Loss or Balance-Sheet
    type accounts.
    All the default Page accounts, for new systems installed from v1.07 on,
    will have the correct type set up for the user.

28) The List N/L Accounts report, if run selecting the option for all
    accounts, will optionally sort the report by the analysis types of the
    accounts.

29) The Sales Order number 0 can no longer be entered.

30) Sales Order Acknowledgments now show due dates.

31) Sales Despatch Notes now show due dates.

32) Completed (fully invoiced) Sales Orders are now deleted in real-time.

33) Purchase Order number 0 can no longer be entered.

34) Printed Purchase Orders now show due dates.

35) The allocation of items in Purchase Invoicing to a Job now works if the
    invoice is driven by a Purchase Order.

36) Completed (fully invoiced) Purchase Orders are now deleted in real-time.

37) Shop (Till) Sales is now renamed to Bank/Cash receipts. Warning, this
    program is still not to be used instead of Cash Receipts for paid credit
    Sales Invoices!

38) Petty Cash is now renamed to Bank/Cash Payments. Warning, this program
    is still not to be used instead of the usual Payments program for paid
    credit Purchase Invoices!

39) The N/L Voucher double-entry program is now renamed to Journal Entry.

40) The Bank/Cash Receipts (Shop sales) program now asks for a VAT rate,
    rather than for a VAT percentage.

41) The Bank/Cash Payments (Petty Cash) program now asks for a VAT rate,
    rather than for a VAT percentage.

42) The Bank/Cash Receipts (Shop sales) does not ask for a VAT rate if the
    user is not VAT registered.

43) The Quarter-End now checks that the balances in the default sales and
    purchase VAT accounts are zero before the quarter-end will run. You
    will zeroise these accounts by Journal before the Quarter-End. Suppose
    you had £300 as your VAT-owed balance in account 0071, £200 as your
    balance in the VAT-reclaimable account 0073, and you paid the VAT right
    away by cheque from your Bank Account 0089. You would do a Journal to
    debit account 0071 by £300, to credit account 0073 by £200 (i.e. £-200),
    and credit account 0089 by £100 (i.e. £-100). If you were not going to
    raise a cheque immediately, then instead of crediting the bank account
    0089, you would credit the VAT-balance account 0075 by £100 (i.e. £-100).


    The "Quarter-End" is run as the end of your VAT accounting period, and
    is simplest to understand if (1) you use the normal UK VAT scheme, and
    (2) when your accounting quarter matches your VAT period. Here are five
    examples of companies which are "abnormal", with our recommendations.
    In each case, Page will account for VAT with no problems, but any
    problems will arise from users finding it difficult to grasp exactly
    what is happening. (Or, to put it another way, accounts generally and
    VAT especially, were designed by accountants and government departments
    to bamboozle and intimidate ordinary people.)

    Problem 1: your financial year-end does not match the VAT periods you
    have been given. Solution: do quarter-ends at your VAT periods. If your
    year-end falls between two VAT periods, the year-end will automatically
    do a quarter-end too, so add the VAT figures from this "dummy" quarter-
    end to the next "real" quarter-end to give one VAT result.
    Problem 2: you are on VAT Cash Accounting. Solution: the figures you
    need come from the VAT Cash Accounting reports; the other VAT reports
    in the system are not for you. Run the VAT Cash Accounting report each
    month end, and keep it. Total these figures (from three reports) each
    VAT period to give the VAT you should pay. You should also transfer the
    balances from your VAT accounts (0071 and 0073) to your VAT balance
    account (0075) as described above before running the quarter-end. This
    last step does not have any affect on the VAT which you have to pay now,
    but it does tell you how much of your Sales Ledger is not "your" money,
    i.e. it warns you how much is potentially due to the VAT as soon as
    your sales debtors pay you. You should, when you pay the VAT, credit
    your bank account (0089) and debit this VAT balance (0075) account.
    Problem 3: you have dispensation from the VAT to use a 4-4-5 (13 months
    to the year) scheme. Solution: you simply do your period ends as follows:
    M-M-M-Q-M-M-M-Q-M-M-M-M-Y respectively at each "month" end. You have only
    three "quarters" (two reals quarters and one year-end) to each year.
    Problem 4: you are using the new VAT Annual Accounting Scheme. Solution:
    the logic is the same as described above for VAT Cash Accounting. You
    still balance out your VAT accounts in the Nominal (0071, 0073, and
    0075) before the quarter-end. When you pay the agreed VAT, you balance
    accounts 0075 to 0089 to record the payment. As before, the balance
    carried forward in account 0075 will warn you how much is eventually
    going to be payable to the VAT.
    Problem 5: you are in Southern Ireland. Solution: you will have set the
    VAT rates on invoice lines, in Utilities/Various. You will use the VAT
    breakdown by rate monthly report (which will enable you to split your
    purchases into stock for resale and overheads). Finally, you will run
    6 "quarter-ends" each year, for the two-month VAT periods. These steps
    will suffice until 1992, when Southern Ireland is expected to fall in
    step with the rest of Europe.

44) The spelling of "nett" has been changed to "net" in the Profitability
    Ratios.

45) The normal VAT analysis (on-screen) uses the new N/L account type "S"
    to determine sales accounts. Account types AFKNORU are considered as
    purchases. This program is completely accurate on VAT amounts, but if
    it is essential to be 100% sure of net figures, then the monthly figures
    from the new VAT Rate Breakdown should be kept and totalled.

46) The default N/L accounts for Sales VAT, Purchase VAT, Sales Debtors
    Control, and Purchase Creditors Control can now only be changed in the
    Utilities/Various program.


47) The Bank/Cash Payments (Petty cash) program now asks if real cash or a
    cheque was paid, and remembers both the last N/L Bank account and Cash
    accounts used.

48) The VAT breakdown in Sales Invoices is now altered to match the total
    VAT, if the latter is manually altered when invoicing.

49) The VAT menu has a breakdown by VAT Rate, replacing the Retailers VAT
    option. This program should be run monthly, and is the definitive
    source for net sales and net purchases values. These net breakdowns are
    especially needed in some Retailer VAT Schemes, and for splitting stock
    purchases from overheads in Southern Ireland.

50) Some networks (multi-user) which loaded themselves into extended memory
    suffered from conflicting use of internal channels 3 and 4. This has now
    been addressed.

51) The software previously stopped unless the computer had a 100% PC-
    compatible video card. The software will now attempt to continue to run
    in bios-mode rather than hardware-mode.

52) The multi-user Error 666, when one terminal started just as another
    terminal was saving a sales invoice is now prevented.

53) [Enhancement 53, relating to Borland VROOM overlaying, MAY not have been
    implemented because of suspected bugs in Borland's Turbo C++ compiler.]

54) The error of "Stack overflow" (which appeared to have only occurred when
    there were numerous memory-resident programs in memory already) may be
    cured by creating a dummy file called PAGE14.DTD (contents immaterial)
    in the Page data area.

55) Page installation now gives a warning if it runs out of space.

56) A multi-user problem caused by locking help screens has been cured.

57) The print program for the Tutorial and Short Manual (in the shareware
    version) has been made more user-friendly.

58) Escape will now exit at the initial request for a password.

59) The Year End now has an extra option, to allow you to "LEAVE" the N/L
    figures in the system, to allow for manual adjustments from your
    accountant.

60) The Main Menu label for Stock is now altered to Stock & B-O-M.

61) A user with a password which does not allow access to the Nominal Ledger
    cannot now export N/L data out to spreadsheet.

62) A Purchase Historic Analysis system has now been added to the Purchases
    Menu. This is the reverse of the Sales Historic Analysis, though having
    fewer options.

63) The import of stock records is now enabled from an ASCII file.
    Instructions are included with the program and Help Screen. This, and
    the following three options, are shown on a new Data Import/Export
    menu. This menu also includes the Export to Spreadsheet program.


64) The import of customer records is now enabled from an ASCII file.
    Instructions are included with the program and Help Screen.

65) The import of Nominal Vouchers (Journals) is enabled from an ASCII file.
    Instructions are included with the program and Help Screen.

66) The import of completed sales invoices is now enabled from an ASCII file.
    Instructions are included with the program and Help Screen.

67) The Sales Statement program enables selection of all customers with a
    balance, or just those with a 1, 2, or 3 month old balance.

68) The Sales Statement program, if all customers are not selected, now
    offers an end-customer default the same as the start-customer. This makes
    it easier to do a statement for a single customer.

69) The Sales Invoice program, when updating a long invoice, now shows its
    progress through the lines.

70) An optional 2nd invoice layout (Trade/Retail) can now be enabled in the
    Utilities/Various program.

71) An optional 2nd statement layout (Normal/Debtor-Letter) can now be
    enabled in the Utilities/Various program.

72) The Invoice/Statement Layout program can no longer be made to loop by
    entering an impossible and invalid number for detail lines.

73) The Invoice/Statement Layout program will optionallly now allow the entry
    of box-drawing characters (Alt-200, etc.) This is done by entering
    Control-F at the initial Invoice/Statement/Quit prompt. So long as you
    stay in the Layout program, you will be able to use special characters
    for box-drawing. The Help Screen, DOS-entry, etc. will be disabled. The
    cursor keys will not work either, and you will need to move around the
    layout by using the WordStar(tm) keys: Cntrl-E=UP, Cntrl-X=DOWN, Cntrl-S
    =LEFT, and Cntrl-D=RIGHT.

74) The Invoice/Statement Layout program can no longer be crashed if the
    layout has more tildes ("~") than variable field names.

75) There is no longer a problem when upgrading to a new Page version,after
    changing an invoice or statement layout. Other data files do have to be
    converted when upgrading from Page v1.00-v1.06 up to v1.07. A data-file
    upgrade conversion program, and instructions, are available free to
    registered Page users.

76) Purchase Invoicing allows allocation to No-Job properly following an
    allocation to a job on an immediately preceding invoice.

77) Sales and Purchase Analysis show payments made, and the dates invoices
    were fully settled (or credit notes or payments used against invoices).

78) Settlement statistics for invoices shown on Sales and Purchase Histories.

79) Date validation, following errors, is made more user-friendly.

80) Sales Statement offers a search for a single customer code.

81) Stock Transactions (Sales/Purchases) show full customer/supplier code.

82) Heading on Sales Despatch Notes (narrow) has been tidied.


83) Current customer notes field is validated by F4 to 16 number credit card.

84) Supplier file prompt changed from UK to VAT-liable.

85) Stock adjustment prompts made clearer.

86) The Utility to print spooled reports previously kept will allow point-
    and-shoot of reports. These reports are scanned in the default data
    sub-directory. In multi-user systems, only those reports created by the
    current user are shown.

87) The customer credit limit is checked against an order at the Despatch
    Note stage, and a warning given if required.

88) The sales and purchase transaction reports allow selection by type of
    transaction.

89) The Nominal report for the whole year's transactions allows selection
    by a range of dates or voucher numbers.

90) [Enhancement 90, regarding a dummy file PAGE18.DTD in the data area to
    enable Page to attempt to use any Expanded (EMS) memory available, MAY
    not be activated due to suspected bugs in the Borland C++ compiler.]

91) [Enhancement 91, regarding a dummy file PAGE19.DTD in the data area to
    enable Page to attempt to use any Extended (AT) memory available, MAY
    not be activated due to suspected bugs in the Borland C++ compiler.
    The use of extended memory is not standardised, so test thoroughly
    before using this option "live", otherwise memory caches, etc. may be
    found to interfere with Page operation.]

92) Picking List by Customer will optionally show item locations.

93) Stock item COPY-LAST does not copy turnover values.

94) Assembly Report renamed Assembly Execution or Report.

95) A suspected bug in Purchase Cash, when using the show-outstanding pop-up
    function, has been corrected.

96) The VAT Menu is now moved to the bottom of the Nominal Menu.

97) It is now permitted to escape from a Job search in Purchase Invoicing.

98) Purchase credit notes subtract from Job Cost if applicable.

99) The F7 statistics key now also shows the size of Page data files.

100) The program will attempt automatic reconfiguration if files are short.

101) Bill of Materials will no longer permit a product to include itself.
     Relations of the type "A includes B, and B in turn includes A" are too
     complex to be prevented, and produce the predictable results.


THE FOLLOWING ENHANCEMENTS WERE DONE IN VARIOUS V1.11 SUB-RELEASES
==================================================================

    VAT breakdown print option.
    Insert key works as expected.
    Double-blink starting Analysis by Item cured.
    S/Anal extra report to show Profit/Inv/Day.
    N/L History speeded.
    Calculator feeds-back results to input field by "=" next entry.
    S/anal file count on F5 corrected.
    S/Invoice add stock record, keep N/L sales code.
    S/Inv stk. No longer intermittent update of stk price if changed.
    Trial balance (2-line total error) corrected.
    Date input - not clear field if first character not default.
    Stock card & S/Inv - warning if N/L account not type "S".
    Stock enquiries - option for SOP POP details.
    P&S find screen. SOP/POP - show cust/supp name.
    Invoicing by order - escape allowed at request for order no.
    Sales Monthly Transactions Reports defaults to transaction sort.
    Sales Invoicing has been speeded up.
    Sales Invoices do not print 0 line totals, nor VAT Rate on 0 lines.

    Sales Statements. Friendlier choice between ALL and SINGLE.
    Remittance Advices. The ALL option shows an outstanding total.
    Trial Balance. Year-to-Date heading corrected.
    End of Year with Nominal BALANCE option. P&L posting corrected.
    Sales Credit Notes. Correction on Nominal Posting.

    Stock card - alloc on pop-down window.
    Remittances for all.
    Smt select altered.
    Customer t/o rpt selectable by customer price band.
    Extra stock turnover report.

    Search funny if eof==eos. Fixed.
    Credit card validation, ok on 4-4-4-4 but some 4929 4-3-3-3 fail. OK.

    v1.11B:
    Sales Despatch note: DISC% not added to hash total of items.
    SOP / POP: a "zero" quoted price is shown properly as zero on reports.
    S/inv driven from Sales Order - a zero price item is queried.
    Suspected bug in N/L transactions (Turbo C++ bug!) fixed.

    v1.11C:
    Stock %age price change allows part-pence.
    S/invoice: allows up-arrow after notes field (for F4 credit card).
    Profit and loss: total lines go onto two lines for large figures.
    Sales+Purch Invoices: if cash sale, verify N/L bank acct is type "B".
    Item T/O val+qty rpt: shows items even if not stk-level-controlled.

    v1.11D:
    Bug on S/Inv and P/Inv when manually increasing VAT amount fixed.
    P/Invoice defaults to "No Job" rather than "Job".
    Sales Analysis Invoice Profit Report. Extra instructions on screen.
    Profit and Loss Report. Option to sort by P&L type.
    Point-and-shoot add stock. Window for category, VAT and selling price.
    Sales Analysis allows same item twice on same invoice.
    End of Month does not record "last date" if aborted before running.
    Purchase cash. Bug fix after entering cheque number and not updating.

    v1.11E::
    Sales Turnover Report. Sort correctly on pence as well as pounds.
    Stock %age change uses set number of decimal places correctly.
    Altering N/L interface accounts (in Utilities) now enabled.
    Debtor letter option in statements; multi-page bug corrected.

    v1.11F:
    VAT Qtr end less restrictive after upgrade from v1.06 with bad data.
    Voucher (Journal) Entry. Question re VAT is clearer.
    Stock gross prices allow for more than 2 decimal places on validation.
    Ability to set maximum users in multi-user.
    VAT Breakdown by Rate has option for since last qtr end instead of
    month. NB this looks at all dates later than the last quarter end date,
    so perverse operating can generate the wrong figures!
    Sales Orders with %age discount. Bug fixed on consecutive invoicing.
    Job Cost lines. Bug fix when rejecting stock lines.

    v1.11G:
    Calculator - retains decimal point after exit and re-enter.
    Alter pound-sign print character in Utilities. Cursor visible.
    VAT Cash Accounting Report. Shows cash invoices correctly.
    Sales and Purchase Order Outstanding and Picking Lists. Page break fix.
    Password validation (for N/L) corrected in data export module.
    Sales/Purchase Analysis by Item. Page break fix.
    Renaming of kept spoolfiles made tidier.

    v1.11H:
    Sales and Purchase Analysis for single invoice. Spooling corrected.
    Spool print to screen. Exit key no longer obscures end of report.
    VAT Cash Accounting report altered.

    v1.11J:
    Invoices now show unit prices even to over 2 decimal places.
    Month-end cut-off immediately visible if set on month-end screen.
    VAT Cash Accounting warns if it includes future postings.
    Multi-user check on users report.
    Default N/L accounts: remove Sales Export, add Stock as C-O-S.

    v1.11K:
    Alter default creditors/debtors for sales/purch inv/cash.
    Sales invoice adding customer allows backtrack to edit name.
    P/L discounts. Mark supplier file. Pop-up window on P/L cash entry.
    Supplier Purchase History. Check supplier ref vertical alignment.
    Printing spooled reports page-n to page-n. Extra form-feed omitted.

    v1.11L:
    VAT Cash Accounting net values.

    v1.11M:
    Trading Profit and Loss Report added.
    Spurious "Error writing spool file" message removed.
    Password on backspace, check on second password blank.

    v1.11N:
    Sales and Purchase Cash, exit key checked & tidier if back-screen.
    Kit list sales by kit price. Components' turnover recorded at cost.
    P/A Supplier by selected invoice. Bug fix.

** v1.11 was then superceded by v1.12 **