The Business Master (3rd Edition)

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This is the original set of Bulletins all combined into one file for your convenience in downloading and capturing a copy. This information is either needed by you or it is my req- uirement that you have a copy. Certain bits of information must be passed on to you, as a user of this service, and other information must be passed on to anyone you would give a copy of the worksheets that are on this service. Quite obviously, this is also my means of advertising the service to the whole world. This service is free to anyone who calls. Donations are encouraged for the sake of expanding the system and making the service more valuable to YOU and to others. I have invested nearly $7,000 in this system and it has truly been a pleasure so you don't need to feel sorry for me, but if it is to grow beyond this, it must be with your help. I am tapped out, as far as spending more on this system is concerned. I ask that you keep a copy of this file and include it with any copies that you make for others. They, in turn, should also keep a copy and include it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **--Welcome to the Astrix Computer System!--** This Bulletin Board Service is available for the primary purpose of making available worksheet models and information about worksheets. The system utilizes the RBBS-PC Bulletin Board System developed by D. Thomas Mack and others of the Capital PC User Group, Inc., P.O. Box 3189, Gaithersburg, MD 20878. If you have any system type dif- ficulties, please leave a message on this system or seek help from others who specialize in RBBS type problems. The bulletins that follow will provide a basic understanding of this BBS and how you can use it for maximum benefit to suit your needs. Please do not skip the bulletins the first time that you access the system. Any comments and suggestions are always welcomed and encouraged about any question or issue, especially regarding the products that are the offering of this service. The Sysop **--New Users of the Astrix Computer System--** It is with a great deal of pleasure that I welcome you to this bulletin board service. I hope you find it everything that you expected it to be and to pro- vide the information that you sought. If not, please leave word on the system, so that improvements can be made in the areas that you feel need the most at- tention. I would like to stress that in the final analysis, this bulletin board belongs to you. If it doesn't meet your needs, then it is incumbent upon you to sug- gest ways in which it would more closely meet your requirements. Don't be shy. I've spent a lot of time and energy to put this together, but I have only been anticipating the features that I felt deserved space and effort. It is through feedback, that all of us together will evolve this service into a useful idea. The presumption is that you are operating an IBM PC or extremely close compat- ible computer system. If you are not, then you may run into some difficulties. Lotus 1-2-3 is not always able to be run on compatibles, but you are a better judge of your system's capabilities and compatibilities than I. You may need some help in getting started. If so, then leave a comment for me, with infor- mation so that I can get in contact with you at a later time. -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Bulletin Menu -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- 1 - The Astrix Computer System Information 2 - How to use this Bulletin Board System 3 - What's Available on this service 4 - Recent News and/or Announcements 5 - What's coming in the future on ACS. 6 - Why do I do it? **--The Astrix Computer System Information--** tm Name: The Astrix Computer System Address: P. O. Box 1265 Rockville, Maryland 20850 Telephone Access: Data: (703)471-0632 Voice: (703)471-0629 Computer Access: Comp-U-Serve: 72426,513 MCI Mail: 116-6408 **--General System User Information--** Below you will find a list of Lotus 1-2-3* Worksheet Files. You are free to download any/or all of these files for your personal and business use. These worksheets are freely avail- able to the general public at no cost. See Bulletin ---- *Lotus and 1-2-3 are Trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. **--Basic Services offerred--** 1. Downloading worksheets and documentation 2. Uploading worksheets and documentation 3. Leave messages (problems, comments, etc) 4. Read the collective messages of others 5. Use as an announcement service for other services or activities related to spread- sheets, seminars, u-name-it. 6. A Financial Related BBS (since finance is likely to be a close cousin to the major area of interest on the BBS). **--Acknowledgements--** The Astrix Computer System gratefully acknowledges the Lotus Development Corporation for their design and development of the Lotus 1-2-3* Package. PC-Files-III* RBBS-PC* Que Corporation for SuperCalc* SuperModels for Business * denotes Trademarks **--Notices and Terms-** You are asked to distribute any, all, or none of the Worksheets that you download from this service. If you should choose to make a copy for a friend, I request that you include the entire MACLIB Worksheet in it's original state. You may make your own version of the MACLIB file, but use a different name and maintain it's own identity. I didn't want to garbage up the individual worksheets with a lot of stuff that you would have erased anyway, so the MACLIB file is my means of maintaining identity with these products. Additionally, you are asked not to charge anyone for these worksheets, other than the recovery of media expenses. **--How to use this Bulletin Board System--** You may download models or worksheets in either WKS, DIF, PRN, or VC format. You may upload using the same formats for any of your files. You may leave messages for others or comments to the Sysop of ACS. If you download one of the worksheets and find it useful and/or profitable, then a small donation would be appreciated, which will be used to enhance this system and make this kind of information more widely available. If you take the whole package of 21 basic building block worksheets with sample data, then I would expect that you would either make a larger donation or have the sense of fair play to give them away and destroy them, but in any case, to discontinue using them yourself. If you download the MACLIB file, you will have obtained a sample of, what I think, are some of the more exciting features being demonstrated in the use of Lotus 1-2-3. This includes the use of Menus for worksheet, and problem selection, file saving, help, printing, cloning, and others. **--What then does all this cost you?--** Now lets digress for a moment and discuss my philosophy of pricing and value. If you use a tool and it saves you something on the order of $25.00 on your taxes or other financial activities, then it wouldn't be too much to pay a thankyou complement of about $5.00. If you managed to work it to death and save a million, it still wouldn't be worth much more than 5 bucks. If you save nothing and gain no benefit, you would be better off calling someone else, and reducing the load on this system. There are 21 models in the basic system. If you took the complete set and made extensive use of all of them and saved a bunch, I would feel that a reasonable response would be $50.00. Since most people will find only a few to be really useful and the others as mostly dust collectors on their scarce media, I still feel like 50 is a fair. **--Frequent calling and checking for updates--** Please do not abuse the system with frequent calls, because it will be about a month or more between changes on the basic service. This will allow time for feedback on what people have taken and used and possibly had some problems using, which require corrections or improvements. If you download a model and do encounter some problems, it is always greatly appreciated to find out about the difficulties and maybe be able to find a solution that will prevent others from having the same difficulty. To call back and leave word of this nature is encouraged as often as you would care to do so. **--The Ol' Watering Hole Syndrome--** Some Billboard Services become a hitching-post for people with common interests and this one could well be one of those for people with an interest in worksheets and macros. Actually I hope it does, but not to the extent that the basic service is impaired. Later on I would like to expand the BBS to include conferences on various aspects of spreadsheeting, but not now, the system can't take on that kind of load as yet. The current plan calls for an expansion board which will add some non- attended capabilities and much more memory. In the near term this system will expand to 640K and most of the message files and overlays will be in ram disk. This will hopefully allow an improvement in your ability to get the information that you need in a shorter amount of time and provide for more callers to have a chance at gaining access. **--The Wave of Tomorrow in Worksheet Black Markets (??)--** If you take the macro library and become a regular user of this expanding trade of Lotus 1-2-3 macro mania, then it would be appreciated if you would contribute back, on a subsequent visit, a few of the better macros that you may have created or discovered someplace. In this way we will all grow rich on our stores of macros to do wild and wonderful things with Lotus 1-2-3. **--What's Available on this service--** The basic service is oriented to providing a set of models or worksheets, if you will, which can be used in your personal or business life. These files are divided into directories based on subject matter. Use the L)ist command, L; to get the top level directory listed. Use the L)ist;n command, where n is the one or two digit number, to get the second level directories listed. To actually download a worksheet, you must use the XMODEM protocol. The worksheets in their native format are not transferable as ASCII text. Other alternatives are available via use of the DIF format, which is also provided in a separate directory using the same names. Another directory uses print format and for those of you, who have only Visi-Calc to use, the VC format is in still another directory. These directories are empty at the present time, because I don't have sufficient disk space to accomodate all of the models in these other formats. On a special request basis, I can make some of them available in DIF/PRN/VC formats. Parallel with each of the files that is a model is another file that contains documentation related to the worksheet, if any is needed. The basic directory structure looks something like the following illustra- tion, having as many of the sub-directories as space is available and subject matter requires. Please note that a file extension is universally not used as part of the file name in terms of subject. File extensions are used to identify file types, since there are so many different types of files on this service. The extensions employed and their meanings are as follows: WKS Lotus 1-2-3 Worksheet format DIF DIF file format VC Visi-Calc format PRN Lotus 1-2-3 Print format TXT ASCII text file format DOC Documentation (WORDIX or NROFF) format Master Directory ________________ Directory 1. "dir1" -->Use L;1 to list this directory. This directory contains 7 of the 21 models. Their file names and titles are as listed next. These models are in WKS format and require the XMODEM protocol for transfer, if this protocol is not available, check into the possibility of transfering the DIF format or PRN format. 1. CBB.WKS Check Book Balancer 2. CDB.WKS Cash Disbursements 3. CFM.WKS Cash Flow Manager 4. CFP.WKS Cash Flow Projection 5. LNA.WKS Loan Amortization 6. LNP.WKS Loan Payoff Calculator 7. LCT.WKS Line-of-Credit Tracker Directory 2. "dir2" -->Use L;2 to list this directory. This directory contains 7 of the 21 models. Their file names and titles are as listed next. 8. ADC.WKS ACRS Depreciation Calc. 9. IRR.WKS Internal Rate-of-Return 10. ARC.WKS Acc. Rec. Tracker 11. EIO.WKS EOQ Inventory Ordering 12. FFS.WKS 5-in-1 Financial Statement 13. RAR.WKS Ratio Analyzer 14. IIB.WKS Interactive Inc-Statement Directory 3. "dir3" -->Use L;3 to list this directory. This directory contains 7 of the 21 models. Their file names and titles are as listed next. 15. STC.WKS Statistics Calculator 16. GCC.WKS Growth Capacity Calc. 17. QA1.WKS Queue Analysis (single) 18. QAM.WKS Queue Analysis (multi) 19. NVB.WKS New Venture Budget 20. PVA.WKS Price Volume Analysis 21. QGN.WKS Quote Generator Directory 4. "This directory is in progress and will be available soon. When it becomes available, you can list it with the L;4 command. This directory contains all of the news files and other types of general interest text file information. You should start with this directory and capture a copy of the entire set of information. Saving a copy of this set will always provide you with the infor- mation that you might need later, such as phone numbers, times, dates, and anything else that you might tend to overlook in your zest to get it "all", in the time alloted. Personally, I would recommend that you quit at this point in your first call. Look over the information and see what all is being offered to you. There are 21 models available in the basic set and capturing a copy of all 21 in the first gulp is probably more than you're able to cope with, or effectively keep organized. Directory 5. "dir5" -->Use L;5 to list this directory. This directory contains macro files in worksheet format for down- loading directly into a Lotus 1-2-3 Worksheet, and in print for- mat for making hard copies on your computer locally or using as a source to copy from, if you are unable to transfer the actaul worksheet, due to the need for the XMODEM protocol. 1. MACLIB.WKS Lotus 1-2-3 Macros 2. MACS.PRN Macro set in PRN format Directory 6. "dir6" -->Use L;6 to list this directory. The basic 21 models in DIF format. (not implemented yet) This directory and the two that follow will not be employed until I am able to procure a hard-disk for this beast. I will load, on a request basis, any one or several of the models in a particular format. Directory 7. "dir7" -->Use L;7 to list this directory. The basic 21 models in PRN format. (not implemented yet) Directory 8. "dir8" -->Use L;8 to list this directory. The basic 21 models in VC format. (not implemented yet) Directory 9. "dir9" -->Use L;9 to list this directory. This directory contains models donated by users, that I have reviewed and feel offer a good alternative way of doing the things, or additional capabilities, not in the original set. Please help this part out with some of your own. This is an alternative to actually integrating one of your models into my macro library. The forthcoming documentation will describe my conventions with regard to macros. Directory 10. "dir10" -->Use L;10 to list this directory. This directory contains Lotus 1-2-3 Worksheet macros in WKS format and TXT format that are contributed by users. Directory 99. "dir99" -->Use L;99 to list this directory. These are all yours and hot off the press, so to speak. As long as you, the callers, keep contributing such great quality stuff, far be it from me to keep it from passing on along. I personally am using the PC-TAX83 package and haven't found anything wrong yet. If any of you need the BASRUN.EXE file, I can make that available. Leave a comment. **--Recent News and/or Announcements--** As of now this area is vacant, but will contain items of interest to the worksheet community. New software releases. New models on this service. Improvements in the current model set. I have ideas, but I would also like suggestions for what you would like to see in this bulletin section. **--What's coming in the future on ACS.--** **--More Services--** I will be expanding the interrelationships of the worksheets through use of the DIF format and the import and export to a database man- agement system. Not to fret, the database management system is avail- able as public domain software. If you have already gone the whole loaf and gotten dBASEII, you won't be any worse off, for sure. How- ever, some of us can't afford any 700 for database management and for most of our uses, that sort of sophistication isn't necessary or used by the home computer user. If you do, then so much the better. In the months ahead I will be updating each of these worksheets with new macros and semi-automatic features. You are welcomed to return as often as you like, to get the latest version, upward compatible, of course, or well noted. I will be offering other services for which I will charge specific rates, such as individual counseling to a small businessman to help implement these models into his internal information management system. Word about any thing of that nature, including a more well defined set of office hours, will be forthcoming and announced right here. **--System Improvements--** Just having arrived is a 6-Pak-Plus, with no memory as of yet, but in the near(?) future up to maximum of 640K. All of the System files will then reside in RAM disk, which should speed things up a bunch. A 10MB hard disk, asap. More print capabilities. A second processor would be nice, one with multi-tasking, multiple telephone access, and much more storage. If you would like to help, don't feel that I'm holding you back. **--Why do I do it?--** There are several good reasons why I am involved in providing this service. 1. I've had a dream for many years of operating a computer service for the general public where my only boss was the voluntary user of the system. 2. If I'm correct and this is a valuable service that others also find valuable then it will be supported by them. 3. I have a computer system, basically sitting idle for the vast majority of the day because I use other computers in other endeavors. 4. It's fun. That's why most of you who read this have computers. 5. It could be profitable. 6. If it isn't profitable, then I'll let my computer do something else for a living. 7. I'm intensely interested in learning more about Lotus 1-2-3, and what better way than finding a whole raft of other people who share this interest, and that's another reason why many of you have called.