====================================================================== CAN YOU MAKE YOUR ACCOUNTANT REDUNDANT? ====================================================================== ARE ACCOUNTANCY TERMS all Gobbledegook to you? How would you react if you were elected to keep the books for your Club, Association or Society? Would you shudder at the thought? Maybe you run a small business and find at the end of the week it's all a bit much to keep on top of the paperwork. Or maybe you hand it all over to your accountant and pay him to do something which, with the aid of your PCW and some appropriate software, you could be doing yourself. After all, many would say that book keeping is just 'debit, credit stuff, and nothing to get up tight about.' I've come across an accounts package from Cornix Software called 'SIMPLE ACCOUNTS' which I found to be delightfully easy to use. Simple Accounts runs in BASIC, but don't let this mislead you into thinking it's slow or second rate. It's neither. There are a few limitations though - more on that later - but on the whole Simple Accounts lives up to its name. Simple Accounts has been upgraded and is available as an EXT Version at #49.95. If you see it advertised cheaper check that it is the EXT version and not the standard package. The enhanced program allows 100 extra entries per folio (maximum of 300 entries per folio - a folio is a bookkeeping term to describe two opposite pages of a ledger); A facility to print payment advice notes; Payment reports and the Inclusion of your Company name. The program comes on one 3 " disk and occupies 42K in six files. There is a 60 page paperback manual which is very well written. While not being over simplified it gets on with the task of explaining how to use the program without getting bogged down in accountancy terms and practice. It's not 'childs play' either but anyone with a reasonable amount of commonsense could take the program, and after a dummy run (or two), start to computerise their accounting system. A tutorial, complete with an example folio, would make this learning process easier for anyone without historical data to input and play around with. KICK OFF Once your master disc has been safely put away and a working copy is at hand you need to copy BASIC.COM onto the disk and run "PRUP", Simple Accounts Initialisation program. This creates data files for use by the program and is needed once only when making your first working copy. Because the program is designed to share the A: drive with its own data files, on the same disk, there is hardly room to go one step further and create an Early Morning Start-up disk (.EMS). Simple Accounts is fully Menu driven and BASIC error trapping routines have been included to help make the program 'mug proof' and user friendly. It automatically loads and saves data for the current folio. The main menu offers five choices: File Creation; Entries; End Folio; Reports; Exit to CP/M. When you run Simple Accounts you may access historical folios from the Reports module, but once a Folio has been closed there is no way to make further entries or change data filed therein, which is normal accounting practice. FILE CREATION This section customises Simple Accounts to suit your individual requirements to classify Sales and Purchases. You are limited to a total of twenty classifications in all. This should be enough for most purposes unless your situation demands an extensive array of headings. When you are creating these classification headings you need to let Simple Accounts know which ones are within the scope of VAT. If you're not registered the answer is quite simple, but if you are you may need to consult your VAT booklets (or your Accountant) to clarify exactly what is exempt from VAT. Your Company or Business name may also be defined at this point. ENTRIES Here is where all the inputs are defined, with a maximum of 300 entries per folio. Keeping things simple means that the double entry system isn't used. Entries are defined as either Sales, Purchases or Payments. Upon starting the 'Make Entries' section you must give the Folio a title. Subsequently when you are accessing this part of the program you will see an on-screen reminder of the Folio Title, Folio Number, Entry Number. The latter will give you an early warning as to when the folio must be ended. Because all unpaid entries are carried forward to the next folio you may not have as much space available as you imagine. For example you may have 150 entries unpaid (Sales and Purchases), which will be carried forward and reduce the capacity for the next folio by 150 entries. When these entries become paid this does not increase the number of entries available for the current folio. This may become the determining factor when deciding the timescale for each folio. Transferring data from your receipts, invoices, bills etc. is quite straight forward and you are asked to confirm each entry before it is accepted by the program. Unpaid entries may subsequently be entered as paid and you will be given the option of printing a payment advice note. If you have defined a classification as being outside the scope of VAT you are not prompted for details. I was pleased to see that individual entries are not saved to disk as the constant whirr and buzz of the disk drive could be irritating when entering large batches of receipts. (Not to mention the additional wear and tear on the disk drive.) If you are entering very large batches of receipts at one sitting you may prefer to force a 'save' by exiting the entries section mid way through and returning directly to enter the remainder. Once a transaction has been entered and verified as correct you can not change it - which is standard accounting practice - you must issue a contra entry to balance out any inaccuracies. END FOLIO When this item is selected from the menu Simple Accounts summarises the data input so far and carries it forward to the next folio along with full details of all unpaid sales and purchases. You are asked if this completes a VAT period, if not the totals for Output Tax and Outputs, Input Tax and Inputs will be carried forward as well. Clearly the end of the VAT period must coincide with the end of a folio. You are able to 'date sort' all entries for the current folio and change the current folio title. When the current folio coincides with your end of year Simple Accounts will zero all classification headings. Details of unpaid headings are retained and if the year end doesn't coincide with your end of VAT period these totals are carried forward. If it does, then all the information required on your VAT form is produced on a handy report. REPORTS Here you are able to access all information on the current disc for the year to date. All output can be directed to the PCW internal printer for a permanent record of your accounts. The Reports menu offers a choice of: List Entries; Analysis; Search; VAT Report; Unpaid Entry Report; Folio Change; Return to main menu. If you wish to examine a different folio - Folio Change - you are able to select the folio you wish by typing its number. All subsequent reports will be for that folio. The Analysis report gives a total of Sales or Purchases for the Current, Historical or All folios. You may also choose whether the analysis should be for items Within the scope of VAT, Outside or All entries regardless of their status. The Search facility offers a comprehensive array of facilities to find any particular entry. In the VAT report you may list all entries within the scope of VAT or a summary of the Inputs and Outputs. The final option - Unpaid Entry Report - identifies all unpaid creditors and debtors. Essential if you are to keep a sharp eye on all unpaid sales entries and maintain a healthy cash flow. This option also allows entries to be listed in full or just a summary to be displayed. CONCLUSION Computerising your accounts will not automatically enable you to dispense with your Accountant's services. For your money you will be able to use him more productively to plan and control your business activities instead of taking time to record everyday transactions. If you run a small business or have been elected Treasurer for your Club or Association this package will certainly make your bookkeeping chores that much easier. If you are involved with VAT Simple Accounts will make reconciliation of your VAT liability less of a headache. If you employ an accountant seek his advice, but unlike Cornix Software he will not give you FREE user support!