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JOURNAL Users Manual JOURNAL Version 1.0 r1.0 Copyright (C) April, 1986 Generic Software, Co. USER MANUAL for JOURNAL Version 1.0 April, 1986 (C) Copyright 1986 by Generic Software. All Rights Reserved Generic Software 1500 Arboretum Pky Lakewood, NJ 08701 PREFACE Hi. Allow me to introduce you to the bookkeeper's most valuable tool. Welcome to JOURNAL. I originally designed JOURNAL for my father, a practicing CPA, while in his summer employ as a bookkeeper. Performing my daily craft with pencil in hand, I quickly felt the need for a computer program which might allow me to perform simple accounting tasks on-line. As the local chiphead, I began evaluating spreadsheets and full-function accounting packages looking for the answer, but discovered that the setup necessary to complete the typical disbursements worksheet on the typical accounting help-me product wasn't worth the effort. So, one night in my basement, JOURNAL was born (Actually many, many nights in my basement) -- Simple to understand, with an ease of operation arising from my general laziness. After using JOURNAL for several months to keep track of my bank account, I introduced it to my father's office. My popularity with his staff hit an all time high. So far, my father and I have found these uses for JOURNAL: Disbursements Journal - 1 - JOURNAL Users Manual JOURNAL Version 1.0 r1.0 Copyright (C) April, 1986 Generic Software, Co. Cash Receipts Journal My Bank Book You may find others. The product is not intended as a replacement for full-fledged accounting packages, but as a tool towards completion of smaller, less complex projects. First, an introduction to the workings of an accounting journal. JOURNAL...WHAT'S A JOURNAL? Let's say you want your accountant (my father) to tell you how your business is doing at the end of the year, month, day, or whatever. Magically, he presents you with a balance statement. On that balance statement, you find a breakdown of all of your expenses, an income figure, and the bottom line. In general to go about preparing such a statement, he demands of his staff: -- A Disbursements Journal: This is a summary of all of the expenses you have incurred throughout the period. Each check is not only written down, but posted to an account. This account has some kind of heading which tells my father what you have spent your money on for the period. On paper, this is done in columnar form. EXAMPLE: Consider your company Widgets, Inc. which has the following expenses.. Inventory (Widget Parts), Payroll (Widget Assemblers), and Advertising (Widget Propaganda). A disbursements journal for the month of June might appear as follows: DATE CHK# Description BANK INVENTORY PAYROLL ADVERTISING ---- ---- ----------- ---- -------- ------- ----------- 6/1 120 M. Hall 150.00 150.00 6/2 121 Mark Spitz 162.44 162.44 6/5 123 Daily Rag 44.32 44.32 6/29 124 Parts Inc. 1234.22 1234.22 After his staff prepares this list, my father adds up all of the numbers, cross-checks the total of the bank column against the totals of the other columns combined, and summarizes it. - 2 - JOURNAL Users Manual JOURNAL Version 1.0 r1.0 Copyright (C) April, 1986 Generic Software, Co. When he finishes this, and all of the numbers check out, his staff prepares: -- A Cash Receipts Journal; same idea but instead of expenses, income is recorded. When he gets both of these (and some other stuff) he prepares a balance statement. He charges a lot of money to do this, but not as much as I would charge if I had to do it. JOURNAL is designed to relieve some of the busywork from this process. It automatically adds up the figures and summarizes the results in an easy-to-read, non chicken scratched report. Thus, my father is able to demand the same amount of money for doing half of the work. This improves his golf game. The following section of the manual should help you get started. We'll work together in setting up a disbursements writeup (the one introduced above) using JOURNAL. Before continuing, please read the sections of the reference manual regarding starting JOURNAL, and working with menus. It's a good idea to keep a copy of the reference manual sitting nearby throughout your operation of JOURNAL. I do. No I don't. WORKING WITH JOURNAL Working with JOURNAL is a three step process. Step 1 establishing a chart of accounts. Step 2 entering account data. Step 3 extracting useful information (reports). Step 1: THE CHART OF ACCOUNTS A list of posting accounts is referred to (in the biz) as a chart of accounts. In the above example, The chart of accounts consists of INVENTORY, PAYROLL, ADVERTISING. JOURNAL will track the account titles, and the current totals posted to each, but in order to do so, we must first provide the software with a list of posting accounts. We do so by assigning a number -up to 3 digits- for each account. - 3 - JOURNAL Users Manual JOURNAL Version 1.0 r1.0 Copyright (C) April, 1986 Generic Software, Co. As you will see, this makes life a lot easier when it comes time to post data to individual accounts, as typing a three digit number is faster than spelling out an account title. ASSIGNING NUMBERS to ACCOUNTS Not very hard. If you have a lot of accounts, you might want to talk to your accountant (father), as he may already have a method for doing so. Otherwise, just start assigning away. Some suggestions: Keep the length of your digits consistent. It is a lot easier (as you rip through data entry) to enter all three digit numbers, or all two digit numbers, rather than a combination. Leave gaps in your numbering scheme for future additions. (10,20,30... rather than 1,2,3...allows addition of a future account 15 in between 10 & 20) Alphabetize your list before assigning numbers; The list is sorted numerically by Account number. Locating a specific account on a list is easier if the list is alphabetical. Now for Widget account assignment; Years of scientific accountological research brings us to: 100 ADVERTISING 200 INVENTORY 300 PAYROLL Let's enter these accounts into JOURNAL. (In the evaluation package, neither adding nor deleting accounts is possible. The sample data *.sam already contains these accounts. You may, however list them and change their names.). From the MAIN MENU select [ACCOUNT] In the ACCOUNT MENU select [ADD] Type the following: 100 <RETURN> - 4 - JOURNAL Users Manual JOURNAL Version 1.0 r1.0 Copyright (C) April, 1986 Generic Software, Co. ADVERTISING <RETURN> 200 <RETURN> INVENTORY <RETURN> 300 <RETURN> PAYROLL <RETURN> <RETURN> The final Carriage Return, indicates the end of account entry. As an exercise, see if you can do the following: [LIST] the accounts on screen [DELETE] account 200, put it back. [CHANGE] the name of account 300 to PAYROLLE (old English spelling). [LIST] the accounts on the printer. PLAY, PLAY, PLAY. It is not possible to damage anything, it's only an imaginary company. Make sure that you try every possible combination of things to do. STEP 2: POSTING JOURNAL ENTRIES For the purposes of demonstration, We will post the first entry together. I leave the completion of Widget June disbursement Journal as an exercise. From MAIN MENU (Are you still in the ACCOUNT MENU? Hit the <ESC> key, or select [EXIT]). Where was I, oh yes, from the MAIN MENU select [JOURNAL]. From the JOURNAL MENU select [UPDATE]. You will be prompted with: START WHERE? This comes in handy when you have previously posted several entries, and wish to begin work at a point other than the [ADD] entry. For now, just hit <RETURN>. You are immediately taken to a place marker [ADD] in reverse video. Now follow me: <RETURN> Indicates that we want to add a new entry - 5 - JOURNAL Users Manual JOURNAL Version 1.0 r1.0 Copyright (C) April, 1986 Generic Software, Co. 060186 A date. Notice that the field markers automatically advance after completion of the date. 120<RETURN> Check Number M. Hall<RETURN> Mr. Hall's name. 150 <RETURN> Amount 300 Account Number. Notice that the account title appears next to the account number after it is entered. If you enter an incorrect account number, an appropriate nasty message will show (try it). EDITING JOURNAL ENTRIES OK. So you made it this far, and with only 852 errors. Time to edit the mess we've made. SCENARIO: M. Hall, tortured all of his life in having the first name Mercutio, has had it legally changed to Fred, and threatens a lawsuit if it is not immediately updated on all financial paperwork. First over to the proper entry. Press the upcursor (or 8 key) until the highlight block is targeting the first entry (entry 0). Press <RETURN>. We don't Want to Change the Date, or check number, so press <RETURN> twice more. Now type F. Hall. Press <RETURN> Three more times. Done. Lawsuit evaded. WHAT IS SCROLLING? When you fill up a page of entries, additional entries cause the screen to scroll, almost as if you were jotting notes on a player piano music roll (as it was playing). You can control the page of entries you view using the <PgUp> and <PgDn> keys. STEP 3: RETRIEVING INFORMATION: (PRINTING STUFF) - 6 - JOURNAL Users Manual JOURNAL Version 1.0 r1.0 Copyright (C) April, 1986 Generic Software, Co. Time to make the program do some work. From the JOURNAL MENU select [PRINT]. Power up your printer. Select [READY]. Enter the Name of the client, the Period ending date, and the name of the journal. Press return, and watch it go... OTHER FUN THINGS TO DO. PURGE - Clears old entrys AND/OR old totals. You may wish to keep the old entries and clear the old totals or vis-versa. CLIENT - How many times have you been working on one journal, and you suddenly want to work on another. I bet plenty. DUPLICATE - If you have a chart of accounts for one client which you decide would be well suited for a newly formed client, use the DUPLICATE feature to copy them over. That's the show. If you understand everything to this point, I suggest that you begin using JOURNAL. Print yourself a copy of the reference manual and roll. Try everything. - 7 -