I'M NO ACCOUNTANT (TM) Business Journal Templates for LOTUS 1-2-3 (R) Copyright 1991 Willis E. Howard, III All rights reserved. Distributed by Microsmith Computer Technology POB 1473 Elkhart, Indiana 46515 The shareware version of the I'M NO ACCOUNTANT Business Journal Templates for Lotus 1-2-3 (R) includes these files: JOUR165.EXE The shareware distribution files for the I'M NO ACCOUNTANT (TM) Business Journal Templates are in compressed and archived form in self-extracting file JOUR165.EXE. Give a copy of JOUR165.EXE to your friends or associates for evaluation. JOUR165.TXT You are reading that file now. The operation of the software is explained in the printed manual which is supplied with registered copies of the distribution disk. I'M NO ACCOUNTANT (TM) Business Journal Templates for LOTUS 1-2-3 (R) Copyright 1991 Willis E. Howard, III Thank you for your interest in the I'M NO ACCOUNTANT (TM) software. The manual on disk which you have received describes the functions of the current version of the software. Any changes made to the software since the manual was written will be explained below. Please read the other text files contained within JOUR165.EXE because they will also have important information. Q. Why write another single entry bookkeeping system? A. I looked at a lot of software to find the right system for my business. Nothing I evaluated seemed to fit. I'm no accountant and didn't really want to become one. I wanted a simple system that was easy to use. I wanted to limit my data entry to what I had to have in my checkbook register anyway, plus one classification account number. I wanted easy access to the data so that I could make changes when errors were found. By using 1-2-3, data exchange with other programs was also easy. Using macros, new features could be quickly added and tested. Q. What about security? Can my data be accidently changed during data entry? A. During data entry through the I'M NO ACCOUNTANT menu system and data entry screens, there are no commands to change data in the journal. However, the spreadsheet can be cleared with the JOURNAL CLEAR command, but only after giving a new starting balance and giving the old file name as the new file name. Changes can be made from the 1-2-3 READY mode. If there should be no access to previous data during data entry, new data can be entered into a cleared template. After you review the data for accuracy, you can use 1-2-3 to extract the journal entries of the new spreadsheet and then copy them to the end of the full spreadsheet. Q. How do I view the current balance? A. After loading the spreadsheet, press the ENTER key to access the 1-2-3 READY mode. Then press the ALT B key which will position the spreadsheet in the balance column under the final entry. Q. Why are month numbers used to indicate when checks clear the bank during reconciliation? A. Sometimes you need to prove that bills have been paid by providing a copy of your cancelled check. When you use the number of the month (1 for January, etc.) to indicate when an item cleared the bank, you will only need that number to locate the envelope containing that month's cancelled checks. Any non-zero number indicates that an item has cleared the bank. An empty cell, a zero, or a string in the MONTH column will show that item as outstanding after reconciliation. Q. Why are there two initial entries in the journal? A. The first entry contains the starting balance which is needed. The second entry insures that 1-2-3 commands such as {end}{down} will position the pointer at the end of the journal and not at the end of the spreadsheet. Q. What happens if I use a transaction date earlier than the starting date given during the JOURNAL CLEAR setup? A. This is not recommended. A JOURNAL BALANCE command will sort the journal by date. If the record containing the initial balance does not remain the first record, the bank balance will not be properly indicated. Q. What happens if I make an error entering the date? A. If you notice an error made during data entry, press the ESC key until the MAIN menu appears. Then press the ENTER key to activate the 1-2-3 READY mode. From this mode you can change any cell. To change a date near the bottom of the journal, press the ALT B key to position the spreadsheet at the end of the journal. Then press the left arrow until the pointer is positioned in the DATE column. Press the up arrow until date is selected which you want to change. To change the date, enter the new date as a string. That is, press the single quote key and enter the date as '1/1/91 and then press the ENTER key. To convert the string to a date, press the ALT S key. Press ALT A to activate the I'M NO ACCOUNTANT menu. Q. I noticed that all of the code for the macros is a part of the spreadsheet. What will happen if I change the macros? A. The macros control data entry, storage and extraction. In addition, they determine how the data is viewed on the screen. If you modify the macros, you could jeopardize the integrity of the software. In addition, the variables and named ranges are important for the operation of the software. In general, you should only be changing data in the journal containing account information, and only when you are correcting an error made during data entry. Q. How do I get rid of the sign-on delay? A. This is explained in the printed instructions attached to your license. Q. Why are symbols such as "/" not allowed in my company name? A. When you type in the company name, everything you type is used as the title for a printout. These special characters are interpreted by 1-2-3 and may produce unexpected results. To be safe, use only letters and numbers in the company name. Q. The manual states that JOUR10.WK1 is supplied only to registered users. Why is this template also found in the self-extracting shareware distribution file? A. A decision was made to distribute both templates to all users, including those who have obtained only the shareware distribution copy. This will allow a better decision to be made before buying. This will be explained in the manual during the next printing. Q. What causes the delay to be shorter than the 15 seconds mentioned in the manual? A. The new version of the software has shortened the delay to only 2 seconds. This will make it easier for the users to load and run the templates.