Essential utilities for the small businessman from ABC Software: John Taylor investigates. Small Business Accounts is for use with the Amstrad CPC 6128. It is intended to be used by small firms and the self-employed, who may have no need of larger programs or may not be able to afford them. Small Business Acounts is a password-protected, menu-driven program. It works by allowing the user to compile files, one month to each file (although one month can be divided into two files if the user wishes). Files are split into entries. There can be 300 of these entries and every one is further split into thirteen columns. The columns represent an income and expenditure book, to make life easier for those transferring their accounts from paper. Calculations are done automatically; another big time-saver. Before entering data, the user must name his file and then the program will add the file type definition automatically. There are two file types; one to denote those containing accounts information, the other to show files containing standing order information, the other to show files containing standing order information. These can be merged into data files via a menu. When entering data into files, the user will receive no on-screen help but there is help readily available throughout the rest of the program. When displaying a file entries can be sorted into date or payment order, moved through by cursor or searched for a given phrase. Other functions are available whether the user is only viewing or actively entering data. Some options, however, are only available during the data entering function. These include the copying of data, auto sequential numbering of entries and VATcalculations. The Print option allows the user to print out such things as VAT totals and selected items of his choice. There is also a menu option left free for the user to write a routine to suit his custom printing needs. When printing, users must remember that only data stored on disk can be printed, so the file just worked on must be saved first. The disk contains examples for users to work through and there are more examples in the manual. This is a well-written booklet. It deals with topics in the order users are expected to need them and all explanations are in plain English. ACU #9101 |
