Costmaster is a program that helps to estimate and cost jobs. It is for use with the Amstrad CPC 6128. The user inputs his data into Cost files. These are made up of three parts; the main Cost file entry, the Alphanumeric definitions and the customer details. There are 26 Alphabetical (up to 35 characters) and 10 Numerical definitions (up to 18 characters) that can be defined in the Alphanumeric file. The programme already contains a predefined set, so users can save these and load them automatically. Customer details can either be entered through their own option or through the option for beginning a new file. This file can be accessed separately from the overall Cost file, which means that users have a built in customer file that can be used to load details into any file. For unexpanded 6128 machines, each Cost file may have up to 200 entries. Files may have any name legal under AMSDOS but the extensions .IDX and .DEF are already taken up elsewhere in the program. The manual gives a list of all other extensions that should not be used. Apart from the obviously needed functions, users also can edit alphanumeric definitions, and manipulate a Price Index if there is one in use. Printing can be either alphabetical or numerical. Each printout will show customer details, individual totals and the overal total. Once manipulated to the user's satisfaction, the Price Index can be printed out too. All files can be catalogued so the user can see how much space they take on disk. The Supercat option allows the user to quickly check a file, perhaps a customer file for extra detail. It screens the catalogue for all files that could be costing files and only gives those choices. That is why it is so important to use the right extension for filenames. For those who need it, the program also supports the Amstrad KEY command. Temporary keys can be defined or keys can be altered permanently. ACU #9101 | 
