Copyright: Copyright 1997 Willis Howard


Copyright

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

I'm No Accountant[TM] Workbook for Excel

Copyright 1997 Willis E. Howard, III.  All rights reserved.

P.O.Box 1473

Elkhart, Indiana 46515

(219)522-6807

WEHoward@aol.com

No part of this document may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any human or computer language, in any form or by any means, without the express written permission of Microsmith Computer Technology, P.O.Box 1473, Elkhart, Indiana 46515, U.S.A.

All authorized ASP distributors are authorized to distribute the I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel in its complete and unaltered form.

This Help file is distributed with version 1.87 of the I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel.

TRADEMARKS

LOTUS 1-2-3 is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation.

Excel is a registered trademark on Microsoft Corporation.

I'M NO ACCOUNTANT is a trademark of Microsmith Computer Technology.

All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

The I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel is supplied AS IS.  Willis E. Howard, III and Microsmith Computer Technology disclaim all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.  No liability is assumed for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from its use.

U. S. Government

If you are acquiring the I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel on behalf of any unit or agency of the United States Government, the following provisions apply:

The Government acknowledges Microsmith Computer Technology's representation that the software and its documentation were developed at private expense and no part of them is in the public domain.

The Government acknowledges Microsmith Computer Technology's representation that the software is Restricted Computer Software as that term is defined in Clause 52.227-19 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and is Commercial Computer Software as that term is defined in Subpart 227.471 of the Department of Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS).

The Government agrees that:

(i) if the software is supplied to the Department of Defense (DoD), the software is classified as Commercial Computer Software and the Government is acquiring only restricted rights in the software and its documentation as that term is defined in Clause 252.227-7013(c) (1) of the DFARS, and

(ii) if the software is supplied to any unit or agency of the United States Government other than DoD, the Government's rights in the software and its documentation will be as defined in Clause 52.227-19(c) (2) of the FAR.

RESTRICTED RIGHTS LEGEND.  Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c) (1) (ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause of DFARS 252.227-7013.  Microsmith Computer Technology, P.O.Box 1473, Elkhart, Indiana  46515.


Contents
I'M NO ACCOUNTANT Workbook for Excel

The I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel allows you to perform simple accounting functions that will satisfy many of the needs of a small business.  In addition to the information that you would put into your checkbook, you will only be asked in plain English how to classify your deposits and expenses.  At the end of the year, reports can be generated to show where your money came from, and where it went.

Getting Started:  First Time User

Using the Accounting Workbook

Menu Commands

Technical Support


Getting started: first time
Getting Started: First Time User

To start using the I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel, only a small amount of setup is required.  After you have gone through the Start up procedure, you can learn about the organization of the workbook by reading through the using the accounting workbook section.  Continue reading this section to get started right away.

If you plan to do the accounting for a single business with one checking account, load the workbook INA187S.XLS and then press the OK key after the sign-on screen appears.  If you want to do the accounting for multiple businesses with one checking account, load the workbook INA187M.XLS.  If you have multiple checking accounts, use one workbook for each checking account.

The help file you are reading now is for the multiple business workbook.

To get started, press the ALT A key to pull down the Accounting menu.  Select the Accounts item by clicking on it.  The Accounts dialog box will be displayed.  Click on the Clear All item.

To start up a new accounting workbook, click on OK. Fill in the dialog box with the starting amount in your checking account, the number of the next check you will write, and the title that you want to have on printouts. See the Start up section for more details.  After all of this information is entered, click on OK.

You are given a final chance to back out.  This is in case you started to clear all of the transactions from an old workbook and then changed your mind.  Just click on OK for now.  A message box will ask you to save the file under a new name.  Click on OK.  You should now use the File Save As command to save the workbook under a new name.  Use the new name from now on.  Each year you will probably want to start a new workbook with a new name, so it is helpful to include the year in the name of the workbook.  For example, the name could be MYNAME98.XLS for 1998 accounting.

If you are updating to the new version of the workbook from an older one that contains your transactions, select  the Import item from the Accounting menu bar item. Transactions in the old workbook will be read and entered into the new version.

At this time you may want to examine the default account names.  Just select the Accounts item from the Accounting menu bar item and click on Cancel.  The worksheet of accounts will be shown.  Click on the Print icon to print the page.  You can use the Accounts Add or Accounts Delete command to change the list.  If you only want to change a description, simply type over the old one.  For the multiple business workbook, use the Business command to define the business names.

You are now ready to use the Transactions command to enter new deposits and payments.  At the end of the month when you get the bank statement, the Reconcile command is used to compare your records with the statement.  The Print command is used to print balances, accounts, and transactions.


Using the Accounting Workbook

The following topics provide information on the operation and organization of the I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel. Information on Menu Commands is provided in a separate section

Introduction

Features of the I'm No Accountant Workbook

Requirements of the I'm No Accountant Workbook

Why use the I'm No Accountant Workbook?

Single or dual entry accounting?

Organization of the I'm No Accountant Workbook

Working with the I'm No Accountant Workbook

ASP

Copyright, Trademarks, etc.


Introduction
Introduction to the I'm No Accountant Workbook

Bookkeeping in any business is important.  Some people spend  their whole lives doing nothing else.  Not me.  I'm no accountant, but I want to easily enter my checkbook transactions, reconcile my income and expenses with the bank statement, and generate a small number of reports at the end of the year for my accountant.  If I make a mistake, I want an easy way to change the information stored in the computer.  I want the calculations to be reliable.

I found the commercial accounting packages too complex for the needs of my small business.  I'm no accountant, but I looked at the way many small businesses with cash flow, non-computerized accounting methods kept their books, and transferred those methods to a dialog oriented Excel workbook.

If you have hundreds of transactions a day, need A/R, A/P, payroll, billing, and inventory in an integrated package with double entry bookkeeping, you will need to keep looking.  The I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel doesn't do all those things.  It does have important features that allow you to easily accomplish basic accounting functions for a small business.


Features
Features of the I'm No Accountant Workbook

The I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel offers these features:

-	Dialog entry of PAYMENTS with categorized account names or numbers.

-	Dialog entry of INCOME with categorized account names or numbers.

-	Dialog entry of SALARIES with deductions and employee ID.

-	Dialog RECONCILIATION with bank statements, allowing you to easily change incorrectly entered amounts.

-	Dialog QUERY facility to look at transactions selected by account name or number, by date, or by employee ID.

-	Dialog entry of ACCOUNT and BUSINESS names.

-	Automatic SUMMARY of income and expenses by category.

-	Printer REPORTS can list all transactions, outstanding transactions, queried transactions, a balance verification, and an account summary.

-	On-line HELP.

-	The full power of Excel, including direct access to all data and Visual Basic code.


Requirements
Requirements of the I'm No Accountant Workbook

The I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel requires an IBM® PC compatible computer that runs Excel version 5.0 or higher.  Some familiarity with Excel will greatly aid your ability to use the workbook.

The workbook was developed on a Gateway® 2000 4DX2-66V with 16 Megabytes of RAM and an HP® Laserjet 4P printer under Windows 3.1 and on a Pentium computer with Windows 95.  It has been tested with Excel 5.0 and Excel 97.

Excel may run slowly on some much older computers.  If you experience this problem, a version of the I'm No Accountant worksheet for Lotus® 1-2-3 v2.3 or v2.4 is also available.  It does not have all the features of the Excel version, but runs fast on older computers.


Why use?
Why use the I'm No Accountant Workbook?

The software you choose for your bookkeeping should fit in with the way you want to do your books.  I use the I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel for my small businesses.  Consider these features.

One of the more important things you can do for your business is to manage your own books.  Look at each bill.  Decide whether it should be paid.  Write the checks by hand.  Deposit your company receipts yourself.  As your business grows larger, this will not be possible.  But, if you don't control your company finances in the beginning, the company may not get much larger.  The I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel allows the information on expenses and deposits to be quickly and easily entered, and then changed if necessary.

Even though I manage my own books, I use an accountant for the taxes.  If you only have salary and interest income, do your taxes yourself.  But, tax laws regarding businesses are complicated and changing.  You need the advise and, in case of an IRS audit, the support of a CPA.  The I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel generates a complete transaction journal, expense ledger and income ledger for the year.  With a few explanations, this is about all your CPA should need.

If you pay salaries, you can get reports that show how much tax, FICA, etc. was withheld and how much salary was paid.  This report can be used for preparation of the W-2 or 1099 forms that you must generate.  Although the I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel does not calculate the tax to be withheld, it is easy to enter and extract all the numbers.

A very time consuming part of bookkeeping was bank statement reconciliation.  The I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel now makes this very simple.  If you forgot to enter a check, or input the wrong amount of a deposit, it is easy to remedy.

All information entered with the I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel is stored in an Excel workbook.  The transactions are sorted by date.  The full power of Excel is available to use when you need to perform any function not provided by the I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel.  Information can be imported or exported between applications or users, conforming to your demands.

The I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel provides easy data entry, automatic ledger posting, automated report generation, and full access to the data for a small business.  I use this workbook for my accounting and it may also be appropriate for your small business, if you don't want to be an accountant either.


Single or dual entry?
Single or Dual Entry Accounting?

If you run a large business, which the government defines as one that grosses over $5,000,000 per year or has over 500 employees, you may be required to use double entry accounting procedures.  All of your finances are categorized as assets, liabilities, equity, revenue or expenses.  Through the equation ASSETS = LIABILITIES + EQUITY, each and every transaction you make is assigned a chart of accounts number for each side of the equation.  Having two account numbers makes it dual entry.  One part of the equity is your profit or loss which is defined by PROFIT = REVENUE - EXPENSES.  Individual transactions are entered in the JOURNAL and then periodically posted to the LEDGER, that will then contain a summary of the transactions.

The I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel uses a single entry accounting procedure, and is based on cash flow into and out of your checking account.  The transactions are just the deposits into your checking account, and checks or bank charges that remove money from your checking account.  Each transaction is assigned one account number: one of the INCOME account numbers for deposits, or one of the EXPENSE account numbers for expenses paid.  You select the account from the list of names in a drop-down box.

For each deposit made or check written, Transactions displays a DEPOSIT, PAYMENT or SALARY dialog screen.  The information you type in is automatically entered into the transaction journal.  In addition to the information you already have, you will need only to select a category from the list of named categories.  You can also add new categories.

When you finish entering transactions, the software will automatically summarize all transactions in the ledgers.  All transactions with the same account numbers will be added up, summarizing where the money came from and where it went.

Because all checking transactions have been entered, the Reconcile command can be selected to reconcile the bank statement with the checking balance in the spreadsheet.

The I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel keeps track of profit and loss, the bank balance, expenses by category, and income by category.

A dual entry system would also keep track of all loans, all holdings such as real estate and furnishings, accounts receivable, accounts payable, depreciation, and credit card accounts.  However, you would also have to know and to enter this information.

If you need a full picture of your financial situation, and have the time and the information for the data entry, you should investigate a dual entry accounting system.  If you only need information on profit and loss, categorized transactions, and up to date checking account balances, then the I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel single entry system may be all you need.


Organization
Organization of the I'm No Accountant Workbook

The I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel is organized into worksheets.  Some of them contain information that you enter.  Some contain the dialog screens that are used to prompt you for information.  One contains the Visual Basic code that coordinates data input, does the calculations, and defines the form of the printouts.

The first worksheet shown when the I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel is loaded is called the QuickTips worksheet.  It contains a copyright notice, the address to send your registration fee, and other important information that you should read.  After the workbook has been setup, the first worksheet to be shown will be the Transactions worksheet.

The next four worksheets contain information that you will often see on printouts, and may want to inspect or change.  These worksheets are named Transactions, Accounts, Businesses, and Balance.  The Transactions worksheet contains all of the information on deposits and expenses that you have entered.  The Accounts worksheet contains a list of all account names and numbers, and subtotals of transaction amounts for each account.  The Businesses worksheet contains a list of all business names and numbers, and subtotals of transaction amounts for each business.  The Balance worksheet summarizes all account balances.

The Transactions Worksheet

The Transactions worksheet contains all of the transactions that you have entered for expenses, deposits or salary.  It is organized by columns and sorted first by date, and then by check number.  This worksheet can not be modified unless you first use the Accounting Unprotect command.  The columns contain the following information.

Column name	Column contents

Date	The date that you enter on the transactions dialog screen is placed in this column.  Transactions are sorted by date each time that you finish entering transactions. The default is the current date, but you can enter any date.

Name	This is the name of the person or business you wrote a check to or received money from.

Description	You should enter a description of the transaction here.  It should be detailed enough for you to know what it was for three years from now.  If you want to include information that is not printed out, insert an Excel note in the description field.

Month	This column is blank until you indicate that the transaction has shown up on your bank statement.  Then, the number of the month (1 for January, etc.) is placed in this column.  A printout of outstanding transactions prints all transactions where this column is blank. After each reconcile, all transactions with a blank month are copied to the Extract worksheet.

Business	This column contains the business number.  The number is automatically selected when you add a new business name.  The Businesses worksheet contains a list of all business names and numbers.

Check	This is for the check number that you write.  If you need to keep track of the numbers of the checks that you receive, put them in the Description column.

Account	When you fill in the Transaction dialog box, you indicate the account type from a pull-down box.  On the Accounts worksheet, each account name is associated with an account number.  The account number is placed in the Account column.

Payment	When you write a check, the amount of the expense goes into the Payment column.

Balance	The current checking account balance after the current transaction shows up on in the Balance column.  It always gets its value from the previous balance plus or minus the current transaction.

Deposit	When you make a deposit, the amount goes in the Deposit column.

Gross	If you are paying a salary, the gross is calculated as the sum of the payment plus FICA, Fed tax, State tax, and County tax.

FICA	If you are paying a salary, the FICA column contains the social security tax.

Fed tax	If you are paying a salary, the Fed tax column contains the federal withholding tax.

State tax	If you are paying a salary, the State column contains the State withholding tax.

County tax	If you are paying a salary, the County tax column contains the County withholding tax.

The Accounts Worksheet

The Accounts worksheet is organized by columns and sorted first by category type, and then by description.  The columns contain the following information.

Column name	Column contents

Description	The account name that you enter with the Accounts Add command is placed in the Description column.  You can have the same description for an expense and income, but can not duplicate a description within an account type.  These descriptions also appear in the drop-down boxes for you to select an account category.

Type	The account type can only be Employee, Expense, or Income.

Account	The account number that you enter with the Accounts Add command is placed in the Account column.  The account number must be unique.  The account number appears in the Account column of the Transactions worksheet.

Total	The Total column contains the total of all transaction amounts with the same account number.  Only the Payment column is summed for Employee or Expense types.  Only the Deposit column is summed for Income types.

The Businesses Worksheet

The Businesses worksheet is organized by columns and sorted by Description.  The columns contain the following information.

Column name	Column contents

Description	The business name that you enter with the Business Add command is placed in the Description column.  The entries are sorted by this column.

Business	When you select a business name, the software automatically selects a business number for you.  The number will be the smallest number starting with 1 that is not yet used.  This number will show up in the Business column of the Transactions worksheet.

Payments	The sum of all payments (expenses) for the business is placed here.

Deposits	The sum of deposits (income) for the business is placed here.

The Balance Worksheet

The Balance worksheet contains a variety of pieces of information.  It is divided into two sections:  Account balances and Account verification.

There are four entries in the Account balances section:

Initial balance is the starting balance for the checking account.  If you find that the initial balance was not entered properly, change this initial balance on the Balance worksheet.  The updated number will be reflected on the Transactions worksheet.

Calculated bank statement balance is the current balance plus all expenses that have not cleared minus all deposits that have not cleared.  After a Reconcile command, this number should match the balance on your bank statement.  If it does not, search for transactions that were not entered properly, or that were not entered at all.

Initial balance + Income - Expenses is a calculation of the current balance that does not rely on the math in the Transaction worksheet balance column.  If the current balance does not match the calculated bank statement balance, a message states that some transactions are outstanding.

Current balance from final transaction is a calculation of the current balance from the Transaction worksheet balance column.  If it does not match the previous calculation of the current balance, a warning is given at the right of the amount.

The entries in the Account verification section have the following meanings:

Income accounts contains the sum of all Income account totals from the Accounts worksheet.

Total Deposits contains the sum of all deposits from the Transactions worksheet.  If it does not match the Income accounts total, one of the transactions probably has an account number that has not been defined.  A warning message will be displayed when there is a mismatch.

Expense accounts + gross wages contains the sum of all Expense account totals from the Accounts worksheet and Gross wages from the Transactions worksheet.

Total checks + withholding contains the sum of Payments and all deductions from the Transactions worksheet. If it does not match the Expense accounts + gross wages total, one of the transactions probably has an account number that has not been defined.  A warning message will be displayed when there is a mismatch.

Expense accounts contains the sum of all Expense account totals from the Accounts worksheet.

Gross wages contains the sum of gross wages from the Transactions worksheet.

Total expenses contains the sum of Payments from the Transactions worksheet.

FICA payments contains the sum of FICA deductions from the Transactions worksheet.

Fed tax contains the sum of Federal withholding tax deductions from the Transactions worksheet.

State tax contains the sum of State withholding tax deductions from the Transactions worksheet.

County tax contains the sum of County withholding tax deductions from the Transactions worksheet.


Working
Working with the I'm No Accountant Workbook

You will need to decide how to make the I'm No Accountant Workbook for Excel conform to your needs.  However, you may find the following checklist to be a good starting point.

At least once a week, enter all of the checking Transactions.  This way, a large number will not pile up at the end of the month.  If you have new accounts, add them before you start with the Accounts command.

If you have started a new business and plan to use the checking account that is already used for other business, add the new Business names before adding new transactions.

When you get the bank statement, first finish entering any transactions that you have put off.  Then perform a checkbook Reconcile.  If any transactions have been left out, or the amounts have been entered incorrectly, the reported bank balance will not be right.  Check that on the Balance worksheet.  Dont forget non-check transactions such as check fees or monthly bank interest.

Be sure to select categories only from the drop-downs.  Otherwise an improper account number could be entered.  You can check the Balance worksheet to see if deposit and expense accounts balance.  A balance mismatch is usually caused by manually entering an incorrect account number.

On a monthly basis, you may want to make a hard copy printout using Print.  This will be important if your computer disk crashes and all the backups (hint) are lost.  In addition, each time you make changes to the spreadsheet, save the file on a backup floppy disk.  Each month, you may want to make another backup on another floppy disk, just to be safe.

At the end of the year, make a hard copy printout to give to your accountant.  You can also provide a copy of the workbook file on disk, if your accountant can use it.

At the end of the year,  extract and printout the salary information on each employee.  This record can be used to generate the W-2 and 1099 forms required by the government.

To start a new year, use the Accounts Clear All command.  The new balance for the new year is the final balance for the old year.  Be sure to use a new name for the workbook since you will need to keep the information from previous years.


ASP

This software is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP).  ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you.  If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help.  The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products.  Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI  49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.

The shareware author Willis Howard may be contacted at POB 1473, Elkhart, IN  46515 USA or by email at WEHoward@aol.com.


Using the menu commands
Menu Commands

The I'm No Accountant menu commands are available from the Accounting item of the Excel menu bar that is accessed by pressing the ALT A key.  Most of them are also available from the dialog screen that is shown when you press the Control-A key.

The main difference in these two is that you must access the menu bar each time that you want to give a command.  Once you have started the command dialog box by pressing the Control-A key, each command will return you to the dialog box.  Terminate the dialog box by clicking on the OK button.

Transactions

Reconcile

Extract

Accounts

Business

Print

Import

Unprotect


Transactions

When you select the Transactions command, the Transactions dialog screen will be displayed.  It allows you to input the information for a deposit, payment, or salary.  In the SELECT box, click on either the Deposit, Pay a Bill or Pay Salary item to select it.  If you select the wrong one, the wrong set of account categories will be selected.  If you do not see the proper set of categories, check this selection.

The date field will first be filled with the current date.  If the transaction occured on a different date, enter the date.  Only a date should be entered in the date field.

The name and description are not checked for content, and can even be left blank.  For your records, they should be filled in as completely as possible.  Very long names or descriptions will be truncated on printouts unless you explicitly make the column widths wider on the Transactions worksheet.

The account name should be chosen from the drop-down list.  Account names or numbers that are not listed in the Accounts worksheet will not be accepted.  If the names in the account drop-down list do not seem right, click on a different category such as Pay Salary or Pay an Bill and then select the desired category again.

The business name should be chosen from the drop-down list.  Business names that are not listed in the Businesses worksheet will not be accepted.

The amount must be filled in.  If you leave it blank, this is the same as clicking on the Cancel button.  Transaction entry will be terminated and the accounts will be balanced.  If you want a zero amount for a voided check, enter a zero.

If you are entering a deposit, the fields described above are the only ones that will be displayed.

The check number is initially set to one plus the previous check number.  If you do not want to use this check number, just type in the new one.  If you have a debit that has no check number -- such as the charge for ordering new checks -- then leave this field blank.

If you are paying a bill, the fields described above are the only ones that will be displayed.

If you are paying a salary, there will also be fields for FICA, federal tax, state tax, and county tax.  No additional fields for salary deductions are available in this version of the software.


Reconcile

When you select the Reconcile command, the Reconcile dialog screen will be displayed.  It will be filled with the date, name, description, account, business, amount, and check number for each transaction that has not cleared the bank.  Any information you change here will automatically be changed in the Transactions worksheet.  If you need to change other fields, do so directly on the Transactions worksheet.

If the displayed transaction has cleared the bank, click on the Cleared button.

If the displayed transaction has not cleared the bank, click on the Outstanding button.

To terminate reconciliation before all outstanding transactions have been processed, click on the Cancel button.  Clicking on the Cancel button processes the remaining transactions as outstanding.

After reconciliation, the Balance worksheet will be displayed.  The calculated bank statement balance should match the actual bank statement balance.  If they do not match, look for transactions that were not entered properly or automatic transactions that were not entered at all.

After reconciliation, the Extract worksheet will contain all outstanding transactions.

A transaction is automatically marked as cleared by placing the number of the month (1 for January, etc.) in the Month column of the Transactions worksheet.


Extract

When you select the Extract command, the Extract dialog screen will be displayed.  The top drop-down allows you to select a category of Income, Expense, or Employee.  A category must be selected.

Within that category, the second drop-down allows you to select any account.  One of the categories in the drop-down may be selected.  The default is to select all accounts.  If you select all accounts, the other categories will be ignored.

The third drop-down allows you to select any business.  One of the categories in the drop-down may be selected.  The default is to select all businesses.

The bottom two edit boxes allow you to enter a start and end date.  Transactions will not be extracted before the start date, or after the end date.  The default is to use the earliest and latest date in the Transactions worksheet.

The extracted transactions will be displayed behind the dialog box after clicking on the OK button.  To exit the Extract command, click on the Cancel button.  Otherwise, categories may be changed for another extraction.


Accounts

When you select the Accounts command, the Accounts dialog screen will be displayed.  It allows you to do any of three things:

Add a new account

Delete an existing account

Clear all transactions


Add account
Add an account

When you select the Accounts command, the Accounts dialog screen will be displayed.  To add an account, you will need to enter both an account name and number.  If you enter a name or number and the other changes by itself, then that name and number are already in use.  If this happens, select another name and number.

Currently, income account numbers are in the 400s and expense account numbers are in the 500s.  Use another system if you find it convenient.

After selecting a unique combination of name and number, click on the Add Account button.  The new account will be added to the Accounts worksheet.


Delete account
Delete an account

When you select the Accounts command, the Accounts dialog screen will be displayed.  To delete an account, you need to first select the account type.  Then, use the drop-down box to select either the account name or the account number.  After one has been selected by you, the software will automatically select the other.

Then, click on the Delete Account button.  The account will be deleted unless the current balance on the Accounts worksheet for the selected account is non-zero.  In this case, the account should not be deleted.


Start up
Clear All (Start up)

When you select the Accounts command, the Accounts dialog screen will be displayed.  Click on the Clear All button to erase all transactions and prompt for setup information.  This command is used to initialize the workbook for the first time, or for a new accounting period.  You will be prompted several times before all transactions are deleted.  Click on the Cancel button to keep the old transactions.

After you click on the Clear All button, a new dialog screen will be displayed.  In the top edit box, enter the starting bank balance.  A number must be given.

In the second edit box, enter the number of the next check that you will write.  A number must be given.

In the lower edit box, enter the title that will appear on the printouts.  You may also want to include the year as part of the title.  If you want to include the ampersand character (&) as part of the title, enter it twice (&&).  This is needed because of the way that Excel interprets characters in title strings.

You should use the Clear All command with an existing worksheet to prepare for a new year.  The starting bank balance will be initialized with the current bank balance, and the next check number will be initialized with the last check number plus one.  If these values are not wanted, just type over them.


Business

When you select the Business command, the Business dialog screen will be displayed.  To add a new business, enter the new business name and click on the Add button.  To delete an existing business, select the business name from the drop-downs and click on the Delete button.  The business will not be deleted unless the Payment and Deposit totals for that business are zero on the Businesses worksheet.

This help file is loaded by the workbook for multiple businesses.  If you want to use the checking account for just one business, you may prefer to use the Workbook for a Single Business.


Print

When you select the Print command, the Print dialog screen will be displayed.  There are five check boxes.  Any combination  --  including all and none  --  may be selected.  If you do not check at least one checkbox, no printout of any kind will be make.  Checking no checkbox and then clicking OK is the same as just clicking on the Cancel button.

The Balances option prints out the Balance worksheet.  This sheet displays the initial balance, calculated bank balance, current balance, and subtotals of expenses and deposits.

The Accounts option prints out the Accounts worksheet.  This sheet displays the subtotals for each deposit and expense account, as well as the account names and numbers.  For the Workbook for Multiple Businesses, there is also a printout of the Business worksheet, and a summary of deposits and expenses by account number and by business number.

The All Transactions option prints out the complete Transactions worksheet.  There will be no printout if there are no transactions.  The printout will be scaled to print exactly one page wide in landscape mode.

The Outstanding Transactions option prints out the outstanding transactions on the Transactions worksheet.  There will be no printout if there are no transactions.  An empty printout will be generated if there are transactions, but no outstanding transactions.  The printout will be scaled to print exactly one page wide in landscape mode.

The Extracted Transactions option prints out the Extract worksheet.  There will be no printout if there are no extracted transactions.  This printout will be of the previously extracted account, no matter how long ago it was.  The printout will be scaled to print exactly one page wide in landscape mode.

The date on the printout will be the date that the printout is made.


Import

If you want to use the new version of the workbook, but already have entered transactions into a previous workbook, select the Import command from the Accounting menu. You will be asked the name of the old workbook. There is no browse command available, so look up the name before selecting the Import command. The transactions, accounts, businesses, starting balance, and next check number will be read from the old workbook and loaded into the new workbook.

This command will not be active after any transactions have been entered into the workbook.


Unprotect

Normally the Transactions worksheet is protected from accidental change. However, there are times when it is necessary to directly edit the Transactions worksheet. When you select the Unprotect command, the Transactions worksheet is unprotected. It will remain unprotected until you run another of the Accounting menu commands or reload the workbook.


Technical Support

Technical support is available to registered users.  Registered users are also entitled to phone support.

To register, send the registration fee of US $19.95 along with your name, address, and software version to the following address. Be sure to include $4.95 shipping within the USA or $9.95 shipping elsewhere.

Willis E. Howard, III

Microsmith Computer Technology

P.O.Box 1473

Elkhart, Indiana  46515