The PC-SIG Library 10

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The 123 Ledger (tm), Version 1.6 (C) Copyright 1984 by Patrick T. Magee. All Rights Reserved. You are free to share unmodified copies of The 123 Ledger and this documentation with others. Should you find this application useful, and wish to receive the following: 1) A disk containing the following applications: - Cash Flow application with several built in macros. - Menu-driven Tutorial for the Cash Flow application. - Advanced spreadsheet generator macro application for analyzing loans. - Menu driven Quote Generator. - Menu driven Tax Planner. - IRA/Annuity Analyzer - Sophisticated Integrated Business Plan (demonstrates how to integrate projected income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, cost of sales analysis, and ratio analysis, into a single worksheet for maximum "what-if" capabilities). 2) The ProKey macro file I use to build my 1-2-3 macro applications. Using this file in conjunction with ProKey from RoseSoft cut my macro development time in half. 3) You get on my mailing list (unless you indicate otherwise) giving you timely notice of my new products as they become available. To receive all this, just send $25 (plus $2 S&H) to: Patrick Magee 1711 143rd Place SE, Suite C1 Bellevue, WA 98007 (Washington State residents add sales tax.) Preface The 123 Ledger is an advanced Lotus 1-2-3(tm) application making extensive use of 1-2-3's macro, database, and date-arithmetic features. The end result is a general purpose transaction processo that can be used for summarizing checks or maintaining simple gener ledgers. The application was designed to allow for up to 1700 transactions and over 100 account numbers, on a computer having only 256k of memory. This application is managed by over 30k of macros which give even the most novice users easy access to the upper limits of 1-2-3's power. This documentation is organized as follows: Getting Started The On-line Help System The Modify Data Options The Summarize Data Options (The most useful & informative) The Query Data Options In case some of you are wondering who Patrick Magee is: He is a CPA based in Bellevue, WA who devotes all his time to the mastering of Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony. He acquired his Lotus knowledge by helping over 40 businesses implement Lotus products. He teaches beginning, advanced, and macro classes for 1-2-3 and Symphony. He writes a monthly column for Absolute Reference - The Journal for 1-2-3 and Symphony Users (1-800-428-5331). And last May, he started the Pacific NW Lotus Users Group. GETTING STARTED Begin by loading The 123 Ledger as you would a normal worksheet. /File Retrieve <LEDGER> <RETURN> After scanning the Copyright screen, press RETURN to continue on to the main menu which looks as follows: ======================================================================== The Winning Company Apr-84 ======================================================================== 1 Modify Data 2 Query Data 3 Summarize Data 4 Setup Options 5 Online Help 6 Save/Exit Options Enter Selection ...... ======== Copyright 1984 (C) =========== by Patrick T. Magee, CPA ======= THE ONLINE HELP SYSTEM As you can see, there are six main menu options. Select option number 5 by pressing the 5 key. This takes you to the main help screen which gives you an overview of all the command options as shown below. ======================================================================== Directory of Menu Options ======================================================================== 1 2 3 4 5 6 MODIFY QUERY SUMMARIZE SETUP HELP SAVE/EXIT 1.1 Add 2.1 Account 3.1 All 4.1 Recalc 6.1 Save 1.2 Edit 2.2 Date_Range 3.2 Date_Range 4.2 Company 6.1 123 1.3 Sort 2.3 Both 3.3 Xtract 4.3 Date 6.3 Exit 1.4 Balance 2.4 Freeform 3.4 Scan 4.4 Initialize 6.4 Load 1.5 Date 2.5 Scan 3.5 Print 4.5 Formfix 6.5 Dir. 1.6 Print 2.6 Print 3.6 Help 4.6 Help 6.6 Help 1.7 Help 2.7 Help 3.7 Quit 4.7 Quit 6.7 Quit 1.8 Quit 2.8 Quit Note that you can view help on any command option by selecting an option from the menu appearing on the command line. Note that all menus that appear on the command line work exactly like 1-2-3's menus. You can select options by either typing the first letter, or pointing and pressing RETURN. There are 13 help screens in all. Type a 3 to view the help for the Summarize options. This takes you immediatly to a help screen for these options. Pressing RETURN once takes you to the second screen, and pressing RETURN a last time takes you back to the main help menu. THE MODIFY DATA OPTIONS Type in a 1 to select the Modify Data option. This takes you to the top of the transactions database and brings up the Modify menu. This is the only place in the system that you can alter the content or structure of the database. There are two ways to add records; the first is under complete macro control using the Add option, the second is with little or no assistance from the macros under the Edit option. THE ADD OPTION Type an A to select the Add option. You will be taken to the bottom of the database and prompted for the required information. The sample transaction you will enter here is as follows: 05-Apr-84 577 Office supplies 655 (75.00) The first prompt that appears is: Enter Day of Month(2nd as 2) : Note that the current month and year appear in the upper left hand corner of the screen (this is changed by the month option). All have to do is type in the day. Type in 5 and press ENTER Note that the entire date is entered, the cell is formatted, and the cell pointer is moved to the next cell. The next prompt to appear is: Enter Transaction Number: Type in 577 and press ENTER. The next prompt is: Enter Payee/Description: Type in "Office Supplies" and press ENTER. The next prompt is: Enter Account Number: Type in 655 and press ENTER And the final prompt is: Enter Amount: Checks are entered as negative amounts so type in -75 and press ENTER. The cell is formatted currency with two decimal places and the cell pointer is positioned for entering the next transaction. Although this method of data entry is simple and straight forward, most people will find it too slow and cumbersome. This application was designed primarily for quick and dirty transaction processing, and thats where the EDIT option comes in. As the message indicates at the top of the screen, you can enter a 0 for the day of month to return to the main menu. Note that the message dissappears as the menu reappears. THE EDIT OPTION Select the Edit option now by typing the letter E. Note that two messages appear in the message area before the macros return you to READY mode. In READY mode, you are free to move around with the direction keys and issue regular 1-2-3 commands to alter the contents of the database. At this point, transactions can be manually, or with the aid of the Alt-A macro, which is the recommended method of transaction entry. To illustrate this macro, you will enter the following transaction. 22-Apr-84 578 Business Periodicals 675 (25.00) Move the cell pointer to the next blank row in the database and move to the Date column. Hold down the Alt key and tap the A key. Type in the number 22 and press ENTER. Type in the number 578 and press ENTER. Type in "Business Periodicals" and Press ENTER. Type in the number 675 and press ENTER. And lastly, type in the number -25 and press ENTER. Note that the macros handle all cursor movement and cell formatting as before. The advantages to this method are that only the Date entry is required - the rest can be skipped simply by pressing ENTER. It's also much easier to break out of a macro(by pressing Control-Break) make a correction, and resume. Or you may just want to enter a single transaction, copy it down several rows and modify it. Often my clients simply enter the date, account #, and amount. CHANGING THE CURRENT MONTH OR YEAR To do this, return to the main menu by holding down the Alt key and tapping the R key. Select the Date option, enter the new year and month numbers as prompted, and you're ready to do the next period. OTHER MENU OPTIONS The following briefly summarizes the remaining options available from this submenu. Sort - lets you quickly sort the database on any field with only a couple keystrokes (Pressing S, D, and ENTER) is all that is required to sort the database by date in ascending order. Balance-displays the total of all transactions up to and including a specified date. If The 123 Ledger is being used as a checkbook ledger, this will display your balance on any given date. You simply select the option, enter a year, month, and day, and the balance is calculated and displayed. Print - Prints a listing of the entire database. Help - takes you immediatly to the help screens for the Modify Database menu options. Quit - Returns you to the main menu. You've been familiarized with the database and how it is modified. Now you're ready to see what this application is really all about. Select the Quit option to return to the main menu. THE SUMMARIZE DATA OPTIONS You can select the summarize option by typing the number 3. To see all of the transactions totaled by account number, select the All option by typing an A. A few moments later, you will see a list of account numbers appear and their current balances. The macro that does this uses a combination of Data Query Unique, Data Table 1, Data Table Sort, and a single @DSUM formula to produce this summary. This technique allows you to have over 100 account numbers, and enter over 1700 transactions, with a 256k computer. The Date_Range option does the same thing but only includes transactions that fall within a specified date range. This is useful when more than one months data is entered into a single database. The Print option in this submenu gives you 3 choices: The first simply prints the summary section as it currently appears on the screen; The second produces the equivalent of a G/L listing - it takes one account number at a time, prints it's balance, and all the transactions that make up that balance; The third does the same thing as the second, except for a specified date range. THE QUERY DATA OPTIONS Select the Query Data option from the main menu now by typing 2. This section lets you quickly review the transactions for a given account number, date range, or both. For example, if you wanted to see all of the transactions for account number 665, you would select the Account option by typing an A, type in the number 665, and press the ENTER key. In a second or two, you should see a list of all the transactions for that account number. To see all the transactions for account number 665 for the month of May, select the Both option by typing a B, type in 665 and press ENTER. A menu will appear with two options: Dates_Ok and Change_Dates. The current beginning and ending dates are displayed on the screen, to leave them unchanged for this command, select the Dates_Ok option. You will probably want to change them however, so select Change_Dates. You will be asked for two sets of dates. For each, you must enter a year, month, and day. The exact keystrokes are as follows: 84 <ENTER> 4 <ENTER> 1 <ENTER> 84 <ENTER> 4 <ENTER> 30 <ENTER> After pressing the last ENTER, you should see the list of transactions appear on the screen. That's all for now. I will update this documentation as time permits. Your suggestions for improvement of either The 123 Ledger or this documentation are welcome. You are welcome to leave questions or messages for me on The World of Lotus (ID# 76044,273). I will try to answer them at least once every week. Thank you.