OFFICE MASTER OR JACK OF ALL TRADES?

Centresoft is currently selling a suite of office programs from Gemini Marketing Ltd. The package is in fact a compilation of Gemini's earlier stand-alone business programs and includes CASHBOOK and FINAL ACCOUNTS, DATABASE, MAILIST, HOME ACCOUNTS, STOCK CONTROL, GRAPH PLOT and EASILEDGER. All applications are programmed in BASIC and therefore are not the fastest thing on the Spectrum. The display and feel of the program are rather dated, but a fair amount of colour has been intelligently incorporated and from the accounts point of view, the system is faultless.

Rather than argue about the merits of running accounts and databases on a 48K Spectrum, it is left to the reader to make a decision on the basis of what the programs can and can 't do. Personally, I don't think it viable to run accounts on the 48K Spectrum due to the limited memory, awkward keyboard and slow storage facility. No doubt, I shall be getting letters from serious users, who will disagree with me and who will display all sorts of real world applications. Perhaps I am spoilt by the availability of an APRICOT XEN in the office, but I shall try to disregard this privilege and look at the individual applications in detail.

All programs can be run off cassette or Microdrive and printout is either via 32 column ZX/Alphacom or 80 column printer with suitable interfaces. The manual does not try to introduce the user to the art of accounting, so previous experience of the pencil and paper method is a prerequisite. This package is NOT an integrated accounts package - ledger activity, nominal accounts and trial and final balance are run separately.

CASHBOOK ACCOUNTING

This program keeps track of nominal account balances including VAT details and generates and updates the required datafile which requires saving and loading for each session. The same file is also used for the final accounts for the printing of PROFIT AND LOSS and BALANCE SHEET accounts.

The data file does not keep record of individual transactions, but only the cumulative totals of the accounts. A facility is therefore provided for printing out all batch information for a complete audit trail. The program is configured to accept a maximum of 70 transactions (payments, receipts, and so on.) plus another 70 journal entries per session. Transactions are entered in batches (25 per batch) with a maximum of 10 batches. After these maximum entries, the user is prompted to print out the batch details and to save the nominal accounts on a data file.

The transactions to be entered should be prepared into manageable batches with the inclusion of the batch date, a batch number, the control total and the number of transactions. The control total is a safety measure, as the computer calculates and display its own total of the batch - a discrepancy indicates an input error, which can be corrected prior to saving the datafile.

A grand total of 88 nominal accounts are provided which include amongst other things an analysis of four different sales groups and three different bank accounts and most of the usual credit and debit accounts. At any time CASHBOOK allows the VAT details to be reconfigured, which is useful if the VAT structure has changed or new rates have to be applied. There are four choices which cover non VAT registered companies, businesses with zero rated inputs and outputs only, those with zero and standard rate inputs and outputs and businesses with multi-rated VAT systems (up to 3 rates including zero rated). Provision is made for users requiring to analyse the gross purchases for resale between the various VAT rates.

The main menu provides the key to the entry of CASH RECEIPTS, CASH PAYMENTS, BANK RECEIPTS, BANK PAYMENTS and JOURNALS. The journal entries are useful for entering adjustments to produce the final accounts. This can be for debtors and prepayments, creditors and accruals, closing stock and work in progress, depreciation, disposal of fixed assets or hire purchase adjustments. Separately, there is provision to update MEMO ACCOUNTS which do not form part of the trial or final accounts, but are available to store information required to complete the VAT returns.

Several display and printout options are available. On demand CASHBOOK displays the list of nominal accounts, the list of memo accounts and the VAT summary (which includes the memo accounts). The current batch details and the trial balance can also be sent to a printer.

FINAL ACCOUNTS

The final accounts program works with the datafile created by CASHBOOK. If comparative figures of the previous accounting period are required, they may also be loaded. All figures are rounded to the nearest pound. For printout purposes the program prompts for the business details such as company name, the date of the accounts, the account period, the title for the current period and the title for the comparative period.

FINAL ACCOUNTS can generate the trial balance, the trading account (Profit & Loss), the Balance Sheet and the VAT summary. After printing the Profit & Loss account the profit or loss must be distributed between the capital accounts of individual partners in the business. The Balance Sheet can only be printed after the printing of the trading account, as the net profit figure must be available.

GRAPH PLOT

This is a graph plotting package which can either work with the datafile created by CASH BOOK or any other system generated arrays in the form DIM a(n) for histogram or Pie charts with n data or DIM a(2,n) for point or line plots. Data may also be input manually and saved with GRAPH PLOT's data save facility is required.

Making use of the high resolution and colour, GRAPH PLOT displays numerical data in various forms such as histograms, line charts, pie charts and X/Y point and line plots. It also calculates functions of the form Y is equal to... and prepares the array of 65 intermediary values between the set limits for display. Totals, averages percentages and cumulative percentages are calculated and displayed on request after printout or display of the graph.

All graphs feature autoscale to make good use of the available space and prompt for title, dimension description and so on. The data may be plotted as individual amounts or as a cumulative sum. The scaling and presentation of the graphs may be altered by the user by changing the origin and or lengths of the X and Y axis.

The pie chart, which is used for single dimensional data, has the ability to explode individual segments for highlighting. A maximum number of 18 segments can be displayed. For histograms and line graphs the limit for screen and printouts is set to 192, although the package will cope with up to 2500 data items. Only with the X /Y line and point plots can all 2500 pairs of data values be plotted.

All graphs may either be displayed or copied to printer, as can the analysis of any graph (which may also be saved to tape) giving a full breakdown of the data, together with totals, averages, percentages and cumulative percentages.

EASILEDGER

This program provides sales and purchase ledger facilities and copes with up to 800 transactions on the 48K Spectrum. The transactions can be credit sales, payments for credit sales, cash sales, credit purchases, cheque payments for credit purchases or other and bank deposits. Invalid transactions may be deleted from the ledger. EASILEDGER provides several listing and printout options. BANK SUMMARY lists all bank transactions and displays the final balance. FINANCIAL SUMMARY lists the totals for sales, receipts, purchases and payments for all transactions on the file. LIST JOURNAL screens all the transactions indicating transaction number, transaction type, account name and order/invoice number. ACCOUNTS PAYABLE screens all credit purchases and ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE all credit sales. ACCOUNT SEARCH is an intelligent account enquiry, which only requires part of the name string to be entered. The program and data can be saved to tape or Microdrive and a new file option clears the ledgers of any transactions.

STOCK CONTROL

STOCK CONTROL features a range of functions for adding to, amending and displaying stock information. Up to 992 records can be held within the 48K Spectrum. All stock records are accessed by a reference code entered by the user during the item entry. Program and data are stored together and when reloaded the program automatically runs with the current data. The main menu displays the options of adding a stock item, changing a stock item and deleting a stock item. Stock details entered are the reference code (1-6 characters), description, supplier, unit quantity (dozen, set, or whatever), units in stock, cost price per unit, sale price per unit, minimum stock level and reorder quantity.

FINANCIAL SUMMARY gives the total cost value of stock, the total sales value, the overall gross profit margin based on the first two figures and the cost of new purchases based on the individual reorder quantities of stock below the minimum stock level. LIST STOCK RECORDS provides a further submenu, which includes BROWSE RECORDS (Q and W to move forwards and backwards through the file), SCREEN A SINGLE RECORD (called up with the reference code), SCREEN STOCK SUMMARY (16 records a page), PRINT SINGLE RECORD and PRINT STOCK SUMMARY. STOCK REMOVED/RECEIVED provides entry of stock movements and UNDERSTOCKED ITEMS provides a list of stock items below the minimum stock level. NEW FILE initialises all information in the file and deletes all current records,. ZERO STOCK QUANTITIES retains the record details but sets all stock quantities to zero. WRITE FILE ON TAPE saves the program and data to tape.

MAILIST

MAILIST allows the storing, amending and retrieval of names and addresses which are held permanently on tape. Up to 200 records may be held in the 48K environment. The main menu provides options for adding records, browsing through the file, changing, deleting and finding records using one of the ten fields of the record as a search key. The records contain the name, title, company, addressl, address2, town/city, county, post code, telephone and a 16 character searchkey string, which can be used by the user to identify individuals by creditworthiness, rep area and so on. The print options include routines for label printing: setting up the label format, printing a test label, printing a range of labels and printing selective labels. Also available is a telephone list printout. The program and data can be saved to tape for permanent storage. Last but not least a sort routine is provided, which enables the complete file to be sorted under one of the ten field headings.

DATABASE

This program provides a card index system. Up to ten alphanumeric or numeric fields may be specified and a total of 30K is available for the complete file. Calculations may be performed on numeric fields and a sort routine is provided which may be used on any field. The main menu provides options to add, change or delete records in the file. FIND/SORT RECORDS includes not only the sort routine, but also a find substring facility (operating from the first character position onwards only). TOTAL ITEMS BY FIELD calculates and displays the grand total of the field for the entire file. The records may be listed on screen or printed. CREATE NEW FILE clears out all records from the file.

HOME ACCOUNTS

This program provides a record of your home budget estimates and actual expenditure and keeps a record of all transaction to and from the bank account. The budget headings may be set up by the user, as appropriate. Provision is made to alter the budget estimates as well as the actual expenditure, view the budget with the display of actual and estimated figures for each heading colour coded blue if they are equal, red if the actual figure is greater and black if it is smaller than the estimate. The monthly accounts can be plotted in histogram form. A set of banking routines is included to enable to enter credits, enter payments, provide an account summary and to carry forward balances for the next period. Again, START NEW FILE initialises and clears the budget and banking data and dimensions new headings, while WRITE FILE ON TAPE saves the complete program with budget and banking data to tape.

CONCLUSION

OFFICE MASTER certainly packs in a lot of useful application programs. The CASHBOOK and FINAL ACCOUNTS certainly are very solid programs which can provide a structure for very sound accounts. The speed is as could be expected from programs written in BASIC, but as long as the files are not too large, the programs can provide reasonable service.

At £15 on cassette or £17.50 on Microdrive, GEMINI offers a complete accounts package including cashbook and final accounts, legders and stock control, maillist and graph presentation. As an extra you get a general purpose database, home accounts and a multi-purpose graph plot utility. The individual programs may not be the hottest thing on a Spectrum, but given the restricted market for this application (on a Spectrum) that really isn't to be expected.

Label: Gemini
Price: £15 (tape), £17.00 (m/drive)
Memory: 16/48K
Reviewer: Mike Wright

Not that many years ago a suite of seven business software programs like Gemini's Office Master would have cost at least £200. Now you can get the lot for £15, on cassette, and £17.50 on Microdrive.

Yes, the programs are all written in Basic which understandably makes them a bit slow. Yes, each program is generally not as good as the market leader in each case. And, yes, the programs are designed to be used with a ZX printer and next to no help is given on using an 80-column printer.

But, despite these shortcomings the whole suite is incredibly good value for money even if you don't need all the programs in the pack.

Two programs do stand out. Graphplot is probably the best business graphics package available on the Spectrum.

And Maillist is extremely easy to use even if it is not the most powerful of its type. In addition the budget section of Home Accounts is likely to find a lot of use.

THE SEVEN PARTS OF THE SUITE

Home Accounts: Home accounts is really two programs. One keeps track of your bank account, the other helps control the family budget. Both programs accept data up to a maximum of twelve months, although the bank balance can be carried forward.

Bank account data is entered as credits of payments. In addition to the date, payee and amount entered for credits, a cheque number can be entered for payments. Entries can be listed in date order only on the screen.

The budget control is much more useful. Monthly budget targets are set up under up to 18 redefinable headings (9 on the 16K Spectrum). Actual amounts are entered monthly. Comparison of budget and actual figures to date allows you to check how far in the red you are! Monthly comparisons are also possible.

Unfortunately, there is no print option in the whole program.

Easiledger: A complete record of up to 800 financial transactions showing the type of transaction, date, account name, amount and invoice number can be built up. There are seven types of transaction varying from cash sales to cheque payments and bank deposits. Despite being able to delete transactions there is no option to only amend an entry and with no validity check on dates users may find correcting entries troublesome.

Details of individual accounts, the bank account and amounts owing and owed are all available as is an overall summary. The limitation on the amount of £66,000 is unlikely to affect most users(!) but the restriction to 8 characters (only 5 of which are printed) for the account names could well be a problem. With account names this is a more useful program for keeping home accounts than the other one provided.

Mailing List: A mailing list is a dedicated database keeping records of names and addresses. Despite being written in Basic this one is one of the best I have come across. It's relatively powerful and easy to use.

Nine fields including title, company and telephone number can be used for the name and address. A tenth field for a reference is also available. Records can be added, deleted or changed. They can also be examined one-by-one using a Browse option. Groups of records can be found by a search on any field. The search on Field 10 is slightly different. A space in the search key is treated as a 'wild card', ie any character and not just a space.

Database: This is a simple card-type database. Each record can have up to ten 19 character fields. These can be either string or numeric. The number of fields, their type and length are defined when creating a new database and need choosing carefully. The numbers of records created and available are shown on the main menu.

The usual Add, Change, Find, List, Print and Delete commands are all there, but beyond this its features are limited to sorting on a field or totalling a numeric field. There are minor bugs in the Search and Create new file but I found none that are likely to cause major problems.

This type of simple database doesn't give a lot of power but if you only want to store data without manipulating it you'll find it very easy to use.

Graph Plot: Graph Plot is a business graphics package that allows six different types of graphs (including histograms, line graphs and pie charts) to be drawn. Having selected the graph type you then key in the title and the axes labels. These are automatically positioned and cannot be repositioned.

The date is entered from either the keyboard, or tape (cassette or microdrive) and, before this the number of items must be entered. Options allow the data to be replotted in a different form or a sub-set can be selected and plotted. This useful feature is constrained only by the items having to be consecutive.

Stock Control: Stock control for small businesses is usually a matter of scanning the shelves to see what looks cheap. If used properly a stock control program can yield quite a lot of management information and this one is no different.

Details of up to 500 stock lines including reference, description, supplier, current and minimum stock levels, cost and sales prices and unit and reorder levels. In addition the total cost and sales values, the gross profH and the total cost of reordering all understocked items can be given.

Of course you need to spend some time at the keyboard each day or week entering what has been sold and received, but with this it does not take too long. Unlike some systems negative stock values are possible so allowing up-dating on receipt of orders.

Cash Book and Final Accounts: This part of the package is designed for the small business that wants to reduce its accountants' bills and still produce trial balances, profit and loss and balance sheets. Although data on individual transactions is entered it is not kept. The program, unlike Financial Accounts from Manx Tapes, works on cumulative totals for eighty-nine preset accounts. Individual details must be printed at the end of a session and the print-out retained to provide an audit trail. Data is entered in batches with the batch total and the number of transactions. Having to calculate these by hand surely defeats most of the purpose of using a computer, in the first place. Amendments to nominal accounts and items such as depreciation can be included via a Journal option.

All Nominal accounts and their totals can be listed to the screen, alternatively a trial balance showing all non-zero accounts can be printed.

Comparative figures can be produced for the trading account and balance sheet.