IF YOU run a small business, you might look at a new accounting system from Manx Tapes.

Classic Book-keeping and Financial Accounts is a 15-program package for a 48K Spectrum, single microdrive and full-sized printer. It is supplied on two microdrive cartridges and a further five cartridges are required for data and interim program storage. If back up cartridges are made then 14 cartridges are necessary to run the system.

The manual is adequate. It does have its weak points and the section on installing the system leaves a great deal to be desired.

The author appears to have been blinkered by the intricacies of bookkeeping to the extent that the user is forgotten when it comes to providing the extra touches which make a program easy to use.

The details needed to install the system are contained in four programs. To use a different part of the install option, an error is forced to stop the current program, by using a non-existent second microdrive. You must then reload the system before the install option and the relevant program selected. That also applies to other sections of the system. Very tedious.

Unusually, there is a facility for increasing the amount of data handled. That does not alter the size of the arrays holding the data but alters the variables used to determine how often the system chugs round the loops.

The system keeps three ledgers - general, sales and purchases - and six programs to enter data. Those are cash received, bank payments, petty cash payments, sales journal, purchase journal and journal entries.

Apart from keeping the books the system will also produce account statements for customers which are well laid out with all necessary details.

Although the entry of data into Classic Book-keeping and Financial Accounts is relatively easy, the time wasted with large numbers of microdrive cartridges makes it unwieldy.

It is an impressive accounting system which you might prefer not to use but it is one from which you might be only too happy to receive reports.