Starting a new company is risky and every little bit of help given is doubly welcome.

QL Entrepreneur, written by Triptych Publishing and published by Sinclair Research, is designed as a complete package to help the budding businessman start his new venture on a sound financial footing.

It consists of a teaching program, two applications programs - one for a single product company, the other for a multi-product company - and a manual. A spare data cartridge is also included.

The program is a conversion from an earlier Spectrum version, published by Collins Soft and reviewed in the September issue.

The teaching program is an extension of the manual and is used for displaying the results of the worked examples and the limited self test on a balance sheet.

Options, corresponding to chapters in the manual, are selected by pressing two keys. Once an option is selected further progress is made by responding to the prompts in the manual, usually by pressing successive numbers.

Seeing individual transactions shown against a balance sheet, and the effect on the balance sheet is effective, but by having to switch back and forth from the manual much of it is lost. As a textbook, the manual is no more than adequate although the chapter entitled Planning a Business is excellent and well worth reading.

Before using either of the applications programs, a lot of research and preparation is needed.

Both programs work on the basis of entering all the costs of the business, as fixed assets, expenses, employees, and as direct costs with details of when the payments are to be made. Projected sales volumes month by month and the selling price are also added. Details of any proposed initial funding are entered later.

The display is divided into three windows, the top two are used as display screens. As one screen is filled you are given the opportunity to use the other for the next stage. That allows important details to be kept on the screen and effectively allows twice as much information to be displayed.

For the multi-product program, direct costs are entered as a percentage of the selling price, compared to the unit cost per component used in the single product program.

Up to ten products can be included in the multi-product program, although greater numbers can be handled by grouping products in some way.

Both programs automatically produce a monthly cash flow analysis, showing monies spent and received, and the balance. The amounts are calculated on the basis that credit payments are made on time at the end of the credit period.

That analysis is produced automatically, and only if the company is in debt are details of the initial funding requested. The profit and loss account and the balance sheet for any specific period can also be produced.

Perhaps the most important aspect is the sensitivity-ratio analysis feature. The ratio analysis is the average amount of time that credit is given and received, and the sensitivity analysis shows the effect of ten percent increases and decreases in income and costs.

The program now comes into its own by allowing details to be changed easily, and the results recalculated until the right mix to produce a profitable company is found.

Unfortunately, the business is unlikely to go exactly to plan and a weather eye will need to be kept on its development, and details altered accordingly, to forecast future performance. A save/load option allows all that to be done easily.

QL Entrepreneur is one of those packages I find irritating, the applications programs are well thought out and presented and cover an area often missed by new businessmen. The teaching program, however, is very disappointing and is probably the most wasteful use, the QL has been put to. Other than the recently-released arcade oldie, QL Meteor Storm, of course.

Compared to the Spectrum version, the only major differences seem to lie in the displays for the applications program, while the teaching program is virtually identical.

That makes the price of the QL version, at £34.95, compared to the Spectrum version at £14.95 seem very poor value for money.