Previous Next

The cassette and booklet arrive in a smart, rigid plastic wallet with space for a second cassette. Unfortunately, all that glisters is not gold.

The demonstration program loaded easily, but is followed by the user program. This would make the latter difficult to locate. The reverse side of the cassette, however, is left blank!

Some instructions are given on-screen, others being found in the booklet. To gain access to the program, a code is entered. This provides little security as an incorrect input does not make the program crash.

An account can be displayed, page by page, with data, reference, and gross and net amounts shown. The file can be updated and entries can be corrected or deleted.

Whole accounts can be deleted, but alterations to ledger sales and VAT accounts would have to be made manually.

The program will also list debtors, indicating those whose credit limit has been reached, give a sales summary, and can be used for monthly ledger accounting. There is a hard copy option on all displays.

The menu is therefore quite extensive, but so is the size of the program - over 16K! Although up to 253 entries per account and 283 accounts are offered, my machine would only accept four accounts of the maximum number of entries, or 283 accounts of only two entries each. The booklet hints at this - "...maintain more than one file."

All communication with the program is by INPUT statements. This becomes a little tiresome after a while, especially with single character entries.

The program allows the user to run a sales ledger accounting system, but users are advised to consult their accountant to ensure sufficient controls exist.

As both program and data are SAVEd - a pity with the Spectrum's data SAVE facility - the time to save one file and load in the next (including verify) is in excess of 14 minutes!

These last two factors, coupled with the need to define the size of the file at the beginning, make this package not particularly attractive - especially at £14.95.

C.B.