The title of this program is misleading. It is not an accounts program. It is actually a form of cash account with all entries, whether paid or not, being credited or debited to a bank account and a V.A.T. account. It has analysing abilities in that it is possible to separate the payments into pre-determined groups, and it is therefore possible to construct a set of trial balances by noting manually the balances shown by the analysis. It is also possible to produce invoices, etc., in conjunction with a pre-entered mailing list.

On inserting the disc and booting up, a serious defect in the whole package becomes evident. The whole program is written in colour. Now it is perfectly possible to run a business with a monochrome monitor, and in fact most business computers use a monochrome monitor for its higher resolution and clarity. Unfortunately, the way in which colour is used in this package makes it unsuitable for monochrome monitors, and the brightness must be increased to maximum in order to be able to read everything. Even then, red is barely visible. This can be really hard on the eyes and I don't suppose that it does the monitor any good either. Even the use of a colour television is not the proper solution as Mode 3 is used for some screens, almost unreadable on a TV.

Another annoyance with the program is that every time that it is loaded it has to be told whether double-sided or twin disc drives are being used. It surely would be possible to initialise to this one and for all.

The way in which data is entered also leaves a lot to be desired. Batch entering by date is standard, but it is not possible to enter an invoice number or reference. When entering the name of the debtor or creditor, three characters are prefixed to it to act as an analysis code; this is followed by another 'flag' character, either a space if the invoice has been paid, or an asterish if it has not.

Sales and purchase invoices are entered together; the only difference is that you are asked whether it is a 'bank credit' or a 'bank debit'. As this program is obviously aimed at very small businesses, there may well be some confusion over these terms.

The menu displays do nothing to help the user along. Often, the user selects an item by pressing a number, only to find that he is presented with almost the same menu and has to press the same number again. The options on the menu often do little to explain their purpose. And there still seems to be the odd bug. Towards the end of my exploration, I was unable to go further than entering the date. The computer buzzed angrily at me and refused to go any further.

Computer users often find that poor documentation is something to be expected, but in this case the documentation is terrible. The writer obviously knew how the program worked before he wrote it, but also assumed that everyone else did as well. There is no attempt whatsoever to lead the first user through the programs; for instance, an explanation of the credit control section comes before there is any attempt to explain how to enter data.

The use of colour throughout this program makes it uncomfortable to use; poor documentation and unhelpful menus make it difficult; and the price of £58.05 makes it expensive. On top of all this, it is rather alarming to read in the instructions that the method of calculating VAT used by the program is 'fround upon' (sic) by HM Customs & Excise. As you would expect, I cannot recommend this program as a good buy.