Operational Features

This accounting software has been designed with the operator in mind. Many features are combined to make entry swift and convenient. Years of experience with hundreds of customers have helped us discover the easiest patterns of entry and how to cut down on keystrokes without losing flexibility. Each screen has been arranged to be compact, easily understood, and as attractive as possible.

Communicate with the system by means of the terminal. The system will display instructions, questions and information on the screen. Indicate the response on the keyboard or with the mouse.

This accounting software has many unique features designed to make entry as simple and error-free as possible.

All accounts and codes are checked as they are entered to ensure they are valid within the company.

Accounts and codes are not checked for validity as they are entered during System Setup; these entries are the basis for account configuration. This is also true in Chart of Accounts Entry.

Alphabetic entries and codes appear starting from the left as they are typed. Dollar and unit figures, appear from the right, as on a calculator.

When using this software, there is the option of using the mouse to select options and press buttons. In most cases, any options selected with the mouse can also be selected using the keyboard.

The space bar may be used to select options and press buttons. It has the same effect as a click with a mouse.

The system works well using a standard keyboard with a numeric keypad to the right, and several special function keys. These special function keys may vary with the hardware used. The list below applies to the most recent hardware.

On the left side of the keyboard is a key marked Tab. In most Windows programs, this key is used to advance the focus from one field or option to the next. Holding the Shift key while pressing the Tab key will move to the previous field or option.

On the right side of the keyboard is a key marked Enter. This is one of the most used and most important keys on the keyboard. Any item of data typed on the terminal will appear on the screen but will not actually be entered into the system or recorded until the Enter or Tab key is pressed. Pressing the Enter key also repositions the cursor for the next entry. In this help file, the command to ‘Press the Enter key’ or 'Press the Tab Key' will be simply condensed to <Enter>.

Pressing <Ctrl> and <Enter> keys is the same as pressing the highlighted button with the mouse (usually the OK button).

When a screen comes into view, usually the OK button is highlighted. To highlight a button, press the Tab key until the desired button is highlighted. Press the Enter key and the button is pressed. In the following examples the OK button is Highlighted.

	Notice the difference between the OK button and the other two buttons.
	In this example, the OK button is highlighted and has focus. (Notice the dotted lines around the OK button.). In this case the button can be pressed by pressing the space bar.

The <Shift> keys raise all characters to upper case. However, the <Caps Lock> key raises only the 26 letters of the alphabet to upper case. A Shift key must be used to procure upper case on any other key.

In general, these two keys are synonymous. Pressing either one will cause the cursor to backspace one position.

When selecting an option from a menu, the <Up Arrow> and <Down Arrow> simply move the cursor up and down to position it in front of the desired option.

This key deletes either a single letter , a space or an entire selection. When the delete key is pressed, it will delete whatever is at the cursor. To delete an entire paragraph or selection, highlight the selection with the cursor and press the delete key. Whatever is highlighted will be deleted. If a list box has focus, the delete key will remove the highlighted entry.

The numeric keyboard to the right of the regular keyboard may be used interchangeably with the numbers and period on the regular keyboard. This is especially convenient when entering number-intensive data. In order to use the numeric keyboard, remember to turn on ‘Numeric Mode’ by pressing the Num. Lock key.

The numeric keyboard has one unique feature when used with this accounting software. Each key has a double meaning which reveals itself only when appropriate.

Some entry fields, most notably drop down list fields, require the mouse to "pull down" the list of options.

In many entry screens this pull down list will include the following options.

Instead of using the mouse, any of these options may be accessed by pressing the letter key corresponding with the desired selection. For example: pressing "G" will select "General Ledger"

To avoid having to jump over to the regular keyboard just for one character, each key on the numeric keyboard has an alternate meaning according to the diagram at right.

The system will always assume the meaning to be numeric unless it knows the system is expecting a letter to be typed. In such a case it will automatically translate the number typed to the corresponding letter.

The <Esc> key is the way to escape from any program when entering information. It will exit the program without saving and will return to the Main Screen. It is the same as pressing the Cancel button.

In many cases, an entry field will be followed by an lookup button like this:

When the cursor is flashing in this entry field, pressing the <F2> key will press the lookup button and display the lookup screen.

The system takes every precaution to guard against erroneous entries. When it ‘knows’ an entry should be numeric, it will not allow letters or any other inappropriate character to be entered. The systems will demand exactly 7 or 10 digits for the phone number and exactly five or nine digits for zip codes. If a mistake is made, the system will immediately beep. There are several ways to correct errors.

1.Use the <Backspace> key or <Left Arrow> to erase single letters. Use the Delete key to delete the entire entry field.

2.To correct whole previously typed entries on the screen, use the mouse to click on the appropriate field or use <Shift - Tab> to jump back through the questions until the field that is to be corrected is reached. Simply type the correct entry and repeatedly press the <Enter> key until returned to the previous field. The system will leave all intermediate entries as they were.

3.Click on the desired field with the mouse and Highlight the field. Press the delete key on the keyboard. The entire entry field will be erased.

4.Before any financial transaction information such as handchecks, journal entries, timesheets, invoices, or equipment logs are entered and actually ‘posted’ to all the files, they are called to the screen for editing through special edit programs. See Printing Reports for more information.

5.Once data has been posted to the files, such as the General Ledger, a second, countermanding entry must be made in order to repair a mistake. If this is the case, see in the Procedures Guide the section titled Credit Entries and Voided Checks or contact Technical Support.

The system will remember entries made in each field. These values are used to speed subsequent entries into the same field. For example, if the operator begins typing in the Note Header field, the system will drop a list of entries with the same starting characters as shown:

Press the down-arrow key to select one of these entries or continue typing. If the characters typed have only one match in the system’s memorized entries, the system will fill the field with the remaining characters as shown:

At this point, just press Enter or Tab to accept the system-supplied value or continue typing to finish the entry.

All character fields in the system are subject to the software's internal spelling checker. Simply select the desired field and either press the F7 key or click the “Check Spelling” button at the top of the screen. If a misspelled word is found, the following window will appear with alternate choices for the spelling of the word:

3. Add this spelling of the word to the dictionary so it will not be flagged as an incorrect spelling in the future.

The contents of any entry field can be cut or copied to the Windows clipboard. Also, the contents of the clipboard can be pasted into the entry field. To copy or cut, highlight the desired text and then Right-Click on the text field. The following menu will appear:

Select the desired function. If Copy is selected, the highlighted text will be copied to the clipboard. If Cut is selected, the highlighted text will be added to the clipboard and removed from the entry field. If Paste is selected, the contents of the clipboard will be added to the entry field at the point where the cursor was located when the Paste operation was started. If any part of the entry field was highlighted before Paste was selected, the highlighted text will be replaced with the text from the clipboard.