New Product - IEEE Computer Society
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1. eviews An account of One write Plus A number of my friends have broken loose and started their own companies While trained as engineers they soon take to the business world of budgets and balance sheets payroll and invoices cash flow and job cost accounting Having given considerable thought to transform ing their ideas into products they have not given much time to the issue of ac counting for their day to day business transactions A few plunge into their spreadsheets and come up with some unique templates that satisfy immediate needs At some point usually around the start of a new fiscal year they realize their plight and it becomes necessary to throw out the baby with the bath water and take the plunge into the uncharted world of serious accounting software We all have to bear in mind that run ning a small business doesn t allow for much time to spend on paperwork such as payroll invoices and purchase or ders or for that matter on accoun tants What each of us wants and needs is a simple to use system running on a microcomputer that handles the daily paperwork and doesn t demand a lot of learning time to get it going Enter the one write system where you write a check once and it is entered into your cash ledger while debited and cred ited against the proper accounts such as payroll materials insurance and the like For those unfamiliar with the concept this is called double entry2. balance sheet and income statement A business pulse report is also available and provides you with a cash flow analysis There are many other reports as well The best way to get started with One Write Plus is to start working with your accountant several months before the year s end to set up the chart of accounts you will use At the end of your fiscal year your accountant will then be able to give you the starting or trial balances to be entered when you set up the system The package is so complete that all of this in formation is contained in a separate booklet you give to your accountant One Write Plus represents a good start ting place for the small businessperson who needs to automate the company books It is very well done easy to use and comes with a money back guarantee Equally important is the 800 number that really does work I tried it and will find answers to those tough questions that your dealer can t help you with You will need an IBM PC or compatible with 128K any type of monitor and at least one double sided double density disk drive The price is 295 from Evergreen Software The Meeting Place Amherst MA 03031 One final note there are plans to augment the system with additional modules for accounts receivable accounts payable and payroll personnel Thus you can start immediately with the base system and upgrade as your needs demand Richard Eckhouse IEEE SOFTWARE
3. Basic 56K user RAM a voice command language and a task scheduling program Security program protects PC files United Software Security announced PrivacyPlus a security system designed for employees who use personal com puters The system requires only two commands Lock and Unlock Encryption options include USS s Fast algorithm the National Bureau of Stan dards s DES algorithm multiple pass words password suppression and file hiding PrivacyPlus can be expanded to sup port the LazerLock authentication sys tem a portable hardware password gen erator using optical technology The system runs on IBM PCs and all compatibles using MS DOS or PC DOS Users can selectively protect data text and programs on both floppy and hard disks A special feature secures electronic mail messages Gem environment licensed to Atari ACT Apricot Digital Research has announced it licensed its Gem graphics environment manager operating system extension and desktop application to Atari Britain s Applied Computer Techniques and ACT s US affiliate Apricot 92 The Gem environment provides a user interface similar to Apple s Macintosh Gem uses a pictorial representation of a desk s surface and icons such as disks wastebaskets and folders Gem is available on Atari s ST line and all of Apricot s business computers The ROM BIOS available for IBM PC AT compatibles Phoenix Software Associates Ltd has ann
4. DunsPlus Framework top integrated software survey A comparative test of 15 integrated software packages for the IBM PC rated the 1700 DunsPlus and the 695 Frame work packages as the best overall The Software Digest comparison involved six experts a panel of 12 users and 5000 hours of testing over three months On ascale of 0 0 to 10 0 DunsPlus and Framework both rated scores of 7 0 The Enable package followed with a score of 6 8 Symphony and Smart Software Sys tem tied for third place with overall rat ings of 6 6 Jack2 and T Maker had the lowest scores 4 8 and 4 7 respectively In be tween with overall scores from 6 4 to 5 0 were Integrated7 Electric Desk Golden gate Open Access Aura SeriesOnePlus Decision Manager and Corporate MBA In addition to overall ratings the com parison also scored packages on several particular attributes In the ease of learn ing category Framework and Integrated tied for first with scores of 7 7 Frame work topped the ease of use category with a rating of 7 8 Framework and DunsPlus tied for best error handling Enable led the perfor mance category and Enable was judged most versatile with a score of 8 3 al though Smart Software System closely trailed with a score of 8 2 in that category Enable and Framework had the best word processing functions the compar ison found None of the programs scored well for database functions DunsPlus and Frame work scored highe
5. a lesson But I m really grasping at straws to call attention to this Other than simple operations such as entering a payee s name address and dollar amount the user needs only seven function keys plus the spacebar and the backspace key to do everything There are no commands and no cursor keys used The software locks the number keys into a dedicated keypad I found the need to enter 10000 for 100 a bit annoying but I think that has to do with my engineering laziness that says 100 is enough The user can have up to three checking accounts with the balances automatically maintained by the system As I mentioned earlier this is handy for those of us that keep at a minimum a checking account and money market account Oh yes I ve neglected to mention that checks need not be computer generated You can write and enter manually produced checks easily Distribution across accounts As each amount is entered either to write a check or make a deposit the amount must be debited from one account and credited to another Each entry must be in balance so that the debits equal the credits From this you may deduce what I said earlier namely that the amount of a check may be distributed across several accounts You select the proper account and the amount is automatically posted If you change the amount and then select another account for the remainder the system automat ically knows how much to post Another
6. accounting If you re like me when you order your checks from the bank you will probably get an offer from them for a manual one write system Or it may be that your ac countant starts the business off that way In either case the goal of such a system is to minimize paperwork for you and your accountant However while a manual system is a worksaver it doesn t do much to help you keep track of your business so you actually know how much you spend each month on materials whether you made your tax deposit and what your cash flow is To handle these questions you have to go to a computerized system that offers the familiarity of a manual system with its double entry accounting while enhancing management control through such things as journals and finan cial reports Uncontrolled accounting In my own case I started a small company with the usual three up checkbook and Multiplan 93 Each month I would transfer the checks I wrote and the deposits I made to the spreadsheet so that I would know what I had spent and how much money I had taken in When the numbers of checks and deposits was small everything worked reasonably well although I was rarely up to date in posting the checks After a few years I migrated to a one write system that ran on my PC The system produced com puter checks immediate results a minimum of reports and absolutely no control I could delete checks or change whom they were paid to as well
7. as the amount of the check The only way I could handle two cash accounts such as a money market account was to create a fictitious expense account that I some times added to and other times deducted from to transfer to my checking ac count I m not complaining the software was free and was much more convenient than the old manual method Having seen a better way to do things I started a search for new accounting prod ucts that would continue the automation I had begun Such a system would keep my checkbook print checks and produce monthly quarterly and yearly statements of how well I was doing It would follow good accounting practices not like the system I was using and would have the blessing of my accountant Price was im portant as well The total system would have to retail for under 1000 Interestingly I had chosen the right time to go looking Two products were recently introduced that nicely satisfied my requirements This month Pll talk about the first one aptly named One Write Plus from Evergreen Software In the next issue Pll tell you about the second system I came across that offers addi tional features generally found in much more expensive systems System of choice One Write Plus represents the familiarity of a manual system and the sophistication of the pro fessional accountants who developed it It comes highly recommended by other ac countants and has become the system of choice for a
8. Editor Richard Eckhouse Moco Inc 91 Surfside Road PO Box A Scituate MA 02055 Compmail r eckhouse New P Personal robot features built in software Arctec systems announced Gemini an autonomous personal robot that has a 100K built in artifical intelligence system software Three onboard computers and one remote communications computer let Gemini sense its environment navigate speak and understand spoken com mands simultaneously Gemini comes with a floating point Basic language enhanced with robot controlling commands A 40 character by 8 line LCD display and cordless remote keyboard turn Gemini into a per sonal computer with 56K user RAM It also has a schedule program that non programmers use to make Gemini per form various tasks at specified times Built in text to speech software lets Gemini teach its command vocabulary to as many as three people A Gemini robot equipped with Basic the voice command language Vocol and a smoke detector costs 6995 Options include a 128K endless wafer tape drive for 180 an infrared motion sensor for 120 and a barometer for 85 For more information contact Arctec Systems 910 Red Branch Rd Colum bia MD 21045 301 730 1237 Reader Service Number 20 al a The Gemini robot navigates speaks and responds to commands from as many as three people It comes with floating point
9. automatic feature is the gener ation of account names If you know the number of the account you can type it in and the account will be lined up for you so that you may immediately post it This same feature is used in other places cut ting down the number of keystrokes re quired to post an entry As checks come in they too are posted except in this case it is to a cash receipts register At some point when you decide it is time to go to the bank you press a func tion key to make a deposit and it is auto matically entered in the journal for you Receipts like cash disbursements may be voided or edited Fortunately the control on editing is excellent so that you may not haphazardly munge up your well main tained books At the end of a month you convert your check and deposit entries into the double entry items in the general ledger This isn t any more involved than telling the system to do so unless you want to include ac counts receivable or payable as well as recurring journal entries such as monthly rent payments These journals allow you to use an accrual basis rather than a cash basis for your company a feature not usually found in low cost accounting packages End of the month close then is really the process of recording and printing general journal entries posting all the journals to the general ledger and generating financial reports that include a check register and distribution report trial balance
10. friend who got me started on all of this since he had recently formed an engineering start up and needed a pack age to lessen the workload After running some preliminaries that set up the system by naming some control accounts and their initial balances for ex ample your checking and net worth ac counts you quickly migrate to the cash disbursement screen where you will spend most of your time This screen displays a check that the user is to fill in To the right of the check are the columns containing the various ledger accounts that the ex penses are to be charged to Only two col umns can appear at any time so the user 94 moves between columns with the space and backspace keys Accounts are numbered from 1000 to 9999 You can either start with the two sets of accounts that come with the soft ware or make up your own Most users will start with the packaged set modifying it to suit their particular needs as dictated by their accountants Manual not needed In all cases screen prompts constantly guide the user through the program A user s manual is really not needed However the one that comes with the software is one of the best I ve ever seen If one were to fault it for any reason it would be its too cute ap proach It is well written and well thought out I found only two minor errors and one annoying statement that occurred often at the beginning telling me to turn off my computer each time I finished
11. ntact Intel Corp Literature Dept W 19 3065 Bowers Ave Santa Clara CA 95051 408 987 5084 For more information on Unix contact AT amp T Customer Information Center PO Box 19901 Indianapolis IN 46219 For more information on Microport s System V 286 version contact Microport Systems 60 Garden Ct Monterey CA 93942 Reader Service Number 25 System sends graphics to slide producer over phone Integrated Software Systems Corp said it will distribute free to users of its graphics software a device interface that enables ISSCO generated graphics to be transmitted by modem to Mathematical Applications Group Inc s slide produc tion facilities Graphics created by ISSCO s Disspla Tell a Graf and Tellaplan software can be downloaded from a host computer to a PC and the slide design data can be sent over phone lines to MAGI production centers Finished presentation slides are ready within 24 hours May 1985 The new software includes error correcting transmission protocol that assures files sent over data communica tions lines arrive at MAGI in the proper format the companies said Before the device interface was created magnetic tapes containing graphics files had to be shipped to MAGI for produc tion that option is still available For more information contact Inte grated Software Systems Corp 10505 Sorrento Valley Rd San Diego CA 92121 619 452 0170 Reader Service Number 26 New Product
12. ounced ROM BIOS software com patible with IBM PC ATs for the OEM market The software will be licensed to manufacturers of IBM compatibles as part of a package for systems software compatibility The package also includes a PC AT DOS compatible version of MS DOS the GW Basic language configured to resemble IBM s BasicA and ROM soft ware for an AT compatible 8042 key board controller chip interface The soft ware has been shipped to beta test sites The package is available to OEMs for unlimited use licensing for 440 000 Each component of the package may be licensed separately The AT ROM BIOS costs 200 000 the MS DOS version 60 000 the utilities 60 000 the GW Basic version 100 000 and the 8042 chip support 20 000 For more information contact Phoenix Software Associates Ltd 1420 Providence Hwy Ste 101 Norwood MA 02062 617 769 7020 Reader Service Number 21 PrivacyPlus costs 159 per copy with discounts for quantity orders Corporate and site licensing agreements are also available Demo disks are available for 20 For more information contact United Software Security 6867 Elm St McLean VA 22101 703 556 0007 Reader Service Number 22 Atari STs run on a proprietary operating system developed by Atari and Digital Research Apricot uses MS DOS For more information contact Digital Research Box DRI Monterey CA 94303 408 649 3896 Reader Service Number 23 IEEE SOFTWARE
13. st with respective scores of 6 6 and 6 3 In the spreadsheet category Symphony and DunsPlus in corporating Lotus 1 2 3 tied with ratings of 8 0 For more information contact Soft ware Digest One Wynnewood Rd Wynnewood PA 19096 215 649 7000 Reader Service Number 24 Unix System V available for 80286 microprocessor AT amp T s Unix System V version 2 0 operating system has been released for use with Intel s 80286 microprocessor the companies announced The System V 286 joins the MS DOS Xenix and iRMX operating systems available on the 80286 microprocessor The 80286 s on chip memory manage ment and protection eliminate complex reprogramming of the Unix kernel when System V is transported from one 80286 based computer system to another Several independent vendors support the 80286 with their enhanced versions of System V 286 These include UnixPlus from Unisoft Systems of Monterey California IN ix from Interactive Sys tems of Santa Monica California and System V 286 Release 2 0 from Microport Systems also of Monterey Microport is a spinoff from Digital Research which developed the System V 286 port under contract to Intel AT amp T will market the source code product for 43 000 for the initial host 286 system and 16 000 for each additional host Microport Systems will market a binary version of its System V 286 version for the Intel 286 310 system For more information on System V 286 co
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