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          	   Microsoft Windows 95 README for
       Microsoft Small Business Financial Manager for Microsoft Excel
		             March 1996            
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	      (c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1996


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HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT
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To view Readme.txt on screen in Notepad, maximize the Notepad window.

To print Readme.txt, open it in Notepad or another word processor, 
then use the Print command on the File menu.


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CONTENTS
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1.  IF YOU HAVE A PREVIOUS VERSION OF MICROSOFT EXCEL
2.  IF YOU HAVE A NETWORK VERSION OF MICROSOFT EXCEL
3.  INSTALLING MICROSOFT ACCESS 2.0 AFTER MICROSOFT FINANCIAL MANAGER
4.  PERFORMANCE ISSUES
5.  "_LEGACY" APPENDED TO USER-DEFINED ACCOUNT PARTS
6.  USE OF "GLACCOUNT" VERSUS "TOTALS" IN PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS
7.  RESTORING ACTUALS FOR NEW ITEMS IN PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS
8.  NON-CALENDAR FISCAL YEARS
9.  13-PERIOD CALENDAR YEARS
10. UNPROTECTING WHAT-IF WORKSHEETS MAY CAUSE UNPREDICTABLE RESULTS
11. IF YOU HAVE LESS THAN 10MB FREE SPACE AVAILABLE ON YOUR HARD DRIVE
12. "S_13" ACCOUNTS APPEARING ON TRIAL BALANCE AND BALANCE SHEETS
13. PASTING AND RECALCULATING VALUES IN WHAT-IF WORKSHEETS
14. RESTORED ACTUALS IN PRODUCT MIX APPEAR IN BLUE
15. AR/AP/INVENTORY VALUES ON RATIOS REPORT DON'T MATCH WHAT-IF SCENARIO
16. ROUNDING NUMBERS IN A WHAT-IF WORKBOOK
17. SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS ON TYPES OF ACCOUNTING DATA YOU CAN IMPORT

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1.  IF YOU HAVE A PREVIOUS VERSION OF MICROSOFT EXCEL
=====================================================

Microsoft Financial Manager Setup installs a shortcut on your
desktop to start Microsoft Excel 95. If you have a previous version
of Microsoft Excel on your computer in addition to Microsoft Excel 95,
the Financial Manager shortcut will start the last installed
version of Microsoft Excel.

If the shortcut opens a version of Excel other than Microsoft Excel 95 (v7.0),
reinstall Microsoft Excel 95, then reinstall Financial Manager. 
You do NOT need to remove your previous version of Microsoft Excel.
 

2.  IF YOU HAVE A NETWORK VERSION OF MICROSOFT EXCEL
====================================================

You must have Microsoft Excel installed locally on your computer before you can
install Financial Manager. If you're running the network version of 
Microsoft Excel, you may have problems installing Financial Manager. 


3.  INSTALLING MICROSOFT ACCESS 2.0 AFTER MICROSOFT FINANCIAL MANAGER
==================================================================

If you are going to install Microsoft Access 2.0 on your computer and you have
already installed Financial Manager, folllow these steps:

a.  Un-install Microsoft Financial Manager
b.  Install Access 2.0
c.  Install Financial Manager.

If you do not follow these steps you will encounter errors and
instability when creating reports or what-if analyses.


4.  PERFORMANCE ISSUES
======================

Importing accounting data can take a long time.  Sometimes the screen does not 
update when you import, it will update when the import is complete.  Financial Manager 
performs a series of complicated calculations the first time you create or save 
a new What-if scenario or Report Workbook, or whenever you open an existing what-If 
scenario or Report Workbook. This may take anywhere from several seconds to several
minutes, depending on the size of your accounting data and the
processing speed and available memory on your computer. If the time
seems unacceptably long, you may be able to improve performance
by freeing up system resources. For example, try closing all other
non-essential applications or non-Microsoft Financial Manager worksheets.


5.  "_LEGACY" APPENDED TO USER-DEFINED ACCOUNT PARTS
====================================================

If your accounting software allows you to define custom account parts,
such as Customer or Product, Microsoft Financial Manager will append
"_LEGACY" to the end of each. This is to help you distinguish between
your user-defined account parts and predefined account parts in
Financial Manager when the two are identical.

For example, Financial Manager uses a predefined account part
called "Product." If you've defined a custom account part called
"Product" in your accounting software, then it will appear as
"Product_LEGACY" on reports and worksheets to distinguish it from
Financial Manager's "Product".


6.  USE OF "GLACCOUNT" VERSUS "TOTALS" IN PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS
================================================================

If you create a Profitability Analysis brooken down by "Totals" from a What-If 
scenario, you will notice the term "GLAccount" is used in some locations
on the Profitiability Analysis Worksheet.  "GLAccount" and "Totals are interchangeable.


7.  RESTORING ACTUALS FOR NEW ITEMS IN PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS
=============================================================

If you Restore Actuals after adding a new item to the Profitability
Analysis Worksheet, Financial Manager will reset all values
for the new item to $0 or $1.


8.  NON-CALENDAR FISCAL YEARS
=============================

Dates in the Insert Account Balance section are named as "Period, Fiscal Year."
For example, if your fiscal year is non-calendar from March 1, 1995 to
February 29, 1996, then a date of "Period 1, Fiscal Year 1996" refers to
March of 1995.


9.  13-PERIOD CALENDAR YEARS
============================

Some businesses use 13-period calendar years in their accounting.  Financial
Manager supports only a standard 12-period calendar year. If you try to import 
accounting data from a system based on a 13-period calendar year, you'll 
receive an error message.


10. UNPROTECTING WHAT-IF WORKSHEETS MAY CAUSE UNPREDICTABLE RESULTS
===================================================================

Do not unprotect any worksheets in a What-If scenario. Doing so may
cause unpredictable results in the What-If scenario calculations.


11. IF YOU HAVE LESS THAN 10MB FREE SPACE AVAILABLE ON YOUR HARD DRIVE
======================================================================

Financial Manager requires a minimum of 10 megabytes of free
space on your hard drive to operate properly. If you have less than
10 megabytes of available space, you may encounter errors while
trying to load Financial Manager.


12. "S_13" ACCOUNTS APPEARING ON TRIAL BALANCE AND BALANCE SHEETS
=================================================================

If you create a Trial Balance or Balance Sheet report, you may notice
accounts that you don't recognize from your accounting data, prefixed
with "S_13" and having a value of $0. These are custom accounts that
Financial Manager uses to hold data from your What-If
scenarios.


13. PASTING AND RECALCULATING VALUES IN WHAT-IF WORKSHEETS
==========================================================

If you paste values onto a What-If scenario worksheet, you should
press <F9> to recalculate the worksheet after pasting. You may also
notice that the pasted values are not highlighted in blue, the
Financial Manager convention for indicating changed values.


14. RESTORED ACTUALS IN PRODUCT MIX APPEAR IN BLUE
==================================================

As discussed in Item 13 above, Financial Manager uses blue colored type
to indicate changed values. If you Restore Actuals on the Product
Mix view of the Profitability Analysis worksheet, the restored
actuals will mistakenly appear in blue type. If you find this
confusing, the simplest solution is to switch to another view of the
Profitability Analysis worksheet, such as Sales Revenue or Cost of
Sales, before restoring actuals.


15. AR/AP/INVENTORY VALUES ON RATIOS REPORT DON'T MATCH WHAT-IF SCENARIO
========================================================================

Under some circumstances you may find that values on your Ratios
Report for Days Sales in AR, Days Sales in AP, and Days in Inventory
don't match values on the AR/AP/Inventory Analysis worksheet in a
What-If scenario for the same period. The Ratios Report calculates 
these values based on ending balances for the period, while the What-If 
scenario calculates these values based on the average of the beginning 
and ending balances for the period.


16. ROUNDING NUMBERS IN A WHAT-IF WORKBOOK
===========================================

Under some circumstances you may find that the values in the What-If
Workbook are not the same as your manual calculations. Some values are 
rounded on the screen, but their exact value is used for any calculations.


17. SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS ON TYPES OF ACCOUNTING DATA YOU CAN IMPORT
===================================================================

a. If you’re using Financial Manager to analyze accounting data created by
Simply Accounting for Windows, you should be aware that you cannot import a
database into Financial Manager if it’s concurrently open in Simply Accounting.
Before you use the Import Wizard to import or update a database, verify that
the database isn’t already in use by Simply Accounting; if so, close it.

b. If you’re using Financial Manager to analyze accounting data created by Great
Plains Accounting for DOS, you should be aware that if you copy Great Plains accounting
data from another computer to use with Financial Manager, be sure to copy the entire
data directory and any subdirectories intact. Otherwise Financial Manager may not be
able to locate the accounting data once you’ve copied it, because Great Plains points
to data in specific directories.

c. If you’re using Financial Manager to analyze accounting data created by Peachtree
Complete Accounting for DOS, you should be aware that Peachtree maintains two master
files, SYSCOMP.D@@ and SYSCOMP.K@@, that contain the names and locations of all your
accounting data files. Peachtree places these master files in the same folder as the
Peachtree program files, instead of in the same directory as your accounting data.
Financial Manager can’t locate your accounting data without these master files. If
you don’t have the Peachtree software on your computer, and you want to import Peachtree
accounting data that was created on another computer, be sure to copy not just the
accounting data from the other computer, but the two SYSCOMP master files from the
Peachtree program folder as well.

d. If you’re using Financial Manager to analyze accounting data created by Peachtree
for Windows version 3.0, you can’t import a database into Financial Manager if it’s
concurrently open in Peachtree for Windows. Before you use the Import Wizard to import
or update a database, verify that the database isn’t already in use by Peachtree for
Windows; if so, close it.

e. If you’re using Financial Manager to analyze accounting data created by Quickbooks,
you must have Quickbooks installed on your computer, and the company .QBW file to import
must be in the same folder as the Quickbooks program files.
