1995 Baltic Business Software, Stockholm, Sweden

All rights reserved.
1996-3-13


Disclaimer: Although we have taken precautions to ensure 
that the program you just received will work as described 
below, the software license explicitly states that we 
cannot be held liable for any damages, whether direct, 
indirect or consequential, resulting from your use of 
this software. You agree that you have a three month 
period to try the software before you are bound to pay 
for it; if the program does not perform to your 
satisfaction, your sole remedy is to stop using the 
software and delete it from your hard disk. All names 
mentioned below are trademarks of their respective 
holders. FirstOffice is a trademark of Baltic Business 
Software AB.


Preface
First of all we wish to congratulate you to your choice 
of software, and welcome you as a user of Baltic Business 
Software's products. We have a long tradition of software
development since 1986. All our software is available in 
identical versions for both Macintosh and Windows 
operating systems. We believe that software for small 
and medium size businesses needs to be integrated, the 
user should only have to learn one program to be able to 
handle most of the business' traditional paperwork. 

Our idea with FirstOffice is to enable you - with only 
a basic knowledge about accounting - to do almost all 
your accounting yourself. In FirstOffice you can work 
with invoicing, suppliers invoices and the General Ledger 
(some features limited in smaller versions of the 
programs). You can produce all the reports which are 
necessary to have control over your business, such as 
Sales and Purchase Ledgers, receipts- and payments 
forecasts, Transaction Journal and the General Ledger. 
The biggest difference compared with other software is 
the simplicity. FirstOffice has no modules, you come 
straight into the program and you can start working at 
once. If your business grows, your need of functions may 
also grow.  Perhaps you find that you need functions for 
stock control, currency handling etc. If that is the 
case, you can take a look at our entire product line of 
integrated software. Your business can grow with Hansa.

This document describes how to work with FirstOffice 
Large. If you are using FirstOffice Medium or FirstOffice 
G/L, some features described will not be available.

The chapter Introduction explains the installation of 
FirstOffice, and how you prepare your daily work. It 
gives you an overview of the software and describes the 
"Main Window" on your computer screen.

In the  Reference section the functions of the program 
are described, the different registers, their uses, how 
the settings are defined and used etc. 

Welcome again. Let's go!

Introduction

This document is about how to use FirstOffice. The 
program is available for Windows 3.1, Windows 95, MacOS 
systems and is accelerated for Power PC. 

For whom is this software suitable?

FirstOffice's easy handling makes it suitable for the 
accounting, computer and business novice.  It's primarily 
intended for small businesses. FirstOffice will help you 
manage your growing business.
FirstOffice is very easy to use. Even so, you will find 
that the most basic knowledge about accounting and about 
how your computer works is most useful. You need to know 
the difference between debit and credit, and what the 
different account classes are used for. 

When to install the software

Most people think that the beginning of the year is the 
only time when you should change the accounting 
procedures in a business. Quite to the contrary, it is 
better to change systems during the year. You can then 
select a calm period of the year, enter all data from 
the beginning of the year and check the outcome against 
the previous  accounts. 

Fully integrated accounting

You - the user - will not notice the actual creation of 
General Ledger Transactions from the Sales Ledger and 
Purchase Ledger. These transactions constitute about 80% 
of the General Ledger transactions in a manual system - 
and in FirstOffice you can simply forget them, together 
with all the hassle with reconciling the different 
ledgers. FirstOffice does all this automatically.

Start working with FirstOffice

Under this heading we will explain how to install 
FirstOffice on your computer. We will also tell you how 
to start the program, and how you create a new database 
for the accounting information of your business.

The database is the file where all accounting data that 
you enter about one business is stored. It is not stored 
in the program. FirstOffice uses a number of predefined 
data entry windows, through which you enter your data. 
The program will store the different data in the correct 
place in the database, and it will know where to fetch 
the data when you need it, for example when you request 
a report.

Starting FirstOffice, MacOS

System requirements

Hardware
FirstOffice needs a Macintosh with at least 1.2 MB 
available memory and harddisc space for the program 
and database files. 

Software
FirstOffice runs on a Macintosh with system 7.0 or later.

Installation
This is how you install FirstOffice:
Make sure you have at least 4 MB free space on your hard 
disk. 

Your FirstOffice folder should have the following 
contents:
FirstOffice, READ ME, Default.txt, Chart of Accounts, 
Sample Company, Settings.txt, FirstOffice Manual, 
Register.

FirstOffice is of course the application FirstOffice. 
The read me file contains important information, if you 
haven't read it yet please do. There is a sample company 
you can use to learn how FirstOffice works. Default.txt 
contains some neccessary settings for the program to run. 
Chart of Accounts contains a standard chart of accounts. 
Settings.txt contains some standard company settings, 
standard report definitions and standard definitions of 
the documents FirstOffice can make.There is the manual 
document which you obviously have already found and 
finally there is the register program that you use when 
you pay the shareware fee for FirstOffice.

The database (i.e. the company file) must be stored in 
the same folder as the program and the file default.txt, 
otherwise you may have problems with the program.

Create a Database
When you open FirstOffice the first time, the database 
will be empty. A file dialog will open, inviting you to 
open an existing database, or to create a new one. 

In the list you can see the available databases. 
To open a database, click it and press the Open button.
To create a new database, click the create button. A new 
file dialog is shown. 

Enter a new company name. The file name should not be 
identical with the actual name of the company. Instead 
you should give the file a name that contains an 
abbreviation of the company name, and the financial year, 
for example BusInc96 for Business Inc 1996. The folder 
name shown in the heading indicates the destination of 
your database. Select the correct folder and click the 
Create button. FirstOffice will ask you to wait, while 
the database is created. It will take a few seconds. 
The file Default.txt is automatically imported to the 
program, providing some standard settings.

The database is now ready to use but to save time you can 
use some of the standard tools delivered with the 
program. These tools are imported to FirstOffice using 
the Import function in the File menu. If you are 
uncertain how to use the Import function, please read 
about it below in the chapter about the File menu.

The Sample Company is a sample database provided with 
the program. Some sample data have been entered, and you 
can use this example to get to know FirstOffice before 
you start using it on your own business.

The standard chart of accounts is available as a separate 
import document in case you want to make use of it for 
your own installation. Note that you can not mix the 
sample company with your own accounts. They will require 
separate databases, created following the procedure above.

The reference section of the manual explains how you 
enter data in the system. Read it carefully before you 
start entering real data about your business. 

Starting FirstOffice, Windows

System requirements

Hardware
FirstOffice needs an IBM compatible PC 386 with 4Mb 
memory and harddisc space for the program and database 
files.

Software
FirstOffice runs on Windows 3.1 or later.

Installation
This is how you install FirstOffice:
Make sure you have at least 4 MB free space on your hard 
disk. 

Your FirstOffice folder should have the following 
contents:
FirstOffice, READ ME, Default.txt, Accounts, Sample 
Company, Settings.txt, 1Office Manual, Register.

FirstOffice is of course the application FirstOffice. 
The read me file contains important information, if you 
haven't read it yet please do. There is a sample company 
you can use to learn how FirstOffice works. Default.txt 
contains some neccessary settings for the program to run. 
Accounts contains a standard chart of accounts. 
Settings.txt contains some standard company settings, 
standard report definitions and standard definitions of 
the documents FirstOffice can make.There is the manual 
document which you obviously have already found and 
finally there is the register program that you use when 
you pay the shareware fee for FirstOffice.

The database (i.e. the company file) must be stored in 
the same folder as the program and the file default.txt, 
otherwise you may have problems with the program.

Create a Database
When you open FirstOffice the first time, the database 
will be empty. A file dialog will open, inviting you to 
open an existing database. 

In the list you can see the available databases. 
To open a database, click it and press the OK button.
To create a new database enter a new company name in the 
file name field. The file name should not be identical 
with the actual name of the company. Instead you should 
give the file a name that contains an abbreviation of the 
company name, and the financial year, for example 
BusInc96 for Business Inc 1996.

Click the OK button. A new dialog will open asking you if 
you want to create the file. The file Default.txt is 
automatically imported to the program, providing some 
standard settings.

The database is now ready to use but to save time you 
can use some of the standard tools delivered with the 
program. These tools are imported to FirstOffice using 
the Import function in the File menu. If you are 
uncertain how to use the Import function, please read 
about it below in the chapter about the File menu.

The Sample Company is a sample database provided with 
the program. Some sample data have been entered, and 
you can use this example to get to know FirstOffice 
before you start using it on your own business.

The standard chart of accounts is available as a separate 
import document in case you want to make use of it for 
your own installation. Note that you can not mix the 
sample company with your own accounts. They will 
require separate databases, created following the 
procedure above.

The reference section of the manual explains how you 
enter data in the system. Read it carefully before you 
start entering real data about your business. 


The Main Window

In the desktop area you see when FirstOffice starts, you 
will see the Main Window. It is always on screen, but 
other windows can cover it partly or completely. To bring 
it to front, you can either click in a visible part of 
the Main Window, choose it in teh register menu or use 
the keyboard command Command-0. 


The menu bar

Select menus by pulling them down with the mouse in the 
normal way. Available keyboard commands are listed to 
the right of each menu item. Some commands are also 
available as icons in the button bar, e.g. OK and Cancel, 
or as icons in the Main Window.

All menu items are not available all the time. Disabled 
items are gray/dimmed.


File menu

The File menu contains commands for the handling of 
files, documents and printouts. The keyboard commands 
for the different functions are shown to the right of 
each command in the menus. Instead of selecting an item 
from the menu, you can in most cases click on the 
corresponding icon in the Main window.

Database
This command opens a dialog box for selecting an 
existing company file, or to create a new database. 
The command opens a file dialog where you can select a 
company file to work with.

Select a company database to work with and click Open.
See the section Starting with FirstOffice if you want to 
create a new database.


Settings 

This command opens the Settings window where you will 
find an alphabetical list of the settings that are 
available. Settings are used to control certain 
aspects of the program's features, and to supply 
information to be used e.g. with the Paste Special 
command.

Choose an entry in the Settings window by double-clicking 
it, or by selecting it and clicking OK. The contents of 
the settings are described in detail in the Reference 
section.


Exports

This command opens the export window. With this command 
you can copy data from the program, and move them to a 
separate file on you hard disk. The data exported is then 
available for use in other programs, such as word 
processors, spreadsheets, database programs etc. The 
important Text Backup function is also available here. 
The window has a list of the type of information you can 
choose to work with.

Import 
Importing means reading a text file, saved in the proper 
format, into the company you are working with. One 
example is to load the file you saved with maintenance
(System): Text backup.

Importing to the program is always done in the following 
way:

1.	Choose Import in the File menu.
	FirstOffice opens a dialog box with a list of the 
	files in the current folder of the current volume. 
	Scroll through the list or select another folder or 
	volume in the normal way.
2.	Select the name of the file you want to import and 
	click OK (or double-click on the name of the file).
	A message window informs you about the progress of 
	the import.
	When the import is finished, you are brought back 
	to FirstOffice's work space.


Print

This choice is available when the active (top) window on 
the screen contains something that can be printed 
directly, i.e. a screen report, a transaction in the 
transaction window etc.

Instead of selecting Print in the menu, you can click the 
printer icon at the right of the Button bar. When you 
select Print, the transaction or the report is printed 
directly to the selected printer, normally without the 
Print dialog box being shown.


Reports

FirstOffice can print reports or documents. Reports are 
used mostly in relation with your internal accounting. 
When you select Reports a window is opened. It has two 
parts: A list of all available reports, and two 
selections for the set-up of the reports.


Destination

This option determines where to send your report. 
The default is Screen. This gives you the opportunity 
to check your report before you print it on paper. If 
the report is OK, you can print it directly by clicking 
the printer icon in the button bar, or by pressing 
Command-P. The report is shown in a separate window on 
the screen.

Print to Clipboard will put the report in the system 
clipboard, available for pasting into another 
application. This is a good option for small reports.

Print to file creates a text file with the entire 
contents of the report.


Function

With this option you determine what you want to do with 
your selected report. You may choose to make the report, 
define it (i.e. determine what it is to contain), make a 
page setup definition, and send the print out to a 
certain printer.
If you select Page Setup it will open the Print dialog 
box for the printer you have selected in the Chooser. 
If you will be printing to a laser printer we recommend 
that you use 80% size for most reports, to make them 
more readable.

You can select different paper format, print orientation, 
size etc. for each report. 

In the following section we assume that you have already 
set the destination of your reports.


Documents

Documents are more formal printouts of the kind that is 
normally printed as forms. They are often directed to 
external parties e.g. invoices or delivery slips. There 
are two Function options Print and page setup.

Quit 
This concludes your working session. Remember to take a 
backup often, preferably after each session!

Edit menu
The commands in this menu are used mostly when you work 
with the contents of individual fields, i.e. with text 
and numbers.  If you wish to copy or delete entire 
records, e.g. a transaction template, you should instead 
use the commands in the Record Menu (or the buttons New 
or copy in the Button bar). If the active window contains 
nothing editable, the commands will be dimmed. For each 
command in the Edit menu there is a keyboard shortcut, 
e.g. Command-Z for undo.

Undo
Select Undo to undo your last action. This is a very 
powerful command, but remember two things: 

  Undo will bring back the contents of a field to what 
   it contained when you moved into the field. If you 
   have changed anything in the field and then entered 
   something else, Undo will just remove the last entered 
   character.
  There are a few actions in 1st Office that cannot be 
   undone, e.g. deleting a record with the Delete command 
   of the Records menu. Anything done with the Delete 
   command in the Edit menu cannot be undone.

Cut
Cut removes the data you have selected (highlighted) and 
puts a copy in the Clipboard. The Clipboard is a special 
part of the computer's memory, reserved for temporary 
storage of various types of data. The clipping can then 
be inserted (pasted) into another place, one or several 
times, until you cut or copy something else. That will 
replace the old contents in the Clipboard. 

Copy
Use Copy to copy text or numbers from one field to 
another without removing the data in the original field. 
The copy is put in the Clipboard, a special part of the 
computer memory, reserved for temporary storage of 
various types of data. Then you can Paste the copy in 
one or several other locations. The copy remains in the 
Clipboard until you Cut or Copy something else.

Note that Copy can only be used to copy text from one 
field. If you want to copy a whole record in a file, 
use the Copy command in the Records menu (or the Copy 
button in the button bar).

Paste
With this command you can insert text or a value that has 
been cut or copied to the Clipboard. The clipping is 
inserted at the insertion mark. If you select several 
characters in the destination field, Paste will replace 
all the selected text with the contents of the Clipboard.

Clear
(Back space key)
Clear removes the characters you have selected 
(highlighted) without copying them to the Clipboard.

Note that this command is equivalent to pressing the 
delete key. The Clear command removes text or values 
within a field. If you wish to remove an entire record, 
use the Delete command in the Records menu. 

Select all
With this command you select the whole contents of a 
field. If you are editing a field and want to replace 
the whole contents with new data, select all will 
replace the contents of the field with the next 
character you enter. Command-A has the same effect.

Select row
With this command you select a whole row, when the data 
in the row is edited in separate fields. This is true 
for the rows in a transaction. When you choose Select 
row, the row on which the cursor is placed, is selected. 
Clicking in the number field of the row (on the left) 
has the same effect.

Paste Special
With this command you insert certain information 
directly into the field you are working with, without 
copying and pasting in the usual way. Select the field 
into which you want to insert data, e.g. an account 
number. Select the command Paste Special. When you 
release the mouse button a new window will open, 
showing the contents of the register from which you wish 
to select a record. Double-click the record in the list 
you want to enter, or select the line and click OK 
(or press Enter). 

FirstOffice provides an even quicker way to use Paste 
Special: When you are entering data into a date field, 
simply press Command-Enter, and the current date is 
automatically entered. Or if you are in a field for an 
account number, press Command-Enter and FirstOffice will 
directly open a chart of accounts windows to select from.
Transfer the information to the data entry window by 
either double-clicking on the relevant row in the Paste 
Special window, or by highlighting the row and press the 
enter key.

Paste Special is a very valuable help when you cannot 
remember a customer number etc. Make sure you learn this 
function. It will save you lots of time.

If the record you are looking for is not available in the 
register you are looking at. You may then click the 
button New or use Command-N to open a new record in the 
related register. You may create a new record without 
leaving the current data entry.

Records menu
The Record menu contains the necessary commands to open, 
enter change and delete the records in the different 
registers. Almost all these commands can also be executed 
by the Button bar. In addition, there are keyboard 
commands available for most of them. Commands that cannot 
be selected at a certain point, are dimmed in the menu. 

The Record menu commands cannot be undone with Undo.

Next
The Next command has the same effect as when you click on 
the right side of the book on the button bar.

When you work in a record window, showing an individual 
record in a register, Next will take you forward to the 
next record in that register. It will also save all 
changes you have made in the current record.

When you work in a browse window, Next will move 
forward to the next group (page) of records. 

When you work with a report, Next will scroll to the 
next page of the report.

Also the previous command will save all changes you have 
made in the current record.

Previous
The Previous command (Command-_) has the same effect as 
clicking on the left side of the book. The command works 
in the same way as Next, but moves backwards instead of 
forwards.

OK
The command is equivalent to pressing the OK button. 

Cancel
Cancels all changes you have made in a record after 
opening it. Closing the window with the close box, or 
with Command-W will also cancel the changes.

New 
This command opens a new record, e.g. a new transaction. 

Copy
Copies a record so that you can re-use all the 
information when you create a similar record. The copy 
is opened in a window marked "Insert."  You can copy a 
record either from the record window, showing the record 
to copy, or directly from the selected record in a Browse 
window. 

Delete
Delete, i.e. removes an existing record. The record must 
be of a type that is allowed to remove, e.g. an Object 
definition. You must open a record in the record window 
to be able to delete it.

Remember that you cannot undo the deletion of a record.



Registers menu
In the Register menu the registers available in 
FirstOffice are listed, with the transaction registers 
shown before the Base registers.

Special menu
The Special menu is not always available in FirstOffice, 
but only when it contains a command. The contents of the 
menu changes with where you are in FirstOffice.

The Button Bar
Under the menu bar there is a narrow window with four 
buttons. We call it the Button Bar. The buttons are used 
in the same way as the commands in the Record menu.

The book
On the far left in the button bar there is a book icon. 
With this icon you can page through the information on 
the screen. The function varies slightly with the part 
of the program you are working in:

Record windows
If you work in a Record window that shows the details of 
individual records (e.g. Transaction: Inspect), you can 
use the book to go from record to record. If you click 
the right-hand page the next record will be shown, and 
at the same time everything you may have changed in the 
record you are leaving will be stored. Similarly, 
clicking on the left- hand page will show the previous 
record. 

Browse windows
A Browse window with a list of records is shown (e.g. 
Transactions: Browse), you may go from page to page in 
the list by clicking on the book. Click the left page 
for the previous page, and on the right page for the 
next page.

Reports
With the book icon you may also go from page to page in 
a report. Click the right page for the next part of a 
report, and on the left for the previous part.

The buttons
There are four buttons in the bar:

OK	confirms the data you have entered, e.g. saves a 
	record in a register or	prints out a report.
Cancel
	Cancels the data entry process and brings you back 
	to the previous window.
New	Opens a new blank record for data entry.
Copy	Creates a copy of the record on screen, e.g. a new 
	transaction that you want to be similar to an 
	existing one.

The printer
On the right in the button bar there is a printer icon. 
You can start a printout directly by clicking on the 
printer icon, but only when the screen shows something 
that can be printed directly, e.g. a report written to 
screen, or a transaction in a record window.

The Print command in the File menu has the same function. 
When you start a printout, it will start directly on your 
selected printer. Normally, no printer dialog is shown.

The company box
The window on the far right in the button bar shows the 
name of the Company you are currently working on.

File
Under the button bar, on the computer's work area the 
content of the File menu is shown with some icons. These 
are central tools when you work with FirstOffice. You can 
either click on these icons or use the same functions in 
the File menu.

Database
	When you click this icon you can switch to another 
	existing database or create a new.
Settings
	This is where you enter the basic data about your 
	business. The settings should be modified before 
	you start working with the different registers, 
	since the registers depend on the settings being
	correct.
Exports
	This is the command you choose to make backup 
	copies, and to export data from FirstOffice.
Reports
	You use this command to choose among different 
	kinds of printouts. You can also define some of 
	the reports and choose output media.
Document
	Use this command when you want to print documents 
	intended for external use.
Quit	Exits FirstOffice and returns control to 
	Finder/Program Manager

The File commands are described in detail in the 
reference section.


Transactions

You enter data about most of your business events in the 
transaction registers of FirstOffice.

Quotes
	This is where quotes made to customers are 
	registered. Using the command in the Special-menu 
	(or command-G) the quote can be turned into an 
	order without having to re-enter all the 
	information in the order register. When the quote 
	is registered (saved) it can be printed using the 
	printer icon.
Order	All orders are recorded here, both those made 
	automatically from the quotes register and those 
	manually recorded in the order register. Just like 
	the quote the order can be printed with the printer 
	icon. Shipping and Invoicing can be done from the 
	Order register using the commands in the Special-
	menu.
Shipments	
	This is where the records created from the 
	shipping command in the Order register are filed. 
	When the shipment is approved (Ok'd) the order 
	generating the shipment can be invoiced.
Invoices
	This is where you register all the invoices of the 
	company. After the data is entered, saved and 
	approved, the record can be printed by clicking on 
	the printer icon. In the very moment when you 
	approve (OK) the invoice, a  transaction is created 
	in the transaction register. This is done 
	automatically, without any further action from you. 
Receipts
	This is where you record incoming payments. After 
	saving and Ok'ing a record, a transaction is 
	automatically created and saved in your transaction 
	register. Registering invoices and receipts causes 
	the Sales Ledger to be automatically maintained.
Goods Received
	This is where shipments received by the company are 
	recorded. You can also correct the inventory from 
	this register.
Purchase Invoices
	In this register we file all the  purchase invoices 
	of the company.
	Transaction Templates are also created here.
Payments
	Payments to suppliers are made in this register. 
	The automatic creation of transactions automates 
	your Purchase Ledger.
Transactions
	In this register, all transactions that are 
	created from invoices, payments etc. are collected. 
	You may also work directly in this register if 
	necessary. You can also make manual adjustments to 
	transactions here.
	The transaction registers are described in detail 
	in the reference section.


Registers

The information in the Registers is used when you enter 
data in the transaction registers. These registers are 
therefore not used as frequently as the transaction 
registers. The available registers are:

Customers
	This is where you record information about each 
	individual customer.
	The data is used when quotes, orders, invoices and 
	receipts are filed.
Suppliers
	This register contains data about each individual 
	supplier. The data are used to record goods 
	received, purchase invoices and payments.
Items	This register contains data about the things you 
	sell. Information about item number, description 
	and price is entered in each item card.
Prices
	This register is used to record sales prices of 
	the items. The same item can be recorded with 
	several different prices and therefore occur in 
	different price lists.
Accounts
	This register contains all information about your 
	Chart of Accounts. A standard chart of accounts is 
	supplied with FirstOffice, and you may import it 
	through the Import function in the File menu. You 
	may also enter your own chart of accounts in the 
	accounts register.

The Records are described in detail in the Reference 
section.


Before you begin - the settings

There are just a few basic things that need to be set up 
before you can start using FirstOffice. You must define a 
fiscal year for your business. A number of General Ledger
accounts must also be defined, to make the automatic 
creation of transactions work.

Finally, you need to define some codes for payment terms 
and for payment methods. More about this later. 
When you create a new company in FirstOffice, the default 
settings will be imported automatically, but it is 
necessary to check the settings, in case your accounting 
procedures differ from the default. You find all the 
settings in the File menu command Settings.

After fixing the settings you are ready to go. 


Managing your own business

Managing your own business is often a rewarding 
undertaking, but with it come also a number of 
obligations. One of them is the requirement to keep your 
accounts up to a certain standard. The legal requirements 
differ with the type of business, but regardless of 
formal requirements there can be great advantages from 
having your books in order.
In this section there is a proposed methodology to set up 
your accounts with FirstOffice, as well as some tasks 
used for Sales Tax reporting and when the final accounts 
are prepared. 


The first transaction

Transactions in a new business

If we start a brand new company and this is a 
corporation, the first transaction will often contain the 
share capital. Let us assume this is the case, and that a 
chart of accounts already has been defined.

1.	Click the transactions register in the Main window.
2.	Click New on the button bar.
3.	Enter the information in the window

	You can move from field to field using the Enter or 
	Return key, or clicking in a field with the mouse 
	to put the insertion point where you want it.

4.	Continue with New to enter the next record.
5.	Finish with OK after entering the last transaction.


Changing from another accounting system

If you previously did the accounting in another system 
(manually or with another program), you will probably 
have to transcribe some of the existing accounting 
material to FirstOffice.

We recommend that you change during a current financial 
year, and reenter all transactions registered so far. 
This will make you familiar with FirstOffice and 
automatically give you a check of the old transactions.

Do this:
Start by creating a new company and make sure to enter 
the current financial year (described in the Reference 
section)

We recommend that you transcribe the list of accounts 
you wish to use with FirstOffice. Normally you will be 
able to use one of the preset lists of accounts included 
in the program. If you don't want to use one of the 
preset lists of accounts, you can import just a subset 
of data containing the preset report definitions.

When you have transcribed the list of accounts it's a 
good idea to enter the opening balances at once, 
although it is possible to enter this information later. 
Note that it is possible to change the opening balances 
at any time during the financial year. Other information 
can be entered whenever you want.

Before you start to register new transactions into 
FirstOffice, you should enter the already registered 
transactions of the current financial year, the ones 
made before you acquired FirstOffice. Print the reports 
you usually use and compare them with the reports from 
your old system.


The first customer

To enter your first customer, do the following:

Click Customer in the Register window

Click the New button. 

In the window "Customer: New" you enter the various 
customer data in their respective fields.

Click OK.


The first invoice

After entering the basic data as above you can continue 
with the first invoice. Do this:

1.	Click Invoices in the Main window: Transactions.
2.	Click New	
	In the window "Invoice: New" three fields are 
	already filled in; Invoice number, to-day's date 
	(from the system clock) and transaction date.
3.	Put the insertion point in the field Customer and 
	press Paste Special or use the Paste Special 
	short-cut (Command-Enter). The window Paste 
	Customer appears, showing a list of the customers 
	recorded in the Customer Register. 
	Select the number by clicking on its row, press 
	Enter twice. (The first pressing causes the number 
	to be transferred to the field in the invoice, and 
	the second will move all data about the customer 
	name, address etc. to the invoice.)
	Move the insertion point to the field Item No. 
	Click Command-Enter again. Select the correct item 
	from the list and click Enter twice.
	The information about the item is entered in the 
	row, and the insertion point is moved to the 
	column Quantity. Enter the number of items ordered, 
	and press Enter. Repeat for each item in the 
	invoice. At the bottom of the invoice the total is 
	shown, together with the Sales Tax amount and the 
	total payable amount. 
4.	Click OK.
5.	The window Invoice: Inspect is shown. You can now 
	correct any mistakes before you check the box OK. 
	With the OK box checked, clicking the OK button in 
	the button row at the top commits the invoice to 
	your Sales Ledger. After this you may not change 
	the individual fields.
	When the invoice is approved (Ok'd) a transaction 
	for the General Ledger is automatically created 
	and moved to the Transactions register.
6.	Finish with New if you wish to enter another 
	invoice.
7.	Finish with OK when you have entered the last 
	invoice.


Printing the invoice

There are two ways to print an invoice:
  If you want to print an invoice before you finally 
   commit it, you can click the printer symbol in the 
   button bar. An invoice marked with the word "Copy" 
   diagonally across the page is then printed. This is 
   to prevent this printout to be confused with the final 
   invoice.
  To print a final invoice, do the following:
	Finish with OK after the last invoice. Then click 
	the Documents icon on the Main Window.
	Select the Printer button if it is not already on.
	Double-click Invoices in the Document window.
	In the window Specify Invoices you select the 
	invoice(s) 	you want to print.
	Enter the invoice number for a single invoice, or 
	for a range of invoices. Put a colon (:) between 
	the first and the last number.

You may also choose to print only invoices that have 
previously not been printed, or all invoices, or to 
reprint some invoices.


The first receipt

Same as the case with entering invoices, you can get 
much help with entering your receipts from the built-in 
short-cuts in the program. The best tool is the lists 
you can reach through the command Paste Special. These 
commands help you to avoid errors in the Sales Ledger.

When the receipts window is open, there is also an extra 
menu in the right hand side of the menu bar, the Special 
menu. It contains the command OK, to be used to approve 
a receipt.

Click New or use the keyboard. The window Receipt: New 
is shown. 
Enter the data. When all records are entered you should
 manually check what you have entered. If you are 
satisfied, click OK.

If you find an error you can change it as needed. You 
can also cancel the whole window and start all over. If 
you select New again, or click OK the receipt is approved 
and after this you may not remove the receipt. 


Printing reports

FirstOffice can produce several different reports. A 
detailed description of these will be found in the 
reference section. You should, however, always print a 
Transaction Journal for the transactions entered during 
one work session. The same goes for the Invoices and 
Invoice Journal.

This is how you produce the current page from the 
Transaction Journal:

1.	Select Reports by clicking on the Report icon in 
	the Main Window.
2.	Choose Transaction Journal, Printer and Print from 
	the dialog box, then click OK.
3.	Enter the range of transactions you wish to print. 
	If you registered transaction 72 to 127 today, you 
	enter "72-127."
4.	Enter first and last date for the period you want 
	to print.

The Invoice Journal is printed in the same way.

1.	Select the Reports Icon by clicking on the Report 
	icon in the Main Window.
2.	Choose Journals, Printer and Print from the dialog 
	box, then click OK.
3.	The dialog window Select Journal is shown. Check 
	the Invoices check box. You can also print a 
	journal for individual invoices.
	
Click OK to start the printout.


Efficient management

FirstOffice is easy to use. By following the instructions 
in the installation section of this manual, you can set 
up your Order and Invoicing system in a very short time. 
You will
quickly be able to get the benefits from efficient order 
processing and a well-functioning system for your Sales- 
and Purchase Ledger.

The basic idea with automatic administration is to make 
the computer do most of the routine work. In the 
beginning it may seem like much work to enter all 
necessary data about items and customers, but that is 
really all the preparations you have to make. It is not 
necessary to use all the many features of FirstOffice. 
Remember, however, that the more of the basic data you 
enter into the various files and registers, the more the 
program will be able to assist you in your work.


Setting up

If this is the first time for your business to use a 
computer to do the order processing, inventory ledger, 
sales ledger, purchase ledger and general ledger, or if 
you are changing
from another system, why not take a good look at the 
overall operations? Maybe you can do things in your 
present operations, more efficiently.

A good idea is to sit down with pen and paper for a 
while, and go through your items, item groups, sales 
codes, customer categories, accounting, payment methods 
and terms, etc. If
some of the concepts of FirstOffice are new to you, it 
is always a good idea to think first.

Again, enter as much as possible into the different 
Settings. When you use the Paste Special function (by 
pressing Command-Enter), this is where FirstOffice will 
get the data.
Use the shortcuts as much as possible, and make a point 
of learning as many of them as you can. Then your work 
will go much faster.


New year

A recurring task in accounting is the transition to a 
new financial year. FirstOffice works with multi-year 
databases, which allows you to produce all reports 
using completely arbitrary periods. 


Sales Tax

Every time a tax report is due you have to print a Sales 
Tax Report. The report is used both as transaction 
document for the ledger and as basis for the payment. 
The tax report must be entered within the period it 
concerns, preferably as the last transaction of the 
period. 

Sales Tax reporting consists of the Use Tax (What you 
have paid out) and the sum of Sales Tax (What you have 
charged to your customers).


Define a Sales Tax report

When you define a tax report you determine which accounts 
should be included. 

1.	Open the Sales Tax Report definition window.
 	The window Sales Tax Accounts is shown.
2.	The Sales Tax definition that comes with the 
	program is usually shown in this window. It may be 
	imported with the Import command in the File menu. 
	If you need to change the definition, you do it as 
	with other modifications in FirstOffice. Read the 
	Reference part for more information.
3.	Click OK when you are ready or Cancel.


Printing the Sales Tax Report
Check that Print is selected under Function and double-
click Sales Tax Report in the list of reports.

The window Specify Sales Tax Report is opened.

Period
	Enter the period for which you want to print the 
	report. Enter the first and last month in the 
	format 2/1/96:2/28/96. (The financial year for the 
	current company is FirstOffice's default value.)

Transactions of the Period
	If you check this box the journal numbers of the 
	transactions included in the period will be listed 
	at the end of the report.

Click OK.

The report is printed. If you have selected Screen, you 
can send the report to printer directly, by clicking on 
the printer icon in the button bar.


Transactions for a Sales Tax Report

The transactions included in the Sales Tax report must 
come from within the reporting period. The Sales Tax 
transaction should have the last day of the reporting 
period as a transaction date. 
The Sales Tax transaction - where you transfer the 
balances from the Sales Tax operating accounts - can be 
made based on the report, since it shows which accounts 
are involved and their balances.


Safety backup

To backup your data is particularly important when the 
financial information of your company is involved. If 
you should lose all data, you will find yourself in a 
very awkward situation, missing all invoices receipts 
reports etc. Make sure you make a backup each time you 
have been working with your accounts. Name your copies 
systematically so that
you can easily restore the database, should an accident 
occur. 

If you get a virus on your computer, try to establish 
the date when your computer was infected and restore your 
data from a backup created before the infetion date. 
Otherwise you run the obvious risk of re-infecting your 
computer.


Safety copies are created using the Text Backup function 
in the Export function in the File menu.
To the left in the Exports window there is a list of 
different maintenance functions to choose from.
Text backup copies all data from the program to an 
ordinary text file. It is also possible to copy the 
whole data file (i.e. the company file) in the finder, 
but FirstOffice's method has two advantages:

  	The text backup takes up very little space. It is 
	not unusual that a whole year's accounting will fit 
	on one disc.
  	The text backup is independent of the program 
	version. IT CAN ALWAYS BE USED, whereas a new 
	version of a FirstOffice program (for reasons of 
	internal updates in the program) may have	
	difficulties in reading old company files.

This is how you backup your data. 

1.	If you copy to a disc, make sure it is formatted.
2.	Double-click Text backup in the Exports window.
	The program opens a dialog box where you can select 
	drive and/or a folder for your backup.
3.	Give the backup a name, e.g. NCSBU10/12/96 (for 
	Nuts & Concrete Sales backup and date) 
4.	Click Save or return. 
	A message window informs you about the progress of 
	the export.
5.	When the copy is ready you may close the Exports 
	window.

	Restoring from a backup

To restore from a backup, you must first create a new 
database. Then import the backup file using the Import 
function in the File menu. The replacement of a safety 
backup is a non-destructive process, i.e. the backup 
file is not affected by the reading process. This means 
that you can use the same backup file more than once. 

Do this
1.	Select Database in the File menu, and then Create. 
	Give a new name to the database.

	It is important to restore to a new, empty database, 
	to avoid mixing the restored data with the old, 
	damaged database.

2.	Select Import in the File menu.
3.	FirstOffice opens a file dialog box showing the 
	contents of your disk.
4.	Select the name of the file you wish to import, 
	and click open.
	A message window informs you about the progress 
	of the import. 


Copy the old database to another folder/directory or to 
a disc, to avoid mixing things up.



Reference

In this part of the manual the functions of the program 
are described; the different registers, how you use the 
settings, the defined reports and documents and the use 
of these.


Settings

This is where you prepare the program to meet the special 
needs of your business. The settings are used by other 
parts of the program, in particular the various 
transaction registers.

There are three ways to open the Settings window:
  	Click on the settings icon.
  	Select Settings in the File menu
  	Use the keyboard command shown in the right hand 
	side of the menu.

The Settings window will open:

Choose an entry in the list by double-clicking it, or by 
selecting it and clicking OK.


Account Settings (P/L)

This setting is necessary for the integration in 
FirstOffice. Here you determine how the system is to 
create transactions from purchase invoices, and which 
accounts to use in the created transactions. The creation 
of transactions is completely automatic.

The account numbers entered here must refer to existing 
accounts in the Chart of Accounts. Default settings are 
supplied with the program.

There is another setting that also controls the account 
usage, the Sales Tax Codes. It will be dealt with below. 
When you select the setting "Account settings (P/L)" a 
window with the following fields will open:


Accounts Payable
	Enter the control account for your creditors to be 
	used when the General Ledger transactions are 
	created.
Addl. Charges
	Enter an expense account where any extra expenses 
	related to purchase invoices will be booked. Such 
	expenses may be bank fees charged when you make 
	your payments.
Tax	Here you enter the use tax paid for purchased items.
Domestic Sales Tax Code
	A Sales Tax code entered here will be automatically 
	entered when you enter purchase invoices. It will 
	be used to create the correct General Ledger 
	transactions for in domestic purchases. The sales 
	tax code will be 	selected based on the zone 
	(Domestic, EU or Export) the customer belongs to.
EU Sales Tax Code
	This sales tax code will be used for purchases from 
	suppliers within the EU.
Export Sales Tax Code
	This tax code is used for sales outside the US.

Press OK to save.


Account settings (S/L)

This setting is necessary for the integration in 
FirstOffice to work. Here you determine how the system 
is to create transactions from invoices and purchase 
invoices, and which accounts to use in the created 
transactions. The creation of transactions is completely 
automatic.

The account numbers entered here must refer to existing 
accounts in the Chart of Accounts. Default settings are 
supplied with the program. There is another setting that 
also controls the account usage, the Sales Tax codes. It 
will be dealt with below.

When you select the setting Account Settings (S/L) a 
window with the following fields will open:

Accounts Receivable
	Enter the asset account to be used as a control 
	account for your debtors.
Round Off
	Enter the account number you want to use to book 
	any rounded off at invoicing. This can occur at 
	invoicing or when you create accounting 
	transactions when you make your Tax reports. 
Bank Fees
	Enter the account number to be used to book any 
	bank fees that may occur in your invoicing and 
	receipts. 
Domestic Sales
	Enter the revenue account you want to use for sales 
	in your own country.
EU Sales
	Enter the revenue account you will use to book 
	sales to customers within the EU.
Export Sales
	Enter the revenue account to be used for exports.
Domestic Sales Tax Code
	A Tax code entered here will be automatically 
	entered when you enter invoices. It will be used to 
	create the correct General Ledger transactions for 
	domestic sales. The Tax code will be selected based 
	on the country zone (Domestic, EU or Export) the 
	customer belongs to.
EU Sales Tax Code
	This Tax code will be used for sales to customers 
	within the EU.
Export Sales Tax Code
	This Tax code will be used for export sales to 
	customers outside USA.

Press OK to save the information.


Transaction Templates

Transaction Templates are used to simplify the entering 
of transactions. When a certain type of transaction 
occurs repeatedly, you can create a template in which 
you put all the recurring data conclusively, e.g. a 
certain combination of account numbers. Next time you 
wish to enter this type of transaction, you can select 
the automatic function instead. This will create a 
ready-made transaction, except for the data that is for 
this particular entry.

The Transaction Templates in FirstOffice contain some 
shortcuts to copy data from the previous line in the 
transaction. These shortcuts will of course not work if 
they are used on the first line of a transaction.

Make a new Transaction Templates

Double-click Transaction Templates in Settings and select 
New.
Code	This is the code that identifies this particular 
	template. By entering this code instead of an 
	account number, the template will replace the 
	transaction you are working on. The code can 
	consist of up to six alphanumeric characters. 
	Each template must have a unique code.
	The code must not be the same as an account number 
	in the chart of accounts - the account numbers take 
	precedence over the transaction templates in such 
	cases.
Name	Assign a descriptive name to the template, e.g. 
	"Sales Tax included."
	The name is then shown in the list"Transaction 
	Templates: Browse."
Account
	Enter the account numbers for the template, one 
	account per row. If there is a number you do not 
	remember, press Command-Enter. This shows the Paste 
	Special window for the Chart of Accounts, from 
	which you can select the proper number.
	By entering a number sign (#), the account number 
	is copied from the preceding line in the 
	transaction (for 	all lines except the first). The 
	# sign will be replaced by the account number in 
	the line above when you use the template.
	
	By entering an exclamation mark (!) in the account 
	field, you can give another type of instruction in 
	the template. The amount on theprevious line in the 
	current transaction will be copied to the line 
	where the template is entered. It will be 
	recalculated using a percentage entered in the 
	debit or credit field in the 	template. This 
	feature can be used to recalculate for example tax 
	amounts.
Text	Text that specifies each transaction is entered in 
	this field. You can also enter a # sign to copy the 
	text on the preceding line.
Debit, Credit
	A fixed amount can be entered here (e.g. a salary 
	or a rent), or a symbol for a calculation. You 
	enter a percentage as a number followed by a % sign. 
	The field will then contain the specified 
	percentage of the amount on the preceding line of 
	the template. If the percent sign is entered in the 
	debit field, the calculated amount is entered in 
	the same column as the original amount. If the % 
	sign is entered in the Credit column, the 
	calculated amount will be entered in the opposite 
	column. 
	
	You can balance all the preceding lines of the 	
	transaction by entering an equal sign (=) in the 
	debit or credit field. See also Transactions in the 
	section about the Register menu.
Sales Tax Code
	If you know that a specific sales tax code always 
	is to be used for the Transaction Templates, you 
	can enter the Sales Tax Code in the right hand 
	column.
	Confirm with the OK button or Cancel. Close the 
	window by clicking the close box.

Make a new Transaction Template from an existing one.

1.	Double-click Transaction Templates in Settings.
2.	Click the Template you want to copy, and click Copy 
	in the button bar.
 	or
	Double-click the existing template. When it opens, 
	select Copy.
	The selected template is shown in the window. The 
	title bar reads "Transaction Templates: New."
3.	Edit the template in the usual way, and enter the 
	missing information. The new template must be given 
	a new, unique name.
4.	Confirm with the OK button or Cancel. Close the 
	window by clicking the close box.

Changing a Transaction Template

1.	Double-click Transaction Templates in Settings.
	The Transaction Templates window opens. The title 
	bar reads "Transaction Templates: Browse," and the 
	window contains a list with the templates you have 
	defined.
2.	Double-click the template you are interested in,
	or 
	Click the search field at the bottom of the window 
	and enter the code for the template you want to 
	find.
	The template is selected.
	Click OK or double-click the row.
	The template is opened in the window. The title bar 
	reads "Transaction Templates: Inspect."
4.	Edit the template in the usual way, and enter the 
	missing information.
5.	Confirm with the OK button or Cancel. Close the 
	window by clicking the close box.

Deleting a Transaction Template

1.	Double-click Transaction Templates in Settings.
	The Transaction Templates window opens. The title 
	bar reads "Transaction Templates: Browse."
2.	Go to the template you are interested in and 
	double-click it.
	or
	Click the search field at the bottom of the window 
	and enter the code for the template you want to 
	find.
	The template is selected.
3.	Click OK or double-click the row.
	The template is opened. The title bar reads 
	"Transaction Templates: Inspect." Select Delete in 
	the Records menu or press Command-D.
	The template is permanently deleted. The previous 
	template is shown.
4.	Click the close box.


You cannot undo the deletion of a Transaction Template.



Company Info

Double-click on Company Info in the settings list. The 
Company Info window is opened. Enter the company name 
and address. Enter also the phone and fax numbers, bank 
and bank account number and other information. These data 
will be printed on each invoice. 
Confirm the entry by clicking OK, or cancel it by closing 
the window. The name of the company will now be shown in 
the window in the right side of the Button bar. You can 
now start working with the invoices of the current 
company. 


Fiscal Years

With the setting Fiscal Years you will define the 
different fiscal years used in the multi-year database. 
There is no limit to the number of fiscal years. This 
setting is mandatory to be able to work with FirstOffice.

Select the setting Fiscal Years to bring up the window 
Fiscal Years: Inspect.

Code	Enter the code for the fiscal year. Use simply the 
	year 	if your fiscal year is a calendar year.
Start/End
	Enter the first and last date of the fiscal year.
	Press OK to save the information.


Brought Forward Balances

FirstOffice uses a multi-year database. It means that 
data, transactions, invoices etc. from several years are 
stored in the same database. Closing balances for all 
accounts are automatically transferred to opening 
balances at the end of the financial year.

If you previously have done your accounting manually or 
using another program, you must start by entering 
balances brought forward for accounts used previously. 
Brought Forward Balances may be entered at any time 
during the year, and they may be altered at any time.

Select Brought Forward Balances in the settings. The 
Balances Brought Forward window is opened.
This is how to enter brought forward balances.

No.	The record number. FirstOffice will number the 
	records from one and up. The number is assigned 
	automatically.
Trans Date
	Enter the date of the transaction, i.e. the date 
	when the transaction should take effect. If you 
	for example want the system to use the brought 
	forward balance data from Jan 1 1996, you should 
	enter a transaction date of 31 Dec. 1995.
Comment
	Any comment
Account/Name
	Enter an account number for each row. The name 
	will be shown in the name field.
Debit/Credit
	Enter the amount to be used as opening balance 
	for the account.
Difference
	When all entries have been made, debit and credit 
	should balance and the difference should be zero. 
	If the difference is not zero, you must check the 
	entries to find the error.
Total	In this field all the debit and credit entries are 
	totaled.

Press OK to save or Cancel the record.


Payment Methods

In this window you determine which account numbers that 
correspond to different payment methods. Each mode will 
have its own code. The payment methods are used in the 
transaction registers Receipts and Payments. If you for 
example enter the code "B" when registering a payment, 
the transaction created by FirstOffice will credit the 
account entered for this payment method.

You can enter up to ten different methods. The most 
common ones are already entered as default, with 
suggested account numbers from the standard chart of 
accounts. In addition you may also indicate a bank 
account number for each code.

To enter a new payment method:

Cd	Enter the code (one character) you want to use to 
	identify the payment method. 
Account
	Indicate the account number used for transactions 
	for the payment mode.
Bank Acct.
	Enter the account number in your bank.
Comment
	A comment field.

Press OK to save the record or cancel it.


Payment Terms

Different invoices can be assigned different terms for 
payment: Last date for payment cash- or credit invoice 
etc. You can also enter a payment term for each customer 
and supplier. These default values will be used to 
automatically assign payment terms on invoices and 
supplier invoices. FirstOffice will use the information 
in the setting to compute due dates for both types of 
invoices. 

Double-click on the setting Payment Terms to bring up 
the Payment Terms: Browse window.

The window lists the currently registered terms. 
FirstOffice provides some default terms. There is room 
for up to 40 different term codes, so you can control 
your payment in great detail. Double-click a payment 
term you want to edit, or add a new term by clicking 
the New button in the button bar.

Double-click a payment term you want to edit, or add a 
new term by clicking the New button in the button bar. 
The Payment Terms: New window is opened.

If you click on a field that is already filled, the 
contents are highlighted. Enter a new value directly, 
or erase with the backspace key and enter the new value.

Code	Enter a code to identify a payment term. The code 
	may be two characters long.
Text	Give the term a name. This name will be shown in 
	the Paste Special window.
Net Days
	Number of days from invoice date to the date when 
	the invoice will be due for payment.

Type
Normal
	A normal payment. The value in the field Net Days 
	shows how many days the due date is from the 
	current date.
Credit
	This type is used for credit invoices, to make sure 
	that the Accounts Receivable Ledger is updated 
	correctly. 

Save by clicking OK. Cancel by clicking in the close box 
or press Cancel.


Document Templates

FirstOffice has a builtin document editor, which allows 
the graphic design of all documents used by FirstOffice. 
Double-click on the setting Document Templates to show a 
list of all available documents.
Double-click on a document to open the editing window.
The Document window shows a picture of the selected form 
or document. At the top of the window there are five tool 
buttons: Text, Line, Frame, Field and Picture. In the 
editing area, each printing object in the document is 
shown either as a framed box, or as text. You can select 
an object by clicking on it with the mouse, drag it to 
another place, resize it etc. as in most drawing programs. 

Edit objects
To edit an object, double-click on it with the mouse. 
This will open a dialog window, where you can perform 
certain editing functions. The editing windows are 
described for each object types below. For all object 
types the fields Left, Top, Right and Bottom indicate 
the location in pixels of the four sides of the object. 
Justification allows you to justify the text as you wish. 
Style refers to a Style setting, where you can set type 
font, size and font style.

Text.
To add a new Text element on the form, click the Text 
button and then put the arrow marker at the point where 
you want to place the text. Adjust the size of the field, 
and drag it with the mouse to where you want it. When you 
release the mouse button a dialog box will appear. Enter 
the text in the text field, set the justification, and 
use Paste Special to assign a font and style to the text. 
Click OK to close. The text field is visible on the 
screen, and you can move it across the document with the 
mouse. 

Line and Frame: 
Use these tool buttons to draw lines and frames on the 
layout. In the dialog box you can indicate the width in 
pixels of the line or frame.

Field
A field is an area in the layout where you can specify 
the printing of information from the invoice, order, 
delivery note etc. stored in the database. Each field 
has been given a text field, a header. In each framed 
field there is a name.

Adding a field.
Click the Field tool, and mark the position of the field. 
A dialog window opens. Enter the field name, and paste a 
style in the style field. Some fields consist of more 
than one line. You can modify the spacing between lines 
(in pixels) with the Spacing field.

Click OK to save.


Picture
Use the picture tool to include a picture in your design. 


The Special menu

Properties
This menu command opens the Form Properties dialog. 
Code	The code for the document.
Comment
	A description of the document, e.g. Invoice.
	Matrix Rows	The maximum number of rows in the table 
	part of the invoice. If the invoice has more rows, 
	the printout will continue on the next page. 
File Name
	Not used.
PC Printer
	In case a matrix printer is used, use this dialog 
	to define the page size.
Copies
	Use this setting to define the number of copies of 
	each form, and their respective headings.
Send to Back
	Use this command to send objects in a document to 
	be positioned behind the other objects.
Printing forms
	The editing capabilities are limited to what has 
	been shown here. If you need specially designed 
	forms, it is possible to use pre-printed paper, 
	and to print both sheet-feeding in a laser printer, 
	or on continuos stationary on a matrix printer. In 
	that case, you simply omit the text fields and 
	other graphic fields from the layout.

Contact Baltic@kagi.com if you need help with forms 
layout.

To print a document, several conditions must be met.
In the Document function in each module, the correct 
form must be selected in the definition setting. The 
selected form must be defined with the document editor. 
With a printable record on the screen, e.g. an invoice , 
press the printer icon. You can also use the Documents:
Print function and specify the number of the document(s). 


Staff Access

In the setting staff access you can record information 
about the people employed in your business, and who will 
have access to the accounting system. Each user can be 
assigned a password to protect your accounting data from 
unauthorized access. 

As soon as one or more persons have been entered, the 
password dialog will occur when FirstOffice is started. 
Note also that even a blank name will have this effect!


Select the setting Staff Access to open the Staff Access: 
Browse window. This window lists the registered users.
To change a record, double-click on a row. Change the 
fields as necessary, and save the record. If you want to 
remove a user, double-click on the record to bring it to 
the screen, and use the Delete function in the Records 
menu to remove it.

To enter  new record, click the New button.

Sign.	Enter the persons initials or any other code. The 
	field can hold up to five characters.
Name	Enter the name of the person.
Password
	Here you can enter a personal (secret) password. 
	This password will grant the user access to your 
	data through FirstOffice.
Position
	Enter a job title or other description (optional).
Our Ref.
	This text will be entered in the field Our Ref. in 
	the invoices.

Press OK to save the information.


Sales Tax Codes

With this setting, FirstOffice will create General Ledger 
transactions that use the correct accounts and tax 
percentages from you sales and purchases. The 
transactions and calculations will be completely 
automatic.  Some different tax codes are supplied with 
the program. If you will not need some of the codes in 
your business, you can remove the unwanted ones, and you 
can enter new ones when new taxation rules or changes in 
your business require it.

The tax codes entered for Domestic, EU and Import/Export 
in the Account Settings for sales and purchases will be 
suggested by FirstOffice when you are entering invoices 
and purchase invoices. It is also possible to assign a 
sales tax code to each General Ledger account in the 
accounts register. When you enter purchase invoices, 
this code will be entered by FirstOffice if a sales tax 
code has not been entered in the settings.  

The Sales Tax code may be changed and another can be 
entered manually if the circumstances so require during 
the entering of purchase invoices. Select the setting 
Sales Tax Codes by double-clicking on the row.

Cd	Enter a one- or two character code to identify a 
	Sales Tax Code.
Excl %
	Enter the Sales Tax rate as a percentage. In this 
	field the value is the value added to the untaxed 
	amount. 
Incl %
	Enter the Sales Tax rate as a percentage. The value 
	is the tax proportion of the total amount including 
	the sales tax. 
Out/In Acct.
	Enter the account numbers used to book outgoing 
	(Sales Tax on sales) and incoming (Use Tax on 
	purchases).
Comment
	Enter an explaining text. This text will be visible 
	when you use "Paste Sales Tax Code". 


Registers

You will only relatively rarely use the Registers. The 
information in these registers will be predominantly used 
in the transaction registers, where you do most of the 
daily work.

Below, all Registers will be described in detail. 

There are three different methods to open a Register.
  	double click on a register icon.
  	choose the relevant register in the register menu.
  	use the keyboard command listed to the right of the 
	alternatives in the Register menu.


Items

In the Items register you store data about all the items 
you are going to sell. Items includes goods, but also 
services and other things you may want to invoice to your 
customers. 
When you issue invoices in your Invoice register, you can 
easily paste the data from the items register to the 
invoice you are working on. This means for example that 
you do not have to  look up prices in a price list. 
FirstOffice will do the job for you. You can also produce 
various types of reports, e.g. Item Price Lists an Item 
Sales Statistics.

Bring the Items: Browse window to the front.

The Browse window lists all the items registered. You can 
change data for individual items as well as adding and 
deleting records. To change the data in an already 
registered item, double-click on its line. There are some 
tools to help you to find a specific record. You can sort 
the records in the list, either in numeric order, or 
alphabetically, simply by clicking on the header in the 
list.

You can also search for an article by entering a number 
or a text string in the field Find at the bottom of the 
window - depending on whether the list is sorted 
numerically or alphabetically. 
If you want to change the data in an already entered 
record, you can bring its record card to the front by 
clicking on it. Change the information in the record as 
necessary and click OK to save the changes.

Press New to open a new item record:

No.	Enter the number you are assigning to this item. 
	The field holds up to 15 characters.
	When the item number is entered in an invoice 
	record, it will be the signal to fetch all the data 
	about the item to the row in the invoice.
Use Inventory
	If you want the Item to be registered in your 
	Inventory this check box must be checked.
	If an Item is used in the Inventory you can get 
	information on Inventory level and order 
	suggestions for that item.
Name	Enter the name or a short description of the item.
	This description will appear on the invoice rows.
Price	Enter the sales price of the item. The price is 
	also transferred automatically to the invoices.
Cost Price
	Enter the normal purchase price for the item.
	This price is used for gross profit calculation and 
	is suggested on Goods Received for this item.
Unit	Enter the normal unit used when selling the item, 
	e.g. pieces, boxes, hours.
Sales Acct.	If you want a certain sales account to be 
	used for the item when an invoice is created it 
	should be entered here. If no account is entered 
	the account set in Account Setting (S/L) is used.
Sales Tax Code
	If the item has a tax that differs from the usual, 
	you can enter a specific tax code here. This tax 
	code will be used regardless of the code set in 
	Account Setting (S/L).
Minimum Level
	Enter the number you want to use for minimum 
	inventory level for the item. This number will be 
	used in the suggested order in the report Shortage 
	List.

Press OK to save the data. If you don't want to save 
press Cancel.

Accounts

This is where you define the chart of accounts to be 
used. Each account has a number and a name, and belongs 
to a class of accounts. 
FirstOffice has no preassigned accounts. Each user must 
define a chart of accounts, or import an existing one. 
The simplest method is to import a standard chart of 
accounts. See the introduction section of the manual for 
information on how to import data.

If you use your own chart of accounts, it is important 
that all the account numbers indicated in the Account 
Settings for each module are made to agree with your own 
numbers. Also remember to adjust the report definitions. 

Change or add an account

If you need to change the accounts, you can add, change 
and delete records just as with any FirstOffice registers.
Click on the Accounts icon in the Main Window or select 
Accounts in Registers menu.
The Browse window shows the chart of accounts. 
The list contains two columns: Account number and account 
name. The list is sorted by the column whose heading is 
underlined. Click on the column heading if you want to 
change the sorting order.

You can scroll the accounts up and down as usual in the 
window. You may also enter the number or the name of an 
account in the Find field at the bottom of the window. 
Enter a name if the list is sorted by name, a number 
otherwise. FirstOffice will search for a match of what 
you have entered.
To change an account, search for it either by name or by 
its number. Click on the account to highlight it and 
press Enter to open the Account: Inspect window. Change 
the data as you need, and click OK to save the changes.

To add a new account, press New.

Account
	The number of the account. The account number must 
	be between three and 10 digits long. Only numbers 
	may be used.
Name	The name or description of the account.
	When you use the function Paste Special, the 
	numbers and names are shown in the Paste Special 
	window. 
Sales Tax Code
	In those cases when you want to use a specific 
	Sales Tax code together with a certain account 
	number, you can enter the Sales Tax code here. 
	Every time this account is used, the transaction 
	will be marked with the Sales Tax code.
	For example if the account 4010, "Sales of goods 
	and material A", is used only for State sales at 
	the standard Sales Tax rate of x%, it can be 
	practical to assign a Sales Tax code to the account. 
	This code will then be automatically assigned each 
	time you select the account 4010 in the Sales 
	Ledger.
Closed
	Check this box if you want to close the account for 
	further transactions. If you want to open the 
	account again later, you simply click in the box 
	again to remove the check.
	
Account Type
	An account can belong to one of the types: Asset, 
	Liability, Equity, Income or Expense. 
Normal Amount
	Debit/Credit
	click one or both of the check boxes if you want to
	indicate what type of posting is the usual for the 
	account. If you use this option, and try to debit 
	an account usually used for credit, FirstOffice 
	will alert you to the possible error.

Press OK to save the record.

Remove an account

You can delete an account from the Chart of Accounts, as 
long as there are no transactions booked to this account.
Double-click the account you want to delete. This opens 
the Account: Inspect window.

Select Delete (Command-D) in the Records menu.
NOTE! You cannot undo the deletion of an account. Used 
accounts, i.e. accounts with transactions cannot be 
deleted.

Customers

Add or Change Customer Data

A well maintained and updated customer register is one of 
the most important assets in any business. The customer 
register in FirstOffice is where you store data about 
your customers, assign customer categories and payment 
terms. Try to keep this register updated always with 
name, address- and other information.
Customer data are used by FirstOffice in several places, 
particularly for invoicing and Sales Ledger.

Click on the Customer icon in the Main Window to open the 
Customer: Browse window. The Customer file must be kept 
up to date all the time, so it will need editing from 
time to time. You edit the Customer Records in the 
following way:

The customers are normally shown in customer number 
order. Change the sort order by clicking one a heading 
in the list. The underlined heading shows the current 
sort order. Scroll up and down with the scroll bars, or 
search for a specific customer by entering code or name 
in the Find field at the bottom of the window.

Select a customer by double-clicking on it, to bring up 
the window Customer: Inspect. Edit the fields as 
necessary. Move from field to field with the Enter key, 
or with the arrow keys. Click OK when you are ready.

To enter a new record, press the New button.

Cust. No.
	Enter the number you are assigning to this customer. 
	The field holds up to ten letters and/or numbers.
	FirstOffice will suggest numbers for your customers 
	from one and up, or starting with any number you 
	enter as the first number. You can also write over 
	the suggested number. Duplicate numbers are not 
	allowed.
Name	The Customer's name.
Address
	The postal address of the customer.
	The name and address data are fetched from the 
	customer record when you enter invoices.
Contact
	Enter the name of your contact person at the 
	customer.
Phone#
	The customer's phone number.
Fax#	The customer's fax number.
Pay Terms
	The Payment Terms agreed with the customer. Select 
	with Paste Special.
	The Payment Term code will be automatically 
	transferred to the invoices. FirstOffice uses it 
	to compute the due date for each invoice.
Tax ID
	The customer's Sales Tax registration number.
Credit Limit
	Enter the credit limit you want for the customer. 
	FirstOffice will warn at order, shipment or 
	invoicing if the limit is exceeded. See also the 
	setting Credit Limit.
Price List
	Enter one of the codes registered in the setting 
	price lists. With Paste Special you get a list to 
	choose from.
Discount
	Enter the discount in percent you want for the 
	customer. The discount will be suggested on quotes, 
	order and invoicing.
Delivery Address
	Enter if the customer has  different address' for 
	delivery and invoicing.
Zone
	With this you can allocate each customer to one of 
	three different trade areas. When you enter 
	invoices, sales account, Sales Tax code and Sales 
	Tax rates will be transferred to the invoice. The 
	account numbers and Sales Tax codes used are 
	determined in the setting Account usage S/L.
Domestic
	Customers within your own country. 
EU	Customers in the US.
Export
	Customers from all other countries.

Press OK to save the data.

Remove customer data

Select the customer in the same way as for editing. 
Double click the customer to bring up the record window. 
Select Delete from the Record menu. The customer is 
deleted. NOTE! You cannot undo the deletion of a 
customer.

Suppliers

In the suppliers register you store data about your 
suppliers, their categories and payment terms.
The data in the supplier register are used in several 
places in FirstOffice, e.g. when registering purchase 
invoices. The name and address and other information 
stored in the Suppliers file will then be transferred 
to the entry form for Purchase Invoices. 

Click the Supplier icon in the Main Window. 

The window Suppliers: Browse is shown with all suppliers 
entered. You can change existing data or add new 
suppliers as you need. The supplier file must be kept up 
to date all the time, so it will need editing from time 
to time. You edit the supplier records in the following 
way:

The suppliers are normally shown in supplier number order. 
Change the sort order by clicking one a heading in the 
list. The underlined heading shows the current sort order.
Scroll up and down with the scroll bars, or search for a 
specific supplier by entering code or name in the Find 
field at the bottom of the window.

Select a supplier by double-clicking on it, to bring up 
the window Supplier: Inspect. Edit the fields as 
necessary. Move from field to field with the Enter key, 
or with the arrow keys. Click OK when you are ready.
A record in the Supplier file contains more information 
than what can be shown on a small screen. The record has 
therefore been split up in more than one. At the top of 
the window a header is shown with the supplier's number 
and name, and two buttons, 1 and 2. The buttons are used 
to move from page to page. The header is always shown.

To add a new supplier, click the New button.

No.	Enter the number you are assigning to this supplier. 
	The field holds up to ten letters and/or numbers.
	FirstOffice will suggest numbers for your suppliers 
	from one and up, or starting with any number you 
	enter as the first number. You can also write over 
	the suggested number. Duplicate numbers are not 
	allowed.
	You can change the numbers of any new supplier.
Name	Supplier's name.

Buttons 1 and 2
	Use these buttons to quickly move between the 
	different tiles of the supplier record.

Tile 1
Address
	The address to which payments and statements are 
	mailed. The name and address data will be 
	automatically fetched by FirstOffice when you 
	enter Purchase Invoices.
Contact
	The name of your contact person.
Fax#	Supplier's fax.	
Phone#
	Supplier's phone.
Bank Acct.
	Enter the account number of the supplier.
Bank	The name of the suppliers bank

Tile 2
Pay Terms
	Enter the normal payment terms for this supplier. 
	This term will be used as default for this 
	supplier's all invoices. Press Command-Enter to 
	bring up the Paste Special list for payment terms.
	This information will be automatically fetched when 
	you enter a purchase invoice. FirstOffice will 
	calculate the due date for the payment based on the 
	payment term.
Tax ID
	Enter the supplier's Sales Tax registration number.
Our Customer No.
	Here you can enter the customer number you have 
	been assigned  by the supplier.
Cost Account
	This enables you to register the suppliers invoices 
	on a certain account. When an invoice from the 
	supplier is registered the cost account will be 
	suggested by FirstOffice. It is possible to enter 
	another account on the invoice but unless the 
	change is made on the Supplier Card it will only 
	affect that specific invoice.
Zone	With this you can allocate each supplier to one of 
	three different trade areas. When you enter 
	Purchase Invoices, Cost Account, Sales Tax Code and 
	Sales Tax rates will be transferred to the invoice. 
	The account numbers and Sales Tax codes used are 
	determined in the setting Account usage P/L.
Domestic
	Suppliers within your own country.
EU	Suppliers in the EU.
Import
	Suppliers from all other countries.

Press OK to save the data.

Remove a supplier

Select the supplier in the same way as for editing. 
Double-click the supplier to bring up the record window. 
Select Delete from the Record menu. The supplier is 
deleted. NOTE! You cannot undo the deletion of a supplier.


Prices

In the Price Register you work with different pricing for 
the Items you have. One item can occur several times in 
the register with different prices and therefore also in 
several price lists.
The prices are normally sorted in item number order but 
can also be sorted by price list by clicking on the 
header.

To enter a new price press New.

Item No.
	Enter the item number of the item the price is for. 
	Use Paste Special to choose from the list of items. 
	You can also register new items with the Paste Item 
	window open.
Price List
	Enter or Paste the code for the Price List you want 
	to use. The Price List is defined in Settings.
Name	The name of the item will automatically be entered 
	in this field once the item number has been entered.
Price	Enter the sales price of the item.


Transaction registers

It is in the Transaction Registers that you will do most 
of your day to day work. In those registers you will 
issue invoices, record receipts, file supplier invoices 
etc. In the following section we will go through all 
transaction registers and how to work with them.

To get into the registers you can use three different 
methods. 
  double-click the icon in the Main window.
  Choose the desired register in the Register menu.
  use the keyboard command indicated in the right hand 
   side of the register menu. 
	
Quotes
Use this register to enter the Quotes you give customers. 
When the customer has accepted the quote you simply use 
the command in the Special Menu to create an order. The 
same quote can generate several orders.
To register a new quote press New or command-n. Because 
of the amount of information stored in the quote the 
window is divided into four tiles and a header. We start 
with the header.

No.	FirstOffice numbers the Quotes from one and up or 
	from the first number you use. This occurs as the 
	record is saved.
Cust. No./Name
	Enter or paste Customer Number from the Customer 
	Register. When you leave the Cust. No. Field the 
	customer info is entered in the appropriate fields.

Buttons 1-4
	Click these buttons to use the different tiles of 
	the Quotes window.

Tile 1
Date	Today's date will be entered by FirstOffice. It can 
	be changed if needed.
Payment Terms
	The Payment Term selected for this customer in the 
	customer register is suggested. It can be changed 
	to any term set in the Payment Terms setting.
Shipping Terms
	Enter shipping term. Use Paste Special to choose 
	from the terms set in the Shipping Terms setting.
Shipping Method
	Enter Shipping Method. Use Paste Special to choose 
	from the Methods set in the Shipping Methods 
	setting.
Valid Until
	If you want the Quote to be time limited enter the 
	last date it is valid here.
Your Ref.
	The name entered on the customer register will be 
	suggested. It can be changed but a change made in 
	the quote will only affect this single Quote.
Our Ref.
	FirstOffice will suggest the current user. You can 
	set Our Ref. For each user in the Staff Access 
	setting. You can change the Ref. as	desired but a 
	change made in the quote will only affect this 
	single quote.

Tile 2A
Item No.
	Enter or paste Item Number. When you leave this 
	field the information on the item will be entered 
	in the appropriate fields.
	If you leave the Item No. Field blank you can enter 
	the description and unit price your self. The item 
	number entered must be registered in the Items 
	Register.
Quantity
	Enter the number of Items the Quote includes. When 
	you leave the field the amount will be calculated.
Description
	This field contains the Item Description as entered 
	in the Items Register. It is possible to enter more 
	information if necessary. If you need more space 
	continue on the next description line.
Unit Price
	The Items Unit Price as entered in the Items 
	Register. You can change the price if needed.
%	Enter any discount, in percent, for the Item. 
	FirstOffice will automatically deduct the discount 
	from the amount.
Amount
	The amount calculated for that row. The number of 
	items multiplied with the unit price and less any 
	discount given. The amount can be entered manually 
	if no quantity or unit price has been entered.
Subtotal
	FirstOffice automatically adds the amounts of the 
	quote.
Sales Tax
	FirstOffice automatically calculates the sales tax 
	on the subtotal according to the set Sales Tax code.
AMOUNT DUE	
	The total of the Quote. It is automatically 
	calculated by FirstOffice.

Tile 2B
Tile 2 has two pages, A and B. The B page contains 
information for internal use, Cost Price and Gross 
Profit, which is not sent to the customer. 

Cost Price
	The Cost Price is the normal purchase price and is 
	imported from the Item register if it is entered 
	there.
GP	Gross Profit is calculated by FirstOffice using the 
	Cost Price and the price you enter as sales price 
	for the Item. Gross Profit lets you know how much 
	this item generates to cover your other costs.

Tile 3
Invoice Address
	The customers Invoice Address is imported from the 
	customer register. It can be changed for this quote 
	if needed.
Zone	Shows which zone the customer belongs to. It can 
	only be changed in the customer register. Read more 
	about Zones in the Customer section.

Tile 4
Delivery Address
	If the customer has a different delivery address 
	than invoice address it can be entered here. If the 
	delivery address is entered in the customer register 
	it will be automatically imported.


The Special Menu

When you work with Quotes there is an extra menu next to 
the registers menu. In this menu includes the command 
Order. You can create an Order directly from a Quote. It 
is automatically transferred to the Order Register.


Order

All orders that come in to the company are registered in 
the Orders Register. An Order can be registered directly 
in the Orders Register or through the Special Menu 
command in the Quotes Register. When you click on the 
Orders register the window Orders: Browse is opened. It 
contains all the previously registered orders. Registered 
orders are normally sorted by number but can be resorted 
by clicking on the heading you wish to sort by. The list 
also contain information about shipping and invoicing.

If neither Ship. nor Inv. is checked the order has not 
been delivered and not invoiced. If only Inv. is checked 
then the order is partly delivered and that part is fully 
invoiced.
If only Ship. Is checked then the order is fully 
delivered but not invoiced. 
If both Ship. And Inv. Are checked then the order is 
fully delivered and fully invoiced.

To register a new Order click New, or command-n. 
The information in the Order window is divided into a 
header and four tiles. First the header.

No.	The journal number of the order. FirstOffice 
	starts numbering your orders from one and up or 
	from the first number you assign to it. The number 
	series is set when the record is saved.
Cust. No./Name
	Enter or Paste a customer number from the customer 
	register. When you leave the field the customer 
	information will be entered into the appropriate 
	fields.

Click on the numbered buttons to get to the different tiles.

Tile 1
Date	Today's date is entered by FirstOffice. It can be 
	changed if needed.
Payment Terms
	FirstOffice enters the Payment Term from the 
	customer register. The term can be changed to any 
	of the terms set in the Payment Terms setting.
Shipping Terms
	Enter Shipping Terms. Use the codes set in Shipping 
	Terms settings.
	Use Paste Special to get a list of the terms.
Shipping Method
	Enter Shipping Method. Use the codes set in 
	Shipping Methods settings. 
	Use Paste Special to get a list of the methods.
Scheduled Ship.
	Enter the date you plan to ship the order. 
	(Optional)
Your Ref.
	FirstOffice enters a suggestion from the customer 
	record. If you change the name in this field it 
	will only affect this order.
Our Ref.
	FirstOffice suggests the current user as Reference. 
	You can enter a reference for each user in the 
	Staff Access setting. You can change the Ref. here 
	but it will only affect this specific order.
Customer Order No.
	If the customer has used some sort of reference 
	number on the order it can be entered here. 
	(Optional)

Tile 2A
Tile 2 has three pages, A, B and C. B and C contains 
information for internal use, such as Cost Price, GP, 
Shipping and Invoicing.

Item No.
	Enter or Paste an Item number from the Items 
	register. Use Paste Special to get a list of 
	available Items. The item information will be 
	entered into the appropriate fields when you press 
	the enter key. You will be able to enter 
	description and price your self if you leave this 
	field blank.
Quantity
	Enter the number of Items to be Invoiced. When you 
	press enter the Amount for the row will be 
	calculated automatically. The Items Unit is 
	imported from the Item record. 
Description
	FirstOffice enters the description from the item 
	record. You can enter a more detailed description 
	for this order if you want to. If you run out of 
	space you can continue on the next description line.
Unit Price
	FirstOffice enters the unit price for the item from 
	the item record. You can enter another price 
	manually if necessary.
%	Enter a discount for the item, in percent, if 
	applicable. FirstOffice will automatically subtract 
	the discount from the row amount.
Amount
	The total amount for the order row. FirstOffice 
	multiplies the quantity with the unit price and 
	subtracts any discount given. If you leave quantity 
	and unit price blank you can enter the amount 
	manually.
Subtotal
	The sum of the order row amounts. This is 
	automatically calculated.
Sales Tax
	The sales tax is automatically calculated using the 
	order amount and the preset sales tax code.
AMOUNT DUE
	The total of the order. It is automatically 
	calculated.

Tile 2B
Cost Price
	The Cost Price is the normal purchase price and is 
	imported from the item record if it is entered 
	there.
GP	The Gross Profit is calculated by FirstOffice 
	subtracting the cost price from the sales price for 
	the item. It indicates how much the item 
	contributes to the other costs in the company.

Tile 2C
Shipped 1
	The first shipment column shows everything that has 
	been shipped, approved and not approved. In order 
	for the field to be updated after a shipment the 
	window has to be closed. When the window is 
	reopened it contains the updated information.
Shipped 2
	The second shipment column shows approved shipments 
	only. A difference between the columns indicates a 
	shipment that has not been approved and therefore 
	cannot be invoiced.
Invoiced
	This field shows the invoiced items of the order. 
	The amounts in the three columns should be equal 
	when the entire order has been shipped and invoiced.

Tile 3
Invoice Address
	The customers invoice address. This information is 
	imported from the customer record. The address can 
	be changed here and the change will only affect 
	this order.
Zone	This shows which zone the customer belongs to. The 
	information is imported from the customer record 
	and can only be changed in the record. More 
	information about Zone can be found in the Customer 
	section.

Tile 4
Delivery Address
	If the customer has a different delivery address 
	than invoice address enter it here. If there is a 
	separate delivery address entered in the customer 
	record it will be automatically entered here.

The Special Menu
When you work in the Order register there is an extra 
menu next to the Registers menu. This menu contains 
different commands depending on the currently active 
window. When the Order: Browse window is active the 
Special Menu has commands for Invoice and Shipping.

When the Order: Inspect window is active the Special Menu 
has commands for Invoice and Shipping and also for Item 
Status.


Simultaneous Invoicing or Shipping of multiple Orders

In the "order: Browse window" you have the option to give 
commands for several orders at the same time. Click on 
the first order row of your selection, hold down the 
Shift key and click on the last row of your selection. 
All the orders in the selection are marked and affected 
by the command you give. Only one command at a time can 
be given.


Ship and Invoice an Order.

FirstOffice automatically creates a record in the 
Shipments register and the Shipment: Inspect window is 
opened when you give the command Shipping for a selected 
Order in the Order: Browse window. Enter how much of the 
order you want to ship (part shipping is fine). The 
Shipments register is described in more detail later.


Item Status
When you work with a single Order in the "Order: New" or 
"Order: Inspect" window the Special Menu includes the 
command Item Status. You can insantly see how much of an 
Item you have in stock when you enter the Item Number and 
the Item Status window is open. In order for the Item 
Status to work the Use Inventory check box on the Item 
Record for the item has to be checked. The window also 
contains information on how much of the item you have 
ordered and the items gross profit according to the sales 
price entered.

Shipments
All shipments are registered in the Shipments Register. 
Both full shipments and part shipments of an order are 
registered. A part shipment may occur when the order 
quantity of an item is larger than the inventory quantity.
The "Shipments: Browse" window is opened when you click 
on the Shipments register. The Browse window lists all 
the registered shipments in the system. The list is 
usually sorted by number but can be resorted for the 
different headings.
A new record will be created when you choose an Order in 
the Order register and give the Special command, Shipping. 
The Shipment: Inspect window is activated. This is not a
suggested record. It is already registered.

No.	The serial number for the current shipment is 
	entered by FirstOffice.
Cust. No./Name
	Customer Number and Name are entered by FirstOffice 
	from the information on the order.
OK	Check this box to approve the shipment. When the 
	Shipment has been approved it can also be Invoiced.

The window header has three numbered buttons. Click on a 
button to access the different tiles of the window.

Tile 1
Shipping Date
	Today's date will be suggested by FirstOffice.
Shipping No.
	The serial number of the Shipment. The number is 
	the same as the order the shipment was made from.
Shipping Method
	Enter the method the shipment will be made with.

Tile 2
Item	FirstOffice enterd the Item Number for the Ordered 
	Item based on the information in the Order.
Description
	This field contains the Item Name according to the 
	Order.
Ordered
	This field contains the ordered quantity of the 
	Item.
Inventory
	The inventory quantity of the Item is shown here.
Ship	FirstOffice will suggest a full shipment if the 
	inventory quantity covers the ordered quantity. If 
	the inventory is less the suggestion will be the 
	quantity in stock. You can change the number in the 
	Ship field to the number you want to ship.

Tile 3
Delivery Address
	FirstOffice enters the customers delivery address 
	if applicable.

The Special Menu
When the Shipments: Browse window is open the Special 
Menu will be available in the menu bar. The command OK is 
used to approve one or more Shipments by selecting the 
shipment you want to approve and giving the command. If 
you want to OK more than one shipment at the same time 
select the first shipment you want to approve, hold down 
the Shift key and click on the last row of your selection. 
All the shipments in the marked selection will be affected 
by the command you give.


Invoices

Use this menu selection when you enter or work with 
Invoices. After entering an invoice, checking the 
information and approving the invoice, FirstOffice will 
automatically create a transaction for the General Ledger. 
After approving the invoice you can print it and send it 
to the customer.

Before you start entering invoices, you need to check that 
the setting Fiscal Years agrees with your requirements, 
and that all accounts in the setting "Account Setting 
(S/L)" has been entered, using only account numbers 
defined in the chart of accounts.

Open the Browse window for invoices.

The browse window lists all invoices entered so far. You 
can change the data in an invoice as long as it has not 
been OK'd.
Invoices are numbered consecutively and the invoice 
number is usually generated by the system. The invoice 
number is followed by a check mark () if the invoice has 
been approved, by the Customer number and name and the 
total amount of the invoice. As in other lists you may 
sort the transactions on the contents of the different 
columns. The heading of the current sorting order is 
underlined. You can also scroll the list with the scroll 
bars as with any other document. Finally, you can search 
for a record by entering a keyword in the field at the 
bottom of the window. FirstOffice will search for the first
record matching the keyword in the same column as the 
selected sorting order. 

There are four things you can do in the invoice register:
  Enter new invoices
  Inspect invoices
  Approve invoices
  Print invoices

Enter a new invoice

FirstOffice provides several shortcuts to simplify your 
work with entering invoices. You may for example enter 
today's date into a date field with Command-Enter. The 
Paste Special functions are always available to simplify 
the entering of item numbers, customer numbers, payment 
codes etc. When a transaction window is open for data 
entry, you have also the "Special" menu available to the 
right in the menu bar. (This menu is explained in the 
following sections.)

Click New or press the keyboard command.
or
select an invoice similar to the one you want to enter, 
and click Copy on the button bar.

The "Invoice: New" window is opened with an empty invoice 
or a copy of the selected one.

FirstOffice proposes the next unused number from the last 
used journal number series, and as invoice date the date 
from the last entered invoice.

You are not bound by the values suggested by FirstOffice. 
For most fields you can change the preset values into 
something that suits you better. Changes made here are 
valid only for this particular invoice.

The data entered for this record will not fit in a small 
screen  Therefore the entry window has been divided into 
tiles.
At the top is the header. The header contains the invoice 
number, the customer number and name, and three numbered 
buttons. By clicking the buttons you can navigate between 
tiles, and always go directly to a certain tile. The 
header is always visible, no matter what tile you are 
working with, so you can always see which customer's 
invoice you are presently working with.

We will start by going through the fields in the invoice 
header.

No. 	The number of the invoice. The program will enter 
	the next unused number from the journal number 
	series for invoices. You may change this number, 
	but not into an already existing one.
Cust. No.
	Enter the number of the customer to whom this 
	invoice will be issued.
	When you press Enter, all the data about the 
	customer will be entered in their appropriate 
	fields. Use Paste Special to assist in searching 
	for and entering the customer.
	If the customer is a new one, you can click the New 
	button. FirstOffice will then open a Customer: New 
	window, where you can enter the data about the new 
	customer. When you OK the customer, you will be 
	returned to the invoice, with the customer number 
	filled in.
Name	The name of the customer. The information is 
	fetched from the customer register. You may change 
	the  name in the invoice, but if you want to make a 
	permanent change, you should make the change in the 
	customer register.
OK	Checking this box causes the invoice to be entered 
	in the Sales Ledger, and updates the Sales Ledger 
	and General Ledger. You can also OK one or more 
	invoices by first highlighting them in the Browse 
	window, and then select OK in the Special menu.


Buttons 1, 2 and 3
	Navigate directly to the different tiles by 
	clicking one of these buttons.

Tile 1
Date	FirstOffice will enter today's date. It can be 
	changed to any valid date within the current fiscal 
	year.
Our Ref.
	Enter the desired reference. FirstOffice will 
	automatically enter the reference of the person who 
	logged into the program.
Pay Terms
	The terms entered for this customer in the Customer 
	file are entered by FirstOffice. Press Command-
	Enter to see the available alternatives if you need 
	to change them for this invoice.
Your Ref.
	FirstOffice enters reference from the customer file. 
	You may change it as necessary.
Due Date
	The date the invoice will become due for payment. 
	Calculated by FirstOffice, based on the number of 
	credit days in the payment terms entered for the 
	customer.
	The date can be changed for a particular invoice, 
	if you have agreed so with the customer.
Trans. Date
	This is the date on which this invoice will be 
	entered into the General Ledger.
	FirstOffice always uses the transaction date to 
	book entries in the General ledger. The transaction 
	date is the date of the event in the books, not 
	necessarily the date when it happened.

Tile 2
Item No.
	With the cursor in this field, enter the item 
	number for each item. (or press Command-Enter). 
	Press Enter. Information from the item file about 
	item name and price will be entered. If you leave 
	the item number blank, you can enter any data in 
	the fields for specification and price using one or 
	more lines of the specification field.
Quantity
	Enter the number of units to be invoiced. When you 
	press enter the amount will be calculated, and the 
	entry point is moved to the Item field in the next 
	row. 
Description
	This field shows the name of the item. If you want 
	to add an extra description, you can do so. There 
	is room for up to 100 characters of information on 
	this line. If you need more space, you can continue 
	on the following line.
Unit Price
	The unit price according to the valid price list 
	for this customer. You may change the price for 
	this item.
	With the currency module installed, the amount is 
	converted to the currency for the customer.
% 	Discount percentage. The discount is coupled via 
	the sales code and customer category to a discount 
	matrix available through Settings, Discounts. You 
	may enter a temporary discount percentage here if 
	you wish.
Amount
	The amount for this sales item, i.e. Qty multiplied 
	by price less any discount. For a manual invoice 
	item (without an item number) enter the amount here.
Total	The sum of the amounts for the items.
Sales Tax
	The tax amount for the invoice is calculated 
	automatically. If there is more than one tax level, 
	this is controlled by the sales codes.
AMOUNT DUE
	Total amount payable.

Tile 3
Invoice Address
	The customer's mailing address, as it has been 
	entered in the customer file. If you need to change 
	something for this order only, you can do so. 
	Changes you wish to be permanent must be made in 
	the customer register.
Reminder Level
	Enter the reminder level you want for the invoice. 
	Available levels are 1, 2 and 3. You can have the 
	reminder level increased each time you print the 
	invoice. The content of this field can be changed 
	even after the invoice has been approved which 
	makes it easy to change the reminder after an 
	agreement with the customer.
Last Reminder Date
	FirstOffice enters the last date a reminder on this 
	invoice was sent. The contents can be changed even 
	after approval.
Zone	This shows which country zone a customer belongs to. 
	The information is picked up from the customer 
	record, and is displayed for information only. If 
	you want to change a the zone, it has to be done in 
	the customer record.
Domestic
	This button is selected if the customer is from 
	within your own country.
EU	This button is selected if your business and the 
	customer are inside EU.
Export
	This button is selected if the customer is from any 
	other country.

Credit invoice

If you want to credit an invoice that has been sent you 
should do as follows:

1.	Select Invoices in the File menu. The Invoices: 
	Browse window is opened, showing all registered 
	invoices.
2.	Click New or enter the appropriate keyboard command.
	The window Invoice: New is opened as described 
	above. Enter the invoice in the normal way, but 
	change the Payment Term to "C" (Credit) if that is 
	the code set for Credit in the Payment Terms 
	setting. In the first row of the specification area, 
	a crediting message is entered. Enter the number of 
	the credited invoice.
3.	On the remaining lines you can enter the items to 
	credit, and by what amount.
	If you leave the field for the number of the 
	credited invoice empty, this will create a separate 
	record in the Sales Ledger. It can be corrected 
	using a Receipts transaction. Quite often you will 
	need to credit only a part of an invoice, rather 
	than the whole invoice.
	In most accounting systems, it will be necessary to 
	first remove the entire original invoice, and then 
	reenter the items that will be invoiced. 
	Since most systems lack the option of copying an 
	order, part crediting can sometimes take a very 
	long time. FirstOffice offers a very simple and 
	intuitive way to do this. 
	To credit part of an invoice, start by copying the 
	original invoice, and enter a "C" in the payment 
	terms box. Then proceed as follows: 

	1.	Simply remove all the rows you do not want to 
		credit, by clicking on the row number to the 
		left. The row will be highlighted, and you 
		remove it by entering the backspace key. You 
		will then be left with the rows to credit.
	2.	To credit only a number of items in a row, 
		enter the number to be credited.
	3.	Click OK to save the credit invoice. 
		FirstOffice will now update all inventory 
		balances and adjust all accounting entries as 
		necessary.


Inspect and Approve an Invoice

Before an invoice is sent to a customer, it should be 
checked and approved, to ensure that the customer is 
charged for the correct things. The approval causes the 
invoice to be inserted into your Sales Ledger. When an 
invoice is approved, a transaction is created and 
automatically transferred to the General Ledger.  This 
transaction will be assigned a journal number according 
to the Journal numbers you have entered in the settings 
for the invoicing module. 
The Sales Ledger is organized so that only approved 
invoices are available for the registration of incoming 
payments. There are two ways to approve an invoice. 
  	Click the OK check box with the invoice in the 
	window on the screen.
  	Select an invoice by clicking on it in the window 
	Invoices: Browse, and select OK in the Special menu.

After approving an invoice, only the fields Due Date and 
Comment may be altered.


"Transaction could not be generated. Check Settings." 
When you approve invoices, transactions for the General 
Ledger are automatically generated and put in your G/L 
Journal.
If the above message appears, it means that either some 
accounts or other settings are incorrect. All account 
numbers entered in the settings for Account Settings 
(S/L) and Sales Tax Codes must exist in the chart of 
accounts.  You must then either add the missing accounts 
to the chart of accounts  or change the settings 
accordingly. 
The program cannot enter transactions to nonexisting 
accounts, to prevent accounting errors.


Print the invoice

There are several cases when you may want to print an 
invoice: A test printout to check an invoice before you 
finally approve it, or a copy for your own use, or the 
original invoice to be sent to the customer.
  	To do a test printout, click on the printer icon 
	in the button row before you OK the invoice. The 
	invoice will then be printed with the text "Test 
	Printout" diagonally printed across the page. This 
	is to avoid the test to be confused with the 
	original. If you have not yet clicked the OK box, 
	you can go back and correct any errors you may find 
	in the printout. This is also true for Credit 
	invoices.
  	If you want to print the final invoices, follow the 
	instructions below.
	
1.	Select Documents in the Main Window. Select 
	the type of invoices you want to print.
	The window Select Invoices is shown.
2.	Enter the Invoice number for a single invoice, or 
	an interval of invoices with the first and  the 
	last invoice number separated by a colon (:). The 
	default setting is "Only unprinted", which will 
	ignore any invoices in the interval that have 
	already been printed. "All" will print all not 
	previously printed invoices. Any invoices 
	previously printed will have the word "Copy" 
	printed diagonally across the page.	"Original" will 
	print another original invoice, even if it has been 
	previously printed. Use the boxes under Type to 
	limit your selection to either invoices or credit 
	invoices.
3.	Press OK to start the printing, or cancel by 
	closing the window. 
	You can also print a single invoice by clicking on 
	the printer icon when an invoice is shown on the 
	screen.

The Special menu for invoices

When you work with invoices, there is an extra menu to 
the right of the registers menu. It contains different 
commands depending on which type of window is active. OK 
(Approve)

If the active window is Invoices: Browse the menu has the 
command OK to be used to approve an invoice. (Selecting 
the command from the menu is equivalent with checking the 
OK box in an invoice record.) You can also select several 
invoices in the Invoices: Browse window and approve them 
all at once.


Receipts

As important as the invoicing itself is the filing of 
incoming payments in the Receipts Register. It is by 
keeping invoice and receipts files up to date that you 
can create important reports about the state of your 
business. Just as when you OK an invoice, a General 
Ledger transaction is created when you OK a Receipt.

Click Receipts to open the Receipts: Browse window, 
showing receipts already entered. Receipts are numbered 
consecutively. The receipt number is followed by a check 
mark (if the payment is approved), by the Transaction 
Date and the Total Amount of the payment.
A registered receipt record may contain several receipts 
from different customers. To facilitate the 
reconciliation with the bank's statement of account it 
might be a good idea to collect several receipts into one 
record in the Payments Register. Each record in the 
Receipts register results in one transaction in the 
Transactions register (with bank or other institution as 
set-off account).

New receipt

The principle for entering a receipt is that you know at 
least:  How much has actually been received (according to 
the bank statement), any extra fees charged by the bank. 
FirstOffice provides several shortcuts to simplify your 
work with entering receipts. You may for example enter 
today's date into a date field with Command-Enter. The 
Paste Special functions are always available to simplify 
the entering of item numbers, customer numbers, payment 
codes etc. When a transaction window is open for data 
entry, you have also the "Special" menu available to the 
right in the menu bar. (This menu is explained in the 
following sections.)


You are not limited by the values suggested by 
FirstOffice. Most fields can be altered when you enter 
data.



Click New or press Command-N.
The Receipts: New window is opened with an empty receipt 
record.

First a run-through of the fields.
No. 	The number of the receipt. The program will enter 
	the next unused number from the journal number 
	series for receipts. You may change this number, 
	but not into an already existing one.
Trans. Date
	The transaction date for the receipt. FirstOffice 
	allows you to separate the payment and transaction 
	dates. Transaction date is normally the date when 
	the receipt is entered into your account. 
Payment Method
	Enter the code for the payment Method. The first 
	code in the list of payment methods is entered as 
	a default. Use Paste Special to select a payment 
	method.
Comment
	A short comment to the current Receipts record.
Inv. No.
	The number of the invoice being paid. Press 
	Command-Enter to bring up a list of all unpaid but 
	approved invoices. Note that you can enter several 
	paid invoices in one receipts record.
Customer
	The customer number on the selected invoice. This 
	field will be entered by FirstOffice.
Text	FirstOffice will enter the customer's name, as it 
	has been entered in the customer record. You may 
	change this if you wish.
Paid Date
	Enter the date when the payment was made.
Amount
	FirstOffice will enter the total amount owed for 
	the current invoice. You can change the amount as 
	necessary.
Total	FirstOffice totals the amounts in the amount column 
	as you enter the receipts. 
OK	Check this box to enter the payment record in the 
	Sales Ledger.
Addl Charges
	Enter any fee charged by the bank for this set of 
	receipts. The amount will be charged to the account 
	number specified in the Account


Settings (S/L) setting.
Deposited
	Enter the paid amount to be registered. 
	FirstOffice will suggest the sum of the receipt rows.

Press OK to save the data.

This is what you do to enter a new receipt:
1.	Press Enter to move the insertion point to the 
	field Trans. Date and enter the date when the 
	payment was received.
	Enter the Payment Mode field, or skip it with the 
	Enter key.
	Press enter to move to the Invoice No field. Use 
	Paste Special to find the first invoice that has 
	been paid. 
	Select an invoice from the list by clicking on its 
	line and press Enter. The customer number, name and 
	amounts are entered in the respective fields. 

2.	When all receipts have been entered, you may want 
	to check the payment. Click the printer symbol in 
	the button bar to print a sample copy. Click in the 
	OK box to approve the payment.
	You can edit the data in the normal way, as long as 
	you have not Ok'd the transaction.
	To cancel, click the Cancel button or close the 
	window. 
	When you OK the Receipt, a General Ledger 
	transaction is created. After this point it is not 
	possible to alter the transaction any more.


Inspect and Approve Receipts

Before a receipt is Ok'd, it should be checked and 
approved, to ensure that the correct payment has been 
recieved. 
The approval causes the receipt to be inserted into your 
Sales Ledger. Only approved receipt are shown in the 
reports. There are two ways to approve a receipt. Just as 
with invoices, a General Ledger Transaction is generated 
and passed to the General Ledger when the receipt is Ok'd. 
These transactions are numbered from one and upwards, or 
beginning with any other number entered as the first 
number. 

With FirstOffice you will not enter receipts manually in 
the debtors account in the General Ledger.


To OK a receipt:
  	Click the OK check box with the payment in the 
	window on the screen.
  	Select a payment by clicking on it in the window 
	Receipts: Browse, and select OK in the Special menu.

After approving a payment, it cannot be altered.



The Special menu

When  the Receipts: Browse window is active, there is an 
extra menu item - OK - available in the Special menu. 
This command will approve the receipt for the selected 
record, and enter it into the Sales Ledger. Selecting the 
command from the menu gives the same result as checking 
the OK box in the record window. You can select several 
Receipt records in the Browse window, and OK them all at 
once with this command.


Goods Recieved

In Goods Recieved you register all goods delivered to the 
company that are recorded in the Item register and used 
in the Inventory. A useful source for this register is 
the packing slip the supplier sends with the shipment. 
The Goods Recieved register has no connection to the 
Purchase Ledger and the Inventory depends on what you 
record here. When you click on the Goods Recieved Icon 
the Goods Recieved: Browse window is opened. Here is a 
numeric list of all currently registered recieved 
shipments.

To enter a new record click new or command-n.

No.	The serial number of the record. FirstOffice will 
	start numbering on one unless you enter a different 
	number in the first record.
Trans. Date
	The date the goods where recieved. Todays date will 
	be suggested.
Suppl. No./Name
	Enter or Paste the supplier number from the 
	supplier record. When you leave the field the 
	supplier information will be entered in the 
	appropriate fields.
OK	Check this box to approve the record. Once the 
	record is approvet it cannot be changed.
Price Incl. Tax
	If the prices entered for the record inklude tax 
	check this box. The tax will then be subtracted 
	from the unit price according to the tax code 
	entered on the Item record and the result will be 
	the cost price for the row.
Item	Enter or Paste the Item Number for the received 
	Item.
Quantity
	Enter the received quantity of the Item. The 
	Inventory will be updated with the registered 
	quantity. You can also enter a negative amount in
	order to correct the Inventory for the Item.
Description
	The field will contain the item name according to 
	the item record.
	You can enter a more specific desription for this 
	single record if needed.
Unit Price
	FirstOffice will enter the normal purchase price 
	for the item from the item record. You can change 
	the price if needed but it will not affect the item 
	record.
Cost	If you have an extra cost for each purchased item 
	that you want to add to the cost price you can 
	enter it in this field.
Cost Price
	The cost price is made up of the unit price plus 
	any additional costs for the item. It will be 
	automatically calculated by FirstOffice.
Quantity
	Enter the total number of registered items on the 
	delivery.
Cost Price
	The above cost prices are totaled by FirstOffice 
	and the sum entered here.


Approve

When the "Goods Recieved: Browse" window is open the 
Special menu will be available in the menu bar. The 
command OK in the Special menu selection is used to 
approve one or more Goods Recieved record. Select the 
record you wish to approve and choose OK in the menu.
If you want to use the OK commnad for more than one 
record select the row of the first record you want to 
approve, hold down the Shift key and select the row of 
the last record you wish to approve. All records in the 
selection will be affected by the command you give.


Inventory Adjustment

If your need to adjust the Inventory because of for 
example a return it is easily done in the Goods recieved 
register. You can enter a record with a negative quantity. 
You enter the record as usual and the amount, negative or 
positive, and the qouantity to correct the Inventory.


Purchase Invoices

The basis for a Purchase Ledger system is of course the 
Purchase Invoices you enter into your system. Use this 
menu selection when you enter or work with invoices. The 
Purchase Ledger helps you to control your relation with 
your creditors. Before you start entering invoices, you 
must determine the Fiscal (accounting) Year.

Other settings can be adjusted as you go along.

Open the "Purchase Invoices: Browse" window, showing any 
invoices that already may have been entered.
Invoices are numbered consecutively. The invoice number 
is followed by a check mark if the invoice is approved, 
by the supplier number and name, and the total amount of 
the invoice.
As in other lists you may sort the transactions on the 
contents of the different columns. The headings of the 
current sorting order is underlined. You can also scroll 
the list with the scroll bars. Finally, you can search 
for a record by entering a keyword in the field at the 
bottom of the window. FirstOffice will search for the 
first record matching the keyword in the same column as 
the selected sorting order. 


Entering a Purchase Invoice

This is how you enter a Purchase Invoice:
Open the "Purchase Invoice: New" window 

No.	The number of the invoice in your Purchase Ledger. 
	The program will enter the next unused number from 
	the journal number series for invoices. You may 
	change this number, but not into a already existing 
	one.
Invoice Date
	This date, together with the payment terms, will 
	determine the last date for payment. The current 
	date is automatically entered.
Trans. Date
	The transaction date for the invoice. You may have 
	separate invoice and transaction dates in your 
	ledger. The transaction date is used for the 
	generated accounting transactions, and determines 
	the accounting period for the invoice. 
Supplier
	The supplier number in the supplier record.
Name	The supplier's name. The name is fetched from the 
	Supplier register when you press Enter.
AMOUNT DUE 
	The total amount to pay for this invoice, including 
	any taxes.
OK	It is usually a good idea not to check OK box until 
	the invoice has been fully entered and inspected. 
	When you click OK, three things happen:
		1. The invoice record is locked.
		2. The invoice is entered into the Purchase 
		   Ledger.
		3. An accounting transaction is created.
	You may not alter any data in an OK'd invoice 
	except Due Date and the Comment field.
Suppl. Inv. No.
	Here you can enter the supplier's own invoice 
	number. This number will appear on the remittance 
	advice to the supplier.
Bank Acct.
	Enter a bank account number to which the invoice is 
	to be paid, if it different from the suppliers 
	normal account number. This field is normally empty.
Pay Terms
	The Payment Terms of this invoice. The normal terms, 
	as you have entered them in the suppliers file is 
	suggested by FirstOffice. You can change the terms 
	to any of the terms defined in Settings, Payment 
	Terms. A change here will only affect this invoice.
Due Date
	The last day for payment of this invoice. 
	Calculated by FirstOffice based on invoice date and 
	payment terms. This field is not locked with the OK 
	of the supplier's invoice. If you alter it, e.g. as 
	a consequence of extended credit facilities with 
	the suppler, the new date will be used to produce 
	the payment forecast.
Account
	This is where you determine the cost accounting for 
	the invoice. Enter an account number and press 
	Enter. This will cause the account name to be 
	entered automatically. Use Paste Special to choose 
	from the chart of accounts.
Name	The account name is entered automatically. 
Amount
	The amount to be debited to the expense account.
TCode	Enter Sales Tax Code, or use default Sales Tax Code 
	from the account. If the Sales Tax Codes have been 
	entered in the setting Account Settings (P/L), 
	FirstOffice will enter a Sales Tax Code depending 
	on the Zone the supplier is in.
Sales Tax
	FirstOffice will enter the appropriate Sales Tax 
	based on the amounts on the rows above.
Zone	These buttons are for information only. They show 
	which zone the supplier belongs to. 

	Domestic	Suppliers within your own country.
	EU		Suppliers in the EU.
	Import	Suppliers from all other countries.

The following example shows how you enter a new purchase 
invoice.

1.	The window Purchase Invoice: New is shown, with 
	your invoice journal number and date entered. Press 
	Enter to move the insertion point to the field 
	Trans. Date. Select Paste Special from the Edit 
	menu to enter to-days date. Press Enter to move the 
	insertion point to the field Supplier. Select Paste 
	Special to bring up the window Paste Supplier.
2. 	Press Enter again to move the insertion point to 
	the field Suppl. Inv. No., and enter the number. 
	Enter the total amount payable in the AMOUNT DUE 
	field. Note that "AMOUNT DUE" should be the total 
	amount including tax. 
	Do not check the OK box yet, but fill in the rest 
	of the fields first. As long as the OK box is not 
	checked, you can go back and adjust the information.
3.	Continue and enter the accounting information. Put 
	the insertion point in the account number field of 
	the first row, and enter the account number. Use 
	the Paste Special function to get access to the 
	chart of accounts. Search among the accounts in the
	normal way, by number or by name. Depending on the 
	Settings you have specified for Purchase Invoice, 
	the insertion point will move to the next field, or 
	skip to the amount column.
4.	When all items have been entered, and the record 
	has been checked for errors, check the OK box to 
	commit the invoice to the Purchase Ledger.
5.	Click the OK or New button to continue with the 
	next invoice. The amounts in the fields AMOUNT DUE, 
	Sales Tax and the cost account entries must balance 
	before you can continue.
	If you want to quit  without saving, press cancel 
	or just close the window and answer No to the "Do 
	you want to save" question.


Credit Invoices from a supplier

To register a credit invoice from a supplier, do this: 
1.	Open the Purchase Invoices: Browse window.
2.	Find the invoice you need to credit, and copy it 
	with the Copy button (or click New to create a new 
	record).
	The window Purchase Invoice: New is shown. Today's 
	date is shown in the date field. 
	Enter the window as usual, but change the Pay Terms 
	to Credit. A new first row is added to the 
	accounting table. Enter the number of the invoice 
	to be credited.
	If you leave this number blank, a separate record 
	will be entered for the supplier in the Purchase 
	Ledger. This can be corrected with a payments transaction.
4.	Click the OK button to save. Note that credit 
	amounts should NOT be entered with negative amounts.

"Transaction could not be generated. Check settings." 
When you approve invoices, transactions are automatically 
generated and put in your Purchase Ledger.
If the above message appears, it means that either some 
accounts or settings are incorrect.
All account numbers entered in the setting Account 
Settings (P/L), and in the Sales Tax Codes must exist in 
the chart of accounts. You must either add the missing 
accounts to the chart of accounts or change the settings
accordingly. To prevent accounting errors the program 
cannot enter transactions to nonexisting accounts.

Approving a Purchase Invoice

If the invoice was not OK'd already when it was entered, 
it must be approved now in order to commit it to the 
Purchase Ledger, and for the accounting transactions to 
begenerated. 
The approval also causes the invoice record to be locked, 
so that it cannot be altered after this point. There are 
two ways to approve/OK an invoice:
  	Click the OK box, or 
  	select one or more invoices in the Browse window 
	and select OK from the Special menu.

After Ok'ing a purchase invoice, all fields except Due 
Date and Name are locked.

Print a Purchase Invoice

Print the document Purchase Invoice and use it as you 
like to facilitate the approval or authorization. The 
document will also contain the entered accounting 
information.

The Special menu 

An extra menu, the Special menu, is shown at the right on 
the menu bar, whenever one of the windows "Purchase 
Invoice: Inspect" or "Browse" is active. This menu 
provides some options that are directly related to the 
active window. 
When the window "Purchase Invoice: Inspect" is active, 
the Special menu will contain the command Balance and 
with the "Purchase Invoice: Browse" window active it 
contains the command OK.
The Balance command will enter a balancing amount in the 
account row. The OK command has the same effect as 
checking the OK box.


Payments

The Payments register contains information about the 
payments made against Purchase Invoices. Together with 
the Purchase Invoices it forms the basis for the Purchase 
Ledger.
To open the Payments register, select Payments in the 
register menu.
The window "Payments: Browse" is opened, showing a list 
of already entered payments.
Payments are normally listed in numeric order. The list 
shows in addition to the number also -character under 
the Orddered heading, another  under the Reconciled 
heading, Transaction Date and Amount.


New Payment

The principle for entering a Payment is that you know 
two facts: 
  	How much has actually been withdrawn (according to 
	the statement of account); 
  	extra fees charged by the bank

To enter a new Payment:
1.	Click New.
	The "Payments: New" window is opened with an empty 
	payment.

First a run-through of the fields.

No.	The serial number of the payment. The program will 
	enter a the next unused number from the journal 
	number series for payments. You may change this 
	number, but not into an already existing one.
Pay Date
	The date of the transaction, i.e. the date when you 
	want the payment to be executed.
Trans. Date
	The date of the transaction, i.e. the date when you 
	want the payment to be booked.
	Even when the payment has been ordered, it is 
	possible to change the Trans. Date. When the 
	payment has been reconciled, however, no further 
	changes are possible.
Payment Method
	Enter the payment method. You can choose between 
	the methods entered under Settings. 
Own Bank Acct.
	The number for the bank account you want to use for 
	the payment.
No.	The number of the supplier invoice being paid. 
	Press Command-Enter to bring up a list of all 
	unpaid but approved Purchase Invoices.
	Paid purchase invoices are not shown in the list.
Text	In this field you may enter a short message. 
	FirstOffice will suggest the supplier number. It 
	may be a good idea to enter your check number in 
	this field.
To Bank Acct.
	The account number of the bank receiving the 
	payment.
Amount
	Enter the amount to pay, after deducting any cash 
	discount. FirstOffice will propose the remaining 
	amount.
Total	The sum of all the payments entered above.
Ordered
	Check this box to indicate that a payment has been 
	ordered.
Reconciled
	Click this box to finally remove this debt from the 
	Purchase Ledger.
Addl. Charges
	Enter any extra cost here. This amount will be 
	booked on the account entered for Bank Fees in the 
	Account Settings (P/L) setting.
Withdrawn
	The total amount of the payment, i.e. what is 
	actually withdrawn from the account (including any 
	extra charges). 

2.	Enter your data.
	You enter and edit data in the normal way. We will 
	illustrate how to enter the various data items with 
	the help of a few examples.
	
	When the window Payments: New is shown, a payment 
	number is already entered. Press Enter to move the 
	insertion point to the field Trans. Date. Enter the 
	date when  	you want the payment to go out.
	The next field is Payment Method. You can choose 
	between the various methods you have entered in 
	Settings. FirstOffice will automatically enter the 
	details such as the Bank name and account number.
	Press Enter again to move the insertion point to 
	the field No. For each line, enter the invoice 
	number from your Purchase Ledger. Command-Enter 
	will activate the Paste Special function, showing 
	all open (unpaid) Purchase Invoices.
	Select an invoice by double-clicking its row. Press 
	Enter to fetch the data, i.e. the Supplier's 
	account number and name. Enter the amount you want 
	to pay. 

3.	Check the Ordered box to order a payment. When this 
	is done you may print a Payment order, which can be 
	your documentation for the person writing the 
	checks. You may also use the Document function and 
	print the checks directly.

4.	Click Post or New to save the transaction, or 
	Cancel to cancel.	As is the case throughout 
	FirstOffice, the many short-cuts built into the 
	program can help you speed up your work. The most 
	important tool is the Paste-Special windows 
	available for invoices, date etc. Apart from 
	speeding up the work, these shortcuts help you to 
	avoid errors in the data entry.


Checking, ordering and reconciling payments

When you save a payment, e.g. by clicking OK or New, the 
invoices concerned are removed from the Purchase Ledger. 
As long as the Ordered box has not been checked, you may 
still change the payment. When you decide to make a 
payment, you can mark it as Ordered. Check the Ordered 
box or select Order in the Special menu.
When you receive a statement from the bank, you can do 
the final reconciliation. If any invoice has not been 
paid according to the payment order, you can make an 
alteration. The invoice will then be reversed into the 
Purchase Ledger.
A faulty payment is altered by clicking on the faulty 
line (click the line number) and press the Delete key or 
select Delete in the Edit menu. The faulty line will be 
marked as deleted.
You can alter the Payment Date as long as the Reconciled 
box has not been entered. When everything is OK, check 
the Reconciled box or choose the Reconcile command from 
the Special menu to create the accounting transactions.

The Special menu

An extra menu, the Special menu, is shown at the right on 
the menu bar, whenever the window Payment:Browse is 
active. This menu provides some options that are directly 
related to the active window. Select one or more payments 
in the list, select Order or Reconcile in the menu to 
change the status of all the selected payments at once.


Transactions

In a company, all accounting events are entered as 
Transactions. Use this menu selection when you enter or 
work with transactions. 
The transactions that have been created automatically 
from the other registers - Invoices, Receipts, Purchase 
Invoices or Payments -  are all entered into the 
Transactions register. All transactions are collected 
here, regardless of how they were created. 
Legal requirements determine how accounting records are 
to be maintained, how corrections in transactions can be 
made etc. It is therefore important for you to understand 
how FirstOffice does these things.
Before you start entering transactions, you must 
determine the Fiscal (accounting) Year.

Select Transactions in the Register window.

This window shows the Browse window for Transactions, 
with any already entered transactions.
Transactions are numbered consecutively. The number is 
followed by the date the data was entered, and the date 
of the transaction. Most people find this a practical way 
to order the transactions, but it is not a legal 
requirement. FirstOffice assigns different number series 
to transactions created from invoices, payments etc. 
Transactions from the other registers are assigned a 
prefix being an abbreviation of the register name (INV, 
PAY, PINV, REC ) plus a number. This makes it very easy 
to see the type of transaction, and it gives you a very 
structured General Ledger. 
After the number follows the date when the transaction 
occurred.
In the Text column you can see the short explaining text 
that was entered for eachtransaction.

As in other lists you may sort the transactions by the 
contents of the different columns, the headings of which 
are underlined. You can also scroll the list with the 
scroll bars or search for a record by entering a keyword 
in the field at the bottom left corner. FirstOffice will
search for the first record matching the keyword in the 
same column as the selected sorting order.

There are four things you can do with your transactions:

  Inspect 
  Enter new
  Make corrections 
  Print 

Inspect Transactions

Double-click a transaction in the list or select the 
transaction and click OK. The transaction is opened in 
the window Transaction: Inspect.
In the following list you will find a short description 
of the fields and columns of the fields.

No.	Transaction Number.  FirstOffice will start 
	numbering the transactions from one and up, or 
	starting with the first number entered by the user. 
	The proposed number may be altered, but you may not 
	use duplicate numbers.
Trans. Date
	The date the event behind the transaction took 
	place. This is often a different date from the day 
	when the accounting is made.
Text	A short descriptive transaction text. 
Numbered Rows
	Each row contains information about Account number, 
	a description of the record and a Debit or Credit 
	value. 
Difference
	Any difference between the sum of Debited and 
	Credited amounts is shown here. A balancing entry 
	shows a zero difference. 
Total	Shows the sum of Debits and Credits for this 
	transaction.

Entering a new Transaction

FirstOffice provides several shortcuts to simplify your 
work with entering transactions. You may enter today's 
date into a date field with Command-Enter. Frequent 
transaction types can use Transaction Templates, 
described under Settings in the File menu. When a 
transaction window is open for data entry, you have also 
the "Special" menu available to the right in the menu bar. 
(This menu is explained in the following sections.)

1.	Click New or press command-n.
	or
	select a transaction similar to the one you want to 
	enter, and click Duplicate in the button bar, or 
	press command-c.
	The "Transactions: New" window is opened with an 
	empty transaction or a copy of the copied one. 
	FirstOffice suggests the next unused number from 
	the  journal number series, and as transaction date 
	the date from the last entered transaction.
2.	Enter and edit the data in the normal way.
3.	Click OK to enter the transaction in the General 
	Ledger. Try the automatic balancing function. Enter 
	the debit postings and continue until you are going 
	to enter the amount. With the cursor in the Credit 
	column, press twice on the Enter key. FirstOffice 
	enters the correct credit amount to balance the 
	entry for you.


Correcting a transaction

In FirstOffice you can easily correct transactions in the 
legally correct way.
You may not alter an entry in your Ledger just any way 
you want to. A correction of a transaction means that you 
create a new transaction, which cancels the old one and 
enters a correct. The corrected transaction should be 
marked that it has been canceled.
An alteration means that you strike over (not erase) an 
entry and replace it with the alteration. The transaction 
is marked with an initial and a date.
When a transaction is open for data entry, the Special 
menu is available in the menu bar, allowing you to do 
several types of corrections before the transaction has 
been entered.
Assume that you have entered the wrong Sales Tax 
percentage, and that you find out only after entering the 
transaction.

1.	Select the transaction in error and click Duplicate.
	This creates a copy of the faulty transaction. 
	First you want to remove the error.
2.	Select "Swap Debit & Credit" in the Special menu.
3.	Then select Correction Mark in the same menu. This 
	will revert the entry made in the faulty transaction.
4.	Enter the journal number of the transaction to be 
	corrected, and then you are ready to enter the 
	correct transaction information. Click OK when you 
	are ready.
	The new transaction is saved, and the old 
	transaction is marked as corrected.
	
FirstOffice also provides you with another method to 
correct entries. In ledgers, errors are often corrected 
or eliminated by striking a line (sometimes in red ink) 
across the entry. A note is made with the initials of the 
accountant, and a corrected entry is made with the next 
non-used journal number. FirstOffice provides a similar 
method.

1.	Select the old transaction you want to change, and 
	open it. Select Update Mark in the Special menu. A 
	new line is added in the transaction, asking you to 
	enter your signature and the date of the correction. 
2.	You will now want to cancel - draw a (red) line 
	across the faulty row - so you do just that. Mark 
	the number to the left of the row to change, and 
	click to mark the whole row. Press the Backspace or 
	the Delete key to draw a correction line across the 
	row. Then you can enter the correct entry. Save in 
	the normal way.
	This method can also be used to change the 
	transaction date of a transaction.


Be careful with changing transactions that have been 
reconciled or Sales tax reported.



The Special menu

When a transaction is open in a record window, a special 
version of the Special menu is opened. See below for a 
full description.


Balance Transaction

This command changes the amount of the row in which the 
cursor is placed, so that the transaction balances. This 
is particularly practical when you have made an error of 
the amount in just one line.

Swap Debit & Credit

This command swaps the entries of a transaction. This is 
practical when you wish to cancel a transaction with the 
opposite correction transaction.

Update Mark

Use this command to insert the special update mark. This 
will give you access to the signature and correction date 
fields on the transaction you want to alter. (See 
Transactions, "Correct a transaction" above).

Correction Mark

When you use a correction transaction to correct a 
transaction, use this command to enter the number of the 
canceled transaction. (See Transactions, "Correct a 
transaction" above).


Documents

FirstOffice provides a number of documents to be printed.
Click the Documents icon in the Main Window, or choose 
Documents in the Files menu, to open the Documents Window.
Documents cannot be shown on the screen, but only output 
to a printer.

Invoices/Credit Invoices

There are four instances when you may want to print an 
invoice. You may want to print a sample or a pro forma 
invoice, before the final approval of an invoice, or you 
may want a copy for internal use, or the original invoice.

For a sample printout, click the printer symbol on the 
button bar while you are working with an invoice, and 
before the Invoice has been approved by checking the OK 
box. FirstOffice will print an invoice marked "Test 
printout" printed diagonally across the page. Since you 
have not yet committed the invoice by checking OK, you 
can check the invoice and change it if necessary. This is 
true also for credit invoices.

When you want to print the final invoice, follow the 
instructions below. All copies will be marked "Copy" as 
described above.

1.	The window Specify Invoices is opened.
2.	Enter the invoice number to print a single invoice, 
	or a range of invoice numbers. The radio button 
	Unprinted only is the default selection for 
	function. Select All or Original as appropriate.
	In case you need a new original of an invoice, you 
	must select Original Print, to avoid having Copy 
	printed across the page. This is to avoid confusion 
	over the originals. 
	Check one or more of the check boxes to limit the 
	printout to certain types of invoices.
3.	Click OK to start printing.

Printing credit invoices follows the same procedure.


Customer Labels

Customer labels are useful if you want to make a mailing 
to all or a subset of your customers. The labels are 
printed with name, contact person and address on standard 
size computer labels. You may want to check the label 
size before you print on your usual labels.

Bring up the window Select Customer Labels.

Customer No
	Enter the customer number or an interval of 
	customer numbers, with the first and last number 
	separated by a colon (:).
Sort By
	The labels can be sorted alphabetically either by 
	the name or the number.

Click OK to print the labels.


Order Confirmation
An Order Confirmaton is sent to the customer to confirm 
an order and give the customer a chance to check the 
order information. Enter the number of the order you wish 
to print a confirmation of in the Specify Order 
Confirmations window. Enter the first and last number 
separated by a colon (:) if you wish to print more than 
one confirmation at the same time.
If the check box Unprinted Only is checked FirstOffice 
will only print confirmations on orders not previously 
confirmed.

Shipment Lists

As soon as a shipment is approved you can print a 
Shipment List to accompany the shipment. There are two 
ways to print this list:
  	Double click on Shipment Lists in the Documents 
	window. Enter the number, or numbers separated by a 
	colon (:), of the shipment you want a list for.
  	Click on the printer icon in the button bar when 
	you are working with an approved Shipment. The 
	active window will be the Shipments: Inspect window.


Packing Lists

A Packing List is used by the personell who put the 
outgoing orders together for shipping. It cannot be 
printed after the shipment has been approved! The methods 
for printing this list are the same as for the Shipment 
List with the exeption that the shipment may not be 
approved. 


Quotes

This document is sent to a customer with the information 
of the given Quote. Enter the number, or numbers 
separated by a colon (:), of the Quotes you wish to print 
in the specify window.

Reminders

Print reminders and send them to customers when invoices 
are overdue. In the Specify Reminder window you need to 
enter the number of the invoice, or invoices separated by 
a colon (:), the reminder is for. If you wish you can 
enter the customer number instead. One reminder for each 
invoice will be printed.
If the Increase reminder Level check box is checked 
FirstOffice will increase the reminder level one step for 
over due invoices. If the check box is empty the 
reminders will be printed without the level increasing. 
The number of reminders sent for an invoice can be seen 
in tile three of the invoice.


Reports

One of the most important functions of a financial system 
is the reporting. There are some reports that are 
required by law, such as the Transaction Journal or the 
General Ledger.
There are other reports needed by the owners of the 
company, by the bank or by the Tax authorities. Such 
reports are the Balance Sheet, the Profit and loss 
statement or the Sales Tax report. Other reports again 
are managerial reports used internally, such as the Sales 
or Purchase Ledger, which show the company's status 
versus its debtors and creditors.
Finally, there are useful reports that simply save a lot 
of time in the daily operations of the business.

In this section of the manual we will go through the 
reporting capabilities of FirstOffice. To bring up the 
window where you can select reports, you can use three 
different methods.

  	Click the Report icon in the Main Window.
  	Select Reports in the File menu.
  	Use the keyboard command listed in the right hand 
	side of the File menu.

Print to

This option determines where to send your report. If the 
check box for printer dialog is checked, the normal 
Printer dialog box will be shown if Printer is your 
choice.  The default is Screen. This gives you the 
opportunity to check your report before you print it on 
paper. If the report is OK, you can print it directly by 
clicking the printer icon in the button bar, or by 
pressing Command-P. (Ctrl-P in Windows) With the Function 
option you determine what you want to do with your 
selected report. You may choose to make the report, 
define it (i.e. determine what the Report contains), make 
a page setup definition, and send the print out to a 
certain printer.
If you select Page Setup it will open the Print dialog 
box for the printer you have selected in the Chooser. If 
you will be printing to a laser printer we recommend that 
you use 80% size for most reports, to make them more 
readable.

The Select Printer option is used to re-direct the report 
output to the modem port, where you can connect a serial 
(PC) printer (e.g. a dot matrix printer for printing on 
pre-printed stock of pin-feed paper). 
Click the Select Printer button and double-click on the 
report for which you wish to set this option. The Select 
Printer dialog box is opened. Enter the letter "A" in the 
field "Printer name" and click OK to select a serial 
printer for a certain report. 

In the following section we assume that you have already 
set the destination of your reports. You can read more 
about the setting up of reports in the section about the 
file menu.
To make a report, double-click on the report name in the 
list.

The Special menu for reports
All reports are shown each in its own window. You can 
have several reports on the screen at the same time, and 
you can leave the reports on the screen while you make 
changes or enter new transactions. A time-saving device 
is the Recalculate function. With a report in the active 
window, there is an extra "Special" menu available in the 
menu bar. Select the command Recalculate to create an 
updated version of a report after making alterations to 
background data.

Balance Sheet

The Balance Sheet report shows the assets, liabilities 
and capital of the company at a given point in time. 
Rather than using the preset definition, you may define 
your own Balance Sheet. You can also edit the standard 
definition to suit your needs. Editing or redefining the 
balance sheet requires some knowledge about accounting, 
and about FirstOffice's functions.

Setting up a Balance Sheet

Here you define the structure of the Balance Sheet for 
your accounts. You define each of the various rows of the 
Balance Sheet. The following example illustrates the 
setup process. 

Open the window Balance Sheet definition.

The Window shows the Balance Sheet row by row, as it has 
been presented up to now. The rows are numbered 10, 50, 
etc., so there is room to insert new rows in between.

Double-click the first row: No. 10 ASSETS.

The Definition Balance Sheet: Update window is opened 
with the current definition of the row.
The number identifies the row in the Balance Sheet, and 
the text "Assets" is printed when the report is sent to 
the screen or to the printer.
The accounts fields have no numbers, and in the Type 
field you can see that this row number 10 is a text, i.e. 
heading line. The account type is "Assets" (the account 
type concept is explained under Accounts in the File 
menu).3.
If you click the right page of the book, you will see row 
no. 20, Current Assets. This definition contains a range 
of accounts _ 100 through 15999. This row is of the type
"Accounts," and of the "Assets" Account Type.
When the report is printed, each account in the interval 
will be shown with its number, name and the balance of 
the account. The total for the group of accounts will be 
calculated and printed after the last account in the 
group.


If you leaf through the book by clicking on the pages, 
remember that any changes you make on a page will be 
saved. If you do not want to save the changes, you must 
use the close box between the pages, or click cancel.



Click forward to number 50, "Total ASSETS." Here the 
values of rows 20, 30 and 40 are added together, and the 
result is shown on line 50 with the heading Total ASSETS. 
The type is Sum and the Account Type is still Assets.
In this way the Balance Sheet is designed, row by row. If 
you want to save your changes, click OK, or else close 
the window with the close box. Let us assume you are 
satisfied with the definition.

The new Balance Sheet report is now ready to print. See 
the instructions at the beginning of this section.


FirstOffice comes with a standard Chart of Accounts and a 
set of Report Definitions. This is a well structured 
Chart,  with systematic groupings of accounts. It is 
suitable without any changes for most small or medium 
companies, but it is also easily modified by yourself or
you financial adviser. 


If you stay within the structure of the Chart (i.e. avoid 
putting Liabilities accounts among the Assets!), there is 
no need to alter the definitions. But remember, it is a 
good idea to print a test Balance Sheet to see if your 
definitions produce exactly what you expect.

Editing the Balance Sheet
1.	Select Define Report under Function, then double-
	click on Balance Sheet in the list of reports.
	The Definition Balance Sheet: Browse window is 
	opened. 
2.	Click New 
	or
	Select a row similar to the one you are creating 
	and click Copy.
	An empty form or a copy of the previous is opened.
3.	Enter the information for the new row.
	Remember to give the new row a number that will 
	insert it in the right place in the Balance Sheet. 
	(If you want to insert a row between e.g. rows 30 
	and 40, you can use 35.)
4.	Click OK and close the window, or click the close 
	box to cancel.
	You will now be brought back to the Balance Sheet 
	Definition: Browse window, where the new row is 
	shown in its proper place in the list.

Deleting a row from the Balance Sheet

1.	Select Define Report under Function. Then double-
	click on Balance Sheet in the list of reports.
2.	Double-click the row you want to remove, to show 
	it's definition window.
3.	Select Delete in the Records menu. 
	The row is deleted from the Balance Sheet and the 
	definition for the following row is shown in it's 
	place. 
4.	Close the window.
	You will be returned to the Definition Balance 
	Sheet: Browse window.

You cannot undo a Deletion of a  Row.



Making and printing a Balance Sheet.

Open the window Specify Balance Sheet.

Period
	Enter the period for the Balance Sheet you 
	want to print. FirstOffice will suggest the entire 
	Financial Year.
Accounts
	Select an option either to print all accounts, or 
	just the accounts which have been used, and have a 
	balance during the specified period.
Transactions of the period
	Check this box to cause the numbers of included 
	transactions to be listed at the end of the report.
	When you click OK, the Balance Sheet is printed as 
	you have specified it.

Correction list

The Correction List contains all the transactions for 
each day, and shows whether they have been corrected or 
not. This is a useful report for your auditor. You cannot 
change the definition of this report.

Open the window Specify Correction List.

Period
	Enter the period for the Correction List you want 
	to print. Enter the first and last month in the 
	format 01-02-96:28-02-96. The financial year is 
	FirstOffice's default value.
From Reg. Date
	This is the registration date, not the transaction 
	date, which is used as criterion. Enter the date as 
	day/month/year.

Click OK to print the correction list. 


Customer list


This is a simple listing of all the customers in the 
customer file. To see the customer report, double-click 
Customers in the Reports window. The Specify Customer 
List window will appear:

Cust. No.
	To limit the journal to a single customer, or 
	interval of customers, enter the customer number 
	here.
Function
	Detailed
		All data in the customer register will be 
		printed.
	Contact info
		This alternative limits the output to number, 
		name and address, phone number and contact 
		person.
Sort by
	The report may be sorted by customer number or name.

Click OK to print the report.

Customer Statistics

Customer Statistics report contains information about the 
turnover of the different customers. In this report you 
can read  the value of the turnover for each customer 
during the selected period.

Open the window Specify Customer Statistics 

Cust. No.
	The number (code) of the customer you want to 
	include in the list, or a range of numbers 
	separated by a colon (:).
Period
	Enter the dates for the first and last date. The 
	financial year is suggested by FirstOffice.

Click OK to make the report.


Item price list

The item price list can be used as a record of the items 
sold by your business, or as a simple price list for our 
customers. The information in the list is taken from the 
Items register, and the list shows the item number, name, 
unit and price.
Open the Specify Item Price List window. Check that the 
Print option is selected in the Function box.

Item No.
	The number (code) of the item you want to include 
	in the list, or a range of numbers separated by a 
	colon (:).
Sort By
	Select one No. Or Name to determine the sort order 
	in the report.

Click OK to print the report.


Item Stat

The Item Statistics report contains information about the 
turnover of the different items. In this report you can 
read the number of units sold, the price of the item and 
the value of the turnover.

Open the window Specify Item Statistics. 

Item No.
	The number (code) of the item you want to include 
	in the list, or a range of numbers separated by a 
	colon (:).
Period
	Enter the dates for the first and last date.  The 
	Financial year is entered as default.

Click OK to print.

Journals

This report option allows you to print four different 
types of journals, Invoices, Receipts, Purchase Invoices 
and Payments. Each journal will be output to its own 
window.

The Invoice Journal lists invoices recorded in the system.
The Receipts Journal lists receipts recorded in the 
system. The Purchase Invoice Journal lists purchase 
invoices entered in the system. The Payments Journal 
lists your recorded payments.

You can select one or more of the journals by checking 
one or more of the boxes in the window. You can limit the 
selection to an interval of journal numbers or to a 
specified period.

No.	Enter an interval of numbers for one of the journal 
	types.
Period
	Enter the first and last date of the reporting 
	period. The financial year is the default period. 
Including not OKed
	Check this box if you want to include transactions 
	that are not OKed.
Function
	Summary
		This gives a report with one line per invoice, 
		and the original amount.
	Specified
		This alternative will print all recorded data 
		about each transaction. You can use this 
		report as your archive journal.

Click OK to make the journal report.


General Ledger

The General Ledger is a summary of the accounting entries, 
sorted by account number. This report definition cannot 
be altered.

Open the window Specify General Ledger .

Period
	Enter the period for the Balance Sheet you want to 
	print. Enter the first and last month in the format 
	01-02-96::28-02-96. The financial year is suggested 
	by FirstOffice.
Accounts
	Which accounts or groups of accounts are to be 
	included in the printout? Enter first and last 
	account number, separated by a colon (:).
Only Sales Tax Code
	Enter a Sales Tax code in this field to limit the 
	General Ledger to show only transactions with the 
	specified Sales Tax code. This can be very useful 
	for reconciliation purposes, or if you are looking 
	for an error.
Used Accounts Only
	Checking this box means that only accounts with 
	transactions in the period indicated will be 
	included.
With Corrections
	Check this box if you want to include all 
	corrections in he transactions to be visible.
Subtotal Sales Tax codes
	Check this box if you want the total debit and 
	credit amounts for each Sales Tax code to be shown 
	at the bottom of the report.
Transactions of the Period
	Check this box to show a specification of the 
	journal numbers included in this report.

Click OK to print the General Ledger. 


Payment Forecast

This report gives you information about outstanding 
credits, sorted on due date or payment date. This gives 
information about what the company will have to pay in a 
future time period. Use this report together with the 
Receipts forecast to improve your liquidity planning.

Open the window Specify Payment Forecast.

Supplier
	To limit the journal to a single supplier, or range 
	of suppliers, enter the supplier number here.
Function
	Specified
		The report will contain all outstanding 
		credits.
	Aged	The report will contain all outstanding 
		credits to each supplier, summarized and 
		grouped into age groups.

Click OK to print.


Profit & Loss

The Profit & Loss report is one of the most important 
elements used to follow up the performance of your 
business. If you make a Profit & Loss report every month, 
you can in a simple way monitor the performance of your 
incomes and expenses. You can also compare the current 
period with the same period the previous year, or with 
the performance to date for the financial year.

The contents of the Profit & Loss report is defined in 
the same way as the Balance Sheet. Open the specification 
window for the Profit & Loss report.

Period
	Enter the period for which you want to print the 
	report. Enter the first and last month in the 
	format 02-01-96:02-28-96. (The financial year for 
	the current company is FirstOffice's default value.)
Period's transactions
	If this box is checked, a summary of the journal 
	numbers used during the period will be listed at 
	the end of the report.
Accounts
	Select an option for the report to list all 
	accounts, or only those that have been used during 
	the period.
Comparison
	Select a comparison for the period's values.
Accumulated
	If this is selected, the result for the period will 
	be compared with the result for the whole financial 
	year to date.
Previous Year
	If this is selected, the period's result will be 
	compared with the same period last year.
Click OK to make the report.


Purchase Ledger

The Purchase Ledger contains all data about your 
creditors, and the transactions determining the relations 
to each of them. When you select Purchase Ledger, 
FirstOffice will print a report for those suppliers' 
invoices that have been entered. You can control the 
selection to a specified period, a range of invoice 
numbers or a certain supplier. The type of invoice can 
also be selected.

Open the window Specify Purchase Ledger.

Supplier
	To limit the ledger to a single supplier, enter the 
	supplier number here. 
Function
	History
		This gives a report showing all previous 
		invoices for each supplier, giving the full 
		details for the invoices.
	Summary
		This gives a report showing all invoices for 
		each supplier.
	Balance
		This gives a report showing total balances 
		payable to each supplier.
Invoices
	Open	When this button is marked the report will 
		contain all unpaid invoices.
	Over Due
		When this button is marked the report is 
		limited to those invoices that already are 
		due for payment.
Sort By
	Number
		By default this report is sorted by number.
	Name	When this button is clicked the report is 
		sorted by name instead of by number.

Click OK to make the report.


Receipts Forecast

This report gives you information about outstanding 
credits, sorted on due date This gives information about 
what payments to expect in a future time.

Open the window Specify Receipt Forecast. 

Cust. No.
	To limit the journal to a single customer, or 
	interval of customers, enter the customer number 
	here.
Function
	Specified	
		The report will contain all outstanding 
		credits.
	Aged	The report will contain all outstanding 
		credits, sorted and grouped into age groups.


Sales Ledger

The Sales Ledger report is a summary of the invoices 
issued to each customer. One of the central elements of a 
Sales and Debtors Ledger is the systematic accounting of 
your Debtors' debt to you.  The Sales ledger should be 
reconciled with the General Ledger from time to time.
The Sales Ledger report can summarize your Debtors ledger 
in many different ways, and you can specify any selection 
you want.

Open the window Specify Sales Ledger  

Cust. No.
	The number (code) of the customer you want to 
	include in the list, or a range of numbers 
	separated by a colon (:).
Date	Enter the first and last date for the report.
Function
	History
		With this option selected, the report will 
		print all available data about a customer's 
		invoices, payments, partial payments and 
		credit invoices. 
	Summary
		With this option selected, the report will 
		print a summary with the balance for each 
		unpaid invoice.
	Balance
		This choice prints only the total 
		outstanding balance for the customer.
Invoices
	Open	Select this alternative to include all unpaid 
		invoices.
	Over Due
		Print only those invoices that are over due 
		for payment.
Sort By
	Number
		Select this option if you want the report 
		sorted by number.
	Name	Select this option if you want the report 
		sorted by name.

Click OK to print the report.


Supplier list

The Supplier list is a simple listing of the information 
entered in the supplier file.

Open the window Specify Supplier List . 

Supplier	The number (code) of the supplier you want to 
include in the list, or a range of numbers separated by a 
colon (:).

Function
	Detailed
		This gives a report showing all data for each 
		supplier.
	Contact Info
		This gives a report showing only contact data, 
		and is therefore a more compact listing.
Sort By
	Number
		Click this button if you want the report 
		sorted by number. This is the default mode 
		for the report.
	Name	Click this button if you want the report 
		sorted by name.

Click OK to make the report.


System Documentation

System Documentation produces a number of lists, which 
describe the contents and set-up of your system. It may 
be a good idea to check the contents of your system from 
time to time.
Check that Make Report is selected under Function, and 
double-click System Documentation in the list of reports.
The window System Documentation is opened.
Check the boxes for the system data you are interested in.

Click OK to make the report.


Transaction Journal

The Transaction Journal (also called Daily Transaction 
Ledger) is a summary of all entries made in the ledger. 
It's definition cannot be changed.
Reporting in FirstOffice is non-destructive. That means 
you can make and print a report as many times as you wish. 
Some accounting programs are designed in such a way as to
allow journal printing only directly in connection with 
the data entry. FirstOffice does not have this limitation.

Open the window Specify Transaction Journal .
If you only want to print a certain range of transactions, 
e.g. those entered to-day, you can indicate the interval 
in the Transactions field.

Transactions
	Enter the number of the first and the last 
	transaction, separated with a colon (:). If you 
	leave the field blank, the whole journal will be 
	printed.
Period
	Enter the period for which the journal is to be 
	printed. The financial year is the default period.
Sales Tax Code Only
	If you for example want to check the transactions 
	for one Sales Tax code in a journal, enter the 
	Sales Tax code here to exclude all other 
	transactions.

Click OK. The journal is printed. 


Trial balance

The Trial balance is a combined report of all individual 
account balances from the program. It is mostly used for 
reconciliation. You cannot alter the definition of the 
Trial balance report, but you can determine the period 
and object.

Open the window Specify Trial Balance.

Period
	Enter the period for which you want to produce the 
	Trial Balance. The current financial year is the 
	default value.
Accounts
	Limit the report to certain accounts, or an 
	interval of accounts.
Sales Tax Code
	Enter a Sales Tax Code to limit the report to 
	contain only transactions with this Sales Tax Code.
Used Accounts Only
	With this box checked, the report will only show 
	accounts with transactions registered during the 
	period, and/or with opening balances.
Transactions of the Period
	With this box checked, the report will list the 
	transaction numbers of different journals at the 
	bottom of the report.

Click OK to make the report.


Sales Tax report

Every time a tax report is due you have to print a Tax 
Report. The report is used both as transaction document 
for the ledger and as basis for the payment.  The tax 
report must be entered within the period it concerns, 
preferably as the last transaction of the period. When 
you define a tax report you determine which accounts 
should be included. 

Open the Tax report definition window.
Here you enter the definition for your Sales Tax Report. 

Printing the SALES TAX report
Open the Specify Sales Tax report window.
Period
	Enter the period for which you want to print the 
	report. Enter the first and last month in the 
	format 01-02-96:28-02-96. (The financial year for 
	the current company is suggested by FirstOffice.)
Transactions of the Period
	If this box is checked, a summary of the journal 
	numbers used during the period will be listed at 
	the end of the report.

Click OK to make the report.


Shortage List
In the Shortage List FirstOffice will suggest order 
quantities for the items in stock. In order for the 
Shortage List to be accurate other registers must be 
correct:

Items	The check box use inventory must be checked for 
	the item and a minimum inventory quantity entered.
Order	In order for FirstOffice to adjust for sales not 
	yet delivered.
Goods Recieved
	To keep the Inventory up to date.
Shipments
	To keep the Inventory up to date.

In the Specify Shortage List window you can choose to 
limit the list to only certain items. You can also set 
the lists sorting order.
If you leave the Item No. Field blank the list will 
include all Items according to your other selections for 
the list. The list will Include the Item number and name, 
the quantity on Stock, the number of items ordered but 
not yet delivered to customers, if you have any 
outstanding orders not yet recieved and finaly a 
suggested order quantity to maintain a certain Inventory 
level. 


Inventory List

The Inventory List simply list the Inventory quantity, 
purchase price and value for the items on stock. You can 
choose to sort the list by name or number of the items. 
If you choose the function Summery the list will show 
your Inventory with one row for each item. The History 
function shows detailed information of stock movements.

The value of the Inventory list is calculated using the 
First In First Out method. Using this metod the first 
items delivered to the inventory are also the first to be 
shipped to customers. The value of the Inventory is 
calculated using the purchase price of the items still in 
stock wich will be the latest recieved. The purchase 
price listed is the average you get from dividing the 
value with the quantity.

Exports

FirstOffice can export certain data. There are two uses 
for the exported data; further use by other spreadsheet 
or word processing programs, or for later re-import into 
FirstOffice again.
To bring up the exports window, you can use one of three 
methods:

  	Click the Exports icon in the Main Window
  	Select Exports in the File menu
  	Use the keyboard command listed to the right in the 
	File menu.

FirstOffice can export the following data.
Doubleclick what you want to export in the list at the 
left. Enter a file name in the dialog that follows. A 
message shows the progress of the export. When the export 
is finished, close the window by clicking in the close 
box in the upper left corner of the window. Your exported 
data are saved in the file you named in the file dialog.


Text backup

FirstOffice's backup function, Text backup, provides an 
effective way to back up your data. Textbackup copies all 
data from the program to an ordinary text file. It is 
also possible to copy the whole data file (i.e. the 
company file) in the finder, but FirstOffice's method has 
two advantages:

  	The text back-up takes up very little space. It is 
	not unusual that a whole year's accounting will fit 
	on one disc.
  	The text back-up is independent of the program 
	version. IT CAN ALWAYS BE USED, whereas a new 
	version of a FirstOffice program (for reasons of 
	internal updates in the program) may have 
	difficulties in reading old company files.

Textbackup transfers all information saved in the 
database for a company, with two exceptions:

  	The saved position of windows on the screen.
  	The settings you may have made in the Printer 
	control dialog.

If you insert a disc in the disc drive while working with 
FirstOffice, you will automatically be brought to the 
text backup part of the program.

This is how you make a text backup of your work.

1.	Double-click Textbackup in the list to the left.
	FirstOffice opens a dialog box where you can select 
	drive and/or a folder for your back-up.
2.	If the disc is not formatted, you will be requested 
	to format it now.
3.	Give the back-up a name, e.g. NCSBU10/12/96 (for 
	Nuts & Concrete Sales back-up and date). If you are 
	running FirstOffice under Windows, the file name 
	must conform to Windows standards. 
4.	Click Save or return. A message window informs you 
	about the progress of the export.

Making a backup is a safety measure you should do often.
Lost data cannot be restored.


Bank transfer file

Select this option when you want to export a selection of 
payments from your Purchase Ledger. This file may then be 
sent to the bank, and serve instead of a printed payment 
order if you have this arrangement with your bank. The 
export file is saved as a common text file, which means 
it can be used by other Macintosh programs.

Payment no.
	Enter the number of the payment(s) to be exported. 
Specify
	Unexported
		This alternative will only export OKed 
		payments which have not previously been 
		exported.
	All	All OKed payments will be exported.

Click OK or press Enter. The screen will show a dialog 
box where you can choose unit and folder/directory for 
the export file. Enter a name for the export file and 
click on Save. Click cancel to cancel the export.


Contact Info

This export will produce a file containing contact data 
for your customers. You can use the exported file in 
another program to create mailing letters or other 
purposes.
Enter our selection and click OK. The screen will show a 
dialog where you can enter a file name and a destination 
for the export file.
Give a name too the export file and click OK to save it.


Customer Statistics

The export Customer Statistics contains data about the 
turnover for each customer. The selection is controlled 
by the customer number.
Enter an interval of customer numbers and click OK. A 
file dialog is shown where you can choose disk unit and 
folder/directory for the file. Give the export file a 
name and save.


Item statistics

Select Item Statistics when you want to export statistics 
about the sales of your items. The selection is 
controlled by indicating item group number, item number 
or time period. The Item Statistics are saved in a text 
file format.

Open the window Specify Invoice Export
Enter an item number interval, Confirm with OK (or cancel 
by clicking in the close box of the window.)
FirstOffice will open a dialog box where you can select 
volume and folder for the data. Give a name to the file 
and Click Save or press the Enter button.

Invoice Rows

The selection of invoice rows to export is controlled by 
customer number and period. You can limit the selection 
further by excluding not OKed invoices, by clicking the 
check box "Not OK."  The invoice rows can be used in 
other programs for statistics.
FirstOffice will show a file dialog where you can give a 
name to the file, and decide where it is to be stored.


Order Rows

You can make a selection of Order Rows to be exported 
based on a time period or a range of order numbers. The 
selection can be further narrowed by selecting certain 
customers or items. You can also further set your 
selection using the check boxes.


Monthly Balances

Use this command to export the account balances from the 
General Ledger accounts for a specified period. You can 
use the exported data to maintain a spreadsheet with 
monthly result data from your income and expense accounts. 

Period
	Enter a period whose balances you want to export. 
	FirstOffice will suggest the entire Fiscal Year. 
	Each month in the period will create one column in 
	the report.
Accounts
	Enter an interval of account numbers, separated by 
	a colon. If your chart of account has its income 
	and expense accounts in the interval 4000 to 8999, 
	this interval will give you the basis for a monthly 
	profit and loss report for the months entered.

Give the export file a name and save it.


Trial Balance

The Trial Balance is a listing of the balances of all 
accounts for a specified period of time. It is primarily 
used for reconciliations and controls. The trial balance 
can be exported for a part or the whole year.

Period
	Enter a period for the trial balance.

Give a name to the file and press OK to save.


Raw Data

Use the raw data export when you want to export basic 
data about a company. Check one or more of the check 
boxes to set your selection for the export.

