When the program is first started, it will offer to open an existing database file, or create a new one. If a new one is chosen a wizard will start asking you to input your company address and VAT details. It will also create a set of default accounts.
On first running the program you should do the following:
Learn where the quit button is!
Under the 'Admin' tab, the bottom button on that page exits the program.
Set VAT Rates
Pre-configured percentage rates are set for Standard and Reduced rates - but these may have changed since the program was produced, choose the 'VAT' tab, and then the 'Set VAT Rates' button - alter any percentage rate that may have changed, and then choose Apply.
View Accounts
Under the Accounts tab, a list of accounts are shown, ordered within folders. You can add your own folders and accounts for anything you may want to track - for example a particular expense. Any account may have its name or description altered - but you will find that once an account has transactions assigned to it, or if it is used by system calculations, you will not be able to delete it.
Generally one of these accounts will reflect your actual bank account, and you should be able to confirm that the account transactions match your bank statements.
Double clicking an account will show the debit and credit entries, and the running balance of the account.
You may want to set an opening balance into an account - there are two ways of doing this; a new account with no transactions will allow you to set its opening balance by highlighting it and pressing the Edit key. An option is provided to set the opening balance at this point - all this does is move money from the account 'Opening balance' (under the 'System' folder), into the account you have selected.
The second method is to move the money manually - described next.
Move Money
Under the Move Money tab, you will notice there are two parts - at the top, a single 'Move Money' button, and below a list of buttons labelled 'Undefined' - these allow you to set up a transaction, and save it to the button, see the Move Money manual page for details. At the moment we will restrict ourselves to the top 'Move Money' button.
Pressing the 'Move Money' button opens a list, you can set accounts - and the amounts to be credited or debited. You can also set the transaction date and description. When you press the Apply button, the appropriate transaction will be implemented, and if you return to the Accounts page you will see the accounts have been updated.
Up to eight accounts can be involved in the transaction (normally a simple move from one account to another will only involve two), and all the debits must equal all the credits for the transaction to be accepted.
Setting an opening balance on an account could therefore be done by crediting the 'Opening balance' account, and debiting the target account.
Purchases
Before you can purchase any item you must add a supplier - choose the Purchases tab, and the 'Add a new supplier' button, add the supplier details and press Apply.
It is also convenient to add items you frequently purchase, as these will be available by a drop down list when you create a purchase order. Do this by choosing the 'Purchase Items' button and filling in the fields - double click on the VAT field to display the list of available VAT rates.
Once you have a supplier, create a purchase order by choosing the top 'Create purchase order' button. Most fields are self explanatory, - double click on the items 'description' field to bring up the drop down list of your purchase items, or simply type in a description if this is an item you have not previously defined.
Choosing the pdf button will create a pdf file of the purchase order - but be careful to press the Apply button, creating a pdf does not submit the purchase order to the database, choose Apply to do that.
Once submitted to the database, you can view previous purchase orders by the 'View Orders' button on the Purchases tab page, which also allows you to create a pdf file of the order viewed.
When an invoice arrives, choose 'Receive Invoice' this creates a transaction which debits your stock (or expense account) and VAT accounts - recording that you have received the goods, and now owe the money requested.
Finally, when you make your payment to your supplier, press the Make Payment button which records the payment transaction.
For further details see Purchases.
Sales
Selling items are dealt with similarly; under the Sales tab you must first add a customer, and then it is convenient to add items you frequently sell. Choosing 'Create invoice' allows you to create an invoice to send to the customer, and when you get payments, the 'Payment Received' button allows you to input the payments.
Have a go
Try out the program, VATStuff is being written to cover the most common VAT calculations applicable to a small business, but it cannot deal with the many complex special cases that exist. Therefore you must judge for yourself if the program is suitable, and read this manual fully before working with real data.
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