BANKING ON THE SUCCESS OF A HOME ACCOUNTING SYSTEM WITH SECURITY

There are surprisingly few bank account programs for the Spectrum but those which are available are excellent pieces of software.

Bank Account System, for the 48K Spectrum, will store all the details of a bank account, whether they be cash or cheque transactions. It will keep account of the payment of standing orders and also calculate and update the balance.

The system provides full error-trapping and will not allow you to type-in any incorrect answers, although there is an omission at the beginning of the program which could be mistaken for a bug.

When you first use the program you are asked to type-in the present date. When you re-use the system the old date is displayed and you are asked for a new present date. If you enter a date which falls before the old date the program will accept it.

That may serve some historical purpose so far as file- handling is concerned but it could also lead to errors on the system.

The program is well-structured and the user should have no difficulty entering the data required by the computer to do its calculations.

Unlike some other accounting programs which are also written in Basic, the code which stores the password is well hidden in the program lines, although someone who knows a little about the Spectrum could probably by-pass it.

Bank Account System is good value and costs only £3. It is available from K J Gouldstone, 45 Burleigh Avenue, Wallington, Surrey, SM6 7JG.

SERIOUSLY NOW...

A look at some 'serious' software packages for the ZX Spectrum by Peter Shaw.

48K Spectrum
K.J. Gouldstone

By the way this tape was presented (the user manual is photocopied, with a Sinclair printout on the front and in the insert) I wasn't expecting anything great but, to my surprise, the program is, in fact, pretty good. It will store all bank transactions, standing orders, etc as well as cope with Cash cards, cheques, normal pay, etc. Quite a useful tool really!

Unfortunately, there seems to be something wrong with the tape I received. Either it cannot add up, or the program has a major bug along the line. I laboriously entered all my bank transactions since May into the program, updated the file and then asked for a printout of my statement from June 5th. All I got was:

BANK STATEMENT 04.09.83
DATE TYP REF VALUE BALANCE
OPENING BALANCE .00
CURRENT A/C BALANCE £0.00

Now I know how much I have in my account, and it isn't anything like £0 (or, at least, I hope not). A little more investigation showed me that all my transactions were not yet installed in the main file.

I saved the file just in case I crashed it, then returned to the program. Behold! Somehow half of the transactions were now in the main file. This was still a bit useless unless I wanted to know the state of my account two months ago. At the time of writing this I have still not worked out whether it is me or the program that isn't working correctly, but after a few 'phone calls I shall figure it out!

The price of this package is £5.50.

Mr. K. J. Gouldstone, 45 Burleigh Avenue, Wellington, Surrey SM6 7JG.