Data Entry

[John R. Sowden]

I am having a major data entry problem.

1) The system should do a substring search so I could enter either the account 
number (I put it in the account name, as was suggested), or key letters of 
the name.  Then only pop up those accounts that match the search, so we are 
picking through a lot less.  I if enter 16, I will get all of my depreciation 
asset accounts and a couple of other accounts that match the substring test.

2) The ledger text area for the account starts with:
"100 Current Assets:101 Cash-Bank Name"
Unfortunately, due to the size of the box, All I see for all of the entries 
is:
"100  Current Assets:"
so I cannot scan the ledger to see what accounts were affected, and I cannot 
easily keep track of which entries have been made.  I am entering  beginning 
balances from a printout of my existing accounting system trial balance.

3)  If I am making a series of entries to a transaction, the system carries 
the balance down to the next line. When I make my amount entry, the program 
calculates the difference (dr and cr) and changes my entry to what it thinks 
it should be.  I understand the concept of not closing a unbalanced 
transaction (gigo) but this is agrevating. 

4) The order of my entries are changed also, so the one that I just got 
through entering is no longer immediately above the one that I entered.  

Whoever designs the data entry or user interface of a program needs to have an 
inexperienced person sit down and perform data entry without help while the 
programmer quietly takes notes as he/she makes the "programmer's mistakes".
This is what I did with my first program on a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I in 
1977.  I was amazed at how much I assumed of the user and what happened when 
she did not press the keys that I expected.

At this point I am unable to complete this transaction, primarily due to 
frustration.  I hope I am doing something wrong, or there is a work arround, 
like putting the account numbers in the account name.

tia,
---
John R. Sowden
AMERICAN SENTRY SYSTEMS, INC.
Residential & Commercial Alarm Service
UL Listed Central Station
Serving the San Francisco Bay Area Since 1967
mail at americansentry.net
www.americansentry.net