HansaWorld FirstOffice Start   >> Introduction and Installation   >> Structure of FirstOffice  

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This text refers to program version 4.3  

Introduction

The FirstOffice system consists of several registers, or files, in which information of a particular type is stored. These registers interact with each other in many ways. For example, all information about Customers is stored in a Customer register, all information about Items is stored in an Item register and so on. Information in the Customer register can be used by Sales Invoices, and saving a Sales Invoice will normally cause a Nominal Ledger journal to be generated in the Transaction register.

The following illustration shows the registers available in FirstOffice:

The first five registers are known as "Transaction Registers". Each transaction register represents a particular type of accounting transaction. Invoices, Receipts (payments that you receive against Invoices that you have issued), Purchase Invoices and Payments (that you issue against Purchase Invoices) are each stored in separate registers. The Transaction register is used for all other kinds of transaction (e.g. credit card payments, salaries, transfers between bank accounts).

The other three registers are known as "Base Registers". Base registers typically contain information that is then used elsewhere. This information will not itself be changed very often. For example, the Customer register is effectively a list of Customer names and addresses that will be referred to from the Calendar and from Invoices and Receipts.

Finally, the Calendar and Task Manager allow you to organise your diary, providing a means of recording appointments and other tasks. These are known as "Personal Registers".

The integration between registers is quite straightforward: information in one register can easily be accessed from other registers, so that there is never any need to type anything more than once. For example, the Sales, Purchase and Nominal Ledgers can all access the Chart of Accounts, stored in the Accounts setting.

In addition to the registers, there are several smaller files known as "Settings". The difference between a setting and a register lies in the frequency and nature of use. The information with which you will be working daily, such as Customers and Suppliers, Invoices and Receipts, tends to be stored in registers, while information stored in settings tends to be used in 'look-up' tables or used to determine the manner in which a particular function operates.

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