Frequently Asked Questions

ABC5 reports "FILE IS LOCKED"
or "ANOTHER USER IS ACCESSING....."
or "CANNOT OPEN HEADINGS FILE"

If you just have a single computer, but get a message similar to the above, the likely cause is that you have opened more than one copy of ABC5 (possibly by accident). Exit from ABC5, and then look at the Windows TASK BAR (bottom of your screen normally). If you find that ABC5 is still there, then that is the other copy of ABC5 that was causing the warning message.
You should NOT have more than one copy of ABC5 open at a time.

 

Network Users: "Another user is invoicing this Customer"

If you have the Network version of ABC5, it allows several people to view a Customer Record at the same time, but only one person is allowed to INVOICE that customer at a time. To indicate to ABC5 that the customer is actually being invoiced, ABC5 puts an "X" in the OPTIONS FIELD (on Page 2 of that Customer Record). When the invoice is completed, ABC5 removes the "X".

If you have a problem, eg power goes off, or network crashes, while customer is being invoiced, that "X" can be left in the record -- and will prevent everyone from invoicing that Customer in future; giving you the above message.

The solution is simply to edit that Customer Record, and remove the "X" from Page 2 of their Record Card. Make sure there really is nobody else invoicing them before you do this.

 

Problems with Printing

Most problems reported recently relate to ABC not working correctly with Windows printers. An upgrade for ABC is now available that enables ABC to use any Windows printer, and hopefully overcomes all those problems.

Delay before printing starts appearing on paper

Nothing to do with ABC, this nearly always is due to the setting of your Windows or Network print spooler. (Print Manager). You can adjust the properties of the printer in Windows to reduce the delay, or even select DOS PRINTING DIRECT TO PRINTER.

Last one or two characters on the line are missing from printouts (but are OK on screen)

a) Check that you haven't got a Left Margin (offset) set. At the Printer Menu you can choose OPTIONS and change this if necessary.

b) Modern laser printers often print only 78 characters on a line instead of the industry standard 80 characters, when set to standard font (10cpi). As a result, the last character (eg. the pence in a column of figures) can be missed off. Several solutions.

Use slightly smaller font for printing. eg. instead of printing 10 cpi, set your printer default font to 10.2 cpi.  You won't notice the difference in size, but this will allow 80 characters to fit into the line when printed.
This can be done in several ways; eg. by pressing buttons on your printer control panel, or changing settings in Windows to set default font for DOS programs, or by sending control codes to the printer from within ABC5. This is different for each printer, so we can't give exact instructions.

Contact the printer manufacturer and ask them. In the past some have sent out replacement chips to make your printer behave better, but these days manufacturers are not bothering very much with printing under DOS......

Because this is such a common nuisance, we have now made ABC5 reports use only 78 characters per line. This will avoid the problem altogether. Upgrade to the latest version of ABC5 if you do not have it.

Printer feeds lots of blank pages or locks up computer, when you print something.

Common with Invoices or Statements, particularly when you first start using ABC5 after importing data from an earlier version. The problem is that you have the LINES PER PAGE set too low.  Set it to a higher figure (eg. 66 is a good starting point):
     Printer Menu > OPTIONS > LINES PER PAGE.

Transactions you have entered do not appear on Daybook report

Typically this is due to the DATE of the item. eg if you enter some Money Received in June, but your Accounting Month is May, then when you print reports for the current Month (May) those June items will not be included. As soon as you run the Month End routine, those items will then appear again.

To check if this is the case, most reports include an option to Print ALL items (ie. print everything in the file, irrespective of the date).

If you have a power failure !!

Best thing to do is run the ABC5 Accounts Fix utility. This performs a comprehensive cross-check of all your accounts files, and can fix many common problems. It also can print out on paper a report showing any problems it finds, and this is very useful to show to any support person whom you contact for help.
     Accounts Menu > UTILITIES > ACCOUNTS FIX