In this article
Improved interface
In the new version Banana Accounting Plus, you will find an updated interface, with very intuitive and functional menus, so you can access the commands much more quickly.
We advise you to switch now to Banana Accounting Plus and take advantage of the many new features.
When a new file is being created or an existing one is opened, the software presents a structure that is characterized by the following elements
The menubar
The menubar contains all commands grouped by menus. The menubar changes depending on the chosen accounting type.
Attention: in the Mac operating system, the Banana menu bar is located on the top of the screen, at the rightside of the apple logo:
The toolbar
The toolbar contains icons that allow you to acces the most used commands and dialogs.
If you go over the icon with your mouse a command description will be displayed.
Text imput area
Text are entered directy in the cell. The entered text is also shown in the text imput area, right below the toolbar. The text can be edited in the text imput area, or direcly in the cell, by double clicking on it or by pressing the F2 key.
If the Smart fill option is activated (Program Options command from the Tools menu), a drop-down menu will be shown with all the possible text choices; just select the chosen text and press the Enter or the F6 key.
Smart fill (autocomplete)
When you enter a text, the program suggests different choices:
- Texts of similar transactions
- Accounts list. By entering a text the program will list all the accounts containing that text.
Execute command
Some columns are associated with certain actions that can be executed with the Execute command (from the Edit menu) or relative touch key, as indicated in the information window.
Some examples:
- Doc column: recovery of recurring rows or progressive number
- Description column: recovery of similar row data
The tables
Each accounting file has various tables. Some of them are main tables and others are optional. Tables vary depending on the chosen accounting type.
The views
The views are ways of showing the accounting data with specific columns. For each table there are different views and they are very useful when you want to show your data in different ways, without altering your basic settings.
Views are located right below the tables and can be personalized using the Tables setup command from the Data menu.
Related document: Tables setup; New view
The columns
Columns are the table vertical elements. Each table has specific columns with specific heathers. The display, size, description, format, width, style, alignment can be edited thorough the Columns Setup command from the Data menu.
Some columns contain data entered by the user, and some others can only be used by the program and cannot be edited by the user (for example the account cards columns).
Users can add new columns in order to include additional information (always with the Columns Setup command from the Data menu), but the data entered will not be processed by the program.
A group of specific columns composes a view that displays only specific data.
Related document: Columns setup
The information window
This is a window located in the lower part of the screen, where the program displays useful information related to the active table and cell. Error messages are shown in red.
The error messages window
The Messages windows contains a list of the errors found by the program.
In order to read the messages click on the Messages tab.
From the Messages window, by double clicking on the error message, you will be taken to the row that generated the error.
Date and numbers format by per default
Once the program is installed, it automatically uses as default your operating system settings.
If you wish to change your operating system settings, you sould go in your Control Panel (Windows) or your System Preferences (Mac).
Here is the step by step process on Windows 8 and Windows 10:
- from the Start menu, go to the Control Panel
- click on International options and then on Change date, time or numbers format
- a dialog window will appear where you can change your data format (in the Format tab)
- in order to change your numbers or currency format, from the same window you can click on the Additional settings button and then on the Numbers or currency tab.
Here is the step by step process on Mac OS X 10.9.5:
- from the Apple logo (on the top left of your screen) click on System Preferences
- from the dialog window that appears choose the Date and time icon
- a new window will appear where you can choose Open language and zone...
- a new window will appear where you can click on the Advanced button
- finally a new window will appear where you can change the numbers format (General tab), date or time format (Date and Time tabs)
Format and numbers in Banana Accounting