I've been learning bits and pieces about Sesame off and on over the past couple of years. My family runs an antique shop and uses Sesame as their point of sale software, their customer database, to print out dealer checks, etc.

When it comes to printing monthly checks one thing we have noticed is amounts with four or more digits (i.e., above $999) do not include a comma as a thousands separator, which can make the number a little difficult to read accurately. I've figured out how to adjust certain reports in a basic way but I haven't a clue where to start looking to figure out how Sesame is creating checks and even if I knew where to look I'm not sure how to adjust this particular output (the comma separator).

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Mark

Well, we originally used Q&A 4 and a family friend put the system together. Then we switched to Sesame a few years back and Tom Marcellus transferred our system over and redesigned certain aspects to make them more logical. Most everything is working as we would like but there are a few persistent bugs we haven't had the money to pay someone like Tom to spend a lot of time investigating and troubleshooting. Thus I thought I might start reading the programming manual and digging around under the hood to see if I, along with any advice I garner on this forum, could figure a few of the bugs out. This is a small one that, ultimately, is pretty insignificant. But if we could get it working that would be nice.

As to your second question of what we do to print checks, I just reviewed that process to find out for you. Turns out the checks are not automated from our sales database, but rather set up as a sort of manually-input form, which kind of surprised me. From our main menu we open a separate database that is only used for creating checks. This gives us a form laid out a bit like an on-screen check would be. Someone enters the payee information and amount and clicks on a checkbox or two and F10s to the next blank check form. After each check has been entered this way, there is a button on our main menu which causes the checks to actually print out.

Having reviewed this process I noticed something funny. When the amount is typed into the check in the Amount field a spelled-out amount automatically gets entered into the Written Amount field and all looks correct (commas and all). However, below the blank check form are two somewhat-automated fields tied to our monthly data called Old Balance and New Balance. The New Balance field shows the check amount as a debit amount and in this field no commas are present. Why would a comma show up in the Amount field but not in the New Balance field?

There are also larger, more significant bugs with this Old Balance field I mentioned, where it zeroes out at the end of the month instead of carrying over the actual amount to the next month. This causes trouble for our bookkeeper every month who uses the monthly printout to double check our account balances. But the balance column is never correct because the column goes to $0 at the start of each month and we can't figure out why. But I think that's digging into something a lot more difficult to figure out than this comma separator issue (I suppose they are un-related).

Does that give you sufficient background info to give me advice for figuring out this particular problem?

Thanks,
Mark

Yes. I've created a few basic databases with it, edited some reports, changed some forms and so on. At the moment my main limitation is understanding all the programming codes: what they are, what they do, what can be done, what can't, etc.

var vRSID as Int
var vRecs as Int
var vNextCheck as String
var n as Int

Subroutine PRINTCHECKS()

var i as Int
var vFont as String = "Courier New"
var vSize as Int = 16

For i = 1 to vRecs Step 3

XResultSetCurrentPosition(vRSID, i)

NewPage(850, 1100)

If i <= vRecs
{
PrintString(@Decimals(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Check#"), 0), 725, 50, 0, "B" + vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString(@AsFormattedByLE(Today, 0,@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "CheckDate")), 630, 85, 0, vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString("$ " + @Decimals(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Amount"), 2), 700, 125, 0, vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Order Of"), 125, 140, 0, vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "F0007"), 40, 175, 0, vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Memo"), 80, 260, 0, vFont, vSize - 3, 0)
PrintString(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Blank"), 80, 280, 0, vFont, vSize - 3, 0)
}

If i + 1 <= vRecs
{
XResultSetCurrentPosition(vRSID, i + 1)

PrintString(@Decimals(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Check#"), 0), 725, 380, 0, "B" + vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString(@AsFormattedByLE(Today, 0,@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "CheckDate")), 630, 425, 0, vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString("$ " + @Decimals(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Amount"), 2), 700, 475, 0, vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Order Of"), 125, 490, 0, vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "F0007"), 40, 525, 0, vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Memo"), 80, 610, 0, vFont, vSize - 3, 0)
PrintString(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Blank"), 80, 630, 0, vFont, vSize - 3, 0)
}

If i + 2 <= vRecs
{
XResultSetCurrentPosition(vRSID, i + 2)

PrintString(@Decimals(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Check#"), 0), 725, 735, 0, "B" + vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString(@AsFormattedByLE(Today, 0,@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "CheckDate")), 630, 780, 0, vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString("$ " + @Decimals(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Amount"), 2), 700, 825, 0, vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Order Of"), 125, 840, 0, vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "F0007"), 40, 875, 0, vFont, vSize, 0)
PrintString(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Memo"), 80, 955, 0, vFont, vSize - 3, 0)
PrintString(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Blank"), 80, 975, 0, vFont, vSize - 3, 0)
}

FinishPage()

Next

End Subroutine

// Begin main program

vRSID = @XResultSetSearch(@FN, "CK-DEAL", 0, 2, "!Print Check=Y", "!Amount=/=")

XResultSetSort(vRSID, "Check#:-1")

vRecs = @XResultSetTotal(vRSID)

If vRecs > 0
{
WriteLn("The following " + vRecs + " checks are marked 'Y' for printing:")
WriteLn("------------------------------------------------------")
WriteLn("")

For n = 1 to vRecs

XResultSetCurrentPosition(vRSID, n)

vNextCheck = "Check#: " + @Decimals(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Check#"), 0) + @NL() +
            "Date:   " + @AsFormattedByLE(Today, 0,@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "CheckDate")) + @NL() +
            "Amount: " + "$ " + @Decimals(@XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Amount"), 2) + @NL() +
            "Payee:  " + @XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Order Of") + @NL() +
            "Memo:   " + @XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Memo") + @NL() +
            "Memo2:  " + @XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Blank") + @NL()

WriteLn(vNextCheck)
Next

If @Askuser(vRecs + " check(s) to print...","","Do you want to continue?")
{
PRINTCHECKS()

If @Askuser("Did all the checks print OK?","","(Answer 'YES' to mark them as printed)")
{
For n = 1 to vRecs
     XResultSetCurrentPosition(vRSID, n)
     XResultSetValue(vRSID, "Print Check", "N")
Next

@Msgbox("The " + vRecs + " checks have been marked as printed.","","")

}
Else
{
@Msgbox("Edit the pertinent check records as necessary,","then return here and reprint those still marked with a 'Y'","")
}


}
}
Else
{
@Msgbox("No checks marked 'Y' for printing found.","","")
}

XResultSetClose(vRSID)

Yes, the "Amount" element always displays correctly.