The Atari Accountant series, Copyright (C) 1981 by Atari, Inc. and BPI Systems, Inc. and Arthur Young & Co.#

Table of Contents



The ATARI Accountant brings sophisticated computerized accounting to the small business or professional person and has been priced at $1,499.85. Each of its three components, which are available separately, is priced at $499.95. They include systems for accounts and inventory control. All prices mentioned are manufacturer's suggested retail prices in the U.S. only. The three packages are: General Accounting System CX401, Accounts Receivable System CX402 and Inventory Control System CX403. Each package consists of several diskettes, please see below. The software requires an ATARI 800 Computer, an Atari 815 Dual Disk, an Atari 850 Interface Module and an Atari 825 80-Column Printer. Minimum RAM requirement: 48 K

In sum The Atari Accountant Series consists out of 13 SSDD diskettes, which is equivalent to 26 SSSD diskettes! This makes The Atari Accountant the most expansive Atari program of all times and the largest of it's time. Just box CX401 is found up to now only (2019). Any help in completing the 'The Atari Accountant' is very welcome, anytime, anyplace and everywhere.

The Atari Accountant - binder, top view ; thanks to Kay Savetz for taking the picture!

Foreword#

Before we intend to go further, you really have to read Bill Lange's incredible investigation about The Atari Accountant series. If you do not, you won't understand anything of The Atari Accountant, not even a single bit! Please take the time, you won't be disappointed. Bill has done a deep, deep investigation, which only a few Atari users are able to do. That is scientific investigation and deep knowledge at its best. AtariWiki highly(!) recommend this site. The site is vital for a deeper understanding of the boxes Atari made. You would miss a big part of Atari's history by not reading it! Roger H. Badertscher, president of Atari's Computer division in 1981, was in charge and responsible for The Atari Accountant. Sadly, he belongs to the 10 % denying just any interview about the golden age of Atari. AtariWiki says soooo much thank you to Bill Lange for his help in this lost be believe case. Greatly appreciated! :-)

The Atari Accountant - screenshot 1 taken from In-Store Demonstration Program on diskette only, not cartridge! ; thanks to Bill Lange for sharing this with the community!

Requirements#

The prices are taken from lists published in 1981, please see below under ADs

- Color TV or monitor, of course: take it as given ;-)
- Atari 800 with 16 KiB RAM: $759 ; unit was changed from KB to KiB
- Upgrade to 48 KiB RAM: 2 x each $149 for a 16 KiB module, therefore: $298
- Atari 815 Dual Disk Drive: $1199 ; frop down from $1499 a little earlier!
- Atari 825 80-Column Printer: $779
- Atari 850 Interface Module: $179
- Atari BASIC Cartridge: $46
- Atari CX401 General Accounting: $499
- Atari CX402 Accounts Receivable: $499
- Atari CX403 Inventory Control: $499
- Atari CX89 Color Monitor Cable, else Atari CX82 B&W Monitor Cable: $50
- Atari CX86 Printer Cable: $42
- a lot of Atari double density diskettes (CX8202) for storage: $21
- a credit card, which can take all of the above :-)

In sum: $4,870 as value from 1981. Assuming an inflation rate of 4 % over the decades (just multiply with 1.04), we come to:

$4820 * 1.04 ^ (2019 - 1981) = $21,617.02

of today’s money, which is in Euro: €19,140.27 (exchange rate from: 02/19/2019)

CX401: General Accounting System (4 SSDD Diskettes)#

The General Accounting System is all many business need to automate their accounting functions. The program produces financial reports, including a balance sheet, profit and loss statements and subsidiary ledgers for account receivable, accounts payable and payroll. It consists of:

  • General Accounting System - Users’s Manual
  • Business Manager’s Companion Guide
  • Reference Card
  • 2 Data Entry Program Diskettes (Model CX8203) Master and Backup
  • 2 Posting Program Diskettes (Model CX8204) Master and Backup
  • 1 Sample Master Data Diskette (Model CX8205)
  • 1 Sample Training Data Diskette (Model CX8206)
  • 1 Blank Diskette (Model CX8202)

Estimated availability second quarter 1981
The ATARI Accountant - screenshot 2 from General Accounting System; Thank you so much Bill Lange! Great finding! :-)

CX402: Accounts Receivable System (4 SSDD Diskettes)#

The Accounts Receivable System is for businesses with a large volume of active accounts requiring either an open-item or balance forward system. With this program you can print statements and customer mailings automatically.

Estimated availability third quarter 1981

The ATARI Accountant - screenshot 3 from Accounts Receivable System; Thank you so much Bill Lange! Great finding! :-)

CX403: Inventory Control System (5 SSDD Diskettes)#

The Inventory Control System allows you to monitor a large or rapidly turning inventory, employing either the LIFO, FIFO or Average Costing methods. This program allows you to print invoices, purchase orders, packing slips and stock lables automatically.

Estimated availability third quarter 1981

The ATARI Accountant - screenshot 4 from Inventory Control System; Thank you so much Bill Lange! Great finding! :-)

ATR images#

- Originals (softsectored, one index hole): taken from a Happy ; you need an Atari 815 Double Disk Drive to work with these images! Each sector #47 is not "feeling" that good... ;-)

(##) This is the(!) master example about the lifetime of 5.25 in diskettes. Kay Savetz did work very hard and extremely careful on the original diskettes. But sadly, we discovered destroyed sectors not the way we know for normal, but through aging! This means, we had data loss, not to recover under just any circumstances. Exactly, what was mentioned in the movie Blade Runner 2049. Please don't let that happen!!! Please support Farb and his passionate team of preservation, so we can provide these outstanding programs for generations to come!

On the other hand, we had gigantic luck in many ways. :-) First, Atari wisely delivered a backup diskette of major and important diskettes with the box, so we had 2 of them and second, we could find out, that the lost sectors due to aging are asked for in the program for protection purposes. Therefore, no sector with data was lost through aging, which contains data and third, we were able to copy good sectors from version 1 to damaged sectors from version 2 and vice versa! Therefore, this was very, very close! We say, it was 5 past 12! So, it is fair to say, that the maximum lifetime of 5.25 in diskettes is 35 years under best storage conditions. Summarized, the time to act is now or never! Please join the team.

- Working versions: created by DjayBee from AtariAge ; you don't(!) need an Atari 815 Double Disk Drive to work with these images, hence these images can be used with 'normal' disk drives available supporting DD format! :-)
(###) To get the data from the diskettes is the greatest spin-off of the whole project! We now have the knowledge and technology to: Read, write or convert from an Atari 815 Double Disk Drive. This is a major milestone regarding Atari and especially for preserving purposes. For the explanation of this breakthrough, please follow the link before, simply because it is too big to add here. Thank you for your understanding.

Manuals#

The below manuals can be refer to the amateur league, for ultra professional pdf files, AtariWiki highly recommends the created pdf files by GoodByteXL from AtariAge. You won't get better ones, worldwide! For an example, please see: ACTION! manual 3rd edition. On the other hand, sometimes this requires to retype letter by letter the whole book...

(#) big thank you to Kay Savetz for scanning all the pages at 600 dpi in color, great work ; we owe you one! :-)

(*) From 32 GB raw data down to the few MB shown above, with OCR, navigation menu, hyperlinks in the content and index pages. Each hyperlink has an invisible frame around the shown page number. In Adobe Reader the mouse pointer changes, when it is inside the invisible frame. Each formatted page number has the hyperlink to the shown number, so this makes the pdf file an edu-pdf file. Please take into account, that the manual has references to page xiii, which doesn't exist in the manual, to prohibit double page numbering. Therefore, page xiii matches to page 1, page xiv to page 2 and page xv to page 3. Further, there are up to 5 different hyperlinks in just one row, please see the colored arrows below:

The ATARI Accountant - General Accounting System - CX401 - User's Manual - hyperlinks in the index pages with frames made visible

(**) With OCR, navigation menu and hyperlinks in the content pages. Each hyperlink has an invisible frame around the shown page number. In Adobe Reader the mouse pointer changes, when it is inside the invisible frame. Each formatted page number has the hyperlink to the shown number, so this makes the pdf file an edu-pdf file. The Business Manager's Companion Guide was made by Arthur Young & Company, please the picture below:

The ATARI Accountant - Business Manager's Companion Guide - description from Arthur Young & Company

Afterword#

The project has shown clearly and without any doubt, how important the preservation is and that time is key! It seems, that 35 years at best possible storage is the upper limit for 5.25 in diskettes. Therefore, if there is someone out there, who is in the possession of the remaining boxes CX402 and CX403, please be so kind and contact us. We appreciate your support very, very much! The time is now or never. :-)

The story behind the getting of the The Atari Accountant#

Coming soon...

Outlook#

With The Atari Accountant the evidence is given, the Atari computer is not just a game machine. Indeed, it is much more than this! If some decisions have been made different, we now would speak of HCs instead of PCs. The 1982 movie of Blade Runner showed the vision and outlook the creators had at that time.

Thank you#

AtariWiki would like to thank the following persons for the help in this very special project. Without their contribution, this would never have been possible:

- Curt Vendel and his Atari museum atarimuseum.com for lending of the box, so we could do the restauration and afterwards the investigation
- Kay Savetz for scanning the hundreds of pages in best 600 dpi color quality and for creating the 815-ATRs with a Happy. What a bunch of work, thank you so much Kevin! :-)
- a good soul from Utah (prefers to stay in the dark and is still under the Atari witness protection program) for vital information to the project
- Bob Woolley for all his informations about the 815 double disk drive
- Bill Lange for all his help, support and commitment to realize this project as well as for his findings and investigations. Great work Bill, really!
- Allan Bushman for all his help, support and commitment to realize this project, especially with assisting with the Kryo
- Floppydoc for all his help, support, time and commitment to decipher the secrets of the 815 and how to get the data from it
- Sascha Kriegel, especially for his fight at the hot spot, locally and in person. This work got the most boost in the project! Thank you Sascha!
- Ryan Goolevitch and Joachim Baßmann for their genius on how to get the f… data from the very special disks of the 815 double drive; a milestone!
- DjayBee from AtariAge for making the disks runnable with 'normal' drives. :-) With this and others major performances (e. g. SynCalc+ from 1985), it is fair to appoint him as the King in this very important field
- AtariAge, without their work and platform, we could never have connected us to make this all possible. Thank you really so much!
- Roland B. Wassenberg for creating the pdf files for easy in use
- Michael Current and his ATARI FAQ, without it, we might have never heard, that the project existed
- Bradley Koda
- GoodByteXL from AtariAge
- Andreas Kahlenberger
- and many more...

References#

Images#

The Atari Accountant - binder, aft view ; thanks to Curt Vendel from the Atarimuseum.com and Kay Savetz for scanning!

The Atari Accountant - box open 1 ; thanks to Curt Vendel from the Atarimuseum.com and Kay Savetz for scanning!

The Atari Accountant - box open 2 ; thanks to Curt Vendel from the Atarimuseum.com and Kay Savetz for scanning!

The Atari Accountant - box open 3 ; thanks to Curt Vendel from the Atarimuseum.com and Kay Savetz for scanning!

The Atari Accountant box CX401-1 ; thanks to Curt Vendel from the Atarimuseum.com and Kay Savetz for scanning!

The Atari Accountant box CX401-2 ; thanks to Curt Vendel from the Atarimuseum.com and Kay Savetz for scanning!

The Atari Accountant box CX401-3 ; thanks to Curt Vendel from the Atarimuseum.com and Kay Savetz for scanning!

The Atari Accountant - Diskette Holder 1 ; thanks to Curt Vendel from the Atarimuseum.com and Kay Savetz for scanning!

The Atari Accountant - Diskette Holder 2 ; thanks to Curt Vendel from the Atarimuseum.com and Kay Savetz for scanning!

The Atari Accountant Diskette CX8203

The Atari Accountant Diskette CX8204

The Atari Accountant Diskette CX8205

The Atari Accountant Diskette CX8206

The Atari Accountant Diskette CX8202

The Atari Accountant - Diskette Label ; Giga thanks goes to Curt Vendel from the Atarimuseum.com

The ATARI 815 Double Disk Drive ; The Atari 815 Dual Disk Drive was an absolute beast. It wasn’t just two Atari 810 single-sided, single-density (SSSD), 90K capacity, 5 ¼ inch drive mechanisms in one case, it was two single-sided, double-density (SSDD), 180K capacity drive mechanisms. It required Atari CX8202 certified double-density 5 ¼ floppy diskettes and the Atari DOS 2.0D disk operating system.

Atari DOS 2.0D disk operating system - startscreen

The ATARI Accountant - screenshot 1

The ATARI Accountant - screenshot 2

ADs#

The Atari Accountant description

The ATARI Accountant in a price list of the early 80's ; Thank you so much Bill Lange! Great finding! :-)

Atari price list from 1981

The Atari Accountant - Ad from October 1981 about the end of the Atari Accountant ; Giga thanks goes to Bill Lange for finding the rare commercial! Thank you so much Bill! Great finding! :-)

The Atari Accountant - Ad from November 1981 about the end of the Atari Accountant ; Giga thanks goes to Bill Lange for finding the rare commercial! Thank you so much Bill! Great finding! :-)

The Atari Accountant - Ad from early 1982 about the end of the Atari Accountant ; Giga thanks goes to Bill Lange for finding the rare commercial! Thank you so much Bill! Great finding! :-)

The ATARI Accountant - ad 1 ; Thank you so much Bill Lange! Great finding! :-)

The ATARI Accountant - ad 2 ; Thank you so much Bill Lange! Great finding! :-)

The ATARI Accountant - ad 3 ; Thank you so much Bill Lange! Great finding! :-)

The ATARI Accountant - ad 4 ; Thank you so much Bill Lange! Great finding! :-)

The ATARI Accountant - ad 5 ; Thank you so much Bill Lange! Great finding! :-)

The ATARI Accountant - sample printouts ; Thank you so much Bill Lange! Great finding! :-)

The ATARI Accountant - ad 6 ; Thank you so much Bill Lange! Great finding! :-)
This page (revision-114) was last changed on 03-Feb-2023 15:21 by Roland B. Wassenberg  Top