8825/8830 DDS User Guide/109Job Accounting – Setup and Administration(continued)Structure of the account fileThe information below describes how a valid account file is constructed.This format is used when account information is written to the floppy diskusing the WRITE TO DISK function, and is also used when it is desired toinstall or modify the accounting database using the RESTORE FROM DISKor the CREATE FROM DISK functions.A floppy disk that is DOS formatted must be used.The file is always named ACCTnnnn.TXT, where nnnn is a 1 to 4 digitnumber assigned by the operator or the person constructing the file. Thenumber should be unique with respect to any other accounting files, so thatconfusion does not occur.Example: ACCT1004.TXTMultiple accounting files are permitted to exist on a single floppy disk.The file begins with atitle record, which is the product numeric name,followed by a character.8830The next record specifies the units of measurement used for the mediausage numbers. The choices are dm (for square decimetres) and ft (forsquare feet).dmNote: while all media usage data is internally stored as square decimetreson the hard disk, the units in the file may be in square decimetres or squarefeet. When this file is written to the floppy with the WRITE TO DISK function,the units will always be expressed as square decimetres.All other records in the file areaccount records. Each account record hassix fields; each field is separated from the next field by a character.The record is terminated by a (carriage return) character.The structure of the account record is:accountsubaccountbond usagevellum(tracing paper) usagefilm usagescan usageFor an example, a record might look like this:523476170000This record will create account number 523476, subaccount 17. Values forusage will all be initialized at zero. To create a parent account with nosubaccount, place a 0 (zero) in the second field.To initialize a media usage value to other than zero, replace the 0 with thedesired value, and use the RESTORE FROM DISK function.Note the CREATE FROM DISK function ignores the usage figures, andcreates accounts initialized to zero usage regardless of the usage values inthe record.The file may be created by using a word processor and saving the resultingfile as an ASCII text file. A spreadsheet program may also be used. Savethe spreadsheet file as a tab-delimited text file.Accounting files saved to floppy disk may be imported into a spreadsheetprogram for analysis.
