Before you compose an e-mail or reach for the phone please make sure you have looked through the Help File first. If you have a question that the Help File doesn't answer, or are reporting what appears to be a bug then we will be pleased to hear from you. But if it is a question that is answered in the Help file then all we will do is point you to the relevant section, and you will just get an answer a little bit slower. This is not meant to be awkward, but we try to keep our costs down to allow us to produce this high quality software at value-for-money prices, and answering support queries is an expensive undertaking. After all, some of the major software companies either charge for support or provide it on premium-price phone numbers. We don't want to have to do that.
Also, please look through the Frequently Asked Questions page. Answers to the most common queries are detailed there, and as we get new queries we will add further answers.
OK, so the answer is not in the Help File or you've found a bug. What now-
Check the download page to make sure you are running the latest version. If someone else has found the same problem before you then it may well have already been fixed. Refer also to the Upgrade Policy topic of the product for an explanation of how to upgrade a licensed copy (if that is what you have) to the latest version.
You can contact us by e-mail or by phone, or you can write to us. The quickest way to get an answer is by e-mail to , we can guarantee the message will get to somebody who has in-depth knowledge of the product, probably one of the authors, for attention. But please review the section on "helping us to help you" for an idea of the sort of information we are going to need and what to send (and not to send) along with your query.
Alternatively you can call your local distributor (details from Help/Order Form), or us directly, but if you choose to contact us directly please remember we are located in the U.K. so if it is 10 a.m. where you are it may be the middle of the night in the U.K. and nobody is going to be here to answer! Our normal office hours are 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. U.K. time. We may not be able to answer your question immediately by phone but if not we will take an e-mail address to get back to you with.
Or you can write to us (address details on the contact page). This is obviously the slowest mechanism.
To help you quickest there is some information you should send along with your query. We need to know at least the following:-
In the case of error messages the complete content of the message. Saying "I got an error message", or "I got a GPF" is not enough. We need to know exactly what the error message said, and in the case of GPFs, IPFs or other fatal errors we need details of the module involved and all those other funny numbers that appear (In Windows 95/NT4 you can use copy/paste from the error box to save you writing them down).
Details of your system configuration. We don't need enormous detail in the first instance, but will probably need to know at least what Operating System you are running (Win3.x, 95, 98, NT?) and anything else you think might be relevant.
The version number of the product you are running (from Help/About)
A way to reproduce the problem, basically a list of steps that you took, what you expected to happen, what did happen and (if it wasn't a crash) why it isn't what you expected.
There are also some things we don't need. Please don't send large attachments, copies of data files, the zipped up contents of your Windows directory, huge true-color screenshots of four word error messages and the like. Our mailing system will simply reject them. If we need copies of anything we will let you know, and let you know how to get them to us.
Smart Accounts 2000 is a product of Oakley Data Services. For other great products from Oakley Data Services visit www.smartcode.com and www.webcompiler.com.