Complete Accounting Using XML and Network Envirinment

Complete Accounting through XML Technology Alone

By

Dr. Subodh Chandra Garai

[This paper was prepared when working as Reader in Commerce of K. K. Das College, Kolkata - 700 084, in the year 2004]

ABSTRACT

Today’s competitive and risky business environment demands continuous, timely and relevant information through state-of-the-art IT supported communication system using a standardised and widely accepted electronic or digital language (e.g., eXtensible Markup Language, XML, eXtensible Business Reporting Language, XBRL etc.) capable of storing, manipulating, communicating and displaying data comfortably and cheaply for good corporate governance including satisfaction of the management as well as the stakeholders. In this paper an attempt is made to devise a process of complete accounting (i.e., up to the point of marshaled final balance sheet preparation) for an entity using solely XML technology within a network environment by means of Active Server Pages (ASP).

Due to massive advancement of information technology in terms of (1) favourable speed and memory capacity per rupee of hardware, (2) efficient telecommunication and client/server [Bradley (1993), Kothari (2003), Kuo (2004)] or peer-to-peer [Krishnan et al. (2003), Fakas & Karakostas (2004)] intranet (as well as Internet) facility and (3) progress of web-enabled dynamic and interactive system and basic application software (e.g., Common Gateway Interface, CGI or Active Server Pages, ASP etc.) technology, business communication (including storing and processing of data) system has significantly gone forward a dramatic step. In today’s competitive environment and hence risky situations, timely and relevant information is continuously required by every business house from inside and outside of the organization for planning, decision-making, controlling and many other administrative and important activities [Bradley et al. (1993), Fingar (1996)]. Again, for good corporate governance and regulatory and other filings, business and other information or documents are required to be stored and processed electronically following a widely accepted and standardized format1 which can also be displayed easily in traditional style and format. Consequently, accounting information system of an organisation should strive to use most and up to date facilities of the technology on one hand and satisfy the needs of the management as well as of the stakeholders accordingly on the other. In this standpoint, it is worthy of a mention that one of the most recent development of IT is the XML (eXtensible Markup Language) technology that is capable of storing, manipulating, communicating and displaying2 data comfortably and cheaply and it is also being quickly and universally accepted and widely applied in different areas. The World Wide Web Consortium has released its recommendations on 3rd edition of the XML version 1.0 on 4th February, 2004 at http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/. In this context, XBRL International3 devised eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL, which is also XML based) is an advanced step towards standardization, for filing of business documents in electronic version [Vasal & Srivastava (2002)].

In market, there are several accounting software solution packages in use but those are proprietary and patented in nature [Johnston (2003)]; information on degree and extent of present day technology used by them cannot be readily and objectively known. However, in an earlier attempt [Garai (2003)], the present author devised a method of traditional accounting up to the preparation of trial balance, using Relational Database Management System technology within a network environment (i.e., applying the ASP technology at the front end). In this paper, an attempt is made to perform the traditional complete accounting tasks (i.e., up to the preparation of final balance sheet) using XML technology alone again with the help of Active Server Pages in a network environment too. For a working knowledge on ASP 3.0 and a preliminary concept on XML Buser et al. (1999) may be consulted. For further enquiry on XML, XSLT and related topics inquisitive readers may go through Harold (2000), Patel-Schneider and Siméon (2003), Diao et al. (2003) etc. but for most recent developments on XML and ASP technologies, on line help files and Internet sources may be explored. Some relevant Internet addresses are given in Reference section of this paper. On intranet and Internet technologies including Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http://) and Common Gateway Interface (CGI), elaborate discussions are also available in Muller (1999). A most appropriate resource for the present work is MSXML 4.0 SDK which is available free from ‘Microsoft Downloads’ through Internet, for advanced topics on XML like XML Document Object Model (DOM), XML Schema Definition, formatting XML documents using eXtensible Style Language Transform files, XPath programming etc.

[2]

The XML Model of Complete Accounting

The structure of XML-documents4 is apparent and hence it elicits no further mention or explanation – Figure 6 and Figure 9 of the next section may be verified in this regard. In our XML-formatted documents, all spaces between words for document name (used as the name of the documentElement or root element of the document concerned) are removed, e.g., opBalanceSheet etc. and spaces within name of elements (i.e., of leaf-nodes) are filled using an underscore character (_), e.g., Name_of_Account, Opening_Balance etc. because the name of an XML element (called ‘no-colon-name’ or ‘NCName’) does not accept white spaces (including the space character) and some reserved characters or symbols. It is to be noted that in XML-formatted opening Balance Sheet a negative sign precedes the amount for a liability item.

To use functional notation, suppose for an accounting entity,

BOX is the balance sheet at the point of time t0, i.e., BOX is the opening balance sheet at the beginning of an accounting period and

JX is the Journal for the time span t0 to t1, i.e., for the above-mentioned accounting period.

Then, J = fJ(JX, SJX). (1)

Here, J is the traditionally formatted and styled output for the Journal of the accounting entity for the said accounting period and it is functionally related to JX and the corresponding eXtensible Style Language Transform (XSLT) file, SJX, in XML format (for such styled transformation of JX).

Again, LX = fL(BOX, JX). (2)

Here, LX is the Ledger (containing all accounts before preparation of final accounts) for the said time period. That is to say, LX is functionally related to both BOX and JX. It should be remembered that all BOX, JX and LX are in XML format – the subscript X in each case is used here for indicating an XML formatted document.

Now, Oi = fO(LX, SXi), i=1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. (3)

Here, Oi is the ith output (account or statement), i.e., they are the group or collection of Ledger accounts 5, Receipt & Payment A/c, Trial Balance, Profit & Loss A/c (or Income & Expenditure A/c, for a non-profit seeking entity) and Balance Sheet (closing and final) respectively, in one of the traditional format; SXi is the corresponding XSLT file certainly in XML format. Thus, the same LX is transformed to a desired output Oi (i.e., account or statement) passing through the same process by application of an appropriate XSLT file, SXi.

During the process of transformation of XML formatted LX to traditionally formatted final balance sheet (i.e., O5), an intermediate product in XML format (say, BX) for final balance sheet can be produced using a template file in XML format (say, BTX with no textual content which is shown in the next section) for the facility of marshaling of closing final balance sheet, O5. In effect, from this BX (i.e., the XML-formatted closing balance sheet of a preceding period), the opening balance sheet of the immediately succeeding period BOX is derived in XML format too but the XML-elements (or nodes) of this file are defined and arranged in a different way which will be detailed and shown (Figure 6 and Figure 7) in the next section. The category of each ledger account (i.e., a capital item as well as a revenue item) in BOX shall accompany with their corresponding name of account such that the opening balance of a revenue income or expenditure account or of an account opened during the period shall have zero value.

Diagrammatically, the process of getting XML-formatted Ledger and other subsequent accounts and statements is summarized in Figure 1, in two steps, as follows:

[3]

Figure 1

Each call of ASP file “Ledger.asp”, through a browser (preferably Internet Explorer 5.0 or a higher version), expects choice via drop-down or combo boxes for preparation and exhibition of styled account(s) or statement; albeit as a default setting (i.e., for the first time) ‘All Ledger Accounts’ in traditional T-format will be shown.

The Implementation of the XML Model of Accounting

In this section, we shall detail our present accounting process using XML technology alone following the model proposed in the preceding section. As the Home Page for our complete accounting job, we shall use the Active Server Page (ASP) that follows:

Figure 2

All ASP’s in HTML format with server and client VBScripts are given in Appendix A. All instructions with comments and run time messages are clearly provided in each page including for this Accounting Home Page which is given filename “default.asp” and saved in the virtual directory of our intranet site (i.e., using Personal Web Server, PWS, within WindowsME or Internet Information Server, IIS, within WindowsXP) in the server computer, say, “http://garai/” as shown in Figure 2. Albeit, the “global.asa”6 file may also be saved in this virtual directory to create some session level ActiveX objects within <OBJECT> </OBJECT> tags and to perform some session level common tasks through server VBScripts.

For creation of a new account during an accounting period we have to click the menu item I of our Accounting Home Page which will open the following ASP (saved in the same directory with filename “NewAccount.asp”):

Figure 3

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Indeed, this same menu item will also be activated and same ASP shown as Figure 3 should be used to start the initial accounting job too at the beginning of an accounting period. For an accounting entity which already applied this system of accounting for a previous period, from the closing final Balance Sheet in XML format (i.e., BX as mentioned earlier in the immediately preceding section), the new XML-formatted opening Balance Sheet (i.e., BOX, of the preceding section) will be automatically created and saved with filename “opBalanceSheet.xml” in the same directory) – but before starting accounting job for a subsequent period the already existing “opBalanceSheet.xml” file must be deleted (i.e., must be permanently and manually removed from this directory) and all accounts characterizing revenue income or expenditure should be opened with appropriate category and zero opening balance, using this ASP shown as Figure 3. The dropdown box as shown in this Web page shows all the categories of accounts from the template file in XML-format (BTX of the preceding section) and direct and indirect revenue incomes and expenditures. Albeit, on first introduction of this system of accounting for an accounting entity, opening Balance Sheet in XML format must be created and saved as “opBalanceSheet.xml” in the same directory – for this purpose, the menu item VI (sub-items i & ii) of the Accounting Home Page may be effectively used. The first sub-item of this menu item will open the following ASP (saved as “createXML.asp” in the virtual directory):

Figure 4

It is to be noted here that the page shown, as Figure 4, shall initially give the names of leaf-nodes as “Child_No.1”, “Child_No.2” etc. And to rename the childNodes of the childNodes of the documentElement for the XML file the second sub-item of menu item VI of the Accounting Home Page should be activated which will open the following ASP (saved as “NamesXML.asp” in the same virtual directory):

Figure 5

[5]

Hence, the opening Balance Sheet in required XML format will appear as:

Figure 6

And this balance sheet in styled tabular form (applying appropriate XSLT file for transformation) for our illustrative simplified (only to save space) case is as follows:

Figure 7

[6]

It is already mentioned that we have taken an XML-formatted template for marshaling of closing and final balance sheet — from this template, categories of all asset and liability items are taken and they also appear as entries in the dropdown or combo box in Figure 3. This XML-formatted template file (BTX of the preceding section, saved with filename “financialStatements.balanceSheet.xml” in the same virtual directory) is completely reproduced here for its proper anatomy as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding=”utf-8”?>

<financialStatements.balanceSheet>

<balanceSheet.equitiesAndLiabilities>

<equitiesAndLiabilities.equities>

<equities.capitals />

<equities.reserves>

<reserves.capitalReserves />

<reserves.specificFunds />

<reserves.revenueReserves />

</equities.reserves>

</equitiesAndLiabilities.equities>

<equitiesAndLiabilities.liabilities>

<liabilities.longTermLiabilities>

<longTermLiabilities.longTermSecuredLoans />

<longTermLiabilities.longTermUnsecuredLoans />

</liabilities.longTermLiabilities>

<liabilities.midTermLiabilities>

<midTermLiabilities.midTermSecuredLoans />

<midTermLiabilities.midTermUnsecuredLoans />

</liabilities.midTermLiabilities>

<liabilities.currentLiabilities>

<currentLiabilities.tradeCreditors />

<currentLiabilities.otherCurrentLiabilities />

</liabilities.currentLiabilities>

<liabilities.provisions>

<provisions.provisionsForTaxation />

<provisions.otherProvisions />

</liabilities.provisions>

<liabilities.otherLiabilities>

<OtherLiabilities.contraItems />

<OtherLiabilities.miscellaneousLiabilities />

</liabilities.otherLiabilities>

</equitiesAndLiabilities.liabilities>

</balanceSheet.equitiesAndLiabilities>

<balanceSheet.assets>

<assets.fixedAssets>

<fixedAssets.intangibleFixedAssets />

<fixedAssets.tangibleFixedAssets />

</assets.fixedAssets>

<assets.investments>

<investments.longTermInvestments />

<investments.investmentsForSpecificFunds />

<investments.shortTermInvestments />

</assets.investments>

<assets.currentAssets>

<currentAssets.stocksAndStores>

<stocksAndStores.directMaterials />

<stocksAndStores.indirectMaterials />

</currentAssets.stocksAndStores>

<currentAssets.receivablesAndCashEquivalents>

<receivablesAndCashEquivalents.receivables>

<receivables.tradeDebtors />

<receivables.otherReceivables />

</receivablesAndCashEquivalents.receivables>

<receivablesAndCashEquivalents.CashEquivalents>

<CashEquivalents.currentBanks />

<CashEquivalents.cash />

</receivablesAndCashEquivalents.CashEquivalents>

</currentAssets.receivablesAndCashEquivalents>

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<currentAssets.otherCurrentAssets>

<otherCurrentAssets.accruedIncomes />

<otherCurrentAssets.prepidExpenses />

</currentAssets.otherCurrentAssets>

</assets.currentAssets>

<assets.fictitiousAssets>

<fictitiousAssets.deferredRevenueExpenditures />

<fictitiousAssets.cumulativeDeficitOrLoss />

<fictitiousAssets.otherFictitiousAssets />

</assets.fictitiousAssets>

<assets.otherAssets>

<OtherAssets.contraItems />

<OtherAssets.miscellaneousAssets />

</assets.otherAssets>

</balanceSheet.assets>

</financialStatements.balanceSheet>

Following the XBRL specification, the name of each element forming a class (or category) or descendant of that class starting from the element named “financialStatements.balanceSheet”, consists of two parts separated by a period character (.) using lower camel case convention7 – the first part of each element name is the last part of the name of its immediate parent and the last part is the category of asset or liability items (as the case may be) which are contained within the element under consideration as its children. Accordingly, for our XML-formatted opening balance sheet the category is taken from the last part of the immediate parent element as mentioned here which is evident also from Figure 6 and Figure 7. In this template for final balance sheet in XML-format, it is noticeable that the elements with no branch or child (called leaves) are closed using a forward slash (/) before the ‘>’ character at the right-end. During actual preparation of the final balance sheet, each liability/ asset item will try to find place mainly within these elements. Although a more comprehensive and generalized structure of a balance sheet can be formulated, regarding the content of our template, it is worthy of a mention that an accounting entity may maintain some accounts in the capacity of a custodian, fiduciary, guarantor or bailee. And for such items proper (e.g., Employees’ Provident Fund A/c or Loan from Bank Taken by Employees A/c) the accounting entity has no direct or immediate interest though such an account may show a debit or credit balance or both debit and credit balances in slightly different names; hence such type of accounts is categorized here as ‘contraItems’, in the present taxonomical viewpoint.

Though the final balance sheet is now devised to fit to any type of organisation, in this project for the sake of simplicity and normal requirement, only the profit and loss account is drawn by transfer of all direct and indirect revenues and expenditures (categorized respectively as ‘directRevenues’, ‘directExpenditures’, ‘indirectRevenues’ and ‘indirectExpenditures’, under lower camel case convention) to this account of an accounting entity. Albeit, some simple adaptations/ modifications of the same methodology will enable to show (i) Trading and Profit & Loss Accounts for ordinary business concerns, (ii) Trading and Income & Expenditure Accounts for a club with provisions sales or (iii) Profit & Loss and Income & Expenditure (of household) Accounts for a professional person. Each of all the direct and indirect revenues and expenditures must be shown in the opening balance sheet with appropriate category (in the concerned XML document for opening Balance Sheet as shown in Figure 6 and Figure 7, the same file of Figure 6 but in readily intelligible format, following the lower camel case convention mentioned earlier) with zero opening balance, incontrovertibly, any new account may be subsequently opened with zero balance too. Proper categorization of the accounts will lead to preparation of correct and meaningful Profit & Loss A/c and final Balance Sheet.

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After conception of the opening Balance Sheet according to the procedures stated in the earlier part of this section in the virtual directory, for an accounting entity whether it used this system of accounting for an earlier period or not, the journal entries can be passed using the following ASP (saved with filename “JournalEntry.asp” in the said virtual directory) with a calendar control or ActiveX object too and activated through the hyperlink of menu item II of the Accounting Home Page shown in Figure 2:

Figure 8

All relevant instructions, run time errors as warnings (especially as voucher numbers shall be unique8) and other messages are available in appropriate situation, from this page. In effect, the Journal in XML format (saved automatically with the filename “Journal.xml” in the same directory) shall appear as follows:

Figure 9

[9]

In simple tabular form (after a transformation using XSLT file “Tjournal.xsl”), the whole Journal is reproduced here as:

Figure 10

But to exhibit the Journal in traditional style and format, the transformation shown in equation (1) of the preceding section used appropriate XSLT file “Fjournal.xsl” (i.e., SJX of preceding section) in the ASP with filename “FormattedJournal.asp” (both the XSLT and ASP files are saved in the virtual directory) — a part of this page for the properly formatted and styled Journal (i.e., J in equation (1) of the preceding section) appears as:

Figure 11

[10]

All XSLT files (with the file-extension characters ‘.xsl’) used for this project are saved in the virtual directory and they are shown with entirety in Appendix B. For correction (i.e., modification or deletion) of previously entered and saved journal entries, a special and user friendly ASP is designed (saved in the same directory with filename “Rectification.asp”) to accommodate all situations and providing very helpful data (i.e., showing at the beginning – dates, voucher numbers and amounts of all entered journal entries), messages, warnings and guides for performing this crucial task. Even voucher number itself can be modified using this page. A part of this page is given here as follows:

Figure 12

After entering the voucher number of the wrong journal entry in the appropriate text box, a click at a different place on this page will show the entire details of the entry to extend full help to the user and direct correction in the newly appeared text boxes is possible as well.

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Just now, we are in a position to get the derived results, i.e., the accounts or statements

9. For application of the transformations over LX (the file “Ledger.xml” produced by the first part of the ASP “Ledger.asp” – both are saved in the virtual directory; amongst other XSLT files “Ledger.xsl” file is also used to get all ledger accounts or a specific account as per user’s choice and it is saved in the same directory too), to get traditionally formatted and styled (in the last part of “Ledger.asp”) Receipt & Payment A/c, Trial Balance, Profit & Loss A/c and final Balance Sheet, the XSLT files used are with the filenames “ReceiptPayment.xsl”, “TrialBalance.xsl”, “PandL.xsl” and “BalanceSheet.xsl” respectively all of which are saved in the same virtual directory. As a byproduct during the application of the XSLT file “BalanceSheet.xsl” (which contains Microsoft’s proprietory “msxsl:script” tag to enable VBScript programming like other XSLT files barring “Fjournal.xsl” and “TrialBalance.xsl”), the XML-formatted file “BalanceSheet.xml” (BX of the preceding section – saved in the same virtual directory) for closing and final Balance Sheet is additionally available with the help of the template file “financialStatements.balanceSheet.xml” (mentioned earlier and referred as BTX in the preceding section). This “BalanceSheet.xml” file can be effectively used for conception of the (differently) XML-formatted opening Balance Sheet (mentioned as BOX in the immediately preceding section) for the succeeding accounting period. The ASP “Ledger.asp” with the choice of the ledger account “Cash A/c” is shown here:

Figure 13

All instructions are clearly given together with two combo or dropdown boxes to register user’s choices, in this page. All other account(s) or statements are easily available by choosing desired options in the dropdown boxes with updated data; albeit, as a default setting, all ledger accounts will appear initially. From the Accounting Home Page too, effect to a choice can be given through hyperlinks. Other derived accounts and statements are given here sequentially as Figure 14 to Figure 17 respectively:

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Figure 14

Figure 15

Figure 16

[13]

Figure 17

Summary and Conclusion

This paper attempted to devise a process of traditional accounting for an accounting entity using eXtensible Markup Language (XML which is powerful enough to mount up data, to manipulate them for getting meaningful information and to display traditionally styled and formatted information) technology only within a network environment by means of Active Server Pages up to the point of marshaled final balance sheet preparation. For such marshaled balance sheet, a template is used in XML-format where category for a group of accounts is named following the eXtensible Business Reporting Language specification. From this process of accounting, as byproducts XML-formatted Journal, Ledger and opening as well as closing final Balance Sheet are produced as well which can easily be reused for other internal or external purposes. This XML technology alone can similarly be applied for preparation of departmental or sectional accounts, cash and fund flow statements, inventory accounts and even inflation-adjusted accounts etc. too using similar procedures.

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End Notes

1. This is required to get rid of the risk of error from and cost of repetitive job of keying input.

2. It is done in desirable style and format using eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation or XSLT files.

3. This non-profit seeking organisation was formed with the initiative and auspices of American Institute of Certified Public Accountants with website at http://www.xbrl. rg.

4. A simple text document of such type starts with an XML declaration line (together with an optional processing instruction line) and different levels of parent-child elements in and including start- and end-tags within angle brackets, ‘<’ and ‘>’ (a start-tag for an element may have attributes and an end-tag for an element contains “</” as first two characters), in a tree-like structure. The first element that contains all other elements is called the root or document element and it dominates the entire document. An element that has no child is called a leaf-node and an empty tag (i.e., the element with no end-tag but the only start-tag containing “/>” as last two characters) does not have textual content, though it can have attributes.

5. During actual operation, both the ASP file for preparation of LX etc. and the corresponding XSLT file for exhibiting the traditionally formatted output are so designed that an individual ledger account excepting the Profit & Loss A/c and Inco e & Expenditure A/c, whichever will be relevant, shall be available according to a previously assigned (specific) choice as well.

6. For this present project, “global.asa” file is not necessary at all.

7. That is, first word starts with a lower case letter and no space between words consisting of total 80 or less number of characters.

8. Warning is essential before committing a journal entry when an attempt is made to enter a duplicate voucher number.

9. That is, the transformed output Oi using corresponding XSLT file SXi, mentioned in equation (3) of the immediately preceding section together with the LX file mentioned in equation (2) there as an intermediate product.

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APPENDIX A

Listings of ASP Files (with server and client VBScripts)

1. Active Server Page for Accounting Home Page – “default.asp”

<%@LANGUAGE=VBS%><%Option Explicit: dim bd, ed

bd=Request("t1"): Session("SDate")=bd: if bd="" then Session("SDate")="01 Apr 2004"

ed=Request("t2"): Session("CDate")=ed: if ed="" then Session("CDate")="30 Apr 2004"%>

<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Starting Page for Accounting (using XML technology alone)</TITLE></HEAD>

<BODY bgcolor="#ffddbb"><P style="font-size: 50px; color: darkblue; text-align: center">Starting Page for Accounting</P>

<FORM method="post" id="f1" name="f1" action="default.asp"><P>Starting Date

Closing Date</P><CENTER><INPUT type="submit" name="sm" id="sm" style="font-weight: 900; font-size: 20px; color: gold; background-color: brown" value="Click Here to Give Effect"></CENTER></FORM><P>

After setting above Dates, Choose and Click One Menu Item Below: <UL type="I" style="font-size: 20px;

font-family: Lucida Sans">

<LI><A href="NewAccount.asp">For Creation of New Account </A>(Name of Account must be unique)</LI>

<LI><A href="JournalEntry.asp">For Journal Entry </A>(voucher no. must be unique)</LI>

<LI><A href="FormattedJournal.asp">For Formatted Journal </A>(arranged - first date-wise then voucher no.-wise)</LI>

<LI>For Differint Derived Results as - <UL type="a" style="font-size: 17px; font-family: Arial Alternative">

<LI><A href="Ledger.asp">Ledger Account</A></LI>

<LI><A href="Ledger.asp?s1=rp">Receipt & Payment Account</A></LI>

<LI><A href="Ledger.asp?s1=tb">Trial Balance</A></LI>

<LI><A href="Ledger.asp?s1=pl">Profit & Loss Account</A></LI>

<LI><A href="Ledger.asp?s1=bs">Final Balance Sheet</A></LI></UL></LI>

<LI><A href="Rectification.asp">For Rectification of Journal Entries </A>(which were already recorded)</LI>

<LI><FONT size="2">For Miscellaneous Tasks, alternatively, for opening Balance Sheet or Journal - </FONT>

<LI><A href="createXML.asp">To Create, Develop and Save XML File</A><FONT style="font-size: 11"> [Children of document element will be 'Record'(s) and leaf-nodes will be 'Child_No.1', 'Child_No.2' and so on]</FONT></LI>

<LI><A href="NamesXML.asp">To Rename the ChildNodes of the ChildNodes of the DocumentElement for XML File</A></LI></UL></LI></UL></P></BODY></HTML>

2. Active Server Page to Get “opBalanceSheet.xml” with Any New Account – “NewAccount.asp”

<%@LANGUAGE=VBS%><%Option Explicit: dim xDoc, opBS, ns(), c(), ns1, x, y, n0, n1, fso, s, t, a, b, i, j, k

On Error Resume Next

set xDoc=Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.DomDocument.4.0")

set opBS= Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.DomDocument.4.0")’ MSXML2 DOM document objects

set fso=Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

if not fso.FileExists(Server.MapPath("opBalanceSheet.xml")) then

'For properly formatting opening Balance Sheet from that at the end of previous period, both in XML format

opBS.loadXML "<?xml version='1.0'?><?xml-stylesheet type='text/xsl' href='opBS.xsl'?><opBalanceSheet/>"

s="<P style='color: red; font-size: 22'>Neither opBalanceSheet nor BalanceSheet (i.e., closing for previous period) exists - in (required) XML format!"

s=s+"<BR/><FONT color='magenta'><EM>Either</EM> supply last period's closing Balance Sheet in XML format (prepared through this accounting process,"

s=s+" using the template) - by placing the file once in the physical directory for this web site;</BR>"

s=s+"</FONT><FONT color='orange'><EM>Or,</EM> take the help of first sub-menu item of menu VI of AccountingHOME page "

s=s+" (to enter opening balance sheet items with category of accounts, including revenue items with zero op. balances).</FONT></P>"

t=Server.MapPath("BalanceSheet.xml"): if fso.FileExists(t) then

xDoc.load t: reDim ns(2): ns(1)="equitiesAndLiabilities": ns(2)="assets"

for t=1 to 2' When value of t is 1, it indicates liability side items of the Balance Sheet

set ns1=xDoc.documentElement.selectNodes("//"+"balanceSheet."+ns(t)+"//Item")

for each x in ns1: s=x.parentNode.NodeName: i=instr(1, s, "."): k=mid(s, i+1)' For account category

set n0=opBS.documentElement.appendChild(xDoc.createElement("Record"))

set n1=n0.appendChild(xDoc.createElement("Name_of_Account"))

s=x.firstChild.text: if k="cumulativeDeficitOrLoss" then s=mid(s, 18, len(s)-21)

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n1.text=s: set n1=n0.appendChild(xDoc.createElement("Category"))

s=k: if k="cumulativeDeficitOrLoss" then s="revenueReserves"

n1.text=s: set n1=n0.appendChild(xDoc.createElement("Opening_Balance"))

s=x.lastChild.text: if t=1 then s="-"+s

n1.text=s: next: next: opBS.save Server.MapPath("opBalanceSheet.xml")' Op. Balance Sheet is saved in XML

fso.DeleteFile Server.MapPath("BalanceSheet.xml")' Closing Balance Sheet of previous period is destroyed

else

Response.Write s+"<P style='font-size: 26; color: green'>You may also use this page, to enter items of OpBalanceSheet <EM>de novo</EM>.</P>"

end if

else' When already opening Balance Sheet exists

opBS.load Server.MapPath("opBalanceSheet.xml")

end if

' The following section is to augment the opening Balance Sheet by opening another new revenue or capital account

set ns1=opBS.documentElement.selectNodes("//Record")

t=ns1.length: reDim ns(t): s=1: k=1: a=TRim(Request("newAccount"))

b= "<P style='color:violet; font-size: 40'>Duplicate Account Name!<BR/>Enter Unique Name, please.</P>"

if a="" then s=0: Response.Write "<P style='color: blue; font-size: 25'>'Name of New Account' Box is Blank!<BR/>Please, fill in the following Form Elements to Include a New Account.</P>"

for i=1 to t: if a=RTrim(ns1(i-1).firstChild.text) then

s=0: k=0

end if

next: if k=0 then Response.Write b

if s=1 then' For inclusion of a new account, providing details by the user

set x=opBS.documentElement.appendChild(opBS.createElement("Record"))

set y=x.appendChild(opBS.createElement("Name_of_Account")): y.text=a

set y=x.appendChild(opBS.createElement("Category")): y.text=Request("category")

set y=x.appendChild(opBS.createElement("Opening_Balance")): y.text=Request("balance")

opBS.save Server.MapPath("opBalanceSheet.xml")' Opening Balance Sheet is saved in XML format

Response.Write "<P style='color: green; font-size:23'>New Account is created! You may proceed further, by giving particulars, again.</P>"

else

Response.Write "<P style='color: red; font-size:27'>Particulars are not properly given - so, new Account is not created! Give particulars now, please.</P>"

end if

%><HTML><HEAD><TITLE>For Preparing Opening Balance Sheet and to Include New Account in XML Format</TITLE>

<SCRIPT ID=clientEventHandlersVBS LANGUAGE=vbscript><!--

Sub window_onload

fm.newAccount.focus

End Sub

--></SCRIPT></HEAD><BODY><FORM name="fm" id=fm action="NewAccount.asp" method="post">

<P><INPUT tabindex="1" size="30" name="newAccount" id="newAccount"/>Name of New Account</P>

<SELECT name="category" id="category"><% xDoc.load Server.MapPath("financialStatements.balanceSheet.xml")'

‘ The template file in XML for a standard Balance Sheet is loaded in the DOM document object xDoc

set ns1=xDoc.documentElement.selectNodes("//*[name()!='financialStatements.balanceSheet' and name()!='fictitiousAssets.cumulativeDeficitOrLoss']")

t=ns1.length: reDim ns(t+2)' Array variable is created to hold categories of accounts including revenue matters

for i=1 to t: a=TRim(ns1(i-1).nodeName): j=instr(1, a, "."): ns(i-1)=mid(a, j+1): next

ns(t-2)=ns(t-1)' To avoid duplicate category for 'contraItems'

ns(t-1)="directRevenues": ns(t)="indirectRevenues": ns(t+1)="directExpenditures"

ns(t+2)="indirectExpenditures": t=t+2' To accomodate revenue incomes and expenditures - direct and indirect

for i= 0 to t' To fill the OPTION elements with appropriate values

a=TRim(ns(i)): b=a: If a="cash" Then

a="'"+a+"' selected"

else

a="'"+a+"'"

end If

Response.Write "<OPTION Value="+a+">"+b: Next: set xDoc=nothing: set opBS=nothing: set fso=nothing%>

</SELECT>Select a Category, from this Dropdown box.<BR>

<INPUT type="text" value="0" name="balance" id="balance" size="9" style="color: darkgreen; font-size: 20; font-weight: 900"/> : Enter the Amount of Opening Balance Here (default value is zero, as shown)<BR/>

<A style="FONT-SIZE: 20px" href="JournalEntry.asp">Click Here for Journal Entries</A><BR/><A href="">Click Here for Accounting HOME</A></P></BODY></HTML></BODY></HTML>

3. ASP to Create “opBalanceSheet.xml” or Similar XML File for a New User – “CreateXML.asp”

<%@LANGUAGE=VBS%><%Option Explicit: Response.ContentType="text/html": dim sfo, ts, xDoc, ns, fil, st, st1, n, i, j, k, ent()

On Error Resume Next

set sfo=Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject"): set xDoc=Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.DomDocument.4.0")

n=0: k=Request("t2"): if not k="" then

st1="<?xml version='1.0'?>": if k="opBalanceSheet" then st1=st1+"<?xml-stylesheet type='text/xsl' href='opBS.xsl'?>"

st1=st1+"<"+Request("t2")+"/>": fil=Server.MapPath(k+".xml")

if not sfo.FileExists(fil) or Request("t1")="d" or Request("t1")="D" then

set ts=sfo.CreateTextFile(fil): ts.WriteLine st1: ts.Close ' Started and saved an XML file de novo

else ' When the file with given name already exists and it is not required to be destroyed

xDoc.load fil: if xDoc.documentElement.hasChildNodes then

set ns=xDoc.documentElement.selectNodes("child::node()[1]/*")

n=ns.length ' n=number of children at the leaf-level, in the document tree structure

end if

if n=0 then n=Request("t3")

if sfo.FileExists(fil) and (Request("t1")="d" or Request("t1")="D") then

set ts=sfo.CreateTextFile(fil): ts.WriteLine st1: ts.Close: n=Request("t3")

end if ' Destroyed an existing file with given name and specifically instructed to delete it

xDoc.load fil: if n>0 and not Request("t4")="" then

set ns=xDoc.documentElement.selectNodes("//Record"): k=1: j=1: if TRim(Request("t2"))="Journal" then j=4

st1=TRim(Request("t"+CStr(j+3))): for each st in ns: if st1=TRim(st.childNodes(j-1).text) then k=0

next: if k=1 then ' On confirmation of uniqueness of the entry, i.e., when value of k remains 1

set st=xDoc.documentElement.appendChild(xDoc.createElement("Record"))

for i=1 to n: set st1=st.appendChild(xDoc.createElement(Request("h"+CStr(i+3))))

st1.text=Request("t"+Cstr(i+3))

next ' Hence all the leaf-nodes are added to the new child 'Record' of XML document

if ns.length>1 then

for each j in ns: if j.firstChild.text="" then xDoc.documentElement.removeChild j

xDoc.save fil ' The XML document with an added 'Record' element is hence saved

else ' When uniquenes of entry is violated, i.e., text for a leaf-node (required to be unique) is same as an earlier one

Response.Write "<P style='color: red; font-size: 30'>Uniqueness of entry is violated! Enter proper values, please.</P>"

end if

if not TRim(Request("t2"))="opSheet" and sfo.FileExists(Server.MapPath("opSheet.xml")) then

sfo.DeleteFile Server.MapPath("opSheet.xml") ' When the file name given is other than 'opSheet'

end if

%><HTML><HEAD><META NAME="GENERATOR" Content="Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0"/>

<TITLE>For Creation, Development and Saving of an XML File</TITLE>

<SCRIPT ID="clientEventHandlersVBS" LANGUAGE="vbscript"><!--

Sub window_onload

f1.s1.focus: f1.t2.select

End Sub

Sub r1_onclick

f1.s1.focus

End Sub

--></SCRIPT></HEAD><BODY>

<P style="color:#996000; font-size: 40; text-align: center">Page to Create, Develop & Save an XML File<BR/>

<FONT size="3">(for renaming of columns Click the last sub-menu item of menu IV of the AccountingHOME page, please)

</FONT></P><FORM id="f1" name="f1" method="POST" action="createXML.asp">

<P style="color: #ffbbbb; font-size: 20">If you want to destroy an earlier file with same name, write D or d in this small box:

<P style="color:green; font-size: 22">Give the name only of your XML File HERE:

<FONT size="3" color="red">(every time - required): </FONT><INPUT type="text" id="t2" name="t2" value="opSheet"/></P>

<P style="color:blue; font-size: 18">Give the No. of Columns in Your Table HERE

[18]

<FONT size="2" color="red">(required - up to second time only, for new files): </FONT>

<%st1="<P style='color: darkmagenta; font-size: 30'>": if n>0 then

set st=xDoc.documentElement.selectNodes("//Record[1]/*")

for i=1 to n

k="Child_No."+CStr(i): if not (Request("t1")="d" and Request("t1")="D") then k=st(i-1).nodeName

j="": if k="Opening_Balance" or k="Amount" then j="0"

st1=st1+"Enter Value for '"+k+"' here: <INPUT type='text' size='30' name='t"+CStr(i+3)+"' id='t"+CStr(i+3)+"' value='"+j+"'/>"

st1=st1+"<INPUT type='hidden' name='h"+CStr(i+3)+"' id='h"+CStr(i+3)+"' value='"+k+"'/><BR/>"

st1=st1+"</P>": Response.Write st1: st1="": if xDoc.hasChildNodes then

st1=st1+"<TABLE border='5' style='border-color: gold'><THEAD bgcolor='lightcyan'>Existing Records</THEAD><TR>"

set st=xDoc.documentElement.selectNodes("//Record"): for i=1 to n

st1=st1+"<TH>"+st(0).childNodes(i-1).nodeName+"</TH>": next: st1=st1+"</TR>": for each k in st:: st1=st1+"<TR>"

for i=1 to n: st1=st1+"<TD>"+k.childNodes(i-1).text+"</TD>": next: st1=st1+"</TR>": next:: st1=st1+"</TABLE>"

end if

%><HR color="red" size="5"/>

</FORM><P><A href="">Go to AccountingHOME</A></P><P id="p1"><%=st1%></P></BODY>

<%set sfo=nothing: set ts=nothing: set xDoc=nothing%></HTML>

4. ASP to Rename Leaf-Nodes after Creating XML-File Using “CreateXML.asp” – “NamesXML.asp”

<%@LANGUAGE=VBS%><%Option Explicit: dim xDoc, sfo, st, st1, h, i, j, k, n, t()

On Error Resume Next

set xDoc=Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.DomDocument.4.0"): set sfo=Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

k=Request("tt"): if not k="" and sfo.FileExists(Server.MapPath(k+".xml")) then

xDoc.load Server.MapPath(k+".xml"): if xDoc.documentElement.hasChildNodes then

set st=xDoc.documentElement.selectNodes("//Record")

st1="<DIV style='color: darkviolet'>": n=st(0).childNodes.length

for i= 1 to n: st1=st1+"Enter Changed Name for '"+st(0).childNodes(i-1).nodeName

st1=st1+"' here: <INPUT type='text' size='30' name='tt"+CStr(i)

st1=st1+"' id='tt"+CStr(i)+"' style='color: darkmagenta; font-weight: 900'/><BR/>"

next: st1=st1+"</DIV>": if not Request("tt1")="" then

reDim t(n, 2): for i=1 to n: k=Request("tt"+Cstr(i)): for j=1 to len(k): h=Mid(k, j, 1)

if h=" " then k=Mid(k, 1, j-1)+"_"+Mid(k, j+1)

next: t(i, 1)=k: next: for each st1 in st

for i=0 to n-1: t(i+1,2)=st1.firstChild.text: st1.removeChild st1.firstChild: next

for i=0 to n-1: set k=st1.appendChild(xDoc.createElement(t(i+1,1))): k.text=t(i+1,2): next

next: xDoc.save Server.MapPath(Request("tt")+".xml"): Response.Redirect "default.asp"

end if

else

Response.Write "<P style='font-size: 22; color: violet'>Document Element has no child node!</P>"

end if

else

Response.Write "<P style='color: red; font-size: 25'>File does not exist! Please enter another.</P>"

end if

%><HTML><HEAD><META NAME="GENERATOR" Content="Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0"><TITLE>

To Rename Leaf Nodes of an XML Document</TITLE><SCRIPT ID=clientEventHandlersVBS LANGUAGE=vbscript><!--

Sub window_onload

fm1.sm1.focus: fm1.tt.select

End Sub

Sub res1_onclick

fm1.sm1.focus

End Sub

sub tt_onchange

fm1.submit

end sub

[19]

--></SCRIPT></HEAD><BODY><FORM action="NamesXML.asp" method=POST id=fm1 name=fm1>

<P style="color: darkblue; font-size: 18">Give the Name of the XML File in This Text Box (then Click the Second Button):

<INPUT type="submit" style="background-color: lightgreen; font-weight: 900" value="Give Effect by Clicking It" id="sm1" name="sm1"></FORM></P><P><A href="">Go to AccountingHOME</A></P>

<%set xDoc=nothing: set sfo=nothing%></BODY></HTML>

5. ASP to Record New Journal Entries with Necessary Helps – “JournalEntry.asp”

<%@ LANGUAGE=VBSCRIPT %><%Option Explicit

dim sfo, xJ, xB, xFrag, x, hdv, s, st, fil, st1, st2, h, i, j, k, a, b, y(), n, status

On Error Resume Next

set xJ=Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.DomDocument"): set xB=Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.DomDocument")

set sfo=Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject"): set xFrag=xJ.createDocumentFragment

fil=Server.MapPath("Journal.xml"): if not sfo.FileExists(fil) then' For initial creation of 'Journal' XML file in the same folder

set st=sfo.CreateTextFile(fil)

st.WriteLine "<?xml version='1.0'?><?xml-stylesheet type='text/xsl' href='TJournal.xsl'?><Journal/>": st.Close

set st=Nothing: Response.Write "<P style='font-size:30; color: gold'>Your XML File is created.</P>"

end if

xJ.load fil: set st=xJ.documentElement.selectNodes("//Voucher_No"): hdv="": j=0: status="OK": for each h in st

st1=TRim(h.text): hdv=hdv+st1+"`": j=j+1: if st1=TRim(Request("voucherNo")) then status=""

next: n=j' Here n=No. of already recorded journal entries

if Request("amount")>0 and status="OK" then' Only under these conditions new entry can be recorded

xJ.load fil: set st=xJ.documentElement.selectNodes("//Voucher_No")

st1=Request("text1")+"~": for k=1 to Request("text2")

set s=xJ.documentElement.appendChild(xJ.createElement("Record"))