Calculator usage

T1
1

Not sure if this is just me or not…am having a good deal of difficulty training my fingers for the calculator (“Tape”). It’s not logical usage, at least to me:

In a field, I enter the following:

2+2
{enter}
Result is 2 (wrong)

+2+2
{enter}
Result is 2 (wrong)

2+2=
{enter}
Result is 4 (correct)

Why the extra step of the “=”?

Also, after the above, if I immediately clear the tape, the amount remains posted in the field instead of being deleted.

Am I missing something? I’ve pretty much used the same type of calculator for…oh…50 years or so now, but this one has me beat. :thinking:

2

The Tape is designed to be more like an adding machine tape, so you type the number and then the operation after it.

To add to 4:
2 +
2 +
Enter

Now, not everyone agrees with this way of working, so there are several options to adjust tape behaviour:

image.png936×793 49.4 KB

I hope this helps!

3

It does, but only sort of. These are my settings:

Entering 2+2 {enter} gives me this:

So the last number in the calc tape is not 4…? The total in the field is fine though.

This, for instance, is what I used to see in Profile with the same operation:

Clearly I’m missing something?

4

Check the next box in the options and then hitting Enter twice will total and post the tape amount
Took a bit of getting used to, but now I love it because if you hit enter and see you missed an amount, you can just continue on until you hit Enter twice.

5

As our Doxcycle file is our working paper file, we do not use the calculator in Taxcycle, only in Doxcycle.

6

There is a calculator in Doxcycle?

Mind you, I use Doxcycle as the client papers and Taxcycle as my working papers.

7

{Ctrl}-{F8} does indeed bring up a calculator, though I’m not sure what use it is in DoxCycle (or at least I haven’t yet found a use for it there). MUCH more useful to me in the tax return itself.

8

In our office we probably use the calculator in DoxCycle more than in TaxCcyle, but we do use it in both.

9

That was a huge help, Elizabeth. I didn’t remember there being options. I just fixed the things that drove me crazy.

I’m glad I have the opportunity to be more efficient for the last two days of tax season. lol.

All the best, Folks. Almost there. :slight_smile:

Evan

1 Like
10

Thanks @evan . Designing the Tape has been tough. We have tried to make it a little more flexible as people tell us what they think of it and what is missing. Keep it coming! Happy last few days of filing madness, everyone!

11

Calculator usage is a funny thing. For those of us who grew up with manual calculators (and books and tax returns!) the “mechanical calculator” seems to be the paradigm of choice.Repetition I guess.

One of the best examples of a useful calculator that is non-mechanical is a little app called TenKey. You can set it to the “style” of calculator you want, regular, RPN, Scientific or Financial - and in regular mode it works just the way a mechanical calculator does.

The thing about calculators, however, is that they should be more or less user-transparent. ie set it up so it works your way, then forget it. A calculator is not something ANY accountant should ever doubt or ever have any reason not to implicitly trust the results of.

And yes, they should be able to chain calculations and edit those in the middle of the chain, with resulting calculations following the changes.

12

Don’s post covers it all for me – especially the trust issue and in-list edits