Annual Accounts System with grant 
tracking: Installation instructions 

1. Software requirements ............. 

You will need Microsoft Excel 2003 or later if you are using Windows, or Microsoft Excel 2011 or 
later if you are using a Mac 

2. Downloading files from the website ...... 

Make sure you have downloaded three files from www.resourcecentre.org.uk/hidden-
information/download-the-annual-accounts-system/: 

. Annual accounts system 1.2.xls (for Mac) or Annual accounts system 1.2.1.xls (for Windows) 
. Installation instructions.pdf or installation instructions.txt (this document) 
. Instruction manual.pdf (printable instruction manual) 


3. Saving the files on your computer ....... 

Choose a place in your computer filing system to store these files. 

Create an overall folder for the accounts system. Within this, create a folder called something like 
Blank forms and instructions and put in it the three files you have just downloaded. 

At the start of each financial year, create a new folder within the overall accounts folder. Copy the 
accounts system workbook into this new folder and rename the workbook to reflect the relevant 
year (for example Accounts 2011-12.xls). 

This way, you won’t enter figures into the blank workbook, and it will still be there for you to copy 
over at the start of the following year. 

4. Making sure the system will work correctly on 
your computer .................. 

The system uses macros - automated instructions which make the various buttons work. The 
system won’t work unless macros are enabled. We have digitally signed the macros, which gives a 
guarantee that they are not harmful. 

You need to let your computer know that you want the macros to be enabled when you are using 
this system. How you do this depends on which version of Excel you have. 

. Excel 2003 
. Excel 2007 
. Excel 2010 



4.1. If you are using Excel 2003 

Open Excel and set your security settings to High or Medium. You do this by going to the Tools 
menu, choose Macro, and then look on the Security tab. If you have never changed this setting 
before, it is probably already set to High. 

The first time you open the accounts system, you will see a message with information about the 
security certificate. It should look like this: 


Tick the box that says Always trust macros from this publisher and then press the Enable Macros button. 
When you open the document in future, you shouldn't get any security messages about macros 
and the system should work fine. 

4.2. If you are using Excel 2007 

When you first open the spreadsheet, a message bar will appear at the top of the screen, like this: 

 

Click the Options… button and you will see this box: 


Choose Trust all documents from this publisher and click OK. The spreadsheet should now work 
properly and you won’t need to do this again. 


4.3. If you are using Excel 2010 

The first time you open the document, a yellow message bar will appear, like this: 

 

Click the Enable Content button. This will mean the document becomes a Trusted Document, and 
should open without problems in future. You will need to repeat this at the start of each year, 
when you are working on a new document. 

To avoid this, you could add the Resource Centre to your list of Trusted Publishers. This means any 
document published by the Resource Centre will automatically be a Trusted Document. 

To add a Trusted Publisher: 

. Click File. 
. The Microsoft Office Backstage view appears. In the Security Warning area, on the Enable Content 
button, click the down-arrow. Select Advanced Options to learn more about the publisher. 
. A box will appear, with information about the digital signatures for the file 
. Click Trust all documents from this publisher. 
. Click OK.