Quoting Stephen Cameron (Sat 16 Nov 1996 07:31) to All:
SC> New to the echo and am looking for some info.
Welcome. I read when I can but I seldom post.
SC> I called Ma Bell the other day and asked if there was a
SC> directory or CD available to purchase which would allow me
SC> to enter a phone number and then get the associated name.
SC> The person I was speaking to advised me that there WERE such
SC> disks but that Bell didn't have them for distribution. When
SC> asked WHERE they could be ordered from, she simply stated
SC> that Bell didn't have any but to continue looking as there
SC> ARE CD's made with just the info I am looking for.
SC> I want this mainly to check my phone bills when they come in
SC> and be able to separate my personal calls from "other"
SC> calls. This would allow me to be re-imbursed for the calls
SC> that I have made.
SC> Any help would be surely appreciated.
Tired of checking 5-10 pages of long distance calls to
numbers/places I didn't recognize--called by my aunt, my son, and
myself--I sat down one day and created a spreadsheet in MS
Multiplan (any good spreadsheet software will do) which gave me
any bit of info I wanted, including minutes used for any specific
telnumber (but of course, that is more information to put into
the spreadsheet). Simple monthly imput is only two columns: tel#
called and $amount. The only time I had to manually plug in a code
was for telnumbers that two or more of us called, or for
telnumbers appearing in Column 6 (not in Col 1).
Many of our calls were repeated monthly so identifying one large
phone bill was enough to start; occasionally new numbers would
appear, then the spreadsheet police went tracking down the
perpetrator.
If your calls are mostly local cell-phone type, with multiple
calls to specific numbers, the sheet can be modified accordingly.
This is off the top of my head, as it's been several years, but
goes something like this:
Column 1   Column 2                        Column 3    Column 4
Tel #'s    Code (1=personal; 2=business)   Callee      Location
                (3=unknown, etc.)
Sort tel #'s low to high. (To add numbers later, insert in
same numerical order). Create table 1 (Col 1), table 2 (Cols
1,2), table 3 (Cols 1,2,3), etc.
Column 5=imput tel #s appearing on your phone bill. Label NUMBER.
Column 6=Formula to cause C5number to appear if it isn't in Col 1.
Column 7=Secondary Code--label CODE (use LOOKUP for table 2). If some
         telephone numbers are called both for personal and
         business, manually insert the proper code instead
         of the formula. (Remember to copy the formula to all
         cells in column at the beginning of each month).
         Use code 3 for any numbers appearing in Column 6.
         At this time or later, determine callee for these
         numbers and imput into Cols 1-4.
Column 8=input $amount
Column 9=Personal Calls  Use IF(CODE=1,AMOUNT,0)
Column 10=Business Call      IF(CODE=2,AMOUNT,0)
Column 11=Unknown            IF(CODE=3,AMOUNT,0)
Identify the Unknowns, total the columns, and viola! Submit the bill.
Interim columns between 9 and 13 can be formulated to give the
name, location, and telnumber of the person called using LOOKUP
tables 3 and 4.
If you're not spreadsheet-literate, this is a good sheet to learn
the basics. Label columns for easier formulation.
Worked for me. Hope this helps.
P.S. I copied Cols 1,3,4 to another sheet, then sorted; had an
instant telephone book. Can be sorted by name (if you put the last
name first in Col 3), personal, business, location, or areacode.
Judy--
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