As the owner of a small business, I've been looking for a software solution
to an organizational problem of managing customer inquiries, collecting data
on their job particular requirements, and scheduling appointments.

I've tried Act!, but it is too detailed in some areas that I don't need and
not flexible enough in other areas. We're dealing with homeowners, and all
of the alternate contact information fields and fax number fields and the
like in Act! are just superfluous, hard to eliminate, and designing new
fields is too much of a learning curve to make it worthwhile. I don't need
the PC to dial phone numbers or write letters or lots of other things that
ACT! will do. And I do want a simple accounting function which the version
of ACT! that I have won't do. The one thing I particularly don't like about
Act! is the inability to get all of what I want on one screen instead of
having to toggle back and forth from one view to another.

I find myself with pockets full of notes, spiral notebooks, post-it notes,
and phone numbers scribbled on envelopes, etc. When we manage to find time
to properly fill out our customer inquiry form, I still have to write that
into an appointment calendar, and then manually create an invoice while
we're on site with the customer. I'd like to do this with one data entry,
create the customer record, itemize the services we expect to perform, and
schedule the work.

I'm envisioning a Excel spreadsheet (or an Access database) template that
has drop-down menus for the standard items in the various services we
perform, a linked monthly "Daytimer-like" scheduling calendar, and a very
simple (also linked to the main customer screen) invoice form that will
output to a bubble-jet printer on the trucks. It'd be cool if the customer
address cell (or field) would link to a GPS receiver in the laptop's PCMIA
slot and display the directions to the job site on the laptop. I'm leaning
toward the Excel/Access platform only because I already have them, but am
willing to look at other methods.

Other folks I know in the same general type of business as mine are also
beleaguered with the same problems, and they haven't found any
cyber-solutions, either. At any one time I probably have to keep track of
20-25 different jobs in various stages of completion. Once the job is
complete, the customer records can be archived, and the financial details
of that transaction sent to a P/L spreadsheet. ( A customer record marked
"paid" could be the sort key to not show it as part of the active records)

I'm thinking there's probably some commercial opportunities for an
enterprising programmer to develop something along the lines that I've
suggested. It would be ideal for small electricans, plumbers, HVAC
companies, mobile glass service companies, painters, handymen, and the
like.

I've searched (Googled) for software like this, checked the
shareware/freeware downloads, etc. Nothing seemed to jump out at me.

So, the questions: If there are any Excel/Access templates out there that
I've missed, some pointers to them would be appreciated. If there are any
existing stand-alone packages that might be useful, what are they?

And, is there anyone out there that could develop the template/package for
me? I have neither the time nor inclination to get into a programming
learning curve. I'm already working too many hours a day as it is.

I'd appreciate serious replies to moonraker at bellsouth dot net. If you
can produce this "package" (bug-free), a short email detailing your
experience, location, and rates would be great!

Both my dad and I are programmers with full time programming jobs, however we
occationally do side work. My dad's specialty is programming in excel (25
years of programming experience). I program in a lot of different Object
models but I started out programming (6 years ago) in MS Access. If you want
more infomation about our credentials and etc. you can go to
http://www.fara1group.com you will have to excuse the state of the web site,
as I just started to build it and it has not been published for searching
yet. As for rates we usually charge about $75/hour. It would seem that what
you are asking for would not take to long to build...without knowing all the
details I would venture to guess it would cost some where in the neighborhood
of $600 +/-. We normally give a 30 to 60 trail of our software before money
exchange hands. We try to make long term relationships with our customers as
most of our side business comes from word of mouth.

"Moonraker" wrote:

As the owner of a small business, I've been looking for a software solution
to an organizational problem of managing customer inquiries, collecting data
on their job particular requirements, and scheduling appointments.

I've tried Act!, but it is too detailed in some areas that I don't need and
not flexible enough in other areas. We're dealing with homeowners, and all
of the alternate contact information fields and fax number fields and the
like in Act! are just superfluous, hard to eliminate, and designing new
fields is too much of a learning curve to make it worthwhile. I don't need
the PC to dial phone numbers or write letters or lots of other things that
ACT! will do. And I do want a simple accounting function which the version
of ACT! that I have won't do. The one thing I particularly don't like about
Act! is the inability to get all of what I want on one screen instead of
having to toggle back and forth from one view to another.

I find myself with pockets full of notes, spiral notebooks, post-it notes,
and phone numbers scribbled on envelopes, etc. When we manage to find time
to properly fill out our customer inquiry form, I still have to write that
into an appointment calendar, and then manually create an invoice while
we're on site with the customer. I'd like to do this with one data entry,
create the customer record, itemize the services we expect to perform, and
schedule the work.

I'm envisioning a Excel spreadsheet (or an Access database) template that
has drop-down menus for the standard items in the various services we
perform, a linked monthly "Daytimer-like" scheduling calendar, and a very
simple (also linked to the main customer screen) invoice form that will
output to a bubble-jet printer on the trucks. It'd be cool if the customer
address cell (or field) would link to a GPS receiver in the laptop's PCMIA
slot and display the directions to the job site on the laptop. I'm leaning
toward the Excel/Access platform only because I already have them, but am
willing to look at other methods.

Other folks I know in the same general type of business as mine are also
beleaguered with the same problems, and they haven't found any
cyber-solutions, either. At any one time I probably have to keep track of
20-25 different jobs in various stages of completion. Once the job is
complete, the customer records can be archived, and the financial details
of that transaction sent to a P/L spreadsheet. ( A customer record marked
"paid" could be the sort key to not show it as part of the active records)

I'm thinking there's probably some commercial opportunities for an
enterprising programmer to develop something along the lines that I've
suggested. It would be ideal for small electricans, plumbers, HVAC
companies, mobile glass service companies, painters, handymen, and the
like.

I've searched (Googled) for software like this, checked the
shareware/freeware downloads, etc. Nothing seemed to jump out at me.

So, the questions: If there are any Excel/Access templates out there that
I've missed, some pointers to them would be appreciated. If there are any
existing stand-alone packages that might be useful, what are they?

And, is there anyone out there that could develop the template/package for
me? I have neither the time nor inclination to get into a programming
learning curve. I'm already working too many hours a day as it is.

I'd appreciate serious replies to moonraker at bellsouth dot net. If you
can produce this "package" (bug-free), a short email detailing your
experience, location, and rates would be great!

Hi,
I have been using a shareware program for over 10 years, which is very
simple and does not interact with any other programs. It is available as a
trial too, so you could check it out and see if it works for you. You can
choose the features you like to use and not use other features. It allows you
to classify contacts as you wish and you can attached notes to virtually
anything, days, addresses, names, etc. It is the only shareware i have ever
found useful. It is called Almanac, you can try it free:
http://www.impactsoft.com/

Thanks,
--
David


"Moonraker" wrote:

As the owner of a small business, I've been looking for a software solution
to an organizational problem of managing customer inquiries, collecting data
on their job particular requirements, and scheduling appointments.

I've tried Act!, but it is too detailed in some areas that I don't need and
not flexible enough in other areas. We're dealing with homeowners, and all
of the alternate contact information fields and fax number fields and the
like in Act! are just superfluous, hard to eliminate, and designing new
fields is too much of a learning curve to make it worthwhile. I don't need
the PC to dial phone numbers or write letters or lots of other things that
ACT! will do. And I do want a simple accounting function which the version
of ACT! that I have won't do. The one thing I particularly don't like about
Act! is the inability to get all of what I want on one screen instead of
having to toggle back and forth from one view to another.

I find myself with pockets full of notes, spiral notebooks, post-it notes,
and phone numbers scribbled on envelopes, etc. When we manage to find time
to properly fill out our customer inquiry form, I still have to write that
into an appointment calendar, and then manually create an invoice while
we're on site with the customer. I'd like to do this with one data entry,
create the customer record, itemize the services we expect to perform, and
schedule the work.

I'm envisioning a Excel spreadsheet (or an Access database) template that
has drop-down menus for the standard items in the various services we
perform, a linked monthly "Daytimer-like" scheduling calendar, and a very
simple (also linked to the main customer screen) invoice form that will
output to a bubble-jet printer on the trucks. It'd be cool if the customer
address cell (or field) would link to a GPS receiver in the laptop's PCMIA
slot and display the directions to the job site on the laptop. I'm leaning
toward the Excel/Access platform only because I already have them, but am
willing to look at other methods.

Other folks I know in the same general type of business as mine are also
beleaguered with the same problems, and they haven't found any
cyber-solutions, either. At any one time I probably have to keep track of
20-25 different jobs in various stages of completion. Once the job is
complete, the customer records can be archived, and the financial details
of that transaction sent to a P/L spreadsheet. ( A customer record marked
"paid" could be the sort key to not show it as part of the active records)

I'm thinking there's probably some commercial opportunities for an
enterprising programmer to develop something along the lines that I've
suggested. It would be ideal for small electricans, plumbers, HVAC
companies, mobile glass service companies, painters, handymen, and the
like.

I've searched (Googled) for software like this, checked the
shareware/freeware downloads, etc. Nothing seemed to jump out at me.

So, the questions: If there are any Excel/Access templates out there that
I've missed, some pointers to them would be appreciated. If there are any
existing stand-alone packages that might be useful, what are they?

And, is there anyone out there that could develop the template/package for
me? I have neither the time nor inclination to get into a programming
learning curve. I'm already working too many hours a day as it is.

I'd appreciate serious replies to moonraker at bellsouth dot net. If you
can produce this "package" (bug-free), a short email detailing your
experience, location, and rates would be great!