Whistle maker's bookkeeping program?

[brewerpaul]

OK-- up until now, I've kept track of my whistle orders in little spiral bound notebooks. It's time to get up to date though! I need some computerized way to keep track of the order #, date of order, name and address of the customer, and check boxes for billed, paid, shipped.

I was thinking of doing this in MS WORD, but don't know how to do the columns and lines. I know nothing at all about spreadsheets and other "boxy" programs. This needs to be simple,cheap and doesn't need any bells and whistles (well, not THAT kind of whistles...) Any suggestions?

[Innocent Bystander]

Spreadsheet. It's the way to go. I know next-to-nothing about spreadsheets, and get mightily huffed when my customers send my spreadsheets with (say) telephone numbers or (tenant codes) in numeric fields where it's lopped off those important leading zeroes.

But if it's just for you, and no-one else is buggering about with it, then you should be okay.

I keep my repertoire list on spreadsheet. It's handy to add stuff at the bottom and then sort the whole page so it's all in alphabetical order.

You could use a table on Word, but it's only a lobotomised spreadsheet. And if you are cagey about bowing down in the house of Microsoft, there are other proprietary spreadsheets you can buy, and there are even some free ones available.

A bunch of Free Spreadsheets!

On the same page there is a link to a free program to keep track of money you are owed. "Billmonk." That might suit you better.

[mutepointe]

what are you looking to accomplish from this? that would really determine a lot of things. if you're only looking at ms word and spreadsheets, take the time to do the tutorials under help. information in spreadsheets can be arranged and re-arranged so much more easily than information in tables. you could even re-organize the information to find out which states or countries or which months are your best. even if you don't know how to do that now or don't care about that information now, you could use this info later and someone can even show you how to do that at a later date.

[djm]

I have to agree with the others: a spreadsheet can do everything you want. As infuriating as the documentation might be, MS Excel has all the functionality most people will ever need in a spreadsheet, including formatting a numeric field so that leading zeroes don't get cropped.

djm

[mutepointe]

and a spreadsheet can be copied and pasted into a word document so that you still get a nice and neat look that you may be desiring.

when we first got computers at work, i got assigned the task of putting everything into corel wordperfect and then switching to word. a while back, i figured out that spreadsheets were the way to go with some information and changed my info to that format. i've shared this with some of my co-workers and they appreciate that columns will add themselves and errors can be found easily but i also have co-workers who have had computers for 10 years now and still don't know how to "reply to all" with e mail. it'll be awhile before they see these spreadsheets. it'll take an afternoon face to face meeting for them to figure this out. and they'll ask throughout the whole presentation. "is that a right-click or a left-click?" oops. please continue with what you were doing, that vent was unexpected.

[emmline]

I would use Filemaker, because I already own it for another purpose.
But you probably already have some kind of spreadsheet installed, and most will do many of the same tricks as the database software.

[Bloomfield]

OK-- up until now, I've kept track of my whistle orders in little spiral bound notebooks. It's time to get up to date though! I need some computerized way to keep track of the order #, date of order, name and address of the customer, and check boxes for billed, paid, shipped.

I was thinking of doing this in MS WORD, but don't know how to do the columns and lines. I know nothing at all about spreadsheets and other "boxy" programs. This needs to be simple,cheap and doesn't need any bells and whistles (well, not THAT kind of whistles...) Any suggestions?

If you don't know how to do columns and lines in Word, I don't think you'd be happy with a spread sheet or a database or a contact/client management system. Perhaps you should just upgrade from a spiral-bound to hard-back notebook.

If you do think you need a spreadsheet, consider google documents: integrates with your email (gmail), which might be useful for the only other thing you'll ever want to do with your customers' info.

[Wanderer]

OK-- up until now, I've kept track of my whistle orders in little spiral bound notebooks. It's time to get up to date though! I need some computerized way to keep track of the order #, date of order, name and address of the customer, and check boxes for billed, paid, shipped.

I was thinking of doing this in MS WORD, but don't know how to do the columns and lines. I know nothing at all about spreadsheets and other "boxy" programs. This needs to be simple,cheap and doesn't need any bells and whistles (well, not THAT kind of whistles...) Any suggestions?

I could probably knock out a simple database tracking software with some simple reporting (show all whistles paid, all to ship, etc) in a few days. I'd be willing to work in trade

[Bloomfield]

OK-- up until now, I've kept track of my whistle orders in little spiral bound notebooks. It's time to get up to date though! I need some computerized way to keep track of the order #, date of order, name and address of the customer, and check boxes for billed, paid, shipped.

I was thinking of doing this in MS WORD, but don't know how to do the columns and lines. I know nothing at all about spreadsheets and other "boxy" programs. This needs to be simple,cheap and doesn't need any bells and whistles (well, not THAT kind of whistles...) Any suggestions?

I could probably knock out a simple database tracking software with some simple reporting (show all whistles paid, all to ship, etc) in a few days. I'd be willing to work in trade

I'd frankly use a contact management program (like Outlook), with categories for ordered, shipped, paid, and interested. Would take 5 min to set up. You could even do it from Gmail with it's contacts (exportable), and labels (color coded), and archiving (control clutter), and calendar (track dates).

[Wanderer]

I'd frankly use a contact management program (like Outlook), with categories for ordered, shipped, paid, and interested. Would take 5 min to set up. Frankly, you could do it from Gmail with it's contact (exportable), and labels (color coded), and archiving (control clutter), and calendar (track dates).

You could do that. You could also use spreadhseet software, just like everyone has suggested.

Since Paul said he wasn't familiar with spreadsheet software, and seemed to want a simple, customized solution, I was simply providing an alternative, which he could take or leave.

I'm a professional programmer. I've been doing it for 15 years now. I've worked for big companies like Citibank, JM Huber (a 2-billion/year oil and materials company), Metro Networks (a advertising/traffic/news/sports broadcasting company with 1500 radio and television affiliates), etc. If Paul were interested, he'd get good value..promise Trust me, if Paul traded a whistle for this solution, I'd be making probably 1/8 my normal hourly contract rate. I offered because this is the kind of work I could do in my sleep, I've done it so many times.

Here's a quick mock-up of the kind of simple interface I was thinking of:

[Bloomfield]

Yes, but is it worth spending a programmer's time (and one of Paul's fine whistles) to recreate something that exists in hundreds if not thousands of freeware or shareware versions already (with fields for phone numbers and email addys)?

[sbfluter]

I'm no computer whiz, but I find Excel a lot easier to deal with than Word.

[buddhu]

For what it's worth, I'd either learn to use a spreadsheet (not hard at all to suss the basics), or consider what Wanderer is talking about.

Wanderer, are you talking about creating a bespoke DB app from scratch, or a custom Access DB?

If bespoke then presumably the data tables could be used by Access If Paul needed someone else to check out data. Also, a custom Access job would mean he'd need Access to run it. Bloody Microsoft stuff isn't cheap (Access is about £150, innit?).

[chrisoff]

or a custom Access DB?

*shudders*


Sorry. Not sure why, but everytime someone mentions Access I get a shiver down my spine.

Mind you Access probably would be quite suited to this kind of very small project.

But really it's not hard to get hold of Excel or some other spreadsheet software and just knock up a couple of worksheets to handle this kind of thing. It's exactly what spreadsheets are there for.

[Wanderer]

For what it's worth, I'd either learn to use a spreadsheet (not hard at all to suss the basics), or consider what Wanderer is talking about.

Wanderer, are you talking about creating a bespoke DB app from scratch, or a custom Access DB?

If bespoke then presumably the data tables could be used by Access If Paul needed someone else to check out data. Also, a custom Access job would mean he'd need Access to run it. Bloody Microsoft stuff isn't cheap (Access is about £150, innit?).

I was considering a custom access DB, the app would have some basic crystal reports reporting and an "export to cvs" feature so he could export the data to a text file at need. He wouldn't need access to run it, as the database engine is freely distributable with the visual studio executable, so no hidden or additional charges.

Sorry. Not sure why, but everytime someone mentions Access I get a shiver down my spine.

Normally, i agree...but, like you mention, I too think it's suited for this kind of project. My own website has been dynamically generated from Access tables (including the reviews section, faq section, etc) for years without a single database hitch, and I imagine that i've got a ton more data than Paul will ever have in his tracker--not to mention, a million hits a year pounding away at it.

Yes, but is it worth spending a programmer's time (and one of Paul's fine whistles) to recreate something that exists in hundreds if not thousands of freeware or shareware versions already (with fields for phone numbers and email addys)?

Well, I suppose that depends on what Pauls needs are, and if he wants to try out these hundreds (if not thousands) of shareware apps to find one that may suit his needs. I agree that my idea is merely one solution out of a whole plethora of solutions available, though i admit I'm puzzled as to why my idea has appeared to put a burr in your saddle. I imagine Paul knows more about what he wants and what level of effort he's willing to go through to get it than either of us do.

As to whether it's worth my time--sure it is. I do this kind of thing for fun. As an example, I built a simple data-driven web application, so that I can update my grocery list from any internet browser in the world, and have it accessible from my mobile phone. That way, when I get to the store, all I have to do is hit two buttons on my phone, and I get access to my grocery list, where I can modify and/or delete items as I shop. I, sir, am a nerd, and creating simple software solutions is a leisure activity for me.