This is a multipart message in MIME format ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Avery: Yeah, what David Ilvedson said! dave __________________________________________ David M. Porritt, RPT Meadows School of the Arts Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX 75275 ----- Original message ----------------------------------------> From: David Ilvedson <ilvey@sbcglobal.net> To: <caut@ptg.org> Received: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 11:03:28 -0800 Subject: RE: Time & Chaos (was RE: Client database) Avery, I believe you can use the program at work and home... The HOLY GRAIL is ONE program that is a customer database,= scheduler and financial accounting program. It doesn't exist= and if it did it would be a huge unwiedly program. I will say,= that Quickbooks now has a Customer Manager program which does= link to Quickbooks but it doesn't come close to Time & Chaos as= a customer database/schduler especially in ease of use. It is= something to check though and it might work for you. Once you can get over the hurdle of not having all this stuff in= one program you can get on with your life. I have! You also= have be realistic about what is REALLY necessary in day to day= customer relations. I think many folks want an elaborate system= of keeping track of every iota of info on a customer. As the= years go by you come to the realization that 90% of that info is= never looked at again. Why keep it in the first place? = KISS...Keep It Simple Stupid. I use Quickbooks for all accounting work. I use Time & Chaos for= my customer database and scheduling. Here is my problem with $= and my database program. None of the database programs can do= what Quickbooks can do with my financial information. They can= keep track of money coming in and who owes $ etc. but all of the= other financial stuff such as checkbook and other banking is= beyond them. Why would I want to enter that financial info= twice?Because I want to have a REAL financial program handling= all my $ concerns including billing, accts receivable, invoicing= & whateve, I KEEP THEM SEPARATE! A typical usuage: A new customer Mr. Jones calls. I enter his info into Time &= Chaos' Telephone Book/All Contacts. I can name as I want= numerous fields in T & C Telephone Book/Contacts such as Cross= Street, Directions, Piano Name, Serial Number, Referral,= Childrens Names, etc., but my Palm only shows the first 4 custom= fields so I need to put the most important info first. I use= Cross Street, Directions, Piano Name, Serial #. I can use the= Notes area for service records with Time Stamp, children's names= or whatever I think is important to know at the service call. = Now Mr. Jones & I decide on an appt. I go through my calendar= and find the appropriate day, drag his name from Telephone Book= into the appt. area for that day and up comes a edit box for= that appt. in which I set the time, duration and what ever else= I want to go in there. Each appt. has a separate notes area for= info pertinent to that particular appt. These and all notes do= show up in the Telephone Book. On the day of that appt.,I will= sync with my Palm and all Mr. Jones info is available in shirt= pocket. T & C syncs with Pocket PC so you could conceivably= also have a tuning device in your shirt pocket if you have a= Pocket PC!. I use the Palm for time of appt., directions and= entering service info at the time of the appt. I typically get= a check when finished. I don't give a receipt unless asked and= use a generic receipt pad when necessary. One less thing to do= and unnecessary except with customers I bill such as hotels,= restaurants. At the time of appt. Mr. Jones & I decide to tune= again in 6 months. I can set that future appt. in my Palm which= will come up in T & C after syncing or as I prefer I can make a= note of this and schedule a To Do in the future in T & C when I= get home. The To Do will come into view on a specified date= telling me to call Mr. Jones. At the end of the day I sync with= my computer and any changes from my Palm go into T & C. The $= is entered into Quickbooks as a Sales Receipt and hand enter the= name and amount entered. Now when I go back after a few years and look at Mr. Jones= service record, my notes are in T & C show with Day Stamp what= kind of service I did that day. If Mr. Jones changes the appt.= it is as simple as dragging the appt. to another day and editing= the time as necessary. Having said all this I will admit that a college technician= taking care of 100 pianos for one school might find this program= lacking for them. An Excel spreadsheet might be better for= keeping track of numerous pianos for one customer. You could= set up T & C using the Telephone Book/Contacts with each studio= or location of a piano in the Last Name field. I think the typical self-employed piano tuner will find Time &= Chaos does all you really need. David Ilvedson ----- Original message ----------------------------------------> From: Avery Todd <atodd@UH.EDU> To: <dm.porritt@verizon.net>, College and University Technicians= <caut@ptg.org> Received: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 10:11:40 -0600 Subject: Time & Chaos (was RE: Client database) Dave & others. I'm considering trying T & C and I have two questions for those= of you who already use it: 1. Is there a way to also enter amounts earned, expenses, that= type of thing? Or do you have to do that with a different program? 2. The site indicates that it is registered by user, not by= computer. So it seems that I could have it on my school AND home computer for= the same price. Is that correct? I think you can try it for 2 weeks or so. I just looked at the site and the free usage is for 21 days. The= $45.00 price is correct. By then you'll know if you like it. You can get it from: http://www.chaossoftware.com/chaos32.html dave Avery ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/0b/c5/86/3f/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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