Service scheduling software?

[John Musselwhite]

>need.  If you find a program that runs well in Windows please pass it on.

I use Lotus Approach... it's compatible with many different kinds of
existing database files like DBase and Foxpro, is extremely flexible and
it's totally graphical so even maintaining links between different database
files is quite simple.  I used to use Smartware, but when I switched to
Windows I outputted all the data from the single huge flat file to five
separate databases and use Approach to link them together. Using the reports
capabilities, I print a page for each time period per day with the client's
information, the piano's info and the invoice history. You can even make
printable invoice forms that you can enter data into when you return from
doing a particular piano.

By using the date functions you can set time periods for callbacks so if you
set the field for six months, it will calculate the next month for a tuning
and add it to the list for that month when you print the cards (using the
mailing label function). It also has mail merge and phone dial capabilities.

If you wanted to get REAL fancy with it you could build a
week-at-a-glance-type graphical display with it... I'm not that ambitious. B-})

It's worth a peek if you get a chance. Considering its power it's a fairly
good deal, but it is no speed demon.  The Demo programs that come with it
are excellent. They show part of an inventory with pictures of the product
as well as the pertinant data and the menus and reports that a small
business might need.

I hate to make this message even longer (yeah, sure! <g>) but for those who
are curious about such things since I mentioned transferring data from one
format to another, my client database began with a cassette basic program I
wrote for a TRS-80 Model 1, was transfered to color basic on a CoCo,
rewritten for OS/9 on a disk-based CoCo, exported to PC-File, dumped to an
ASCII file and imported into Smartware and then exported again to Approach
and stored in DBase IV format using linked databases which I generally use
under OS/2. If you include Windows it's gone through six operating systems
and the first piano I ever tuned for money is still in there and I still
tune it yearly (It's an early 20th century Gerhard Heintzman 54").

               John

John Musselwhite, RPT               Calgary, Alberta Canada
musselj@cadvision.com              sysop@67.cambo.cuug.ab.ca