Hey, Dick Day: If I knew what platform (WinTel or Mac) you were on (or about to climb onto), I could tell you about all the fun I'm having on my Mac. Spreadsheets for time cost accounting in the shop, and page layout for "Steinway-Grand-For-Sale" mailings and other in-house promotional graphics. Both Doug Tybor (aka "BubbaNimrod") an I are using a Mac-only database, Panorama, with a strong macro programming language for customer files. Everytime I open my WBPS-CUS file, the program checks the current date for the month of the year and selects all customers to whom I've made a promise of service in that month and presents it in a report window. My rebuild estimating file set (78K the entire set) has one file in which each item of merchandise from a vendor or section of my labor or otherwise option therein, is treated as a "part". In this file the actual estimate is worked up. From there the data goes to a proposal file in which each record is one proposal (and hopefully later a contract) for a particular piano/customer. A third file is the database version of the time costing spreadsheet. I'm glad to have time costing integrated into this file set because as I head into the sheet with the contracted work, this file can look back at the parts file, see which line items of labor go into the total job, select those parts and from that list of labor items, make up a shop log sheet with a left-hand column of the labor items with the individual steps which make up each labor item, along with the net time figures (in fractions of hours) which were chosen in the costing process. (For instance, in the keyframe and keyboard area, there are two ways of going through it--the quick and dirty, and the lovingly tender-- along with six options including rebushing, balance hole work, and various amounts of fresh felt.) This worksheet is what I use to log the daily net time: having the net time for each of the individual steps on the same sheet lets me know whether I'm over or under the time on which the estimate was based, and can help me project the remaining time. That's how the costing file is used during the rebuild. At the end of the job, the log sheet's net time figures go into the costing file as yet another field (if you catch my lingo). In one file I have the costed-out figures as well as the real-world figures which accumulate with each job. In that form, adjusting the costing to reflect the way things are actually happening on the job is a snap. With the costing adjusted here, a look-up macro updates the parts file. <<Also does anybody have a feel for how the IRS feels about computer kept milage logs, etc.>> Your accountant or tax preparer should know the rulings on this. But if you asked me, I would much prefer to hand the IRS a paper record and never let them guess that I was ever doing it on a computer. Bill Ballard RPT NH Chapter PTG "If we see you SMOKING we will assume that you are on fire and will take appropriate measures".......Sign in a Music Dept. Hallway
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