I tried a demo from Time and Chaos, with the idea of importing my contacts from my Palm database. It requires a third-party sync program CompanionLink, which I also downloaded as a demo. I couldn't figure out if if it was any better than what I already had (Palm). I could import all the information, but syncing the Treo phone with T&C wasn't going to work.
The CompanionLink program has the capability of synchronizing many different popular programs to each other, ie., Outlook, Palm, Act, etc. I have learned (the hard way) that smaller, non-mainstream programs are more likely to become obsolete than the more popular, name brand programs like MS Outlook. Many of the piano business software programs written by well-meaning technicians are no longer supported. I'm not trying to criticize them, but things change, life goes on, and sometimes it's just not possible to continue supporting a program that was written years ago when DOS was king.
I'm following this thread with great interest, since my Palm software is not capable of "mining" contacts and appointments in a way that I need it to. I just purchased MS Small Business Office (bullet in teeth), so I'm hoping to migrate my data over to take advantage of its capabilities.
Paul McCloud
San Diego
----- Original Message -----
From: Allan
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: 03/03/2009 7:34:48 AM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Database for Piano Business
Filemaker has the power, with its relational capabilities, to do this: As I build the invoice for that client, the same information remains as the service history for that piano. Enter everything only once.
On Elance, data specialist can export and migrate all types of data. I don’t know PTBiz but most likely you’d find someone who can do that for you.
Allan Sutton
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of John Formsma
Sent: 3 mars 2009 10:00
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Database for Piano Business
[…]My concern about the programs of that type has always been how to do invoicing, and automatically link the invoices to the proper customer. And as an extension of that, how to manage late payments, no payments, monthly income, yearly income, etc.
Also, it would seem, from this distance at least, that you would need to enter at least some data twice when you do an invoice. Seems like extra work -- or am I missing something regarding the invoicing?
[…] I wish complete data export were possible, so I could migrate to another program. But the thought of having to do all that makes me shudder. :-(
--
JF
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