Hey Greg,
Good morning!
Thanks for the compliments. I appreciate it. Well, we tried
The main
concern for myself was having something that I could use for a main database
to look up anything and everything I needed for my clients. Something that
I could use that would auto remind me when something was due with a pop up,
or when someone needed to be called with a pop up. I wanted an easy way to
look up who needed to be called and on what months so, of course, I built it
with myself in mind
J
I don’t mind doing a separate billing program. I admit that I too wish I
could incorporate it all into one but, if there is a way with FM I haven’t a
clue and am not willing to pay more $$$$ to have it done. Seeing as how I
have thousands of different bills inside of the billing program, when I make
a new bill, I simply hit “control f” for find, type in the beginning of the
client that I am looking for, it pops up, I click in the field, hit “control
n for new,” then I hit control ‘ which then auto fills the entire field with
what was on the previous bill without me having to re-enter it all. This,
takes me a total amount of about 5 seconds is all, I’ve done it so many
times. Big time saver for entry for me.
I’m sorry it isn’t going to work out for you but, you’ll figure out
something, I’m sure. J Maybe someone else out there has something they are
willing to try and share with you as well.
Hey, actually, I do take care of my office stuff too most of the time. I do
that every day during lunch or after work. I only have my secretary come in
occasionally, usually during the evenings, sometimes during the day, once or
twice a month, is all, to make the outgoing “due to be called and scheduled”
customers. Otherwise, I input the data into my computer for the clients
myself, I do all billings and I make about ½ or more, of the appointments,
including all incoming calls while she makes the rest of them when she comes
over but, you were close. J
I suppose, one could learn the program, ( not for me! I HATE that sort of
thing. I know enough about it to get me by
That’s all I care to know
about it. J ) and figure out what you want for it to do
Maybe there is
something out there for you.. Hope you can find it and wish you the best of
luck in doing so!
Have a great week!
Jer
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Greg Newell
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2011 11:30 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Computer Software
Ger,
First and foremost, kudos to you for being willing to share,
free of charge, something that you have paid hard earned dollars to
purchase. That is a very generous thing for you to do. We will agree that
your programmer’s or builder’s efforts are not right for me. At least that
is the way I feel about it now. There is still double entry with your
system, which I can and do have to do now with Quickbooks and Outlook or a
paper calendar. You and I work differently in that I have my office with me
during the day. You go home to someone having had taken care of your office
during the day. That seems a rather large distinction. Not only are there
the issues that I have with scheduling or calendars with your program I also
have to do payroll. If Quickbooks were better searchable as your is and had
a calendar interface we would not be having this discussion as I would have
found my holy grail and all would be well in Greg Newell land. As it is I am
still hoping to one day have something that puts it all together for me.
Your’s, as it is now. Isn’t it. It is, however, very nice, as I’ve said in
the past and still do.
All the best,
Greg Newell
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Gerald Groot
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2011 11:21 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Computer Software
Hi Greg,
Maybe FM isn’t the program for you, I don’t know
It’s up to you if it is
the program for you or not. If it isn’t that’s fine. J Your original,
main concern below, seemed to be (and still is) worrying about a program
that might not be updated years down the road or no longer made like PTBiz.
That’s why I said, we can encounter that problem with any program and also
said that FileMaker has been around since 1990 or so.
I really don’t know as if there is a program that “does it all.” Probably
not. We all know that one particular program or, one particular piano for
that matters, may not fit the next persons needs. Most programs that I use
means, switching screens from one program to another even within itself,
including emailing.
Yes, FM was created for me. I paid for it all including purchasing FM.
But, the main issue here, is that it has already been created. It already
works. It does not have to be created from scratch by anyone else. Perhaps
the most important thing of all? It has not given me any problems at all
since he made it for me in 2004. No crashes. No freezing up. No lost
information. No missing information. Nothing. Of course, if something
were required then, yes, I will hire someone to fix it for me, just as many
of us hire someone to set up a website for us, to maintain that or to repair
our computers when they break down. That is my choice because I do not wish
to take the time to learn how to do it myself. But, so far with FileMaker,
it needs no maintaining whatsoever. All it needs from us, is our time to
input clients into “it.” I do this daily. Or, I update the clients
information that is already in there after each visit. I enter today’s
tuning, today’s date, what I did to the piano today, any estimates I may
have given. There is even a separate field in there for the amount of the
estimate that I left. Usually, in that field, I write the date which can be
inserted by holding down control and typing the dash button (–), it will
show up as 9/25/2011, which it auto enters as such. It will enter the date
using that short cut, anywhere into FM that you may want it to be. Then,
next to the date, I write in the amount of the estimate given on that date.
No, it will not take countless hours and it will not be a full time job to
learn the program. I haven’t learned the program. I don’t need too. I
most certainly don’t want too either. I have learned however, how to input
information into the program which is just about as simple as typing a
letter, hitting the enter button, tab button etc.
My advice to you and to anyone that I’ve sent it to, would be to immediately
learn some of the short cuts. Do that by going into the “help menu” and
type in “shortcuts.” A list of them will be brought up. Read it. Try some
and watch what it can do for you. It is very time saving to use the short
cuts. Just as typing in control P right now, will bring up the printer
menu, to print this page, that short cut is a lot faster than moving the
mouse up to find the print button somewhere else. J
To reiterate a bit, everything in my program is set up and ready to go and
was made and sent to you and others for free. J I paid for everything
myself and am willing to share that with anyone that can use it for free. J
I have not had to modify anything whatsoever since the completed was set up
in 2004. Oh, I take that back, I wanted something to pop up sooner so, I
had him change that for me which he did via email. It was NOT a problem.
It was just something that I wanted changed.. That took us maybe 10 minutes
tops. Otherwise, there is no need for me to change anything else. It is a
strong, powerful, easy to use program, (once we use it for a while and get
to know it a bit) mostly because all that is left to do, is to enter
information in it. Entering information into a program, is what is time
consuming with any program. I do not use most of the programs that are in
FM. I use mainly the data base itself along with the billing program, the
letter writing program that is in the billing program and the envelope
printing button feature that is also in the billing program. J
The main thing that many of you might have to do, is to change my name,
address etc., to your name address etc. That is fairly easy to do. BUT,
that will only have to be done in the Billing program. This is how to do
it. Beware that whatever you change, it will ask you if you wish to save
it. If it is not lined up and you hit save, it is a permanent change but,
you can go back into it again, and redo it as many times as you wish
.
OK
Open up the Billing Program. On the FAR LEFT of the screen, directly
under BROWSE there are 4 buttons. The 3rd one is an arrow pointing upward.
Clicking on that will open up the Define menu which means, now you can enter
your own information in there. Double click on MY NAME for starters. Enter
in YOUR NAME instead and then see if it is centered or not. Do the same
with other fields such as your email, address, phone numbers etc. Those are
the only fields you will need to change other than if you are not an RPT,
that will have to be deleted along with the logo that I had placed in there
for me.
To get started in the main database or with the Billing program to make a
new bill, because you have been given a empty data base by me that needs
clients entered, simply hold down the control button and type the letter n.
This means new. Now, click in a field that you want to type in and start
entering the information you want for a new client. Hit the tab button to
move to the next field or, to skip a bunch of fields, click in another field
using your mouse. In one of the fields, hold down the Control dash button
(–). This will enter the complete date of 9/25/2011. J
Microsoft Outlook (MO) is a good program for scheduling. I use it. I’m in
the program anyway doing emailing. There could be a way to incorporate MO
into FM but, I don’t know how and for me, it isn’t that important. I
schedule with it, which is what that particular program was designed to do
besides emailing which is the next important thing that I do with MO. I
copy and paste information that I have entered into MO into FM after the end
of each day. Name, address, phone number. Any other information like piano
make because I don’t know that many times until after I’ve tuned it what it
is, the serial number, what I did to it that day, what is needed on the
piano etc., I have written down on a piece of paper that I take with me. I
enter that info into FM at the end of each day. It takes me less than 5
minutes to do this when I’m in my office.
Try it
See if you like it
J You’ve already had it for quite some time
now, have you even played with it at all yet?
Hope this helps
Jer
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Greg Newell
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2011 1:27 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Computer Software
Jer,
We talked about this before but FileMaker is a program that
gives you everything necessary to create all that you have shown me and the
list. It is very robust in what it can do. I agree that it is an excellent
product that can be used to create a great many things. I’ve no doubt it
will do all that I want it to do and more if I were only willing to drop
everything else that I am responsible for and devote countless hours in
order to figure it all out. Therein lies the issue. I don’t have either the
time, or the desire to take on what would amount to at least another full
time job. Whomever you used created all of that for you did a great job.
What happens when he goes away or is too busy to fix or modify things for
you? Will you be able or willing to do it for yourself? Will you pay someone
else programming fees to configure it the way you want? This is exactly the
problem I had with PTBiz which was, I believe, built from Excel or some
other Microsoft product. So you see, I view this as another of the same
issue I had before. If I knew how to do it all myself it would be a no
brainer and I would adopt FileMaker in a heartbeat. Thoughts?
Greg
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Gerald Groot
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 7:48 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Computer Software
I understand your frustration Greg. We could have that with any company
though. From my understanding, FileMakerPro has been in business since
around 1990 or so. That’s 21 years +. My current version is 7.0. The most
recent version is 11.0, I think. Mine has never crashed, never given me
even one problem whatsoever and at this point, I really see no reason to pay
$300 or more to update unless someone out there wants to gift me with it
J
I’ve had mine since 2004 with not even one teeny problem. J
In case you’re interested, here’s something I happened across just now.
http://www.filemaker.com/fba/devcon-awards-2011.html
Jer
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Greg Newell
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 7:31 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Computer Software
FWIW, Jer, I really liked the database that you showed me in FileMakerPro
but was faced with the same dilemma that I had with PTBiz some time back.
All of the sudden the programmer decided that he wasn’t interested in
supporting his own effort any longer. Before that he had specifically asked
users for input on what we thought that the program should include and the
reply I receive back from a laundry list of items it took some time to
investigate was “what’s it worth to you?” Now I thought that he was looking
to improve things with input not bucking for more dollars. He then added a
dongle type thing which simply made the program a P.I.T.A. at which point I
dropped it and moved to Quickbooks and a paper calendar. Bummer. Someday.
Maybe. But it will have to be from a company that will be around for a while
before I throw my hat in again.
Greg
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Gerald Groot
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 7:14 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Computer Software
I like Filemaker Pro. Use it for both my main customer data base, as a
billing program and for letter writing. But, I use MS Outlook for
scheduling.
Jer
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Greg Newell
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 7:04 PM
To: 'Matthew Todd'; pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Computer Software
Todd,
You are not alone!!!! I’ve been searching for this for decades.
I have a guy working on it right now. He is interested in feedback from
people who want what I do.
Greg Newell
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Matthew Todd
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 9:28 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Computer Software
I currently use Time & Chaos for my clientele database/calendar, and sort of
use Quickbooks for my financials. Do you guys know of/use a software that
has the best of both. I hate switching back and forth between two programs.
I would rather find something that can do both.
TODD PIANO WORKS
Matthew Todd, Piano Technician
(979) 248-9578
http://www.toddpianoworks.com <http://www.toddpianoworks.com/>
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