Bookkeeping Programs

[Porritt, David]

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Terry:

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I've used Quicken Home & Business since 1999 and it works well.
Actually, I got QH&B 1999 and I haven't upgraded it yet, and don't see a
need to.

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dp

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David M. Porritt

dporritt@smu.edu

________________________________

From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Farrell
Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 10:12 AM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Bookkeeping Programs

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----- Original Message -----=20

From: "Cy Shuster" <741662027@theshusters.org
<mailto:741662027@theshusters.org> >

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>I use Quickbooks and a Palm.  There seems to be a natural division of
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> between customer tracking, scheduling, and accounting.
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> For example, in Quickbooks, I don't have a full customer database (and
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> customer database add-on is very primitive): I enter most transactions
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> Sales Receipts (since I'm paid on the spot), and use a handful of
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> customers: Mr. Cash Taxable, Mr. Cash Non-Taxable, etc.; those totals
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> good enough.  I only enter into Quickbooks the customers who don't pay
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> same day (and those I enter as Invoices).  These are the only ones
that I=20
> enter twice -- and I don't need driving directions, etc., in
Quickbooks...

I'm familiar with Quickbooks - I used it back when I did environmental
consulting. I see you idea of the dummy customers - indeed, that would
keep a lot of stuff real simple. Do you give your customers a receipt?
If so, how & what kind?

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I know the functions/features of Quickbooks are quite extensive. My
guess is that we would only use the basics. Would something like Quicken
Home & Business have all the functionality the piano technician might
need?

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FWIW, I have been using PTBiz for years. I like it - I don't love it -
but it does what I need it to. The one BIG thing I don't like about it
is that I can't run it on a PDA-type computer like a Palm Pilot or
whatever it is they have now.

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> My full schedule and customer database are on my Palm, so my schedule
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> always at hand and current.  On the Palm, you can enter data into the
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> field on almost any record type.  For customers, I put driving
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> and service history there (there's a nice shortcut "ds" for "date
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> that inserts today's date; see Prefs | Shortcuts).  Don't forget that
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> flows both ways between the Palm and Palm Desktop, so you can do major
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> entry on your PC and then just sync up.

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Are there places for recording stuff for calling for next appointment?
Piano type, model, serial number, etc.? Can you search the database? Can
it do things like give you weekly list of calls for appointments that
need to be made? This is critical for me because I have a group of
clients that wish for me to call them at their regular intervals to
schedule the next service appointment.

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Terry Farrell


> I looked at Time and Chaos, and honestly didn't see many more features
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> what Palm Desktop has.
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> Of course, I'm only tracking 150 customers, but I'm still only using
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> my Palm's 2 Meg of memory.
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> --Cy Shuster--
> Bluefield, WV


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