Software Question

[oliegirl]

I am trying to start a business selling custom printed note cards, stationary, note pads, inviations, wedding programs, etc...

I am going to do a postcard mailer in the next 30 days and my target customer at this point is sororities at local colleges (Ga Tech, UGA, West Ga, Valdosta State, etc...). I have started keeping a "database" of sorority info in an excel spreadsheet, but would like to have a program geared more towards customer tracking, where I can keep the information. The basics would be:

Sorority Name
College
Address
President
Social Chair
# of Girls in Chapter
Sorority Colors, Mascot, Flower, etc...

I can do all this in excel, but I want to be able to start tracking which sororites order, which ones ask for samples, what was ordered, etc...so when I am actually selling and making profit I can easily track which products sell best, etc...

Does anyone know of a software program which would allow me to customize fields, tabs, etc...for my use? A free one would be great, but nothing outrageously expensive. If there was something that could also track incurred expenses by job (an all inclusice business package I guess) that would be great to look into as well.

[DanGarion]

Have you ever tried Microsoft Access? That's a database program. I'm sure there are some MySql/PHP website type things that could do this pretty much as well, but I'm not sure of which ones.

[Simms]

Act! (http://www.act.com/) is what you want, but it's neither free nor cheap. I know a lot of business people who *swear* by it though (I've used it only sparsely myself), so if you can find a way to afford it, it might be worthwhile if you're really looking to grow the business.

There is a 30-day free trial, I believe.

[jeff061]

I was thinking Microsoft Access as well, it comes with certain Microsoft Office packages.

[oliegirl]

Well, as it turns out, we have Microsoft Access already loaded on my laptop - who knew? I guess I'll start with that and see what happens - radii says he has heard it's difficult to use so if anyone knows of good books or sites to help learn it, please let me know.

[jeff061]

You get used to it. First you need to create a table with a field for each piece of data you want to track. The table will sit in the backend and hold all the data in a raw form. Then you create a form with dropdowns or text fields or whatever that are linked to the fields in the table.

Once your form and table is created you'll be entering and looking up data through the form. You can also do some decent reporting if you ever have the need to. It works similar to the forms.

You may evenbe able to use a wizard or pre-created forms and tables for what you are doing.

It's been awhile since I've used it, but if you have any questions I'll try my best to help you out.

[sterlingice]

Relational databases are going to be a little bit of a handful, if you've never seen one before. Some theory would help so you can design it well, but I'm not sure of a good place to do that. I had to learn from my db class.

SI

[jeff061]

Nah, it'll be pretty much be an excel spreadsheet with a gui on the front(the form). Don't think there is anything too complicated for this.

[sterlingice]

Well, except it's not going to be a flat spreadsheet- tho it won't be too complicated. If it were flat, Excel would work, but that's just not going to cut it if you want to make reports like she was looking for.

Fairly easily: one table for sororities, one for orders. Sure, could add more complexity, but that'd get ugly and this should track everything you want and make it so reports are faily easy to do.

SI

[oliegirl]

There is a template installed called Order Tracking (or something like that) which looks like it will probably work. Radii said if the code isn't too complicated he can fiddle with it if I need something changed. I'll definitely be asking for help though so make sure you check this thread! :) Thanks for all the help guys - ya'll are so nice!

[Radii]

I can help her out with simple DB/table design, no problem there. The part that I didn't know anything about when she asked me about it was the UI, I didn't realize MS Access had a UI designer/wizard that let you create forms and such to populate it, that's cool, and probably where we will start looking. I've never used it but I'm sure I can figure it out. Thanks.

[Yellow5]

You should take a look at Radix (http://www.hurstridge.com/). It's freeware for personal use.

Here's some info from their site:

Radix keeps track of the basic information on customers (names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, E-mail addresses, etc.). It also includes features for mail merging, managing appointments, messages, company documents, prioritized to do lists, notes, projects, products, time entry, invoicing, expenses, and incident management.

Quite a bit there and might be more than you need but thought I'd pass it along just in case.