Need Small business invoice application?

[robertw477]

I am desperately needing a invoice application for my small/medium business. Our old software is functional but it is way outdated. Believe it or not its a dos app. It is sorely lacking in decent reporting and is fragile if you try to remove very old data you will break the app.

We have a product based business. Need something simple and fast, with data files compatible with dbf or excel in case we need to change in the future. I have yet to find anything decent. Dont mention qbooks becuase its invoicing it really weak IMHO. We had various developers try and make a custom app for us and we have been burned three times.

Its not that we need something overpowering. The developers were just flaky and did not finish the work. Some of the apps I have seen online (canned apps) looks very poor in their interface and or operation. Of course we dont want to pay thousands of dollars for some high end biz app either. Maybe there is something out there that I have missed? We run approx 10-50 invoices per day. Appreciate any advice or ideas.


Rob

 

[SydneyGeek]

If you have Access, take a look at the Northwind database that comes as a sample with the app. That makes a good starting point for many invoicing setups.
You can import the dbf or Excel data but you will most likely need help to get the data in, so that it correlates properly with the old. The database will also need reworking if it is to be used over a network, and/or have multiple users. But at least you will have a structure to start with; you could also take a look at some of the online Access templates and see if they come close.

Denis

 

[Andrew Fergus]

Hi Rob

I'm curious as to being burned 3 times. Was the project correctly scoped? Selling products isn't a unique process so I don't understand how they couldn't complete the project. If you are willing to pay for a custom built application there is always rentacoder.com, or if you want to do it yourself then, as Denis suggested, there are plenty of resources around. Is there anything particular to your business a developer needs to be aware of?

Andrew

 

[SydneyGeek]

I'm wondering about being burned 3 times too. Invoicing should be bread and butter for a developer.

Denis

 

[robertw477]

Hi Rob

I'm curious as to being burned 3 times. Was the project correctly scoped? Selling products isn't a unique process so I don't understand how they couldn't complete the project. If you are willing to pay for a custom built application there is always rentacoder.com, or if you want to do it yourself then, as Denis suggested, there are plenty of resources around. Is there anything particular to your business a developer needs to be aware of?

Andrew

You would be surprised. We only need a streamlined app with a good interface. In fact the inventory component would be the most barebones part of the app due to the way we need to track items.

We were always clear in what we needed. We got a refund from rent coder but still lost a few bucks in the wa the refund was handled. Took 6 weeks to resolve. Some of the developers dont complete the work. So much for the 4 hour workweek book where he tells people to outsource everything and make millions as others do your work. In some cases I wonder about the portfolios of various work you see , if it is really their work. I have outsourced some graphic work and most of the final jobs dont look anything near as good as the portfolio pieces.

Also in the quote process some quotes will be $500.00, $1000.00 , then you get a few $10,000, 8,000 etc.

Rob

 

[rconverse]

If you have Access, take a look at the Northwind database that comes as a sample with the app. That makes a good starting point for many invoicing setups.
You can import the dbf or Excel data but you will most likely need help to get the data in, so that it correlates properly with the old. The database will also need reworking if it is to be used over a network, and/or have multiple users. But at least you will have a structure to start with; you could also take a look at some of the online Access templates and see if they come close.

Denis

Hi Rob

I'm curious as to being burned 3 times. Was the project correctly scoped? Selling products isn't a unique process so I don't understand how they couldn't complete the project. If you are willing to pay for a custom built application there is always rentacoder.com, or if you want to do it yourself then, as Denis suggested, there are plenty of resources around. Is there anything particular to your business a developer needs to be aware of?

Andrew

I am pretty sure there is an inventory/invoicing template available in Access. Not sure if I saw it in 2003 or 2007, but it's somewhere.